I love you for never giving up. That model has been a dream of mine since I was 11. I’m 29 now. And I need the one with the flap full of memory card slots. If gotten running? Test out that OS install option
I still had mine in pieces from a failed reflow attempt in the mid 2010s before we knew what caused the yellow light. She let some dude in who tossed it at some point
It honestly amazes me that there is still an active community behind the launch PS3, as a Xbox 360 slim owner, I hold the 7th generation of consoles in a very special place inside my heart, and i hope I can get a classic Xbox 360 and a phat ps3 in the future to do my own experiments on them.
Great tutorial! Even though I'm familiar with SYSCON, it's still nice to watch a more experienced person in action to make sure I don't miss anything. Just a quick tip at 12:48: Instead of installing Python directly on your PC, consider using package management tools like Anaconda or Miniconda. This allows you to create virtual environments and install Python within them, making it easier to manage different Python versions in the future. Installing Python directly on your PC can be messy when it comes to upgrades or downgrades, but with Anaconda, you can have multiple Python versions in separate virtual environments. Anyhow, great video as always! Can't wait to see your next one.
Fun fact you can turn a raspberry pi pico into a Uart USB Bridge! I made a video on this recently. I have to say my video is not as well put together as this one! Great video!
An actual UART bridge is probably still cheaper, so it would only make sense to do this if you don't have one. Which, if you're doing this sort of thing, I recommend you just buy like 10 cheap ones.
Best tutorial so far. Good speed to follow, explanation of what and why instead of just instructions. Thanks Felix! Could you make a tutorial how to get data of the HDD, for example to save data of Playstation Home as there are some reverse engineering projects who are looking for them.
You'll need to dump the ERK for that. Requires CFW. Then there's a tool that allows you to decrypt and read the HDD contents. I forget the name of it off the top of my head. It's on the psx place. Ask around.
Secretly, they're just tired of so many "where do I put the pins", "how do I access the shell", and photos being submitted and instead of complaining about it (like most people on the internet) they made this useful video
Yes, partly. I have an entire post full of links to tutorials for common questions. But what people really want are videos. So finally getting around to it. But not because I'm annoyed by their questions. Everyone starts by not knowing. Not knowing what the previous 250 pages on the forum contain is understandable. I can forgive them for not reading all of it before asking a normal question that I've answered a hundred times before. I just like having a link to a post or video ready when they do.
I can’t imagine the enormous amount of work that has gone into getting this information needed to build the tools. Thank you to all that contributed. Further, Sony… give us access to the internal tools that will allow us to maintain our now defunct systems!
Tip: pip as a command on its own is going in and out of deprecation and it seems that Python Foundation can't make up their mind. So it's worth keeping in mind, that you can also run "python3 -m pip" instead of "pip" when "pip" is unavailable as a command, but otherwise available as a module.
Ughhh I dont get it this CECH K I have hasn't seen intense amounts of use. My cousin who sold it to me hardly used it he had it from 2008 to 2012 and sold it to me. I used it a good lil amount playing the nba2k13 -15 years. And after that only a few hours of fighting games here and there. Last time I turned it on was April 2023 had no problems at all. tried to boot it up today to watch a blu ray and I got the dreaded YLOD 😩
Had my CECH-01 gathering dust waiting for this video, I knew you'd do it; and I was confident it'd be just like this. Thanks so much fo all you've done man; it's time for me to do my part.
Awesome, thank you for sharing this. I have 4 that are currently bricks, would be cool if I could fix any of them. I did purchase the adapter but I never got round to trying to get the logs. This video will help a lot, whenever I get some time to get around to that. Much appreciated.
what chance has you average game console user got one PC, even no what serial port is, never mind a command prompt?, it's like all been designed to make as complicated a you manly posable to fix anything?
i just did syscon check on a fat CEHH11 using a PiPico, 1-2sec YLOD, the main idea was to remove and replace all the tokins, good thing that i recalled about the syscon before attempting anything else, sadly it gave me errors 3034, meaning it needs a reball or bad CPU/GPU(?), i don´t have a reball station nor the skills to attempt a reball, maybe in a future i´ll get a station to learn how to reball PS3s and X360s, and just maybe, how to do a Frankie PS3. Once 1 repaired a slim2001A by "blindly" replacing all NECTOKINS with Tantalums, and it still works fine, also just delidded it a few days ago along with my main 2501B, both working great now. Anyway, thanks for the detailed tutorial, it really was nice to learn how to do syscon checks.
As the proud owner of eight PS3s, I’m so thankful that none have had any issues. I own three 60GB launch models, one partially PS2 compatible model, an E model, slim, super slim, and the gun grey MGS4 limited edition bundle.
I double checked and even re-soldered my wires thinking I might have had a cold solder joint, turns out it was just my rx and tx swapped the whole time... so much time wasted.
Thank you for doing all these videos! I have 2 working BC phats and one given to me for parts. The 2 have worked great so far. Other than needing to replace a disc drive here and there. I never knew these consoles had so many problems. I always assumed they were bulletproof other than the random disc drive. I have noticed an unusual amount of heat and louder fans on my 1st one. Bur I never thought anything about it. It's mainly used to watch Blu-ray now. Should I be concerned?
Replace the thermal paste if you havnt done already. While doing that do a dust fan clean down. The original thermal paste will be like hard cement by now. Once replaced and cleaned should last for years to come
Those consoles are too valuable to just use as bd players and they'll burn their chip out eventually without warning. Either store them or sell them and then buy a cheap slim or super slim ps3 for bds.
I'm getting a lot of help from you. How do I change the screen of cmd like you at 15:45? I have entered the folder, but I don't know how to enter the first cmd screen or the second cmd screen. Help me.
The command string needed depends on what SYSCON version you"re console has. Mullion (CXR/CXRF) or Sherwood (SW). inside the "linux" folder is the syscon script. [somthing].py That's what you type. If you mount that folder into the command terminal like I showed, all you have to do is type a few letters and then press TAB. It will autofill with anything withing that folder matching the letters you type (like a shortcut). If you press it again it'll match the next one alphabetically (if there are more than one). You can also rename the python script to ps3.py to make it easier to type if you'd prefer. The script will still run fine.
