PS3 PS3 Repair video

Tony359

Tony359

Member
Hello all,

I've made a PS3 repair video - actually they are three but two are still in the making! - and I thought I would share it here.

I'm not a PS3 expert but I've got some Syscon, Tokin and De-lid in there which I hope might be useful for someone.


Please feel free to comment, I'd love to know what I am doing right and - most importantly - what I am doing wrong!

Thank you!
 
Nice videos Tony, love the background music.

Just a note on the SEM-001 board, unfortunatley have had a few of these boards have pcb issues - delimantion causing shorts.

Unfortunatley these boards are usually 90% RSX faults.

In case you are not aware, you can have these ps3 boards turned on until they overheat and shutdown automatically - it has a thermal shutdown limit of 91C - can be tweaked in the syscon.

BGA reflowing/reballing is an art form and just practise on the machinery you have - pre baking is the key and a good top heater.

You will hit the road blocks with these ps3 motherboards, mainly solder pins failing off and using pcb wire to fix it!

But just keep plugging away with it.
 
Thank you!

Is it safe to let the board shut down by itself when no heatsinks are installed?

Yes, I have been practicing on BGA reworking for quite a long time now. I've got a pre-heater and a good quality and powerful hot air station but I am still failing. As you say, it's an art, we're basically mimicking what professional machines do (and I don't mean those chinese contraptions I see online). I'm still trying...

I did try a second reflow on that DEM-001 which I did not include in the video. It "worked" but I popcorned the chip (despite the baking!!) and also observed some solder mask damage where the pads are, both on the chip and on the board. So.... I will keep trying :)

Thanks for your input :)
 
Tony359 said:
Yes, I have been practicing on BGA reworking for quite a long time now. I've got a pre-heater and a good quality and powerful hot air station but I am still failing. As you say, it's an art, we're basically mimicking what professional machines do (and I don't mean those chinese contraptions I see online). I'm still trying...
Click to expand...

You will find you get better results if you have a top plate heater - you can buy them on their own - hot air doesn't distribute the heat properly - I know other people have said its fine, but i repair alot of motherboards, and i can tell you using an hot air for top heat is a lottery!

I still use an old Phui T870-A IR bga machine and it works well, but you must master the pre bake on this machine otherwise it burns boards if not done properly.

A good IR machine for a price is the IR6500, has proper heat profiles.
 
Tony359 said:
I did try a second reflow on that DEM-001 which I did not include in the video. It "worked" but I popcorned the chip (despite the baking!!) and also observed some solder mask damage where the pads are, both on the chip and on the board. So.... I will keep trying :)
Click to expand...

This means you board still had moisture in it.

A tip i can give is, on your preheater set to 100c at a room temp of say 22c. Let the board temp get to the 100c or more - put the temp sensor next to the RSX chip.

Add flux around the sides of the RSX chip and use an hot air gun to flow around tipping the board around to allow the flux to flow inside - this aids in removal, otherwise you will find the original RSX balls are impossible to melt, thus destryoing the chip and the pcb pins.

If possible use an IR laser temp gun to measure the rest of the board - once you have an even spread of 100c, then crank up the heat to 120C. Keep cranking the heat up by 20c till the final setting of 170C.

Make sure to use aluminuim tape to seal the holes (stops flux flowing down and catching fire) and around the top,bottom and sides of the RSX chip.

Also to protect the underneath, cover with the tape on the plastic connectors - thats all you need as with the correct heat process nothing will burn or fall off.

If you have a working RSX chip usually the balls are lead-free solder and are 180c type solder, so usually solder back on the board with ease - sometimes only using a preheater and a bit of top heat for 10s.

This is the technique i use and it works a treat everytime without killing any components.

Hope this advice helps!
 
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Any advice always helps, thank you!

with leaded solder it's a breeze. But PS3's are post year 2000 so they should all be lead-free, no? That melts at 220C, not 180. Unless I am missing something?

I store my PCBs in a "dry box", it's a box where humidity is between 10 and 20%. Then I bake them for a few hours at 100/120C to remove the remaining moisture. Clearly that is not enough! :)

I run the pre-heater so that the board reads 180C with an IR thermometer indeed (the heater thermocouple is close to the plates so the reading is irrelevant). Only then I start the hot air.

You are not the first one mentioning the top plate rather than hot air. One thing I can say is that with my previous "cheapo" hot air station, the heat distribution was terrible as you say. I tested it with a thermal camera and it was truly bad. But since then I upgraded to a Quick (the more powerful model) and heat distribution seems ok now.

What I would like to test is a different approach with the hot air. Instead of setting the hot air to the final temperature and stick it on the chip, I'd like to set it to actual 180C (pre-heater temp) and then slowly bringing it up to whatever is required to reflow the chip. This is what most of those cheap BGA reworking machines are doing BTW.

So, lots of experiments coming. Thanks for your input, really appreciated!
 
Tony359 said:
Any advice always helps, thank you!

with leaded solder it's a breeze. But PS3's are post year 2000 so they should all be lead-free, no? That melts at 220C, not 180. Unless I am missing something?

I store my PCBs in a "dry box", it's a box where humidity is between 10 and 20%. Then I bake them for a few hours at 100/120C to remove the remaining moisture. Clearly that is not enough! :)

I run the pre-heater so that the board reads 180C with an IR thermometer indeed (the heater thermocouple is close to the plates so the reading is irrelevant). Only then I start the hot air.

You are not the first one mentioning the top plate rather than hot air. One thing I can say is that with my previous "cheapo" hot air station, the heat distribution was terrible as you say. I tested it with a thermal camera and it was truly bad. But since then I upgraded to a Quick (the more powerful model) and heat distribution seems ok now.

What I would like to test is a different approach with the hot air. Instead of setting the hot air to the final temperature and stick it on the chip, I'd like to set it to actual 180C (pre-heater temp) and then slowly bringing it up to whatever is required to reflow the chip. This is what most of those cheap BGA reworking machines are doing BTW.

So, lots of experiments coming. Thanks for your input, really appreciated!
Click to expand...

So the lead-free solder has different ratings, sony used the 220c variant - which makes sense.

You are correct, bringing up the top heat slowly is the way to go - thermal shock is such a killer and especially as these boards are now 16 years old, material degrades over time and makes this whole process harder overtime.

Good luck Tony! - keep up the good videos!
 
db260179 said:
Nice videos Tony, love the background music.

Just a note on the SEM-001 board, unfortunatley have had a few of these boards have pcb issues - delimantion causing shorts.

Unfortunatley these boards are usually 90% RSX faults.

In case you are not aware, you can have these ps3 boards turned on until they overheat and shutdown automatically - it has a thermal shutdown limit of 91C - can be tweaked in the syscon.

BGA reflowing/reballing is an art form and just practise on the machinery you have - pre baking is the key and a good top heater.

You will hit the road blocks with these ps3 motherboards, mainly solder pins failing off and using pcb wire to fix it!

But just keep plugging away with it.
Click to expand...
Hi. Is the number you are referring to, SEM-001, written in the board?
 
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