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[omegadti]

Just applying more heat transfer paste does not work - you have to reflow the solder on the processors.   

From what I have learnt lead-free solder dries out and cracks at sustained high temperatures just below its melting point.   

PS3's have been around for a little over 2 years.   In that time bigger games have been written such as CODMW2 that stretch the capabilities of the processors making them run very hot - a bit like overclocking a computer - given the age and use of the machines this is leading to a growing number of consoles failing with ylod. 

The same thing seems to happen with older plasma tv's - just look on e-bay at all the faulty ones. 

Whether it is directly attributable to the manufacturers, the games writers or just lead-free solder.....but addictive games mean more people play them for longer sessions generating more heat and drying out the solder!!

[omegadti]

ps it's affecting 40, 60 and 80gig machines - all the older ones that are getting constant use - newer ones are still under warranty so if there is a problem it goes unnoticed as Sony replace them.

[baz1701]

How old is the PS3? If you have the original bill of sale (big if i know) and it was bought at currys or dixons and it was less than 3 years ago, go in with the receipt and details and the console, kick up a massive stink, say you're not budging until they sort it out and they should give you another one free of charge.

done this myself a few times and it works. just don't accept no for an answer. or if it's under 3 years old and want a foc repair, call 0844 561 4000, option 1 will stick u a repair warranty for about 4 quid a month.

[Marks DTM Calib]

From what I have learnt lead-free solder dries out and cracks at sustained high temperatures just below its melting point. 

Nah, nothing of the sort, lead free solder has actualy been in use in some applications for years. t is no worse than leaded solder in fact the only major difference is that it requires around an extra 10-15degC on the re-flow cycle to get the solder to fully wet.

The biggest problem these units have is poor design, compromised PCB lands, poor mechancial support etc. The solder is not to blame (having been very invovled in Rohs6 investigations), there may even be some process issues, again due to poor design....or even PCB contruction/design. 

PS3's have been around for a little over 2 years.   In that time bigger games have been written such as CODMW2 that stretch the capabilities of the processors making them run very hot - a bit like overclocking a computer - given the age and use of the machines this is leading to a growing number of consoles failing with ylod. 

Processors dont increase in temperature the more you do with them in these applications, the internal clock speed is fixed and does not vary and the external bus speeds are the same. Modern RAM requires constant re-fresh cycles even if you do nothing so the micros run at pretty much top temperature no matter what the application during use.

In fact, due to the process size used, the archiecture and clock speeds used, many of these devices operate at 90% of the max power doing nothing but processing idles or wait states (I problem we find in the comms industry with nework processors!)

The only thing that I can think is that this particular game is being played for extended periods with the consoles in compromised installs which restricts the airflow.....so maybe a full saleable solution is to look at improving the cooling and ventilation (not easy without good baselined sim packages such as flowtherm)

Its certainly not related to the specifics of the games processing requirements though.

[cam2502]

I am repairing ps3 with the yellow light of death and have had a similar problem. To reset the video output hold the on/off switch and turn the power on  - there wil will a double bleep. Keep holding the button until the ps3 turns off (light turns red) turn off power, turn on power and press on/off console should operate - keep repeating until you get output. Motherboard problem is yellow light of death and I fix this for £40.
By the way biggest cause of YLOD is CODMW2 so be warned - every one that I fix has this disk in!!!!

I'll be fine then :-/ - Uncharted 2 lives in ours

best game on the ps3 by a mile...finished it 3 weeks ago.
 

[omegadti]

From what I have learnt lead-free solder dries out and cracks at sustained high temperatures just below its melting point. 

Nah, nothing of the sort, lead free solder has actualy been in use in some applications for years. t is no worse than leaded solder in fact the only major difference is that it requires around an extra 10-15degC on the re-flow cycle to get the solder to fully wet.

The biggest problem these units have is poor design, compromised PCB lands, poor mechancial support etc. The solder is not to blame (having been very invovled in Rohs6 investigations), there may even be some process issues, again due to poor design....or even PCB contruction/design. 

PS3's have been around for a little over 2 years.   In that time bigger games have been written such as CODMW2 that stretch the capabilities of the processors making them run very hot - a bit like overclocking a computer - given the age and use of the machines this is leading to a growing number of consoles failing with ylod. 

Processors dont increase in temperature the more you do with them in these applications, the internal clock speed is fixed and does not vary and the external bus speeds are the same. Modern RAM requires constant re-fresh cycles even if you do nothing so the micros run at pretty much top temperature no matter what the application during use.

In fact, due to the process size used, the archiecture and clock speeds used, many of these devices operate at 90% of the max power doing nothing but processing idles or wait states (I problem we find in the comms industry with nework processors!)

