PS3 sometimes starts up, but always freezes, even in safe mode

Hello everyone!

I've tried searching for this issue, but I haven't been able to find a solution.

I have a used PS3 Slim, on which I installed the latest 4.78 OS, but after that, it started freezing up.

Usually when I press the power button, the LED turns green but nothing shows up and the PS3 switches off and the LED shows nothing. Upon pressing the start button, the LED turns back to red and the PS3 goes back to stand-by.

At this point, the PS3 does not go into safe-mode either.

If I take out the power cord and hold the power button for sometime and then try turning it on, it works, but only for a short time and then in the XMB, it freezes up again, so the motherboard, etc. I think work. Using this trick, I booted up the PS3 into safe-mode also, but it still froze.

I think the problem maybe with the HDD, so I tried plugging it into the PC and running HDD Recovery to search for bad sectors. The program found one delayed sector and fixed it, but that didn't solve the problem either. I then formatted the HDD and inserted it into the PS3, but it doesn't seem to work either.

If I try to switch on the PS3 without a HDD, then the system says it can't find a storage media.

I guess I will now try to get a used HDD and try with that, but if anyone has any advice, please tell me.

Thanks!