PS3 (Research/Experimental) - NEC/TOKIN Capacitors Replacement - YLOD

[squeept]

6 more systems in the books since my last check-in: zero bad TOKIN, 4 BGA defects, 2 dead GPU.

I see quite a few botched replacements here since then as well, so I'll repeat that a cheap oscilloscope will pay for itself. I didn't see anyone post any links? Send me a PM (they go to my e-mail) if you want me to look over a cheap one for you and I'll take a guess if it's got the chops. I spent a little bit on Amazon, and this looks like the best cheap one I can find. $43US shipped, carrying case, probe, good specs, and storage function: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z1M381W/

Once I get a few more images of bad caps (looking like it might be awhile...) and someone finds a cheap scope that's verified to be up to the task, I'll send the album and details to someone to make a stickied post.

Lastly, why are you all using such huge caps? "B" case (3528) fits without even turning sideways. Any reputable supplier will have a search filter to put in the case code. You shouldn't be getting tantalum from shady sites, they have a tendency to explode.

 

[Meuporg]

Those tantalums look unbranded. Did you measure them before using?
Also the + sides of a few look like they touches the - of the motherboard.
I would recommend you to remove them, flip them over and put solder on the bottom side then clean the motherboard +/- parallel lines and place them carefully back after you measure if they check out ok(add up the uf to reach 1200)

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Thanks for the reply and your observations.
These tantalums are legit from AVX - Solid SMD 6.3V 470uF 20% (purchased at Mouser)

I've just removed them and put it back more precisely like advised (after checking all caps). All connected.

Is it normal to have 2 ohm when I check the connections between +/- lines?
What are normal measurements?

I'll wait for a reply before trying if YLOD is gone or not.
Thank you!

 

[NSC-Modz]

That's right, the other thing is also, let's say the NEC/Tokin (0E128 - 1200uF) has 1200uf, but if you replace this one with 4x 470uf you gonna have at last 1880uf.

My uncle is engineer and ones of the best electrician, he told me, if a capacitor needs to be replaced, it should always have the same capacity as the old one. The only thing you could change is the voltage, so let's say, if a capacitor had 470uf with 2.5v, you can replace it with one that has also 470uf but with 6v.

The voltage can be a bit higher, this will also last longer, but it should never be lower.

So the right way to replace the Nec/Tokin (0E128 - 1200uF) should be like 4x 300uf with recommended 6v. Together 1200uf.

The other thing is, a tantal with 300uf will be hard to find, but you can still go for 4x 330uf witch is together 1320uf, 120uf more as it should be, still better as to use 1880uf.

Type 3528 is a good alternative, should be better to replace for those who have not so good soldering skills.

I will do some tests on there soon, then I'll let you know more...

Greetings
NSC

 

[demetris]

The 6volt is not the recommend it's just an option you can use. Going with 2.5v you have still a lot of voltage room to spare as neither cpu or gpu draw that much. So stop spreading the impression that 6v is better is not and it won't last longer and to be honest i would prefer to have a tantalum burst that the whole cpu or gpu burn to pieces so yes those 2.5 volt ones give me a peace of mind.

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[demetris]

Thanks for the reply and your observations.
These tantalums are legit from AVX - Solid SMD 6.3V 470uF 20% (purchased at Mouser)

I've just removed them and put it back more precisely like advised (after checking all caps). All connected.

Is it normal to have 2 ohm when I check the connections between +/- lines?
What are normal measurements?

I'll wait for a reply before trying if YLOD is gone or not.
Thank you!

You are welcome.
I dont remember the measurement by heart sorry.
Just do as NSC recommended as he is very correct. Leave only 3 for every tokin and you will be ok.

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[Meuporg]

Tantalums replaced like seen in the pics (based on this video of NSC). All were connected.
Always 2 ohm between + and - lines...
NEC/Tokin from CPU/GPU side left untouched.
No high gauge wire to bridge positive to positive.

