PS3 shut down

[Radboud]

Hello,

I've had the infamous PS3 YLOD (Yellow Light Of Death)/RLOD (Red Light Of Death) issue today, basically what happened was:

- I turned on the console, light turns green
- after about a second I get a yellow light
- which then turns into a flickering red light

My question is could anyone describe to me how to fix this issue? Without me having to pay for it, cos let's be honest I'm a dutchman and can't be bothered to pay for something I'll need to do myself (+ I'm a true cheapskate when it comes to fixing technical errors ). I have removed all the dust .

Cheers,

Radboud

[Crazyeyesreaper]

depends

could be a dead PSU but since it starts green its unlikely
could be dead mobo, or possibly one of the cheap lead free solder balls has let go a bit thus no longer works,

ive fixed a few systems but its never easy its pretty much a crap shoot, tore it down checked the PSU it was fine, leaving mobo or solder issue used a heatgun to reflow solder put it pack together and it lasted another 6-7 months before doing it again, youtube it / google it there is no sure fire way to magically know what is wrong with the PS3. either tear it apart yourself and hope for the best, or pay a shop $80-100 euro to fix it. or sony $150 usd or w.e in euro

[Bolkonsky]

depends

could be a dead PSU but since it starts green its unlikely
could be dead mobo, or possibly one of the cheap lead free solder balls has let go a bit thus no longer works,

ive fixed a few systems but its never easy its pretty much a crap shoot, tore it down checked the PSU it was fine, leaving mobo or solder issue used a heatgun to reflow solder put it pack together and it lasted another 6-7 months before doing it again, youtube it / google it there is no sure fire way to magically know what is wrong with the PS3. either tear it apart yourself and hope for the best, or pay a shop $80-100 euro to fix it. or sony $150 usd or w.e in euro

My cousin does this pretty regularly, charges $40, fixes it almost every time. The solder is just utter . Your best bet is to grab a heatgun and give it a shot. If it fixes it, great, if it doesn't, you're no worse off than when you started. If you don't have a heat gun you might be able to use your oven, I'm not sure with the PS3 as I've never tried, but I've done that with laptops and old GPU's before, and it works in a pinch. Reflowing it's probably your best bet.

There's also the penny fix, but that'd definitely a bit riskier.

Interesting. How did you manage to get the disc out?

@Any one who knows - could a faulty disc drive cause a fault like that on a PS3? I'll admit I don't as I think they're tinker toys and don't own one. But maybe that's something to look at. Maybe some program that checks the functionality of the peripheral hardware and shuts the whole system down if there is even a minor problem - like the optical drive is failing it's boot test. Maybe replacing the damned thing will fix it?

Just my two cents. Good luck!

The disk read error generally comes from the GPU and CPU overheating, or the solder going bad. Both are fairly simple fixes, if you know what you're doing. These things have some major heat problems, just like the 360.

[PoleCat]

...The disk read error generally comes from the GPU and CPU overheating, or the solder going bad. Both are fairly simple fixes, if you know what you're doing. These things have some major heat problems, just like the 360.

If the solder is going bad then it's more than a heat problem - it's a product design flaw. Add another heat sink and a fan for God's sake and use better caliber solder. That's unacceptable no matter how cheap these toys are.

I understand the need to keep costs low but that's ridiculous....

[Bolkonsky]

If the solder is going bad then it's more than a heat problem - it's a product design flaw. Add another heat sink and a fan for God's sake and use better caliber solder. That's unacceptable no matter how cheap these toys are.

I understand the need to keep costs low but that's ridiculous....

Two separate problems. (Though they can both happen at the same time.)

Also, in a PS3, there's no room for new coolers. Literally, the best thing you can do is get a sheet of copper, about 1/16" thick, drill a few holes in it, and put it on top of the GPU and CPU. If you don't have the tools/materials, you can do the old 4 penny trick - wash 4 pennies in alcohol or something until they're clean (older pennies that are all copper work best) and place them on the GPU and CPU.

For anything else - there's no room.

And yeah, the solder's just crap. You can generally extend the life of these things a year, year and a half if you're lucky and do it a few times, leave it off when you aren't using it, etc, but ultimately, it will break because of it.

[Radboud]

Damn, sounds like a no fixer. What is a mobo (I'm a noob with these terms)? Is there a way to check if it is the mobo? Also I forgot to mention that it shut down the same way yesterday, but I switched the power button at the back on and off and it worked fine afterwards until I shut it off. Then I turned it on today and the game started and after about 10 minutes I got this error. Could it be that it's not working now cos the blu-ray disc is stuck?

Edit: I just got the disk out.

[PoleCat]

...Edit: I just got the disk out.

Interesting. How did you manage to get the disc out?

@Any one who knows - could a faulty disc drive cause a fault like that on a PS3? I'll admit I don't as I think they're tinker toys and don't own one. But maybe that's something to look at. Maybe some program that checks the functionality of the peripheral hardware and shuts the whole system down if there is even a minor problem - like the optical drive is failing it's boot test. Maybe replacing the damned thing will fix it?

Just my two cents. Good luck!

[Radboud]

You've posted some interesting thoughts, for me the most important thing is to fix it as cheap as possible as I can't really afford it right now. If I can get it fixed for 30 euros, I won't have to purchase a second hand PS3 (second hand stuff puts me off somehow).

