So I baked my PS3...

scojer

scojer

[H]F Junkie
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Jun 13, 2009
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And it works!
I woke up yesterday, turned it on, and it gave me the yellow light. I then panicked, and wanted to hit it. Instead, I got online, and man, some people have some crazy ideas. I've baked a video card before, so I decided to try that. I put it in the oven, set the timer for 8 minutes, and heated the oven up to 350 with it in. after 8 minutes, I took it out, let it cool for a couple of hours, put it back together, and it works!

Just felt like sharing. Now, to know how long this is going to work.

Oh, and it's an original 60GB model.
 
How long did his last? This isn't something I want to do every week or so...
 
it usually only works for a short while as the real problem still exists

i would use it as borrowed time and plan to replace it
 
It lasted him for few month's. But he doesn't use it everyday.
 
What you basically did was a cheap mans reflow. I did the same thing for a friends Xbox 360 with a heat gun. I believe the heat gun technique is safer then the oven trick. Mostly because I can aim the heat gun away from delicate components. You mainly want to heat the GPU/CPU, since that's the hottest component in the machine, and more likely to get a weak solder joint.

The oven trick assures that you melt all the solder, along with other things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEqRMFrjm4U
 
That's why I didn't let it get all the way to 350. It got to around 250 or so when I took it out. Either way, it'll work for now. I know that it's because the solder is lead free.
 
My PS3 only lasted for no more than 10 hours, spanned over a month of testing. More than enough time to back up my saves though. I had to bake it again to revive it. I haven't used it since.
 
So far still going, watched a few hours of Netflix last night, and played a couple hours of Super Stardust HD in 3D mode and it's still alive!
 
I've also brought my 60gb PS3 back from the yellow light of death several times by the hair-dryer technique. I just put one on full blast and blast hot air through the back vents of the PS3 for a few minutes. Unfortunately, this trick only lasts a few days at most when during a game or movie, it will just suddenly shut down with the same YLOD problem again. I realize its only a temporary, "ghetto" fix and probably only useful to extract all your saved games and other data from the PS3 before repairing or replacing it.
 
I've baked an Xbox 360...a few times actually, to fix the E74 error. The first system I baked worked for about a month. When I went to bake it the second time, I attempted a double bake after it cooled. When I pulled it out of the oven all the caps were boiling :( ...so, lesson learned...DO NOT bake it for any longer then 9 minutes and don't go above 390*F. lol. I baked another 360 I had laying around and it is still working, after being played every day for about a month and a half now.
 
I gave one of my friend's a PS3 that would crash and then not want to turn back on until it cooled down. For a while this was extremely infrequent, however it managed to totally kill a Rock Band party one night so I was done with it (because nobody wants to deal with the console crashing every 3 or 4 songs). He baked it for 10 minutes, didn't work. Then he tried using a heat gun, didn't work. For his final attempt he baked it as a slightly lower temp for almost an hour and now the console works fine. I suspect it will die at any minute, but there is definitely some voodoo involved in baking hardware :D

That was a 40GB fat PS3. Now I have a 160GB slim which is much more noisy than the old 40GB :eek:
 
Vantec89 said:
I've baked an Xbox 360...a few times actually, to fix the E74 error. The first system I baked worked for about a month. When I went to bake it the second time, I attempted a double bake after it cooled. When I pulled it out of the oven all the caps were boiling :( ...so, lesson learned...DO NOT bake it for any longer then 9 minutes and don't go above 390*F. lol. I baked another 360 I had laying around and it is still working, after being played every day for about a month and a half now.
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WTF would ever posses you idiots to stick electronics in your oven. If your gonna do it do it right and use a towel :D
 
I can never fathom putting ANY electronics in my oven. And with that... should I fear my 160GB slim PS3 getting this yellow light of death?
 
Thanks for the heads up! Mine is still working, but if it does need to be baked again, I'll definitely dry them out, unless the method that I did is fine? I didn't really "High temp" bake it, I put it in there, set it to 350*, then I took it out 8 minutes later, and it was only 260* or so... but hey, it works!
 
JSClark said:
I can never fathom putting ANY electronics in my oven. And with that... should I fear my 160GB slim PS3 getting this yellow light of death?
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You shouldn't have to worry about it getting the yellow light of death. While it definitely happens, it still seems pretty rare.
 
JSClark said:
should I fear my 160GB slim PS3 getting this yellow light of death?
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I don't believe so. This YLOD error has really only affected the older, "fat" models. I believe the newer slim models are far better in heat management than the older models, same with the newer slim 360s in eliminating the RROD issue.
 
Bump, It went down last night. I'm getting ready to do it again!
 
I have taken one apart before and melted the solder back with a heat gun before, never baked it though lol.... GJ :p


The biggest problem with the PS3 is the fan placement, upon taking one apart I noticed that the fan that sits on the top of the motherboard is partially blocked by a piece of aluminum heatsink, thus handicapping the fans airflow. Another could be the sub par solder than Sony uses on the PCB. The solder is heating and cooling and eventually wears out creating micro fractures in the solder creating loose connections or no connection at all. Though the baking and heat gun methods work.. there not full proof. The PS3 I did the heat gun on lasted another month before it died again due to solder fracturing.
 
