Tips, Tricks and Fixes

[garlad]

Originally Posted by Marine Mike

Restore would be to use one of your backups.

Select Format to erase everything on your hard drive.

Got it.. Im gona start it later. It takes 3 hours 35 mins (according to the message that popped up) So will watch one more blu - hopefully I dont get laser problems! - then start the format before I go to bed..

[WeApOn]

Essentially, once you restore off of removable media, it's like restoring an image of your PS3, correct?

Is there anything that doesn't come through in a restore?

[garlad]

Originally Posted by Monkey-Boy

Got it.. Im gona start it later. It takes 3 hours 35 mins (according to the message that popped up) So will watch one more blu - hopefully I dont get laser problems! - then start the format before I go to bed..

so much for watching one last blu ray before I formatted the drive.. Got 5 mins into Bolt before it froze.. It must be the laser. I am formatting now. What am I going to do if I cant find the receipt?!?! DISASTER!!

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by Monkey-Boy

so much for watching one last blu ray before I formatted the drive.. Got 5 mins into Bolt before it froze.. It must be the laser. I am formatting now. What am I going to do if I cant find the receipt?!?! DISASTER!!

Talk to Sony about it if you cannot find the receipt. Or if you paid by a credit card or something, talk to the store where the PS3 has a record of purchase (receipt). Typically they save those in their system.

[blitz6speed]

YLOD again... Im about to just give up and sell it on ebay broken. I am tired of this crap. It was working fine for days, then tonight i fire up the uncharted 2 beta, its loading up the server and then it freezes, then ylod's. I turn it back on, and its fine, then as im loading up the infamous demo, it freezes. And now it just YLOD's at default. What is this liquid solder you guys are talking about, where do i get it, how much, and exactly how is it applied?

[WeApOn]

blitz,

I'm pretty sure this is the one I bought:
http://alldav.com/index.php?main_pag...&products_id=7

That website uses google checkout, and the shipping was extremely minimal. I thought the flux itself was cheaper than that when I got it, but regardless under $10 for flux can't hurt.

I applied mine like this:

-Tilt the motherboard on it's side so that if you were to pour flux on the board, it would flow underneath both chips.

-Using the needle supplied with the flux bottle, pour enough flux above the chips so that you can see it flow underneath the top one and to the middle. Then pour more flux above the second chip(this will be close to where the flux from the top is flowing to), and wait until you see that drip through.


Not sure if that's the best way, but that's how I did it, and it worked for me. Be careful though, don't breathe the fumes. I only reflowed the top side of the board as well. And you might wanna try bending the clamps that hold the fan assembly to the motherboard.

I haven't even used it since I fixed mine, so I can't say how well this did the trick. I only turned my PS3 on and then I shut it right off. I'm currently formatting a harddrive for FAT32 so I can take a backup. After that, we'll see.

[blitz6speed]

Originally Posted by WeApOn

blitz,

I'm pretty sure this is the one I bought:
http://alldav.com/index.php?main_pag...&products_id=7

That website uses google checkout, and the shipping was extremely minimal. I thought the flux itself was cheaper than that when I got it, but regardless under $10 for flux can't hurt.

I applied mine like this:

-Tilt the motherboard on it's side so that if you were to pour flux on the board, it would flow underneath both chips.

-Using the needle supplied with the flux bottle, pour enough flux above the chips so that you can see it flow underneath the top one and to the middle. Then pour more flux above the second chip(this will be close to where the flux from the top is flowing to), and wait until you see that drip through.


Not sure if that's the best way, but that's how I did it, and it worked for me. Be careful though, don't breathe the fumes. I only reflowed the top side of the board as well. And you might wanna try bending the clamps that hold the fan assembly to the motherboard.

I haven't even used it since I fixed mine, so I can't say how well this did the trick. I only turned my PS3 on and then I shut it right off. I'm currently formatting a harddrive for FAT32 so I can take a backup. After that, we'll see.

Hmm, from what i understand, you lay the board sideways and then put the liquid flux on the sides of the GPU and Cell chips on all 4 sides till it seeps through the bottom of the board, making sure it gets all the way through. After that, heat it up while the board is flat like usual. Is that about right?

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by blitz6speed

... It was working fine for days, then tonight i fire up the uncharted 2 beta, its loading up the server and then it freezes, then ylod's. I turn it back on, and its fine, then as im loading up the infamous demo, it freezes. And now it just YLOD's at default. ...

That sounds like my fourth YLOD. It was kinda fine until it shutsdown after 15 minutes. Then I have to let it COOL down for about ten minutes before it'll start up again without YLOD. And then of course it YLOD in 15 minutes.

That's when I did my current reflow.

Originally Posted by WeApOn

I'm pretty sure this is the one I bought:
http://alldav.com/index.php?main_pag...&products_id=7

Reading the product description, that's what I got as well. Isopropyl alcohol-based rosin-based, no-clean liquid flux. But I got a 250ml bottle for about USD$3.40. Like I'm going to use it for anything but reflowing.

I applied mine like this:

-Tilt the motherboard on it's side so that if you were to pour flux on the board, it would flow underneath both chips.

-Using the needle supplied with the flux bottle, pour enough flux above the chips so that you can see it flow underneath the top one and to the middle. Then pour more flux above the second chip(this will be close to where the flux from the top is flowing to), and wait until you see that drip through.

I applied it on top and bottom of the board in the area where the RSX and Cell chips are. And I used it liberally - like a lot.

Since it is isopropyl alcohol-based, it dries up quickly. The residue - minute quantities of flux - is small enough not to cause any damage to the other parts that got wet. Even if you apply reflow to the unrelated area, it'll only bonds the connection again.

