PS3 A new method for delidding the Cell?

[ragen-fio]

Let me show you what i mean when i said there are some CELL models with thermal glue in the DIE
This is a photo from this thread ---> https://www.psx-place.com/threads/cech2501a-delid-gone-bad.29324/

And this is a frame taken from a youtube video we was discussing here ---> https://www.psx-place.com/threads/temperatures-for-slim-cech-2504b.21377/page-6#post-208145

In both cases the cord of silicone all around CELL was cutted correctly... but after that the IHS was not moving
So they started pulling the IHS up... a bit more.. a bit more... a bit more... and shit happened

This doesnt happens with normal thermal paste... is some kind of thermal glue

Yes as I suspected and I said in the previous message the die and the IHS are soldered therefore impossible to separate without destroying them...

 

[ragen-fio]

I read the discussion you posted and yes you are right, probably depending on the model, or the factory, or the supplier, some Cells were soldered and others not, but I don't know why...
To be clear I know that a die and an IHS are soldered by putting a thin layer of indium between them which is then melted and joins the two parts, I do not know if some kind of glue is also used with Cells.

 

[sandungas]

The problem is we dont have any rule to know when this happens, by now the only indication we have is the presence of the bumps
If there are no bumps = no problems when moving the IHS
If there are bumps = posible problems (be specially carefull and dont force the IHS)

The IHS and the DIE are not soldered to each other though, the material can be seen in the photos, is light gray color (same color than standard thermal paste)... but is very strong so is better to call it thermal glue, look at this comment from the owner of the PS3 of the first photo

Looking closer, I think I see some thermal paste (or glue?) between the die and the lid. It doesn't look like one solid soldered piece, but for sure, the bond is strong enough to crack the die open... Even with heat (which I applied with a heat gun)

I bet if we could take a bit of it to feel it with our fingers/nails is going to be like rubber

 

[sandungas]

Btw, we could make a reference list with the glued CELL's. Is just orientative, but is handy to get an initial idea of the posible presence of thermal glue
This one reported by manples surprised me because is a CECH-25xx... so what i said in my previous post here about sony startig glueing CELL since CECH-30xx was wrong, it seems there are some CECH-25xx with the CELL glued too (but is very unusual, the CELL serial reported by manple can be considered a rare variant)


[TABLE STYLE=width:100%, align:center]

[TR=bgcolor:#ddddff]
[TH]PS3 Model[/TH]
[TH]Motherboard Model[/TH]
[TH]Motherboard Serial[/TH]
[TH]CELL Serial[/TH]
[TH]CELL DIE glued ?[/TH]
[TH]Reported by...[/TH]
[/TR]

[TR]
[TD]CECH-25xx[/TD]
[TD]JTP-001[/TD]
[TD]1-882-481-31[/TD]
[TD]CXD2992BGB[/TD]
[TD STYLE=bgcolor:#ff1000]Yes[/TD]
[TD]manples[/TD]
[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Spoiler

The table is made this way, you can copy the text below and paste it in another post
To add more rows to the table is needed to add another block of [TR]...[/TR]

[SIZE=3]
[TABLE STYLE=width:100%, align:center]

[TR=bgcolor:#ddddff]
[TH]PS3 Model[/TH]
[TH]Motherboard Model[/TH]
[TH]Motherboard Serial[/TH]
[TH]CELL Serial[/TH]
[TH]CELL DIE glued ?[/TH]
[TH]Reported by...[/TH]
[/TR]

[TR]
[TD]CECH-25xx[/TD]
[TD]JTP-001[/TD]
[TD]1-882-481-31[/TD]
[TD]CXD2992BGB[/TD]
[TD STYLE=bgcolor:#ff1000]Yes[/TD]
[TD][url=https://www.psx-place.com/threads/cech2501a-delid-gone-bad.29324/]manples[/url][/TD]
[/TR]

[/TABLE]
[/SIZE]

 

[ragen-fio]

Excellent idea to group in a list if a Cell is glued or not.
This is mine.