Not as clean as NSC but it was done as carefully as possible.
But I still have YLOD... Green light then yellow quickly and finally never ending blinking red. See video here.

Can someone guide me to the right direction please? Fuse problem? Would you try another PSU? Delid CPU?
I'm about to give up... And lose my Dragon's Crown save forever. I was one trophy away from my first Platine ever on Dead Space.

Thanks in advance!

 

[ElGris]

@Meuporg Sorry but that's an instant shutdown in my book. If changing some tantalums on the RSX didn't prolong that green light, then you have some kind of short on the mobo, or bad soldering on the RSX. I recommend you to remove every tantalum and start over, you'll be sure every tantalum is soldered properly without having doubt of any short over there.

And why didn't you use electrical tape or kapton tape? This is serious, you can instant kill some fuse by doing things like that. Make sure everything is in place, and put that "jumper" or wire on positive lines.

If this keeps happening, you must be needing a rework.

 

[Meuporg]

@Meuporg Sorry but that's an instant shutdown in my book. If changing some tantalums on the RSX didn't prolong that green light, then you have some kind of short on the mobo, or bad soldering on the RSX. I recommend you to remove every tantalum and start over, you'll be sure every tantalum is soldered properly without having doubt of any short over there.

And why didn't you use electrical tape or kapton tape? This is serious, you can instant kill some fuse by doing things like that. Make sure everything is in place, and put that "jumper" or wire on positive lines.

If this keeps happening, you must be needing a rework.

Removing all angled tantalums to put them back this way carefully is actually what was just done.

To discard any "doubt of any short over there" like you say.

No electrical tape because most repair vids online don't do it. I assumed it was ok but still asked about this in my first post. Obviously I'm still learning...

About the "jumper" :
(nobody able to clarify this yet)
Do I need a high gauge wire to bridge positive to positive in my case? (all NEC/Tokin on the other side left untouched).

When I read 1st page of this thread, step 5 says it's only when you remove ALL NEC/Tokins.

Thanks for your help.

 

[pure3d2]

Removing all angled tantalums to put them back this way carefully is actually what was just done.

To discard any "doubt of any short over there" like you say.

No electrical tape because most repair vids online don't do it. I assumed it was ok but still asked about this in my first post. Obviously I'm still learning...

About the "jumper" :
(nobody able to clarify this yet)
Do I need a high gauge wire to bridge positive to positive in my case? (all NEC/Tokin on the other side left untouched).

When I read 1st page of this thread, step 5 says it's only when you remove ALL NEC/Tokins.

Thanks for your help.

No need for the positive to positive bridge if you still have NEC/TOKINs on the other side of the board.

 

[squeept]

My uncle is engineer and ones of the best electrician, he told me, if a capacitor needs to be replaced, it should always have the same capacity as the old one. The only thing you could change is the voltage, so let's say, if a capacitor had 470uf with 2.5v, you can replace it with one that has also 470uf but with 6v.

That's a very good general rule to keep people from screwing things up. But in this application - smoothing a DC voltage - as long as the minimum design constraint is met and the rest of specs are good, you can pretty much use as high of a capacitance as you want (within reason.... the time constant on like a million F might not be a great idea).

 

[squeept]

Is it normal to have 2 ohm when I check the connections between +/- lines?

Yes, somewhere in there is normal even with all TOKIN caps removed. The GPU itself is like 1.6? ohms from vcc to gnd when off the board.

 

[NSC-Modz]

Hello again

A green, yellow or red light can have a lot of reasons.

You guys please need first to remember why it happened ?

I had people's on my YouTube channel, they have brick a ps3 while flashing the Nor chip, after that, they come to me on my channel, and he told me, the console is not starting any more, and what have he done, he just reflowed the CELL/RSX till it start to burn, i was like: OMG...

