I have two ylod PS3's that I am going to attempt to fix this week.
 

Neither system has a bad hard drive and I'm pretty sure that the power supply on both is okay. Soooo, I'm going to take both monsters apart and attempt to a "reflow", which prettymuch involves trying to melt the motherboard. Also, reattatching the CPU and the GPU to the heatsink using some thermal compound. Anyone tried this before? Any success/horror stories? At worst, I'm hoping I can save one and keep it as a spare, at best I'm hoping to be able to sell one of them "as is".

So...any advice?

What instructions have you found for doing this? There are plenty for the 360, but I've yet to find a decent one for the PS3. Then again, I haven't even thought about trying to fix a PS3.

And my only advice: don't actually melt the motherboard ;)

There are a few step-by-step video series on youtube on how to perform one. Most of these people seem to have as much technical skill as myself (none) so I'm going to follow the longest and most detailed one. Ill try anything once (especially since one of the PS3's isn't mine ;) )

My dad was able to fix the ylod doing that, lasted a few months before completely dieing, ie wasn't able to repeat the fix.

Maybe if I can get both to work I'll keep the 40gb and sell the 60gb to a sucker.

You lie, the PS3 never fails!

Thanks for your take

Remember to clean the heatsink bases and cpus completely with iso before reapplying any paste. Also, less is more with thermal paste, you only want a thin layer. Also, FYI, the thermal paste doesn't join the heatsink and GPU/CPU, it just provides themal conductivity between them.

Thank you, BC for the useful information. I guess I had no Idea what the thermal paste was for. But it's going well - I just finished heating up the board, and Im waiting for it to dry so I can apply the arctic silver and reassemble. I'll update in about an hour or so. Even though nobody cares :foc:

If you're using arctic silver, I usually polish a bit into to base of the heatsink, it helps fill the gaps in the finish. Also be careful to only get it on the cores of the cpu/gpu, as it can short out points if it crosses them.
Also, don't get it on yourself, stains like a mofo.

Thanks to your advice and some wicked instructional videos, I have just successfully reflowed the 40 gig :D

Okay, so the 40gb is up and running smoothly, and now I just finished taking apart the 60gb. Fuck me, I can really see where they cut back on production costs between launch and whenever the 40gb was introduced. There's just MORE to tinker with in the original system. Example : last night all I had to do was slide the motherboard out of the casing. On the 60gb, the casing was attatched to the fan assembly and that all had to come apart piece by piece. Very annoying. Also the 60gb is probably the dustiest thing I have ever seen. Tumbleweeds are sitting on the mobo as I wait for my cousin to get here with some compressed air.

I might start a 4th one or a 5th one, you cock.

Congratumalations on the successful necromancy, Dr. Frankenstein.

Good work with the 40GB. Keep us updated on the 60GB one. Even if no one else reads the results I will. Meantime I will hope for the best for you.

Blew out the 60GB, reflowed and applied new thermal paste to the cpu and gpu. Snapped off the little uh.."snap thingy" for the input where the ribbon for the blu-ray drive is supposed to go during reassembly and had to tinker with that for a good 30 minutes to get it to stay (note I didn't really snap anything, the piece is CHEAP, plastic, and apparently grooved for removal and re-insertion. I just couldn't get it back for a while because of my huge bananna hands).

Anywho, it's back together and running smooth. I'm going to back up all of my saves and shit onto this computer today, and I still don't know what I'm actually going to do with the unit. Keep it? Sell it? I don't know. It would be akward to sell something that I couldn't really guarantee considering the reflow is a fix for the damage, not the actual problem.

I don't know what you'll do, but personally, I'd keep the 60GB if you play a shitload of games, that way you won't run out of memory space as quickly as with the 40GB, but then again, if you were to sell one of 'em, it probably for you would come down to which one you think you could get more for, if either of 'em...tough call.

But yeah, it's awesome that you repaired both successfully, wish I could say I was nearly as adept as yourself at hardware repair, but I'm not.

I wouldn't sell them. The fix for the ps3 can last anywhere from a few weeks to a couple months.

Hmmmmmmmm

Im not adept at fixing anything. I followed an instructional video series on youtube. Step by step kind of thing. Well, for the 60GB anyway. The 40GB was tricky.


Yeah, the main reason while I don't feel right selling them.

Well sell them to a stranger asap so.

60GB just bit the dust. Again.

IT LIVES

Nah. Shooting for sunday.

I'll say Thursday, around 7PM

:foc: