PS3 YLOD

I

inotocracy

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jul 25, 2004
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Well, after all this time of ragging on the 360's failure rate, karma has struck-- my launch PS3 has the yellow light of death :eek: Seems as though you can dissassemble it and reflow with a heat gun, so I'm going to give it a shot later today and post up my results. Anyone else get the YLOD and fix it themselves? I doubt mines under warranty since its been so long. I found a good video tutorial on it if anyone is interested (its long):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Ic1_TY-GU
 
My roommate and a coworker both have had ylod's on the original larger size ps3s -- both took it to a local to get them "fixed" (attempted a reflow) -- one still works, the other doesn't. Wish you luck -- reflowing is always a crapshoot. On the 360 the vast majority of the rrod's are caused by the same thing, so the reflow tends to work due to the fact that the problem area is targeted, but I'm not convinced all of the ylod's are failing the same way, so a reflow is always a dice roll.
 
YLOD was like a catch all error for the ps3... so it could be power issue, gpu, overheating, so many different things... which is lame. But as previous poster stated before reflow is a dice roll
 
I'v successfully fixed 3 PS3's from YLOD using this reflow method, so i'd say it's definitely worth a shot. Replacing the thermal paste is a must, and for the memory modules a couple of pennies wrapped in electrical tape work better than those sticky pads (search for the xbox 360 penny trick on youtube :cool: ) Good luck.
 
inotocracy said:
Well, after all this time of ragging on the 360's failure rate, karma has struck-- my launch PS3 has the yellow light of death :eek: Seems as though you can dissassemble it and reflow with a heat gun, so I'm going to give it a shot later today and post up my results. Anyone else get the YLOD and fix it themselves? I doubt mines under warranty since its been so long. I found a good video tutorial on it if anyone is interested (its long):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Ic1_TY-GU
Click to expand...

My PS3 bit the dust as well. Even if it is under warranty Sony is going to charge you 150 bucks to fix this so it's best to try on your own, it is a crap shoot though.
 
Yeah, I know its a roll of the dice but I know I won't get any help from Sony at this point. I went to do it the other day and realized I don't have a torx screwdriver (to open the top plate), so I'll have to get one of those and try later. Hopefully before xmas, as I got my son some games for it :( Horrible timing.
 
security torx, even.

atleast a couple I worked on were security torx bit (you know, with the little hole in the middle of the bit).

our of 3 broke ones I bought, only 1 I got working (it just needed a GOOD cleaning, but then turned out to be a kiosk unit :mad: ). Tried "baking" the other 2 in the oven, no good. Well, one of 'em started working for a short time, but then video went on the fritz then completely crapped out.
 
My PS3 warranty was up about a week ago... now watch it kick the bucket over xmas. :(
 
Psychotext said:
My PS3 warranty was up about a week ago... now watch it kick the bucket over xmas. :(
Click to expand...

I had a launch 60gb that I sold to a friend of mine last year. It's still running fine. The fan is loud as hell compared to my 160gb PS3 and 120gb Slim.
 
DragonMasterAlex said:
Wait, I was under the impression PS3's were break-proof :)
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Its rare, almost unheard of compared to the xbox 360 RROD, but it happens. Same with the wii, you dont hear about those crapping out, but I have had mine die and a co-worker of mine had his go tits-up after 6 months.
 
Droc said:
Its rare, almost unheard of compared to the xbox 360 RROD, but it happens.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't go so far to say rare (about a third of the people I know with PS3s have had it happen)... but yeah, definitely almost unheard of vs RRoD. :D
 
Ive had to get mine fixed before, the bluray laser went out on it. Sony fixed it fo free thankfully. Im not sure I would have dropped 150 to get it repaired. Their whole warranty is complete BS, they expect you to keep a receipt for a year. Losers.
 
Yeah, tossing the receipt into an 'electronics' folder in a file cabinet is a real tough chore.

Even tougher, keeping all of my pertinent tax information on hand in the same cabinet for seven years.

The horror.

My PS3's been out of warranty for a while now. If it breaks, -$150+ for me.
 
Droc said:
Its rare, almost unheard of compared to the xbox 360 RROD, but it happens. Same with the wii, you dont hear about those crapping out, but I have had mine die and a co-worker of mine had his go tits-up after 6 months.
Click to expand...

It's actually not that rare. Both the 360 and the PS3 have failure rates that are higher then acceptable. The difference is the the 360's seemed to fail faster. It's only been recently that launch PS3's started to die off, but now the mess has started.

It's safe to say at this point that if you have a gen 1 PS3, there is a good chance you're headed for trouble.
 
Finally got around to doing the reflow-- and it worked! Wasn't even that hard to do, either. If anyone is curious or needs to do it, I heated up the CPU + GPU for about 2 mins at 530c, let it cool for 30 minutes, and re-applied thermal paste then reassembled. I followed the guide here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Ic1_TY-GU
 
IF that ever happens to me, I'd just break out the heat gun specifically desgined for removing surface mounted stuff and use it to reflow the chips
 
Just try the fan test. If you have a 40GB model, turn off power switch, hold eject, turn power switch back on. Then turn power switch off, then back on once it's done.

If you have any other model, turn the PS3 so that the word Playstation 3 is upside down (standing on top) and hold it up off a surface, then turn it on. After about 30 seconds it will go into a fan cleaning mode again then turn it back after most of the dust gets out.

Just did the fan test on my 40GB and zero dust came out. Weird, it's 2 years old and my room is dusty. It is silent though while running now though.
 
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Just curious - anyone here ever run into a fix for the PS3 red screen of death? The one that just says something to the effect of "A serious error has occurred. Contact technical support." Other than sending it to Sony, I mean....

Yeah, yeah should've gotten the receipt from my friend when I bought it....can't cry over spilled milk.
 
Funny this got ressurected-- mine died again. My son turned it on then off a couple times and it triggered it. Seriously makes me wonder about that whole "Sony killswitch" rumor. I opened it back up and reflowed for 30 seconds and its fine now.
 
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