Great try Vince! Your motivation to go the extra mile to try to get a result/diagnosis continues to inspire. Thanks for the entertaining and enlightening video. I'd like to share that I was worried when you were using flux at the end while there was still thermal paste lingering around the edges of the chip. I was concerned that some of the thermal paste might have been pulled under the BGA along with the flux and possibly contaminating the solder balls along the edge. This is just a guess on my part. It may not have had anything to do with the final result. It was still a great video, and as always, I'm eagerly looking forward to the next 'fix it' attempt. :) I also can't fathom how this had over 3000 views and only about 300 'likes' at the time I watched it... Bad form people... Bad form...
Vince, what you have there is a genuine 1st edition PlayStation 3 60 gb model. These were the only version of PS3 with the chrome accents on the front. This model plays all PS1 and PS2 disc titles in addition to the full PS3 library. I know this because I still have mine which I pre ordered and received on November 17 2006. It ran solid until October 2012 with heavy use. Sadly it got the yellow light of death...but worth every penny for sure.
Osvaldo Cerda Martínez let me know when it dies i will permanently bring it back to life. Fixed three last week and funny thing is it’s not what people say it is that’s causing it.
To reset display output on the PS3, have it off, then press and hold the power button until you hear it beep again. Been keeping track of your skills, keep it up! Cheers! ^^
Nice attempt! I suspected it would not work - but I wouldn't give up just yet. What temperature did you use for the hot air there? On that type of hot air station (with the nozzle you are using) I would be going for a minimum for 450 degrees and heat it quite extensively for like 10+ minutes. It really needs to get to the point where the solder does melt. The fact that half of those shorts disappeared makes me wonder if a solder ball cracked off and is shorting underneath maybe. But it could be an internal fault of couse. Louis was not 100% correct - one reason why it can work again after heating to "less than solder melting point" is thermal expansion of cracked solder joints. That was the point he missed in his video. On the PS3 and on many graphics cards, it IS purely bad BGA contacts. His experience from Mac boards might be different, maybe the GPUs fail more there, but on consoles it is nearly always bad connections on those BGA chips. The other thing that happens on PSPs and other handhelds is when dropped - sometimes the pad breaks off the PCB. Pressure helps it work again at that point. I've seen a few PSPs with that type of damage - damage you would expect to be solder crack, when in reality one or more pads actually detach near the corner when the unit hits the floor. BTW - the speckles make me think the problem might be VRAM related. I cannot remember, but doesn't the GPU have the RAM mounted on it - the chips in the corners there? I think they are! What I might do there is remove the "underfill" around them, then try and reflow those. The underfill won't help matters as a crack might not easily rejoin because the underfill holds the chip up. Withouth underfill, assuming you can get all the solder balls up to melting point should mean a more successful reflow. Also add liquid flux under there too whilst doing this.
As always, great info Chris. Maybe I can do a revisit on this or I could try the coins on top of the GPU to see if it works and then try the reflow or maybe the oven method, not sure how much that will stink the house out though, don't want any grief!!!!! My temp at the end was up full so 480C and full air which is the max my cheapo unit will do. I always get worried when heating up chips in case I pop them but I suppose this will come with experience. Is there an approx. temp or time limit that the chips can handle or is it all based on their size and thickness? I presume the underfill on the RAM chips is some kind or glue or plastic, do you scrape this off or use chemicals to remove it? Cheers :-)
@@Mymatevince Better cover the capacitors and plastic [looking] parts with aluminium foil when baking it also remove the thermal pads of the Emotion Engine (Chip below the Cell thats for PS2 compatibility) and the chip on the right of the RSX. With baking I managed to repair a GTX 760 bought it in October and worked fine after cleaning, but in November it failed, (used it as secondary graphics card) after installing drivers so I baked it and it works fine again, gifted the PC (Core 2 Quad Q8400, 8 GB RAM and this GTX 760) to a neighbour and still no complains. But my old HD 5770 also failed (just black screen, no booting at all) and still not working after baking it, maybe I'll try it a second time.
I love your videos vince you've tought me a lot. I'm like you I buy junk off ebay just to mess about with. Sometimes I get luck and successfully repair them, sometimes I don't. Like you say it's all a learning curve.
You are testing it wrong. Those caps near/under/close to the chips are bypass capacitors. You are activating junctions within the chip making it appear that those capacitors are shorting. Test them out of circuit.
The memory card slots are another tell tale sign, along with the four USB ports, that it's a PS2 compatible model. They are used to playback photos and videos from digital cameras. CF is Compact Flash, SD is obviously Secure Digital cards and the last one is Memory Stick Pro which was Sony's terrible proprietary card format they used in their own cameras (and PSP in the form of Pro Duo). When playing PS1 and PS2 games the PS3 will create virtual memory cards that are stored on the hard drive. This model (CECHC03) should have originally been a 60GB model. This along with the 20GB model are almost fully compatible with all PS2 games as they had much of the PS2 hardware inside. It's the later 80GB model (CECHM03 I think) that lost the PS2 hardware and instead had software emulation that can be far less compatible with some PS2 titles but does still play most games well.
Actually, not quite. Only A and B had full PS2 hardware inside them for full BC support. C and E only have partial emulation support (only one of the PS2 chips). That being said, the C and E models do some upscaling which actually make PS2 games look better than on A and B models. Anything after E does not have any PS2 support. Jailbreaking allows for full software emulation but it is way worse than the BC consoles. The best way to identify a BC PS3 is by checking the usb ports and the color accents. BC ones have 4 usb and chrome accents, normal ones have 2 usbs. I do not recommend anyone buying these BC consoles though, as they are by far the most unreliable ones. And btw, the YLoD is almost always caused by NEC/Tokin chips and not the CPU/GPU (as Vince himself has also proven in his more recent videos)
The power supply rails of CPU and GPU usually have a very low input impedance, which is required for such a low voltage and high current device. Put your multimeter on low Ohm position, zero it out and try to measure again. You will find a few Ohms resistance.
The two big chips likely run on very low (under 1.5 volts probably) supply voltages and thus if you test from supply voltage to ground you're going to measure a very low resistance (as they draw high current at low voltage) and depending on how your meter works you might get a continuity beep. I'm not positive that's what's happening here but something to keep in mind.
You could see the GPU pop corning while you were heating it up. Try looking up a reflow or reball process Vince, I know you're no expert, but it's very interesting and could help you in the future. The way to avoid the pop corning would be to purchase a preheater or you can just use a cooking griddle for very cheap. The moisture in the chip is trying to escape when you heat it up too fast. Hope this helps in the future :) The problem you have is called a "green light of death" pretty well the same as the "yellow light of death" except the PS3 simply isn't throwing the error for whatever reason, probably because there is still a little contact from the joints on the chip. Additionally, if you really want to fix this issue, just reply and I'll tell you where to get started! Great video as always Vince!
Hi Vince, so I have been watching your videos for quite some time now and I really enjoy watching you rebuild things, especially because half the stuff you do with motherboards I don't know about, but while watching this video, I noticed how you applied an extensive amount of thermal paste. So I HIGHLY advise you look up how to correctly apply thermal paste. And this isn't me trying to make you seem bad or an "amateur", but if you apply to much thermal paste, it will overflow over the chip, come in contact with other chips or pieces, and short them out, essentially ruining everything you have worked for. The best method I have found and what I use (I frequently build computers and have been trained on such matters), is the pea method, apply a pea-sized dollop of thermal paste in the middle, then place the cooler or in your case, the piece of metal connected to the fan, on to the chip, and only apply thermal paste to one side. Hopefully you read this because it is very important. Anyways, keep up the great work I love watching your videos!!
Hi Vince! I have had this problem before. How I solved my problem was I disconnected the hdd and then reconnected it. It seemed to work. Good Luck. (-:
The Issue that you are having is that your hot air rework station is not powerful enough to heat up the whole chip, I have a dead ps3 slim with the same problem, I can't fix it yet because my paint burner or heat gun whatever you call it died . So basically you need a hot air gun to do the job because it has enough surface area to heat the chip, I do suggest pre heating the board before you start reflowing the chip
Momfie The hunter pretty much you’re right! My question is will a kitchen oven work? My reasoning is that the kitchen oven could heat the whole board up to 500 degree Fahrenheit or 260 Degree Celsius more then enough heat to melt the solder
@@lucaspagan3576 would reccommand using one that you don't use for food anymore because of the fumes solder creates and also cover up any plastic parts on the pcb like the speaker that makes the beeping sounds. you can watch a UA-cam video if you are not sure about the settings of the oven
nice vid Vince, I also have a ps3 with same issue so was hoping you would find an easy fix! I think they need reballing, I have just received a re-balling kit from china, only a few £s and plan on trying over the weekend, I also have seen a few diy reballing videos so fancy giving it a go, i will video it and hopefully can get it going.