[TABLE STYLE=width:100%, align:center]

[TR=bgcolor:#ddddff]
[TH]PS3 Model[/TH]
[TH]Motherboard Model[/TH]
[TH]Motherboard Serial[/TH]
[TH]CELL Serial[/TH]
[TH]CELL DIE glued ?[/TH]
[TH]Reported by...[/TH]
[/TR]

[TR]
[TD]CECH-4004A[/TD]
[TD]MPX-001[/TD]
[TD]1-887-233-11[/TD]
[TD]CXD2996BGB[/TD]
[TD STYLE=bgcolor:#ff1000]NO[/TD]
[TD]ragen-fio[/TD]
[/TR]

[/TABLE]

 

[Desmo]

Hmmm, I'm looking at some of my rolls of tennis strings and I have a roll of a polyester string that is 1.18mm thickness. I'm thinking of using that with some handles and using it to remove the IHS.

 

[Pepelespooder]

Sadly I didn't come across this thread and made the same mistake , I have Done many fats but this one was having some issues figured I'd try a delid for shits and giggles because I have it pretty much down at this point. Chech-2501

 

[sandungas]

[TABLE STYLE=width:100%, align:center]

[TR=bgcolor:#ddddff]
[TH]PS3 Model[/TH]
[TH]Motherboard Model[/TH]
[TH]Motherboard Serial[/TH]
[TH]CELL Serial[/TH]
[TH]CELL DIE glued ?[/TH]
[TH]Reported by...[/TH]
[/TR]

[TR]
[TD]CECH-25xx[/TD]
[TD]JTP-001[/TD]
[TD]1-882-481-31[/TD]
[TD]CXD2992BGB[/TD]
[TD STYLE=bgcolor:#ff1000]YES[/TD]
[TD]manples[/TD]
[/TR]

[TR]
[TD]CECH-30xx[/TD]
[TD]KTE-001[/TD]
[TD]1-884-749-31[/TD]
[TD]CXD2996BGB[/TD]
[TD STYLE=bgcolor:#ff1000]YES[/TD]
[TD]Pepelespooder[/TD]
[/TR]

[TR]
[TD]CECH-40xx[/TD]
[TD]MPX-001[/TD]
[TD]1-887-233-11[/TD]
[TD]CXD2996BGB[/TD]
[TD STYLE=bgcolor:#10ff00]NO[/TD]
[TD]ragen-fio[/TD]
[/TR]

[/TABLE]

 

[Pepelespooder]

PS3 Model	Motherboard Model	Motherboard Serial	CELL Serial	CELL DIE glued ?	Reported by...
CECH-25xx	JTP-001	1-882-481-31	CXD2992BGB	Yes	manples
CECH-30xx	KTE-001	1-884-749-31	CXD2996BGB ?	Yes	Pepelespooder
CECH-4004A	MPX-001	1-887-233-11	CXD2996BGB	NO	ragen-fio

The cell serial for the 30xx is cxd2996bgb
Was extremely hard to get it because of everything being worn off, I had to actually look at the etch Super fun process ...

 

[sandungas]

The cell serial for the 30xx is cxd2996bgb
Was extremely hard to get it because of everything being worn off, I had to actually look at the etch Super fun process ...

And your CELL had this piece made of black plastic that can be seen in this photo of a CECH-40xx made by @ragen-fio ?

That piece of black plastic is nice btw... it prevents scratches in the substrate when deliding it

 

[Pepelespooder]

Yeah it had that piece of plastic Specifically remember it , Found it a bit weird because I've never seen a ps3 with it before, Should have taken it as a sign that something was different. I've done a couple fats and just kind of assumed and used this one as practice because I mostly use my Fats for my rom collections. I've done hundreds of older cpus with vices and was not thinking about the year and the thermal problem already being possibly fixed, Just kind of had it sitting in the closet as a spare and decided Hey before I wreck possibly a fully backwards compatible one doing the Delid and nec replacement I'll try it on this. Not realizing the Nec was actually fixed about chech 2100 anyways

 

[haxxxen]

just want to add my method for delidding the cell on my DECR-1400A. I have used some silicone remover, based on hydrochloric acid. I then used some small hardened transparent plastic shield, which you can find in a psu, to cut off the heatspreader

even it wasn't so hard to do it and the die wasn't damaged, I do not recommend this method. and because I am somehow clumsy and impatient, I even have broken off a tiny ceramique capacitor, but already replaced it successfully

some advice when delidding, do not remove the silicone on CELL, because the heatplate will sit on cpu die directly if silicone is removed. had to make this experience myself, so I have to use some doublesided tape now around cpu die

 

[c4cAos]

