PS3 «Tutorial» PS3 CELL B/E Thermal Dissipation without removing the IHS

Test with covered bottom is complete.

It raised my temps by 2°C so they are actually helpful.

I think that maybe my PS3 just passed that age, when temps can't get any lower. I had an idea about letting it sit on top of a marble plate, as marble keeps cool way better than wood. And let's face it; all electronics (PS3, Wii, Wii u, TV, PC screen, Xbox etc etc) will accumulate some good temps.
 
I have done this on a CECHC03 that was revving up the fans and heating up VERY VERY quickly.

I can only say this - it does wonders. If before doing the mod I was getting to 82*C on the CELL in a matter of 3 minutes, right now it maintains a steady 73*C and is barely audible!!

Now just to add a CECHHxx BD drive and marry it to the board, and I should be set! RSX stays somewhere between 50-63*C mostly.
 
I have cechc and my bd drive is fine. But for the future you say that the bd drive from cechh is compatible? I have spare laser for my so maybe i dont need it.
 
Another success on CECHG04!
Initial temperatures were 85-89 for CELL (right after cold start, and it would shutdown almost right away) and 65 for RSX, with Webman manual fan set to 95% all the time.

Changed the thermal paste and added a rubber(old one, really squaky and soft) to empty CELL space. Turned it on and not fan. HDD would not not recoginize either. I was certain I had to connected the fan. Opened it again, checked the fan (it sure was connected), removed the rubber, cut it just a lit bit (made it smallerto fit), cled the empty place and placed it back on.
This time it booted and new teamps at start are 54 and 53. Then after 20mins or so it gets 70 CELL and 69/70 RSX. Webman fans at 45-50% (et to 68 C automatic)

Certainly an improvement. I am really pleased with it! Thank you @Naked_Snake1995 , this really works.

The temps still seem a bit too much too. I would think that I had wrongly applied the paste but the fact that PRX and CELL share same temps together makes me think the paste is just fine for now and this are the normal temps for a fat.
 
Raidmax said:
Mine was reflowed and is idling in that range. Still works fine and that's after running NFS Rivals.
Click to expand...
Reflowing its never a good solution, its about to die again, guaranteed, no matter how much care you take.

My first reflow, when i was less experienced, was with a CECHC04 Model, lasted me approximately 6 months, ive heard reports of less, but it was pretty darn long lasting reflow, but Reflowing will always damage the nearby components in anyway shape or form.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk
 
Naked_Snake1995 said:
Reflowing its never a good solution, its about to die again, guaranteed, no matter how much care you take.

My first reflow, when i was less experienced, was with a CECHC04 Model, lasted me approximately 6 months, ive heard reports of less, but it was pretty darn long lasting reflow, but Reflowing will always damage the nearby components in anyway shape or form.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Mine was reflowed at 550*C (unlike my C03 which was at 350*C) and seems to have been lasting for quite some time. I used a cheap automotive heatgun which I usually use to fix artefacting GPUs, and so far both my C03 and G04s (yes, 2 of them, both reflowed) are working just fine.

Anyways, I'm not entirely sure it was the RSX that went up dead, but rather the NEC-Tokin caps went short.
 
Raidmax said:
Mine was reflowed at 550*C (unlike my C03 which was at 350*C) and seems to have been lasting for quite some time. I used a cheap automotive heatgun which I usually use to fix artefacting GPUs, and so far both my C03 and G04s (yes, 2 of them, both reflowed) are working just fine.

Anyways, I'm not entirely sure it was the RSX that went up dead, but rather the NEC-Tokin caps went short.
Click to expand...
Artifacting its when the GPU Die its about to die, due to poor maintenance and heat damage, the substrate also gets damaged in the process, to a point that the GPU won't show any picture, hence the GLOD, not YLOD, reflow only fixes the Substrate temporarily, but the time-frame its unknown, what i observed through the years its, the more heat you give the longer it lasts, but sometimes that isn't the case.

If the GPU shows signs of Artifacting or GLOD then a Chip replacement its advised, but if the console refuses to start due to a YLOD, then yes, you have to replace the NEC Caps, but with reflowing and reballing when the console gives you a YLOD you're actually damaging/fixing the substrate GPU and temporarily restoring the NECs Capacitive properties, so its two birds with one stone.

Btw, reflowing a dead GPU doesn't need 350°C, because the lead free aloy has a tolerance of 217°C, so you are risking damaging the BGA grid in the process, but i bet that the heat-gun doesn't even push 350°Cs of hot air, combined with the ambient temperature that value decreases, so back to the point, next time when you want to "fix" reflow a dead GPU use 150°Cs, this is more than enough heat to fix the GPU substrate.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk
 
Naked_Snake1995 said:
but i bet that the heat-gun doesn't even push 350°Cs of hot air
Click to expand...