Checking capacitors under big chips doesn't tell you much in the beeper mode. Big chips usually have a very low resistance. They powered by a low voltage and consume quite a lot of power. Resistance might even be lower than 1 Ohm on some chips that are working fine.
Great video again Vince, brings back memories of me trying to resurrect my launch day ps3 after it broke, i rigged up a square cardboard tube the same size as the gpu chip lined with tinfoil and mounted on a stand about 10mm above the chip to lift and reball it, i used a hot air gun as the solder station hot air wand didnt have enough umph as you found out, my efforts werent successful however haha it was broke anyways good luck with the 3rd ps3!
Reflow it on the oven. Remove all non-smd components as those may melt, put it on the oven a bit lifted from the oven tray (using per example some nuts on places where there are no components) ensuring that no component rests on the tray, slowly increase the temp to 250 degrees, leave it for five minutes, turn off the oven and without completely opening it let it cool down slowly. Don't worry about the components on the bottom side falling, they will stay in place because the melt stain will hold them in place. That's basically how an infrared SMD oven works.
Hi, I use a tripod and then I can adjust the height from approx. 60cm to 1m 50cm. If the item I am filming is bigger then I move the camera higher to try and get it in the shot. If I want to do overhead shots then I extend one leg of the tripod and use a weight on the extended leg to stop it from tipping over and then the tripod can go right over the item :-)
I worked on similar ps3's and attempted a full reball with the same station you have and it simply does not get hot enough to melt the solder under a chip that big. Something this big needs to be heated from the top and bottom at the same time with better tools.
I tried re flowing the solder balls but adding a penny or coin on top to give it more pressure worked for me. You might want to try to re-flow the solder balls under both chips. Sometimes the heat trick works but adding more pressure on the chips does the trick if the solder has cracks in it. I hope you re-visit this repair. They do sell special plates to make re-flowing the solder balls easier.
You are doing the continuity test incorrectly, a short is not determined by a beep, that is to avoid seeing the multimeter while you check the board, a short is determined if between the positive and negative there are 0 ohms, if you have a value different from zero can surely be normal readings due to the processor or resistors in parallel. If there was a short, the chip that manages the console power would not have allowed the console to turn on.
And it does not need to screw the whole device and connect it to the TV to check if the chip itself is working, just touch it, while it's on, if it gets hot, it's working
if it gets cold it's because the chip does even not start, doing this test is also good to find out if you have any component in short, which, if it is, will get very hot
140 °C isn't nearly enough. If you want to do a reflow (to fix a YLOD), it's actually easier to put the mainboard into the oven (some people cover parts of it in aluminium foil, never did that) and then bake it at 200 °C for 15 to 20 minutes. Make sure it's levelled (which isn't easy with those two prongs sticking out of it), I used two small wooden chopping boards for that. Also, if you do that make sure to take out the CMOS battery (the smell can be quite bad, if you forget to do that). And when you're done, keep it in the oven until it is cooled down, don't move it while it's still warm. I have saved quite a few PS3s that way, even one Xbox 360 that had been massively tempered with before (the previous owner TRIED an XClamp fix on it, out of curiosity I put the board into the oven and used normal screws to put it back together, worked for a time, not long though). I am not sure whether or not this helps with this PS3 though, it could be that this is caused by the problem described (cracks in the solder due to thermal reactions) or the GPU could be bad (as you've assumed). And even if you manage to fix it, there is no telling how long it will last, even if the solder was the problem, because the thermal reactions will start again, causing more cracks again, until you'd have to reflow it every day. The GLOD was actually associated with the PS3 Slim and later the SuperSlim (which was basically a piece of ****, I had ones with failing drives, failing PSU, failing mainboads, blown fuses on the mainboards..., it's actually surprising that there are still working SuperSlims around), it was basically the same thing like the YLOD, an unspecified hardware error and the PS3's way of saying "Mr. Stark, I don't feel so good".
Reballing works much better than a reflow. There are some 'homemade" ways to do a reballing without give away a lot of money. With some pratice it not seems too hard. I think you can do it with some pratice, preferencelly with garbage's boards first. By the way, your videos are very motivating, great work!
My brother has the very original fat version bought from new, he loved the ps1 the ps2 but just rarely ever used the ps3, over time it just sat in the box being taken out very rarely to play the odd game, then a few months ago my blu ray player died, I borrowed the now aging ps3 only to find out the whole disc reading side was completely dead, it pulled the disc in but nothing, not even a reading sound so he went online found an entire cage and laser assembly with motor, which I reluctantly installed to find it now works flawlessly, been using it ever since.
The Cell Processor of the PS3 is on a separate die from the GPU. Try sticking that board in your kitchen oven to melt the solder. My reasoning is that the kitchen oven could heat the whole board up to 500 degree Fahrenheit or 260 Degree Celsius more then enough heat to melt the solder
Great videos Vince as a fellow dabble in gadgets I feel your joy and pain in wins and loses but one thing grind my gears HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO WORK ON PROJECTS ON THE FLOOR. My knees would be shot, that's the real story here :-) Can we go fund you for a table!! 😎
For heavy boards like that, and without an IR rework station, heating the board to 180c on a foreman grill before trying hot air helps. Strange but true
Hi maye new sub here. Where did you get that screwdriver tool set? Looks awesome. Im having issues with a CECH03 at the moment whereby the PS3 and PS1 games work but the ps2 games dont. When PS2 game is inserted and in middle of loading the fan goes hype mode for a second but then it all shuts down with a flashing red light... any idea whats wrong with it?
Vince I been mean to tell you Thank you so much your vlog on how to fix a Xbox one elite controller was a great help my had that issue with the rubber part of the controller was coming off and I was in panic mode I did not know how to fix the problem until I watch your vlogs so I wanted to say say ty so much 😊
Hi mate, when you are reflowing the cpu and gpu, if you look at the top right corner of the cpu you can see what looks like a blob of solder that could be causing a short, i would say a reball on both chips would be a very worth while repair. And reballing is meant to be best when the solder is replaced with leaded solder as it handles heating and cooling down better. Love to see you give the reball a go on this! These 60’s were the best built units imo.
Ohhh, I didn't notice that but it does look like 2 blobs of solder quite close to each other on the CPU, about 1-2 cm away from the thermal paste blob on the board. Am I looking in the right spot? Thanks :-)
My Mate VINCE hi thanks for the reply, yes you can see it at around 57min mark. Obviously its easier for is viewers to see as im watching it on a big tv filmed on zoom so would be very very hard to see on the naked eye. I think a reball on both chips may actually fix this one. Regards, jake
That console should be treatted very well and change thermal paste at least once a year, if you don't clean it once a year it breaks down because it wasn't really well designed, it had for its time really expensive things like the blue ray, but the cooling is not very good, the only worth ps3 is the super slim because it doesn't get as hot as this one, nice video vince :)
Disagree about the 'super slim' model, I wouldn't recommend that over the 'slim'. I've had an 80GB 'phat' which got the YLoD after about 4 years and then I replaced that with a super slim that worked for about 5 years (both bought new), before totally dying (LED wouldn't even turn on). Long before it died, the super slim developed a whine noise (probably 'coil whine'), that was very distracting, as was the much noiser top loading disc drive. When it died I tried a repair at CeX, and when they couldn't fix it, I just picked up boxed 160GB slim at CeX and have been using it since. The PS3 from CeX has some fan noise (much better than the other models I had though), but hard to complain considering how old it is. The 160GB & 320GB slims were released in Oct 2010 in Europe, so depending on when this unit originally sold, it could be up to about 8.5yrs old. Went with a boxed unit, as I thought the kind of person to keep the box would probably keep it in good condition.
