PS3 Is it the RSX? Black squares

[BigBrawler]

Hello! Sorry if this is the wrong forum.

I'm a long time lurker and a big fan of PSX Place! It's been a wealth of knowledge for years.
Many thanks to everyone here.

I'm repairing and cleaning a PS3 CECHE01 for a customer.

Steps already tried:
Used several new cables with 2 PC monitors
Fan behavior is normal
Thermal paste and thermal pads

Symptoms:
Before the deep clean and repaste I had only RGB dots with no HDD. No YLOD.

After the deep clean and thermal paste / pads replacement I get black squares with an eventual freeze but still no YLOD.

Question:
Is there an issue known to cause this behavior?
What chips do I need to replace?

I have BGA equipment at work but thought of you guys first. I'll wait to hear from you guys before RSX+Orbis.

Thanks!
Big

 

[Raidmax]

That looks like early stages of RSX failure. Best to do a RSX replacement.

The syscon may also report 1601, 1701 and 14ff in that order.

Also, I might be wrong but the Orbis chip isn't required by now, instead being able to do RSX retraining thru the SYSCON.

 

[BigBrawler]

Thanks for your input!
I'll post again with what happens