Originally posted by WataruD:

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First off, I would like to thank all of those that have been working on solving this problem, esp Gilksy/colinjest. I have read this entire thread recently and thought that I would contribute my progress, or lack thereof, for all to know.

I was the new recipient of the YLOD on Dec 27 this year. I have owned my PS3 since I got it as a Valentines gift in 2006 (hows that for a girlfriend?). Knowing that my 60GB release PS3 was no longer under warranty, I wanted to see what the issue was and, if possible, fix it myself as well.

- I reflowed the PS3 on Dec 28 per the online video and .pdf file which Gilksy was kind enough to post. This reflow worked for 2 days before the YLOD returned.
- I reflowed the PS3 again on Dec 31 per the original reflow plans. This time it worked for about 2-3 hours before calling it quits and brandishing the YLOD again.
- Today I attempted the more drastic reflow: 400ºC.. flux pen.. providing heat the entire board with a 30 second focus on the four key areas mentioned in the video/.pdf... and the addition of washers to the pressure plates. I was worried about the impact of repetitive reflows and had hoped that the flux pen would be the silver bullet for me.

Unfortunately, the PS3 did not live even long enough for me to back up the data to an external hard drive. So, I realize that this may not be the most heartening news, but figured I would share my story as well as looking for any feedback. I am really at a loss as to what to do next, and it is nearing the financial point where attempting to have Sony fix it would have been the cheapest option despite the fact that I would loose all my information on my hard drive.

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Originally posted by sgebbie:

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So here's a new one for anyone that's still reading this thread. I am open to suggestions. I just literally about 20 min ago finished a YLOD repair with a heat gun. I have a temp gauge on the gun and was between 700-750F for about 25-35 seconds on each area on the front and back. I also prepped the board with flux and cleaned the board up a bit afterwards with some alcohol.

I used Arctic Silver thermal paste on both chips and when I secured the clamps down I bent them just a tiny bit for more pressure and used two 6mm washers above the plates and below the head of the screws. Everything was put back together correctly.

I knew this board had the YLOD problem when I did this the first time and found out it also had a bad power supply that caused a 2nd YLOD after it got too hot. I had a spare PS and put that in the 2nd go around with the YLOD repair.

The bluray drive is the only part that I had that was iffy. When I fixed the YLOD the first time (without flux) the blueray drive seemed to just be stuck where it wouldn't take a disc. During the 2nd YLOD repair, I opened up the bluray drive and set the track correctly.

I fired this thing up and it worked perfectly. I reset the system time and date and got to the main PS3 screen and logged in my user. I then tried putting in a PS2 disc to see if the bluray worked.
(Backwards compatible 80GB unit) The system took the disc in and then the PS3 froze up completely. I powered the system down and when I powered it back up I once again have the YLOD.

I don't see how this is even remotely possbile that the solder developed cracks again. I don't feel that this is due to a heat issue this time but that's all I've been fixing so far so I'm a bit lost with where to go with this now. I had been feeling the power supply the whole 5 min I had this running and it wasn't hot at all. I tried holding down the power button and can't get a settings menu or anything. I've also tried unplugging the power to the bluray drive and that didn't help either.. still YLOD.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. To start with I just want to get this back up and running again. Secondly, I'd like to try and diagnose what's happening with the bluray player if possible as this is a fairly expensive piece to have to replace compeltely.

Thanks everyone.

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Originally posted by sgebbie:

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I fired this thing up and it worked perfectly. I reset the system time and date and got to the main PS3 screen and logged in my user. I then tried putting in a PS2 disc to see if the bluray worked.
(Backwards compatible 80GB unit) The system took the disc in and then the PS3 froze up completely. I powered the system down and when I powered it back up I once again have the YLOD.

I don't see how this is even remotely possbile that the solder developed cracks again. I don't feel that this is due to a heat issue this time but that's all I've been fixing so far so I'm a bit lost with where to go with this now. I had been feeling the power supply the whole 5 min I had this running and it wasn't hot at all. I tried holding down the power button and can't get a settings menu or anything. I've also tried unplugging the power to the bluray drive and that didn't help either.. still YLOD.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. To start with I just want to get this back up and running again. Secondly, I'd like to try and diagnose what's happening with the bluray player if possible as this is a fairly expensive piece to have to replace compeltely.

