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Author Topic: PS3 Death!  (Read 5115 times)

Offline funky49

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PS3 Death!
« on: January 30, 2011, 09:19:15 AM »
My PS3 died last night. I took it apart, went to bed, cleaned the old thermal compound, applied new and re-assembled it. Same power-on, triple beep, flashy red night issue. Anyone have a heat gun I can borrow? :)

It spent 3 years, 5 months being the center of my living room entertainment. RIP?
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Offline Black Label

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2011, 10:37:28 AM »
I have a launch PS3 that has been getting wonky. Someone told me I should replace the HDD before it crashes.
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Offline number six

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2011, 10:58:41 AM »
It must be in the air, my 360 took a header Friday night. Sucks as I had saturday lined up as 'play video games all day'. Was a replacement for my RROD launch xbox too. I guess they haven't totally worked out the GPU issues as that looks to be the culprit (no RROD but no picture either!). Microsoft wanted $99 to fix (plus I think you eat shipping at least one way). I ended up going the Pawn Shop route (god bless 'em) and found a 360 Pro system with HDMI (yay! no more component for me!) for $99. The pawn shop offered a 6 month 'no questions' warranty for $10 so that took a bit of the uncertainty out of it.

My PS3 is fine. Then again, it mostly plays blurays (up until now). Did you check and see how much Sony wants to fix? Probably won't be cheap either, but $99 might make more sense on the PS3 since they are still $300 new right?
« Last Edit: January 30, 2011, 11:03:33 AM by number six »
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Offline funky49

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2011, 01:16:06 PM »
The $300 isn't happening right now. I'm going to borrow a heat gun and try the 'reflow' trick of heating up the soldier under the chips and re-redoing the thermal paste. if that doesn't work, maybe a 3rd party joint like http://www.knightsgamingrepair.com/

Sony wants $150!!!

I guess a good thing is that I have a backup of the 60gig hd I took a few months ago when I went to the bigger hd. I'm wondering if I took a backup of my bigger hd after I migrated in the songs from RB1+2? Ahh, oh well.
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"It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it... anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." -- HHTTG

“It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
-- Mark Twain

Offline Mamushka

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2011, 05:28:23 PM »
Got a heat gun you can borrow if you can come get it. I'm real close to the I-4 I-75 junction.
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Offline Inmyrem

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2011, 10:21:03 AM »
A good portion of the older PS3's are now overheating due to the crappy original thermal paste drying up and flaking.  If reapplying thermal paste doesn't work, the reflow method will.  Just be very careful not to have the heat gun on too high or you'll wind up blowing the traces off path.  And definitely ensure the motherboard is level while allowing it to cool for at least 15 minutes before flipping over to do the other side.

The same thing is happening to the 360's too.  I just fixed my nephew's 360 red ring by reapplying thermal paste for him and also applying the x-clamp fix to help keep it cool.  You can find that here http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/ring_of_light_x-clamp_fix.htm
« Last Edit: January 31, 2011, 03:04:24 PM by Inmyrem »
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Offline Niloc

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2011, 12:15:32 PM »
Any idea if this effects just the original 20 & 60gb units or is it all the "fat" PS3s? I've got the 80gb Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle one - the last one to have PS2 backwards compatibility. No problems so far but I'd hate to lose the PS2 functionality, I probably still play more PS2 games than PS3.

If it's something that only occurs after heavy use I'm pretty safe, the PS3 mostly just sits there.
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Offline Inmyrem

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #7 on: January 31, 2011, 12:19:17 PM »
Thermal paste drying up happens eventually.  It's about that time for all the older PS3's to have their thermal paste reapplied.  This happens with laptops as well, as I'm sure K7 can attest to having worked on laptops for many years like myself.  I would recommend having it done even if your PS3 isn't having issues.  Preventative maintenance, ya know?   ;)
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Offline funky49

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #8 on: January 31, 2011, 11:26:27 PM »
SHE LIVES!!!

$10 heat gun /w no temperature control and a laser thermometer WORKED! Outside on a glass table I leveled out the board (YAY SMARTPHONE!) heated the entire board and worked on the chips. Heated 'em up, started to pull away the heat and let it get back to ambient. The board did seem to warp a bit but came together fine. The glue? failed that had secured the heatsink (heat plate?) over the graphics chip so I had to t-paste under and on top of it as well as the Cell chip. I did an immediate backup. muhahaha!

It feels good to be able to repair/extend the life of something yourself.

Quote from: Mamushka on January 30, 2011, 05:28:23 PM
Got a heat gun you can borrow if you can come get it. I'm real close to the I-4 I-75 junction.

Wow, we're near-neighbors! I live in the cheap part of Temple Terrace!