Hi there, i joined psx-place only for asking witch kind of thermal solution you have adopted on smd chip of RSX, is clearly a different solution due to avoid electric contact with IHS i think...
I just clean my delidded Phat ps3 and leave this chip without any thermal paste on it
let me know
thank in adv

just want to add my method for delidding the cell on my DECR-1400A. I have used some silicone remover, based on hydrochloric acid. I then used some small hardened transparent plastic shield, which you can find in a psu, to cut off the heatspreader

even it wasn't so hard to do it and the die wasn't damaged, I do not recommend this method. and because I am somehow clumsy and impatient, I even have broken off a tiny ceramique capacitor, but already replaced it successfully

some advice when delidding, do not remove the silicone on CELL, because the heatplate will sit on cpu die directly if silicone is removed. had to make this experience myself, so I have to use some doublesided tape now around cpu die

 

[ragen-fio]

Hi there, i joined psx-place only for asking witch kind of thermal solution you have adopted on smd chip of RSX, is clearly a different solution due to avoid electric contact with IHS i think...
I just clean my delidded Phat ps3 and leave this chip without any thermal paste on it
let me know
thank in adv

I think you are talking about that red stuff on SMD capacitors. However it is useless because those components do not touch the IHS as they are much lower than RAM and DIE and thermal pastes from known manufacturers are not electrically conductive - I use the Noctua NT-H1 and the Arctic MX-4. Then you need such a small amount of thermal paste that it doesn't even get close to those SMD components.

 

[c4cAos]

I think you are talking about that red stuff on SMD capacitors. However it is useless because those components do not touch the IHS as they are much lower than RAM and DIE and thermal pastes from known manufacturers are not electrically conductive - I use the Noctua NT-H1 and the Arctic MX-4. Then you need such a small amount of thermal paste that it doesn't even get close to those SMD components.

Yep, i mean this red stuff, never seen before, and yes i use Arctic MX-4 (previous MX-3 ) on all my chip also on this delidded machine but not on this SMD
thank for reply

 

[xanthefin]

I had little fun too as nothing else helped lower the overheating CELL.

On my PS3 CELL there was no anywhere near 1.2mm gap of silicone between CPU and IHS (CECHL04 / REV001). When i bought that painters knife/palette knife it has 0.30mm thickness roughly (it throws slightly where you measure at). I had rough the tip part down just hair below 0.20mm to be able use for the delidding.

 

[Timbo9876]

just want to add my method for delidding the cell on my DECR-1400A. I have used some silicone remover, based on hydrochloric acid. I then used some small hardened transparent plastic shield, which you can find in a psu, to cut off the heatspreader

even it wasn't so hard to do it and the die wasn't damaged, I do not recommend this method. and because I am somehow clumsy and impatient, I even have broken off a tiny ceramique capacitor, but already replaced it successfully

some advice when delidding, do not remove the silicone on CELL, because the heatplate will sit on cpu die directly if silicone is removed. had to make this experience myself, so I have to use some doublesided tape now around cpu die

How long did you leave the silicone remover for before attempting the de-lid?

Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk

 

[_XBrD4shDOE_808_]

don't know if it is a method that has already been used, I have not found information about it, however I was pleased to share it with you.

I applied the same method on a CECHB scrap but on the South Bridge and I didn't damage it either, I have a post about it on the forum.

@sandungas
To avoid possible BGA breakage when removing the IHS glue from the CELL, you can put kerosene (aircraft fuel) around the glue and inside the CPU between the IHS and the CPU and let it act for a couple of minutes before starting the When cut, the glue will come off easily and fall apart in your hands, and the kerosene is not electrically conductive and does not leave grease on the motherboard, but I recommend washing it with isopropyl alcohol.

To cut the glue, using an aluminum soda can, cut strips of 2 cm thick and pass the glue, and as the kerosene will soften the glue, it will cut easily and without damage.

A video showing what I mean. it is in Brazilian Portuguese (Pt-Br), but you can understand it just by looking at the images. He also has other videos doing delid with other methods.

 

[haxxxen]

hm, sorry I haven't reacted to further questions before. the red stuff is just some nail polish, to insulate for Liquid Metal. and for the silicone remover, you just have to follow instructions. after half an hour is fine

 

[miguelfcp]

Hi experts!

I have a CECHK04 and I've tried everything to delid the CPU but it is impossible. I'm using paint knifes, used heat gun before but it feels like I'm cutting stone. I don't know more to do and I believe that already killed my console.

Any suggestion?
Best regards!