Why did the iFixit not work?
I followed the guidelines for the fix to a T and it worked shortly and then immediately stopped working again, same issue
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@chuckburban first you will have to remember that there are a few things that can cause the YLOD. A few of them are:
A dead or disconnected HDD
Cold-Joint between the CPU/RSX/EE(If your console has one)
A dead power supply
Overheating
Corrupted NAND Flash
You most likely have issues with your GPU processor. It is a flip chip design and the issue could be the solder bumps between the IC and the substrate. A reflow might fix it for a while but even reflows are very limited. YLOD (as well as RROD on a Xbox) are caused by the design of the processor, not necessarily by bad or cracked solder joints. The key to this is the design of the GPU which is a flip chip design. The proper definition of that can be found at Wikipedia "is a method for interconnecting semiconductor devices, such as IC chips and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), to external circuitry with solder bumps that have been deposited onto the chip pads." So what happens is that the chip heats up (due to poor design of the ventilation and heatsinks of the console. Does not matter if it is a PS3, a XBox or some of the Mac laptop's) and the bumps that connect the chip to the substrate lose contact and your chip (in this case GPU) fails. The heating of the chip for the reflow actually reshapes (most of the time) the bumps to the point of making contact again. That is the reason why some of the reflows just do not work. The connection between the IC and the substrate has absolutely failed. Not the most scientific explanation but I hope it makes sense to you.
The only repair that would fix it (more or less )permanently is a new BGA. Try this repair again and you may have to change the approach a bit by adjusting the heat. It is a hit and miss situation and most first time failure with this is caused by not applying to much heat, whereas to much will totally remove the IC's. Anyhow, the biggest reason for failure to reflow is not enough consistent heat. There is a fine line between reflowing and absolutely melting the solder, so one needs to be aggressive without going over board. If nothing else, get a couple of temperature probes and see what heat you generate. Yes, replace the thermal paste again, do not add to it. The AS5 thermal paste alone will not prevent a YLOD. Apply it according to their specs and it should not give you any issues. You might want to contact the game console guru and see what he thinks.
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5 Comments
You question is unanswerable as is. We have no idea of what you fixed or the symptoms or if you even fixed the right thing.
by mayer
I agree with what @mayer said. We have no idea if you used an iFixit replacement part or what guide you used to fix the problem.
by Ben
Brad, i have to agree with @mayer and @Ben.
You need to deliver us more information, in this case to which guide and/or part you are refering to.
As long as you aren't giving that specific information, because any help expected will be rather pointless at this moment.
by Arjan Kuiper
Alright so I used the iFixit Yellow Light of Death kit. Took apart the PS3, removed the heat pads, replaced them, applied new thermal paste to the processors, and re-assembled. It started up twice before yellow lighting again
by Brad Urban
The YLOD is a overheating issue that is probably not fixable as it requires reballing the GPU / APU / CPU chip on the logic board to fix the solder joints. While this is not a permanent fix it can happen again as the playstation 3 phat (fat) model all have the same issue of overheating.
I think you're better off buying a Playstation 3 slim version or a Playstation 4.
by Ben