I find it definetly not for a beginner to without a failsafe or alternative to repairing their dsi xl but I fixed by merely pulling back into level with the other pins heights to make all contacts on the sd reader on mine 3:10 huh.. pretty smart tbh I have to admit for bussiness reasons. An glad to have been able to put back together with no noticeable damage or further issues with the dsi xl and the card will at least read now for listening to music even with the missing albeit my fault.. as in the past I being a stupid idiot kid back then tore the card slot cover. But meh the use of it for playing free downloaded music mp4 files is pretty sweet for gaining more convienient ability for keeping of downloaded form of music instead of buying the vinyl to try listneing with the difficulty of ONLY stationary non portable listening.. plus everyone prety much for personal use is downloading at least some of the not all time favs of their music for eli,ination of the expenses/cost associated with mass media cosnumption etc.
I'll give it to them It was a very effective tactic to separate themselves from the YLOD. If people assume it's just a PSU failure, SONY doesn't have to deal with the "YLOD" stigma. Which wasnt fair after they fixed the early issues. OFC the consoles could still break for a variety of causes and needed to have an error code system, but it was dibolically smart to change the way it's indicated...NGL.
I would love to run linux natively instead of having to go through the game system itself. What I mean is to delete the game system OS and just have linux runing on boot up.
I had a slim back in 2010, and it would shut off after a few seconds. Found out online that if you turn a diode inside 10%, it would stay powered on. It did work.
I watched this thinking it would be about how they broke the encryption, figured out the commands, etc. Still very interesting. Now I know how to fix a PS3 if I ever get one. 🤪
-If the console boots, is it acceptable/helpful to use CFW to dump the syscon logs when asking for help (assuming it's already installed)? Apologies if this is covered in the video and I somehow missed it.- Yep. It was answered pretty early in the video. Thanks again for the fantastic tutorial.
An example of the COK-001/2 default fan table is given in the written tutorial linked in the description. There is also a link to a thread on psx place with more examples and explanations.
Isopropyl Alcohol (99%) used to dissolve flux and the paper towel to soak it up. Takes a few rounds of scrubbing and soaking up to get all the flux off.
19:11 that's not a weird format. It just looks like a truncated form of unix time, which is the number of seconds since the computing epoch (Jan 1st, 1970).
I didn't and haven't had to. It is best practice to do so, but it's not 100% necessary if you aren't having issues communicating. It's wont zap it dead, it's just that sharing the same ground level allowes the signals to have sufficient voltage difference to be recognized and interprited. If both devices don't share the same ground level, it's possable they may not be able to see the signal and you'll get communication problems. Like not being able to auth or retrieve error codes. Actually that's what happened with that one code I couldn't retrieve. If you look closely, I didnt have the GND connected there either. But to answer your question, If I need to GND it I just use aligator clips to the outer copper ring. I kinda pull the DIAG wire out of the female connector just enough to get the gator on there. Alternativly you can solder a wire from DIAG pad to any GND on the MB and that'll work too. Then just use RX/Tx on your adapter. And GND it to the MB with the aligator clip. There are different ways to go about it.
Or did you mean, where is the DIAG pad? That is listed in the pictures I showed for each motherboard revision (if it has a diag pad, Sherwood doesn't).
A01 model owner, still runs all 3 gen games, blu rays, everything perfectly fine. Is there any benefit to running the toolset proactively checking errors that could lead to faults sooner than later? Just curious.
Just curiosity. But you should be aware there are likely to be some A0801001, A0801004, A0802022...etc. Potentially, A0801601/A08014FF/A0801701. Some errors can occur from unexpected shutdowns (like a power outtage, or pulled plug, surge). Or from software crashes that are sometimes encountered. If the console is otherwise stable, they shouldn't alarm you. If OTOH, there is instability in intense games and you see those, it could indicate a failure is in progress. Catching it early, can give you enough warning time to get your saves off, for example.
@@ripfelix3020thanks, it’s strange because even now I’ve always felt this ps3 has a more stable frame rate in demanding games such as Last of Us, MGRising, MGS4, etc. just lucky I suppose as it was definitely not opened before I did to repaste. I’ll get around to that then and post any unusual codes I (may) get on the forum. 👌
You think that only 1100 days is high? Mine 2001b slim is at 1400 plus on all original NEC/tokins, 65nm GPU all factory im not sure if its a miracle console or what buts its still kicking lol.
Hey - there's a better way to 'open as path' Try holding shift and right click in the folder and choose 'Open Powershell window here'. All known 'CMD' commands work in PS.
What an amazing guide, im picking up tommorow a whole lot of untested or clearly defective consoles - one of them is the cechc BC (EU model) and they state it has YLOD so that guide sounds very helpful to give it a try. You do appoint that its best to diassemble and get it hooked up before even trying 1st boot yourself?:) if not would really appreciate explanation on that. Also on on the power - do you use an external power connector for the 12V or for 5V and is there certain mA or A that should be specified if so.
I just use an APS226 PSU. I got banana plug to aligator clip cables for 12v. They plug into the PSU perfect. As for 5v I made an extention cable. This allows me to have PSU off to the side, out of the way and prevent shorting when the RF shield is not on (so I can live probe).
For the PL2303TA USB to TTL Serial Cable, how do I know if it is 3.3 volts? How do I make it 3.3 volt's if it's not? I did get the 2 pip things installed successfuly, however it's telling me there is a new update available for the pip I ran. When I did the pip command, it installed 23.2.1, but it told me there is 23.3.2 available. Should I update? Do I need to update?
Quick question, if I purchased the serial cable you linked in the description I don’t need any kind of converter to make it 3.3v correct. My laptop puts out 5v and wanted to make sure I don’t fry anything plugging that cable into my laptop and the description from Amazon says nothing about voltage. You just plugged it into a usb splitter so I assume the big blue end of the cable has everything built in to knock it down to 3.3v thanks again! Awesome tutorial!