Thanks everyone.

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Originally posted by colinjest:

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still here


just shit hot busy at the mo lol


emails have gone through the roof!
and i'm prioritizing donaters sorry

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Originally posted by abms:

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Originally posted by sgebbie:

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I fired this thing up and it worked perfectly. I reset the system time and date and got to the main PS3 screen and logged in my user. I then tried putting in a PS2 disc to see if the bluray worked.
(Backwards compatible 80GB unit) The system took the disc in and then the PS3 froze up completely. I powered the system down and when I powered it back up I once again have the YLOD.

I don't see how this is even remotely possbile that the solder developed cracks again. I don't feel that this is due to a heat issue this time but that's all I've been fixing so far so I'm a bit lost with where to go with this now. I had been feeling the power supply the whole 5 min I had this running and it wasn't hot at all. I tried holding down the power button and can't get a settings menu or anything. I've also tried unplugging the power to the bluray drive and that didn't help either.. still YLOD.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. To start with I just want to get this back up and running again. Secondly, I'd like to try and diagnose what's happening with the bluray player if possible as this is a fairly expensive piece to have to replace compeltely.

Thanks everyone.

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I also agree that there is no way that the solder is cracking. it is definitely something on the board or connected to it that is causing the problem. a possible attempt to bake it in the oven might work. I fixed a friends ps3 bout 3 months ago and it is still going strong. I also fixed mine with this method. We are both avid gamers playing at least 2 hours per night. Probably a last resort because I cant imagine baking the whole board would be "good" for it. BTW if you decide to give it a go don't worry about the plastic parts on the board they did not melt.I stuck mine in for 7 min at 580F (I think my oven could do a max of 600). i propped it up in six corners so it sat exactly level. I then turn off the oven and just slightly opened the door to allow it to very gradually cool. maybe give it a try. good luck.

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Originally posted by sgebbie:

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More testing... YAY! Seriously it's getting a little old but I feel I'm making some progress at least. So here's some of the bluray info I've gathered about my system so far.

About the bluray one thing I found very interesting and not sure if this is normal or not. I have the lid off the bluray player and when I hit the power button and get the YLOD the bluray lens moves down slightly and kind of clicks, then goes back up and clicks down again quickly and does nothing else. That's when I get left with the blinking red light.

A lot of folks have said they get lights inside the bluray but not sure if this applies to a YLOD as well. Should I be getting any lights? Red light? Blue light? As far as i can tell there isn't any lights it just clicks a little bit. The quick yellow light flash happens right as the lens clicks down for the second time as if it was trying to do something, couldn't, and then triggered the YLOD as a result of the failure. The light stays green through the first down click of the lens, the click back up and switches to the yellow light right as it goes back down again.

I'm fairly new on the internals of the bluray so far. I've also heard people talk about the bluray board and the motherboard being paired / married to where they can't be seperated. I've also read about those who have successfully bought an entire replacement bluray drive without a motherboard and without switching out the controller board on the bluray player and got it to work. Not sure which to believe there.

I would think something on the board would have to be messed up if it's not the bluray. I even tried doing the YLOD fix to an extent on the bluray controller board hoping that maybe something on that had some solder issues since it sits directly on top of the motherboard chips.

Which also got me thinking..Could this be a potential cause of other YLOD or just other hardware issues in general? Could a hot board be putting off so much heat that it's heating up the bottom side of the power supply and causing a failure inside which in turn makes the power supply run way too hot and fail? Could it be doing the same thing on the other chip that sits almost directly below the controller board on the bluray player?

When I did my last motherboard reflow and thermal paste, I added 6mm washers to the heatsink clamps. I noticed putting things back together that this added a little bit of space underneath the power supply and the bluray player. Not much space, just a hair but still... I would think any space you could create even if just a tiny bit would be helpful to dissapate a lot of heat.

Any thoughts or suggestions welcome. The PS3 will not win..I refuse!

