BGA Chip Swap

Hi all, anyone round here good enough with soldering equipment to swap a bga chip from one board to another?

Obviously I don't mind paying for the service but i know its something that i'd never be able to do.

Here's the story.

My cousin's 40Gb PS3 Phat, which is a few years old and was purchased from new, recently stopped reading disks.

We purchased a replacement bluray drive and swapped his controller board onto it so it was locked to his console and thought that was it however the new drive also didn't read discs.

On further inspection it turns out the drive doesn't even spin the disc when using his controller board.

If we use the controller board that came with the new drive, which is locked to a different console, then the drive at least spins the disc but wont play it.

This all leads me to believe there is a problem with his original controller board.

This gives me three options

1. Admit defeat and use the console for streaming and playing psn titles only.
2. Remarry the new board to his console.
3. Find an alternative way to make the new board work with his console

Admitting defeat is not something i want to do so on to option 2

I have spent the last few nights reading up on re-marrying a new drive to the console and from what i understand it requires the ps3 to be on a lower firmware version than the current 4.00 the console it running.

So my final option.

Apparently the key to lock the board to his console is stored in a small BGA chip on the controller board.

It is my understanding that if we can remove the chip from his controller board and install it on the new one then the new board will then work with his console.

There's a youtube video showing the process here so you guys can check it out and let me know if you think this would be viable?

Thanks

Mike

Now thats a nice ghetto fix..... question is ..... did it work after?

While I have the kit to do that, I wouldn't want to risk that without some practice first.. and even then I wouldn't want to say 100% I could ensure it working after it was installed... =(

Hi Z, i also wondered if it worked as the video cut off but apparently from reading around various forums this or remarrying a new drive is the way to go.

I just don't want to give up on the console so am looking, more stretching, for alternatives or answers lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scrappysphinx

Hi all, anyone round here good enough with soldering equipment to swap a bga chip from one board to another?

Obviously I don't mind paying for the service but i know its something that i'd never be able to do.

Here's the story.

My cousin's 40Gb PS3 Phat, which is a few years old and was purchased from new, recently stopped reading disks.

We purchased a replacement bluray drive and swapped his controller board onto it so it was locked to his console and thought that was it however the new drive also didn't read discs.bung in a disc thats something other than blueray to find out if its the board because it has more than one laser.

On further inspection it turns out the drive doesn't even spin the disc when using his controller board.

If we use the controller board that came with the new drive, which is locked to a different console, then the drive at least spins the disc but wont play it.

This all leads me to believe there is a problem with his original controller board.

This gives me three options

1. Admit defeat and use the console for streaming and playing psn titles only.
2. Remarry the new board to his console.
3. Find an alternative way to make the new board work with his console

Admitting defeat is not something i want to do so on to option 2

I have spent the last few nights reading up on re-marrying a new drive to the console and from what i understand it requires the ps3 to be on a lower firmware version than the current 4.00 the console it running.

So my final option.

Apparently the key to lock the board to his console is stored in a small BGA chip on the controller board.

It is my understanding that if we can remove the chip from his controller board and install it on the new one then the new board will then work with his console.

There's a youtube video showing the process here so you guys can check it out and let me know if you think this would be viable?

Thanks

Mike

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this technique does work(ive done it myself), but if i was you i would try to do a filesystem repair first as ive had this happen to me(hold down the power on button for two beeps to enter the menu then let go)with a failed drive on a 60 gig original that plays ps2 games.try discs that are of a diferent type to blueray to see if it reads them as well the drives have more than two lasers,its just to see if its not reading just the blueray discs or not.


also the firmware of the ps3 has nothing to do with marrying the drive to the console,its only the bga ic on the controller board on the drive that stops it from working on another ps3.

Quote:

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Apparently the key to lock the board to his console is stored in a small BGA chip on the controller board.

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Just so you know, this is not a 100% guaranteed fix. I'd save the pennies and buy a new one.

I could probably do this But i wont do it lol..
I only do it on broken things i have bought..
The results are way to random for my expirience of doing it.

I like to get 2-3 of the things to practice in 1st (check the lowest possible temps i can use and for how long)
Also Where as if the traces dont come off then thats all fone but i dont know if i have the stencils for the particular thing to be re attached.
most of my stencils are for a 360.

i also dont know enough about the ps3's drive to start poking around in it.

As a follow up to this i asked around on some different forums about the possibilty of remarrying a new drive to this console and the general answer was that it involves way too much work.

Anyone around here had an out of warranty repair on their Playstation by Sony and could tell me what it cost?
And do you know if they will do an out of warranty repair if the warranty seal is broken?

Thanks

Why don't you downgrade the ps3 (which requires removing and reflashing 2 or 2 tsop chips) then remarry it?

Much better idea than swapping the bga chip IMO.

I looked into downgrading and found that my options were installing a progskeet or an e3 flasher, neither of which i have, or as you suggest removing tsop chips and reflashing which is beyond my soldering skills and i don't have a flasher to flash the chips even if i did get them off successfully.

I have a fully working ps3 slim i bought new in December this was just a project i have inherited and i can either use as a download/streaming machine and forget the bluray or i can try and repair/pay for repair.

I'd like to get it working as i like to play games and the wifey likes to watch blurays/netflix so we clash over who uses the console so another would be a bonus :-)

I have a £800 programmer that handles these chips.

I also have a bga rework station that was £1250.

Downgrading is the easier/better option IMO