It is the same story with laptops. The require periodic maintenance, paste, clean fan, radiator cooler that is usually partially cloged.Even coated with tarmish the heatsink efficiency falls like a rock, fans runs much faster and end getting random shuts off. if you keep insiting, damage will finally occur. Pavilions are the prime example IMHO, undersize cooling and the exhaust is partially covered when you open the screen at 120 degrees or mor. But a good design. To make thing worse the put cheap paste to the GPU.
@@DaveSimonH I have the super slim and works perfectly i also have the fat and it has the yellow light of death, the fat worked for about 2 years and my super slim has been working for 6 years.
I have this exact playstation its now 12 years old and pristine and working perfectly. It was only for sale for a short while then sony stopped making it and removed the backwards compatibility (presumably to sell more ps3 games) Original hard drive for this model was 60gb
I baked my ps3 40gb that got ylod in the oven for 30min and it lived on for another 12 or so months of hard gaming. It's worth trying, I did my 360 e74 error with a heat gun and flux, that also lived for another 8 months I think but still well work the repair.
Good old IBM CELL processor ♥️ I can't believe you haven't heard about that CPU before, it was a crazy powerful CPU with 8 cores and University's bought tons of PS3s and used them for grid computing/supercomputer. The PS3 can run Linux 🙂
Its 6 or 7 cores, but not exactly...you can read in Wikipedia and its not "crazy" powerful. For its time, definitely was more powerful than the Xbox, but still specially nowdays is nothing. And to make games for it was crappy.
@@borisdg it's actually 8 cores but Sony locked one of them. You can unlock it if you hook up a uart usb converter to the syscon testpoints & run the python script to interact with it.
I have fixed a few PS3 phats with a heat gun and flux and the results were mixed to say the least. One 60gb I fixed from ylod lasted 1 year, one about a month, and a few could not be revived. I think with these consoles it just depends on how heavily used they were and what previous repairs they had if any. My own 60gb phat lasted 7 years before wearing out with pixelated av output - the last game I played on it was GTA 5. But it has been replaced with a 1tb cfw PS3 slim that is still going strong.
I'm sorry I'm not trying to be rude or anything... But isn't the initial issue here is the the unit itself heats up which causes the damage from the beginning? Y/G/RLOD Why add direct heat on it and expect it to magically work?
Hey Vince, you should pre heat the board before reflow. Also re-balling ain't as hard as you think and most of the equipment is available for cheap on eBay. Love the vid though and was wondering when your going to upload.
Nice vid dude, Would be fanstatic to make a vid on trying to remove one of this big chips I tried myself on a way smaller one, from a lenovo laptop and end ruining the chip. Station goes up to 450, but takes too long so I end damaging the chip. But I heated a Pavilion DV7 GPU and got it back to life. Of course it id not going to last. Pavilions are toasters but I got it for a few buck so I was playing anyways. Good job. Keep comming.
good old launch model ps3 before they removed the sd card reader and other features, thing weighed a ton and was plauged with overheat faults but damn it was an amazing machine
i did a "reflow" on an xbox 360 that had the red ring of death and that was 4 years ago and it still works so rossman might be wrong =) btw i put an extra 0.1 mm copper plate between the heatsink and chip that might have helped to =) love your channel as i am a fixit amateur to but i have workt a little with this so that might make me a professional ;)
On a working PS3 you would also get "shorts" all over the CPU/GPU, because the size of the capacitors are too small causing the multimeter to beep. It's better to have your meter in diode mode and check that way, you can find videos regarding this on Jessa Ipad Rehab channel.
The full backwards compatible PS3s were not available in Europe, the CECHC03 is the launch model there. (Our 2nd Generation PS3, the CECHE01, is exactly the same as your guy's CECHC03, which has one of the PS2 chips but not the other and has the missing chip be emulated) Also, try reflowing it in an oven, I typically do that for systems with faults and it usually has results. Additionally, PS3 can't hot swap cables, everytime you want to change input you HAVE to restart the system and let it detect your connection type (it should typically do that on its own.) PS3s also require an HDD to play software and get into the XMB
@@radiiiiiiiiiiii All CECHC and CECHE only have one chip (if there was a board revision, Sony would of changed the letter,) and can launch every PS2 game made. HOWEVER, it does not mean it can PLAY every PS2 game ever made. Games such as Tekken Tag Tournament will start and go into gameplay on a CECHC/CECHE, but will play at half speed, rendering the game as unsupported. PAL units were only greeted with a chromed bezel CECHC (the CECHD, the budget 20GB model was not released, would of been a 1 chip CECHB. Our CECHF also didn't make it to market either,) any non-chromed bezel would be CECHG and beyond. I know there's software on PSN for PS2 game emulation, which I assume was made for the CECHG (would of had a grey bezel,) as my CECHE does not require the software package to be installed for PS2 games to be launched and neither does my CECHA.
Hi Vince It will show shorts on beeper mode, my Fluke beeps with 150R but not higher. I have mentioned this to you before, you can not use the beeper mode on meters to check for shorts in electronic circuits, if you have another meter you can check the output voltage of your meter in beeper mode. The Fluke 77 I have gives out 0.5V in normal resistance mode and 2.5V in beep mode. The reason for this is it is so you can test diodes so it needs to be able to turn on a diode, which it will also do when you use to test a board. The capacitors are for power rail decoupling and it will be a low voltage say 2V and if you measure using resistance mode will most likely be below 100R. You will more likely need 350C or more for the hot air.
I used to fix YLOD on ps3s, to fix them i used to put my heat gun at 350c, 2" away from the chips for about 40 seconds, and i never did directly on the GPU and CPU, only on the black rectangular chips on the back. Allways worked after
Thanks, I love Andrew Paul videos. He has helped me out on a couple of Xbox One S fixes and a PS4 :-) Just wished he had videos on more stuff so I could copy him all the time. He is a living legend!!!!!!
i wont say it's a fix but you can at least see picture on your screen by putting a penny on the heat sink of the RSX and tighting up the screws very hard so the solder under the RSX will make contact to the board because GLOD is a symptom of the solder not touching the RSX the problem is that the PS3 will work but make loud noise and shutdown of overheating because the heat sink not touching the RSX i run a console repair shop in TUNISIA and i watch your videos all the time keep it up
I have one just like that one. I was getting a red light of death, meaning it wasnt even booting. I got it running again reflowing the gpu. So in your case I would say its a hdmi chip. And yes it looks like everything is shorted. Low voltage, low resistance . I also had a capacitor that shorted near the cpu that blew a fuse.
I think the problem is the capacitors...try to change the NEC/TOKIN capacitors. I have your own console, but in my case the HDMI and AV port doesn't show anything on the TV and can't reset the video output, because the console doesn't make any sound after the first beep. Maybe is the capacitors in my case too.
140c won't melt leaded solder alone, now try melting lead free solder at that temperature, with a thick board good at spreading heat, can you make a follow up vid possibly with the hot air gun at 450c for a longer period of time and see if it works
just put it in the oven at 250°C and hope for the best :D I miss leaded solder for the low melting points.. in the 90s that actually had a chance to work
hey vince i sucessfully restored one you need schematics here you miss the transistor check near the hdmi port 2 pnp and one npn and dont forget the ne tokins caps
Nice try vince. Hope better luck next time. However I have a small suggestion for you, a poor man's fix that sometimes works, and since you don't have anything to lose and your hot air station is not strong enough to heat that board up, you can always use your oven for it. Set it up to 350-400 celcius, and tuck the board in without any rubbers and similar stuff of course. Let it sit there for a good 5-7 mins or more and turn the oven off. Let it cool down by itself inside the oven. It might fix solder related problems.
Love watching these & wondering what the outcome will be? I like scrolling down the comments too while watching. It’s a shame some of the comments give it away 👎🏻
Nice videos. BGA (Ball Grid Arrays) chips are not likely to short unless the chip got so hot the solder melted, BGA's are likely to go open due to thermal expansion and contraction and reheating may work in this case. A short is likely to be caused by a failed chip or a failed capacitor. Unfortunately all of those capacitors are in parallel so finding a shorted one is harder. the way to find it is to apply power and look for heat spots, either feel by hand or look with a thermal imaging camera. If the chip gets warm then game over, but if a capacitor heats up then take it off the board, don't bother replacing it as all those caps are in parallel they are what's know as decoupling capacitors and are used to reduce power fluctuations locally (very locally), I'm confused why the the caps under the CPU are also short, if the CPU wasn't running then you wouldn't get any life from it at all. (These are my thoughts and I am not an expert just thought you might like the input). Keep up the repairs / attempts nobody repairs 100%. Love watching your thought processes.