An other guy removed the RSX, he has broke one small smd on the gpu, ofcourse the PS3 was not able to start, you want know what he done after that? He just put he's ps3 in the oven for 40min. on 250C°, and then he told me, it's still not working, he will now try the Nec/Tokin Method :/

An other one had short he's PS3 while playing around he's Fan cables, the 12v cable touched the motherboard while the PS3 was on, and BSCHHHH the PS3 had a short, what have he done: he had put some penny's under the CPU/GPU clamps for a better pressure...

As your ps3 had a short, the first thing you should do, it to check the fuses.

But before you check the fuses i recommend you to buy a good used ps3, because you gonna spend a lots of time checking the fuses...

So to be sure you have not a short, you better get all of those tantals of again, and better replace them with some NECs just to test if it will work or not.

You can find on eBay brand new Nec/Tokins, 10 pcs for about 12 bucks.

Here for you guys, brand new NECs:
www.ebay.de/itm/272450305765

If your PS3 is still not working, than it had nothing to do with the NECs.

Try to remember why it happened before you guys had a Y G or Red light of death.

If you still did not remove booth IHS, than your PS3 was maybe overheating... if your ps3 was overheated, you don't need to replace the NECs and hope it will work all again...

Think 2 times before you do something bad on your ps3, that will just damage it even more.

Wish you a great Sunday, and keep it cool.

Greetings
NSC

 

[Meuporg]

Hi @NSC-Modz ,

Thank you for your help, good advises and kinds words.

I was just playing Beyond Two Souls for around 2-3h and the console turned off immediately during a cut-scene.

This never happened. 19 blades fan was always normal. Room temperature as usual. PS3 with enough air, nothing around it.

When I've tried to turned ON it was YLOD... 1st ever.

The repair shops are only doing reflow here...
So I've found this PSX-place guide and thought "let's try this NEC/Tokin solution that is the fix for 90% YLOD cases".

Nothing else was done to this console before.
I've decided to RSX delid but it was so easy on my CECH-A01 that there is no way I've damaged it.
I didn't do CPU delid because it looked much harder and risky.

I've watched many tuto and read a lot and here I am...

Any suggestion from anyone after reading this is more than welcome!

 

[ElGris]

Then you should replace all NECs on the RSX. Some times NECs can be damaged and create an internal short, in those wierd cases you only will realize about it when you remove everything. First start on the RSX, leave the CELL at last, since all the power is needed by the graphic chip. I put 12 tantalums the first time I tried this, I played GT6 for a while and everything went good, then tried TLOU and I had a shutdown at the beggining when everything explodes. Had to put 16 tantalum in total, 4 per NEC, that's the common rule of the tutorial, so try that and tell us what happened.

 

[NSC-Modz]

Hi @NSC-Modz ,

Thank you for your help, good advises and kinds words.

I was just playing Beyond Two Souls for around 2-3h and the console turned off immediately during a cut-scene.

This never happened. 19 blades fan was always normal. Room temperature as usual. PS3 with enough air, nothing around it.

When I've tried to turned ON it was YLOD... 1st ever.

The repair shops are only doing reflow here...
So I've found this PSX-place guide and thought "let's try this NEC/Tokin solution that is the fix for 90% YLOD cases".

Nothing else was done to this console before.
I've decided to RSX delid but it was so easy on my CECH-A01 that there is no way I've damaged it.
I didn't do CPU delid because it looked much harder and risky.

I've watched many tuto and read a lot and here I am...

Any suggestion from anyone after reading this is more than welcome!

Yeah that's sad, you had first test your PSU before doing the NECs, the problem is now, that you maybe had already a short because this work looks really not so clean as it should be with the tantals.

I recommend you to test an other PSU, if it's still not working, get all of again, clean the places so good as you can, check that there are no shorts on the circuits, install some new NEC's and test if it works again, if not, then you already have a short like i said, and if you already had a short, you will need to find the bad fuse or the bad fuses, could be more then just one...

The Fuses has the name F..... TH..... or PS.... on the motherboard.

You will need to check them all with a multimeter if they burned or are still working, but like i told, this can take you a while... mostly it's not worth, you gonna be more happy if you look for a used working PS3.