Nope, that's already set to 3.3v. I like it because it's regognized automatically and doesn't require any drivers. And it uses the breadboard pins I like to use. But any UART device would work if you know how to use it. There are cheaper devices. That's just the one I have.
Awesome thanks man. I tried it and it worked. I got my errors and then went to try internal mode and kept getting an error when trying to enter “auth” again no matter how I tried to spell it. Restarted everything and same thing.
I figured it out, you have to case ground diag, and ground wire from the usb TTL cable to get into internal mode. Hooking diag wire straight to ground wire of usb cable won’t work. So when it is all said and done do I need to reset the eep 3961 back to 01 when I am done with? Thanks man, definitely been a fun project, unfortunately seems like my ps3 has 3034 so it may be cooked. Thanks again!
Hey Felix, question on your Tantalizer PCBs. Was gonna buy some off jlcpcb but they don't have 0.8mm Thickness in 2oz cooper like the osh park boards, only 1oz. Is getting the 1oz cooper PCBs off jlcpcb good enough to handle the current?
Not sure if you are still commenting or not, but i was wondering how you set up the power supply to be distant from the board, and whether that mattered or not?
I'm using an APS226 as a bench PSU. For the 12v connector I'm using banana plug to aligator clip cables. The banana plugs conveniently fit perfectly into the PSU. For the 5v connector I spliced the wire and used ribbin cable to make it longer. Lastly, I made adapters so it'll work for models with 3, 4, and 5 pin 5v connectors.
That Motherboard I got in a repair lot. 2x for repair DIA-002 MBs only. I purchased them for their 65nm RSX, which is the 1st revision CXD2982. This was the revision I said may be affected by bumpgate materials. I got these to test the underfill and confirmed they are not the same. It has a Higher Tg. Since I don't have the shells or other parts for this model, and because replacing them and the tokins would cost more than the repair is worth, I totaled them and harvested the RSX for future frankies. These were the boards I remove the RSX from in my FrankenStation video.
Really cool, i wonder if there was a way to restore phones likes that, i really messed up my phone, wont boot no erros just a black screen i mean i dont want to repair it i just only want access to the data because it has passwords for an old psn account in whatsapp cant find the right modell now but i think it was an LG l fino 2014-15, its rooted and whatsapp should be on an old version... fun part is that my mother decided to take the battery out so the data will save be dead or can only restored with a supercomputer
My G04 parts machine ready to recycle, took off the PS logo and put it on my C04, while fully expecting a 3034... and then my UART came in today, and turns out, it was only RSX Tokins.. It was missing a lot of stuff from the case anyway. Man I feel stupid. It also had an RSX Reflow before it got to me. Also; same error on a K04. Both were about 110-130 hour consoles.
Not stupid. You took an educated guess about what likely killed that model ...and beat the odds. Another tokin console huh. well, as they age the tokins were bound to increase in frequency until snake is vindicated.
@@ripfelix3020 but at 100 hours, I find that horrible. K model had entries up to 2019 in the syscon. Laters were erased when I started effin around with it. G04 died at 2016, and started to exhibit the issues at 2013. If you want, I can send you the logs. But they are only print screens. Edit: first, thanks for the excellent tutorial Second: both seem to work fine. Albeit wasn’t able to test the K model as I ran out of mx4. But upon bringup, it booted fine. Didn’t connect to hdmi.
It depends on how the console was stored, and the amount of time it spent at what temperatures. What I mean is if it was stored for years in a hot attic boiling away at 50C day in day out for years, that'll wear out the caps without even 1 power on in that time. Or left in a shipping container in a humid environment. Same thing. 100 hours is low, but if there is a difference between bringups and shutdowns, there's unrecorded sessions, since uptime is only recorded when a shutdown is completed. If it lost power or was turned off at the back by the switch, it doesnt record the time it was on in that session.
Been scrolling the internet for couple of days now, no answers. You are one of the only ones who seem actually professional about this. So the problem is: the playstation is fat, cechl turns on normally games work normally but after some time depending on the game the console turns off, 3 beebs blinking red light but no yellow light. Turns on normally after that. Syscon shows codes 2124 and 1002 after that the codes are 0xffffffff. I cleaned the playstation, it was full of dust. After that i replaced the paste, did that terribly. Could the problem be in the capacitors or somewhere else? The system has been turned off many times so could the problem be in corrupted files? Much appreciated. And sorry for bad english.
@@ripfelix3020 thank you very much, helps me a lot. I suppose all 4 caps have to be replaced. Is 470uf tantalum capacitor the right replacement or is there a better option?
These I designed to help make soldering easier, but you don't need them if you solder to the rails and use bridge wires. 3x 470uF per cap replaced works well. But there are some higher frequency harmonics that an array of MLCCs would help to remove. You can read about it here. www.psx-place.com/threads/research-experimental-nec-tokin-capacitors-replacement-ylod.25260/page-217#post-313627
i'm having a hard time time seeing the dust i wish some one would point it out with some sort of indicator like some arrows or something it would be really helpful.
Hi, thank you so much. working on an old YLOD phat i got from the thrift store for 20 bucks a few years back. I have had success with external mode and I am able to set to internal mode. when i boot i get checksum error. I have DIA-001, looking around i see that some people say that i need to also solder a connection to GND (left of RX) as well as the DIAG. I am unable to access internal mode I receive scopen response invalid.
Yes, just be sure PS3 and UART adapter are sharing the same ground. Use aligator clips to connect uart GND to the PS3's copper ring and that'll ensure they have the same ground refrence. Then connect DIAG to UART GND as well. One thing that can happen is that the previous session can get stuck. So unplug DIAG and auth back into external mode. Then verify the byte was enabled. Then turn off, plug in diag again, like before and attempt to auth back into internal mode. Doing this can get it out of that weird state.
@@ripfelix3020 thanks a lot. i'm sure this is the solution. but i'm a total noob and ended up losing my DIAG solder point trying to fix the connection lol, I still have a jumper connected but it doesn't seem right. going to get a new board and try again. positive i'll get it next time.