I know very little about consoles, but I have a few years of experience with laptops. I fully agree with Louis Rossmann about GPU reballing as well. However you can revive a GPU temporarily by using a heatgun. My method is to apply a liquid flux under the GPU and hit the chip with 300 degrees of heat with a high airflow, constantly moving the heatgun around the edge of the chip, but NEVER on the centre of the chip itself or you risk damaging the chip. The goal is to be heating the caps around the edge of the chip. You can buy cheap heat probes and run the leads under the GPU and will give you some indication of your progress, but a few minutes of heat usually does the job.
Louis Rossman methos is the way to go but not practica when trying to sort old stuff like cored duo laptops for example. You get as much juice as it is left. You wont be making a reballing on this machines. Heating a GPU on a Pavilion worked for me. How long ?. I cant tell, probably months.
@@38911bytefree I can't understand why people chose to reball a GPU. If you go to that much trouble you just replace the chip and it would be a permanent fix.
I have a ps3 of the same model number. I bought it at release and it worked for many years but got the yellow light of death and has been sitting in my attic for years since. I recently dug it out while looking for something else in the attic and decided to have a go at getting it to work and that is how I ended up here. When I plug in my ps3 to power and press the on button all I get is the fan momentarily coming on and going off again and the power LED just flashes red. I have the system fully disassembled and the thermal paste cleaned off the two main chips. Tomorrow I will probably blast the two of them with a heat gun in an attempt to reflow the BGA and hope for the best. Best case scenario it works....worst case scenario it stays broken and gets plopped right back into it's dark corner in the attic. Did you ever solve this or ever try again?
The GPUs that Lewis talks about in his video are known bad MacBook gpus. The ps3 can be easily fixed by a reflow as it is a different issue than the one Lewis dealt with in his video. The MacBook gpus are physically bad chips, the ps3 gpus are 99% of the time fine, but are just not correctly connected to the board because of cracked joints, which a reflow will normally fix. Also you don’t need special equipment to reflow the gpu, just a heat gun :)
From watching this from the start and have not finished it I'm guessing GPU or video output chip Update: from watching the video I would think it's the video output chip really unfortunate it was a bust but hopefully you will be able to fix the third one
You can temporarly fix it using a heat gun on both side of the bga, but the best fix is obviusly a reball or even better a complete replacement of the gpu
I bet this wont go good either way, its obvious that the VRAM on that PS3 is gone really bad. the only fix for that is replace the entire RSX chipset which is impossible both getting a working one, even if you have a working one, that chip is paired on the Cell (CPU) so it will just do the usual reb blinking if your try to transplant a new RSX chip on it.
@@NSHG That means yours is about to die. If that console is important, I would suggest installing Custom firmware and doubling your fan speed on Webman. You could probably get a year or so more out of it if you do.
@@koga924 I managed to fix it. CPU IHS wasn't making good contact. Someone suggested sticking a square piece of eraser under the CPU, so I tried that. Since then, I don't have any issues with temperatures anymore. In fact, it has survived about 2 hours of non-stop gameplay of NFS Most Wanted 2012 and Hot Pursuit 2010, as well as a hour of NFS Rivals. I did install Webman and so far my temps never jump over 76*C for the CPU (which I was once told it's a server-grade CPU) and 63*C for the RSX, which sounds just okay for a 90nm unit (for me at least).
@@NSHG That's good to hear. I sorta project on them when people talk about problems with their PS3s. My CPU used to hover around 70-80+ degrees when I play PS2 games, even after using MX-4, so I had to put my fan speed to about 1.5x now it hangs out around 70-75 degrees while playing PS2 games. At this moment in time, I completely stopped using it since I get really stressed out that it might overheat. Reading all the YLOD stories online really fucked with me... Funny thing is I only paid $50, so even if it did break (again) I wouldn't be down much.
@@koga924 Yeah, I paid $4 for mine. Had YLOD, reflowed its RSX back to life and slapped in a 320GB drive, applied the eraser on the CELL, as well as applying MX-2 on both CELL and RSX. I don't really know but mine is like a tank. It does get hot but at least Webman keeps the fan acceptably quiet - it's at about 28% on mine, and ramps up to about 40% if it gets too hot. Kinda like one of my old Prescott based LGA775 based machine that used to ramp up its fan if the temperature was too high. For PS2 games, mine keeps it at a nice 63*C for CELL and about 40-50 for the RSX. That's because on the PS2 mode, my Webman settings keep the fan around the middle setting. I don't really mind that since I've been soo used to raging loud Delta Electronics/AVC fans in PCs. For $4, I really wouldn't be that sad either. I already have a slim, 2 CECHG04s (of which one runs Webman and is much more tuned), and a CECHL04 I recased and am in search for a harddrive.
an easy fix,is to wrap it in a toul so it carnt breath turn it on .let it overheat it will reball its self works best with ps flat upside down wrapped in blanket
RSX=Reality_Synthesizer. CELL PowerPC Emotion_Engine, I think that the solder used on the CPU will be of a different from the solder used else where in the system, With these systems if the GPU goes wonky they just have to be disposed of responsibly.
Thank you so much for the detailed explanation about reflowing/reballing. I'm going to be much more careful from now on and test the s&%t out of the boards before doing anything stupid.
Unfortunately these and the 80gb with the extra ports where notorious for effectively having same issue as the 360 where the bga melts or breaks Contacts
The wait is over, I almost went mad without my daily fix of My Mate VINCE videos
Me too
Great try Vince! Your motivation to go the extra mile to try to get a result/diagnosis continues to inspire. Thanks for the entertaining and enlightening video.
I'd like to share that I was worried when you were using flux at the end while there was still thermal paste lingering around the edges of the chip. I was concerned that some of the thermal paste might have been pulled under the BGA along with the flux and possibly contaminating the solder balls along the edge. This is just a guess on my part. It may not have had anything to do with the final result. It was still a great video, and as always, I'm eagerly looking forward to the next 'fix it' attempt. :)
I also can't fathom how this had over 3000 views and only about 300 'likes' at the time I watched it... Bad form people... Bad form...
I just got one from a buddy the other day, and have been trying to figure out the same issue, thank you for saving me time, and teaching me stuff!!!!
Vince, what you have there is a genuine 1st edition PlayStation 3 60 gb model. These were the only version of PS3 with the chrome accents on the front. This model plays all PS1 and PS2 disc titles in addition to the full PS3 library. I know this because I still have mine which I pre ordered and received on November 17 2006. It ran solid until October 2012 with heavy use. Sadly it got the yellow light of death...but worth every penny for sure.
kunfusion84 holy dude, how can you remember all the dates 10+ years ago... you definitely love that console.
@@rosetta7862well it was very expensive when it first came out
I still have my 80gb model. Unfortunately it's not PS2 backwards compatible but I still do have my PS2 for that occasional game!
I'm getting tomorrow the PS3 CECHC03 PAL (with new termal past), any advice to prolongue his life?
Osvaldo Cerda Martínez let me know when it dies i will permanently bring it back to life. Fixed three last week and funny thing is it’s not what people say it is that’s causing it.
To reset display output on the PS3, have it off, then press and hold the power button until you hear it beep again. Been keeping track of your skills, keep it up! Cheers! ^^
Thanks Vince for the video, it is always a good evening when you can settle down and watch your favourite UA-camr before going to bed.
Thanks Chris Paul :-)
I agree!!!
Nice attempt! I suspected it would not work - but I wouldn't give up just yet. What temperature did you use for the hot air there? On that type of hot air station (with the nozzle you are using) I would be going for a minimum for 450 degrees and heat it quite extensively for like 10+ minutes. It really needs to get to the point where the solder does melt. The fact that half of those shorts disappeared makes me wonder if a solder ball cracked off and is shorting underneath maybe. But it could be an internal fault of couse.
Louis was not 100% correct - one reason why it can work again after heating to "less than solder melting point" is thermal expansion of cracked solder joints. That was the point he missed in his video. On the PS3 and on many graphics cards, it IS purely bad BGA contacts. His experience from Mac boards might be different, maybe the GPUs fail more there, but on consoles it is nearly always bad connections on those BGA chips. The other thing that happens on PSPs and other handhelds is when dropped - sometimes the pad breaks off the PCB. Pressure helps it work again at that point. I've seen a few PSPs with that type of damage - damage you would expect to be solder crack, when in reality one or more pads actually detach near the corner when the unit hits the floor.
