Tutorial On One Way To Fix Red Flashing Light Of Death!, Repair Options

[Light-It-Up]

Hello people,
I made a tutorial on one way to fix the Red flashing light of death, by using reflow treatment with a heat gun,
this may fix your problem or not, some other things cause the red flashing light of death, like your power source maybe messed and need a new one, sometimes it could be your hard drive that maybe the problem as well.

This fix is at your own risk, if you think it's to much to risk, send it to Sony to have repaired.

Thing's you need to open and repair the ps3 console are.

-Security torx screw driver or normal torx screw driver.
-Phillips (cross-head) screw driver, medium size and small size.
-Rubbing alcohol.
-Clean cloth.
-Heat Gun.
-Tinfoil
-Exacto knife or scissors.
-Arctic silver 5 thermal compound.

Ps3 console.

Remove hard drive, open the console, remove Blu-ray drive, power source and another parts,
Remove main heat sink screw's, remove fan, clean off old thermal paste with rubbing alcohol and clean cloth.



Have the ps3 motherboard with no protected cover over it anymore.

Copy CPU/GPU shape's with the tinfoil and cut out with exacto knife, don't cut shape's over ps3 motherboard.

Set heat gun to high, have gun nozzle about half inch away from the face of chip, heat up each chip for about 15 to 25 sec, don't over due that, repeat heat process on each chip about 6 time's, when you can't even put your finger on the chip's for less then a sec, your on the right heat process.

after when you do each chip for 15 to 25 sec go to the other side of motherboard real quick and heat both back side of chip's for 15 sec, then let cool down for 5 min and repeat 6 time's as well.

Once you done the whole process, put protected cover on and reply new thermal paste to both chip's.

also a little on your heat sink, not to much.

That old sweet solid green light should stay on when you turn it on.


Put console back together and test it on your TV, i hope this process works for you, i have fixed two ps3 that had the red flashing light of death and they are 100% working again, some people may have tried this process and it has not worked, maybe cause you are not doing it right or not heating the chip's the right way, anyways good luck.

P.S have any to ask me just reply on topic or PM me.

Light It Up

[HumanCyris]

excellent if we can get as me many as me and light it up on these forums discussing how to fix certain things wrong with the PS3 we can have as much support as the Xbox 360 has. theres a solution out there for ever 360 problem but the more I look around theres relatively nothing out there for the PS3. keep at it light it up I'll be buying a broken PS3 this week and will post what was wrong and how I fixed it

[reddragon105]

I totally agree - I love fixing things and have been taking things apart for as long as I can remember. The first ever 360 I got was only bought for the challenge of fixing it (2 years later, it's still going strong). Lots of reading up on the problems (mostly on this forum) beforehand gave me some idea of what the problems were, what caused them and how to fix them.

Now I want a PS3, so I started looking around for faulty ones and I've ended up with 3 of them (all 60gb). One doesn't always switch on, but when it does it freezes during gameplay (after maybe 5-10 minutes). The other two have YLOD. I have no idea where to start, so I've searched the internet for answers and come up with nothing. I know this is Xbox-Scene, but the PS3 section on here is pretty much the best source I've found, even though there is hardly any discussion going on! On other forums people always suggest just phoning Sony and having the PS3 returned or replaced under warranty. That's great, but what if your console isn't under warranty or, like me, you just want to be able to fix things yourself?!

I can't believe that there isn't more discussion about repairing the PS3. True, it doesn't seem to have a failure rate anywhere near as high as that of the 360, but there are still several common faults that do occur and I, for one, want to know how to fix them! We need some people who will pioneer the research. I am going to try, but I don't know if I have enough spare cash to allow myself to destroy some PS3s in the process!

Anyway, here's what I've tried so far -
PS3 No. 1 (Freezing during gameplay) - Tried system restore, formatting the hard drive, using a different hard drive, cleaning the case out, replacing thermal paste, replacing the fan. Still freezes during gameplay (although maybe now it lasts a minute or so longer). Still doesn't switch on ever time. I'm seriously wondering if a PS3 version of the X-Clamp replacement needs to be developed, as the PS3 heatsink mounting design doesn't seem to be very effective either.

PS3 No. 2 (YLOD) - Have tried the heatgun fix that Light-It-Up has posted here and that I've seen described elsewhere. It hasn't worked yet. I've attempted it 3 times, heating it up for a little longer each time. I've never managed to get a 360 to work after heatgunning it either. I suspect this is either not a very effective method and that I should invest in a solder reworking station, or I need a better heatgun!

PS3 No. 3 (YLOD) - Haven't tried anything yet. This is my control console. After I've given up on no. 2 I'll try the same things on this one and see if it works!

[Light-It-Up]

Hey,
Yea fixing them is lot's of fun, i'm trying to find out as much information on what can go wrong with a ps3 and how to repair these problems when they do occur. I will post new information on any new repair i find out, hey reddragon, take PS3 No. 1 PSU out and put in to PS3 No. 2 (YLOD) that may fix the problem if the reflow treatment is not working for you, sometimes the PSU blows a cap or diode. Thanks for the positive feedback guys.

[reddragon105]

I was working on them some more today so here's an update -

I finally opened the third console (with YLOD) and gave it a once over with the heatgun. It worked first time! I've reassembled it and put Resistance: Fall of Man in it and it has now been running for about 2 hours so it seems to be fixed.

