Hi,
I'm just writing here to amuse myself and whoever may be bored.
I bought a used ps3 (my first PS ever) around Christmas and it's been working just fine until a few weeks ago. I was busy trying to fix a computer during a night in which I would take breaks to play Minecraft on the ps3, when suddenly the console turned off, after fan blew much admittedly. I think it was the damn cows roaming around in my house. There were just too many of them because I needed to collect leather to make books and bookshelves.
At first I smirked without even turning my head back to look at it and thought "oh well, I've been away too long and the energy saving kicked in". But when I tried to resume playing it no longer turned on. I panicked. I started looking for info on the matter and concluded it may have overheated and turned off as a result.
The console would turn on after a while. But there was no picture. I tried each and every long press to reset the HDMI output to no avail. Eventually I bought a component output cable and plugged it, hoping it was the HDMI output that was fried and not the GPU. Surprisingly, as soon as I plugged that cable, I got the HDMI output to work again.
Thinking my problem was just that occasional overheating, I played away and noticed something. The screen would go blank for a longer period than it used to. Since I got this console, the screen had been going blank occasionally, perhaps every several dozen minutes, and for about a second only, so I thought it may be nothing to worry about. Was I wrong
After a while of longer blank periods, the console turned off again. Uh oh. It wouldn't turn on anymore. Maybe the issue wasn't about the HDMI chip after all and it was a more serious issue?
After researching again, I learned about reballing and reflowing, and eventually read that these techniques are not supposed to work, and that it's just the heat that's rebridging things inside the GPU. So I thought I'd give a try anyways and heat up the RSX to try my luck.
It worked!… sort of. The console would turn on, indeed. Proud of my "fix" I played the console for the whole day to test it. And then it showed some graphic artifacts and froze
Upon turning it back on, the console would show artifacts and freeze in under a few minutes. I thought that was it, it was dead, and then I read about a pressure test. "Maybe it's true the RSX is no longer well attached to the board. I have to try this pressure test", I thought. And so I did and I was very surprised to see it worked! I started the console putting pressure on each of the RSX lid corners, one at a time, with the screwdriver handle, and one of the corners when pressed would let the console work without issue until I released the pressure.
I used a clamp with rubber ends to hold the RSX down with a little force against the board, put more flux around the corner (I had already put in all sides when I tried the heating "fix") and aimed the hot air gun under that corner. Again… it worked! That was amazing. I thought I had mastered already the art of fixing ps3s
After a few hours playing, the console turned off again. Damn. It wouldn't turn on anymore but for a few seconds. It felt like a short to me. Maybe the excess flux was doing this? I opened it and indeed, there was quite a bit of flux overflowing from under that corner which I had cleaned before. Apparently the console heat made it flow out of place or something. I cleaned it all hoping that would be it. It worked ("I'm master of fixing!")… for a very short while.
When I reopened, I couldn't see any flux on the board. However, I could see it under the RSX lid. I had to remove that lid and clean. I managed to do so and I was happy. There was a good mess under it. But this time the console was still the same. It turned off after about two seconds only. I had to try to remove the CPU lid to clean under there too.
This one was way harder. Because I watched several videos, I knew this one was attached with a rubbery glue that you need to cut through with a blade in order to lift the lid without issue. I tried all I had at hand, but I didn't have blades that thin and long. At last, I just decided to pry on it and that was my last mistake. After a while prying here and there I insisted too much in a corner and the small square board right under the lid, chipped away. With it a couple or three small golden pin holes went away too. I screwed up.
I still tried to turn the console once again hoping very naively that chipped piece wouldn't matter and that somehow after a while the flux would have moved elsewhere and made it work again. But nope.
I tidied up and started looking for another used ps3. Hopefully I can get it tomorrow, the [censored] wouldn't want to give it this evening.
This one I will leave it alone unless the temperature gets too high, in which case I'LL VERY CAREFULLY replace the thermal paste. I do know about webman tho.
