Fat ps3 repairs?
I have a 60gb launch model ps3 that is no longer working. The red light just flashes. I've read that this happens when it over-heats and the console will shut down to avoid the YLoD. I know the slims are much more reliable, but I love the 60gb model and would love to get it functional again and be able to use it for years to come. Plus they're becoming hard to find.
Comments
Did you also have an issue of discs not loading before the red light flashing?
In progress edit: Here's the link for the temperature. Basically, you break the system down to just the system board, remove all heat transfer/sink pads, heatsinks, etc., until you're looking at bare chips. Next, using highest percentage alcohol available to you, clean all thermal paste, residue, etc. off of the chips. Then, hold the board semi-vertically and use your heat gun/reflow to warm up the whole board to prevent any issues/damage from occurring due to sudden thermal expansion. Once that's done, sit the board up level, raised up above whatever surface you're going to be doing this on, and reflow all of the chips indicated in this iFixit guide (RAM, CPU, GPU and a couple of other proprietary chips). You'll basically run the heat gun/reflow over them in a circular motion for about 25 seconds in each area. Once you're done reflowing, do not touch or move the board (or allow it to be moved, so all pets, little kids, stompy housemates, etc. need to be removed from the area and accounted for beforehand) and allow it to cool. I think I left the one I repaired for about an hour before going in to put it back together, just to be sure. After it's done, apply new thermal paste to the CPU and GPU, apply new thermal pads to the chips you removed them from (if you don't have them, you can technically reuse the old ones if they're still in good shape and didn't get destroyed during removal, but it's not recommended) and reverse all the steps you took taking it apart. With luck, you'll have a fully working system once more which will be a bit more resistant to thermal issues in the future (thanks to new/better thermal paste). If you don't already have one and can find one, I recommend laying hands on an Intercooler and attaching it pretty much permanently to the back to ensure more air gets circulated through the system.
Edit: One thing I didn't mention here, didn't personally do and wouldn't recommend (but might see recommended by others) is the use of flux in this reflow. To get under the chips in question, you'd really need to use "no clean" flux, but I would skip it due to the fact that in most cases with these systems, the solder joints are just cracked and not actually moved any from where they originally were. The chips are mounted via "BGA" (ball grid array, basically a ton of tiny solder balls sitting on the pads on the board and the chips' pads sitting on the solder balls versus the components being attached directly to the board) and speaking for years of experience dealing with this in repairing and refurbing cell phones, as much as flux helps solder flow again, it's easy to accidentally get the solder in the grid to flow so much that two or more of the balls bridge one another and end up causing a short under one or more of the chips. It's possible to come back from that, but to do so cleanly would require a professional setup to "re-ball" everything, at which point you should have just paid someone with the proper setup to do that for you in the first place. Keeping the board perfectly level after heating, then before, during and after reflowing should allow you to successfully reflow everything without any of the solder joints being repaired bridging on you.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/gophermods-minneapolis-12
At the time it was $100 which included service and shipping (two ways). So I thought it was a very fair deal. They more or less fixed my issue (blu ray was not working) although I still swear it skips a little. Ah well, it is what, 10+ years now!
About 2 years ago I had to send in my PS3 for repairs. I ended up sending it to here
https://www.yelp.com/biz/gophermo...
At the time it was $100 which included service and shipping (two ways). So I thought it was a very fair deal. They more or less fixed my issue (blu ray was not working) although I still swear it skips a little. Ah well, it is what, 10+ years now!
That is way better than Sony was offering me at the time. I had called when it happened and Sony told me it would cost $300. I then mentioned that Microsoft had replaced my 360 for free then they told me $250 was the best they could offer. So, I went 360 only until the 250GB Slim was released.
These older consoles have crap ventilation in them. Unless you cut a huge hole with air flowing in with a bigger exhaust with an intercooler with an external power supply and a fan mod to run the internal fans on full blast... that thing's gonna heat up like crazy. Same deal goes with the older model 360s.
The big problem is that there is no perm fix, it'll happen again and again.
These older consoles have crap ventilation in them. Unless you cut a huge hole with air flowing in with a bigger exhaust with an intercooler with an external power supply and a fan mod to run the internal fans on full blast... that thing's gonna heat up like crazy. Same deal goes with the older model 360s.
Hmmm, well, my PS3 did last me years and years... whereas my PS4 broke down, oh, about a year after I got it, and crappy Sony made me pay $100 to fix something that should not have been broken in the first place (assholes)!
The big problem is that there is no perm fix, it'll happen again and again.
These older consoles have crap ventilation in them. Unless you cut a huge hole with air flowing in with a bigger exhaust with an intercooler with an external power supply and a fan mod to run the internal fans on full blast... that thing's gonna heat up like crazy. Same deal goes with the older model 360s.
Hmmm, well, my PS3 did last me years and years... whereas my PS4 broke down, oh, about a year after I got it, and crappy Sony made me pay $100 to fix something that should not have been broken in the first place (assholes)!
I would say after the year 2000, quality in a lot of things seem to be... "bleh" for lack of better words.
Like I feel sorry for who ever hits a crown vic with a newer model car. lol
Silver based solder does not have the same thermal properties as lead based and because of this the balls that were used and the reflow procedure used was inadequate. Most reball jobs involve replacing the silver based solder with lead based and then reflowing the GPU and CPU. This is literally the only way to correct this. Any reflow job you do on the existing solder is a stop gap at best. It will not last and will end up with broken joints sooner rather than later. The reflowed joints will end up being cold joints which will crack under heat again.
Amazing they could be so cavalier in the design of such an expensive and complicated piece of technology, especially one that was supposed to be the flagship product of their brand! One reason I have always been glad to be a Nintendo fanboy... now if you excuse me I've got a 30 year old console to get back to playing!
The YLOD for me happened just after my 1 year warranty was up. The response from Sony when I called support was that my warranty was up and they could repair it for $300 or I could just buy a new one. Keep in mind as a launch console it was $600. To this day the YLOD has never been acknowledged by Sony. Microsoft caught a lot of flack for the RROD and it was very public but at least they did something about it.
Personally, and this is entirely opinion, I think the reason the RROD was so common was because people actually played games on the 360 because it didn't have a Blu-ray drive. This would cause higher temperatures and frequent changes in temperature. The PS3 was very often purchased for use solely as a Blu-ray player, even early on, due to the cost difference between the PS3 and a pure Blu-ray player. The ps3 was actually cheaper and had additional functionality. Blu-ray playback did not cause anywhere near as much heat build up or temperature variance.