Hello newcomer to the ps3 modding scene, needing help with syscon diagnostic

[ascendantprime]

I managed to resurrect a ceche01 ps3 from ylod with my hot air station a couple weeks ago and did thermals, and installed hen and eventually evilnat and was getting random crashing during anything intensive with the 3 beeps and i figured it was overheating still and maybe nec tokins are bad, so i delidded a couple days ago and replaced paste under the ihs on the rsx and cell, and it started running great and i could play ps3 games and ps2 games for longer than like 30 mins, it crashed again a couple days ago, thought nothing of it and today i tried booting so i could dump syscon logs to properly diag, and it was ylod again, so i pulled it back apart and reflowed it again(this time with flux i have no idea why i didnt the first time) but i did it without the ihs on both the cell and rsx and so far it is working great.

long story short i dumped the syscon logs and now it is showing me signs not only the rsx is failing but also the nec tokins are failing with 1001, 1002 and also 3034 and 4421 codes, but im also confused as its showing as 2006 being when the codes where thrown, it is a free console that was dead since 2012, should i pray it lasts longer this time, and should i even look into fixing it rather than just get a slim and mod it if both the rsx and tokins need to be replaced? should i wait for it to ylod again to hopefully get a better log? replacing the rsx and tokins are something im capable of doing and have the tools i need like bga rework station at work and all the other soldering stuff i need here at home, but i cant even find 40 or 45nm rsx chips and i dont wanna murder good consoles if im gonna need to spend another 80 bucks on capacitor tantalizer boards. full logs in picture. thankful for any tips yall have.

 

[iKon]

Flux was a good move, but the big thing to understand is this:

Without a real preheater, board support/jig, controlled thermal profile, and actually taking the solder into a true liquid state, you're not really doing a proper BGA reflow. You're mostly heat-cycling the board and maybe temporarily restoring a bad connection.

"Reflow" just means bringing solder back to a liquid/wetting state so the pads and balls reconnect properly. That can apply to anything on a PCB — an SMD resistor, capacitor, BGA, RSX, Southbridge, etc. Flux helps reduce oxidation and helps the solder wet the pads, whether you are reinstalling the existing RSX or attaching a new one.

The problem is, with a launch model 90nm RSX, repeated hot-air attempts usually turn into a loop: it works for a little while, crashes again, then needs more heat, and each heat cycle makes the PCB, BGA pads, substrate, and surrounding components worse. Those 90nm chips already have a poor long-term track record, so from a practical repair standpoint I personally treat the original 90nm RSX as bad once it starts showing this kind of behavior.

Technically, 3034 does not always prove the RSX silicon itself is dead. It can be BGA attach, RSX/CELL link training, board damage, or FLEXIO-related. But on a CECHA/CECHB/CECHE with the original 90nm RSX, especially after repeated hot-air revivals and the same faults keep coming back, I would not build the repair plan around trying to preserve that chip.

Flooding flux under the chip can help during removal because it keeps the pads from oxidizing while the chip is coming off. But if the chip is staying on the board, the goal is still the same: the solder balls need to actually reflow. If they do not reach liquid state, you are mostly just stressing the board. With only a hot air wand, that is very hard to do correctly and consistently.

On your syscon codes:

1001 by itself is not something I would chase as a NEC/TOKIN failure. That can be triggered by the power button / shutdown event, so I would not read too far into that one by itself.

3034 is commonly RSX/BGA/link-training related. Again, it does not always mean the RSX die itself is dead, but it usually means the RSX side has a serious connection or communication problem.

4421 can be CELL/RSX/FLEXIO related. Since you also have repeated 3034, I would be looking very hard at the RSX side first.

Before wasting too much time, inspect the RSX and CELL area closely. If the board is bubbled, warped, or the BGA site is damaged, it may not be worth trying to save. If the board looks clean, then proper RSX rework is the better direction.

With repeated 3034/4421 after hot-air "revival," I would not trust that original 90nm RSX. If this was a customer unit or something I wanted reliable, I would plan on RSX replacement first, then deal with anything else only if it remains afterward.

If you just want the console to work and actually be reliable, this is where a Frankenstein RSX swap makes sense. If you are doing it for learning, then by all means keep experimenting — just understand that every heat cycle reduces the odds of that board surviving long-term.