PS3 Freezing and other issues

[Bizarre]

Well my PS3 has come to its time where it has started giving me troubles, I got it back in December '07 and now it freezes frequently and sometimes doesn't load games, I called up Sony and they said they would fix it for $250, that is ridiculous so at this point I am confident enough to open it up and fix the problem myself, I know there are some experts on this kind of stuff here so I need help, the reason I posted this and didn't search is because I need to be able to ask questions if I get stuck.

[gen.-pimp]

u will need to buy a drive from ebay and search on youtube how to change it

[Dan]

Go into the PS3 recovery menu and try rebuilding the OS.

Google how to do it, I'm posting from my PS3 now

[Bizarre]

When I called Sony, the rep told me to do all the stuff in the recovery mode, I did and I still have problems, and if I do buy the disc drive will that fix the freezing problems?

[Dan]

When you mean "trouble loading games," is the top right hand corner bubble moving constantly whilst a disc is in? If that's the case, then your Blu-ray drive is dead.

[Riorio99]

$250 to fix it? You can buy a new one for $300! Yeah, changing the drive is only gonna rescue it if its a disc drive problem, but it sounds like there are some bigger problems if its constantly freezing. Is it freezing on download games or in the menu or only when playing disc games?

[Bizarre]

Ok well this is exactly what my PS3 does. I'll turn it on, play some NHL or COD (freezing only happens in disc games) and after 10-15 minutes my PS3 will freeze, I can't turn it off from the front, so I have to switch it off from the back. Then as I load my PS3 up again the disc won't load, I'll eject, restart it just won't load, after about a 2 hour break, my PS3 will load the disc again but again after 10-15 min it will freeze.

[Torch]

Open, clean, apply thermal paste and reseat heatsinks. Clean the BD-ROM too.