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~ Aidan's YLOD Repair Guide ~


Aidan

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You should remove yourself from all static electricity, yes. I'll add it to the guide just to be safe.

 

 

If you follow the guide, then you should have absolutely no problem. I'd recommend you watch the videos I mentioned at the start before you start, just in case.

 

Keep an eye on your parts, and don't get in a hurry. Don't stop halfway through so you never forget what goes where. Take a lot of photos as reminders. You'll do just fine.

 

Guess I'll try and get the supplies tomorrow night. How long does the fixing take? 2 hours give or take?

 

I'm pretty scared/annoyed to try this out since I'm planning to buy a slim anyways. I just want my saves back lol.

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Tired of having to resort to your Xbox 360 while waiting during the summer and have the damn thing raise your room temperature by another 20 degrees, like it wasn't hot enough already?
Actually, my 60GB PS3 raises the temperature of my room a hell of a lot more than my 360 does. Plus, I wouldn't call it "resorting" when I have fantastic games like Crackdown, Dead Rising, and Mass Effect 2 to play. Now, if my PS3 and 360 broke at the same time, and all I had left was my Wii, that would be "resorting." :p

 

Missing the point aside, very good guide. Funny (even the disclaimer made me grin) and informative, just the way I like it. Especially like the bit about replacing the optical drive, I get the feeling I may need that some day. I bow to you sir, for you are the king of the Tech Support section. :bow:

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After fixing the YLOD last night, I left the system running today during the whole morning and so far it is working ok, no freezing, no shutdowns, nothing. I even played a little bit. :p

The only issue I'm still having is this fan running all the time at maximum speed. Did anybody else experience the same problem after fixing the YLOD?

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No, on the contrary. My PS3 is a lot more quiet than it ever was before. If you made sure that all the thermal pads and the thermal compound were installed correctly, then you shouldn't have a problem, though. If it was missing anything crucial, it would've already quit on you.

 

Yeah, I think it would be dead already if something was wrong. But the weird thing is, although the fan is rotating like crazy, the system itself is cooler than it was before (specially the right side, under the Blu-Ray drive) and the air coming from the vents at the back is just warm, not super hot.

 

I'm gonna try the Data Transfer Utility later tonight and try to transfer everything to the slim. I just hope it lasts until the end of the process, hehe. :whistle:

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So I went out and bought a heat gun, attempted surgery on the PS3, heated the sports up, applied new thermal compound, put it back together and...

 

...I still got YLOD. Why?!

 

Is it because the heat gun's temperature wasn't high enough? The heat gun I have only allows for 250C and 450C. I was using the 250C and heated each spot for about 15 secs each. Should I try it on the higher setting? I'm afraid of melting it.

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250C for 15 seconds was not enough. You most likely didn't melt anything, resulting in nothing really happening. :X

 

I'd try to use it for about 20-22 seconds per patch. I've used it for 17 seconds per patch, using 700 Fahrenheit. That's around 370C if I'm not mistaken. You simply didn't generate enough heat for the connections to melt.

 

Compensate either way. I'd personally go for a lower heat, with longer application. That, or try to see if anyone rents out tools in your area.

Edited by Aidan
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250C for 15 seconds was not enough. You most likely didn't melt anything, resulting in nothing really happening. :X

 

I'd try to use it for about 20-22 seconds per patch. I've used it for 17 seconds per patch, using 700 Fahrenheit. That's around 370C if I'm not mistaken. You simply didn't generate enough heat for the connections to melt.

 

Compensate either way. I'd personally go for a lower heat, with longer application. That, or try to see if anyone rents out tools in your area.

 

Before you replied, I decided just to heat it at the higher temperature. I almost melted the fucking cell, but its purring like a beast again!

 

How long it'll last, I have no idea. Taking advantage of the Data Transfer Utility right now.

 

If not for you or Mr gilsky1, I never would've gotten my files back. Mighty thanks!

Edited by BreadSkin
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Before you replied, I decided just to heat it at the higher temperature. I almost melted the fucking cell, but its purring like a beast again!