The only thing that I can think is that this particular game is being played for extended periods with the consoles in compromised installs which restricts the airflow.....so maybe a full saleable solution is to look at improving the cooling and ventilation (not easy without good baselined sim packages such as flowtherm)

Its certainly not related to the specifics of the games processing requirements though.

My fiancee's son was playing COD4 for hours and hours, day after day and did not have a problem, he started playing MW2 and got ylod very quickly.   I reflowed the machine and he started playing MW2 again and within a month got ylod again. I reflowed it again and told him to go back down to COD4 and six weeks on there isn't a problem.

I was on a gaming repair blog site and asked a major repairer in the US about causes of ylod and rrod(x-box) and his response was "Greenpeace made us adopt lead-free solder and that gets more dry joints than leaded"   I do agree though that the design of PS3's is not good when you look at air-flow, I tend to modify the casings with a drill and fit an external clip-on fan to push more air in. 

[Ken T]

I thought leaded solder was more ductile, because of the lead, so would stretch a bit when the thermal stresses set in, eg the video BGA is getting hot and expanding but the PCB below isn't. The commonly used replacement, SAC, is a much more brittle substance and so joints fracture with the repeated expansion/contraction. I have started using SN100C which has germanium added, and is much more like SN/PB in its characteristics.

Ken

[Martin_1962]

I am repairing ps3 with the yellow light of death and have had a similar problem. To reset the video output hold the on/off switch and turn the power on  - there wil will a double bleep. Keep holding the button until the ps3 turns off (light turns red) turn off power, turn on power and press on/off console should operate - keep repeating until you get output. Motherboard problem is yellow light of death and I fix this for £40.
By the way biggest cause of YLOD is CODMW2 so be warned - every one that I fix has this disk in!!!!

I'll be fine then :-/ - Uncharted 2 lives in ours

best game on the ps3 by a mile...finished it 3 weeks ago.
 

Finished it last year on normal, half way through on hard, and online multiplayer a lot, why don't you have a go?

[Martin_1962]

From what I have learnt lead-free solder dries out and cracks at sustained high temperatures just below its melting point. 

Nah, nothing of the sort, lead free solder has actualy been in use in some applications for years. t is no worse than leaded solder in fact the only major difference is that it requires around an extra 10-15degC on the re-flow cycle to get the solder to fully wet.

The biggest problem these units have is poor design, compromised PCB lands, poor mechancial support etc. The solder is not to blame (having been very invovled in Rohs6 investigations), there may even be some process issues, again due to poor design....or even PCB contruction/design. 

PS3's have been around for a little over 2 years.   In that time bigger games have been written such as CODMW2 that stretch the capabilities of the processors making them run very hot - a bit like overclocking a computer - given the age and use of the machines this is leading to a growing number of consoles failing with ylod. 

Processors dont increase in temperature the more you do with them in these applications, the internal clock speed is fixed and does not vary and the external bus speeds are the same. Modern RAM requires constant re-fresh cycles even if you do nothing so the micros run at pretty much top temperature no matter what the application during use.

In fact, due to the process size used, the archiecture and clock speeds used, many of these devices operate at 90% of the max power doing nothing but processing idles or wait states (I problem we find in the comms industry with nework processors!)

The only thing that I can think is that this particular game is being played for extended periods with the consoles in compromised installs which restricts the airflow.....so maybe a full saleable solution is to look at improving the cooling and ventilation (not easy without good baselined sim packages such as flowtherm)

Its certainly not related to the specifics of the games processing requirements though.

The game does vary what temperature the console runs at. Uncharted 2 does get the fan going unlike any other game we have

[bertiecbx550]

Ok its all good and working again.....

[Steve B]

I am repairing ps3 with the yellow light of death and have had a similar problem. To reset the video output hold the on/off switch and turn the power on  - there wil will a double bleep. Keep holding the button until the ps3 turns off (light turns red) turn off power, turn on power and press on/off console should operate - keep repeating until you get output. Motherboard problem is yellow light of death and I fix this for £40.
By the way biggest cause of YLOD is CODMW2 so be warned - every one that I fix has this disk in!!!!

I suspect thats because its the game of the moment lol

Do you have full surface mount re-flow repair capability or just applying the shim/heatsink bodge workaround?

What do you mean by this mark..

Are you talking about the heating up of the solder joints back to liquid.

Sorry to drag old threads up 

[tigers_gonads]

Don't know anything about PS3's but I know that lead free solder does dry out and peal away from the pcb's with persistent heat soak cycles.
I've got the same problem on my Cyrus 2 amplifier 

Turning all solder joints to liquid and letting them cool do the trick 

[Marks DTM Calib]

As above, the issue with lead free solder is not the solder, its the process, we proved this through years of trials and tests in order to get a process which met the required 15 year life requirements.

A way of getting a repair is to reflow the solder

[henryd]

Cough ,bit dusty this one

[Steve B]

ok cheers mark