As for extracting the disc when you get YLOD/RLOD you'll have to do this (worked on my PS3 Fat, I don't know if it's different for the Slim (be sure to check):

- Switch off the power button on the back of your PS3
- while the PS3 is switched off press and keep pressing the eject button
- switch the power button on while you're still pressing the eject button
- you'll hear the fan making a huge amount of noise, after a few seconds release the eject button
- it should now come out, don't worry if it doesn't come out just do a single press on the eject button and it should exit
- when the disc has come out you'll get the YLOD/RLOD again (at least in my case it did)

[Heinz Guderian]

If you have kids, the s/he might have pushed 37 pence inside of it. Well at least 37 pence. There is still some change left it mine. But i'm gonna try your eject mechanism Radboud.

[Ulysses S. Grant]

My old 60GB Fat Playstation died from the YLoD for the 4th time just after Easter. I had it fixed by a repair shop two of those times and I just fixed it myself the 3rd time. Each time it only lasted about 4 months or so before breaking again (And keep in mind I don't use my PS3 every day). I just gave up on it and bought a new slim one.

One thing I'd advise if you are gonna get it fixed, take a look at the fan and make sure it was working properly. The fan in my old PS3 had slowed to the extent that it wasn't cooling the internal parts of the PS3 properly.

[Radboud]

If you have kids, the s/he might have pushed 37 pence inside of it. Well at least 37 pence. There is still some change left it mine. But i'm gonna try your eject mechanism Radboud.

Wow, I hope you let em live . I believe there is also a way to open the blu-ray disc reader, but you should search on youtube for that (you'll probably need to open the machine so make sure the warranty has passed ).

My cousin does this pretty regularly, charges $40, fixes it almost every time. The solder is just utter . Your best bet is to grab a heatgun and give it a shot. If it fixes it, great, if it doesn't, you're no worse off than when you started. If you don't have a heat gun you might be able to use your oven, I'm not sure with the PS3 as I've never tried, but I've done that with laptops and old GPU's before, and it works in a pinch. Reflowing it's probably your best bet.

There's also the penny fix, but that'd definitely a bit riskier.




The disk read error generally comes from the GPU and CPU overheating, or the solder going bad. Both are fairly simple fixes, if you know what you're doing. These things have some major heat problems, just like the 360.

Will your cousin consider moving to the Netherlands any time soon?

My old 60GB Fat Playstation died from the YLoD for the 4th time just after Easter. I had it fixed by a repair shop two of those times and I just fixed it myself the 3rd time. Each time it only lasted about 4 months or so before breaking again (And keep in mind I don't use my PS3 every day). I just gave up on it and bought a new slim one.

One thing I'd advise if you are gonna get it fixed, take a look at the fan and make sure it was working properly. The fan in my old PS3 had slowed to the extent that it wasn't cooling the internal parts of the PS3 properly.

Good advice, my problem was probably caused because I was sloppy with keeping the dust out (I've had it for four years and never cleaned it). I think I'll have to buy a new/second hand PS3 .

[Crazyeyesreaper]

its not a product design flaw lead free solder is just , essentially because every person in the world is afraid of lead do to lead based paint making kids retarded they started pulling lead based products this includes solder on electronics,

essentially in every way possible lead free solder is inferior to its predecessor thus problems arise,

gotta remember first gen Xbox and PS3 used 300w of power cram that heat load into a tiny plastic shell with a heatsink and a bracket system that causes warping means solder cracks thus YLOD or RRoD etc newer consoles are less prone to this form of failure,

but solder issue is common place in almost all electronics,

PC graphics cards,
Laptops
etc anything that uses power and gets super hot that uses solder in some way will eventually fail do to this, its planned from the begining so consumers continue to buy,

As consumers its bad for us but for business its what keeps them afloat,

[PoleCat]

@Bolk and crazyeyes - I get your drift. I just personally can't wrap my head around paying all that money for games and a poorly designed system box filled with cheapo computer parts that is all but designed to fail in one to two years time. That's why I call them tinker toys....

[Radboud]

I agree, when I purchase something like this (for hundreds of euros) I expect it to work at least 10 years. It's not too much to ask, same goes for laptops/computers. When these things break down so fast I can't help but feel like I'm being cheated by the company that makes it (my stuff seems designed to break after the warranty is expired).

[Boustrophedon]

I agree, when I purchase something like this (for hundreds of euros) I expect it to work at least 10 years. It's not too much to ask, same goes for laptops/computers. When these things break down so fast I can't help but feel like I'm being cheated by the company that makes it (my stuff seems designed to break after the warranty is expired).

Hehe my PS2 has survived alot of accidents and never had to fix anything, still works like a charm. Same with my superold gameboy (close to 10 years old now) which at one point was tossed out the 2nd floor window by my angry mother...still works perfectly lol

[Radboud]

To be serious, that is exactly what I'm talking about. It's a shame they don't make machines anymore like they used to.

Though it's an excellent machine when it works.

[Bolkonsky]

To be serious, that is exactly what I'm talking about. It's a shame they don't make machines anymore like they used to.

Though it's an excellent machine when it works.

It's intentional, and also a side effect of newer hardware.