Here some pics that you can see how the fuses looks like.

Wish you the best
NSC

 

[pure3d2]

I have bad news, guys. The first YLOD CECHA (https://www.psx-place.com/threads/t...eplacement-ylod-fix.25260/page-65#post-225866) that I fixed by doing 50/50 tantalums now has the GLOD.

I've had it off for a few weeks while I waited for my delidding tools to arrive so I could do the CELL. When I plugged her in today, at first I didn't get anything, not even the red status LED. Turns out the ribbon cable for the power board was shot so I made my own from a 20-pin cable (cut to 10-pin, scrape off insulation plastic, glue a piece of rigid plastic to the other end). This worked. However, when I powered it on, I heard the boot up sound and saw the XMB, but there were all sorts of crazy colors and glitches. I powered her off then back on and that was the last she came back--now she gets a permanent GLOD.

I think this one had a very tough life with lots of abuse (it arrived with pieces of the plastic housing broken). The seller gave me a full refund so it ended up not costing me anything. Sad that I could not save this one.

I could reball it, but at $30 for a replacement RSX, it hardly seems worth it. It would give me an excuse to get the rework equipment from the garage.

 

[wrx884]

I have bad news, guys. The first YLOD CECHA (https://www.psx-place.com/threads/t...eplacement-ylod-fix.25260/page-65#post-225866) that I fixed by doing 50/50 tantalums now has the GLOD.

I've had it off for a few weeks while I waited for my delidding tools to arrive so I could do the CELL. When I plugged her in today, at first I didn't get anything, not even the red status LED. Turns out the ribbon cable for the power board was shot so I made my own from a 20-pin cable (cut to 10-pin, scrape off insulation plastic, glue a piece of rigid plastic to the other end). This worked. However, when I powered it on, I heard the boot up sound and saw the XMB, but there were all sorts of crazy colors and glitches. I powered her off then back on and that was the last she came back--now she gets a permanent GLOD.

I think this one had a very tough life with lots of abuse (it arrived with pieces of the plastic housing broken). The seller gave me a full refund so it ended up not costing me anything. Sad that I could not save this one.

I could reball it, but at $30 for a replacement RSX, it hardly seems worth it. It would give me an excuse to get the rework equipment from the garage.

assuming u tried tried syncing the controller?? depends if ur keeping it or going to sell it on after? $30 isnt that much to get it working again since it doesn't owe u much on the purchase now, provided its a known working one.

 

[sandungas]

I have bad news, guys. The first YLOD CECHA (https://www.psx-place.com/threads/t...eplacement-ylod-fix.25260/page-65#post-225866) that I fixed by doing 50/50 tantalums now has the GLOD.

I've had it off for a few weeks while I waited for my delidding tools to arrive so I could do the CELL. When I plugged her in today, at first I didn't get anything, not even the red status LED. Turns out the ribbon cable for the power board was shot so I made my own from a 20-pin cable (cut to 10-pin, scrape off insulation plastic, glue a piece of rigid plastic to the other end). This worked. However, when I powered it on, I heard the boot up sound and saw the XMB, but there were all sorts of crazy colors and glitches. I powered her off then back on and that was the last she came back--now she gets a permanent GLOD.

I think this one had a very tough life with lots of abuse (it arrived with pieces of the plastic housing broken). The seller gave me a full refund so it ended up not costing me anything. Sad that I could not save this one.

I could reball it, but at $30 for a replacement RSX, it hardly seems worth it. It would give me an excuse to get the rework equipment from the garage.

You should have made 100/100

 

[pure3d2]

assuming u tried tried syncing the controller?? depends if ur keeping it or going to sell it on after? $30 isnt that much to get it working again since it doesn't owe u much on the purchase now, provided its a known working one.

Controller won't sync, not even with a USB cable.

 

[pure3d2]

You should have made 100/100

That's the plan for the next system I repair.