If its a proper Automotive heat gun then it will push out in excess of 500*C depending on model, they are usual temp controlled, as garages mainly use them on rusted seezed bolts to remove them by heating them up, whack a hex socket on it then use either an impact gun or power bar to free the bold or nut.

It needs to this high of a temp because of the high melting point of steel which is about 1200*C so you need at least half that or more to heat the bolt adaquately also becasue of the high heat tolerance of steel.

Their are other uses for them but this is all I used it for, either the heat gun or an OXY-CETALINE torch.
 
Well, i have a rework station with a hot air gun and LCD displays where you can see the exact temperatures, the problem is the air gun have a "heating element" inside and the sensor is next to it... so what you see in the LCD display is the temperature of the heating element
But the air that goes out of the gun reduces temperature a lot by the distance, lets say... if i set it to 300ºC i can place my hand in front of it at 10cm distance (for a couple of seconds, not much, lol) and it doesnt burns my skin (you can handle it without being hurted, but is in the limit, lol)
When you do it in a circuit board is a bit tricky to imagine how many heat is "transfered" to the board because maybe you see 400ºC in the display but the heat in the circuits board srurface is like 250ºC

If at some point you use one of those you will realize soon... lets say you want to solder something that needs 217ºC... if you configure the heat to 217ºC is imposible to melt it
You need to configure it a bit higher, and is hard to know how much, but you should start with something like 50ºC more (or 100ºC more)
Is a bit risky because you dont have a good control of the temperature transfered to the board
 
sandungas said:
Well, i have a rework station with a hot air gun and LCD displays where you can see the exact temperatures, the problem is the air gun have a "heating element" inside and the sensor is next to it... so what you see in the LCD display is the temperature of the heating element
But the air that goes out of the gun reduces temperature a lot by the distance, lets say... if i set it to 300ºC i can place my hand in front of it at 10cm distance (for a couple of seconds, not much, lol) and it doesnt burns my skin (you can handle it without being hurted, but is in the limit, lol)
When you do it in a circuit board is a bit tricky to imagine how many heat is "transfered" to the board because maybe you see 400ºC in the display but the heat in the circuits board srurface is like 250ºC

If at some point you use one of those you will realize soon... lets say you want to solder something that needs 217ºC... if you configure the heat to 217ºC is imposible to melt it
You need to configure it a bit higher, and is hard to know how much, but you should start with something like 50ºC more (or 100ºC more)
Is a bit risky because you dont have a good control of the temperature transfered to the board
Click to expand...
Finally someone who acknowledges my thoughts [emoji23]

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk
 
NewFile said:
This time it booted and new teamps at start are 54 and 53. Then after 20mins or so it gets 70 CELL and 69/70 RSX. Webman fans at 45-50% (et to 68 C automatic)
Click to expand...

Are these temps taken during gameplay or at idle XMB? Fans going upto 50% and specifically for demanding games is normal for old fat models where IHS not removed.
 
Naked_Snake1995 said:
Like many other users, and collectors, keeping you console clean its the number 1, priority, specialy when you own a Backwards-Compatible PlayStation3, which its a very neat machine to own, but can bring problems in the long run if not mantained properly.

One of the main concerns for any user, its replacing the thermal paste, after years of use, changing its essential for any console, but even thats not enough. So more experienced users, always remove the Integreated Heat-Spreaders from the RSX, which its a walk in the park, but when moving to the CELL Broadband Engine,its a different story.

Removing the CELL B/E, requires special tools, and cutting precision, but even more experienced users, and with the right tools, can go bad in a blink of an eye.

I myself, practiced with a couple of 90nm COK-002 boards, with some painters knifes size (1) and (3), but even with the most patience in the world, ended up scratching 5 examples, almost in the same spot.

So not worth taking a working board to have the same result,ive decided to search deep into some archives, and lord and behold, the solution that i am sure will work for anyone struggling with deliding the CELL B/E.

This procedure was preformed on a PlayStation3 CECHC04 with the mainboard COK-002,but it will work on the models mentioned below in this tutorial.

The goal with this tutorial, its for the CELL B/E Core to make contact with the IHS, as the paste inside its practically dry, with years of use, by making a bigger area of heat transfer, eliminating the need to delid the CELL B/E and take risks in damaging the whole system.


