i couldn't find a guide to the different beepings/lights and their meanings. my ps3 has the regular red standby mode light, then when i turn it on, the fan starts, i get one green light, then one YLOD, three quick beeps, then it goes to blinking red until i press power again. the most i found was, if the PSU's faulty, there won't be any fan, and just go right to yellow, but my problem should just be overheating, according to the same site. the first time i did it, i just reflowed it (see spoiler for what i learned about reflowing), but it didn't help. so now i just took it all apart and replaced the Arctic Silver i had on it, but it's still YLODing. any thoughts? Spoiler ok, to reflow it i saw a video where the guy removed the harddrive, flipped it over, and ran a hair dryer through the vents for 30 mins (the vid was 40+ mins because he showed that there wasn't any funny business going on), and then it worked again. i've done that in the past with great success. also, i read about using a washer under each of the screws on the plates that force the CPUs to the heat sinks, and i've been doing that. if it's of any value, the last time i used it when it suddenly YLODed i was playing DDRMax w/ a Red Octane mat. idk if it matters, but the tv it was hooked up to didn't get the greatest picture on acct of being kinda old. i'm assuming the age is why it sometimes got random horizontal distortion lines, and once in a while flashed blank. that was the only time i could play during college since i don't have my own tv in my dorm. before returning to college this year, i was playing with the same game & accessory on what was likely an even older tv, but it was working fine. the only difference was that at home i had the ps3 on a shelf, but at college it was on a table. when i felt it after it failed on me, it was barely warmer than room temp, but sometimes at home it could get a bit hotter and still not be YLODing, and the only reason i was stopping was cuz i was taking a break.
Ah, you got me... Did you "resolder" the CPU and GPU sections? I used a heatgun, heated the entire board evenly and then concentrated heat on the two squares. Arctic Silver both when cooled, and put it all back together. This worked the one time for about 100 hours and then it did it again, so I'm basically in the same boat.
so i should take out the board, then heat it all up outside of the ps3? also, i don't have a heat gun, so all i could use is a hair drier. here's the link to the exact video: http://youtu.be/-uoKXn-c-rU oh, here's all that i've done: replaced the thermal paste with Arctic Silver 5 put a washer under each screw on the two small plates that go on top of the heat sinks removed the harddrive, then flipped over the PS3 and ran a hair drier (on high) along the back for 30 mins. checked the disk drive to make sure it was fine now that i'm home for a month, i think i'll retry with the hair drier, and if that still fails to work, i'll see if there's a place nearby that could fix it for relatively cheap
The hair dryer sort of works but a heat gun will do it much better. I did get mine to work with just a hair dryer but that only lasted about 20 hours before it crapped on me again. I'm thinking that it doesn't get hot enough to reseat the CPU and GPU entirely.
i'll have to see if i know anyone that has a heat gun, because last i checked, my dad doesn't have one
