I've got a PS3 (CECHA01, 4xUSB, Card Reader) that shuts down after 2-3min saying:
The system has become hot. Please
turn off the system and wait a while
before turning it on again.
Then it just shuts off and the red light blinks. But it doesn't YLOD. I figured it might just need new thermal paste. When I opened it up the only thing I noticed is that one of the chips, not one of main chips in the center, looked overheated.
I decided to ignore the discolored chip and just applied new thermal paste to the two main chips and put it back together. But it didn't change anything.
Any ideas? Should I just go ahead and reflow it? Has anyone had luck fixing a PS3 with this error?
LoL...looks like it got very got. I think that thermal pad is shot (actually, I can see it clearly from the photo). If I were in your shoes, I would already have attached a nice heatsink to it and cut a square hole in the shroud to make room for said heatsink. You might prefer to just get a replacement pad and hope that it works. However, I'm not sure if this is the cause of your failure...I think that chip is only used when playing PS2 games...and the half-melted thermal pad is probably just a symptom of the real problem.
Make sure your fan isn't jammed or anything; and make sure it is making a good breeze when the system is on...the heatsinks don't work very well without a fan. If it is giving you an overheating error, the fan should sound like a small shop-vac...if not, that might be the problem.
Also, did you apply quality thermal paste (like arctic silver 5 or better), and apply it paper-thin? I assume that this system has never been reflowed...if it has, you also need to replace the thermal compound under the RSX chip cover.
It was the fan. I have no idea how, but the fan's metal casing had become warped. I bent it back and also had to place washers under the screws to lift it up a bit.