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The same with laptop GPUs, never had much luck with the "repair" lasting. It's a neat trick though.
 
i baked my ps3 too, geez it was long ago too, it worked and now i use it as an upstairs netflix and light gaming box.
 
When you bake these systems, you have to put tin foil over everything, leaving exposed only the part you want to get hot, which in the 360 case is the GPU most of the time. Also, for those having issues, soldier doesn't melt until around 400 degree's F.
 
I had 3 360s go out on me, decided I was done and wouldn't give MS anymore money. Not an easy decision as I badly want to play Gears of War 3, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Anyway, I was always so proud of my fat 60g ps3 which I bought right at launch (yes, I'm one of the schmucks who paid $599 for it) and for 5+ years running it worked like a champ.

A few months back it finally went down. Took it to 2 separate people who tried baking it, no good. There's an electronics chain called CPR (Cell Phone Repair) who specialize in bringing ps3's back to life using one of those fancy machines. They claim to have a 95% success rate, but it costs around $120. I would've loved to have my backward compatibility but I decided for another $200 may as well get a 320G. Maybe if I get the spare cash, I'll take it to CPR and keep it around as a backup or for PS2 games.

Does anybody know if dead ps3's are worth anything? If I could even get $25 out of it, I'd probably sell it.
 
I think the only long term solution is reballing and getting a professional reball job if you don't have it available to you because of something like work will cost more than a used PS3 slim.
 
Kevin003 said:
WTF would ever posses you idiots to stick electronics in your oven. If your gonna do it do it right and use a towel :D
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I did the towel job on my "launch day" after doing the X clamp fix. Worked really well.
The heat and the clamps seemed to reset the BGA of the CPU.
It does still lock up occasionally when playing GOW1 but I play the PS3 more anyway.
 
If you send your out of warranty original 60GB PS3 to Sony for repair service will you get an original 60GB back?

I have an original 60GB and I fear it is probably going to die. Its a lot louder now and while playing movies it slowly starts to artifact.
 
JohnleMVP said:
If you send your out of warranty original 60GB PS3 to Sony for repair service will you get an original 60GB back?

I have an original 60GB and I fear it is probably going to die. Its a lot louder now and while playing movies it slowly starts to artifact.
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They'll probably send you a slim. If you want to keep your original 60GB, and since it's out of warranty (so you'll have to pay anyway), use a 3rd party repair that has good reballing equipment. Not just an oven or hot air gun. If you want to take care of it yourself, you could try getting a cheaper hot air gun yourself and do a bit of modding to improve the cooling of the system (I've seen people lap PS3 heatspreaders and heatsinks because they are honestly terrible) like adding more fans and using good thermal compound.
 
shantd said:
I had 3 360s go out on me, decided I was done and wouldn't give MS anymore money. Not an easy decision as I badly want to play Gears of War 3, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Anyway, I was always so proud of my fat 60g ps3 which I bought right at launch (yes, I'm one of the schmucks who paid $599 for it) and for 5+ years running it worked like a champ.

A few months back it finally went down. Took it to 2 separate people who tried baking it, no good. There's an electronics chain called CPR (Cell Phone Repair) who specialize in bringing ps3's back to life using one of those fancy machines. They claim to have a 95% success rate, but it costs around $120. I would've loved to have my backward compatibility but I decided for another $200 may as well get a 320G. Maybe if I get the spare cash, I'll take it to CPR and keep it around as a backup or for PS2 games.

Does anybody know if dead ps3's are worth anything? If I could even get $25 out of it, I'd probably sell it.
Click to expand...

I bought one of your exact same models for $65 but it came with a controller and the guy hadn't tried baking it twice already (which may have caused further damage). The best bet is not to bake but use directed heat at the CPU/GPU with a professional heat gun.
 
shantd said:
I had 3 360s go out on me, decided I was done and wouldn't give MS anymore money. Not an easy decision as I badly want to play Gears of War 3, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Anyway, I was always so proud of my fat 60g ps3 which I bought right at launch (yes, I'm one of the schmucks who paid $599 for it) and for 5+ years running it worked like a champ.

A few months back it finally went down. Took it to 2 separate people who tried baking it, no good. There's an electronics chain called CPR (Cell Phone Repair) who specialize in bringing ps3's back to life using one of those fancy machines. They claim to have a 95% success rate, but it costs around $120. I would've loved to have my backward compatibility but I decided for another $200 may as well get a 320G. Maybe if I get the spare cash, I'll take it to CPR and keep it around as a backup or for PS2 games.

Does anybody know if dead ps3's are worth anything? If I could even get $25 out of it, I'd probably sell it.
Click to expand...




I'd be interested in buying it.....pm me if you want to sell it.
 
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