My first time dealing with YLOD (added ways to fix YLOD)

dave_sz
With the ps3 as you see int he vids, you have one big fan and heatsinks that are nowhere as meaty as even the cheapest CPU/GPU coolers.
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Huh? The fat PS3 (from those vids, and as seen in my pics) is famous for having one of the "meatiest" heatsinks and fans. The fan is massive (7" w/15 or 19 blades), and the heat sink is over 8" wide and over an inch thick. It even uses copper heat transfer bars.


100_0640.jpg



When the PS3 was first launched, it's heatsink was one of the first things that even hardcore PC users admired, but even now, just a quick search on New Egg in their Heatsink & Fan selections and you'll see not one of them comes close to the size and design of the fat PS3 heatsink. Most have 3" fans with only 5 or so blades, and a 4" wide heatsink.

The heat sink in my PC is about 1/4 the size of the PS3's.

I have not yet seen the one used in the slim models, so maybe that's changed, but then again the new slims use half the power and produce a lot less heat than my fat PS3 thanks to the change from the 90nm CPU and 90nm GPU to the latest 45nm CPU and 40nm GPU.

There is nothing "shoddy" about the design, hardware, and build of the PS3 as can be confirmed by just taking it apart. The weak link is the solder, which they had no choice but to use lead free solder. It's already been discovered that the cause of YLOD is the break down of the solder (which is why reflowing the chips fixes YLOD as long as the solder hasn't completely broken down), which plagues a lot of computers as well.

The common denominator appears to be non-lead based solder. Which is something that legally Sony can't do anything about, but computer manufacturers are legally allowed to use lead based solder... and those that do likely have a much longer lifespan.

The good news is, as I mentioned earlier, there are companies that can reball your PS3 chips and use lead based solder. From what I can tell, most that have had it done have never experienced YLOD again.

It's for this reason, if and when my old PS3 get YLOD again, I'll send it out to get reballed with lead based solder.





Solid Lifters
If I were you, I'd store the FAT 60GB PS3, with its original drive, and save it for the future. I think it will be a collectors item. Think how these things still command a premium price over all the other PS3s. Unless, you got other plans for it, already.
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That's a good suggestion. For now I'm going to keep using it, and will likely get it reballed should it get YLOD again, because it is my understanding that if you reflow the chips too many times you can permanently damage the chips. :nervous:
 
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Digital-Nitrate
Thirdly, based on all that use, and the fact that the problem with my PS3 is due to the lead-free solder breaking down over time, just like the 360, which by law they are forced to use because they are legally considered 'toys', and as such are not allowed to have any lead based products in them... as if some child is going to take a console apart and chew on the solder.... don't you just love lawyers?
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Please, please, please tell me you have a source for this. The head of the group responsible for lead inspections in children products is my former Congresswoman Anne Northup and a nice long letter might be in order.

Based on her appearance on Stossel, she seems to find these things overboard as well, but her hands are tied by law. She said that she is trying to get reports together on how the new regulations passed in the Chinese made toys lead scare went too far and is hurting business. I'm hopeful she is likely to listen to someone from her home state with a concern that she shares and she will have more influence than any kind of phone call from you or I alone could ever hope to create.

And I thought my only issue with these laws was how hard it made it to find used baby stuff.
 
Digital-Nitrate
Huh? The fat PS3 (from those vids, and as seen in my pics) is famous for having one of the "meatiest" heatsinks and fans. The fan is massive (7" w/15 or 19 blades), and the heat sink is over 8" wide and over an inch thick. It even uses copper heat transfer bars.
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They're called heat pipes. The pictures you posted aren't helping your argument. The heat pipes are only attached to the bottom layer of the heatsink and don't seem to run through all the fins on the cooler itself. Nothing meaty about the heatsink. It's flat, yeah a lot of surface area, which isn't being utilized it seems, but airflow and heat transfer are probably limited by the enclosure. Also, more blades doesn't equal better cooling, FYI. Seeing as we were comparing desktops and the PS3, no, the ps3 heat sink is not meaty, it's just enough for what it needs to do.
 
Your direct quote was:

dave_sz
With the ps3 as you see int he vids, you have one big fan and heatsinks that are nowhere as meaty as even the cheapest CPU/GPU coolers.
Click to expand...

I showed you a pic of the heat sink, it's dimensions, and links to all the heatsinks currently for sale on New Egg that clearly show the nearly four year old PS3 heatsink is far "meatier" than any of those.

So maybe you should show some of these so-called cheapest CPU/GPU coolers that are so much "meatier" than the PS3, because so far your claim isn't holding up to scrutiny.

