PS3 problem... uh oh, might be really bad.

[BigSpenda864]

Last night I was playing BLOPSII and my PS3 made a beeping noise and went dead. It had a red blinking light. I turned it off from the back of the machine and tried to start it back up. It lit up green for a second then beeped and went to blinking red again. I let it sit for a while (thinking it might be overheating even though that's never happened before) and power cycled it again. This time it said it was shut down improperly and needed to check for corrupt files. After making it 80% through the check it beeped and went to red blinking again. Is that the dreaded "Red Light of Death"? Can anything be done to fix it? I have the original backward compatible PS3 and would hate to have to replace it.

[LegalCock]

BLOPS 2 made my machine hard freeze last night as well and I had to go through the file checking thing but it made it all the way through. Here's a link to a site with trouble shooting guides and repair manuals for the ps3: http://www.ifixit.com/

[cack]

Ever blow the dust out of it? If your answer is no ... go buy a new one.

[cack]

Originally Posted by LegalCock

BLOPS 2 made my machine hard freeze last night as well and I had to go through the file checking thing but it made it all the way through. Here's a link to a site with trouble shooting guides and repair manuals for the ps3: http://www.ifixit.com/

It's done that to me a time or 2 too.

[Berry]

I had bought cack's ps3 that had the YLOD. When you cut it on the fan sounded really loud.


In other news. I haven't had Blops2 mess up mine yet.

[LegalCock]

I thought ps3's got the YLOD (as opposed to red) from overheating. If your hard drive is bad that would be an easy fix. If it is backwards compatible it is worth trying to check it out. Otherwise you can grab a cheap ps3 right now with the BF/holiday sales.

[Berry]

Originally Posted by LegalCock

I thought ps3's got the YLOD (as opposed to red) from overheating. If your hard drive is bad that would be an easy fix. If it is backwards compatible it is worth trying to check it out. Otherwise you can grab a cheap ps3 right now with the BF/holiday sales.

Not everyone are lawyers and go out and by new ps3.

Spenda should have no problem though.

[LegalCock]

They had 'em for $200 bucks with like two good games you can sell on ebay and a controller.

[BigSpenda864]

Originally Posted by LegalCock

BLOPS 2 made my machine hard freeze last night as well and I had to go through the file checking thing but it made it all the way through. Here's a link to a site with trouble shooting guides and repair manuals for the ps3: http://www.ifixit.com/

I looked through the site and saw some info about fixing it. I am not sure how confident I am at cracking it open and fixing it myself. There is a shop in Greenville that says they repair ps3's. I might see what they will charge to fix it.

[LegalCock]

I wouldn't mess with it myself either unless it is just the hard drive. You can change that out easy.

[BigSpenda864]

Originally Posted by LegalCock

They had 'em for $200 bucks with like two good games you can sell on ebay and a controller.

That will be the way to go if I can't figure out a fix. I'll call the shop and see what the estimate is to fix it.

[BigSpenda864]

I took it to the repair place and they are charging me $60 to fix it. I should have it back Wed or Thurs. Not too bad all in all.

[IMACOCK]

Where is the shop in Gville?

[imabeastonu]

Originally Posted by cack

Ever blow the dust out of it? If your answer is no ... go buy a new one.

EXACTLY. ive never had an issue with my 360 or ps3 but i also take care of it. most people with these systems are lil kids or college kids who dont know what dusting is. dust will destroy your electonics. buy some co2

[AtlGAMECOCK]

Originally Posted by BigSpenda864

I took it to the repair place and they are charging me $60 to fix it. I should have it back Wed or Thurs. Not too bad all in all.

I had my ps3 do what yours is doing and several months later it did it again. if the shop is just pulling it apart cleaning it and re applying thermal paste then it won't be a permanent fix. what happens is the thermal paste breaks down and then it cant transfer heat between the cards and the cooling tubes, so the gpm heats up and the solder around it cracks and looses connection to the board. Most shops will reflow the solder which is just heating it up to about 700 degrees to get the solder to mate back to the board.Then apply another coat of thermal paste to the heatsink .The solder that is used now is lead free and cant withstand the temps as leaded.

If they are doing a reball on your ps3 with leaded solder then it will fix it. I just bought a new ps3 myself I got a used 320 gig for 167.

[BigSpenda864]

Originally Posted by IMACOCK

Where is the shop in Gville?

Cherrydale.

