PS3, Meet the Hair Dryer

It's no surprise anymore that the PS3 has an overheating issue.  But, how hot does it really get?  Turns out it gets hot enough to desolder it's own CPU and GPU.  Actually, these chips are generating enough heat to reach the solder's liquidus temperature, separating themselves from the mainboard.  Luckily there is an easy fix. 

My brother-in-law is a game junkie and when his PS3 threw up the "Yellow Light of Death" he went right out and bought a new one.  Although he was back to his gaming, he still had a major problem, in his eyes.  He needed to retrieve the saved data from his dead PS3 and transfer it to the new one.  All of those hours spend dominating were lost.  Naturally he came to me for help.  His deal was, if I could fix it and retrieve the lost data, the old PS3 was mine.  No sweat!

 

First, I stripped the PS3 down to the mainboard, free of peripherals and cooling unit.  Next I gave the mainboard a good dusting and, with the help of rubbing alcohol, cleaned off the old thermal paste on top of the CPU and GPUs.  Now it's time to bring the heat.  I knew a hair dryer wouldn't cut it, so I pulled out the Harbor Freight ads and made an investment.

Score!  $7.99 (plus tax) for a PS3, not a bad deal. 

Now that I was armed, it was time to make it happen.  Having a duel heat setting, I started off on low and applied heat to the entire board for about a minute.  Once the whole board was warmed up, I flipped over to high heat.  I elevated the board using a couple sets of helping hands and applied heat directly below the two chips for another minute.  The key is to always keep the heat moving around and to keep the board level.  You don't want to keep the heat blasting on one spot for too long, this will only damage the board and it's components.  Also, if you don't keep the board level, once the solder liquefies, the chips will move and their pins will not lineup with the pads. 

Once the board was cooled, I applied new thermal paste to the two chips and packaged it all back up. Now for the moment of truth.  I plugged it in, turned it ON, and said hello to my new PS3.