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Originally posted by ooZEROoo:

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I am very proficient to most of this. I am using a system that has had the YLoD and everything is still good after the reflow. So my question is a little different.

My friend had his playstation dropped and of course there was some significant damage. This particular unit had the YLoD because during the drop a component was snapped away from the power supply's board. I was able to make the repair, but now when I power it on I get this message,

"Cannot Start
The Correct Hard Drive was not found"

Do you think that maybe the drop also damaged the hard drive? I can't test the hard drive in a PC right now, and I want to make sure that is the problem before I tell him to invest in a new hard drive. Also I cant boot into the recovery menu. I get that message everytime I power on the unit.

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Originally posted by mmayhemm:

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Originally posted by sgebbie:

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More testing... YAY! Seriously it's getting a little old but I feel I'm making some progress at least. So here's some of the bluray info I've gathered about my system so far.

About the bluray one thing I found very interesting and not sure if this is normal or not. I have the lid off the bluray player and when I hit the power button and get the YLOD the bluray lens moves down slightly and kind of clicks, then goes back up and clicks down again quickly and does nothing else. That's when I get left with the blinking red light.

A lot of folks have said they get lights inside the bluray but not sure if this applies to a YLOD as well. Should I be getting any lights? Red light? Blue light? As far as i can tell there isn't any lights it just clicks a little bit. The quick yellow light flash happens right as the lens clicks down for the second time as if it was trying to do something, couldn't, and then triggered the YLOD as a result of the failure. The light stays green through the first down click of the lens, the click back up and switches to the yellow light right as it goes back down again.

I'm fairly new on the internals of the bluray so far. I've also heard people talk about the bluray board and the motherboard being paired / married to where they can't be seperated. I've also read about those who have successfully bought an entire replacement bluray drive without a motherboard and without switching out the controller board on the bluray player and got it to work. Not sure which to believe there.

I would think something on the board would have to be messed up if it's not the bluray. I even tried doing the YLOD fix to an extent on the bluray controller board hoping that maybe something on that had some solder issues since it sits directly on top of the motherboard chips.

Which also got me thinking..Could this be a potential cause of other YLOD or just other hardware issues in general? Could a hot board be putting off so much heat that it's heating up the bottom side of the power supply and causing a failure inside which in turn makes the power supply run way too hot and fail? Could it be doing the same thing on the other chip that sits almost directly below the controller board on the bluray player?

When I did my last motherboard reflow and thermal paste, I added 6mm washers to the heatsink clamps. I noticed putting things back together that this added a little bit of space underneath the power supply and the bluray player. Not much space, just a hair but still... I would think any space you could create even if just a tiny bit would be helpful to dissapate a lot of heat.

Any thoughts or suggestions welcome. The PS3 will not win..I refuse!

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From my experience the lens on the blu ray drive should be blue when reading a disc and the disc would only ever turn when the blue light had contact with the disc. Drives I've seen with a blinking red light or a tiny red beam never manage to spin the disc. Never known the lack of a disc being read causing the unit to switch off though.

I have replaced a few bluray drives in my time but never had any success unless I've used the controller board.


Hope this helps a little

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Originally posted by WallyHale:

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When you put your 40GB back in, did you update through the internet or off the memory stick again?

I would try the updates again and see if you get the same error code with the 40GB drive in. If it dies at 99% again, then I would think something is wrong other than the HDD. If it completes and works fine, then your HDD would be worth checking for bad sectors etc on a PC. If it gives the error code again, then maybe something else is wrong :(

Need to pinpoint before you can start checking / changing components :)

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Originally posted by WallyHale:

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sgebbie, sounds like you are definitely onto something, and the YLOD doesn't always mean reflow!

I would imagine it means "failure in some component so your PS3 will not function, send it back!".

Would be GREAT if you can get your hands on a BluRay drive (that works) and test this theory!

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Originally posted by mmayhemm:

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sgebbie, not sure if you've answered this or not. Have you powered up without the bluray connected at all? Does it last longer before the YLOD?

I see what you mean with controller boards and motherboards being sold separately. Apparently the Sony jig files allow you to pair a mother board and controller board. Not even sure if these files really exist though

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