PS3 Failed Frankenstein MOD on CECHC04

A

Antviau

Member
Hello everyone! I recently tried to do my first Frankenstein mod on a CECHC04 and sadly the only result I got is a GLOD.

I did the resistor mod, and inputted the proper training data in the syscon.

After checking the Southbridge UART I saw that I kept getting this message "RSXAuRSX" followed by a bunch of FFFs,
"# RSXAuRSX #410-ffffffff [ffff00ff]".

The RSX is recognized as a 65nm chip, which it is so no problem there. The system is also running FW 3.56 so no issues on that side either.

There's also an RSX driver issue in safe mode, "Prepare to shutdown rsx ctxsw driver timeout! please report"

All of the Ohm values are really good on the M.B except for RSX PLL that's way too high (supposed to be 5.33kohm, 233kohms instead).

Cell VDD is a bit low as well, sitting at 2.8ohms instead of 4.5ohms.

Could anyone tell me where I went wrong?
I'm planning on offering this service in the future (I have a proper registered business and the equipment) and would want to know how to not repeat my mistake in the future.
 
Hello. I had that same problem last week. Console had firmware 4.41 but I had glod. When you are connected to SB Uart, try go to safe mode and look on the log. When you will shutdown console normalny, in log you should see "rsx driver couldn't be load" or something like that. Check carefully for resistor mod. If its good, check nearby resistors. In my case the problem was on resistor on rsx. IT had to desolder when I was pulling out Rsx from motherboards :P
 
OK, I see, I do get the RSX driver message in safe mode, so I'll definitely check it out. Thanks!

Man, thank you so much! That was exactly it! The 10k resistor I put in was dead, after replacing it, it finally worked!

Kasza92 said:
Hello. I had that same problem last week. Console had firmware 4.41 but I had glod. When you are connected to SB Uart, try go to safe mode and look on the log. When you will shutdown console normalny, in log you should see "rsx driver couldn't be load" or something like that. Check carefully for resistor mod. If its good, check nearby resistors. In my case the problem was on resistor on rsx. IT had to desolder when I was pulling out Rsx from motherboards :P
Click to expand...
 
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PS3 Frankenstein DECHA00A Glod

Hello everyone. It's me again. I just did my third Frankenstein using a test unit with a bad RSX and sadly so far it's not working.

After a lot of testing I've found that the RSX I installed is most likely installed properly since it's giving all the right values, and the resistor mod is working giving me 10k.

No errors on the SB UART log, it almost looks like the system works, except that it's in GLOD and needs to be forcefully shutdown.

Only problem I've found, the CELL. It's only giving me 1.8 ohms on VDDC which is too low, and despite replacing all the NEC / Tokins on the board the value isn't going up. I even reflowed the chip but to no avail. I also searched everywhere on the board for shorts, or dead caps, especially around the CELL but nothing.

So if anyone could tell me how to get the value up so that I can boot perhaps I would appreciate it greatly + this one is mine and not a customer's and I really like it.

I've also increased and decreased the voltages, but it did not work. Still same result. Minimum accepted voltage was 1.0250v.
 
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SB uart will show firmware of the console, IT could be too low, when everything is okay, so console would have glod. Which rsx did you put, 65 or 40 ?
 
Kasza92 said:
SB uart will show firmware of the console, IT could be too low, when everything is okay, so console would have glod. Which rsx did you put, 65 or 40 ?
Click to expand...

It's Evilnat 4.92 CFW. Installed it myself, RSX failed recently. After doing a lot of testing with the guys from ObscureGamers we think it's a bad replacement RSX. We've confirmed that despite the low value the CELL seems to work.

Kasza92 said:
SB uart will show firmware of the console, IT could be too low, when everything is okay, so console would have glod. Which rsx did you put, 65 or 40 ?
Click to expand...

Still not working after replacing with new new RSX. Exact same symptoms. Glod, can't power off normally.
I checked the pads, there were a couple of ripped ones but they were all NC on both the RSX and MB.

Here's the log :
Code: 
Boot Loader SE Version 4.9.2 (Build ID: 5378,50763, Build Date: 2025-02-18_20:02:02)
SDK Version: 492.000
Copyright(C) 2025 Evilnat [Akatsuki]. 03/05/2025. Happy CFW moments.
[INFO]: === eXtreme Data Rate Memory Subsystem ===
[INFO]: (Configured Memory Size per single XIO channel: 128 MBytes.)
[INFO]: XIO channel[0] is available.
[INFO]: XIO channel[1] is available.
[INFO]: ---> Total 256 MBytes are now in use.
[INFO]: SPU enable [0, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7] 11101111
[INFO]: BE:3.2, SB:DX3.1
Device: PATAC0:Cable Not Connect
Cell OS SDK4.9.2 000 (release build: r50763 2025_02_18_182000)
Copyright 2025 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
revision: 50758
date:     Tue Feb 18 20:03:39 JST 2025
skip 2nd initialization step
storage: ACL check will be skipped for device id ffffffffffffffff
storage: ACL check will be skipped for device id 0
storage: ACL check will be skipped for device id 1
lv2(0): total memory size: 249MB+640KB
lv2(0): kern memory size:   12MB+640KB (heap:3492KB  page pool:4736KB)
lv2(0): user memory size:  237MB
lv2(2):
lv2(2): Cell OS Lv-2 32 bit version 4.9.2
lv2(2): Copyright(C) 2025 Evilnat [Akatsuki]. 03/05/2025.
lv2(2): Happy CFW moments.
lv2(2):
lv2(2): revision: 50763
lv2(2): build date: 2025/02/18 20:07:48
lv2(2): processor: Broadband Engine  Ver 0x0000  Rev 0x0202
lv2(2): PPU:0, Thread:0 is enabled.
lv2(2): PPU:0, Thread:1 is enabled.
lv2(2): rsx:      rsx65 a05 500/650 vpe:ff shd:3f  [AP0009073:1:1:d:14:9:2:5:1][1c:0:2:0:1:2:0][2:1:0]

lv2(2): Available physical SPUs: 6/7
lv2(2): mounting the flash file system : OK
lv2(2): creating the initial system process : OK
lv2(2): DEX: entering stand-alone mode.
lv2(2): system software: PS3 console mode (game memsize=200MB)
storage: ACL check will be skipped for device id 2
lv2(2): creating the system software process : OK
lv2(2): sys_init: system software process set-up done.
lv2(2): initial system process done.

I'm giving up on this thing honestly. Behind the scenes I did a ton of probing with the service manual, checking every nook and cranny.

Was not able to find anything wrong. So I give up. Just lost 300€....
 
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No offense, but of course I removed R2054 and R2001. I'm only a beginner at BGA stuff, I've been repairing electronics for 10 years.

Bowie75 said:
I know you've said you carried out the10k resistor mod, but you didn't say you have removed resistor R2001?
Click to expand...
 
Antviau said:
No offense, but of course I removed R2054 and R2001. I'm only a beginner at BGA stuff, I've been repairing electronics for 10 years.
Click to expand...

No offence taken, but seeing as you didn't check the 10k resistor after installing it on the other cok-02 board, and it turned out to be faulty, I thought it was worth pointing it out, you never know you may have overlooked it, seeing as you don't need to remove it on the cok-02 board.
Anyway I'm sure with all your experience you'll sort it out, good luck with it.
 
No I'm not. The PS3 is dead in my opinion and unrecoverable. Besides, in terms of work hours I've already spent too much time on it.

It's just the way it is you know? You gotta learn if you want to get good at something.
 
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