Dead USB ports on Playstation 3, any way for cheap fix?

Tsumi

Tsumi

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Mar 18, 2010
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Title says it all. I've got a Playstation 3 CECHA model that some bastard sold to me without telling me the USB ports weren't working (craigslist). Now, the guy wouldn't even respond to me. Is there any way to fix this? USB ports are receiving no power at all (I tired plugging in a USB battery charger, nothing), so I'm assuming no data transfer is also taking place. Console seems to boot up fine and everything, haven't tried the blu-ray drive yet. Do I have to resort to the oven method?
 
Wow that sucks.

I don't think the oven method would help with broken USB ports. Your best bet is to crack that thing open and see if the ribbon cable for the USB ports is disconnected for some reason.
 
Zinn said:
Wow that sucks.

I don't think the oven method would help with broken USB ports. Your best bet is to crack that thing open and see if the ribbon cable for the USB ports is disconnected for some reason.
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At least with the old-style PS3 the USB ports are soldered straight onto the mainboard PCB: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/PlayStation-3-Teardown/1260/5

My bet is that some kind of protective fuse near the USB ports got blown because some moron managed to short them out.
 
Damn you're right. I used to refurb PS3's (it's been awhile) and I remember there being a decent number of ribbon connectors. Guess that isn't one of them.
 
oven method?
+1

Just pop it in their and let it bake for like 30 min at 400F,might as well pop a hungry man dinner in their at the same time so as not to wast the ovens time.
 
Yeah, there are a bunch of ribbon connectors, but the USB ports are soldered onto the board.

War Zone... you're really not helping. Besides, 30 minutes at 400F is a sure fire way to kill something. I know, because I've read the thread on baking electronics. Maximum of 10 minutes bake time.
 
While were on the topic of cooking our video game systems, some guy tried to eat a deep fried PSP.
 
Deep fried PSP rofl.
I remember reading about some dude at one point that filled his cpu socket with arctic silver 5 compound then reamed the cpu in their and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working, classic :)

Dude :)
Just joking around Tsumi, don't you have a sense of humor.

If you want to test whats what, first thing to do it dismantle the ps3 to bits and test everything you can with a multimeter, and if your lucky its just a case of broken wires.

Trouble shooting is a process of elimination starting with the simplest things first,so test what you can that's simple and work your way from their.

So ya more or less what Zinn was saying
+1
crack it open & dismantle as needed.

Do you have a multimeter Tsumi ?
 
Well, what would I be testing for? The USB ports are soldered to the motherboard, unless you can provide me with a schematic of the PCB, I'll be testing things blind. There are no wires.

And FYI, most people who are pissed off don't have a good sense of humor =/ but that's just my own personal experience.
 
Tsumi said:
Well, what would I be testing for? The USB ports are soldered to the motherboard, unless you can provide me with a schematic of the PCB, I'll be testing things blind. There are no wires.
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The most likely failure mode I can think of is that the USB ports got shorted out. Normally USB ports can deal with short circuits without dying, but if it's significant enough this could permanently end up damaging them. There could be physical damage, but it's hard to know for sure without taking a look.

Of course, with how hard it is to take a PS3 apart, it may not be worth the trouble :)
 
I took the PS3 apart in about half an hour, it's not that much trouble...
 
I used a USB battery charger, as I stated earlier. None of the LED's on the charger lit up.
 
A wired USB controller designed to be compatible with the PS3 (cheap generic one, but it works with my computer). And just recently tried the flash drive. Nothing lit up at all on the controller and the flash drive, on all four ports.
 
Tsumi said:
A wired USB controller designed to be compatible with the PS3 (cheap generic one, but it works with my computer). And just recently tried the flash drive. Nothing lit up at all on the controller and the flash drive, on all four ports.
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Well shit. :(
 
Tsumi: I used a USB battery charger, as I stated earlier. None of the LED's on the charger lit up.
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Then your not even getting any power from your usb, meaning +5v dc i can fix that by rerouting power from one place to the other with a sobering iron if needed.

And ya i checked out how the thing is made.
source

really though to answer your other question about the multimeter,in a nut shell everything you can including continuity tests if and were possible on the usb topic with of cores the power off and or live tests on the ps3 for dc5 volt checks to see were the voltage is coming from ,who knows maybe its just a broken trace or something stupid {if your lucky}

If you don't have one you can get a basic one for like $15.

And ya test things blind,why not if you know how to use a multimeter & a soldering iron ,its really not a big deal. :rolleyes:

And if you don't then i don't see how this kind of thing would be useful to you
exaple
 
Kay, well, I tried the oven method. Stupid cheap oven at my apartment probably went 50 degrees higher than set temperature (temperature was set between 375 and 400). Solder melted and some of the components fell off. Now I have to order a soldering iron to solder those parts back on... at least they look simple to resolder anyways.
 
O_O !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was just joking a round you know :(

My self i would have hardwired the +5V \ ground for the usb on the ps3 right from the power supply unit.

That would mean that this
Tsumi: I used a USB battery charger, as I stated earlier. None of the LED's on the charger lit up.
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would work but a game controller might not.
I would have all so used a low amp fuse at the same time on the +5V so that if theirs a short the sony PlayStation three PSU would not pop from a over load.

The {+data | -data} theirs not much that can be done their, if the logic chips brain is wracked that's kind of hardcore to replace and to do it would mean one would need a costly specialized soldering iron and of cores a replacement chip if this was indeed the problem to start off with.