BTW - the speckles make me think the problem might be VRAM related. I cannot remember, but doesn't the GPU have the RAM mounted on it - the chips in the corners there? I think they are! What I might do there is remove the "underfill" around them, then try and reflow those. The underfill won't help matters as a crack might not easily rejoin because the underfill holds the chip up. Withouth underfill, assuming you can get all the solder balls up to melting point should mean a more successful reflow. Also add liquid flux under there too whilst doing this.
As always, great info Chris. Maybe I can do a revisit on this or I could try the coins on top of the GPU to see if it works and then try the reflow or maybe the oven method, not sure how much that will stink the house out though, don't want any grief!!!!! My temp at the end was up full so 480C and full air which is the max my cheapo unit will do. I always get worried when heating up chips in case I pop them but I suppose this will come with experience. Is there an approx. temp or time limit that the chips can handle or is it all based on their size and thickness?
I presume the underfill on the RAM chips is some kind or glue or plastic, do you scrape this off or use chemicals to remove it?
Cheers :-)
@@Mymatevince Better cover the capacitors and plastic [looking] parts with aluminium foil when baking it also remove the thermal pads of the Emotion Engine (Chip below the Cell thats for PS2 compatibility) and the chip on the right of the RSX.
With baking I managed to repair a GTX 760 bought it in October and worked fine after cleaning, but in November it failed, (used it as secondary graphics card) after installing drivers so I baked it and it works fine again, gifted the PC (Core 2 Quad Q8400, 8 GB RAM and this GTX 760) to a neighbour and still no complains.
But my old HD 5770 also failed (just black screen, no booting at all) and still not working after baking it, maybe I'll try it a second time.
I love your videos vince you've tought me a lot. I'm like you I buy junk off ebay just to mess about with. Sometimes I get luck and successfully repair them, sometimes I don't. Like you say it's all a learning curve.
You are testing it wrong. Those caps near/under/close to the chips are bypass capacitors. You are activating junctions within the chip making it appear that those capacitors are shorting. Test them out of circuit.
Even though it was a dud I still love your videos and still learn stuff from you. Keep it up mate!
The memory card slots are another tell tale sign, along with the four USB ports, that it's a PS2 compatible model. They are used to playback photos and videos from digital cameras. CF is Compact Flash, SD is obviously Secure Digital cards and the last one is Memory Stick Pro which was Sony's terrible proprietary card format they used in their own cameras (and PSP in the form of Pro Duo).
When playing PS1 and PS2 games the PS3 will create virtual memory cards that are stored on the hard drive.
This model (CECHC03) should have originally been a 60GB model. This along with the 20GB model are almost fully compatible with all PS2 games as they had much of the PS2 hardware inside.
It's the later 80GB model (CECHM03 I think) that lost the PS2 hardware and instead had software emulation that can be far less compatible with some PS2 titles but does still play most games well.
Bravo! You know your PS3 hardware.
Actually, not quite. Only A and B had full PS2 hardware inside them for full BC support. C and E only have partial emulation support (only one of the PS2 chips).
That being said, the C and E models do some upscaling which actually make PS2 games look better than on A and B models. Anything after E does not have any PS2 support. Jailbreaking allows for full software emulation but it is way worse than the BC consoles.
The best way to identify a BC PS3 is by checking the usb ports and the color accents. BC ones have 4 usb and chrome accents, normal ones have 2 usbs.
I do not recommend anyone buying these BC consoles though, as they are by far the most unreliable ones. And btw, the YLoD is almost always caused by NEC/Tokin chips and not the CPU/GPU (as Vince himself has also proven in his more recent videos)
@@Riku148 But if you do replace the capacitors, and keep good airflow on the system, it should be fine
@@Riku148 no it’s actually more the solder now as folks on the psx place have started to realize but thats not to say that nec/tokins are fine
The power supply rails of CPU and GPU usually have a very low input impedance, which is required for such a low voltage and high current device. Put your multimeter on low Ohm position, zero it out and try to measure again. You will find a few Ohms resistance.
The two big chips likely run on very low (under 1.5 volts probably) supply voltages and thus if you test from supply voltage to ground you're going to measure a very low resistance (as they draw high current at low voltage) and depending on how your meter works you might get a continuity beep. I'm not positive that's what's happening here but something to keep in mind.
useing a vac i used a vac on all the computers i ever fix over the past 30 years and every one still worked after the clean
You could see the GPU pop corning while you were heating it up. Try looking up a reflow or reball process Vince, I know you're no expert, but it's very interesting and could help you in the future. The way to avoid the pop corning would be to purchase a preheater or you can just use a cooking griddle for very cheap. The moisture in the chip is trying to escape when you heat it up too fast. Hope this helps in the future :)
The problem you have is called a "green light of death" pretty well the same as the "yellow light of death" except the PS3 simply isn't throwing the error for whatever reason, probably because there is still a little contact from the joints on the chip.
Additionally, if you really want to fix this issue, just reply and I'll tell you where to get started! Great video as always Vince!
Hi Vince, so I have been watching your videos for quite some time now and I really enjoy watching you rebuild things, especially because half the stuff you do with motherboards I don't know about, but while watching this video, I noticed how you applied an extensive amount of thermal paste. So I HIGHLY advise you look up how to correctly apply thermal paste. And this isn't me trying to make you seem bad or an "amateur", but if you apply to much thermal paste, it will overflow over the chip, come in contact with other chips or pieces, and short them out, essentially ruining everything you have worked for. The best method I have found and what I use (I frequently build computers and have been trained on such matters), is the pea method, apply a pea-sized dollop of thermal paste in the middle, then place the cooler or in your case, the piece of metal connected to the fan, on to the chip, and only apply thermal paste to one side. Hopefully you read this because it is very important. Anyways, keep up the great work I love watching your videos!!
Hi Vince! I have had this problem before. How I solved my problem was I disconnected the hdd and then reconnected it. It seemed to work. Good Luck. (-:
The Issue that you are having is that your hot air rework station is not powerful enough to heat up the whole chip, I have a dead ps3 slim with the same problem, I can't fix it yet because my paint burner or heat gun whatever you call it died . So basically you need a hot air gun to do the job because it has enough surface area to heat the chip, I do suggest pre heating the board before you start reflowing the chip
Momfie The hunter pretty much you’re right! My question is will a kitchen oven work? My reasoning is that the kitchen oven could heat the whole board up to 500 degree Fahrenheit or 260 Degree Celsius more then enough heat to melt the solder
@@lucaspagan3576 would reccommand using one that you don't use for food anymore because of the fumes solder creates and also cover up any plastic parts on the pcb like the speaker that makes the beeping sounds. you can watch a UA-cam video if you are not sure about the settings of the oven
nice vid Vince, I also have a ps3 with same issue so was hoping you would find an easy fix! I think they need reballing, I have just received a re-balling kit from china, only a few £s and plan on trying over the weekend, I also have seen a few diy reballing videos so fancy giving it a go, i will video it and hopefully can get it going.
Checking capacitors under big chips doesn't tell you much in the beeper mode. Big chips usually have a very low resistance. They powered by a low voltage and consume quite a lot of power. Resistance might even be lower than 1 Ohm on some chips that are working fine.
Great video again Vince, brings back memories of me trying to resurrect my launch day ps3 after it broke, i rigged up a square cardboard tube the same size as the gpu chip lined with tinfoil and mounted on a stand about 10mm above the chip to lift and reball it, i used a hot air gun as the solder station hot air wand didnt have enough umph as you found out, my efforts werent successful however haha it was broke anyways good luck with the 3rd ps3!
Reflow it on the oven. Remove all non-smd components as those may melt, put it on the oven a bit lifted from the oven tray (using per example some nuts on places where there are no components) ensuring that no component rests on the tray, slowly increase the temp to 250 degrees, leave it for five minutes, turn off the oven and without completely opening it let it cool down slowly. Don't worry about the components on the bottom side falling, they will stay in place because the melt stain will hold them in place. That's basically how an infrared SMD oven works.
