[Narcarsiss]

[made for all skill levels]

**LEGEND**
Note: Gives little hints and cautionary tells
Advanced users only: If you don't understand electronics and have a hard time using your brain or cant think on your own. maybe you are prone to being a little rough i recommend you skip these steps.


So as some of you may already know, I brought off eBay a $50 YLOD PS3 as a summer Project with my time off from University, upon this PlayStation arriving first thing was first; Plug it in and test it out, and Behold YLOD!



What is a YLOD? Well it's where your PlayStation 3 turns on, beeps then turns straight back off again displaying yellow light briefly. This can be from two reasons that i have found most common.
1.) Solder Cracks: causing bad connection to the pins or Solder near touching each other and shorting out due to Sony producing console's with "LEAD FREE" solder health risks apparently there reason for not using it.
2.) the power supply packs it in, very rare. (not covered in the guide)

What NeXt
Armed with some keen nerves, Limited knowledge and a lot of patience at hand, i dove straight in.
Note: I knew nothing about this at all! Except a basic understanding of how easily electronics can be damaged and the quick guides from the other users.

Following Guides from this website by @kilerbug 's & @Nichibotsu there Re-flow Guide provided in-valuable as I got all the needed information and links to get me going. They also provided me with some handy advice. although there guide had no images, it was the foundation of this guide.

So lets get Started.

Tools i used;
Various screwdrivers.
Bent nose Pliers.
Safety Glasses. (if Hacking Case up)
Side Cutters.
Blue Tack.
Hammer.
Camera. <-optional
Tissues.
Tin Foil.
Gloves.
Pliers.
File.
Thermal Paste; (Conductivity higher than 200W/m-k arctic silver 5 is 350+)
No-Mess Flux LIQUID; <-really hard to find in Hobart >> Ebay
18x 5/32" x 38mm Bolts + nuts + washers to suit (washers must be bigger than center holes in motherboard to prevent falling through)

Plenty of Patience and free time! <--A MUST!
Ps3Hax.net Webpage for good luck. <-- must be open at all times or this guide wont work



STEP 1
Open up Your PlayStation 3 case, their are plenty of guides on the internet for this and i will not be covering it.
Once your done continue...

When following this guide your PS3 will most likely look a little different compared to the one on display(this is a first gen PS3 Fat 40GB).
Pay CLOSE attention when trying to remove the main-board from the cooling housing make sure TO NOT FORCE IT! if you do you will break something.
Note: when removing the top plate(not pictured) Un-clip the alloy brackets and ledges that hold it in place, you can see these on the out side edges. this is easy to remove.



This step is by far the most nerve racking as my main-board was stuck on so bad i could hear the board creaking trying to get it off. I managed to use my Girlfriends hairdryer to heat up the other side to soften the Thermal paste that was holding it, this took about 5 minutes as i was applying heat slowly at the same time i was trying to pry it open.



Take your time as it will come off eventually just be patient. Once it comes off you will be left with something like this.



Once that is done be sure to remove any soft pads seen in top and bottom images, some black, some red remember these places.
(try not to rip them as they will be going back on later)



Best to take photos of each step as to not miss anything if you get distracted by life's little joys.
NOTE: There is flux all over the board from manufacturing, when you board comes out of the oven this will be darkened in color, this is nothing to be worried about just a heads up

STEP 2
Next it is time to Clean your board i did this with a old soft tooth brush to remove dust from any nooks and crannies under copacitors and the likes. if you must use air, use if from a distance as you dont want to damage anything. (trust me i have seen this done)
You can also use PCB board cleaner.

=======OPTIONAL=======
Advanced people only This is very Dangerous and easily damaged if you use to much force
If your interested in this Please Grab @kiler bug's & @Nichibotsu 's Re flow Guide.

I removed my RSX heat sink with a hair straightener set to 230c to soften the glue holing it on, then used sand paper "1800grit" to remove the old Thermal Paste off the chips(no joke this was like glue).
I do not recommend this! as trying to get the thing to stay on after it comes off is a pain in the ass. I used bluetack (still in Play Station 3 to hold it's position from the sides) as trying to turn mainboard upside down to put back together is really hard, and since Bluetack does not conduct electricity it's perfect to leave inside case.
NOTE: do not to have any thermal grease on your fingers when using blue tack, as arctic silver 5 has silver particles in it that will and can short out the main board.
=======OPTIONAL=======

STEP 3
Time to prep your board for the Oven baking, Go turn your oven on 200c (not farenheight, use celcius i'm aussie.) now making sure to use your most straight pizza/grill tray line it with foil shiny side up as this will help to reflect heat as you want to heat the mainboard not the pizza tray. Now go to step 4 :P

NOTE: If your element is on the bottom of your oven don't put the tray on the bottom run, keep it in the center of your oven.
NOTE: I don't have a fan forced oven so if you do please try and turn it off. I don't know how the temperature may vary.


STEP 4
With your bluetack cover all the capacitors with a thick layer of the stuff don't use sparingly See image
NOTE: DO NOT leave the battery in the board, and cover the housing with the Blue Tack.



Blue Tack will help to repel the heat from these heat sensitive items, when capacitors dry out they don't work so well anymore. we want to try and prevent this best we can.