But i guess will never know now :(

My self, my dad when i was 5 years old use to bring me things to dismantle from the garbage.
Its one of the things im good at,and im still at it to this day.
i all so did 2 years in motorcycle shops as a mechanic and own about $2000 in tools and 25+ motorcycle's mostly in parts {6 working} at my cottage in the deep woods.

It saddens me to see you didn't give it more time to check things out on the ps3,as for my self i find stuff in the garbage all the time on the electronic device topic {including computers} and 50% of the time i can fix what i find.
Its amazing to see just what people trow away sometimes.

As for buddy that ripped you off,my self id probably go piss in his cars flue tank.Trust me from a mechanic point of view this craps out the car big time and its not fun to repair\$$$$
And its easy to hide the weapon in question, that is unless your one of though people that walks down the street talking to them self and masturbates at the same time.
Then i cant help you their but im shore theirs some professionals out their that might be able to.
 
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Tsumi said:
Kay, well, I tried the oven method. Stupid cheap oven at my apartment probably went 50 degrees higher than set temperature (temperature was set between 375 and 400). Solder melted and some of the components fell off. Now I have to order a soldering iron to solder those parts back on... at least they look simple to resolder anyways.
Click to expand...

save your money on the iron. If you got it hot enough for shit to fall off, its dead.
 
Yeah, well, the stuff that fell off are loosely connected components. The only things that held them on was the solder (didn't have pins that went through the PCB). 4 components that look fairly easy to put on.

Oh, and what does it mean when some of the plastic is melted, and other parts are not? Besides, there wasn't anything else I could do with the PS3 at this point.
 
Tsumi said:
Yeah, well, the stuff that fell off are loosely connected components. The only things that held them on was the solder (didn't have pins that went through the PCB). 4 components that look fairly easy to put on.

Oh, and what does it mean when some of the plastic is melted, and other parts are not? Besides, there wasn't anything else I could do with the PS3 at this point.
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What do you mean "at this point"? At the point of the USB ports not working? No need to (potentially) mess up the whole system by baking it just because the USB ports don't work. They are a convenience but you don't have to have them just to play games or watch movies. Unless you got it to specifically watch stuff off of a USB drive or something. But for charging controllers you could just plug it into a computer to charge.
 
htpc_user said:
What do you mean "at this point"? At the point of the USB ports not working? No need to (potentially) mess up the whole system by baking it just because the USB ports don't work. They are a convenience but you don't have to have them just to play games or watch movies. Unless you got it to specifically watch stuff off of a USB drive or something. But for charging controllers you could just plug it into a computer to charge.
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I think you need the usb ports to assign new controllers.
 
Tsumi said:
Oh, and what does it mean when some of the plastic is melted, and other parts are not? Besides, there wasn't anything else I could do with the PS3 at this point.
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It means you killed it or are trolling.
 
Can't use the controllers without the USB ports. If a remote control can be used with the PS3 without any type of syncing, the PS3 becomes at best a very expensive blu-ray player, which I have no need for since I don't have any blu-ray movies. Just looking at the motherboard, resoldering new USB ports seem to be impossible anyways, and it doesn't explain why all of them would be dead.

And the plastic thing was just idle curiosity. One of the port's plastic melted, but the others didn't. Of course, this means that the AV cable is utterly useless now, all I have is HDMI and optical...

I might actually try using a YLOD motherboard (since those seem to be the only ones sold on ebay). Or I can just sell the system for parts on ebay. How easy is it to fix YLOD?
 
Tsumi said:
I might actually try using a YLOD motherboard (since those seem to be the only ones sold on ebay). Or I can just sell the system for parts on ebay. How easy is it to fix YLOD?
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Either heat gun or oven trick. I used the oven to fix my old 60GB model. Preheat oven at 350* and put in the motherboard for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn off oven and leave oven door open. Do not move the motherboard for at least 20 minutes. Although, I am not sure you are willing to try the oven method again...

On another note, I remember reading that the blu ray drive board has to match the PS3 motherboard to work. Something to look into if you decide to buy a YLOD motherboard.
 
Tsumi said:
Can't use the controllers without the USB ports. If a remote control can be used with the PS3 without any type of syncing, the PS3 becomes at best a very expensive blu-ray player, which I have no need for since I don't have any blu-ray movies. Just looking at the motherboard, resoldering new USB ports seem to be impossible anyways, and it doesn't explain why all of them would be dead.
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Controllers connect via bluetooth. You could have always charged them somewhere else with a usb port. Charging dock. Etc. Too late now though.
 
GreenMonkey said:
Controllers connect via bluetooth. You could have always charged them somewhere else with a usb port. Charging dock. Etc. Too late now though.
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I thought when you first assign them you need the USB cable? Unless things have changed thats how I had to do it.
 
infect0 said:
I thought when you first assign them you need the USB cable? Unless things have changed thats how I had to do it.
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No, they sync via Bluetooth the first time and every time after that.

[edit]: whoops, seems like I remembered incorrectly. The USB cable is required for the initial handshake. Stupid since other systems (XBox 360, Wii) don't require this, but hey, it's Sony :)
 
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Elledan said:
No, they sync via Bluetooth the first time and every time after that.

[edit]: whoops, seems like I remembered incorrectly. The USB cable is required for the initial handshake. Stupid since other systems (XBox 360, Wii) don't require this, but hey, it's Sony :)
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Oh. Didn't remember that. That's stupid. :S
 
I suppose it's too late now, but did you try all the different USB ports? It is possible just one or two are fried in which case if there is a least one working one you could use a USB hub.
 
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