THINGS YOU WILL NEED:

*Office Eraser (White) - "soft erasers won´t work!"
*Knife or Scissors
*Good Pair of Eyes
*Patience

APPLICABLE MODELS:

*PHAT - CECHA/B/C/E/G/H/K/L/P
*SLIM - CECH-20XX/21XX/25XX

Side Note: Sony corrected this design flaw, with the preceding models (CECH-30XX and 40XX), so the CELL B/E is soldered to the IHS, pretty much like AMD CPUs, which gives them a thermal advantage and a good area of dissipation, so if you own one of these models, this tutorial will be pretty much usless, but you are always welcome to try!

STEP-1:

Disassembly your PlayStation3,until you reach to the mainboard.

STEP-2:

Take your Office Eraser, and cut a piece of it, now for the PS3 Phat Models, the optimal measurements are between 3.3/3.5mm, and for the PS3 Slim Models 3mm of thickness, will get the job done.

Once you cut the exact same thickness, cut it to fill the CELL B/E empty CPU hole, with the mainboard facing up, you will need to be careful with the CPU capacitors on the Slim Models, so for that,cut the sides of the rubber to cover the smaller capacitors, and not the bigger ones. "CELL B/E Diagram for the Eraser cut, on the example below".

STEP-3:

Once you cut your eraser flat and to the right measurements, replace the thermal paste, and reassembly the whole system, making sure that the CPU Clamps are tight,as they will make pressure with the CELL and the heatsink!

Done these procedures, inspect your CELL Temps,if you notice any improvements, congratulations, you successfully did the procedure with ease, if you didnt notice any improvements, make sure you cut the erased properly or increase the thickness!

Q&A:

Q1 - Are any risks envolved, when doing this procedure?

A1- No, this its a risk free procedure, follow the instructions and you are golden!

Q2- Wont the eraser, by appling pressure with the clamps, on top of the CPU, damage the CELL or the BGA?

A2- No, the eraser will create, pressure thowards the chip, and it will be compensated with the PS3 heatsink, so you are creating an even pressure, but enough that the CELL Core touches the IHS, thus making heat transfer and cooling more efficient!

Q3- After the procedure, did you notice any changes in temps?

A3- Yes, without the eraser, my CPU would be around 71ºC at idle, and that was with fresh thermal paste at almost 40% Fan, today after the procedure,was sitting at 63ºC also with 40% Fan, after the procedure was done, its sitting to a threshold on 55/57ºC at 31% Fan, one thing to notice its that i havent changed the thermal paste, nor i had enough when i preformed this, but i am sure with clean thermal paste these results can be improved :)

Q4- Wont the eraser catch fire or burn with the heat?

A4- Dont worry, the eraser wont catch fire, rest assured with that, its non-conductive and heat resistant,making the perfect candidate :D

Q5- Why this procedure wont work on CECH-30XX and CECH-40XX?

A5- Sony corrected this design flaw, with the preceding models (CECH-30XX and 40XX), so the CELL B/E is soldered to the IHS, pretty much like AMD CPUs, which gives them a thermal advantage and a good area of dissipation, but this tutorial aims to replicate the same effect as a soldered CPU to the IHS!


View attachment 15434

Click to expand...

Well holy shiiii......

I just tried this myself with business cards (didn't have an eraser to hand)
I put about 3 or 4 cards on each square. So it covered cell and RSX.

Im at 44c on both C and RSX, idle after cold boot (as in temperature cold)
Fan at 35%manual.
This old cechk might turn into my daily workhorse
 
Alternativelly to a eraser you can use rubber... you know, the material used to make tyres
The tyres are curved, but you only need an small squared block and you can cut it with a razor blade

This rubber from tyres is good because resists well the heat and is a bit gummy so it works a bit as an spring... when you assemble the PS3 you are "compressing" the rubber and it will keep "pushing" forever without deforming itself
 
sandungas said:
Alternativelly to a eraser you can use rubber... you know, the material used to make tyres
The tyres are curved, but you only need an small squared block and you can cut it with a razor blade

This rubber from tyres is good because resists well the heat and is a bit gummy so it works a bit as an spring... when you assemble the PS3 you are "compressing" the rubber and it will keep "pushing" forever without deforming itself
Click to expand...

That is a really bad idea to use rubber from a car tyre... the only reason they hold there shape like they do is beause they have a metal mesh running through them to keep the structure. If it did not have this mesh then hitting a bump in the road too fast would cause the type too explode, violently. And the mesh is razor sharp when cut so your going to have a short risk and a damage risk.

Also the only one that might work would be a super soft compond tyre, the rest are too hard to use and would bend the MB or just resist the pressure of the clamps and bend them out of shape.

All in all not a good idea at all... too many risks.
 
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