PS3 Yellow light of death yesterday - Fixed Today!

skippi90 said:
I wouldn't have the spheres to even attempt this...
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Why not? If your console is out of warranty and dead anyway, what could you possibly lose? Aside from a few quid by selling it on an auction site as a knackered console I guess...but even then the bits that aren't trashed (ie. BD drive) can still fetch some cash.
 
The reason is because you have to get to the inner most BGA solder and that's hard to get warm. You'll get the solder to slightly melt but not fully. So it's tough trying to find a happy medium of properly heating up the solder in the inner most BGA and not over heating the solder in the outermost BGA.
 
My brother and I fixed his 60gb console yesterday. Stripped it down, which took the longest time (just over an hour) and cleaned it all up. Used an old heat gun which probably got up to about 250-300c at a push. Spent about 7 mins in all over the chips and with a bit of board warming up too.

Re-assembled, fired it up, worked a treat. Backed it up and got his disc out, then tried F1 2010 when it seemed stable. Played on it for a good 20 mins with no issue, though it needs a proper session to check. He's bought a slim now so I think he'll just sell it on.
 
That's pretty much exactly what you guys should have done. The fix isn't permanent so it's best to fix, backup, restore to a new console, then use the zombie PS3 as a mess about.

If you weren't able to perform a full restore, you can connect the two PS3's together with a crossover cable (maybe regular works... one or the other) and perform a full system backup.
 
We attempted this on a friends ps3 60gb but first fix didn't last very long. Second attempt is still going strong a fair few months later. I guess at the end of the day its a ticking time bomb, but it saved him £130 to sony and £200+ for a slim so all good!
 
Mine is still ok "touch wood" but I'm always on the look out now for a cheap slim bundle.

The thought of it packing up again is always in the back of my mind when playing games. At the end of the day it could last a day or it could last 6 months there is just no way of knowing but it's a risk worth taking if you can't afford a new console.


I've never had much success with the backup and restore using an external disk. I upgraded from a 160gb to 320gb disk but it took ages and eventually hung at around 85% I ended up restoring that and although my saves and most my things were there I obviously had some corrupt data which meant re downloading some games etc.

I wasn't aware of being able to do it over a network cable with 2 consoles though.
 
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To be fair it was never too bad and seems just the same to me but I have heard lots of stories about noisey PS3's. It's very likely that the new compound has helped on your friends though and probably removing fluff from the heatsink.
 
The heatsink itself was lagged in dust when we used compressed air to blow it out. So you're possibly correct about it. The system itself just seems to stay cooler a damn sight longer than it did before.
 
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