I have tried swapping the PSUs around and as far as I can tell they all work, because the first PS3 (that loads fine but freezes) works with any of the other PSUs. Either way, putting a different PSU into the second PS3 doesn't make any difference, it still has YLOD. I've just tried the heatgun on that again and am waiting for it to cool. If it doesn't work this time it's going on eBay!

So there's just one console left to deal with - any idea how I can fix the freezing issue on the first console?

[RYU81]

u say nothing about temp to reflow?

[reddragon105]

My heatgun only has two settings - low (300ºC) and high (600ºC). On the PS3 that I successfully repaired from YLOD (has lasted a week so far) I had it on 300ºC for about 4 minutes in total. First I ran the heatgun quickly over both sides of the board, giving them even coverage to preheat it, then I put the board down with the processors facing upwards and let the prongs for the power supply hang off the edge of the desk so that the rest of the board was flat (in case having the prongs hold the board up at one side causes the board to flex when its heated). I gave the processor side another quick once over with the heatgun - this whole preheating process took 30-60 seconds. Then I focused the heat on the processors, moving the heatgun in quick circles about an inch away from them for about 20-30 seconds at a time before switching processors. I did that for about 3 minutes (so each processor got about 30 seconds at a time for 3 turns), then moved the heatgun to about 6 inches away from the board and started to move about the whole board again to keep it warm, but let the temperature start to reduce. After another 30-60 seconds I switched the heatgun off and let the board cool until it was stone cold. I then attached the on/off switch and power supply and tried it - it worked first time.

That's just my personal experience though - and as I tried that on two PS3s and it only worked once I can't say the method is definitive. I'm itching to try it again though, so as soon as I can get my hands on another faulty PS3 I'll see if I can make it best 2 out of 3!

[Light-It-Up]

Update on reflow treatment process, use heat gun at low temperature 500 F on CPU/GPU and heat for 4 minutes long for proper melt of reballs under CPU and GPU.
Good luck

[IP l0 IN lG]

Im amazed that this is it for the PS3 section on xbox-scene. I feel that I have almost conquered the 360 with repairs and such so now im looking to buy a broken PS3 on ebay to try and fix. 5 of 6 360s ive bought have been fixed with the heatgun and xclamp fix, probably because I knew what kind of broken 360 took look for. When looking for a broken PS3 is there any indicator as to what PS3 can be fixed with a laser replaced?

[Millerboy3]

generally the "laser replace/drive replace" PS3's are the ones that just "randomly" stop reading discs.

[smashly]

Hi and thank you for the Tutorial..
Damn sweet, worked like a charm.

One of my m8s asked me to have a look at his 3 yo PS3 (3 beep, red light and no boot or display).
Saw your post, asked my m8 if he had a heat gun..
So he went and bought one and left it with me.

Last night I tried your method out and success was the end result.
Today I told my m8 he's PS3 is working..
To which he said "Keep it I've bought a new one, can you back up the old drive to my new one."
LMAO, free PS3 for me. (I didn't have one prior).
I say to him here's the heat gun back and he says "Keep it, just in case my new PS3 does the same thing..."
I said to him "Some ppl got more $$$'s then sense, but thank you for the new to me toys"... w00t

Cheers

[guruthe]

Thanks for the info Guys, my 1 still working (touch wood)
My only concern is, I smoke and the PS3 case seems very dustly on top.
I dread to think what inside looks like.

My question is can I cover the Vents with something that would keep the dust out while keeping it well vented.

Great site too and can access from work, sweet.

[postal worker]

basically you want to add a filter to the vent on the back of the ps3.

i am not real an expert on things like this.

i would assume adding a filter would help but it would also be adding more work on the fan inside the ps3. because the filter would be something that would slightly hinder the flow of air in order to filter. adding the filter could cause the ps3 to i guess overheat or the fan to become stressed due to unusual conditions.

you could always try and see if you notice the system being louder than usual so you would discontinue the use of the filter.

[Light-It-Up]

Hi and thanks for the positive feed back on the tutorial I have posted, (guruthe) to answer your question about you smoking around your console, just use a air spray can to clean out your vents and spray inside the console it won't hurt anything, I would not use a filter cause the ps3 fan will have a hard time sucking fresh air and smoking around your ps3 is not a good idea cause when the smoke enters your ps3 vents it might leave a sticky tar that will stick all over the fan blades, the vents and motherboard and the dust will not be easy to get rid of.

[JAmerican]

Hi and thanks for the positive feed back on the tutorial I have posted, (guruthe) to answer your question about you smoking around your console, just use a air spray can to clean out your vents and spray inside the console it won't hurt anything, I would not use a filter cause the ps3 fan will have a hard time sucking fresh air and smoking around your ps3 is not a good idea cause when the smoke enters your ps3 vents it might leave a sticky tar that will stick all over the fan blades, the vents and motherboard and the dust will not be easy to get rid of.

My bro's PS3 is YLOD as well. I'll try this when I get his. We tried the Gilksy method via Youtube twice. I am assuming the heat is too low.

I prevented my 360 from overheating and freezing with the RBJTech X-Clamp III mod. Still works great 2 years layer .

I want to do something similar to the PS3. Seems impossible. We will see.

BTW Light-It-Up, have you had to redo the process at all since you did it in May?

This post has been edited by JAmerican: Oct 2 2009, 12:12 AM