 

How long it'll last, I have no idea. Taking advantage of the Data Transfer Utility right now.

 

If not for you or Mr gilsky1, I never would've gotten my files back. Mighty thanks!

 

Yeah, me too.

By the way, I used the Data Transfer Utility today and successfully transferred everything to the slim. Now I have my locked saves again. :dance:

Now I'm starting to believe this YLOD fix will last for quite some time, hehe... :whistle:

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Before you replied, I decided just to heat it at the higher temperature. I almost melted the fucking cell, but its purring like a beast again!

 

How long it'll last, I have no idea. Taking advantage of the Data Transfer Utility right now.

 

If not for you or Mr gilsky1, I never would've gotten my files back. Mighty thanks!

Glad it already worked for the both of you. :D If anything, your machine should run for a long time. If it runs for a day without issues, you're pretty much good until the initial issues repeat themselves. Just like with a new PS3, this could take a day, or 2 years.

 

I would definitely keep backups at all times for a while though, just to be safe.

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Yeah, me too.

By the way, I used the Data Transfer Utility today and successfully transferred everything to the slim. Now I have my locked saves again. :dance:

Now I'm starting to believe this YLOD fix will last for quite some time, hehe... :whistle:

 

Its currently at 53% (transferring a whopping 230GB+ of content), hopefully all goes well.

 

Cause we're so awesome, and we fixed the YLOD ourselves, I'm gonna add you once everything's done =D

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Its currently at 53% (transferring a whopping 230GB+ of content), hopefully all goes well.

 

Cause we're so awesome, and we fixed the YLOD ourselves, I'm gonna add you once everything's done =D

 

So, did it last the whole process?

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So, did it last the whole process?

 

Yeah, thank god! My 80GB PS3 is now packed nicely in its original box, where it will be used to collect dust or for future use. I'm not gonna bother selling it since me and her, we got a lot of good memories together. I can't part with her.

 

The Slim is amazing quiet. Now if only my decal from decalgirl.com would arrive, she'll be much more awesome.

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Thanks for the guide, Aidan... my 60gb YLOD'ed last night while playing Fallout 3. Dark days have fallen upon the Taxpayer family, and I can't just go out and replace it right now... letting the Cell cool off now, hopefully I can get this bad, black bitch back together again (probably the most daunting part for me, lol, that's a lot of screws) and up and running at least so I can get my save files off of it.

 

It looks like a dust bunny sanctuary in here!

Edited by jqtaxpayer
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Thanks for the guide, Aidan... my 60gb YLOD'ed last night while playing Fallout 3. Dark days have fallen upon the Taxpayer family, and I can't just go out and replace it right now... letting the Cell cool off now, hopefully I can get this bad, black bitch back together again (probably the most daunting part for me, lol, that's a lot of screws) and up and running at least so I can get my save files off of it.

 

It looks like a dust bunny sanctuary in here!

What I did was take photos for myself of every step before taking out a set of screws, and marking the screw locations in MSPaint.

 

I also had a tray thingy for vegetables, one with multiple compartments for different sections. One had the motherboard screws/parts, the other the Power Supply screws/supplies, etc. It helps to ensure that you don't miss anything when putting it back together.

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What I did was take photos for myself of every step before taking out a set of screws, and marking the screw locations in MSPaint.

 

I also had a tray thingy for vegetables, one with multiple compartments for different sections. One had the motherboard screws/parts, the other the Power Supply screws/supplies, etc. It helps to ensure that you don't miss anything when putting it back together.

 

Yeah, I just had a dozen sandwich bags labelled with what they go to... I checked out the YouTube vids from gilsky and followed them to the letter. Unfortunately, I'm still getting my YLOD, it's telling me that my hard drive is corrupt and it starts a restore, but the PS3 shuts itself off before it can finish. On the upside, it's much quieter when it IS on, lol.

