PS3 just YLOD'd

  • Thread starter Thread starter sesselpupser
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The problem mainly resides in all phat ps3's due to the cold solder joints and the massive heatsink/fan unit. The cold solder joints crack at chip from the weight of the heatsink and fan flexing the pcb board. Add heat from extended usage and recool time and time again will lead to a crack in the solder from thermal and physical stress. Proper fix is to wick all the old solder out and go back in with fresh silver based solder. These quick fixes that people speak of are bandaid fixes such as oven baking and shimming with pennies/washers. For those with ps3 slims, rest assured that it wasn't born with the same fate as the phats. The slims were built with a way lighter cooling unit since the chipset was redesigned to a finer/smaller manufacturing process that shrinks the processor and gpu. Shrinking them makes them produce less heat, consume less power, and last a whole lot longer in general. This is why sony is confident enough to offer the extended warranty with slim models that was nonexistent with the phat models.

Not sure what to do with your paperweight ylod phat ps3? I say fix it properly. If you can't get it fixed properly, give it to someone who knows how to wick and solder chips and pay them a small fee. If redone with good solder and reassembled with good thermal grease, the ps3 will live a nice long extended life. The bluray drive is a different story though. Good luck!
 
Mine was 40gb fat... I am very confident though that it will work for some time. I used good quality thermal paste, applied properly (the stock paste looked like it 'missed' some spots)... Oh, well, time will tell...

I'll probably be getting a slim these holidays, PD'd better remove the save restriction! :P
 
mines just gone again for the 3rd time, but this time it comes on then freezes pretty soon after the the yellow light apears :(

edit-- now gettin to the users and crashing
 
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Mine YLODed last night.

it's a launch 60gb.

it's been a good run for the past 3+ years, almost made 4 without issues.

I ran her in the average 10 hours of playing time when I did play. yep, love them marathon sessions.

first 6 months of her life I kept her on 24/7 doing the "folding at home" deal.

yep, she was CHAMP!

I'm sad to see her die.

I was expecting it since reading all the posts about YLOD on here and other PS3 forums but dang it, such a bad time... GT academy, mechanical damage update I just downloaded, plus I had almost 100 cars in my garage and was level 20.

maybe I'll try the heatgun trick. I like being handy and from the vids I've seen, it doesn't look too hard.

in anycase, it was a great run.
 
I welcome myself to the YLOD club. Happened an hour ago. RIP my sweet 60gb console.

I'll buy the slim one, however I will never again buy a SONY device (except from Playstation of course!)
 
Just got YLOD this past Monday.

7 pages of this means that there is a problem.

Any reply from Sony?

60gb fat PS3
 
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GT4.5
7 pages of this means that there is a problem.
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I don't think so, I think this means a few things:

- Lots of people on this forum love GT games, right? Well, GT5 was meant to be a launch title, so it's reasonable to suspect that there are a lot of old PS3's here... If you follow my logic.

- Lots of people here will only play GT5, I have plenty of friends who aren't gamers but are very into cars and they bought a PS3 exclusively for GT5.

- This forum represents a large percentage of GT5 players, and so any YLODs will be reported here.

So you have lots of old PS3s here, all playing GT5, and any YLODs come up here. I think, and this is all conjecture and no real fact, we have an unusually high failure rate reported here for these reasons.

Also note that if there was a thread for 'not YLOD' that would probably be 700 pages long, if it were compulsory to post in. Nobody ever really calls attention to things that are working smoothly.

I hope you followed my logic through that, I'm not sure I explained it entirely well. I, for one, felt GT5 holds no responsibility for YLODing my PS3, it was old and just died naturally, I knew it was going to happen when I started reading about launch 60gb models dying all over the place.
 
