Official Hardware Maintenance Thread - YLOD, RSOD, DRE, and other known issues
Intro
This thread is dedicated to PS3 owners who have fallen victim to the Yellow Light of Death (YLOD). Post all related issues and queries here.
Background
The YLOD is a major hardware failure for the PlayStation 3. It is indicated by a yellow light on the front panel LED, rendering the console incapable of booting up. A hard reset does not solve the issue, as it inevitably results in a series of blinking red lights on the front panel LED, before returning to the to the YLOD state of inactivity.
The hardware failure is caused by either/or of two things:
According to the PlayStation 3 owner's manual, the flashing red light indicates an overheat. But the manual also states that the PS3 can be restarted (once cooled down) without any further problems (this is, of course, a false statement). Here is an image of the manual stating this interesting fact (Page 13 of 60GB model CECHA01):
1-How to Fix it
This method is oddly familiar to the Xbox 360 RRoD repair and requires you to open your PS3 and need a heat gun. You can view the PDF tutorial via the download link below:
http://forums.maxconsole.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=23515&d=1236711444
The individual who wrote that tutorial is known as Gilksy. He also made a couple of videos to go with it:
2-How to Fix it
Since we see quite often people here in forums asking for help regarding YLOD, I wanted share my alternative method for repairing YLOD since I consider it to be easier and it doesn't require complete dissassembly. This method has also worked for GLOD(green light of death - all lights seem normal but no video/audio output and controllers won't sync). I have sent email to gilksy some time ago to get my method to his guide, but since he hasn't replied I decided to post my method here. I actually discovered this first time some time before gilksy published his guide but since hadn't much experience using this I didn't post this.
Since problem is very similar to xbox's RROD the fix fundamental is similar: add pressure to GPU and CPU. I tried various things(shim etc.) before I figured out what would be the best solution for adding pressure.
I come across following solution:
You need just 4 big washers(diameter 40mm, hole 8mm and 1mm thick. You can find these every hardware store for less than 1euro.) to do this.
So you have to remove upper cover, blu-ray drive and PSU. It's fairly easy and you can find tutorials for it from this site or youtube and I don't cover it here.
What you have to do is to put washers on the screws which holds the cooler blocks in place.(arrows in the photo)
Just screw screws as tight you can get them with reasonable force. I recommend using turn by turn technic so that both screws gets about same amount pressure whole time. You can't screw them too tight because of type of the screws.
You have to cut out small piece of one washer(which goes to screw on lower right in photo) due metal clip used for attaching PSU and memory card reader. Dremel or something similar is good for cutting.
Because of washers thickness it adds some pressure and because washers size it produces pressure from larger area.
Adding these washers have been enough for all PS3s I have come across. I'm sorry because I don't have any photos of washers assembled since I don't have any unit under repair right now and I have lost my old photos regarding my repair method...
This thread is dedicated to PS3 owners who have fallen victim to the Yellow Light of Death (YLOD). Post all related issues and queries here.
Background
The YLOD is a major hardware failure for the PlayStation 3. It is indicated by a yellow light on the front panel LED, rendering the console incapable of booting up. A hard reset does not solve the issue, as it inevitably results in a series of blinking red lights on the front panel LED, before returning to the to the YLOD state of inactivity.
The hardware failure is caused by either/or of two things:
- Hardware malfunction on the motherboard due to heating/cooling (solder physically cracking/breaking) which can be fixed by "reflowing", which is a fancy way of using a machine that has a super controlled (+ or - .5 degrees) hot air nozzle to re-melt the solder on the base of the defective chip to re-attach it.
- The power supply has the failure in one of its capacitors or diodes. This can also be fixed by "reflowing" but it is harder to diagnose due to the need to chase down which one it is.
- You power on the console.
- The console starts up normally for about 2-3 seconds,
- The console beeps 3 times while flashing a faint yellow light,
- The console continues to flash a red light.
According to the PlayStation 3 owner's manual, the flashing red light indicates an overheat. But the manual also states that the PS3 can be restarted (once cooled down) without any further problems (this is, of course, a false statement). Here is an image of the manual stating this interesting fact (Page 13 of 60GB model CECHA01):
1-How to Fix it
This method is oddly familiar to the Xbox 360 RRoD repair and requires you to open your PS3 and need a heat gun. You can view the PDF tutorial via the download link below:
http://forums.maxconsole.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=23515&d=1236711444
The individual who wrote that tutorial is known as Gilksy. He also made a couple of videos to go with it:
2-How to Fix it
Since we see quite often people here in forums asking for help regarding YLOD, I wanted share my alternative method for repairing YLOD since I consider it to be easier and it doesn't require complete dissassembly. This method has also worked for GLOD(green light of death - all lights seem normal but no video/audio output and controllers won't sync). I have sent email to gilksy some time ago to get my method to his guide, but since he hasn't replied I decided to post my method here. I actually discovered this first time some time before gilksy published his guide but since hadn't much experience using this I didn't post this.
Since problem is very similar to xbox's RROD the fix fundamental is similar: add pressure to GPU and CPU. I tried various things(shim etc.) before I figured out what would be the best solution for adding pressure.
I come across following solution:
You need just 4 big washers(diameter 40mm, hole 8mm and 1mm thick. You can find these every hardware store for less than 1euro.) to do this.
So you have to remove upper cover, blu-ray drive and PSU. It's fairly easy and you can find tutorials for it from this site or youtube and I don't cover it here.
What you have to do is to put washers on the screws which holds the cooler blocks in place.(arrows in the photo)
Just screw screws as tight you can get them with reasonable force. I recommend using turn by turn technic so that both screws gets about same amount pressure whole time. You can't screw them too tight because of type of the screws.
You have to cut out small piece of one washer(which goes to screw on lower right in photo) due metal clip used for attaching PSU and memory card reader. Dremel or something similar is good for cutting.
Because of washers thickness it adds some pressure and because washers size it produces pressure from larger area.
Adding these washers have been enough for all PS3s I have come across. I'm sorry because I don't have any photos of washers assembled since I don't have any unit under repair right now and I have lost my old photos regarding my repair method...
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