LOG: PS3 YLOD Fix

[trentlad]

THE PREMISE:
I had offered to fix a PS3 that suffered from the YLOD (Yellow Light Of Death) without any prior knowledge of it's causes or recommended fixes. Being the EE that I am, I'm always up for a little electronics challenge.

The PS3 that I repaired was an original launch release, purchased in November 2006 for over $600 and died with the YLOD on June 2010.

There seem to be many sites with sporadic links and sources to good sites so since I'm putting in a lot of effort finding this information I wanted to log the elements that helped me fix the YLOD and share the information so you can fix yours too.

This PS3 was fixed from YLOD on July 3rd 2010 and is still running strong.


EDIT: Please feel free to add decent links/videos and offer sound advice that you have found from personal experience or read elsewhere.

 

[trentlad]

I initially tried take a non-intrusive approach, contacting the console vendor to see if they would take a return and also Sony to see what they could offer. The vendor offered to purchase the YLOD console for $120 ($200 - $80 refurb cost due to YLOD) and Sony asked for almost $200 to repair the item with only 90 day warranty on the repair.

These two options don't really work. If I sell the console to the vendor then I loose all the data and the disc that's trapped within. After a lot of research I've found many claming that their Sony repaired consoles went back to the YLOD after only a few months. Pair that with the fact you can buy a brand spanking new console for a little more... completely worthless.

I found a few posts about owners sending their PS3s back to Sony to repair and warned to make sure you only send the console itself, because that's all they need. Additional cables and controllers may not find their way back to you. My game store also mentioned that I should remove the HDD before sending the console back to Sony because there have been many cases of Sony sending consoles back with wiped HDDs.

 

[trentlad]

Unfortunately there are several items on the HDD that are irreplaceable (graduation photos, purchased music, saved games, etc) and the data must be retrieved.

After researching methods to backup the HDD, it turns out that only the source console can access the data. My intention was to use Acronis to take an image of the HDD and then transfer the image to a new PS3 HDD. This will not work. In fact, I connected the SATA 2.5" HDD to my rig and it found the drive but requested to format due to the current format being unrecognisable. After opening 'Disk Management' I could see the drive but it was not accessible.

I also found posts of others literally swapping their dead PS3 HDD's into newly purchased PS3's and the console asked to perform a reformat.

So I've got absolutely no way to access the data other than by repairing the console and then transferring the data when it's up and running.

 

[trentlad]

As for the trapped disc, there are two methods I've found but non of which work for the launch model PS3.

PS3 Slim - Remove the HDD and that reveals a manual eject screw, when turned will eject the disc.

PS3 40GB - There is a fan test method that works only on 40Gb models shown in the video below.

I also found posts about people successfully fishing their discs out with a pair of tweezers. A member of staff at my local game store had mastered a method of using two paper clips fashioned to go into the drive slot and lift the disc and pull out. Both sounded a little too reckless for both the disc and the drive.

 

[andshrew]

Unfortunately there are several items on the HDD that are irreplaceable (graduation photos, purchased music, saved games, etc) and the data must be retrieved.

After researching methods to backup the HDD, it turns out that only the source console can access the data. My intention was to use Acronis to take an image of the HDD and then transfer the image to a new PS3 HDD. This will not work. In fact, I connected the SATA 2.5" HDD to my rig and it found the drive but requested to format due to the current format being unrecognisable. After opening 'Disk Management' I could see the drive but it was not accessible.

I also found posts of others literally swapping their dead PS3 HDD's into newly purchased PS3's and the console asked to perform a reformat.

So I've got absolutely no way to access the data other than by repairing the console and then transferring the data when it's up and running.

Your best bet to get the data is to try one of the temporary fixes and hope it gives you enough time to boot the system and copy off what you need - there's plenty of information on Google for this. Even if you send to Sony for a repair any data on the machine will be lost. In future don't store irreplaceable files in proprietary file systems.

 

[trentlad]

After considering all this and reading through TTDegs options, I've got no choice but to repair this console. It's the most cost efficient, fastest chance of getting my data and disc back. Which is a shame because once you remove the warranty seal sticker, Sony will still accept the console for a refurbish (source) but your game store will not buy it from you.

I was humbled by the fact that my game store would buy a YLOD PS3 for so much money. There were many people talking about how they scammed their stores by using the 'towel around the PS3 and shooting a hair dryer into the vents for 20 mins" method, which would get the system working for a few hours (enough to back up data and sell it as a working console to a game shop). There were others that used a hairdryer to heat up the warranty seal and take a blade to remove it, then stick it to wax paper and disassembled the system, repaired it and put the sticker back on so they weren't hindered by the options lost after breaking the seal.

