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Broken PS3? YLOD? Tips, tricks and facts.


Aidan

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Here's some tips and tricks from someone that has gotten YLOD'ed twice (me). Not sure if I should make a new thread about it, so this seems good enough. Note to those wondering: this is my fourth PS3. Had a 60GB - accidentally drove over it with truck. Then another 60GB, bricked on me. Then a 40GB, but it bricked last night. Now I have a 80GB, and I'll see how long it lasts.

 

Locating the problem

The YLOD will pop up as a safe-guard, preventing your system from operating and thus shutting it down for you. It's often followed by a blinking red light. This is most likely either HDD, Power Supply or Core processor failure. Of course, prior to anything, if the damn thing won't turn on at all, the Power Supply is your first culprit. However, it can also be "damaged", resulting in the console initially powering up, but instantly shutting off. Move on. Remove the HDD, and start it up. Still works? Turn the console off on the back, hold down the Eject button, and flip it back on. Keep holding down the Eject button, until the fans will come on very loud. This means your Power Supply is still fully operational as well. It's then your mother board, and you're screwed unless you re-wire the processor with soldering.

 

Ejecting my disc

Yes, there is a chance you can still eject your disc after a YLOD. Again, flip the power off on the back of your PS3, push down on the Eject button (don't let go), and then flip it back on. Keep holding down the Eject button, until the Fan test starts. It's very loud and you can't miss it. At this time, you can eject the disc successfully. You only have about 20 seconds to do it, but should be plenty.

 

As of now, this method is confirmed successful on the older 40GB models, and the newer 80GB models that replaced the 40GBs. There is no 100% guarantee, but a very good chance from all the feedback spread across the internet.

 

Backing up your files

Of course, backing up your stuff works wonders. Sadly, there's a lot of saves that marry your system, and will not work on a new one, claiming they are illegal and not yours. There is no way around this, and a select amount of games do this. Back up your saves separately, together with completely backing up your system through the system backup tool.

 

De-activate your system

Make sure you call Sony to de-activate your system if you've ever activated it. It automatically activates when you make a Video store purchase, so keep this in mind. If it's activated, you can't download anything you have on a new console until it's de-activated. All your movies will be gone regardless, and you will have to re-purchase them. No refunds, nothing. This is Sony's dark side.

 

Known temporary CPR tricks

There are a few ways to temporary "revive" your PS3. Maybe for 5 seconds, maybe for 5 minutes, maybe even for 5 days. Regardless, you should use this time to backup everything you haven't yet, and de-activate your system manually.

  • Turn it on/off repeatedly. Nag it to death, or to life, if you will.
  • Leave it off for a few hours. It might've overheated, and will fire up again once cooled down.
  • Switch electrical sockets. Sometimes it might be overloaded, and if the power supply is defect, it won't react well to this.
  • Rattle and shake the hell out of it. This has actually worked for me once, so might as well put it in here..

 

Known YLOD fixes

You can buy repair kits on ebay, for about 75 dollars, but this will require soldering skills and some luck. You basically re-wire/re-route some of the chip wires, which will effectively remove the YLOD for a few months. Note: You break the factory seal with this, consequentially removing your warranty.

 

Power Supply gone bad - replacing it yourself

If the Power Supply has successfully been diagnosed as the problem, you can easily replace it. Buy a new Power Supply online somewhere (won't be more than $40), and start surgery. It's a simple unplug/plug system, so no technical knowledge is required. Just make sure you disconnect all power, and remove all static electricity from your body. Your cat works miracles - just poke the little bastard and unload your Infamous power. I'm not responsible for bad karma points.

 

PS3 Disassembly Tutorial

 

Sending it to Sony

Sony will send you a coffin/box to ship it in. This comes with the packaging slip, Styrofoam, etc. Pretty neat. However, make sure that you place the factory HDD in there - not your custom one (in case you've upgraded). They will not return the upgraded HDD, and will simply put another factory one in it, causing you to lose your custom HDD. However, add a note that you want the HDD and the data completely intact, and there's a chance they won't temper with it. Note that I said chance. Most likely it will come back wiped clean.

 

Sending it without the HDD results in a decline on Sony's part, as they then feel they cannot perform necessary maintenance, repair or fixes on said machine.. Don't ask.

Edited by Aidan
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De-activate your system

Make sure you call Sony to de-activate your system if you've ever activated it. It automatically activates when you make a Video store purchase, so keep this in mind. If it's activated, you can't download anything you have on a new console until it's de-activated. All your movies will be gone regardless, and you will have to re-purchase them. No refunds, nothing. This is Sony's dark side.

