I had a hard freeze yesterday. To make clear what I mean, it froze on a frame in full colour with no error message (so quite different to a fatal error or regular DC). Only way to get out of it is to force-restart the PS3, which then takes ages checking for file errors (or something like that). This hadn't happened for six months or so for me. Hope it doesn't become recurrent as it is for OP, at one point I was getting so many of these and also fatal errors (which now seem fixed - thanks CCP) that I quit for a couple of months. I reinstalled numerous times back then, and didn't seem to help much, but guess it can't hurt to try.

PS - only have two channels open. Doubt that's a factor, chat puts a massive extra strain on the netcode (part of why PC is such a clusterf*ck) but this seems more like a local (RAM or HDD?) issue.

Might be the integrity of your PS3's hard drive

That's one of the two possibilities I thought of, however I am using the same PS3 and hard drive I was in December when I was getting these all the time, and I didn't have any of these for months.

The other thing I think it might be is RAM. The fact that so many people report this happening just as they're firing or even overheating burst HMGs makes me think this is more likely. Basically when there's so much going on on screen and in physics calculations (etc) there's too much to hold in RAM and the system crashes. There's typically a lot going on when your burst HMG overheats. I am FAR from an expert but for me it does always happen in high intensity moments, e.g. when ADSing at a group of enemies who are all firing back, or when changing direction rapidly in an LAV. The frozen frame always looks action packed, like a screenshot they'd give to IGN for publicity. Never had it when I'm just walking through a field on my own.

That certainly describes what was happening to me last night. I was in one of the small city sockets, in a hallway near the point. Had just killed two guys and had two more in my sight when the game froze. A lot was going on at the time. Next time it happens I'll take a photo and post it.

That's one of the two possibilities I thought of, however I am using the same PS3 and hard drive I was in December when I was getting these all the time, and I didn't have any of these for months.

The other thing I think it might be is RAM. The fact that so many people report this happening just as they're firing or even overheating burst HMGs makes me think this is more likely. Basically when there's so much going on on screen and in physics calculations (etc) there's too much to hold in RAM and the system crashes. There's typically a lot going on when your burst HMG overheats. I am FAR from an expert but for me it does always happen in high intensity moments, e.g. when ADSing at a group of enemies who are all firing back, or when changing direction rapidly in an LAV. The frozen frame always looks action packed, like a screenshot they'd give to IGN for publicity. Never had it when I'm just walking through a field on my own.