I like my local game store, I've bought so many decent releases and have been given some great advice from them. Doing something like this would only hurt the game store. I saw posts discussing that the game store would offer 30 day warranty on pre-owned consoles so that's a piece of mind for these scammers. What if it's an early purchased birthday/Christmas present and it breaks after that warranty, or even if it does get taken back during warranty then the game store is at a loss.

 

[ZG002]

Dude. Just strip it down and give it some heat gun treatment. This doesn't always work.. but is worth a shot! If it's proper fubar then strip it down again and take the drive out. you can strip the drive down and get the disc back easily enough.

 

[trentlad]

It appears that there are a few repair options but non seem to last for more than a few months. One of the difficulties when researching this was finding out how long a fix would last, you'd find elated responses that a method worked but then several more saying "yeah I've fixed mine about 5 times now and...."

So it looks like the best bet is to:
1. Attempt a recommended repair that seems to get the longest results.
2. Purchase a brand new PS3.
3. Pair the two consoles together and XBM transfer all the data from the YLOD fixed to the new.

Looks like the XMB direct transfer from one console to another is the best sure fire way to get everything transferred.

Other methods include connecting a USB drive to the YLOD fixed console and copying the data over using the backup method. Here's a useful explination of that method I found:

I did the exact same thing you want to do, only I transferred my data from my 40GB PS3 to a 320GB PS3. You can't just swap the hard drives out as each time a new drive is put in, it gets formatted and all the data inside becomes deleted.

Get a external hard drive thats formatted to FAT32 (If your gonna get a new external hard drive, its worth asking the people in the store if its FAT32 before you buy) and then connect it to the PS3 via the USB ports.

Once its connected, go to the XMB and go to Settings (2nd from left after the Users). Scroll down to "System Settings" and choose "Backup Utility". Click on that and then choose to backup your data. It should ask you where you want to backup your data and provided that your External HDD is formatted to FAT32 and connected properly to the PS3, it should be recognised. Choose that external HDD and then it should start to make a backup. This can take some time, depending on how much stuff you have on your PS3.

Once you have all your data onto your external HDD, connect that with your new PS3 Slim. Go to the XMB and then the same thing "Settings" -> "System Settings" -> "Backup Utility" but this time instead of choosing to backup, choose "Restore". The PS3 will recognise the external HDD and then you choose the data that is backed up on it. Its a good idea to leave the external HDD empty apart from the backed up data. The backed up data will come up as numbers which is the date and time you backed it up on. Choose that file and then, bobs your uncle, your old data will be saved onto your new PS3 slim.

Source

 

[Senture]

In fact, I connected the SATA 2.5" HDD to my rig and it found the drive but requested to format due to the current format being unrecognisable. After opening 'Disk Management' I could see the drive but it was not accessible.

I hate to be the bad news guy but doing that has taken out all the data on the drive. I made the mistake of trying this on my old 40GB drive and I hit the same wall you did, except for when I put the HDD back into the PS3, it required a format.

 

[trentlad]

So looking into repairs.

TOWEL & HAIR DRYER FIX:
I've seen a ton of posts mention this towel and hair dryer fix, which is especially popular because you don't have to open the console and destroy the warranty seal... and even a clueless kid can do it. I've also seem too many posts saying that this can irreparably damage your console, so it can work for a few hours but once it breaks you can't get it working ever again. This isn't the fix for me, but if you want to chance it you might get enough time for it to turn on and backup the data before it dies forever.

 

[trentlad]

I hate to be the bad news guy but doing that has taken out all the data on the drive. I made the mistake of trying this on my old 40GB drive and I hit the same wall you did, except for when I put the HDD back into the PS3, it required a format.

Yeah I did read your post in the other thread (I checked all three pages of results on OcUK), but only after connecting it.

SENTURE: When you connected your PS2 HDD to your PC, did you see a message window pop up and ask you to change something on your HDD to view the contents? Sorry I dont have more detail about that message but it was a very vague message and it did not emply it would make alterations to the data on the HDD.

I had that message pop up and I declined. I'd be very surprised if the data is now lost forever.

SENTURE: Did you find any more info about why your HDD was affect by simply connecting it to your PC?

 

[trentlad]

THE CAUSE FOR YLOD:
Initially it looked as though it could be a number of reasons for the YLOD but it's very odd that the exact same fix seems to be the cure for all YLOD consoles. Some people have said that the HDD failure can cause it only for that to be dispelled by another poster.

