So I'm not sure if my PS3 is dying

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Shapur
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So I'm not sure if my PS3 is dying

Postby Shapur » December 8th, 2015, 2:32 am

It beeps three times and shuts off. Not properly it's sure to tell me every time I restart it. The light just stays blinking red after it shuts down.

I've googled it but apparently nobody seems to know what they are talking about(big surprise). Some people say YLOD(Despite no yellow light) others say overheating, or even the hard drive.

I thought I had fixed the problem because it only happened with LA Noire. After deleting all game data and reinstalling it seemed to work fine, but now I got a crash during Uncharted 2. Oddly, HotD 4 and Just Dance never seem to crash. I'm starting to suspect overheating, and I guess Uncharted and LA noire are just pushing the system a lot harder. Any one else ever seen this?

It wouldn't be as annoying if they hadn't removed backwards compatibility. Now if I just go with the new slim I gotta pay for that AND a PS2. Plus the PS2 doesn't have HDMI to connect to the TV.

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Rev
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Re: So I'm not sure if my PS3 is dying

Postby Rev » December 8th, 2015, 12:23 pm

It sounds like it is overheating... which is a common problem with the fat PS3s. It's hard to say for sure but it might be worth seeing about getting it repaired vs. getting a slim + ps2.

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ptdebate
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Re: So I'm not sure if my PS3 is dying

Postby ptdebate » December 8th, 2015, 8:44 pm

I almost think there would be a good market for a new SKU of backwards compatible Ps3s. There are still plenty of Ps2 games you can't play anywhere else.

Oh wait, that would mean that they'd have a hard time reselling us Ps2 games digitally on Ps4 :P

Shapur
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Joined: July 31st, 2015, 8:10 pm

Re: So I'm not sure if my PS3 is dying

Postby Shapur » March 2nd, 2016, 8:12 pm

And it's alive!

I think. Disassembled the whole unit, and as suspected the original thermal paste was just some dry flaky globs at this point. Cleaned off the ol' RSX and Cell with ethanol, applied some arctic silver and reassembled(with a couple of extra screws at the end, just like everything I've ever done)

Fired up LA Noire and played for about a half hour with no crashes. So far so good.

snakeboy
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Re: So I'm not sure if my PS3 is dying

Postby snakeboy » March 2nd, 2016, 10:25 pm

Shapur wrote:And it's alive!

I think. Disassembled the whole unit, and as suspected the original thermal paste was just some dry flaky globs at this point. Cleaned off the ol' RSX and Cell with ethanol, applied some arctic silver and reassembled(with a couple of extra screws at the end, just like everything I've ever done)

Fired up LA Noire and played for about a half hour with no crashes. So far so good.


Do you have to have a lot of know-how to do what you described here, or could anyone do it? Could I just find a video and follow along?

My 60gb PS3 died last year after behaving similarly to yours. But I think mine might be a more serious case because when it started to beep 3 times and shut off, I could never get it to start up to play a game again (every time I started the system, it would beep and shut off). So trying to fix it the same way you did might not work, but I figure it wouldn't hurt to try. I do really miss that PS2 compatibility.

Shapur
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Joined: July 31st, 2015, 8:10 pm

Re: So I'm not sure if my PS3 is dying

Postby Shapur » March 3rd, 2016, 2:52 am

It is not complicated. Anyone willing to invest a couple of hours can do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPq4PaUSSUs

This guy does a pretty good job showing the disassembly. My advice is when removing screws line them up in the order you take them out, so when you put them back you have an idea of where they went.

Once disassembled, remove the old thermal compound from the heatsink and processors with rubbing alcohol and q tips. This takes a while, and you'll use like at least 20 qtips to do it. I apply the new thermal paste as a small pea sized glob that I then spread evenly over the heatsink surface with a credit card. Then just reassemble.

However in your case, I am not sure it is going to work. From my googling it seams that the common problem is bad solder connections on the GPU that break under excessive heat. If that has happened you really need a professional to reball the chip. That sounds more like what you've got. It could just be overheating but the chips shouldn't be generating a whole lot of heat before you start a game up. Still it wont cost much to try right?

snakeboy
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Re: So I'm not sure if my PS3 is dying

Postby snakeboy » March 3rd, 2016, 10:18 pm

Shapur wrote:However in your case, I am not sure it is going to work. From my googling it seams that the common problem is bad solder connections on the GPU that break under excessive heat. If that has happened you really need a professional to reball the chip. That sounds more like what you've got. It could just be overheating but the chips shouldn't be generating a whole lot of heat before you start a game up. Still it wont cost much to try right?


Yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I figured it couldn't be a simple case of overheating in my case; like you said, something had to have broken. I came across a guy on ebay who fixes PS3's for a pretty reasonable rate and have been tempted to go that route. I'm just afraid that any fix won't last more than a few months.

Shapur
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Joined: July 31st, 2015, 8:10 pm

Re: So I'm not sure if my PS3 is dying

Postby Shapur » March 4th, 2016, 3:44 pm

Just make sure if it is the GPU he is going to reball it, not reflow it. A reflow will temporarily fix the problem but won't last forever. A reball is a real fix.

snakeboy
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Re: So I'm not sure if my PS3 is dying

Postby snakeboy » March 4th, 2016, 8:07 pm

Shapur wrote:Just make sure if it is the GPU he is going to reball it, not reflow it. A reflow will temporarily fix the problem but won't last forever. A reball is a real fix.

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully he is still offering the service (haven't checked in a month or two) because now I definitely want to look into it.


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