PS3 New PS3 YLOD fix

[Mord.Fustang]

Maybe some of you have already seen this, but I figure there is some users here who would find this interesting.

User Naked Snake1995 shows a potential new fix for YLOD, involving replacing some of the capacitors. Lots of people in the thread saying it worked for them without cooking their motherboards.

PS3 - (Research/Experimental) - NEC/TOKIN Capacitors Replacement - YLOD

[ATTACH] THIS GUIDE IS PURELY FOR RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTAL PURPOSES USE THE SYSCON UART DIAGNOSTICS FIRST TO CHECK THE ERROR CODES ON THE BOARD,...

www.psx-place.com

 

[Anthony817]

Yep, seen some others discussing this over at Reddit and PSX-Place. Indeed if this is the major issue, and not the hairline fractures on the CPU solder balls itself this would be great to see more BC PS3's revived.

 

[NeC5552]

For BC PS3s, I've also seen people stick a piece of eraser (cut in half or so) under the CELL.

I tried it and I can say that's the cheapest way if you don't feel okay with delidding the CELL. My 60GB PS3 now doesn't go into airplane mode, and webman doesn't spaz out trying to cool down the CELL (it hit 82*C with the air exhaust being cold).

 

[Trimesh]

Yep, seen some others discussing this over at Reddit and PSX-Place. Indeed if this is the major issue, and not the hairline fractures on the CPU solder balls itself this would be great to see more BC PS3's revived.

The solder balls definitely failed. I put a number of 360 and PS3 boards through our X-Ray inspection machine at work and large numbers of the balls on the 2nd level interconnect had obvious cracks and/or voids. Even more telling is that you could get a board with obvious cracks on the Cell and RSX - but if you X-Rayed the section of the board with the EE/GS chip there was no problem there. This very strongly suggests that the crack formation was temperature cycle related.

Having said that, those Proadlizer caps are well-known trouble sources too, especially when installed in the filter configuration with the load current passing through them, which I think is what the PS3 does.

It would be interesting to measure the voltage drop across the caps - unfortunately, I did a purge of my old PS3s (and old 360s) some time ago, so I'm not a position to test it myself anymore.

 

[Mord.Fustang]

For BC PS3s, I've also seen people stick a piece of eraser (cut in half or so) under the CELL.

The eraser trick is preventative maintenance to avoid YLOD, as opposed to a YLOD fix.

 

[supersega]

By the way, here is a much better video on how to perform the repair compared to the article. I am going to try this though! It does not look like too hard of a repair.

 

[supersega]

I actually just purchased a cheap YLOD error model off of eBay, so I am going to try...

1. Just reflowing with hot air station (just got one as a gift... good excuse to use it!)
2. Measure the Vdd (dunno if that's correct terminology, but the voltage drop) of the capacitor before and after reflow.
3. Replace cap with film caps as specified in thread.
4. Measure Vdd again, then hopefully have a working PS3!

 

[truemaster]

i would go for the nec-tokins change first. most ps3 work after that, but the crack solder under gpu-cpu is also posible. anyway the xbox 360-ps3 generation of consoles was bad. xbox 360 was reliable after the jasper model and ps3 is only slim lines. but question remains ps4 and xbox one used too leed-free solder why the curent generation doent fail as much as previous? do they use a better leed-free that wont crack after multiple heats-cooldowns? maybe @Bad_Ad84 know something about it

 

[supersega]

i would go for the nec-tokins change first. most ps3 work after that, but the crack solder under gpu-cpu is also posible. anyway the xbox 360-ps3 generation of consoles was bad. xbox 360 was reliable after the jasper model and ps3 is only slim lines. but question remains ps4 and xbox one used too leed-free solder why the curent generation doent fail as much as previous? do they use a better leed-free that wont crack after multiple heats-cooldowns? maybe @Bad_Ad84 know something about it

If I were just doing it to fix the unit, I’d do that. But I’m curious on what TriMesh said and want to test if that is actually true, as it would not surprise me if it is.

 

[Bad_Ad84]

But you won't know if it's true, unless it is a solder ball issue.

And if it is a solder ball issue, you will know when it doesn't work after the cap change.

Change caps -> works -> cap issue. If it doesn't, you can test reflow to find out if its solder balls.