The common quote is "YLOD is an over heating issue that causes a hardware malfunction." Turns out that the main issue is down to cracks in the solder. Back in the day we used to use solder that contained lead, but in current years (due to health and safety) it's very uncommon to use solder containing lead.

When the PS3 hardware heats up the solder expands ever so slightly (as any metal does) and when it cools down it contracts. This repetitious expansion and contraction is handled fine with leaded solder but the lead free solder will diminish and cracks will form after time.

These extreme heat methods aim to get the solder to a melting point, this process is called reflow. Lead free solder melts at a slightly higher temperature so around 300 oF is where you'll start see melting (regular solder is at about 120 oC). The problem is that when heating, these chips are pushed very close to their maximum heat rating so it's very risky. So heating to a lower temperature is the safer way but only causes the solder to melt slightly and produce a partial connection, which will fail in a relatively short period.

Source

There is also the issue of flux contained in solder. Flux acts as a lubricant for the solder and allows it to attach to the pads with a much cleaner and better spread. Every time you reflow solder you burn off a little of the flux contained inside the solder, so applying flux before starting your reflow is also going to help with how long the fix lasts.

This explains why the process works but only for a certain duration of time.

 

[trentlad]

OVEN REFLOW:
I've seen others use an oven set at a particular temperature and place the main motherboard in there for a duration of time. The video below shows how in six steps but surely the plastic plastic components on his motherboard were completely distorted after this. I don't see it as a good option.

 

[trentlad]

GILKSY REFLOW + FLUX + CLAMP BEND (THE NUMBER ONE CHOICE):
So it looks like many have decided to follow Gilksy's method and have had great results. He's really done a fantastic job of explaining how to take apart your system and showing exactly which screws and how to lift to protect ribbon cables.

His six part guide is also accompanied by a PDF but what most posters miss is the additional flux and clamp bending video. I've inserted the flux + clamp bend tutorial at the correct spot in the guide videos below because you need to perform this before you start your reflow.

Part 1:

Part 2:

FLUX AND CLAMP BEND:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Additional info not in the guide (source):

PS3 MoBo Reflow Guide

This will only fix certain motherboard issues. This fix will solve YLOD issues cased by the system getting so hot the CPU / GPU or direct chipsets get shifted. This fix uses a heat gun to heat up the CPU / GPU and direct chipsets and allows them to fall back in place.

I used a standard heat gun (dual, High, Low settings). Check the temp on it though. You want it around 700-750 degrees Fahrenheit.

Some Additional Tips Not In The Guide:

* If you have worked on PCs this shouldn't be that hard. If you have worked on Notebooks, you shouldn't find the PS3 to be very difficult at all. Most notebook chassis are far more tedious then the PS3's.
* DOWNLOAD THE GILKSY GUIDE!!!! Read the guide a couple of times. Note the manner in which the PS3 is sitting in each photo.
* Have the guide open on your notebook or PC as you work. Otherwise print it out.
* Make sure you have enough time to take it apart and put it back together. It will take about an hour maybe an hour and a half. You don't want to take it apart then try to put it back together the next morning.
* Make sure you have a clean work area. With PLENTY OF LIGHT, I used my kitchen counter.
* Have places to sit parts out of the way.
* Have the right tools, you don't want to strip every screw.
* Get a ground strap in addition to the tools outlined.
* Have several containers to keep the screws in, one for each level of "disassembly" is what I used.
* Careful getting the first rubber foot off, I trashed mine.
* Keep track of where the coarse threaded vs. fine threaded screws come from. The coarse threaded screws generally screw directly into the plastic chassis.
* Clean the pieces as you disassemble the PS3, a vacuum with a hose attachment and canned air work great. Stubborn dust bunnies may require a paper towel dampened with alcohol.
* Keep the work area clean as you work. Be careful not to vacuum any screws. This will insure no dust (or pet hair) get into the new thermal CPU compound which could severely effect it's performance.
* When you get inside the system get a sniff of your power supply, if it smells burnt, this fix MAY not work.
* A few minor steps are missing from the guide, but they are fairly easy to figure out.
* Careful with the ribbon cables, each one has a clip to hold them on. Some release the opposite way of others.
* Righty tighty, lefty loosey!
* When assembling the PS3 make sure you have all the cables where they should be as you put it together. You don't want to have to take it back apart a bit to get a cable where it's supposed to be. Be sure ports meet the port-holes as they are supposed to. Over all everything should have a tight fit.
* When you put the screws back in you just need to secure everything, you aren't entering a strongman contest. Over torquing these screws may result in a funny looking PS3.