NOTE: Cover anything else like the little plastic speaker and parts you think should be done like usb ports.

put your liquid flux under the chip don't use sparingly. I put mine under the south bridge RSX and CPU chip, the reason i added flux is that it will help to add long longevity to your lead free solder giving it some of it's new quality back.

Now cover everything in foil again shiny side facing up as you want to reflect the heat.
NOTE: The reason we don't cover the pins from the bottom is their is not enough heat generated from them to make much impact on the capacitors or other items) See image.


NOTE: The Blue Tack and Foil you can see on the RSX chip is only from me removing it (see Optional) and to prevent it from moving while it has the thermal paste on it.
See STEP 9 for a fix to this issue.

STEP 5
Now you should have a mainboard that looks a little something like this.
NOTE: Dont forget to tin foil the baking tray as well, i only did the top, reflective side up.


NOTE: MAKE SURE TO REMOVE ANY RUBBER OFF THE BOARD! this is your last chance. if you removed the RSX chip heat sink put it back on before baking (can be without thermal paste, i had paste on mine).

STEP 6
Stick him in the oven middle shelf towards the front of oven (non fan forced if you can) by now your Oven should be at correct temperature of 200c Celsius, now turn oven to 210-220c (quickly as to not loose much heat) and set time to 10 minutes-12 if you must. it should look something like this.
yes i know my over is off



STEP 7
Now go in your room and tidy up! make sure everything is clean "as a clean work space is godly " clean your heat sinks and apply thermal paste, keeping an eye on the time.


ADVANCED USERS ONLY
do some modding if you wish by the time you finished cleaning and applying any mods your timer should go off . below is a pic of my mod's.

extra cooling for south bridge.
NOTE: This is a hard mod, where you have to cut/dent the actual housing to make it fit is really fiddly, especially when putting it back together.


A small fan for the PSU soldered to Ground and +5v on the boards USB solder points on the other side(covered in statick free tape)
I forgot to take a pic of the solder (honestly a good thing)

NOTE: don't guess when soldering to usb ports like i did, look up the power/wiring guide and understand it. or ask for some help



STEP 8
Get a pedistool fan (optional) face it sucking air out of Oven, open door with pedistool fan on as to remove the heat quickly (DO NOT BLOW AIR ON THE MAIN-BOARD this will most likely crack it again).

Once cool to the touch remove tray and let sit on bench for 30 minutes, this lets everything harden back up and hopefully straighten your board if bent as well. hence the screws.

Once cool remove foil, Bluetack, and any dust that may of burnt to board (rub blue tack on it don't scratch).
NOTE: be careful removing blue tack as i have found sometimes it is firmly attached to the components, other times not so much.

STEP 9
Re apply "sparingly" thermal paste onto chips (under RSX if you took the heat sink off see Optional), apply thermal paste to chips and carefully re assemble your PlayStation 3.

ONLY FOR PEOPLE THAT HAVE REMOVED THE RSX HEAT SINK
Quote KillerBug - "Arctic alumina mixed 60% alumina, 40% adhesive works well. Use Arctic Silver for the center."

NOTE: to use only on the outer 4 chips and not the center one, again use "sparingly"
NOTE: you can bend the CPU plates a little before screwing them back on to get a tight fit again there is two of them.

Please make sure not to use TO MUCH thermal paste. Arctic silver is conductive, so make sure to have none on your fingers and on the board and especially sure not to get any on the components, on the traces(the little race track looking wires) or diodes or anything else. if you have wipe off with tissue and some Windex/PCB cleaner

CONGRADULATIONS
If everything has worked you will get this when you turn you PS3 back on.



NOTE: I got a black screen but had sound on first boot, if you get this plug in the AVI cable into your Play Station 3 with hdmi still plugged in and turn back on. you will hopefully get the above screen seems HDMI is not the default output


FINAL STEP
ok this may make you sad dont spit it.

1. What you want to do is have no sound around you and listen to your Play Station 3, if you hear the fan spin up fast soon after turning PS3 on turn it back off very quickly. This is very Important What this means is you have not done something correct and it's over heating pull apart and make sure all is well then try again. Don't rush it. (one of the wires came out of the main fan connector for me)

2. If you do not feel air from back of Play Station 3 your fan is most likely not plugged back in.

3. Make sure you have your HDD plugged back in. not sure this makes a diff by another user mentioned in to me.

4. if it does not work you can try again, or cry as it might be over for you. this unfortunately does not fix all our issues.

If all goes well and it boots i recommend playing Blu ray movie's for a few days no less, just to let everything settle in.

Why wait?
Well because arctic silver thermal paste will take a few days to reach it's optimum operating situation (read their page for more details).
This also works to monitor the temperature that your Play Station 3 will operate at without it getting to hot to quick. if all works well playing movies and your YLOD does not come back you can start playing games again.
Just take my advice and wait a few days.



FRIENDLY ADVICE
Remember Your Play Station 3 has bad airflow! it is small. It gets really hot playing games cause of this. Remember 8hour marathons of Call of Duty will kill your Play Station 3. imagine masturbating for 8 hours non stop... YEAH that's what your Play Station feels like.
It gets sore too. your and it will love you back

~narcarsiss 2011 Dont RIP IT, USE IT!

P.s this is my First attempt at a tutorial so be nice.

Update, Console is now playing game to great Success.
Update 2, PlayStation YLOD's again after almost a year of games but is working again.
Update 3, I dropped my PlayStation moving it to another room and it died. R.I.P Ruby.