Issue with reflow is plastic parts like connectors housings
@@38911bytefree that's why I said he must remove all the non-smd components :)
Who clicks like before they've even watched the vid? Me! Cos I know I can settle down and enjoy before going to bed!
Great vid again mate👍👍
@Hatimhatimyousouf Yousouf glad I'm not the only one then lol
Hey Vince, how do you mount your camera when doing electronics work? My videos look way too close. Really appreciate any guidance you can offer
Hi, I use a tripod and then I can adjust the height from approx. 60cm to 1m 50cm. If the item I am filming is bigger then I move the camera higher to try and get it in the shot. If I want to do overhead shots then I extend one leg of the tripod and use a weight on the extended leg to stop it from tipping over and then the tripod can go right over the item :-)
@@Mymatevince thank you, I value this information
I had forgotten all about part 1, that one was a quick fix.
I worked on similar ps3's and attempted a full reball with the same station you have and it simply does not get hot enough to melt the solder under a chip that big. Something this big needs to be heated from the top and bottom at the same time with better tools.
I tried re flowing the solder balls but adding a penny or coin on top to give it more pressure worked for me. You might want to try to re-flow the solder balls under both chips. Sometimes the heat trick works but adding more pressure on the chips does the trick if the solder has cracks in it. I hope you re-visit this repair. They do sell special plates to make re-flowing the solder balls easier.
You are doing the continuity test incorrectly, a short is not determined by a beep, that is to avoid seeing the multimeter while you check the board, a short is determined if between the positive and negative there are 0 ohms, if you have a value different from zero can surely be normal readings due to the processor or resistors in parallel.
If there was a short, the chip that manages the console power would not have allowed the console to turn on.
And it does not need to screw the whole device and connect it to the TV to check if the chip itself is working, just touch it, while it's on, if it gets hot, it's working
if it gets cold it's because the chip does even not start,
doing this test is also good to find out if you have any component in short, which, if it is, will get very hot
140 °C isn't nearly enough. If you want to do a reflow (to fix a YLOD), it's actually easier to put the mainboard into the oven (some people cover parts of it in aluminium foil, never did that) and then bake it at 200 °C for 15 to 20 minutes. Make sure it's levelled (which isn't easy with those two prongs sticking out of it), I used two small wooden chopping boards for that. Also, if you do that make sure to take out the CMOS battery (the smell can be quite bad, if you forget to do that). And when you're done, keep it in the oven until it is cooled down, don't move it while it's still warm. I have saved quite a few PS3s that way, even one Xbox 360 that had been massively tempered with before (the previous owner TRIED an XClamp fix on it, out of curiosity I put the board into the oven and used normal screws to put it back together, worked for a time, not long though). I am not sure whether or not this helps with this PS3 though, it could be that this is caused by the problem described (cracks in the solder due to thermal reactions) or the GPU could be bad (as you've assumed). And even if you manage to fix it, there is no telling how long it will last, even if the solder was the problem, because the thermal reactions will start again, causing more cracks again, until you'd have to reflow it every day.
The GLOD was actually associated with the PS3 Slim and later the SuperSlim (which was basically a piece of ****, I had ones with failing drives, failing PSU, failing mainboads, blown fuses on the mainboards..., it's actually surprising that there are still working SuperSlims around), it was basically the same thing like the YLOD, an unspecified hardware error and the PS3's way of saying "Mr. Stark, I don't feel so good".
Reballing works much better than a reflow. There are some 'homemade" ways to do a reballing without give away a lot of money. With some pratice it not seems too hard. I think you can do it with some pratice, preferencelly with garbage's boards first.
By the way, your videos are very motivating, great work!
My brother has the very original fat version bought from new, he loved the ps1 the ps2 but just rarely ever used the ps3, over time it just sat in the box being taken out very rarely to play the odd game, then a few months ago my blu ray player died, I borrowed the now aging ps3 only to find out the whole disc reading side was completely dead, it pulled the disc in but nothing, not even a reading sound so he went online found an entire cage and laser assembly with motor, which I reluctantly installed to find it now works flawlessly, been using it ever since.
The Cell Processor of the PS3 is on a separate die from the GPU. Try sticking that board in your kitchen oven to melt the solder. My reasoning is that the kitchen oven could heat the whole board up to 500 degree Fahrenheit or 260 Degree Celsius more then enough heat to melt the solder
Great videos Vince as a fellow dabble in gadgets I feel your joy and pain in wins and loses but one thing grind my gears HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO WORK ON PROJECTS ON THE FLOOR. My knees would be shot, that's the real story here :-) Can we go fund you for a table!! 😎
I always wonder how he can work in the floor, it's crazy.
For heavy boards like that, and without an IR rework station, heating the board to 180c on a foreman grill before trying hot air helps.
Strange but true
Hi maye new sub here. Where did you get that screwdriver tool set? Looks awesome.
Im having issues with a CECH03 at the moment whereby the PS3 and PS1 games work but the ps2 games dont. When PS2 game is inserted and in middle of loading the fan goes hype mode for a second but then it all shuts down with a flashing red light... any idea whats wrong with it?
I love the videos but when using the tester for continuity can you either cover the speaker a little or have it much further from the camera mic.
Vince I been mean to tell you Thank you so much your vlog on how to fix a Xbox one elite controller was a great help my had that issue with the rubber part of the controller was coming off and I was in panic mode I did not know how to fix the problem until I watch your vlogs so I wanted to say say ty so much 😊
Hi mate, when you are reflowing the cpu and gpu, if you look at the top right corner of the cpu you can see what looks like a blob of solder that could be causing a short, i would say a reball on both chips would be a very worth while repair. And reballing is meant to be best when the solder is replaced with leaded solder as it handles heating and cooling down better. Love to see you give the reball a go on this! These 60’s were the best built units imo.
Ohhh, I didn't notice that but it does look like 2 blobs of solder quite close to each other on the CPU, about 1-2 cm away from the thermal paste blob on the board. Am I looking in the right spot? Thanks :-)
My Mate VINCE hi thanks for the reply, yes you can see it at around 57min mark. Obviously its easier for is viewers to see as im watching it on a big tv filmed on zoom so would be very very hard to see on the naked eye. I think a reball on both chips may actually fix this one. Regards, jake
Finally a video from my mate Vince
Under that flap is for memory cards - CF = Compact Flash - SD is a standard SD card slot and the other one is for Memory Stick Pro (Sony's own format)
That console should be treatted very well and change thermal paste at least once a year, if you don't clean it once a year it breaks down because it wasn't really well designed, it had for its time really expensive things like the blue ray, but the cooling is not very good, the only worth ps3 is the super slim because it doesn't get as hot as this one, nice video vince :)
Disagree about the 'super slim' model, I wouldn't recommend that over the 'slim'.
I've had an 80GB 'phat' which got the YLoD after about 4 years and then I replaced that with a super slim that worked for about 5 years (both bought new), before totally dying (LED wouldn't even turn on). Long before it died, the super slim developed a whine noise (probably 'coil whine'), that was very distracting, as was the much noiser top loading disc drive.
When it died I tried a repair at CeX, and when they couldn't fix it, I just picked up boxed 160GB slim at CeX and have been using it since.
The PS3 from CeX has some fan noise (much better than the other models I had though), but hard to complain considering how old it is. The 160GB & 320GB slims were released in Oct 2010 in Europe, so depending on when this unit originally sold, it could be up to about 8.5yrs old. Went with a boxed unit, as I thought the kind of person to keep the box would probably keep it in good condition.
It is the same story with laptops. The require periodic maintenance, paste, clean fan, radiator cooler that is usually partially cloged.Even coated with tarmish the heatsink efficiency falls like a rock, fans runs much faster and end getting random shuts off. if you keep insiting, damage will finally occur. Pavilions are the prime example IMHO, undersize cooling and the exhaust is partially covered when you open the screen at 120 degrees or mor. But a good design. To make thing worse the put cheap paste to the GPU.
I have a 60GB phat that I've used hard since it was launched. Never done any maintenance on it at all and it's still going strong.
@@roverboy01 Thats good but you should have it in a place in where there isn't a lot of dust.
@@DaveSimonH I have the super slim and works perfectly i also have the fat and it has the yellow light of death, the fat worked for about 2 years and my super slim has been working for 6 years.
good job anyway vince, you always learn something.