Reflow first won't tell you anything, as apparently the reflow can make the caps work for a bit. So it could be either.

You are only going to do what you want to test if you find one that cap change doesn't fix, then test from there. Else you aren't finding out anything.

 

[FamilyGuy]

But you won't know if it's true, unless it is a solder ball issue.

And if it is a solder ball issue, you will know when it doesn't work after the cap change.

Change caps -> works -> cap issue. If it doesn't, you can test reflow to find out if its solder balls.

Reflow first won't tell you anything, as apparently the reflow can make the caps work for a bit. So it could be either.

You are only going to do what you want to test if you find one that cap change doesn't fix, then test from there. Else you aren't finding out anything.

Bad Ad; Good scientific method.

 

[supersega]

But you won't know if it's true, unless it is a solder ball issue.

And if it is a solder ball issue, you will know when it doesn't work after the cap change.

Change caps -> works -> cap issue. If it doesn't, you can test reflow to find out if its solder balls.

Reflow first won't tell you anything, as apparently the reflow can make the caps work for a bit. So it could be either.

You are only going to do what you want to test if you find one that cap change doesn't fix, then test from there. Else you aren't finding out anything.

You don't understand this. I am reflowing to see if the heat actually makes the caps work, then testing it and replacing the caps later if the voltage drop changes after all of the work. I'm testing all variables there.

 

[FamilyGuy]

You don't understand this. I am reflowing to see if the heat actually makes the caps work, then testing it and replacing the caps later if the voltage drop changes after all of the work. I'm testing all variables there.

But if reflowing fixes it, you won't be sure it's the caps.

 

[truemaster]

nec-tokins after exposed to heat restore some capacitance back, enough for the console to boot. that led people to believe that when ps3 ylod is always crack solder joint-s under rsx bga or cell bga, while the real problem most of the time is the nec-tokin caps. i get you want to test things on a console you aquire for just a few bucks, but to be technicly correct one must follow steps and documentation that is avaible for this fix. i woudnt exposed a bga chip to a reflow (220 celcious) without need. also if the bga dont have crack solder joints. after the reflow the joints will crack sooner compared to a non reflowed one. solder is about to flow once every reheat later decrease the solder. the liquid flux you put around chip is to help the solder not to dry complete but it isnt restore the old solder completely. and why put this big amount of heat when its not needed? heat is decrease the life spam of components

 

[Bad_Ad84]

You don't understand this. I am reflowing to see if the heat actually makes the caps work, then testing it and replacing the caps later if the voltage drop changes after all of the work. I'm testing all variables there.

I understand just fine.

Trimesh didn't mention heating caps up.

He said about solder balls being an issue as he'd xrayed some. So it sounded like this is what you were trying to prove. If you can't explain what you are doing (or know the correct terminology), it's probably not your place to tell people what they do or don't understand.

You can measure voltage drop without any heating to see if there's an issue to what trimesh said.

If by "reflow" you mean just heat up the caps (below hot enough to reflow solder would be enough), then this could be a half decent way to test if cap replacement will fix the console before wasting time on it.

However it wouldn't be certain, my process would be something like this:

Heat up caps -> works -> cap issue and replace.
Heat up caps -> doesn't work -> could still be caps or solder ball issue.

Basically it isn't a complete test/answer but it's a quick way to prove a cap issue may work on that console.

 

[Bad_Ad84]

Bad Ad; Good scientific method.

I fix stuff for a living, I also like to know what fixed it rather than just changing everything. So there has to be a good process for diagnosis.

I may change my title to this

 

[truemaster]

that is what seperate a licensed guy in electronics. and just a hobbiest man

 

[JustAnyone]

Got myself 2 fat consoles to try this, one CECHC, one CECHG
Also about the eraser method, anyone has detailed instructions how this works?

 

[truemaster]

PS3 - «Tutorial» PS3 CELL B/E Thermal Dissipation without removing the IHS

Like many other users, and collectors, keeping you console clean its the number 1, priority, specialy when you own a Backwards-Compatible PlayStation3,...

www.psx-place.com

heres what i gather. to make long story short it helps the chip to run cooler on some early models.

 

[supersega]

I’ll just shut up now. Sorry. Obviously I’m just stupid and you know everything.