What is up with all the bloody hyperbole. *sigh*
 
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Digital-Nitrate, is your ps3 that was fixed by the guy still working? I just got the YLOD and I would send it to Sony except GT5 is almost here and I just can't wait for 6 weeks.
 
Digital-Nitrate
My PS3 is still working, but I decided to get the new 2101a model PS3 slim with the 40nm GPU.

Having an additional PS3 will come in handy, especially as much use as it gets among my wife and kids these days. No more waiting to use it. 👍

Here is the new addition (tried to replicate the same shot as the one I took of my first PS3):
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Well it's been nearly a year since my 2006 60GB/320GB PS3 (CECH-A01) PS3 got the dreaded YLOD, but amazingly the reflow work I had done back in May has kept it running smoothly since May. However, since getting the new slim PS3 (CECH-2101A), we use the old one a lot less than before.

Unfortunately, now I have a new problem with the old PS3. Last week the kids were playing on the slim and my wife and I wanted to watch a blu-ray so we booted up the old PS3 and put in the movie. It loaded the disc into the drive perfectly normally, but the disc icon would never pop up in the XMB.

At first I thought maybe there was something wrong with the disc, but the surface was in mint condition, and after putting in a different blu-ray disc it's icon also would not pop up.

This got me thinking that maybe the blue diode went bad, so to test this I put in a DVD, but it's icon also would not pop up.

So I decided to take the drive apart, clean the laser pickup, and make sure all the ribbon cables and connectors were properly connected:


100_2628-1.jpg



After putting everything back together, it still would not recognize any disc when loaded.

I suppose my next step is to buy a replacement drive off the internet.

Anyone else experience anything like this before, and what did you end up having to do to fix it?


UPDATE:

I did a search on Sony's PS3 Support Knowledge Center, and one recommendation was to restore the file system from the Safe Mode menu.

I went ahead and tried that, and while it did find some kind of error in the file system and successfully repaired it, unfortunately it did not fix the issue I am having with discs not being recognized by the drive.
 
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When my PS3 went in for warranty repair(1-year factory warranty), it was for this. Basically, everything worked fine, except it wouldn't recognize Blu-ray or DVD discs, games or movies.

I never found out, as it was factory warranty repair, and they just fixed it, never told me what the problem was.
 
My 3rd PS3 in less than a year has just died. First one the blu-ray drive died, 2nd one kept overheating within a few minutes and always ran the fan on turbo mode, and now, the YLOD! Does this ruin my 500GB HDD?
 
Paulie
My 3rd PS3 in less than a year has just died. First one the blu-ray drive died, 2nd one kept overheating within a few minutes and always ran the fan on turbo mode, and now, the YLOD! Does this ruin my 500GB HDD?
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The HDD will still be fine. The data it holds may be lost unless you did a backup or can fix your current system at least long enough to back it up.
 
Yeah, thanks, I'm going to try and get Sony to fix this one, they need to get my GT5 disc out for me anyway.:rolleyes:
 
Paulie
My 3rd PS3 in less than a year has just died. First one the blu-ray drive died, 2nd one kept overheating within a few minutes and always ran the fan on turbo mode, and now, the YLOD! Does this ruin my 500GB HDD?
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Wow three in a year, that's some terrible reliability. Mine died after a year (Blu Ray Drive), wouldn't be surprised if it also gets YLOD one day :yuck:
 
Well, my PS3 kicked the bucket today with my GT5 disc still in it... Had it since Dec. 2007... Going to see if I can reflow it myself with the help of the videos in this thread... If that doesnt work is there a way to hack the CD out of it?
 
Blitz187
Well, my PS3 kicked the bucket today with my GT5 disc still in it... Had it since Dec. 2007... Going to see if I can reflow it myself with the help of the videos in this thread... If that doesnt work is there a way to hack the CD out of it?
Click to expand...

The Blu-ray drive is on top when you remove the cover from the PS3, in fact it is one of the first things you remove. Be extremely careful with the ribbon cable connectors!!!! Take your time releasing them through the disassembly of the PS3. There are some You Tube videos on taking the blu-ray apart, not to hard. Try doing the reflow first before disassembly of the Blu-ray Drive. Good Luck!
 
Digital-Nitrate
I don't get worked up over YLOD stories, even tho it's happened to me. After all, of all the people I know personally that own a PS3, and that's quite a few, I'm the only one that has experienced YLOD. Yes, you can find lots of people online, just like I have that are happy to share the fact that their PS3 died, but considering over 35 million have been sold, even if just 10% did, that's still 3.5 million dead PS3s, and if only 10% of those with a dead PS3 posted about it, that's still 350,000 different people posting... I think you would have a very hard time even finding a few thousand, let alone a few hundred thousand, let alone a few million different people posting that there PS3 died.

