PS3 YLOD Repair attempts

[groovyone]

So my beloved original 60GB model (now 320GB) decided to take a huge dump on me. I pulled it apart almost all the way, leaving the heatsinks on the chips, and hit it with a hairdryer on high for about 6-7 minutes onto the chips I could hit with the fan removed. I got it up long enough to dump some saved games onto a HDD. Going to try for more time tomorrow and see if I can't get a full backup out of it, or a transfer to a new 320GB model.

[groovyone]

Heatgun and thermal paste aquired. Round one of heatgun application down. Once it cools I can hit it with round 2.

[kenw]

are you heating it to locate the trouble? Or to make it work?

[groovyone]

To make it work. Trying to reflow the solder beneath the major chips. Sadly round 1 went to the YLOD.

[kenw]

solder won't melt with a hairdryer, Keith. but it will make enough heat to damage the chips.

[Buddha]

Yeah! What KenW said. If you can find a heatgun, that would melt the solder, but a hairdryer won't. I would remove the processor first before using a heatgun if you plan to continue this path, then apply heat gradually over 30 seconds at least and hold it for at least 30 seconds to reflow the solder. What this will do is fix a cold solder joint. They aren't normally visible to the naked eye, so why do you suspect that is the problem? One more thought. If you are convinced that is the issue, and that the joint is around the processor, I would apply heat with a small soldering iron, handheld and being moved on as the solder softens in one spot and flows.

[groovyone]

The early PS3s have a known issue with basically cheap ball solder under the two main chips. It more or less melts it every time it goes through long gaming sessions and it can sometimes reharden incorrectly. The hairdryer was an attempt to basically preheat the system to mildly closer to operating temps and hpe the system itself stays up long enough to heat up more. I knew that was a long shot but it has worked for some.

I have a heatgun and now have some no-clean liquid flux to run beneath the chips. If you remove the chips you have to reball the solder, which I sure as heck cannot do myself. If it gets to that point I'll have to send it out to be worked on. There are MANY cases of people fixing the YLOD with a heat gun and having a well running system down the road. There have also been some epic failures. My only goal is to get it up long enough to transfer the HDD contents to my new 320GB unit.

If the PS3 group was nice they'd have a way to transfer your HDD contents off a dead system, but they do not.

[kenw]

Originally Posted by groovyone

....If the PS3 group was nice they'd have a way to transfer your HDD contents off a dead system, but they do not.

can you just pull the drive and copy it with a SATA or IDE interface?

gotta admit, i've heard of some strange homebrew electronics fixes over the years but this one is among the tops. But if it works, no complaints here. My attitude is what's gonna happen? It's already broken!

[groovyone]

Exactly! I got some of my newer info off, so I am primarily trying all this because I hate to not be able to fix it.

Yeah, Sony encrypts the drive to each system, so even though I have a second 60GB, if I attempt to swap the drive the working deck will try to reformat it.