That's all
I'm just writing here to amuse myself and whoever may be bored.
I bought a used ps3 (my first PS ever) around Christmas and it's been working just fine until a few weeks ago. I was busy trying to fix a computer during a night in which I would take breaks to play Minecraft on the ps3, when suddenly the console turned off, after fan blew much admittedly. I think it was the damn cows roaming around in my house. There were just too many of them because I needed to collect leather to make books and bookshelves.
At first I smirked without even turning my head back to look at it and thought "oh well, I've been away too long and the energy saving kicked in". But when I tried to resume playing it no longer turned on. I panicked. I started looking for info on the matter and concluded it may have overheated and turned off as a result.
The console would turn on after a while. But there was no picture. I tried each and every long press to reset the HDMI output to no avail. Eventually I bought a component output cable and plugged it, hoping it was the HDMI output that was fried and not the GPU. Surprisingly, as soon as I plugged that cable, I got the HDMI output to work again.
Thinking my problem was just that occasional overheating, I played away and noticed something. The screen would go blank for a longer period than it used to. Since I got this console, the screen had been going blank occasionally, perhaps every several dozen minutes, and for about a second only, so I thought it may be nothing to worry about. Was I wrong
After a while of longer blank periods, the console turned off again. Uh oh. It wouldn't turn on anymore. Maybe the issue wasn't about the HDMI chip after all and it was a more serious issue?After researching again, I learned about reballing and reflowing, and eventually read that these techniques are not supposed to work, and that it's just the heat that's rebridging things inside the GPU. So I thought I'd give a try anyways and heat up the RSX to try my luck.
It worked!… sort of. The console would turn on, indeed. Proud of my "fix" I played the console for the whole day to test it. And then it showed some graphic artifacts and froze
Upon turning it back on, the console would show artifacts and freeze in under a few minutes. I thought that was it, it was dead, and then I read about a pressure test. "Maybe it's true the RSX is no longer well attached to the board. I have to try this pressure test", I thought. And so I did and I was very surprised to see it worked! I started the console putting pressure on each of the RSX lid corners, one at a time, with the screwdriver handle, and one of the corners when pressed would let the console work without issue until I released the pressure.
I used a clamp with rubber ends to hold the RSX down with a little force against the board, put more flux around the corner (I had already put in all sides when I tried the heating "fix") and aimed the hot air gun under that corner. Again… it worked! That was amazing. I thought I had mastered already the art of fixing ps3s
After a few hours playing, the console turned off again. Damn. It wouldn't turn on anymore but for a few seconds. It felt like a short to me. Maybe the excess flux was doing this? I opened it and indeed, there was quite a bit of flux overflowing from under that corner which I had cleaned before. Apparently the console heat made it flow out of place or something. I cleaned it all hoping that would be it. It worked ("I'm master of fixing!")… for a very short while.
When I reopened, I couldn't see any flux on the board. However, I could see it under the RSX lid. I had to remove that lid and clean. I managed to do so and I was happy. There was a good mess under it. But this time the console was still the same. It turned off after about two seconds only. I had to try to remove the CPU lid to clean under there too.
This one was way harder. Because I watched several videos, I knew this one was attached with a rubbery glue that you need to cut through with a blade in order to lift the lid without issue. I tried all I had at hand, but I didn't have blades that thin and long. At last, I just decided to pry on it and that was my last mistake. After a while prying here and there I insisted too much in a corner and the small square board right under the lid, chipped away. With it a couple or three small golden pin holes went away too. I screwed up.
I still tried to turn the console once again hoping very naively that chipped piece wouldn't matter and that somehow after a while the flux would have moved elsewhere and made it work again. But nope.
I tidied up and started looking for another used ps3. Hopefully I can get it tomorrow, the [censored] wouldn't want to give it this evening.
This one I will leave it alone unless the temperature gets too high, in which case I'LL VERY CAREFULLY replace the thermal paste. I do know about webman tho.
That's all