DOWNLOAD: YLOD fix.pdf

There are also excellent written instructions here from Gilksy (pictures in the linked page).

A few PS3 owners have suffered a issue known as the Yellow Light of Death (YLoD). Gilksy1 has found a fix for this, and the fix is very similar to that of the Xbox 360 RRoD (requires use of heatgun). This method has promised to fix your YLoD PS3 and make it run cooler than before.

MOTHER BOARD REPAIR GUIDE

Disclaimer: please be advised if your ps3 is still in warranty on then send it back do not attempt this repair. The following repair is for faulty mother boards only and will not repair power supply issues or disc read errors. In following this guide I do not guarantee you will fix your ps3 and by attempting this repair YOU take full responsibility for any loss of hardware due to damage caused by following this guide!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so if you’re reading this then you have experienced one of the worst things that can happen to your ps3!!!!!!!! So follow these steps and let’s get you back up and running!!!

Tools needed

Heat gun (temperature controlled preferably).
Isopropyl alcohol (acquire from chemist).
Vacuum cleaner or compressed air blower.
Phillips screw driver.
Flat blade screw driver or slotted torx bit.

Let’s begin!
1. Remove warranty sticker and rubber foot that’s positioned above hard drive bay. This will invalidate any warranty.
2. Using a small flat blade screw driver or slotted torx bit, unscrew cover plate screw. See below.
Locate and unscrew cover plate screws.

Locate and unscrew cover plate screws.

3. Slide cover plate towards the left until it stops and lift off.
4. Remove all Phillips screws marked noting size and position. See below.
Note the size and position of all screws, and remove them.

Note the size and position of all screws, and remove them.

5. Hinge case towards you until disengaged and then tilt towards the left. See below.
Remove case.

Remove case.

6. Remove ribbon cable by carefully lifting black part of connector (locking tab).
Remove ribbon cable.

Remove ribbon cable.

7. Lift/tilt blue ray drive towards the right whilst disconnecting power cable and the large ribbon (lift tab) underneath. See below.
Lift blue ray drive.

Lift blue ray drive.

8. Remove 5 screws and the earth wire screw on psu, and unplug connector plug. Before removal of psu unplug small bnc connector (black
wire) and remove tape on side of psu, now lift off psu. See below.
Lift PSU.

Lift PSU.

9. Now remove the wide ribbon from connector (lift tab) unscrew the four screws on the Bluetooth board and remove. See below.
Remove bluetooth board.

Remove bluetooth board.

10. Remove hard drive cover. See below.
HDD cover.

HDD cover.

11. Unscrew blue hard drive screw and disengage harddrive by sliding towards gap in the bay. See below.
Remove HDD.

Remove HDD.

12. Unscrew 4 screws holding the bracket, on/off andeject control panel.Remove small ribbon (lift tab) and remove control panel.

13. Unscrew 8 screws, see below.
Remove screws.

Remove screws.

14. Lift enclosure out of plastic base.

15. Now unclip black rear panel and remove.

16. Unscrew 4 screws and remove sprung brackets, see below.
Remove sprung brackets.

Remove sprung brackets.

17. Lift of metal cover plate whilst allowing ribbons to pass through gaps in plate without damage, see below.
(Taking note where heat sink rubbers are positioned).

Remove cover plate.

Remove cover plate.

18. Supporting fan assembly, turn board over, remove
fan power connector and fan, see below.
Remove fan.

Remove fan.

19. Remove 2 screws holding plate to hard drive connector and unplug battery connector.
Now remove plate. See below.
Remove plate.

Remove plate.

20. Clean off old heat sink compound from the 2 main processors using Isopropyl alcohol making sure all traces of the old heat sink compound has gone.

21. Clean both touch plates on bottom of fan/heat sink assembly with Isopropyl alcohol until all traces of the old heat sink compound has gone.

22. Now using a vacuum cleaner or compressed air blower get rid of all dust build up in the case and on all component parts of the ps3 (pay special attention to thefan assembly and heat sink fins(MUST BE CLEAR OF DUST).

23. Once cleaned you should now have a nice pile ofbits that looks something like this, see below.
Clean PS3.

Clean PS3.

24. Check the top metal cover plate (underside) for burn-in marks, as you can see below this ps3 got veryhot before it yloded!
Burn-in marks.

Burn-in marks.

25. Place the ps3 mother board on a flat heat resistivesurface (kitchen work top or melamine shelf will be fine).

26. Turn heat gun on and set temperature to 350 degand the fan speed to low (to high and it will move thesurface mount bits). Allow gun to get up to temperature beforecontinuing!!!!

