HELP!! Any PS3 surgeons in here???

Merlin

Ministry of Retr0bright and Street Judge
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:help::help::help::help:
I have just had a Priority 1 distress call from my youngest son; his PS3 has just failed with a flashing standby light and of course, his oxygen supply has been cut off as a result....:eek::wooha:

The PS3 won't power up and the red LED is just flashing on and off, there are no multiple flashes.

Sony want an eye-watering £128 to arrange a courier swap-out of his unit as it's out of warranty.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong, or can anyone who is a PS3 surgeon around Manchester repair this for him, for less than Sony want to rinse him for?
 

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Hiya Merlin, it sounds like the YLOD (similar to the RROD of 360).
If so then there is an excellent pdf and accompanying video tutorial you can view here.
You'll need to register to download the pdf but you can view the videos without registering. Apparently this guy has fixed hundreds with his method of a heat gun to reflow the cpu and gpu's.
Apologies about linking to another forum but if it helps.
 
Thanks Mike. I'd arrived at the Gilksy videos on Youtube myself, so it's looking like his marathon Modern Warfare 2 sessions have overheated the unit and the chips have shifted, similar to the XBox 360 problem. A lot of PS3s have gone down lately since MW2 came out and it's probably the all-night sessions that are causing the problem, as I suspect that the game is making the console work quite hard.

This is another example of how the shift away from leaded solder is causing problems for hardware that gets hot when stressed. The newer lead-free solder is just too brittle.

Time to break out the Black & Decker heat gun, I think....:nod:
 
i have to be honest mate, i've noticed my original launch 60gb ps3 has recently started to get a lot warmer and kick in the fans a lot more since i got the new Fifa 10 (i'm not a MW fan) and i've been on it a lot longer. looks like i might have to buy a heat gun soon lol

There was a watchdog program recently about the YLOD and how sony denies the reason for causing it is due to lead free solder and movement but out of the 15 machines watchdog attempted to repaired by reflowing 14 of them worked!
 
A little OT, but regarding the X360 , lead-free solder is not the only cause of the problem, it is only when combined with the ridiculus heatsink/fan cooling system that the damage is done. If it had a BETTER cooling system, I bet half of the machines would still be alive today. FFS, they just receycled the XBXO1 "design" adding one more fan! I suspect the same can be said for the ps3, though I never saw one open...
The only real solution for this, is lower nm cpu/gpu manufacturing process, Jasper (and soon valhalla boards) for the X360 and the new (better idea IMHO , lower nm + new case) mini desing of the PS3...
 
/keropi pokes JuvUK with a lead-free 3ft solder pole
 
i have to be honest mate, i've noticed my original launch 60gb ps3 has recently started to get a lot warmer and kick in the fans a lot more since i got the new Fifa 10 (i'm not a MW fan) and i've been on it a lot longer. looks like i might have to buy a heat gun soon lol

There was a watchdog program recently about the YLOD and how sony denies the reason for causing it is due to lead free solder and movement but out of the 15 machines watchdog attempted to repaired by reflowing 14 of them worked!

Sony, my dear Mike, are discussing out of their collective rear ends......this has only come about since the lead-free stuff was introduced.

Think about this; how many retro computers from the 486 / Pentium and AMD K5/K6 era had the Hell overclocked out of them and there weren't many casualties, despite AMD chips running hotter than Intel chips. Graphics cards are another case in point; hot doesn't even begin to describe how some cards ran.

The prosecution rests, M'Lud........
 
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Very true Merlin. Someone posted on the CA forum the other day saying their PC was now 10 years old and still going strong (they don't need anything newer or faster), and it made me think that I still have an 11 year old PC that was used heavily and constantly saw upgrades over its lifetime, and yet still works perfectly, and still using its original PSU and motherboard!

Today's electronics are just not as robust and up to the job. Poor cooling and lead free solder have to be the main reasons. However, bad design overall and cost cutting have to be the major reasons behind it all. Current PC GPUs run at insane temperatures, going over 100 Deg C in some cases, and they don't have these problems. So why should todays consoles?

Out of interest, does anyone know if the newer PS3 slim is having these issues?
 
[OT]
I frequently use my now "beefed up" fisrt computer: a 1990-1991 IBM 386sx PS1/pro... it still works PERFECT , and I dare say it is built better than some amiga models...
[/OT]

I think the new PS3 model is OK, it is using a 45-nm process for it's chips... (the launch one was 90nm and the last "fat" ones where 65nm)
 
[Sith Lord mode on]
Arise, PS3!!

"Yes, Master.......:ninja:"
[/Sith Lord mode off]

Merlin and his hot air rework station (OK then, my trusty Black & Decker paint stripper gun :blink:) is teh r0xX0rs!!

:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:

(y)
 
I take it that its working then merl?
Did you just reflow or did you clean the heatsinks and apply fresh thermal compund too?
 
Yes Mike, it lives!!

I did the lot, mate; I have some Servisol heat sink compound here that's the really good stuff, so I cleaned the main chips off, reflowed them with the hot air gun on high setting for about 30 seconds each chip, allowed it to cool then re-assembled with fresh heat sink compound.

One thing I did notice; the chip that appears to have overheated most is the one labelled 'PS3' (the right hand one, looking at Gilksy's reflow videos). The old heat sink compound was really darkened on that chip, which suggests that it's that chip working overtime and causing the problem.

Anyhoo, my son is now made up, now that he is 128 sheets better off; I've told him I expect an upgrade on my Christmas present as a result. :whistle:

(y)
 
For those who may wish to bookmark it, here's the Youtube link to Part 1 of Gilksy's PS3 repair guide.

link
 
Glad you got it sorted Merlin. (y)

S'funny seeing this kind of cr4p with BGA sockets in the 21st Century. You would have thought after the cock-up of the CS MKIII BGA issues from years ago, they would have learned by now. Alomost unforgiveable on Sony's part tbh. (n)

Kin
 
I agree, Charlie; If AMD can sort a Socket 939 out with little fuss, I fail to see why Sony had to take the BGA route and create a problem for themselves.
 
Cheaper for them to manufacturer maybe?

Anyway, great that you got it working again, and I will bookmark those videos in case I ever need to do that myself. I know loads of people with the phat PS3.
 
Cheaper for them to manufacturer maybe?

[..]

cheaper? I doubt... a BGA package leaves NO DIRECT SOLDER points, thus making hacks/modchips etc very difficult to install or even investigate the mobo to find such hacks...
 
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