Let's face it, the launch model PS3's are awesome! Whether you have the A/B models with Full Hardware based Backwards compatibility with PS2 games or the C/E models with Hybrid backwards compatibility, these are the most desirable consoles to own. However, due to their high launch price, SONY only sold 5.63 Million Backwards Compatible PS3's (models A - E). But there's a catch - the Dreaded Yellow Light of Death (YLOD)!
Sadly these early "Phat" model PS3's are dropping like flies! Their hot 90nm Graphics Processor, the "Reality Synthesizer (RSX)," has a flawed thermal design. You can
read more about it here, but this post isn't about the problem, it's about the solution! Suffice it to say that you beloved Backwards compatible PlayStation 3 is going to crap out on you at some point, no matter what you do to prolong the inevitable. For the longest time you had to replace the 90nm RSX with another 90nm RSX...if you could find a working one! And that's the problem!
SONY sold 14.41 million PS3's with 90nm RSXs. G & H models for example have a 90nm and are not backwards compatible. So they have been a source of working 90nm RSX's for those who are willing to sacrifice a working console for it's GPU. But those consoles also go bad right and left. So the supply of 90nm RSX's has been steadily shrinking. And it's a crap shoot how long that used 90nm RSX will last! At one time there may have been "New Old Stock (NOS)" 90nm RSXs produced, but never installed. However, those were all bought up by reballers long ago. So now, 90nm RSXs are in short supply and those that are available are either bad or plucked from a working, albeit less desirable console - killing the living to resurrect the dead (Technomancer non-sense). It ain't natural!
That's just skirting the issue though. It's a war of attrition! Eventually the supply of 90nm RSX's will be gone. Then what?
Enter the Frankenstein Phat Playstation 3....
Around 2012 SONY's hardware and repair division had a problem. Early model PlayStation 3's were failing with bad RSXs. However by this time the 90nm RSX was out of production and not available anymore. Later model Phats with 65nm RSXs and then Slim models with 40nm RSXs were being manufactured. So SONY repair technicians had to find a way to replace the failing 90nm RSX with a more reliable, but really more available, 65nm RSX. Then again with 40nm RSX's.
About 2 years ago the OP started this thread. That's when we first became aware of he fact SONY had done this. Of course we were super stoked! The idea that we might be able to reverse engineer this method meant that we could finally resurrect and save these desirable consoles. But more than that, make it as reliable as the slim model!
A year went by. We knew what Sony had done, but hadn't been able to replicate the mod yet. Then we learned about the ORBIS modchip! 4-5 years before we even learned it was possable to swap a 90nm,
@botakompong's brother "Kiaw" made a modchip that allows it! He and
@botakompong could interchange 90nm, 65nm, and 40nm RSX's by just installing a chip and moving a few resistors! That wasn't possible before, because the console would recognize there wasn't a 90nm chip and refuse to boot (YLOD). The mod chip spoofs the RSX_ID and tricks the system into booting. An amazing accomplishment way before any of us had any idea this was going on!
Unfortunately, Kiaw passed away a few years ago and we never got to pick his talented brain about the modchip. His brother
@botakompong has carried on the torch selling/installing the modchip out of his shop in Jakarta, Indonesia.
@botakompong had been offering this service for years before we knew it was possible.
The ORBIS modchip made the swap even easier than SONY's method, which at the time we thought required replacing the SYSCON with a variant flashed with custom firmware. That's on top of the resistor and voltage mods. Kiaw's ORBIS modechip doesn't require any changes to the SYSCON at all! So it's an easier install.
We thought the ORBIS modchip was the ultimate solution! There are 21.5 Million 65nm RSXs in J -20xx model PS3s and at least 30 million 40nm RSXs in 21xx - 40xx models! And we can still source NOS 40nm RSX's! For the longest time we thought that those RSX's weren't compatible with the Backward Compatible models. They're pin compatible, yes. But they would just error in BitTraining with A0403034 if you tried. The SYSCON could not train the RSX. That's wht the ORBIS mod fixed! It allows the SYSCON to train a 65nm or 40nm RSX and get the system to boot!
There are many, MANY more Slim PS3's than there are BC models. This modchip makes sourcing replacement RSX's for BC PS3's sustainable. Every single BC model could easily get a 40nm RSX, since there are so many more slims out there! We don't have to throw Backward compatible PS3's away anymore!
Here is a good video summary of the above, for those interested in the details.
@DeadEnd explains what SONY did in their official refurbished boards and summarizes our struggle to understand. Up to this point in the story...
Fast forward another year and
@vyktormvmpay25 and
@M4j0r made a
MAJOR breakthrough! @M4j0r had sucessfully replicated SONY's method, but improved upon it! We thought that it would require a new SYSCON chip flashed with a special firmware to accomplish. That made it much more difficult than the ORBIS modchip. But
@M4j0r's method only required a couple of writes to the eeprom over UART!
What this means is that it's now possible to replicate SONY's method! And more than that, we don't even need to flash custom firmware on a special variant SYSCON chip! We can leave the stock SYSCON on the on the board. We only need to write a few changes to the EEPROM over UART. That make this method cheaper and easier than the ORBIS mod! WOW!
That's the backstory. Now for the tutorials...