Quote from: Inmyrem on January 31, 2011, 10:21:03 AM
A good portion of the older PS3's are now overheating due to the crappy original thermal paste drying up and flaking.  

It was dried up and flaking as well as it looked like they gooped put too much on!

Niloc, I agree with Inmyrem, reapplying the thermal paste is good preventive maintenance.

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Offline Inmyrem

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #9 on: February 01, 2011, 07:27:53 AM »
Congrats on your first PS3 fix!  It wasn't that bad, was it?   :)  The Xbox takes much longer to take apart as it wasn't designed with simplicity in mind.

I noticed on two PS3's and the one Xbox that the thermal paste was sloshed on.  That is not good and can actually harm things.  I did notice that the handful of fat PS3's I've opened up, all were in need of another application of thermal paste.  It also doesn't hurt to clean the fan blades while you're in there.  With proper upkeep, they could realistically last for quite a few years.  I have two original PS2's that are still going!

Enjoy your renewed machine!
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Offline funky49

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2011, 10:58:44 AM »
Thanks! The PS3 is pretty much just disc drive, power supply, motherboard, heat sink, fan, hdd, memory card board, power/eject board. I've never seen inside of a X360. Is the PS3 that much more simple?

I used Acrtic Ceramique, I think AS5 wasn't in stock at Newegg when I built my last system three years ago. Considering the paste I used has been sitting for a few years, should I get a fresh tube of AS5 and apply it while my PS3 is unbuttoned or just roll with things now until it dies again?
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"It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it... anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." -- HHTTG

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-- Mark Twain

Offline funky49

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #11 on: February 01, 2011, 11:03:05 AM »
Oh yeah, Gamestop will give you an $80 in-store credit for a PS3 60gig. HAHAHA!
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"It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it... anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." -- HHTTG

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-- Mark Twain

Offline number six

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #12 on: February 01, 2011, 01:45:14 PM »
Quote from: funky49 on February 01, 2011, 11:03:05 AM
Oh yeah, Gamestop will give you an $80 in-store credit for a PS3 60gig. HAHAHA!

Just think how upset the kid that buys that will be! Take that Karma!
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Offline PinFever

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #13 on: February 01, 2011, 02:17:45 PM »
Quote from: Inmyrem on January 31, 2011, 12:19:17 PM
Thermal paste drying up happens eventually.  It's about that time for all the older PS3's to have their thermal paste reapplied.  This happens with laptops as well, as I'm sure K7 can attest to having worked on laptops for many years like myself.  I would recommend having it done even if your PS3 isn't having issues.  Preventative maintenance, ya know?   ;)

Seems the second best tip after the Microwave cleaning one..Which i still didn't clean as i think my Micro is about to die anyway as it is older than my Onkyo Stereo      . I will bring my Ps3 and thermal paste to K7's and use his tools and replace the stuff on my ps3 which only servers as bluray as i do all my gaming PC or via Pinball/Arcade
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Offline Inmyrem

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Re: PS3 Death!
« Reply #14 on: February 01, 2011, 07:41:17 PM »
The PS3 is more simple in the way the layout of things are.  With the Xbox, in order to gain access to the innards, the plastic top and bottom pieces have to be pried off of their clips and hope they don't break, then the side pieces unscrewed, then finally the shield can be unscrewed and access to the innards gained.  With the PS3, it's one security screw for the top piece, then the eight long screws, you're inside and things are easily removed from there.  A full Xbox thermal paste reapplication, about an hour if not doing the x-clamp fix.  Two hours if so.  A full PS3 thermal paste reapplication, no more than 30 minutes.

If you don't feel very hot air blowing out the back at idle and it's just warm, you should be good for awhile.  In general, I don't rely on thermal paste that's been laying around for more than 6 months.  Of course, when I used to repair laptops, the thermal paste would constantly be used up.  :)  The good news is it's very easy and quick to get back to that spot to reapply.

If anyone might be interested, I'm probably going to have three or four used fat PS3's for sale soon here.  Just the PS3.  Will probably sell them for $140-$150 depending on model and what I had to do to fix it.  I'll probably leave the firmware alone on each one or only update to 3.41.  The newest update from a few days ago is causing hard drive upgrade issues for people.  I'm still putting them through testing during what little free time I have to ensure all is well.

Quote from: funky49 on February 01, 2011, 10:58:44 AM
Thanks! The PS3 is pretty much just disc drive, power supply, motherboard, heat sink, fan, hdd, memory card board, power/eject board. I've never seen inside of a X360. Is the PS3 that much more simple?

I used Acrtic Ceramique, I think AS5 wasn't in stock at Newegg when I built my last system three years ago. Considering the paste I used has been sitting for a few years, should I get a fresh tube of AS5 and apply it while my PS3 is unbuttoned or just roll with things now until it dies again?
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