[BigSpenda864]

Originally Posted by AtlGAMECOCK

I had my ps3 do what yours is doing and several months later it did it again. if the shop is just pulling it apart cleaning it and re applying thermal paste then it won't be a permanent fix. what happens is the thermal paste breaks down and then it cant transfer heat between the cards and the cooling tubes, so the gpm heats up and the solder around it cracks and looses connection to the board. Most shops will reflow the solder which is just heating it up to about 700 degrees to get the solder to mate back to the board.Then apply another coat of thermal paste to the heatsink .The solder that is used now is lead free and cant withstand the temps as leaded.

If they are doing a reball on your ps3 with leaded solder then it will fix it. I just bought a new ps3 myself I got a used 320 gig for 167.

I dont know what they're doing to be honest. I'll ask them though.

[BigSpenda864]

Originally Posted by AtlGAMECOCK

I had my ps3 do what yours is doing and several months later it did it again. if the shop is just pulling it apart cleaning it and re applying thermal paste then it won't be a permanent fix. what happens is the thermal paste breaks down and then it cant transfer heat between the cards and the cooling tubes, so the gpm heats up and the solder around it cracks and looses connection to the board. Most shops will reflow the solder which is just heating it up to about 700 degrees to get the solder to mate back to the board.Then apply another coat of thermal paste to the heatsink .The solder that is used now is lead free and cant withstand the temps as leaded.

If they are doing a reball on your ps3 with leaded solder then it will fix it. I just bought a new ps3 myself I got a used 320 gig for 167.

They told me it should be ready this afternoon. When I go by and pick it up I'll ask the details of what they've done. Thanks for the info.

[BigSpenda864]

Originally Posted by AtlGAMECOCK

I had my ps3 do what yours is doing and several months later it did it again. if the shop is just pulling it apart cleaning it and re applying thermal paste then it won't be a permanent fix. what happens is the thermal paste breaks down and then it cant transfer heat between the cards and the cooling tubes, so the gpm heats up and the solder around it cracks and looses connection to the board. Most shops will reflow the solder which is just heating it up to about 700 degrees to get the solder to mate back to the board.Then apply another coat of thermal paste to the heatsink .The solder that is used now is lead free and cant withstand the temps as leaded.

If they are doing a reball on your ps3 with leaded solder then it will fix it. I just bought a new ps3 myself I got a used 320 gig for 167.

They re-flowed it. I asked about whether it would break again and they said it would eventually. They said there is really no way of knowing how long it'll be before it does it again but it usually is a fairly long time. They offer a 30 day warranty on their work so if it happens soon, hopefully it'll be within the 30 days.

My PS3 is one of the original backwards compatible ones. Would it pro long the repair life to get one of those external fans to try and keep the temp down a little? I was looking at fans online and they seem to be pretty cheap. I seems like the main difference in can compatibility has to do with the size of the drive on the console. I'm pretty sure mine is the biggest one you could buy when they first came out... 60gb maybe? Thoughts?

[AtlGAMECOCK]

Originally Posted by BigSpenda864

They re-flowed it. I asked about whether it would break again and they said it would eventually. They said there is really no way of knowing how long it'll be before it does it again but it usually is a fairly long time. They offer a 30 day warranty on their work so if it happens soon, hopefully it'll be within the 30 days.

My PS3 is one of the original backwards compatible ones. Would it pro long the repair life to get one of those external fans to try and keep the temp down a little? I was looking at fans online and they seem to be pretty cheap. I seems like the main difference in can compatibility has to do with the size of the drive on the console. I'm pretty sure mine is the biggest one you could buy when they first came out... 60gb maybe? Thoughts?

My ps3 that this happened to was the same as yours and I repaired it myself doing the exact same thing the shop you took it to did. I think the repair lasted for two to three months. Idk if getting an external fan would help or not , personally I wouldn't but that's opinion. I got good at knowing when it was going to ylod on me because I fixed mine four times. Right before it would the corners of the screen would start looking kinda blurry and lighter than the rest of the screen.the last time I was going to repair it I started looking into reballing and was going to send it off because it was an 80gb backwards compatible but I think it was 100 plus bucks to get it done.

Ask the shop about reballing your 3 and what it would cost . The more you reflow it the quicker it will ylod/rlod. Don't be afraid to play the 3 don't baby it dont be worried. Like I said I fixed mine four times or more mine fried because the last time I fixed it i forgot I didn't have any paste and put it back together because my niece and nephew were coming over. Well I forgot and three days later I turned it on and without the paste to transfer heat I overheated the card and poof she was gone.

Once you find out the price to reball , you need to decide if u need the backwards compatible 3 or get a newer 3 . Hope I helped and I will post some videos later that will show you what your shop did to fix your 3 and what reballing looks like. If you have any questions you know where to ask .