There is a via you can connect to alternativly, but it's even smaller and you have to expose copper by scraping away mask. You can repair the pad too. Point is you should be able to handle this level of soldering if you have hopes of repairing PS3. Any potential repair revealed by syscon is going to be a much more difficult soldering job than the soldering to get the errorlog. I reccomend junk boards for practice until you're ready for a salavageable boards. It's a process and we learn best from failing. So fail your way to sucess my friend. No shame in it. You'll get there.
@@thewhitefalcon8539 I bought CCAW jumper cables, tried soldering to them, after messing up the joints I tried again and discovered that the copper had dissolved and no amount of flux would make new solder stick to the aluminum.
thanks for the information. in case where acdc_stby is missing, so the 12v couldnt present/turn on, can i use this tool to diagnose it? or it is possible to dumping the data inside the syscon via this tools? thanks
Possably. If it's in standby, but AC_DC standby doesnt go high when you attempt to power it on, it should give an error. The error should provide some context about what's going wrong. But you'll need to be very familiar with the step numbers and power on sequence to diagnose, simce sony is annoying and cant make an errror system that's actually diagnostic.
thanks @@ripfelix3020, but i guess the report will throw code 3000 or 3001. after some reading last night, it possible that ac_dc stby signal not high/active when there are eepcsum/checksum error in mullion dirve. but idk in the sherwood.
Excellent tutorial. The only thing I did to my PS3 fat was change out the thermal paste and cleaned the heat sink about 4 years ago. I didn't have security torx drive but I had a drill so I drilled out the security pin and used a regular torx to open the system.
I don’t understand the 12V part. Do we need to connect 12V to the console prongs or not? You mentioned that if we attempt to turn on the console without the 12V, we’ll get an error. Will this error affect anything?
No, you dont need 12v to retrieve the errorlogs. If you attempt to power on without it however, the 12v relay switches on and if you didnt plug it the 2 prongs, the syscon is gonna say "hey! you best be sending me some 12v!..No? Fine! 3001 error for you" This doesn't cause any issues. It will just generate that code.
I wonder if it'd be possible to port the Python script to run in a web browser, however I do not have a PS3 (let alone one I'd trust my soldering skills with)
The script itself maybe, but I don't think there's any way for a web page to access serial ports. There is WebUSB but that requires the device to explicitly support it. So you'd need a WebUSB-to-UART adapter. They probably exist, but I've never checked.
This is exactly what i needed. I still haven't given up on my launch ps3 very late 2007 checa. Thank you Felix.
I love you for never giving up. That model has been a dream of mine since I was 11. I’m 29 now. And I need the one with the flap full of memory card slots. If gotten running? Test out that OS install option
We Broke that a long time ago... just sayin...
I still had mine in pieces from a failed reflow attempt in the mid 2010s before we knew what caused the yellow light. She let some dude in who tossed it at some point
Just what I needed. I was gonna branch out and actually try to do syscon readings this way and didn’t really know where to start. Very helpful!
It honestly amazes me that there is still an active community behind the launch PS3, as a Xbox 360 slim owner, I hold the 7th generation of consoles in a very special place inside my heart, and i hope I can get a classic Xbox 360 and a phat ps3 in the future to do my own experiments on them.
For me 5,6 and 7 generations of game console's was gold era of gaming and games
But, do you PWN it? Do you haves beyond access to the 360?
Theres still an active community behind the PS2 aswell.
@@DaWhiteTygerRGH 😉
I have two classic 360s and a few PS3s for sale...
Great tutorial! Even though I'm familiar with SYSCON, it's still nice to watch a more experienced person in action to make sure I don't miss anything.
Just a quick tip at 12:48: Instead of installing Python directly on your PC, consider using package management tools like Anaconda or Miniconda. This allows you to create virtual environments and install Python within them, making it easier to manage different Python versions in the future. Installing Python directly on your PC can be messy when it comes to upgrades or downgrades, but with Anaconda, you can have multiple Python versions in separate virtual environments.
Anyhow, great video as always! Can't wait to see your next one.
Fun fact you can turn a raspberry pi pico into a Uart USB Bridge! I made a video on this recently. I have to say my video is not as well put together as this one! Great video!
An actual UART bridge is probably still cheaper, so it would only make sense to do this if you don't have one. Which, if you're doing this sort of thing, I recommend you just buy like 10 cheap ones.
you're videos are so much informative and fun to watch hard to find fixing videos combining both, keep up the pace
A most needed tutorial on one of the best diagnostic tools for the PS3. Thank you Felix, amazing work!.
Thank you for this! This is perfect for me to follow along for my dad’s PS3.
Very informative as always! Here's hoping this will help keep our systems alive for many, many years to come.
Best tutorial so far. Good speed to follow, explanation of what and why instead of just instructions. Thanks Felix! Could you make a tutorial how to get data of the HDD, for example to save data of Playstation Home as there are some reverse engineering projects who are looking for them.
You'll need to dump the ERK for that. Requires CFW. Then there's a tool that allows you to decrypt and read the HDD contents. I forget the name of it off the top of my head. It's on the psx place. Ask around.
Worked like a charm! I have a CECHC with a dying GPU and a donor board ready to go: I'll take it slow, but my objective is to try and frankie it!
Best of luck to you!
My CECHE03 has refused the syscon entirely 😭
Secretly, they're just tired of so many "where do I put the pins", "how do I access the shell", and photos being submitted and instead of complaining about it (like most people on the internet) they made this useful video
Yes, partly. I have an entire post full of links to tutorials for common questions. But what people really want are videos. So finally getting around to it. But not because I'm annoyed by their questions. Everyone starts by not knowing. Not knowing what the previous 250 pages on the forum contain is understandable. I can forgive them for not reading all of it before asking a normal question that I've answered a hundred times before. I just like having a link to a post or video ready when they do.
It’s always a good day when you upload. I might be getting a phat PS3 (unknown if it’s back-compatible) but I’ll definitely use this!
