Tips, Tricks and Fixes

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by PS3-Playb3yond

My PS3 is out of warranty, I've had it for two years and I think Sony only has a one year warranty. The sticker is still there, I haven't messed with it yet but if sending it to Sony means I lose my saves then I'd rather give it a shot myself.

Well its worth a shot to call Sony and see if they'll cover it.

I'd rather lose my saves and not have to pay $150 to fix it.


Though keep in mind, if you take off that warranty sticker, then I highly doubt you'll be able to convince them to fix it for free.

[PS3-Playb3yond]

Originally Posted by Marine Mike

Well its worth a shot to call Sony and see if they'll cover it.

I'd rather lose my saves and not have to pay $150 to fix it.


Though keep in mind, if you take off that warranty sticker, then I highly doubt you'll be able to convince them to fix it for free.

Alright, I'll call them and hear what they say. Hopefully I find someone who is in a good mood lol.

Erm, anyone have their phone number?

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by PS3-Playb3yond

Alright, I'll call them and hear what they say. Hopefully I find someone who is in a good mood lol.

Erm, anyone have their phone number?

Go to the PS3 section and then Support.

http://www.us.playstation.com

[PS3-Playb3yond]

Thanks Mike!

[WeApOn]

Sony is going to tell you that you have to set up a SR(Service Request).

If you mention opening your system they will scold you. If you fix it yourself, you will get some additional time out of it, yes, but it's quite stressful if you're not used to electronics, and even if you are, the PS3 is quite the beast. It takes over an hour to do a reflow, and you could completely ruin your system if you don't do it correctly.

If you do go through with the reflow, you WILL be able to get your saved games. You CANNOT transfer game data that was installed, downloaded content that was saved to your system, including ALL Rock Band 2 downloads and save games.

Your music, video, and picture collection will be out of order and renamed and the import dates will be changed(this only matters to some people).

Your internal system settings will also be lost.

Your saved games are just about the only thing you will be able to hold on to.



If you do the reflow(fix for YLOD) manually, and you keep your PS3 in good shape, Sony WILL send you a new refurb PS3(For $149) even if the warranty sticker is removed. If you mess up the motherboard or anything internally, Sony is not going to send you a new refurb PS3, and you will have to buy an entirely new console.


Fixing your PS3 manually will give you some time with it, but I highly doubt it will be permanently fixed. Someone mentioned theirs lasted 4 months, but you might play yours much more than they do theirs. Mine lasted over a month, and I use it quite frequently.

Your choice.. hope some of that info helped.

[PS3-Playb3yond]

Yes, some of it helped and some of it made me hesitate about opening it up. Hardest part in fixing it is using the heat gun on the circuit board.

Watching the vids, it looks really easy. But I have contacted Sony and I'm waiting for their reply, I didn't tell them anything about opening it up because I haven't yet.

Thanks though!

[WeApOn]

The heating process is very odd and unsatisfying, since you can't actually see anything happening. It leaves you with the feeling, "how could that possibly have done anything?". I followed the videos closely and also used liquid flux and my PS3 worked great after the reflow.

But I stand by my belief that fixing the YLOD with a reflow is only a temporary solution.

[Uxi]

What the issue does more than anything is affirm the idea that I should be using an external drive and/or network streaming instead of storing stuff natively on the PS3 like I was previously doing. Guess I can abandon the idea of the need to go to a 500GB drive so I can store more music and videos locally.

[PS3-Playb3yond]

Originally Posted by WeApOn

The heating process is very odd and unsatisfying, since you can't actually see anything happening. It leaves you with the feeling, "how could that possibly have done anything?". I followed the videos closely and also used liquid flux and my PS3 worked great after the reflow.

But I stand by my belief that fixing the YLOD with a reflow is only a temporary solution.

Is yours still working? For how long did you heat it up?

[WeApOn]

I heard a few different theories. I only heated one side of the board, directly on the chips, and the spots above the chips. I think the recommended time is 15 seconds? I think I did one round of 15 seconds then back and hit it for another 10. Alot of the people who were getting their PS3's to last longer did the following:

-Use a higher temperature on the board
-Heat the board for longer
-Use Liquid Flux
-Bend the prongs that hold the fan assembly so it stick to the motherboard tighter


I did all of the above, and my PS3 lasted for just over a month. I backed it up right away, and played it until it died out again, as I expected it would. After that, I didn't think there would be any reason to try and fix it again. It would be pointless, and another hassle and essentially a waste of time. I reluctantly paid the $149 for a new system, but now I'm happy, though could be happier if Sony realized they have an epidemic going on.

[PS3-Playb3yond]

Originally Posted by WeApOn

I heard a few different theories. I only heated one side of the board, directly on the chips, and the spots above the chips. I think the recommended time is 15 seconds? I think I did one round of 15 seconds then back and hit it for another 10. Alot of the people who were getting their PS3's to last longer did the following:

-Use a higher temperature on the board
-Heat the board for longer
-Use Liquid Flux
-Bend the prongs that hold the fan assembly so it stick to the motherboard tighter


I did all of the above, and my PS3 lasted for just over a month. I backed it up right away, and played it until it died out again, as I expected it would. After that, I didn't think there would be any reason to try and fix it again. It would be pointless, and another hassle and essentially a waste of time. I reluctantly paid the $149 for a new system, but now I'm happy, though could be happier if Sony realized they have an epidemic going on.

I have to try and fix it myself. Atleast until I back up my HDD.

By Liquid Flux do you mean thermal compund?

[WeApOn]

No, liquid flux is used on the board to assist in the reflow process. Supposedly it will help make the YLOD solution last longer. It has to do with the solder on the board and what happens to it after being heated and cooled over and over.

Honestly if you just want to fix it and back it up and you don't care how long it lasts, you don't have to worry about it. But I would recommend it if you want to try and use it for a few weeks.

[PS3-Playb3yond]

Ok. Ones more question, did you put the sticker that voids the warranty back just incase they notice that you've opened it?

[Galactus]

I was just playing call of duty W@W and my controller just dies and wont come on or anything please help.

[SOA]

Try charging it

[Galactus]

Originally Posted by SOA

Try charging it

It's been charging for an hour and it still does not work.

[SOA]

Originally Posted by Blu Blood

It's been charging for an hour and it still does not work.

Than you need a new one.

[Galactus]

Originally Posted by SOA

Than you need a new one.

Thats what I figured, I might try to exchange it.

Whoever the mod was that moved my thread thank you, if i would have known to post in here i would have.

/sarcasm

[WeApOn]

Originally Posted by PS3-Playb3yond

Ok. Ones more question, did you put the sticker that voids the warranty back just incase they notice that you've opened it?

When you remove the sticker, it says VOID all over it, so as soon as that sticker comes off, they will know, no matter where you put it back.

[PS3-Playb3yond]

Ok. Thanks for all the help!