YLOD fix help

[Coop]

Had my first YLOD the other day whilst trying out the new Max Payne fix.

I should have known it was coming because over the last couple of weeks the PS3 has been turning itself off after about 20 minutes of play.

The PS3 is the old 80gb phat which i have had for a few years so not done bad out of it.

I have spent the last couple of days researching various guides which include stripping the PS3 and using a heat gun on the RSX chip plus replacing the thermal paste on the chips.

I have seen people putting the motherboard in the oven which sounds a little extreme.

I gather it is the solder that comes free on the RSX chip which causes the problem and my soldering skills are pretty decent so wondering for people who have fixed their YLOD what they feel is the best method to achieve the best results and possibly a longer fix.

[AS692]

Had my first YLOD the other day whilst trying out the new Max Payne fix.

I should have known it was coming because over the last couple of weeks the PS3 has been turning itself off after about 20 minutes of play.

The PS3 is the old 80gb phat which i have had for a few years so not done bad out of it.

I have spent the last couple of days researching various guides which include stripping the PS3 and using a heat gun on the RSX chip plus replacing the thermal paste on the chips.

I have seen people putting the motherboard in the oven which sounds a little extreme.

I gather it is the solder that comes free on the RSX chip which causes the problem and my soldering skills are pretty decent so wondering for people who have fixed their YLOD what they feel is the best method to achieve the best results and possibly a longer fix.

The only long term fix is to have the GPU reballed with leaded solder. Don't attempt to reflow the solder with a heat gun or oven as it will not last long (days or hours) and you run the risk of breaking your PS3. The solder Sony uses is lead free and cracks again causing a YLOD so this is why it's better to go for leaded solder.

It's not cheap having a reball but I had this done and it also included fitting a brand new GPU so the paste under the heatspreader is new + new paste on the heat sinks.

This is the best way to go for a long term fix

[acab]

there are some things you can do .. the 80 GB model is not as dangerous regarding ylods as the 40 gb .. but as AS692 said most fixes are not permanent .. but if you do it right it will atleast give you 6 more months or more ..

First of all .. forget about the oven method !!!!! dont do it !! it will ruin the oven because of the fumes that can sersly damage your health when cooking in the same oven afterwards ..

just strip your ps3 down to the mobo .. and remove the heatsink off the rsx chip .. make sure its the rsx chip and not the cell .. removing the heatsink from cellBE can damage your ps3 as it is glued very tight ..


now cover your MOBO with aluminium foil except the rsx ..



and clean the chip using Kolophonium and Isopropanol ..


now take a heatgun ( 300°C and 400 l/min ) and circle with it 1-2 cm from the chip .. 15 sec upside 15 sec downside of the chip for like 1.5 minutes .. this should rebail the solder of the chips ..

(dont try to start your console yet)

let it cool down and put new thermal compound on the chip, heatsinks and the heatsinks on the fan
i use arctic silver .. its by far the best .. its a little bit more expensive but worth every penny ..

now put your ps3 back together (dont forget to plug the fans) and you are good to go ..
if done right the ps3 should work for a long time when it gets cleaned every now and then ..

good luck

[Coop]

Thanks for the help guys.

To be honest a temp fix is better then nothing and the price of the PS3 has come down recently so not worth me paying big bucks to have it reballed by someone.

Appreciate the help/advice.