This is such an incredible feat of the internet, thank you so much for distilling in such a legible manner
I can’t imagine the enormous amount of work that has gone into getting this information needed to build the tools. Thank you to all that contributed.
Further, Sony… give us access to the internal tools that will allow us to maintain our now defunct systems!
Thank you Félix, I still have a japanese 20Gb backwards compatibility fat PS3 waiting to be repaired since 2012. Thanks for you knowledge.
Tip: pip as a command on its own is going in and out of deprecation and it seems that Python Foundation can't make up their mind. So it's worth keeping in mind, that you can also run "python3 -m pip" instead of "pip" when "pip" is unavailable as a command, but otherwise available as a module.
Looks like my CECHK may see another day yet! Thanks so much Felix!
Ughhh I dont get it this CECH K I have hasn't seen intense amounts of use. My cousin who sold it to me hardly used it he had it from 2008 to 2012 and sold it to me. I used it a good lil amount playing the nba2k13 -15 years. And after that only a few hours of fighting games here and there. Last time I turned it on was April 2023 had no problems at all. tried to boot it up today to watch a blu ray and I got the dreaded YLOD 😩
Awesome, Felix. Tremendous video as always 👏
Had my CECH-01 gathering dust waiting for this video, I knew you'd do it; and I was confident it'd be just like this.
Thanks so much fo all you've done man; it's time for me to do my part.
Today I learned you can enter cmd in the address bar. Thanks I don't have a PS3 but this was very interesting
Awesome, thank you for sharing this. I have 4 that are currently bricks, would be cool if I could fix any of them. I did purchase the adapter but I never got round to trying to get the logs. This video will help a lot, whenever I get some time to get around to that. Much appreciated.
Loving the graphics in this video as I start watching. Can't wait to see the rest
Genuine tokin error! Incredible. Keep at it, dude!
Thank you for this easilly understandable tutorial! Now to check if errors 3034 and 4411 are solvable...
This video is a great rescource for when i fix up the PS3 i bought. Can't wait to get to it soon
what chance has you average game console user got one PC, even no what serial port is, never mind a command prompt?, it's like all been designed to make as complicated a you manly posable to fix anything?
That's programmed obsolescence for you. One of the reasons right to repair is so important since they can just drop support at any time. @@dh2032
i just did syscon check on a fat CEHH11 using a PiPico, 1-2sec YLOD, the main idea was to remove and replace all the tokins, good thing that i recalled about the syscon before attempting anything else, sadly it gave me errors 3034, meaning it needs a reball or bad CPU/GPU(?), i don´t have a reball station nor the skills to attempt a reball, maybe in a future i´ll get a station to learn how to reball PS3s and X360s, and just maybe, how to do a Frankie PS3.
Once 1 repaired a slim2001A by "blindly" replacing all NECTOKINS with Tantalums, and it still works fine, also just delidded it a few days ago along with my main 2501B, both working great now.
Anyway, thanks for the detailed tutorial, it really was nice to learn how to do syscon checks.
As the proud owner of eight PS3s, I’m so thankful that none have had any issues. I own three 60GB launch models, one partially PS2 compatible model, an E model, slim, super slim, and the gun grey MGS4 limited edition bundle.
Man, this video is going to be my best friend when i plan on diagnosing my dads old day one ps3! its even older than me!
Thanx for the amazing tutorial and the efforts that U have put in this, I have nothing but respect!💪
@ RIP FELIX
YO IVE SEEN SO MUCH OF YOUR WORK OVER THE YEARS THANK YOU FOR MODDING!!!!!
Finally, somebody knows about short circuit!
Exactly what i need for a ps3 slim ive been holding on to for a few years. Thanks man.
I double checked and even re-soldered my wires thinking I might have had a cold solder joint, turns out it was just my rx and tx swapped the whole time... so much time wasted.
Hehe that’s an easy mistake to make, few colleagues in work do that still on occasion.
I don't even own a ps3, just have been enjoying your vids
Thank you Sir! VERY clear, informative video!
This is awesome! I’m so amazed at how diehard this community is
Great PlayStation 3 diagnosis
This video is pure gold
I'm impressed, this is so way over my head lol 😅
3:01
Correction: Models (At Least) CECH-2101A have the Yellow Light
Just want to say thanks for the detail guide, very heplfull
That short circuit clip lol 😂 amazing
Awesome information thank you much for the video we'll probably watch It 10 more times
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!
Thanks for this info bro i went to my ps3 and it works perfectly
I wish we had this years ago, what a great and thorough tutorial, good job! But let's hope I won't ever need it for my slim PS3 haha
PS3 Slim doesnt get YLOD so i think youre safe lol
Thank you for the step by step detail!!!
Thank you for doing all these videos! I have 2 working BC phats and one given to me for parts. The 2 have worked great so far. Other than needing to replace a disc drive here and there. I never knew these consoles had so many problems. I always assumed they were bulletproof other than the random disc drive. I have noticed an unusual amount of heat and louder fans on my 1st one. Bur I never thought anything about it. It's mainly used to watch Blu-ray now. Should I be concerned?
Replace the thermal paste if you havnt done already. While doing that do a dust fan clean down. The original thermal paste will be like hard cement by now. Once replaced and cleaned should last for years to come
Those consoles are too valuable to just use as bd players and they'll burn their chip out eventually without warning. Either store them or sell them and then buy a cheap slim or super slim ps3 for bds.
Should add syscon or ylod debugging or something similar for better search results on the consumer end
Thanks for this excellent tutorial 🙏🙏🙏
I'm getting a lot of help from you. How do I change the screen of cmd like you at 15:45? I have entered the folder, but I don't know how to enter the first cmd screen or the second cmd screen. Help me.
The command string needed depends on what SYSCON version you"re console has. Mullion (CXR/CXRF) or Sherwood (SW).
inside the "linux" folder is the syscon script. [somthing].py That's what you type. If you mount that folder into the command terminal like I showed, all you have to do is type a few letters and then press TAB. It will autofill with anything withing that folder matching the letters you type (like a shortcut). If you press it again it'll match the next one alphabetically (if there are more than one). You can also rename the python script to ps3.py to make it easier to type if you'd prefer. The script will still run fine.
