I am so sad right now since my PS3 is DEAD. Just an hour ago it seems my PS3 have the infamous Yellow Light Of Death. I can't even eject my game from the drive. So after searching google and everywhere in the world, I either have to sent it back to Sony (no more warranty) or I have to open up the unit and pretty much unscrew every single component to get the CPU and GPU and use a heat gun and apply thermal compound from the youtube video. Now, I just need to buy all the stuff and spend maybe a few hours and hope this works. Wish me luck guys!

 

sounds like a cake job. get some artic silver 5 compound. Why would thermal compound fix your problem. If you turn your PS3 off for a few hours can you turn it back on and play it for a while before it turns off again?

also :ibthemove:

 

I haven't heard about this yellow light of death before...

 

Any luck? Which PS3 did you have?

 

After extensive research it seems reflowing the board with a heat gun is only a temporary fix. So I found a local guy who owns a shop that has a professional reflow machine and got it fix there. He guarenteed a 60 day warranty, but at least he was honest about have a greater success rate compare to a self repair. I just got it back today and have been playing for a few hours and everything is still running fine.

 

Cool. which PS3 do you have?

 

I got the 40gb version.

 

my friend has the ylod and he has taken apart his ps3 at least a dozen times to get it to work. It would work for a week or so and then it would stop. you get pretty good at taking it apart after you do it a couple of times. he got thermal compound and everyting. if you do it, the only thing i recommend is getting a heat gun with a digital readout. he does not have this and he is afraid to hold it to the board due to fear of melting it. i think he is tired of dealing with it at this point and i think he is looking into buying a used board on ebay.

 

YLOD isn't a permanent issue. I've fixed one a while back with no issues. You need to do it correctly though.

Regarding the disc, you can eject it by unplugging the PS3 for at least 30 seconds, plugging it back in, switching it on and simultaneously pressing and holding the eject button. The fans should kick on to high and your disc should eject.

To fix it properly, you'll need to take it apart, and you'll need a torq bit for the side cover. It's very easy to take apart, much easier than a 360. Remove the fan assembly and disc drive. Seperate the board and use a small heat gun rated at 500F / 270C to reflow the the gpu & cpu. Wipe off all thermal grease, even from the sides. Get a q-tip dipped in iso and wipe both components down to clean up any thermal grease remnants.

Set the board up on level stand with the bottom exposed. Don't disturb the board while it's being reflowed. Heat both components for at least 15-20 minutes each and only do one at a time. The board should be hot at this point. Let it sit undisturbed for an hour. There's no need to heat the underside.

Do not buy thermal grease! It's good but when you reattach the heatsink and fan most of it pushes off to the side. Instead buy thermal putty. Cut two pieces to the exact surface area of the GPU & CPU, then reattach the heat sink and fan but don't torque them down! Only put enough torque to secure them over both units.

Reassemble the unit and you should be good to go. Like I said, I've fixed PS3's and Xbox's for my friends and they all run flawlessly without any reoccurance. I suggest keeping the PS3 flat as well and not sitting on it's side. For reference, I'm an EE and I work in reliability with a major computer "mfg."

 

Crap I got the 40 also. All my Rock Band will eventually fry it.

 

thats because sony superfans pretend only 360's break

but im with you, never heard of this problem.. then again i play my PS3 just enough to make sure cobwebs dont grow on it.

 

I will advise all of you to make backups of your game saves. If not, you are screwed even if have warranty from sony since they will give you a refurbish system with none of your data on it.

 

Jesus Mary and Joseph, did no one read my advice. btw.. the HD is easily removable from the side panel. Unless the 2.5" drive went bad.. worst case is you pull the HD and swap it in a new system but they have 1TB 2.5" drives now so I would upgrade. BTW.. Sony doesn't care if the HD is in there or not.

 

If you pull the hard drive and put in another PS3, the system will automatically reformat the drive since it think it is a new drive. In order to get all your data back is to use PS3 backup utility and then restore it onto the drive. As far as I know there is no way around this.

 

seriously?!.. It sounds ridiculous that you'd need to format a HD that came out of a parallel system. You should at least be able to run it as an external drive and push your saved data to the new drive or card reader... or fix your original ps3. I have two 1TB drives attached to my system to play movies and access media files.. all my large or popular files I push to the internal drive and I backup my files once in a while but not regularly.

 

same here.

oh crap! me too.

FIFA will be the end of me!

ok!

oh. ok!

ohh. ok!

 

Aren't the 40GB models the ones with the really loud fans? or is that the 60 gig? Or both?

 

the 40's supposed to be really quiet.

 

Yeah my 40 is very quiet. However I have noticed that it has gotten slightly louder. Probably the fan running harder for a PS3 getting hotter by the day.

 

Yea, I bought the 40gb because it is newer version compare to the 20g and 80g with backward compability. It runs real quiet and I never had a problem the 2 years I had it. Then one night I was playing Batman AA and all sudden it shutdown and I couldn't turn it on again. I did some research on google and there are so many ps3 including the new slim having the YLOD. I couldn't believe it only to think Xbox has these problems. I don't make regular backups so I had to get it fixed and get back all my 2 years worth of game saves. You can use an external hard drive for all your movies and media files, but the game saves are only stored on the internal hard drive which is also machine specific. Meaning can't take the internal drive and put into another ps3.

 

are there two versions of the 40gb? mine doesn't have BC.

mine is very quiet.

last summer, it was running extremely loud. i had to move its location because it was getting too hot. it's been quiet since.

 

Should've bought the 60gb.. just saying.

 

40gb version doesn't have the BC. Only the first year models 20gb and 60gb had the BC. Then a 40gb and 80gb were release with a lower price, $399 (40gb) $499(80gb).

 

oh i see what you meant.

you bought the 40 because it's a newer version compared to the 20 and 60, which has BC.

 

i have an external hd filled with soccer matches and movies. they're either xvid or mkv files. is there a way to connect that to my ps3 so i can watch it on my computer?

 

First of all, your external hd must be FAT32 as the PS3 won't recognize NTFS. PS3 can read the avi files, but not mkv files. There is a converter that can convert MKV files to MPEG files so the PS3 can read without sacrificing the bluray quality. If the mkv file is more than 4G, you will need to split it to 2 files when you do the conversion.

 

ok thanks.

 

Actually 60GB is worse. And dang I didn't know the slims started YLODing too. FFFFFUUUUU

FYI, I watch my media via PMS, playstation media server which I stream from my laptop. Of course this is assuming a good connection and I'm not sure about non AVI formats.

 

I've had my 60gb since they first came out.. couldn't be happier. I also have a first gen 360 elite.. no issues either. I just keep them flat in a well ventilated area, not on the carpet and I spray them out every couple of months to keep the vents clear. I've been thinking of doing preventative maintenance like clearing the thermal grease and applying thermal putty instead but I'm going to wait if the time ever comes. Definitely stay away from the slims.. besides the fact that they're