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LAN_403

Chip Fixes

Sun Aug 28 2011, 09:39PM

Registered Member #3781 Joined: Sat Mar 26 2011, 02:25AM
Location:
Posts: 701

My friend gave me his playstation to see if I could fix it. If I can't it's not a big deal but it would be cool if I could get it working again, or at least figure out the problem. When you turn it on the screen stays black with a whole bunch of rainbow colored dots on it. It won't even allow me to get to the home screen. However it still produces the boot up sound (usually) and I am able to access the ps3 safe mode; although there are still dots displayed in the background. After looking on google I thought it might be a problem with the hard drive so I took it out and ran the ps3 without it and there were still dots on the screen.

Am I correct in assuming it's the graphics card that's causing the problem?

testtest

Sun Aug 28 2011, 09:48PM

Registered Member #3271 Joined: Mon Oct 04 2010, 02:29AM
Location: Canada
Posts: 159

That is the same symptom my ATI graphic card produced when it died. Ask your friend if, over the past weeks, he/she had strange intermittent pixellation at random times. Some of the ATI embedded chips on MACs and game stations also had problems with bad BGA contacts between the board and the chip. Heat cycling would cause stress over time resulting in intermittent and eventually bad contacts. Sometime applying a bit of pressure to the chip/heatsink assembly would restore operation (for the MACs in particular).

Conundrum

Sun Aug 28 2011, 10:06PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

I believe the fix is to rework the board, removing the CPU and GPU then reballing with 63/37 and replacing.
A slightly less drastic fix which may work is to carefully clamp the board to ensure it doesen't warp during heating, carefully heat jig+pcb in oven to about 90C for six hours having wrapped capacitors and plastics in tinfoil, then heat the CPU and GPU up the rest of the way with a heat gun and IR thermometer to ensure correct profile.

-A

Dragon64

Mon Aug 29 2011, 02:24AM

Registered Member #1438 Joined: Sat Apr 12 2008, 12:57AM
Location: Canada
Posts: 218

Make sure when you use the heatgun to have it on the lowest fan setting possible.

I've tried reflowing the cpu and the gpu my friends ps3 after it yloded (yellow light of death)

It managed to work for a few months then it died again unfortunately.

Also I found that dissembling a ps3 is fairly easy and straight forward. Just make sure you remember which screw goes where because I ended up with many unused screws.

Chip Fixes

Mon Aug 29 2011, 02:56AM

Registered Member #3781 Joined: Sat Mar 26 2011, 02:25AM
Location:
Posts: 701

Richnormand: I think you're right, this problem has just been getting worse and worse so i am suspecting bad contacts.
Conundrum: I'm not going to try reballing but I will give the oven/heat gun a shot. Can I just wrap everything except the GPU and CPU and just hit it with the heat gun?
Hydraliskdragon: Thanks for the tips

Arcstarter

Mon Aug 29 2011, 09:34PM

Registered Member #1225 Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253

I reflowed an xbox360 using a heat gun the other day. It worked out fine. You are supposed to put it in the oven to preheat it to keep thermal expansion from breaking stuff. I guess if you heated it slow enough an oven wouldn't be necessary, but the rest of the PCB being cool could be a problem. I didn't use an oven and it worked out fine.

Chip Fixes

Tue Aug 30 2011, 07:42PM

Registered Member #3781 Joined: Sat Mar 26 2011, 02:25AM
Location:
Posts: 701

Alright well I disassembled the PS3 and the photos of the board (front and back) are posted below. I was wondering what I should wrap in tin foil and what I should leave exposed. Also, can I use paper tape to secure the tinfoil on the board since I will only be heating it to 195 fahrenheit? After it's in the oven for 6 hours I have to immediately heat it up with the heat gun, correct? Last thing, what should I do about the thermal paste?

Pictures from a PS3 dis-assembly website:

My Pictures:

Patrick

Tue Aug 30 2011, 08:34PM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

Is it just me? Are these a few isolated cases? or are the PS3's lacking in quality of manufacture?

Chip Fixes

Tue Aug 30 2011, 09:04PM

Registered Member #3781 Joined: Sat Mar 26 2011, 02:25AM
Location:
Posts: 701

I am not sure, this is the first version of the PS3 and it was full of dust when I took it apart. I have the slim version and it doesn't run hot

Arcstarter

Wed Aug 31 2011, 02:04AM

Registered Member #1225 Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253

195f won't be enough to reflow it. The solder balls for the BGA IC have to melt, so the IC needs to be something like 500-700 degrees or... something.

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