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Try it again with more heat, or same heat for a longer amount of time. A lot of people have to do it twice before success. D:

 

In your OTHER THREAD it was indicated that a hard drive problem could cause the YLOD... I tried taking the hard drive up and powering on the system and it turns out, shows the wavy background thing for a minute, says "Cannot start, incorrect hard drive found," or something to that effect, then it flashes yellow, shuts down and blinks red. Is it possible that this could be an issue with the hard drive?

 

EDIT:

Tried running the format utility, which I'm guessing would run entirely from the ROM -- no dice. Either the motherboard is damaged somehow or there's a power supply issue. Holding down the Eject button per your instructions produces no results on my 60gb PS3. Not sure if this means I need a new power supply or not, though that would be nice since it'd be an easy fix.

 

If I picked up a new PS3, could I put my old HDD into it and still recover my data somehow? Losing my save data is probably the worst part of all of this for me... it's like seeing 100s of hours of one's life disappear in a single flash of yellow light.

Edited by jqtaxpayer
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In your OTHER THREAD it was indicated that a hard drive problem could cause the YLOD... I tried taking the hard drive up and powering on the system and it turns out, shows the wavy background thing for a minute, says "Cannot start, incorrect hard drive found," or something to that effect, then it flashes yellow, shuts down and blinks red.

 

Is it possible that this could be an issue with the hard drive?

 

It doesn't seem to be a hard drive problem. If you remove the hard drive, the system will show that message ("Cannot start, incorrect hard drive..."), but it shouldn't shut down with the YLOD.

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Well, your saves are on your current HDD, and it's sadly married to that particular PS3. If you put the HDD which holds all your current saves into a new PS3, it'll format the disc upon initial startup, so yeah, the only way to get those saves is to get that PS3 back up and running.

 

Did you try it a second time? Are the fans coming on when you start it up? If nothing is being powered up and there's no moving air, then that could be your fans not working properly, or some damaged component in the power supply. The power supply itself seems to work, because it turns the thing on to begin with.

 

And yes, as Jaime said, it won't shut down on you then with the YLOD if your HDD is out. Then it'll just stay on that screen, or reset itself, etc. It seems that the system powers on, notices it's either not flowing correctly or massively overheating, and as a safety shuts itself down. If you haven't tried to reflow it again, I'd do that first.

Edited by Aidan
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Well, your saves are on your current HDD, and it's sadly married to that particular PS3. If you put the HDD which holds all your current saves into a new PS3, it'll format the disc upon initial startup, so yeah, the only way to get those saves is to get that PS3 back up and running.

 

Did you try it a second time? Are the fans coming on when you start it up? If nothing is being powered up and there's no moving air, then that could be your fans not working properly, or some damaged component in the power supply. The power supply itself seems to work, because it turns the thing on to begin with.

 

And yes, as Jaime said, it won't shut down on you then with the YLOD if your HDD is out. Then it'll just stay on that screen, or reset itself, etc. It seems that the system powers on, notices it's either not flowing correctly or massively overheating, and as a safety shuts itself down. If you haven't tried to reflow it again, I'd do that first.

 

I'll have to take another crack at it I guess. It didn't even sound like the fans were kicking on. All of the connections should be tight, so I'm thinking either I'm going to have to apply more heat or that something may have just shorted out or something and I'm totally fucked anyway.

 

Regardless, I ended up with a PS3 Slim earlier today so I'm not as concerned about it, other than all of the lost saves. Thanks to everyone for the advice and support.

 

Thanks for all the help, Aidan and co.

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Some things to pay double the attention to:

 

The right amount/application of Thermal Paste.

 

Make absolutely positively sure that all connections are connected.

 

Thermal pads are in their original positions. If these aren't in the right place, then it'll mess up everything.

 

Just blast it with heat. Donn't overdo it either, but just apply about 20 seconds of high heat on it.

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Well I tried it again this time adding more time with the heat gun, and the result kind of the same, just this time it turns on normally with the wave and the PS3 logo but suddenly it freezes and YLOD again. And keeps doing that. What do you guys recommend me to do?

 

I still can't believe I erased a backup I made about a month ago when I switch to a 320Gb HDD :(

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