I find it definetly not for a beginner to without a failsafe or alternative to repairing their dsi xl but I fixed by merely pulling back into level with the other pins heights to make all contacts on the sd reader on mine 3:10 huh.. pretty smart tbh I have to admit for bussiness reasons.
An glad to have been able to put back together with no noticeable damage or further issues with the dsi xl and the card will at least read now for listening to music even with the missing albeit my fault.. as in the past I being a stupid idiot kid back then tore the card slot cover. But meh the use of it for playing free downloaded music mp4 files is pretty sweet for gaining more convienient ability for keeping of downloaded form of music instead of buying the vinyl to try listneing with the difficulty of ONLY stationary non portable listening.. plus everyone prety much for personal use is downloading at least some of the not all time favs of their music for eli,ination of the expenses/cost associated with mass media cosnumption etc.
I'll give it to them It was a very effective tactic to separate themselves from the YLOD. If people assume it's just a PSU failure, SONY doesn't have to deal with the "YLOD" stigma. Which wasnt fair after they fixed the early issues. OFC the consoles could still break for a variety of causes and needed to have an error code system, but it was dibolically smart to change the way it's indicated...NGL.
Шикарная работа! ❤
imma be real, i dont even own a ps3, but god damn this video is interesting and well-crafted
Excellent tutorial ! Now let's resurrect my 3034 YLOD CECHC PS3 (Damn I'm not enough skilled to do a Frankenstein Mod 😢)
I would love to run linux natively instead of having to go through the game system itself. What I mean is to delete the game system OS and just have linux runing on boot up.
I had a slim back in 2010, and it would shut off after a few seconds. Found out online that if you turn a diode inside 10%, it would stay powered on. It did work.
thanks alot felix amazing video
Damn this is so cool and i would actually love to fuck around with the syscon a bit even though my PS3 is just genuinely dealing with a psu issue lol
Thank for this tut. Your ps3 videos are awesome. 👍
I watched this thinking it would be about how they broke the encryption, figured out the commands, etc. Still very interesting. Now I know how to fix a PS3 if I ever get one. 🤪
Just the video I needed for some phats that I need to fix. You got a sub from me from now on
increadible video, like always.
Dude, this is awesome.
Great Video Felix!
-If the console boots, is it acceptable/helpful to use CFW to dump the syscon logs when asking for help (assuming it's already installed)? Apologies if this is covered in the video and I somehow missed it.- Yep. It was answered pretty early in the video.
Thanks again for the fantastic tutorial.
Can you offer a tutorial on configuring the fan phases and duty cycles?
An example of the COK-001/2 default fan table is given in the written tutorial linked in the description. There is also a link to a thread on psx place with more examples and explanations.
also what is the liquid used at 12:00 i assume it not water but idk ive never soldered (i will practice before i do this dw) let alone electronics
Isopropyl Alcohol (99%) used to dissolve flux and the paper towel to soak it up. Takes a few rounds of scrubbing and soaking up to get all the flux off.
19:11 that's not a weird format. It just looks like a truncated form of unix time, which is the number of seconds since the computing epoch (Jan 1st, 1970).
Yeah, it's J2000 epoch in HEX.
20:28 Where did you connect the GND for internal mode? I can't see it from the image but it seems close to tx and rx.
I didn't and haven't had to. It is best practice to do so, but it's not 100% necessary if you aren't having issues communicating. It's wont zap it dead, it's just that sharing the same ground level allowes the signals to have sufficient voltage difference to be recognized and interprited. If both devices don't share the same ground level, it's possable they may not be able to see the signal and you'll get communication problems. Like not being able to auth or retrieve error codes. Actually that's what happened with that one code I couldn't retrieve. If you look closely, I didnt have the GND connected there either.
But to answer your question, If I need to GND it I just use aligator clips to the outer copper ring. I kinda pull the DIAG wire out of the female connector just enough to get the gator on there. Alternativly you can solder a wire from DIAG pad to any GND on the MB and that'll work too. Then just use RX/Tx on your adapter. And GND it to the MB with the aligator clip. There are different ways to go about it.
Or did you mean, where is the DIAG pad? That is listed in the pictures I showed for each motherboard revision (if it has a diag pad, Sherwood doesn't).
@@ripfelix3020 no i mean, when at minute 20:28 you say "plugin DIAG", where exactly are you plugging it in? to the mb or to the uart?
MB DIAG --> UART GND is what I meant there.
@@ripfelix3020 15:09 this type of connector to extend the 5v cable, what is it called and where can I find it?
PS3 Slim 25xx can show yellow light but syscon doesn't for some reason do it on that model.
A01 model owner, still runs all 3 gen games, blu rays, everything perfectly fine. Is there any benefit to running the toolset proactively checking errors that could lead to faults sooner than later? Just curious.
Just curiosity. But you should be aware there are likely to be some A0801001, A0801004, A0802022...etc. Potentially, A0801601/A08014FF/A0801701. Some errors can occur from unexpected shutdowns (like a power outtage, or pulled plug, surge). Or from software crashes that are sometimes encountered. If the console is otherwise stable, they shouldn't alarm you. If OTOH, there is instability in intense games and you see those, it could indicate a failure is in progress. Catching it early, can give you enough warning time to get your saves off, for example.
@@ripfelix3020thanks, it’s strange because even now I’ve always felt this ps3 has a more stable frame rate in demanding games such as Last of Us, MGRising, MGS4, etc. just lucky I suppose as it was definitely not opened before I did to repaste.
I’ll get around to that then and post any unusual codes I (may) get on the forum. 👌
You think that only 1100 days is high? Mine 2001b slim is at 1400 plus on all original NEC/tokins, 65nm GPU all factory im not sure if its a miracle console or what buts its still kicking lol.
I've heard of 1500 ish. I think that's the highest I've seen.