Not only that, but it's the Internet... I don't think anyone that follows this stuff would even attempt to suggest that everyone that says their PS3 died is telling the truth. After all, there is no shortage of console fanboy/girls and their opposing haters that seem to get a kick out of saying things that are not true to make one console appear better or inferior to another.

So my PS3 got YLOD... I'm not losing any sleep over it, things like this happen. After all, as anyone that followed my shared PS3 experiences over the last three and a half years knows that my poor PS3 has not only logged thousands of hours, played well over a hundred Blu-ray movies, played over a hundred games, countless hours in Home (my wife is hooked), abused by hordes of little kids high on sugar, hundreds of hours of Folding@Home, countless times using the web browser to check mail, read news, check GTP, wiki, IMDB, metacritic, YouTube, etc., swapped out for larger hard drives three times, easily downloaded more than a terabyte of data, lots of games, DLC, videos, etc.

Frankly, I'm amazed my PS3's connectors hadn't gone bad considering the countless times we have had to unplug and reconnected all the cables each time we move the PS3 to the home theater, game room, family room, even our bedroom. It seems it's always on the move depending on who is using it and for what reason.

Not only that, but we also took it with us on many family trips, so it has also logged a lot of travel miles as well.

And I am embarrassed to admit... over these last three and a half years I never once cleaned out all the dust that had accumulated inside until after this happened. :guilty:



However, I certainly hope I am able to get it fixed, and based on the research that I have done, it seems many people have been able to get theirs fixed, especially those that had their CPU and GPU chips professionally reballed. 👍
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How is easy is it for for a technically in-capable person to take it apart enough just to get the dust out?? I have 40Gb and she had served me well over the years but every dog has their day.
 
Blitz187
Well, my PS3 kicked the bucket today with my GT5 disc still in it... Had it since Dec. 2007... Going to see if I can reflow it myself with the help of the videos in this thread... If that doesnt work is there a way to hack the CD out of it?
Click to expand...

A paper clip unfolded and then given a slight hook on the end fished out one of my disc's when **** hit the fan, but i dunno whether to recommend as i might have scratched the laser in the process but all is well and good and of course the ps3 fired back up when i got the disc out cos there was 3 discs inside! Bloody kid's jamming anything they can in there.
Also depending how much dead your PS3 is you can hold it upside down and hold the EJECt button down for 5-10 sec's and it should do a Forced Ejection. ( Holding upside down maybe un-neccessary)
 
sk0pe
Also depending how much dead your PS3 is you can hold it upside down and hold the EJECt button down for 5-10 sec's and it should do a Forced Ejection. ( Holding upside down maybe un-neccessary)
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1. Shut down the system by flipping the power switch in the back off.
2. Hold down the eject disc button.
3. While still holding down the eject button, flip the power switch to turn back on your PS3.
4. When the green light comes on, wait a few seconds then tap the eject button a couple times. The fan will run on full power and the disc will eject.

Apparently...
 
50/50 on my reflow success so far. I bought a couple of units from ebay on the cheap. The first being a 40Gb which now works fine and is being on-sold for profit (I am including a 3 month warranty on the proviso that they run it horizontally), however the second unit I need to have another crack at it (60Gb original) as the reflow didn't work.
One thing I found odd was the 60Gb didn't have an IHS on the main processor. When I did the 40Gb fat, it had an IHS on both processors. Worst case is that if I can't get the 60Gb going at least I have a number of parts to sell off 👍

@sk0pe: as long as you have the T10 torx bit (with open centre (security type)) to undo the very first screw to slide the lid off, the rest is simple. Heck, they have => pointing to each important screw hole per level :lol:

Worst case is you can draw pictures of the layout if you really have too. Some screws are longer than others but doesn't take much to work out.
 
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Well the YLod finally caught up with me, after 3 years the 40gb gave up the ghost. Looks as GILSKY tutorial will be real informative.

At this point Just waiting on the heat gun, heat sink compound & No clean flux, I've ordered from Ebay.:crazy:
 
Just fixed the ylod on my 80gb from dec. 07. Mostly used gilskys method and guide however only heated the gpu side of the board for about 3 min @ ~500F. So far everything is going well with about 5 hours on it, at least i have been able to backup some saves and get the gt5 disk out. Tonight I am going to try another friends 80gb ylod.

On a side note this is my third ps3 that has had some sort of hardware issue since it was purchased. First one was returned to the store within 30 days due to the blue ray freezing, second brand new one had the same issue after about 6 mos. and was sent in to sony for warrenty repair, and now the 3rd with the ylod after 3 1/2 years of moderate use.

Dont know if i really believe the whole only ~1% faulty argument some people state. Besides my issue, I have 3 friends who have each been through at least 2 ps3's due to the ylod or the old blue ray issue.
 

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