I have this exact playstation its now 12 years old and pristine and working perfectly. It was only for sale for a short while then sony stopped making it and removed the backwards compatibility (presumably to sell more ps3 games) Original hard drive for this model was 60gb
I baked my ps3 40gb that got ylod in the oven for 30min and it lived on for another 12 or so months of hard gaming. It's worth trying, I did my 360 e74 error with a heat gun and flux, that also lived for another 8 months I think but still well work the repair.
You should use flux because if the solder has been heat cycled a few times which is likely then it will certainly have cold solder joints
Nice try man. I enjoyed watching you puzzle it out.
Good old IBM CELL processor ♥️
I can't believe you haven't heard about that CPU before, it was a crazy powerful CPU with 8 cores and University's bought tons of PS3s and used them for grid computing/supercomputer.
The PS3 can run Linux 🙂
Its 6 or 7 cores, but not exactly...you can read in Wikipedia and its not "crazy" powerful. For its time, definitely was more powerful than the Xbox, but still specially nowdays is nothing. And to make games for it was crappy.
@@borisdg try reading my comment again 😉 The CELL was not developed for game consoles.
@@borisdg it's actually 8 cores but Sony locked one of them. You can unlock it if you hook up a uart usb converter to the syscon testpoints & run the python script to interact with it.
I have fixed a few PS3 phats with a heat gun and flux and the results were mixed to say the least. One 60gb I fixed from ylod lasted 1 year, one about a month, and a few could not be revived. I think with these consoles it just depends on how heavily used they were and what previous repairs they had if any. My own 60gb phat lasted 7 years before wearing out with pixelated av output - the last game I played on it was GTA 5. But it has been replaced with a 1tb cfw PS3 slim that is still going strong.
I'm sorry I'm not trying to be rude or anything...
But isn't the initial issue here is the the unit itself heats up which causes the damage from the beginning?
Y/G/RLOD
Why add direct heat on it and expect it to magically work?
Hey Vince, you should pre heat the board before reflow. Also re-balling ain't as hard as you think and most of the equipment is available for cheap on eBay. Love the vid though and was wondering when your going to upload.
Great video Vince.
Nice vid dude, Would be fanstatic to make a vid on trying to remove one of this big chips I tried myself on a way smaller one, from a lenovo laptop and end ruining the chip. Station goes up to 450, but takes too long so I end damaging the chip. But I heated a Pavilion DV7 GPU and got it back to life. Of course it id not going to last. Pavilions are toasters but I got it for a few buck so I was playing anyways. Good job. Keep comming.
good old launch model ps3 before they removed the sd card reader and other features, thing weighed a ton and was plauged with overheat faults but damn it was an amazing machine
i did a "reflow" on an xbox 360 that had the red ring of death and that was 4 years ago and it still works so rossman might be wrong =) btw i put an extra 0.1 mm copper plate between the heatsink and chip that might have helped to =) love your channel as i am a fixit amateur to but i have workt a little with this so that might make me a professional ;)
@GM Kof hard na then i would be the luckiest man on earth =) that was the first one i have done 6 more after that one and all of them works still
On a working PS3 you would also get "shorts" all over the CPU/GPU, because the size of the capacitors are too small causing the multimeter to beep. It's better to have your meter in diode mode and check that way, you can find videos regarding this on Jessa Ipad Rehab channel.
The full backwards compatible PS3s were not available in Europe, the CECHC03 is the launch model there. (Our 2nd Generation PS3, the CECHE01, is exactly the same as your guy's CECHC03, which has one of the PS2 chips but not the other and has the missing chip be emulated)
Also, try reflowing it in an oven, I typically do that for systems with faults and it usually has results.
Additionally, PS3 can't hot swap cables, everytime you want to change input you HAVE to restart the system and let it detect your connection type (it should typically do that on its own.)
PS3s also require an HDD to play software and get into the XMB
@@radiiiiiiiiiiii All CECHC and CECHE only have one chip (if there was a board revision, Sony would of changed the letter,) and can launch every PS2 game made. HOWEVER, it does not mean it can PLAY every PS2 game ever made. Games such as Tekken Tag Tournament will start and go into gameplay on a CECHC/CECHE, but will play at half speed, rendering the game as unsupported. PAL units were only greeted with a chromed bezel CECHC (the CECHD, the budget 20GB model was not released, would of been a 1 chip CECHB. Our CECHF also didn't make it to market either,) any non-chromed bezel would be CECHG and beyond. I know there's software on PSN for PS2 game emulation, which I assume was made for the CECHG (would of had a grey bezel,) as my CECHE does not require the software package to be installed for PS2 games to be launched and neither does my CECHA.
Hi Vince
It will show shorts on beeper mode, my Fluke beeps with 150R but not higher.
I have mentioned this to you before, you can not use the beeper mode on meters to check for shorts in electronic circuits, if you have another meter you can check the output voltage of your meter in beeper mode.
The Fluke 77 I have gives out 0.5V in normal resistance mode and 2.5V in beep mode.
The reason for this is it is so you can test diodes so it needs to be able to turn on a diode, which it will also do when you use to test a board.
The capacitors are for power rail decoupling and it will be a low voltage say 2V and if you measure using resistance mode will most likely be below 100R.
You will more likely need 350C or more for the hot air.
I used to fix YLOD on ps3s, to fix them i used to put my heat gun at 350c, 2" away from the chips for about 40 seconds, and i never did directly on the GPU and CPU, only on the black rectangular chips on the back. Allways worked after
You need to watch Andrew Paul videos pal, nice vid BTW, liking the logical approach
Thanks, I love Andrew Paul videos. He has helped me out on a couple of Xbox One S fixes and a PS4 :-) Just wished he had videos on more stuff so I could copy him all the time. He is a living legend!!!!!!
i wont say it's a fix but you can at least see picture on your screen by putting a penny on the heat sink of the RSX and tighting up the screws very hard so the solder under the RSX will make contact to the board because GLOD is a symptom of the solder not touching the RSX the problem is that the PS3 will work but make loud noise and shutdown of overheating because the heat sink not touching the RSX i run a console repair shop in TUNISIA and i watch your videos all the time keep it up
I've tried that method before, it didn't work at all.
@@HuntersMoon78 if it didn't work most likely you have more than one solder joint not contacting the RSX a reball will fix it most of the times
I have one just like that one. I was getting a red light of death, meaning it wasnt even booting. I got it running again reflowing the gpu. So in your case I would say its a hdmi chip. And yes it looks like everything is shorted. Low voltage, low resistance . I also had a capacitor that shorted near the cpu that blew a fuse.
I think the problem is the capacitors...try to change the NEC/TOKIN capacitors. I have your own console, but in my case the HDMI and AV port doesn't show anything on the TV and can't reset the video output, because the console doesn't make any sound after the first beep. Maybe is the capacitors in my case too.
"My name's Vince from MyMateVince.com" is always a sign of good things to come. Thanks again for yet another video!
Love the video`s just wish you would do them on a bench and not on the floor, better luck next time Vince....
140c won't melt leaded solder alone, now try melting lead free solder at that temperature, with a thick board good at spreading heat, can you make a follow up vid possibly with the hot air gun at 450c for a longer period of time and see if it works
just put it in the oven at 250°C and hope for the best :D
I miss leaded solder for the low melting points.. in the 90s that actually had a chance to work
Love the vids, keepem coming 👍
you should buy some different sized thermal pads for quick testing instead of thermal paste.
hey vince i sucessfully restored one you need schematics here you miss the transistor check near the hdmi port
2 pnp and one npn and dont forget the ne tokins caps
Nice try vince. Hope better luck next time. However I have a small suggestion for you, a poor man's fix that sometimes works, and since you don't have anything to lose and your hot air station is not strong enough to heat that board up, you can always use your oven for it. Set it up to 350-400 celcius, and tuck the board in without any rubbers and similar stuff of course. Let it sit there for a good 5-7 mins or more and turn the oven off. Let it cool down by itself inside the oven. It might fix solder related problems.
Nothing ventured nothing gained, Great video, Better luck next time 🤞
That board looks awfully messy for one that wasn't opened before. Looks like old flux near the HDMI port. Are you sure the sticker was genuine?
