I recently experienced the PS3 owner’s worst nightmare. The dreaded YLOD (Yellow Light Of Death, similar to better known Red Ring of Death). I was playing Operation Flashpoint with a friend, when all of a sudden, the PS3 shut off. I went to restart it, and saw the flashing yellow light, followed by the red. The PS3 would not restart.
I immediately went to the web to see what the error was (I had not yet heard of the YLOD). I saw there were lots of people who ran into this issue, but had to pay Sony $150 to fix it. The issue is mostly with the older First Gen PS3s. 40 and 60 gig systems were the biggest fail group. Perhaps the 80s are soon to follow.
There are MANY forum posts on multiple sites regarding this issue, and Sony’s denial there IS an issue. The BBC did an investigative report on this, and Sony responded with many denials. The fact is, there are a large number of people who have run into an issue with their PS3’s. Sony responds that the percentage of issues is very low, but that fails to recognize that thousands of people have gotten the same issue.
The YLOD is a signal used by the PS3 to indicate multiple problems. The reason for mine was that the chips needed reseating. The solder joints develop small cracks due to heat, and the chips require reseating. This heating issue could be caused by the thermal paste used by Sony on the chips and heat sink. The pictures included in this article are pictures of my actual PS3 and the dried out thermal paste.
I spoke to Sony and found out that they were willing to replace the PS3 with the 120 GB slim for $150, or repair my 60Gb (backward compatible) for $180 plus tax. I decided since my warranty was long gone, I would try to repair it myself. I used a guide posted by (PSN Gilksy) and watched the YouTube video also made by him.
The tools needed were a heat gun, various sizes of Phillips screwdrivers, torx driver, and thermal paste. I used Artic Silver thermal paste as was suggested by the guide and other posters in the forums. Amazingly enough, I found it at Radio Shack, packaged in their own brand packaging.
I printed out the guide and taped the screws to the appropriate spots on the guide. It was a really helpful guide and worked to keep my screws in the correct spots. After following the instructions (except using the heat gun for 5-8 seconds instead of 10-15 recommended) I reassembled and tried the PS3. Still had the YLOD. The next time I applied the heat gun for 12 seconds each spot, and reassembled. Success!
The PS3 has been working for a week now. I have run the PS3 for over 8 hours in a row, and it has not failed. The fan does kick on almost immediately, and runs louder (faster) than before the YLOD. I will have to see how it goes over the weeks and months, but the PS3 is running again, thanks to Gliksy and his guide.
Sony has released the PS3 slim, and seems to ignoring this YLOD issue by offering to replace the older PS3s with the newer product. In a way, that is pretty cool of Sony, they don’t have to do anything, since these older failing PS3’s are out of warranty. On the other hand, it is pretty crappy to have a $600 (at the time I bought it) item fail on you, and only have a year on the warranty.
My first PS3 also failed, within the first 2 weeks of ownership, and instead of receiving a brand new one, I received a refurb. I would have been happier if they had sent me a brand new one, but that is not how it worked out. I don’t know if a new one would have lasted as long, or longer, but after spending that much on it, I was a little peeved.
I have owned many Sony products from PS1s, PS2s, PSPs, Stereo equipment, TVs and headphones. Overall I have been happy with their products. But I do feel more let down with the life of my PS3’s mostly due to it’s cost to product life ratio. I have had multiple PS1s and PS2s fail, and I was never as pissed off as I have been with the PS3 issue. Perhaps it is mostly because I am stubborn about keeping my backward compatible PS3, with its 4 usb ports, and its ability to play ALL of my PS2 and PS1 games that I still have.
I still like the PS3 better than the 360 (I have both) and I know that the 360 has a much bigger problem than PS3s due to overheating, I just suppose I expected it from Microsoft, and not Sony.
Recon19D (Still a Sony fanboy)
**Props to Gilsky and his very helpful video
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