 

I believe you can get your movies back you just have to call customer service and they will put back whatever you purchased on your DL list, Alayes.

 

Also,

I was just wondering if anyone has heard of any preventitive maintanence that can be done, like re-epoxy cell processor or what not.

 

I just sent in an MGS 80GB PS3 after the laser went out, but I sill have a 60GB that I bought in May of 08. I scared to death its going to crap out on me now too! That sucker can heat my home.:p

Edited by Jay_Slim
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Sadly, no. They will not refund you or anything. Many people have tried for countless of hours on the phone, and Sony puts his/her foot down on that pretty bad. Your video store data can not be re-downloaded, and must be re-purchased.

 

If anyone got some kind of voucher or whatever, they can consider themselves lucky, or Sony's policy has recently changed drastically without me knowing.

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Also,

I was just wondering if anyone has heard of any preventitive maintanence that can be done, like re-epoxy cell processor or what not.

Personally, I think voiding the warranty to try and prevent something is a pretty foolish thing to do. Sometimes things will break no matter what, but as long as it's still working you really shouldn't void the warranty or break the sticker even if the warranty has expired (as far as I know, Sony won't repair if you break that sticker).

 

So, I'm a little confused with the first step in the troubleshooting. So, I remove the HDD and power on, then what I am I looking for?
I think that if the PS3 powers on normally after removing it, you have a bad HDD. If not, it's another problem.
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If my console ends up breaking and I call Sony to deactivate it, does that then mean my 5 downloads are still intact as if I never used my broken console? I'm thinking long-term as far as my digital purchases go and basically resetting the number of consoles they've been downloaded to insures that I will have these purchases in my possession for the entire life of the PlayStation Store.

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Personally, I think voiding the warranty to try and prevent something is a pretty foolish thing to do. Sometimes things will break no matter what, but as long as it's still working you really shouldn't void the warranty or break the sticker even if the warranty has expired (as far as I know, Sony won't repair if you break that sticker).

 

Sony MAY repair if the warranty sticker is broken. They'll just charge you for it and reserve the right to refuse service, if too much tampering has been done. The only reason you shouldn't break the warranty sticker is if your PS3 is still under warranty. Otherwise, you can break it without penalty. Now, going beyond breaking it and actually tinkering with your PS3's innards is another story.

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So, I'm a little confused with the first step in the troubleshooting. So, I remove the HDD and power on, then what I am I looking for?

If the system still YLODs on you when you turn it on, then the problem is still inside the machine. By removing the HDD, you attempt to separate the problem from the machine, and if it WAS the HDD, the PS3 should boot up stating you need an HDD to continue. This means your HDD was bad, and needs to be replaced.

 

If it still doesn't work, most likely, your machine will show yellow briefly, shut itself back down, followed by red blinking and some beeps. Now turn the machine off on the back, hold down the eject button, flip it back on and keep holding it down. If the fans kick in, that means they still get power, so the power supply is "most likely" not the problem. It's then the motherboard.

 

However, this far into the game, you're almost guaranteed a warranty check-up already anyway. :/

 

If my console ends up breaking and I call Sony to deactivate it, does that then mean my 5 downloads are still intact as if I never used my broken console? I'm thinking long-term as far as my digital purchases go and basically resetting the number of consoles they've been downloaded to insures that I will have these purchases in my possession for the entire life of the PlayStation Store.

Your downloads will be available, counting the regular amount you had left to begin with, so normally 4. I'm not 100% sure how it works, as I never activated my machine for this very reason, but from what I've gathered after hours of research, you just allow yourself to download to other machines, effectively removing from your total allowed downloads with each download. Nothing resets back to 5.

 

Sony MAY repair if the warranty sticker is broken. They'll just charge you for it and reserve the right to refuse service, if too much tampering has been done. The only reason you shouldn't break the warranty sticker is if your PS3 is still under warranty. Otherwise, you can break it without penalty. Now, going beyond breaking it and actually tinkering with your PS3's innards is another story.

Yeah, if your PS3 is no longer under warranty, breaking the warranty seal does nothing bad. They'll always work on it - you'll just have to pay for it, which is most likely $150. However, you can steam off the warranty seal, so you won't have to consider it broken. This doesn't always work, but it has in the past.

Edited by Aidan
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Your downloads will be available, counting the regular amount you had left to begin with, so normally 4. I'm not 100% sure how it works, as I never activated my machine for this very reason, but from what I've gathered after hours of research, you just allow yourself to download to other machines, effectively removing from your total allowed downloads with each download. Nothing resets back to 5.