Mine went a week ago, just BEFORE GT5 arrived, so even the anticipation is too much for them!!!
But yeh got a slim, shattered I have lost 3 years of progress, especially my red dead save, I never quite finished it.
Positive note, slim is awesome, quieter, smaller, seems a bit faster, and I finally got a dualshock!!!
 
neema_t
I don't think so, I think this means a few things:

- Lots of people on this forum love GT games, right? Well, GT5 was meant to be a launch title, so it's reasonable to suspect that there are a lot of old PS3's here... If you follow my logic.

- Lots of people here will only play GT5, I have plenty of friends who aren't gamers but are very into cars and they bought a PS3 exclusively for GT5.

- This forum represents a large percentage of GT5 players, and so any YLODs will be reported here.

So you have lots of old PS3s here, all playing GT5, and any YLODs come up here. I think, and this is all conjecture and no real fact, we have an unusually high failure rate reported here for these reasons.

Also note that if there was a thread for 'not YLOD' that would probably be 700 pages long, if it were compulsory to post in. Nobody ever really calls attention to things that are working smoothly.

I hope you followed my logic through that, I'm not sure I explained it entirely well. I, for one, felt GT5 holds no responsibility for YLODing my PS3, it was old and just died naturally, I knew it was going to happen when I started reading about launch 60gb models dying all over the place.
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ok i understand your points, but my PS2 and my friends PS2 are still working while my Ps3 as well as 3 out of 6 close friends of mine Ps3 (all bought the 60gb version in summer 2007) had the YLOD??? Shame on Sony!!
 
gkt
ok i understand your points, but my PS2 and my friends PS2 are still working while my Ps3 as well as 3 out of 6 close friends of mine Ps3 (all bought the 60gb version in summer 2007) had the YLOD??? Shame on Sony!!
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I went through about 5 PS2's, one new one then four reconditioned Sony units (free replacements) before giving up and buying a new one, which I still have. The fact is the early models always have issues, whether it's a faulty X-clamp design, a mismatched heatsink, not enough solder, the wrong type of glue, so on and so forth, and these issues don't always manifest themselves for years. It's clear the design of the PS3 is worlds apart when you compare the fat with the slim.

Edit: It should be noted that I'm not trying to excuse Sony of anything, in fact a cynic might say they design the first generation of each console to be unreliable in their design (like, say, make them generate too much heat for their cooling ability, or consume too much power for the PSU to handle for more than a few years), then release the newer model (PS2 slim, PS3 slim) which runs cooler, more efficiently, has all the latest hardware revisions and such, so they can effectively sell the same product twice, to people like me...
 
neema_t
I don't think so, I think this means a few things:

- Lots of people on this forum love GT games, right? Well, GT5 was meant to be a launch title, so it's reasonable to suspect that there are a lot of old PS3's here... If you follow my logic.

- Lots of people here will only play GT5, I have plenty of friends who aren't gamers but are very into cars and they bought a PS3 exclusively for GT5.

- This forum represents a large percentage of GT5 players, and so any YLODs will be reported here.

So you have lots of old PS3s here, all playing GT5, and any YLODs come up here. I think, and this is all conjecture and no real fact, we have an unusually high failure rate reported here for these reasons.

Also note that if there was a thread for 'not YLOD' that would probably be 700 pages long, if it were compulsory to post in. Nobody ever really calls attention to things that are working smoothly.

I hope you followed my logic through that, I'm not sure I explained it entirely well. I, for one, felt GT5 holds no responsibility for YLODing my PS3, it was old and just died naturally, I knew it was going to happen when I started reading about launch 60gb models dying all over the place.
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Why was I able to race and practice in an F1 league with another game (F1 2010, probably graphically strenuous as well) for hours on end, but a few hours of GT5 give me YLOD?

Anyone else have it happen during the second Advanced Karting challenge?
 
blame RoHS compliance!!!

I don't think we would have this issue if lead solders were used instead of tin.

dang regulations. :irked:

I'm thinking of buying a slim but after doing some searches online it seems they too go YLOD... which bring the issue of tin solder joints again.

debating whether to pay to have my launch 60gb just reballed or get a slim. (costs about the same)

:confused:
 
My OG 60gig had three YLoDs, I fixed them all myself with the heat gun method, but each fix lasted a shorter amount of time than the one before it.