@ripfelix3020 yea, that's about all I've seen as well. The system runs basically all the time, even surviving a 5-foot fall onto the hardwood floor.
Hey - there's a better way to 'open as path'
Try holding shift and right click in the folder and choose 'Open Powershell window here'. All known 'CMD' commands work in PS.
Yeah, some people prefer powershell. I'm less familiar with it and went with what I know.
@@ripfelix3020 fair enough :) just don't get left behind when cmd is retired is all 😎
What an amazing guide, im picking up tommorow a whole lot of untested or clearly defective consoles - one of them is the cechc BC (EU model) and they state it has YLOD so that guide sounds very helpful to give it a try. You do appoint that its best to diassemble and get it hooked up before even trying 1st boot yourself?:) if not would really appreciate explanation on that. Also on on the power - do you use an external power connector for the 12V or for 5V and is there certain mA or A that should be specified if so.
I just use an APS226 PSU. I got banana plug to aligator clip cables for 12v. They plug into the PSU perfect. As for 5v I made an extention cable. This allows me to have PSU off to the side, out of the way and prevent shorting when the RF shield is not on (so I can live probe).
For the PL2303TA USB to TTL Serial Cable, how do I know if it is 3.3 volts? How do I make it 3.3 volt's if it's not?
I did get the 2 pip things installed successfuly, however it's telling me there is a new update available for the pip I ran. When I did the pip command, it installed 23.2.1, but it told me there is 23.3.2 available. Should I update? Do I need to update?
could u put the required items in the description ie what ever the usb thing is called
It's in the written tutorial that's linked
Quick question, if I purchased the serial cable you linked in the description I don’t need any kind of converter to make it 3.3v correct. My laptop puts out 5v and wanted to make sure I don’t fry anything plugging that cable into my laptop and the description from Amazon says nothing about voltage. You just plugged it into a usb splitter so I assume the big blue end of the cable has everything built in to knock it down to 3.3v thanks again! Awesome tutorial!
Nope, that's already set to 3.3v. I like it because it's regognized automatically and doesn't require any drivers. And it uses the breadboard pins I like to use. But any UART device would work if you know how to use it. There are cheaper devices. That's just the one I have.
Awesome thanks man. I tried it and it worked. I got my errors and then went to try internal mode and kept getting an error when trying to enter “auth” again no matter how I tried to spell it. Restarted everything and same thing.
I figured it out, you have to case ground diag, and ground wire from the usb TTL cable to get into internal mode. Hooking diag wire straight to ground wire of usb cable won’t work. So when it is all said and done do I need to reset the eep 3961 back to 01 when I am done with? Thanks man, definitely been a fun project, unfortunately seems like my ps3 has 3034 so it may be cooked. Thanks again!
Is it possible to change IDPS from SYSCON? without jailbreak, webman etc.
Not that I know of. Pretty sure that's stored in flash, but not sure.
i don't even have a ps3, but this is gonna be entertaining
god i hope i never need to use this info, amazing video
I'm curious if I was to take my playstation 3 into a reputable repair place do they do this type of troubleshoot also?
Hey Felix, question on your Tantalizer PCBs. Was gonna buy some off jlcpcb but they don't have 0.8mm Thickness in 2oz cooper like the osh park boards, only 1oz. Is getting the 1oz cooper PCBs off jlcpcb good enough to handle the current?
Yeah, that's fine.
@@ripfelix3020 Appreciate it thank you.
Not sure if you are still commenting or not, but i was wondering how you set up the power supply to be distant from the board, and whether that mattered or not?
I'm using an APS226 as a bench PSU. For the 12v connector I'm using banana plug to aligator clip cables. The banana plugs conveniently fit perfectly into the PSU. For the 5v connector I spliced the wire and used ribbin cable to make it longer. Lastly, I made adapters so it'll work for models with 3, 4, and 5 pin 5v connectors.
26:31 What will you replace the NEC Tokins with?
That Motherboard I got in a repair lot. 2x for repair DIA-002 MBs only. I purchased them for their 65nm RSX, which is the 1st revision CXD2982. This was the revision I said may be affected by bumpgate materials. I got these to test the underfill and confirmed they are not the same. It has a Higher Tg.
Since I don't have the shells or other parts for this model, and because replacing them and the tokins would cost more than the repair is worth, I totaled them and harvested the RSX for future frankies. These were the boards I remove the RSX from in my FrankenStation video.
@@ripfelix3020 Ok understood. But in case i need to replace my NEC Tokins, what would be the best choice to buy?
www.psx-place.com/threads/research-experimental-nec-tokin-capacitors-replacement-ylod.25260/page-217#post-313627
A new Felix video!!!!
Great video! One question, does the first method works with OFW?
Yes.
Honey wake up, it’s another RIP Felix video.
Really cool, i wonder if there was a way to restore phones likes that, i really messed up my phone, wont boot no erros just a black screen i mean i dont want to repair it i just only want access to the data because it has passwords for an old psn account in whatsapp cant find the right modell now but i think it was an LG l fino 2014-15, its rooted and whatsapp should be on an old version... fun part is that my mother decided to take the battery out so the data will save be dead or can only restored with a supercomputer
You can use a program to show on a computer what is on the screen on the phone imyfone d-black
My G04 parts machine ready to recycle, took off the PS logo and put it on my C04, while fully expecting a 3034... and then my UART came in today, and turns out, it was only RSX Tokins.. It was missing a lot of stuff from the case anyway.
Man I feel stupid. It also had an RSX Reflow before it got to me.
Also; same error on a K04.
Both were about 110-130 hour consoles.
Not stupid. You took an educated guess about what likely killed that model ...and beat the odds. Another tokin console huh. well, as they age the tokins were bound to increase in frequency until snake is vindicated.
@@ripfelix3020 but at 100 hours, I find that horrible. K model had entries up to 2019 in the syscon. Laters were erased when I started effin around with it.
G04 died at 2016, and started to exhibit the issues at 2013. If you want, I can send you the logs. But they are only print screens.