Love watching these & wondering what the outcome will be? I like scrolling down the comments too while watching. It’s a shame some of the comments give it away 👎🏻
Nice videos. BGA (Ball Grid Arrays) chips are not likely to short unless the chip got so hot the solder melted, BGA's are likely to go open due to thermal expansion and contraction and reheating may work in this case. A short is likely to be caused by a failed chip or a failed capacitor. Unfortunately all of those capacitors are in parallel so finding a shorted one is harder. the way to find it is to apply power and look for heat spots, either feel by hand or look with a thermal imaging camera. If the chip gets warm then game over, but if a capacitor heats up then take it off the board, don't bother replacing it as all those caps are in parallel they are what's know as decoupling capacitors and are used to reduce power fluctuations locally (very locally), I'm confused why the the caps under the CPU are also short, if the CPU wasn't running then you wouldn't get any life from it at all. (These are my thoughts and I am not an expert just thought you might like the input). Keep up the repairs / attempts nobody repairs 100%. Love watching your thought processes.
He had meter on diode mode, on ohm mode it will have been a few ohms but not a straight short, which is normal for those caps
I know very little about consoles, but I have a few years of experience with laptops.
I fully agree with Louis Rossmann about GPU reballing as well. However you can revive a GPU temporarily by using a heatgun. My method is to apply a liquid flux under the GPU and hit the chip with 300 degrees of heat with a high airflow, constantly moving the heatgun around the edge of the chip, but NEVER on the centre of the chip itself or you risk damaging the chip. The goal is to be heating the caps around the edge of the chip.
You can buy cheap heat probes and run the leads under the GPU and will give you some indication of your progress, but a few minutes of heat usually does the job.
Louis Rossman methos is the way to go but not practica when trying to sort old stuff like cored duo laptops for example. You get as much juice as it is left. You wont be making a reballing on this machines. Heating a GPU on a Pavilion worked for me. How long ?. I cant tell, probably months.
@@38911bytefree I can't understand why people chose to reball a GPU. If you go to that much trouble you just replace the chip and it would be a permanent fix.
I have a ps3 of the same model number. I bought it at release and it worked for many years but got the yellow light of death and has been sitting in my attic for years since. I recently dug it out while looking for something else in the attic and decided to have a go at getting it to work and that is how I ended up here. When I plug in my ps3 to power and press the on button all I get is the fan momentarily coming on and going off again and the power LED just flashes red. I have the system fully disassembled and the thermal paste cleaned off the two main chips. Tomorrow I will probably blast the two of them with a heat gun in an attempt to reflow the BGA and hope for the best. Best case scenario it works....worst case scenario it stays broken and gets plopped right back into it's dark corner in the attic. Did you ever solve this or ever try again?
The GPUs that Lewis talks about in his video are known bad MacBook gpus. The ps3 can be easily fixed by a reflow as it is a different issue than the one Lewis dealt with in his video. The MacBook gpus are physically bad chips, the ps3 gpus are 99% of the time fine, but are just not correctly connected to the board because of cracked joints, which a reflow will normally fix. Also you don’t need special equipment to reflow the gpu, just a heat gun :)
I drilled some holes in the base of my OG PS3, the same size of the internal fan then sat it on a laptop cooler and it's still working to this day.
From watching this from the start and have not finished it I'm guessing GPU or video output chip
Update: from watching the video I would think it's the video output chip really unfortunate it was a bust but hopefully you will be able to fix the third one
still a great learning video
You can temporarly fix it using a heat gun on both side of the bga, but the best fix is obviusly a reball or even better a complete replacement of the gpu
I absolutely loved that... anybody had this issue and made it work if so how long did they last?
I bet this wont go good either way, its obvious that the VRAM on that PS3 is gone really bad. the only fix for that is replace the entire RSX chipset which is impossible both getting a working one, even if you have a working one, that chip is paired on the Cell (CPU) so it will just do the usual reb blinking if your try to transplant a new RSX chip on it.
I Had this problem on my ps3 CHECH04 and I just powered it on without the hard drive and it worked and displayed fine
No Vince video withouth crawling on the carpet :D
Reflow of the GPU is a myth. Always do a resistance check on NEC TOKIN capacitors and reflow the dodgy one. It permanently fixes 70 percent of ylods.
Mine was fixed by just blasting the whole area altogether.
Although, it ramps up the fan while not even getting that hot, idk why.
@@NSHG That means yours is about to die. If that console is important, I would suggest installing Custom firmware and doubling your fan speed on Webman. You could probably get a year or so more out of it if you do.
@@koga924 I managed to fix it. CPU IHS wasn't making good contact. Someone suggested sticking a square piece of eraser under the CPU, so I tried that. Since then, I don't have any issues with temperatures anymore. In fact, it has survived about 2 hours of non-stop gameplay of NFS Most Wanted 2012 and Hot Pursuit 2010, as well as a hour of NFS Rivals.
I did install Webman and so far my temps never jump over 76*C for the CPU (which I was once told it's a server-grade CPU) and 63*C for the RSX, which sounds just okay for a 90nm unit (for me at least).
@@NSHG That's good to hear. I sorta project on them when people talk about problems with their PS3s. My CPU used to hover around 70-80+ degrees when I play PS2 games, even after using MX-4, so I had to put my fan speed to about 1.5x now it hangs out around 70-75 degrees while playing PS2 games. At this moment in time, I completely stopped using it since I get really stressed out that it might overheat. Reading all the YLOD stories online really fucked with me...
Funny thing is I only paid $50, so even if it did break (again) I wouldn't be down much.
@@koga924 Yeah, I paid $4 for mine. Had YLOD, reflowed its RSX back to life and slapped in a 320GB drive, applied the eraser on the CELL, as well as applying MX-2 on both CELL and RSX. I don't really know but mine is like a tank. It does get hot but at least Webman keeps the fan acceptably quiet - it's at about 28% on mine, and ramps up to about 40% if it gets too hot. Kinda like one of my old Prescott based LGA775 based machine that used to ramp up its fan if the temperature was too high.
For PS2 games, mine keeps it at a nice 63*C for CELL and about 40-50 for the RSX. That's because on the PS2 mode, my Webman settings keep the fan around the middle setting. I don't really mind that since I've been soo used to raging loud Delta Electronics/AVC fans in PCs.
For $4, I really wouldn't be that sad either. I already have a slim, 2 CECHG04s (of which one runs Webman and is much more tuned), and a CECHL04 I recased and am in search for a harddrive.
hey, kinda late at this point, but if you have a PS3 turned off, and hold the power button until you hear 2 beeps, it resets all video settings
Is it me or there is something funky about the way the CIP next looks like. It looks crispy. (the black one)?
Seriously Vince, i'm sure a certain PM watches your vids and wants to know if you can fix BREXIT ??
Sure, he'll just set his meter to continuity.
Brexit doesn’t need fixing.
Brexit is trash for England however since i am not a fan of England go ahead Brexit!
troll jones it’s not trash for England, they will come out better because of it(and free of the EU)
the os fireware is on the nand chips on that model ..you can swap hard drives without having to install it back to hd so should boot with no hd
an easy fix,is to wrap it in a toul so it carnt breath turn it on .let it overheat it will reball its self works best with ps flat upside down wrapped in blanket
RSX=Reality_Synthesizer. CELL PowerPC Emotion_Engine, I think that the solder used on the CPU will be of a different from the solder used else where in the system, With these systems if the GPU goes wonky they just have to be disposed of responsibly.
Thank you so much for the detailed explanation about reflowing/reballing. I'm going to be much more careful from now on and test the s&%t out of the boards before doing anything stupid.
The front top side of PS3 Fat compatible should open like piano. exposing memory card ports. This one is 100% compatible.
This one only has the ps2 GPU. So it’s not fully compatible.
I had this model of the PS3, trouble is I lived in London, was robbed and never saw it again.
F
My👏Mate👏Vince👏
You are my favorite youtuber fixingwise... is that a word ?
Is that plastic cover where says playstation on it - is it scrathed ? I need one ;)
Unfortunately these and the 80gb with the extra ports where notorious for effectively having same issue as the 360 where the bga melts or breaks Contacts
you can put at the top of rsx ihs 4 coins to put more pressure to the chip,is the only way to fix it
Thats the 1st model ,PS3 60GB, the only one whit 4 ports and mem card slots
No the 60gb is the CECHA01 and it had a ps2 in it, the one in the video plays ps2 by emulation
There was also an 80gb model with 4 USB and sd slots etc, same overheating issues