Cloning PS3 Mainboard
 

OK. I have a system here that a customer brought to me. Something is bad with the motherboard (tried different power supply, external power to board, nothing).

He wants to use his old hard drive for all of his game save data, and whatever else he has (I don't ask, just fix).

Obviously he cannot just drop this old hard drive into a new PS3 and be off and running, it will not recognize it.. My question is this... Is the data that ties the PS3 hard drive to the motherboard contained entirely in the NOR?

I was able to dump his NOR out of the bad motherboard with ProgSkeet, so I believe his flash is OK... Could I just re-flash a new PS3 with this NOR backup from his old machine (or easier yet just swap NOR chips between the motherboards) and have it work with his old hard drive?
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Of course making sure the NOR chips and motherboards were of the same type and revision level.

You'd have to swap more than just the NOR, I think Syscon then the CPU and possible the GPU.

It sounds like it needs a reflow or preferably a reball. There's no other way to access the HDD on another machine other than swapping tonnes of parts.

Does the red LED light up on the front? I had one that didn't, but it was a loose connection to the power + eject buttons, fixing the cable solved my problem, when swapping the power supply didn't work.

Syscon and CPU. GPU can be replaced so it's not tied.
So yeah, to get his data back, you'd have to get some board to transplant CPU and syscon from the broken board on. As for the NOR, you can either flash the NOR from the other board or transplant.
Ofc it has to be the same nodel mainboard.

The lack of red light on the control is the main symptom. I tried to eliminate that as a problem by putting +3VDC to the sense wire on the 4-pin from the power supply and got nothing. No fan. No 12V output from any power supply I tried..

I am going to recommend he cut his losses and start from scratch.

I thought it was the GPU that was tied, not the CPU?

Not quite. The CPU contains the per-console key that allows it to decrypt bootldr/metldr, metldr containing a derivation of that per-console key allowing it to decrypt EID and what not, as well as further derivations of that per-console key that decrypt other things, etc etc. It is believed the Syscon is also given a derivation of that per-console key so it's tied.
(Btw, the BD logic board is also tied to the NOR/Syscon/CPU but it not needed to boot the console, only to run apps/games).

The GPU isn't responsible for the boot process, and I know there are some people who replaced a broken GPU on a board successfully.

yeah i heard a lot of reballers that had to deal with faulty units previously reflown in a bad way change the RSX with a new one, and the console have no problem after that : )

F**K...I was trying to OC my slim and I burned the CELL. My contact at circuitrework.com assured me that they could replace the CELL on a PS3...last time I deal with them!

:(
Well it's possible to replace the Cell but it requires other things, as I said.

All well; f**k it...it was just my 3.73 system anyway. The only thing I regret is that I won't be able to finish my PS3 slim mod.

I feel like I need to burn something, unfortunately Sony doesn't have any locations nearby. :)