Edit: first, thanks for the excellent tutorial
Second: both seem to work fine. Albeit wasn’t able to test the K model as I ran out of mx4. But upon bringup, it booted fine. Didn’t connect to hdmi.
It depends on how the console was stored, and the amount of time it spent at what temperatures. What I mean is if it was stored for years in a hot attic boiling away at 50C day in day out for years, that'll wear out the caps without even 1 power on in that time. Or left in a shipping container in a humid environment. Same thing.
100 hours is low, but if there is a difference between bringups and shutdowns, there's unrecorded sessions, since uptime is only recorded when a shutdown is completed. If it lost power or was turned off at the back by the switch, it doesnt record the time it was on in that session.
@@ripfelix3020 That's good to know. Thanks for the info!
Been scrolling the internet for couple of days now, no answers. You are one of the only ones who seem actually professional about this. So the problem is: the playstation is fat, cechl turns on normally games work normally but after some time depending on the game the console turns off, 3 beebs blinking red light but no yellow light. Turns on normally after that. Syscon shows codes 2124 and 1002 after that the codes are 0xffffffff. I cleaned the playstation, it was full of dust. After that i replaced the paste, did that terribly. Could the problem be in the capacitors or somewhere else? The system has been turned off many times so could the problem be in corrupted files? Much appreciated. And sorry for bad english.
That is bad RSX tokins. The behavior you describe, the 1002 codes, and the model revision all strongly support that conclusion.
@@ripfelix3020 thank you very much, helps me a lot. I suppose all 4 caps have to be replaced. Is 470uf tantalum capacitor the right replacement or is there a better option?
These I designed to help make soldering easier, but you don't need them if you solder to the rails and use bridge wires. 3x 470uF per cap replaced works well. But there are some higher frequency harmonics that an array of MLCCs would help to remove. You can read about it here. www.psx-place.com/threads/research-experimental-nec-tokin-capacitors-replacement-ylod.25260/page-217#post-313627
@@ripfelix3020 thanks!
@@ripfelix3020 i read your advice on psx, so will one mlcc replace one nectokin?
i'm having a hard time time seeing the dust i wish some one would point it out with some sort of indicator like some arrows or something it would be really helpful.
Hi, thank you so much. working on an old YLOD phat i got from the thrift store for 20 bucks a few years back. I have had success with external mode and I am able to set to internal mode. when i boot i get checksum error. I have DIA-001, looking around i see that some people say that i need to also solder a connection to GND (left of RX) as well as the DIAG. I am unable to access internal mode I receive scopen response invalid.
Yes, just be sure PS3 and UART adapter are sharing the same ground. Use aligator clips to connect uart GND to the PS3's copper ring and that'll ensure they have the same ground refrence. Then connect DIAG to UART GND as well.
One thing that can happen is that the previous session can get stuck. So unplug DIAG and auth back into external mode. Then verify the byte was enabled. Then turn off, plug in diag again, like before and attempt to auth back into internal mode. Doing this can get it out of that weird state.
@@ripfelix3020 thanks a lot. i'm sure this is the solution. but i'm a total noob and ended up losing my DIAG solder point trying to fix the connection lol, I still have a jumper connected but it doesn't seem right. going to get a new board and try again. positive i'll get it next time.
There is a via you can connect to alternativly, but it's even smaller and you have to expose copper by scraping away mask. You can repair the pad too. Point is you should be able to handle this level of soldering if you have hopes of repairing PS3. Any potential repair revealed by syscon is going to be a much more difficult soldering job than the soldering to get the errorlog. I reccomend junk boards for practice until you're ready for a salavageable boards.
It's a process and we learn best from failing. So fail your way to sucess my friend. No shame in it. You'll get there.
17:53 can’t you just do errlog so it gives a list of codes instead of typing it in so many times?
Not in mullion external (CXR).
Be sure not to buy cheap jumper wires with aluminum or CCAW wiring, which will be impossible to solder onto.
CCA is solderable like copper because the outside is copper...
@@thewhitefalcon8539 I bought CCAW jumper cables, tried soldering to them, after messing up the joints I tried again and discovered that the copper had dissolved and no amount of flux would make new solder stick to the aluminum.
thanks for the information. in case where acdc_stby is missing, so the 12v couldnt present/turn on, can i use this tool to diagnose it? or it is possible to dumping the data inside the syscon via this tools? thanks
Possably. If it's in standby, but AC_DC standby doesnt go high when you attempt to power it on, it should give an error. The error should provide some context about what's going wrong. But you'll need to be very familiar with the step numbers and power on sequence to diagnose, simce sony is annoying and cant make an errror system that's actually diagnostic.
thanks @@ripfelix3020, but i guess the report will throw code 3000 or 3001. after some reading last night, it possible that ac_dc stby signal not high/active when there are eepcsum/checksum error in mullion dirve. but idk in the sherwood.
Excellent tutorial. The only thing I did to my PS3 fat was change out the thermal paste and cleaned the heat sink about 4 years ago. I didn't have security torx drive but I had a drill so I drilled out the security pin and used a regular torx to open the system.
I don’t understand the 12V part. Do we need to connect 12V to the console prongs or not?
You mentioned that if we attempt to turn on the console without the 12V, we’ll get an error.
Will this error affect anything?
No, you dont need 12v to retrieve the errorlogs. If you attempt to power on without it however, the 12v relay switches on and if you didnt plug it the 2 prongs, the syscon is gonna say "hey! you best be sending me some 12v!..No? Fine! 3001 error for you"
This doesn't cause any issues. It will just generate that code.
Ouh I see. Noted & thanks Felix.
I miss my PS3.
I want to get one and mod it, but they’re so expensive nowadays, especially for launch models.
I wonder if it'd be possible to port the Python script to run in a web browser, however I do not have a PS3 (let alone one I'd trust my soldering skills with)
The script itself maybe, but I don't think there's any way for a web page to access serial ports.
There is WebUSB but that requires the device to explicitly support it. So you'd need a WebUSB-to-UART adapter. They probably exist, but I've never checked.