PlayStation consoles can suffer from numerous problems which may seem very confusing and hard to fix. When actually they can be a simple fix and only require your hands and ears.

The problems that this will generally fix are:

• Most Console Freeze Issues
  
• Black Screens At Boot Ups
  
• General Slowness at Menu's or Booting Games (Depending on age of console)
  

The hard reset is a last resort procedure before sending the console back to Sony/Getting the console repaired, it won't fix all problems but may fix some.

As with any hard reset it can have a few draw backs such as loss of save games and system settings, so before you perform this you should make a back up if you can. To do this you go to System > Backup and perform a full system back up. The back up time will vary depending on the age of the console and how much memory you have used up.

Once you have done the back up, if it was possible you are ready to do the hard reset.

Step 1: Turn off the console if its on already

Step 2: Switch the console off at the back of the console (Slims can be turned off at the wall, it should still work)

Step 3: Hold down the power button on the front of the console

Step 4: Whilst holding the power button on the front, power the console on at the back or back on at the wall if you are using a slim

Step 5: Hold the power button on the front until you hear 3 beeps then let go

Step 6: Perform the initial setup of the console

Step 7: Do a full Format by going to System > Format [This process may take approx 3 hours, you will also need AV cables because HDMI isn't recognized after initial reset.

Step 8: (Optional) Restore your back up made before the reset/format if you made one.

The process is now done, hopefully this will fix any errors/freezing issuses you had.

Note: Any damage you perform to your console is not my problem, you shouldn't encounter any problems if you follow the tutorial properly.