27. Using a circular motion hold heat gun over areasoutlined below (keep heat gun an inch aboveboard/components at all times).

28. CPU side first.

29. After 15 to 20 seconds move onto the next area.

30. Once all marked areas have been heated/reflowedon the mother board LEAVE for at least 10 to 15minutes to cool.(DO NOT MOVE MOTHER BOARD WHILE COOLING).

31. A popping noise may be heard during cooling, don’tworry this is normal.

32. NON CPU side.

33. After 10 to 15 seconds move onto the next area.

34. Once all marked areas have been heated/reflowedon the mother board LEAVE for at least 10 to 15minutes to cool.(DO NOT MOVE MOTHER BOARD WHILE COOLING).

35. A popping noise may be heard during cooling don’tworry this is normal.
Heat sink compound.

Heat sink compound.

Heat sink compound still on in this picture, remove before reflowing.

Heat sink compound removed.

Heat sink compound removed.

Heat sink rubber pads still on in this picture remove before reflowing also hold ribbons out of way while reflowing;

Congratulations!! You have just repaired you’re yloded ps3 mother board.

35. Now its time to apply new heat sink compound tothe 2 processors, when doing this its always best tofollow the manufacturers instructions but I believe theprocess is the same with all types (please checki nstructions that come with paste), before continuing.

36. The paste I am using is called AKASA 450 it’s asilver based compound with a thermal conductivity of 9.24w/m deg c and an operating range of 0 to 200 degc.You can buy it from most pc shops but I get mine frommy local ****** ( I have been told that there is a bettercompound on the market called arctic silver but I haven’ttried it as yet so the choice is yours).

37. Use syringe supplied and dispense a small worm ofcompound from top to bottom on the left hand side ofprocessor chip, now using credit card supplied spreadcompound evenly and thinly over processor face (to muchis bad and not enough is also bad) the ideal amount iswhen you can almost see through the paste.

38. Now repeat on the other processor.
Paste over processor.

Paste over processor.

NOW IT IS TIME TO REASEMBLE THE PS3. RETRACE YOUR STEP IN REVERSE TO REBUILD MAKING SURE ALL RIBBON CABLES HAVE BEEN FULLY INSTERTED INTO CONNECTORS AND LOCKED DOWN IE. (TABS).

This tutorial was made by Collin Gilks.

 

[trentlad]

Many people seem to think the BGA (Ball Grid Array) processors are within the aluminum housing. It turns out that this aluminum is a plate covering the chips below with thermal paste between.

I tried to intentionally remove this plate but it's on really tight and wouldn't budge so I'll skip that 'extra sure' step.

 

[trentlad]

Another pointer:

This fix will solve YLOD issues cased by the system getting so hot the CPU / GPU or direct chipsets get shifted.

That makes me think it's a bad idea to ever have the PS3 standing upright. I think it would be best to keep it lying flat on its side so the motherboard is kept as flat as possible.

 

[trentlad]

Here's a few pictures of where I've got so far. All parts have been dismantled and hoovered out plus I've just finished removing the thermal paste from everywhere too. Next will be the heat gun that can hit 700 oF... gotta buy one today.

 

[trentlad]

NYKO INTERCOOLER:
It looks like buying one of these might be a wise purchase too. They seem to be pretty cheap but very loud.

 

[Senture]

SENTURE: When you connected your PS2 HDD to your PC, did you see a message window pop up and ask you to change something on your HDD to view the contents? Sorry I dont have more detail about that message but it was a very vague message and it did not emply it would make alterations to the data on the HDD.

I had that message pop up and I declined. I'd be very surprised if the data is now lost forever.

I was running Windows Server 2008 at that time which requires manual administration of hard drives through the management console. It showed up as an unallocated RAW partition so I left it alone and put it back in the PS3.

SENTURE: Did you find any more info about why your HDD was affect by simply connecting it to your PC?

Yes. The data on the drive is signed specific to the console that created it. Using that drive in any other device alters the signature causing the source PS3 to reject its state and require a format.

 

[Alrik]

NYKO INTERCOOLER:
It looks like buying one of these might be a wise purchase too. They seem to be pretty cheap but very loud.

There is a key word in there that I would pay attention to.

There has also been some complaints that they actually do more bad then good, which range from messing up the airflow and also drawing too much power since they use the same power source as the console so the console isn't getting as much power as it normally would. I've also seen pictures of the 360 version where it has burned the plastic around the AC power slot on the console so the plastic is brown and sometimes melted.