Baked PS3

[Deleted]

Hello,

My nephew was kind enough to gift me his broken PS3 (First model (Fat), 60GB, PS2 support) after he bought a new Slim one.
I got the PS3 on one condition. I had to break it open (or make it work) and get his Black Ops out of the BD Drive and return it to him.
His issue was a Yellow Light of Death, which is caused by micro-fracture in the solder on either the CPU or GPU.

I figured since PS3's are soldered the same way a PC GPU is soldered, I'd bake it in the oven to perform reflow soldering.

So I did what I had to do, I unscrewed (EVERY) screw in the PS3 to reach the motherboard (a real pain to get there) and baked the baby in a pre-heated oven at 250°C for 8 minutes. The thing began to smoke after 7.5min so I pulled it out a bit short.

The motherboard was crackling everywhere, like, the sound of all of the solder inside the motherboard breaking. I thought; "I fucked it up..".

Quite scared, I put the PS3 back together, trembling for what was to come. The PS3 got back in one piece (I must admit, even more of a pain because I didn't sort the screws). The time had come, I had to test this. I flipped the PSU switch to 0..

Still trembling furiously, I hooked up the HDMI cable, postponing what could be done without any video output, the power cable.
It HAD to go in, it just had to.. Finally, I plugged it in.. Obviously, everything was still safe because the PSU was switched to 0. I flipped the switch..

I immediately pulled back, expecting what could be the worst type of explosion I've ever witnessed in real..

BLING! The PS3 was standing there, no boom, no sparks, just it's silly Stand-By light. I pressed the power button (Touch buttons <3). I was presented with the option to choose my account. I now have a working PS3 by baking it in the oven.


To anyone trying to attempt this. At first I didn't want to do it, but trust me on this one, this really works.

[Tiskar]

That's awesome. Nice.

[endersblade]

haha, that's hilarious! Glad it's working now :-) Just saved yourself quite a bit of money!

[haxartus]

You can destroy the capacitors this way.
Though, this is much easier to fix than a broken solder on the GPU.

[Blazefury5]

Achievement! Bake for goodness sakes! nicely done saved you a 100+ dollars GG

[Electroso]

Can you bake me a cake, please ? I did the same thing with my xbox 360 when they had 3 red rings of death, got it to work and it still works fine

[Cheddabezze]

This is real?

Can the other parts of the motherboard (Including the motherboard structure itself) withstand all that heat?

Sounds pretty neat.

[rcshaggy]

The Smokey PS3? LOL...
Can you play games on it?

[haxartus]

It's usually a temporary fix. It could last a few months, a year, etc. Depends on a lot of things.
Next time use a heat gun.

[Deleted]

The Smokey PS3? LOL...
Can you play games on it?

Playing the Black Ops he wants back right now.

[Tutorial]

Achievement Unlocked.

[Asera]

IMO sell it for a slim, people will pay a pretty penny for the old PS2 compatible units!