I used my PS3 a LOT throughout 2007-2009, thanks to having quite a bit of stored cash and being laid off partway trough 2008. I can't say I'm surprised it got the YLoD, but I just wish Sony would allow you to swap your HD into a new PS3 so you can use your old data/pics/vids/messages, etc.

I'll be buying a 160gig slim sometime soon, maybe tomorrow. I hope it lasts me at least three-four more years.
 
60gb owner here. So afraid of the YLOD that I made a fan set up, it pushes cool air in, and pulls hot air out. For anybody with a 60gb, I would recommend not playing for more than 2 hours at a time. It doesnt get hot in that time period
 
xNEVER-ONEx
Its sad to see, but it looks like you got your money's worth. You can choose to send it in to Sony for a refurbished one for I think $150, or just buy a new slim for $300. I have a 80GB that came out in 07 with Motorstorm 1, so ya, I'm happy with it.
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Me too, I still have MotorStorm! :)
Now all of a sudden more PS3's are dying off from GT5; I'm guessing it's putting in a lot of strain on it. We should start a thread to help other old fat PS3-ers avoid the same fate.
 
GT4.5
Why was I able to race and practice in an F1 league with another game (F1 2010, probably graphically strenuous as well) for hours on end, but a few hours of GT5 give me YLOD?

Anyone else have it happen during the second Advanced Karting challenge?
Click to expand...

I used to play ridiculous hours of anything on my PS3, I mean all day ridiculous (being a student will do that), and my PS3 died after a few hours of GT5 too, but if it is GT5 killing PS3's why hasn't every 60gb died yet? Mine happened as I was 'getting in' my kart for the second challenge... What's to say, though, that a few more hours in F1 2010 wouldn't have caused the YLOD? The fact is it's all dependent on time, and whatever game you were playing when it happens just happened to be the one you were playing. I don't believe any game can cause a YLOD, personally, it doesn't really make sense to me. It is possible, however, that a game that pushes the console when it's already old could cause a YLOD, but that's hardly the fault of the game.

Also I wouldn't say F1 2010 is graphically strenuous, Uncharted, Killzone 2, Call of Duty (not Black Ops, mind you) and such, they're pushing the boundaries I'd say.

Oh and I'm convinced my YLOD was a PSU failure, was yours hot when it went? Mine wasn't, and after I unplugged it and plugged it back in the red standby light wasn't coming on any more.


Oh and FlareKR, that is why I started this thread and put it in the GT5 forum, in the hope that it would warn other users with the same hardware.


Edit: I'm aware of the contradiction between not believing the game would YLOD consoles and warning others that GT5 YLOD'd my console, but a lot of people would be concerned... Oh and I've changed my mind on the subject a fair bit since I started this!
 
Leweegibo
Mine went a week ago, just BEFORE GT5 arrived, so even the anticipation is too much for them!!!
But yeh got a slim, shattered I have lost 3 years of progress, especially my red dead save, I never quite finished it.
Positive note, slim is awesome, quieter, smaller, seems a bit faster, and I finally got a dualshock!!!
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I'm shocked at how many people don't use the backup and also the data transfer utility. There's no reason for people to lose their saves if they do that.
 
Yeh well I will now! The stupid thing is I have the hard drive sitting there with all MY stuff on it and I can't get it off, it's absolutely ridiculous...
 
My Ps3 YLOed too :( (Fat 80gb with retrocompatibility)

Two days ago I was playing BD2, then i turned it off. in the afternoon I tried to turn it on again to play GT5p but it YLOed.

Is there a way that it is just the power supply?? coz mine didnt shut down (overheat), I turned it off the last time it worked.


