16 November 2013
This weekend, I’ve decided to repair my YLOD PlayStation 3, for the third time. I was seeing it taking the dust, weeks after weeks, and I couldn’t force myself to throw it away. Especially when you know that just one component is not working. So let’s take few hours and let’s begin the surgery.
Electronic board for touch buttons (power and eject)
To explain the problem a YLOD (Yellow Light Of Death) is a problem on first generation PS3 (around 0.5%). The CPU and/or GPU is desoldering from the motherboard. Result, the console switch to secure mode and block the the system. When you turn it on, you have a triple bip and a yellow led blinking, then back to sleep. Love and joy. No I’m kidding, at that point you scream bad things about Sony Corporation.
Unfortunately this time, I had no heat gun. Giving me only one solution : the oven. Yes, the oven. The idea is simple, here is the recepe:
YLOD PlayStation 3 Serve 1-4 (depends of your games and amount of controllers) 2-4 hours Suitable for vegetarians
Ingredients:
- 1 YLOD PS3
- 1 Oven
- Foil
- Thermal paste
- Good choice of general screwdrivers
Dismantle your PlayStation, be careful to group all the blocks and screws to recover it later, and feel free to say ‘sh*t!’ everytime you break something. Of course the motherboard is the last item, otherwise it would be too easy. I recommend you to go on ifixit for further help. Once you have the masterpiece in your hands, clean the CPUs and cover sensitive plastic parts with foil, like the optical drive connector, to protect it from direct heat. I think it’s useless, it’s just psychological. Now you can preheat your oven at 240°C for 10 minutes, then put your motherboard in it for 12 minutes. Once you can smell the delicious perfume of toxic plastic, it’s time to stop the oven. Open the oven door to let the motherboard cool for 30 minutes. Warning, do not move the cake, let it cool in the oven, or you could damage it. Now you can apply a new thermal paste on the CPUs, then recover the PS3.
Plug-it, pray, turn it on.
If a green led appear and the display on your TV is ok: congratulation, your PlayStation is alive.
If you see an explosion and flames coming out of the PS3: you might have forgot or missed a step. Please unplug safely then begin to think about your mistake. I also recommend to take care of the flames first, before to tweet anything about it.
For the record, mine is working but I’m thinking about a good system to keep it cool before to use it, otherwise it will break quickly. I’ll put an update for when it will break.