 

Hmm. Alright. Kinda sucks if this system lasts long enough for me to go through 5 machines.

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Thanks for the tips. I'll check when after I get home tonight to see if it's the HDD or power supply. I'm not very optimistic though. In the event that it's the power supply, is that easily replaced and cheap?

The power supply is not expensive, and should be easily found online somewhere. It will run you about $40. Replacing it is like unplugging a battery, so it's extremely easy. Just remove screws and plugs. This might help a bit:

 

http://www.llamma.com/PS3/repair/PS3_disassembly_tutorial.htm <-- PS3 disassembly tutorial

Edited by Aidan
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If my console ends up breaking and I call Sony to deactivate it, does that then mean my 5 downloads are still intact as if I never used my broken console? I'm thinking long-term as far as my digital purchases go and basically resetting the number of consoles they've been downloaded to insures that I will have these purchases in my possession for the entire life of the PlayStation Store.

 

That should be the case. What really sucks is when you have people that you've traded with who aren't necessarily your friends. Asking them to re DL stuff might be difficult.

Or like some, who don't have as much foresight as you, have already activated/traded with 4 other PS3's and theirs craps out with deactivativing, they can't even DL or access the suff they've bought! DOh!:eek: (until Sony deactivates )

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Sony MAY repair if the warranty sticker is broken. They'll just charge you for it and reserve the right to refuse service, if too much tampering has been done. The only reason you shouldn't break the warranty sticker is if your PS3 is still under warranty. Otherwise, you can break it without penalty. Now, going beyond breaking it and actually tinkering with your PS3's innards is another story.

Yeah, if your PS3 is no longer under warranty, breaking the warranty seal does nothing bad. They'll always work on it - you'll just have to pay for it, which is most likely $150. However, you can steam off the warranty seal, so you won't have to consider it broken. This doesn't always work, but it has in the past.
Ah. I had heard that no sticker = no repair, regardless of if your warranty was expired already.
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The power supply is not expensive, and should be easily found online somewhere. However, as far as it being easy, this depends on your hardware skills when it comes to electronics. You might have to solder the connections if they're permanent, or it might just be click-wires much like on a PC. I haven't replaced a power supply myself, so I'm not 100% sure. Just 99%.

 

Sheesh, worthless. I take everything I said about you being helpful. :mad:

 

...oh, Alayes, you know I'm kidding. Thanks again.

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Ah. I had heard that no sticker = no repair, regardless of if your warranty was expired already.

 

 

You bring up a good point.

 

What would be the benefit of having Sony service your Ps3 after warranty has expired? Aren't there others who can repair PS3 and offer limited 90 day warranty? I'm just saying, because having it sent in to Sony and have their "expert" technicians fix it isn't always the best solution. They are limited as what hey can do where as an expert modder is not.

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Sheesh, worthless. I take everything I said about you being helpful. :mad:

 

...oh, Alayes, you know I'm kidding. Thanks again.

Hah, I opened up my old PS3 just to check for you, and I edited my message. Did a quick google search on it, and your new information has been added. Rest assured - it's child's play.

On a side note, you must really love PS3s if you're willing to buy 4 of them. :eek: Were any of them still under warranty? My god that's a lot of cash.

Well, first one I drove over myself, so that wasn't really covered. There was nothing left of it.. Even the Resistance 1 disc in it was broken. o_0 Second one died 1 month out of warranty, and this one is 3 months out of warranty. So yeah, I had to re-purchase it every time. Over the course of 3 years it's not that much, I guess, though it still pisses me off.

Edited by Aidan
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Ejecting my disc

Yes, you can still eject your disc after a YLOD. Again, flip the power off on the back of your PS3, push down on the Eject button (don't let go), and then flip it back on. Keep holding down the Eject button, until the Fan test starts. It's very loud and you can't miss it. At this time, you can eject the disc successfully. You only have about 20 seconds to do it, but should be plenty.

My disc won't eject, does that mean my power supply is the fucked up part?

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What exactly happens? Do the fans come on really loud after you hold down Eject for 10 seconds or so? Is the PS3 even powering up at all? I had to do it about 3 times until it spit mine out. Once the fans start blowing, spam the eject button like your life depends on it.

 

If nothing will even come on, it's your power supply.

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I've held down eject for ten seconds and then turned it on, but nothing happens, just the normal YLOD procedure. But yeah, it does come on.

Nu-uh, you have to press down/hold the eject button, then flip it on right away (on the back of the PS3), and after you flipped it on, continue to hold Eject for about 10 seconds, or rather, until the fans come on.

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