Thanks god I didnt find a copy of GT5 in Gamerush that day... imagine opening ur gt 5 and trying to put it on ur ps3 for the first time just to see your ps3 YLOing!!!!
 
lokochon
My Ps3 YLOed too :( (Fat 80gb with retrocompatibility)

Is there a way that it is just the power supply?? coz mine didnt shut down (overheat), I turned it off the last time it worked.
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does your fan come on when you turn it on? (right before it flashes yellow then red)

if fan doesn't turn on at all, it's your power supply.

if it does, it's a true YLOD.

sorry to hear about your unit bro. Mine died couple days ago and my GT5 is stuck in side. :(
 
My Uk 60Gb BC machine (bought when they were on the way out to be replaced by the non-BC machines) died a couple of weeks ago. It had been well hammered from the usage point of view. I have the 250 Gb disk out that I put in it but of couse nothing can read it.

Fortunately I have a fat US 80Gb BC machine which I bought a fair while ago from someone who had just bought it and immediately decided they wanted a UK machine, so I got it for a good price. I hardly used it, other than for American Blu-Rays, until GT5 came along. It is on for way too much of the day. The annoying thing is I can't play many of my UK Blu-Rays now.
 
Same here my 60GB CECHA PS3 just YLOD. (Can't play GT5!)

I'm not angry or anything, I kind of expected it. :) The symptoms (automatic shutdowns, etc.) were quite apparent. But then again, I was actually expecting a sort of lens problem or something similar, as I experienced with my PS1 and PS2.

But then came YLOD. Oh well, I'll either buy a Slim or just try to fix this first. Hmmm... :D
 
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My ps3 (40 gb fat, with 320 gb drive) have been busy with GT5 since GT5 was launched.
stays on 24/7.

no sign of weakness yet.

Maybe do a backup of the drive sooner than laiter.
 
My PS3 has been laughing in the face of failing units for years and has had sessions for days at a time even with 'full hairdryer speed' operation for 10 hours+ at a time. I thought it was invincible, unique, bulletproof but thought that I should at least backup just incase. Trouble is that I just kept telling myself that I would back it up tomorrow....


It died last night :(

I have spoken to a repair agent and they are going to sort it out but I will get a Slim unit and do a data transfer after it is 'fixed' rather than trust it further.


Despite GT5 data being copy protected, I believe that doing this data sync/transfer option will allow me to contine my GT5 career from where I left off so I suppose it is all okay in the end....... I hope!
 
xNEVER-ONEx
Its sad to see, but it looks like you got your money's worth. You can choose to send it in to Sony for a refurbished one for I think $150, or just buy a new slim for $300. I have a 80GB that came out in 07 with Motorstorm 1, so ya, I'm happy with it.
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Me too. Mine cost me almost 600 euros. Bought it day one. Still going strong after numerous games as well as over 150 tasks in Folding@home.
 
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My PS3 has been laughing in the face of failing units for years and has had sessions for days at a time even with 'full hairdryer speed' operation for 10 hours+ at a time. I thought it was invincible, unique, bulletproof but thought that I should at least backup just incase. Trouble is that I just kept telling myself that I would back it up tomorrow....


It died last night :(

I have spoken to a repair agent and they are going to sort it out but I will get a Slim unit and do a data transfer after it is 'fixed' rather than trust it further.


Despite GT5 data being copy protected, I believe that doing this data sync/transfer option will allow me to contine my GT5 career from where I left off so I suppose it is all okay in the end....... I hope!
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I had a 40 GB PS3 but I needed a bigger hard drive. At that moment, I was already far enough into Gran Turismo 5 so I didn't want to lose my data. I saw the Amazon Black Friday Bundle and purchased a 160 GB Slim and used the data transfer utility. All of my data was transferred including my copy protected saves. I understand the idea of protecting a save from being mass copied but it's beyond ridiculous that a PlayStation 3 with the Yellow Lights of Death can force you to lose hundreds of hours in data. At least Microsoft got one thing right with all of their consoles crashing - you won't lose any data.
 

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