PS3 Cell IHS refuses to come off

W

Wizzrobe

Forum Noob
Hello everyone,

I've recently obtained a very worn down CECHA01 PS3. The thing works, but I'm trying to preserve it's life until the RSX inevitably fails. I heard that both the Cell and RSX can be delidded, so I decided to take a shot at it. I got the RSX quite easily, but the Cell has been hell on earth.

I purchased some 0.06mm cutting wire to cut away at the glue. I've heard mixed things about cutting wire, but it seems everyone has some horror story for every tool that has been used to delid this console so I picked the best poison there is I suppose. The wire arrived today and I kid you not, I have spent 4+ hours cutting away at the silicone to no avail. This IHS will refuse to come off, and I can't really see how much progress I have made. This process has been extremely frustrating and I do not understand how the hell anyone has managed to delid the Cell with cutting wire. I just ordered a painters knife set and and going to pray that they are thin enough to get under the IHS and break the IHS free.

If anyone has any suggestions on what tools to use to get this thing off, said suggestions would be much appreciated. However, I refuse to use anything sharp like a razor blade. I've delidded dozens of Intel CPUs and while razors are my best friend for cheap chips I don't care about, I'm not going to take my chances with a BGA CPU from an increasingly rare piece of technology.

Thanks
 
The thickness of the adhesive holding the CELL IHS is like 0.015"

Get something like https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/sSUAAOSw3t9ioql8/s-l1600.jpg I used a die grinder with a sanding disc to get about .5" of the tip down to.015" then bent it in a vise. Every IHS comes off like its cutting butter. I use next to zero force.

You really shouldnt be using your system as a test for delidding. If you damage the CELL doing this, it magically turns into a boat anchor or a door stop if you have no boat. :D
 
Ganjo said:
The thickness of the adhesive holding the CELL IHS is like 0.015"

Get something like I used a die grinder with a sanding disc to get about .5" of the tip down to.015" then bent it in a vise. Every IHS comes off like its cutting butter. I use next to zero force.

You really shouldnt be using your system as a test for delidding. If you damage the CELL doing this, it magically turns into a boat anchor or a door stop if you have no boat. :D
Click to expand...
Might have to do that, the painters knives did nothing and I've sprayed the crap out of the chip with WD-40 and this string has also done nothing. If this IHS doesn't come off soon, this board will be in 2 pieces...
 
I have never delidded one myself just looked at it online, it seems like there is no best way to do it seems like a gamble. Can go good or bad. Good luck with the delidding I am curious what the result will be.
 
Still haven't delided the Cell. Put the bare minimum together to boot and it can only stay on for a few minutes before the fan ramps up and it shuts down, likely from a thermal problem. I have checked my RSX and I'm making good die contact, so I suspect I have moved the Cell's IHS enough for there not to be good contact between the die and the IHS. So I guess I'm forced to delid it or I will cook the Cell to an early death.
 
Sorry for the doublepost, I managed to get the error codes from PS3toolset. The shutdown errors are Ax0801103 errors. I can't find much about it, but it seems everyone who has this 1103 error damaged the CPU traces from delidding. However, I believe the 1103's said other people got were on startup, and they were unable to boot. I am inclined to think my previous assumption was correct, and that I just need to get the IHS off the Cell.
 
Good day, I was browsing the forum and found this user Timbo9876 he says he de-lidded many consoles and recorded all the processes. Might be able to DM him and ask if he ever had similar challenges, could help out.
 
Finally got IHS off. I ended up sanding 2 of my painters knives the way that RIP Felix (if you're reading this, thanks for all the guides and content) recommended in another thread I was looking at. While a bit scary, everything came off and no scratched traces. I reassembled and everything has been fine. I haven't tested any games as I don't have any and the Blu-ray drive is broken, but the fan wasn't ramping up quickly and shutting off like it had been. However, the fan did end up ramping up, but I believe that is because I forgot to re-apply the Southbridge Thermal Pad.

I plan on applying some Liquid Metal to the CPU since it will hopefully be the last time I have to work with the CPU. (If this thing stays alive, I plan on getting a 40nm RSX down the road if the current one dies its seemingly inevitable death.)

My tip for anyone who is in the situation I was in is to be patient, and have a little bit of faith. While electronics are delicate, they can take more than you probably think they can, so be aware of that.

Thanks to all who popped in this thread, I appreciated the suggestions.
 
Being a PC guy I delid Cells the "gentlemans way", take a razor blade apart, oil one of the blades so there isn't any friction then just slowly start cutting, applying more clock oil when needed. Because I'm ultra careful it takes a while but every delid is flawless. Only thing that seems to be my nemesis is RSX delids, done some with very little effort taking all necessary precautions and using the proper equipment but I've still managed to (apparently, pending more tests) short something \ kill 2 RSXs on 20XX slim models.
 
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