How I saved my ps3 from the ylod

C

Compact

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Feb 3, 2007
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So on Thursday night I sat down to play some mw2 on my PS3. a few rounds in my screen locked up for about 10 seconds then the PS3 shut down. after about 4 minutes of poking at the power button and in a complete state of denial, I unplugged it and started the short process of opening the the Ps3. something I had done 3/4 times before. After breaking it down and checking the thermal paste and all the connections I remembered the idea of a repair I had done after reading a post here. I pulled the motherboard out, stuck in on top of an 8x8 pan and popped it in the oven at 385 for 10 min. turned off the oven and prayed for two hours while it cooled down. soon I had it all back together and pushed the power button and viola. good as new and running for 3 days now with no hiccups. this is the third item this year I have saved by baking it. First being a friends laptop with no video, second being the circuit board for my fridge, (saved myself $300 there) and now the PS3. so if you find your self with the yellow light of death. break down your ps3, put the main board in the oven at 385/400 for 10 min, turn off the oven and let it cool in the oven for a few hours and see if it works. its a lot cheaper and quicker then sending it to Sony or running to the store to buy a new one.

from what Ive read here, its due to the use of tin based solder in the chips that has a much lower melting point and the repeated heating and cooling causes it to crack and break the connection.
 
Similar to the heatgun fix. Definitely not permanent, and usually causes PCB warpage. Do it enough times and the board is bricked, and you cook the thermal interface material between the CPU/GPU dies and the heatspreaders every time you do it. A heat gun would be less of a blunt instrument, but still...

Anything short of a reball with leaded solder with an IR rework station is not a permanent fix. So, good luck.
 
yer they usually only last about 4 weeks so id be selling it to CEX or something and they will give 12 months warranty to the next person that buys it!
 
a heat gun specifically designed to remove surface mount chips is ideal for fixing these things short of a reflow station. Problem is that improper use if said heat gun usually cooks the chips......which happens more often than you might expect....silicon does not like to be exposed to >400F temps cause the internal connections to the IC melt......
 
the first time I opened it was due to a failed fan. Ive had this ps3 since about a month after they came out and three cats worth of hair build up killed it.

Many naysayers here. The laptop I did this fix on was done almost 9 months ago and has been working just fine. Who has some statistics on how long this fix will last ?


just to be safe I did do a backup as soon as it was back together
 
I baked my ps3, but it didn't work, maybe i should have taken the cookies out first.

There was one plastic part soldered to my board that melted, but the instructions i followed told me to bake the ps3 at 425f for 10 minutes, i knew i should have opened the oven the second i smelled burning.

Im picking up a PS3 slim this week, so no loss, just heartbreak.
 
Rash said:
yer they usually only last about 4 weeks so id be selling it to CEX or something and they will give 12 months warranty to the next person that buys it!
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You have crossed the line that separates man and bum. You are now a bum.
 
Well its been almost two months and my ps3 is still going just fine. in fact, I haven't had a single lock up or crash since. Ive used it almost every day since.
 
that's awesome dude

you gonna get a new PS3 when that one dies out? There's plenty of sellers on Craigslist
 
snypaz said:
Had my PS3 reflowed for $40.. working now
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My reflow lasted 3 weeks then it was done but I had reflowed it myself. The second reflow lasted 3 days, however I was smart enough to wait until my slim had arrived to transfer everything over. In order for it to last, you have to reball it and there's a kit only for I think 100 bucks. It's a real bitch though.

Edit: Bluntman beat me to the reball comment. It's all good.
 
Its only a temp solution if u think the ps3 will work forever u are very wrong..
 
i don't recall the op stating that he thought it would work forever. nothing lasts forever.

ps: i did this same 'fix' about 1.5 months ago and mine is still working too :)
 
the real "fix" is to use lead based solder when you reball it. lead is flexable and can withstand the thermal cycles much better than the more rigid tin based solder they use now.....
 
probably about to try this.

Is there instructions somewhere that tell you how to get it apart and what part(s) exactly you bake?
 
The cause of this is poor solder joints. Heating it up in the oven is only a temporary solution in most cases. The solder flows back together when you heat it up, but the solder connections made this way aren't very strong, so they will probably break again if the PS3 is moved around a lot or gets hot.

As posted above, the real solution is to solder it yourself, but this is much more complicated than just sticking it in the oven.
 
did it on 6/22/10, its now 2/7/12 and the thing is still working. Granted I use it only for netflix now, I have a slim for my daily use. Nay Sayers. lol. I am more shocked than anyone it still works.
 
Compact said:
did it on 6/22/10, its now 2/7/12 and the thing is still working. Granted I use it only for netflix now, I have a slim for my daily use. Nay Sayers. lol. I am more shocked than anyone it still works.
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Hahhahaha, and I was one of the guys who supported you and believed it would work :p

I've seen it happen, but not with the PS3, with the orignal PS1's. Even though each incarnation has had upgraded internals, the overall design has remained mostly the same, especially with regards to the lasers, which have gotten more powerful but still integral.
 
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