If you are cautious about the residue either before or after the reflow, you can wash the board with isopropyl alcohol. If you're using the electronics grade isopropyl, wear the right gloves (so it won't melt) and use a cloth that won't shred by the soldered parts. If you have CUTS on your hands, do wear gloves...

If you're using 70% isopropyl alcohol - which is what alcohol swabs for medical purposes are made of which can also be used to clean off the thermal paste - your hands are safe.

Not sure if that's the best way, but that's how I did it, and it worked for me. Be careful though, don't breathe the fumes.

Yep. Also don't smoke or have any source of sparks or open flames around the isopropyl alcohol-based flux or 99% isopropyl alcohol.

I only reflowed the top side of the board as well. And you might wanna try bending the clamps that hold the fan assembly to the motherboard.

I bent the clamps too but not till it's broken. Just enough to see it bent more than before. You also don't want to overdo it because too much tension might snap the mobo.

blitz, since you've reflowed twice already, the liquid flux idea is the way to go.


fuad

[blitz6speed]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

I applied it on top and bottom of the board in the area where the RSX and Cell chips are. And I used it liberally - like a lot.

Can you find a pic of a PS3 motherboard and draw some arrows to exactly where you are talking about? I have a very good idea of it, but maybe im way off. A simple pic with arrows to the exact points would be terrific.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by blitz6speed

Can you find a pic of a PS3 motherboard and draw some arrows to exactly where you are talking about? I have a very good idea of it, but maybe im way off. A simple pic with arrows to the exact points would be terrific.

Seriously, if you had clean off the thermal paste on top of the chips, you'd know where the RSX and the Cell chips are because it says right there on top! Not only that, the two chips are the only one connected to the heatsink with the fans.

The two chips in the center of the board. The left one is the RSX and the right one is the Cell. Squirt the liquid flux around the chip and underneath it. Tilt the mobo to get it all covered. Do the bottom side first before you do the top side.

After the third reflow attempt, the heat spreader on my RSX came off due to the extra thick thermal paste I used. But as long as you can clean it up - use an old credit card to CHISEL the old thermal paste off - and use a new thermal paste, you're set. The heat spreader on the Cell too can come off.


fuad

[blitz6speed]

I know which chips are the Cell and RSX LOL, give me some credit.

What i want to know is WHERE to apply the liquid flux. Where to inject it and where should it end up. I know on one of the chips, from the bottom of the motherboard, there is a hole and you can see the underside of the chip. Would i just fill it up there till it comes out on the other side? What about for the other chip? Or should i apply it from up top on the sides? Im mainly asking for best point of entry and where exactly the flux needs to get into.

[kagolu]

Anyone? Has anyone noticed sluggishness/ slow loading since there optical drive replacment? Did I get a clunker/soon to be clunker drive? Seems to be playnig fine once it loads.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by blitz6speed

What i want to know is WHERE to apply the liquid flux. Where to inject it and where should it end up. I know on one of the chips, from the bottom of the motherboard, there is a hole and you can see the underside of the chip. Would i just fill it up there till it comes out on the other side? What about for the other chip? Or should i apply it from up top on the sides? Im mainly asking for best point of entry and where exactly the flux needs to get into.

Apply ON the board as close as you can to the chips. Squirt it and flow it to the right spot by tilting the mobo. You can do one chip at a time or do both and make a game out of it.

When I applied mine, I thought that the liquid flux would drench the other side and I prepared for it. Turns out it never got that far.


fuad

[garlad]

Originally Posted by Monkey-Boy

so much for watching one last blu ray before I formatted the drive.. Got 5 mins into Bolt before it froze.. It must be the laser. I am formatting now. What am I going to do if I cant find the receipt?!?! DISASTER!!

so i formatted the drive and watched a blu earlier to test it out.. surprise surprise it froze and crashed. Rang sony and told them what they asked me to do didnt work. So they gave me a reference number to bring down to the store where I bought it and they will give me a replacement (60gb!) for €160. It will be a refurbished machine..

[Marine Mike]

Expanded the 'Backing up hard drive' with mentioning the an external hard drive has to be in FAT32 format.

[UPSandy]

when you hit the display button while watching a blu-ray does it always say 48 kHz...i have a pioneer elite so shouldnt say 72 khz?

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by UPSandy

when you hit the display button while watching a blu-ray does it always say 48 kHz...i have a pioneer elite so shouldnt say 72 khz?

Why should the Pioneer Elite say 72kHz? I'm assuming the Pioneer you're talking about is the HDTV.

48kHz is the sampling rate of the audio being read, not the video.


fuad

[garageinc2001]

Ok so Im ready to pay Sony now. My second reflow lasted maybe two months. I thought things were fine. Then..crash. Reflowed it third time and it came on and withing 5 minutes an actual message popped up on the right side of screen that said "System has gotten hot. Please power down until system is cool agin" or something close to that anyways. But before I could power down ... beep beep beep YLOD. Should I try to find this reflux or send it to Sony and pray I get a good one back? Seems to me like the reflux needs to be a step in the first reflow you do. Is this a bad idea?

[WeApOn]

The question is, will Sony take it back after you've done the reflows? I've heard people say that they will, and others say that they wont...


Also, has anyone tried using something like the Intercooler after they got YLOD and fixed it? It would be nice to prevent YLOD from coming back.. is this really just a heat issue?

[garageinc2001]

Watch out, using the word intercooler here is apparently a bad idea. I was told they actually can restrict airflow. My first reflow I purchased an intercooler and used it for about a week until my 2nd YLOD happened. Then found out intercoolers suck. And as far as I know if you're paying the $150 they'll fix it.