Hi I'm mj with ifixit and today I'm going to show one of the most common fixes to the
playstation 3 ylod problem using the ylod repair kit.
The kit addresses what we found to be the most common reason for getting the ylod in
a playstation, and that is that the solder on the inside doesn't handle changes in temperature
very well.
So after an extended gaming session.
Or just as the console starts to age, the solder inside becomes brittle and starts to
crack, and that disrupts the connection.
This video is just an overview so as your repairing your playstation you wanna make
sure to follow the step-by-step instructions in the repair guide on our site.
As far as tools are concerned the kit comes with everything that you are going to need.
That includes a heat gun, replacement thermal pads, a spudger, a t10 torn security screwdriver,
a 26 piece bit driver-kit, and my favorite part, high quality thermal paste.
Much higher quality thermal paste than the stuff that comes in the playstation.
And a plastic card with which to spread it.
Your also going to want to have some household grade goof off for a little bit of cleaning
that your going to do later, and a screw tray. which isn't totally necessary but there are
a lot of screws in there and this does a good job of keeping them organized.
Now that I've got all of my parts and tools together i can get started.
The first thing were going to do is remove the smart plate on top.
That is held in place by one tiny little screw on the bottom its either covered up with a
rubber button or a sticker.
so you will want to take the rubber button off or the sticker, and then use your T10
torx security driver to get in there and remove that screw.
Now that that screw is removed, this part comes off really easily.
You just slide it down and lift it off.
The next step, is to remove a few phillips screws in order to get inside.
Now that all those screws are out, the top kit should come off pretty easily your just
going to grab near the rear of it and rotate it towards the front and set it aside.
the next piece were going to remove is the blue ray disk drive.
That is held in place by just a couple of cables, ill go ahead and remove those now.
While were here were also going to remove the control board its attached cable so i
will go ahead and take care of that.
With this tiny little board removed i can begin working on the motherboard assembly,
and it is held in place by eight phillips screws around the perimeter so I'm just going
to take those out.
With those screws out i can remove the control board bracket, and the hard drive cover on
the other side.
I'll use my spudger for that.
With those two pieces out, we can remove the mother board assembly from the rear case.
It is kinda heavy, and a little awkward so be careful.
Were still trying to get to the mother board.
Which is between the upper and lower motherboard covers to do that, were going to take of this
rear panel and the ac inland.
So after this is removed, the next step is to take out the memory card reader and the
power supply.
Now that we have got the power supply and the memory card ready out, the next step is
to remove the heat sink and the giant fan.
To do that we have to remove these two brackets with our phillips screwdriver.
With the brackets removed, we should be able to lift the motherboard right off the fan,
but if it sticks a little, its alright because there is a lot of thermal paste holding the
two together.
So if you just pry it gently, you should be able to lift it off.
You want to be careful to not bend that copper tubbing that is on the fan because it is kinda
fragile.
The next thing we are going to do is remove the PRAM battery and the hard drive and then
were almost at the motherboard.
With those screws removed, we can finally get to the motherboard, and the first thing
were going to do is do some cleaning.
We need to take off all that old thermal paste and the old thermal pads.
Once you have that as clean as you think you can get it, We are going to start the process
of re-flowing the solder.
So you are going to need your heat gun, your going to set it on low, and your going to
slowly heat heat the entire board, and that is going to prevent localized thermal expansion.
Your going to do this until the board is warm but not really hot.
Okay now that the board is nice and warm, you are going to want to rest it on a support
that is level, and that can withstand a pretty good amount of heat, I'm just going to use
this old iPhone box.
It is important that the whole thing stays level, because as your re-flowing the solder,
it actually liquifies and you don't want it tilted around because that can permanently
damage your board.
Next thing were going to do is focus the heat from the heat gun on the four sections that
are indicated in the guide.
And your going to do this kind of in a circular motion, for like twenty- five or thirty seconds
on each part.
Once you start this process it is really important that you don't bump or touch the board because
again it can permanently damage it and you don't want to go through all this work for
nothing.
Once that is done, you are going to let the board sit until it is completely cool.
Once it is cool your going to re-apply new thermal paste and new thermal pads.
If you have never applied thermal paste before there is a great thermal paste application
guide on our site.
With the last of the thermal pads in place, your done.
I know it was a lot of steps, but if it means resurrecting your dead playstation, i think
it is totally worth it.
You can find all the parts and tools for this and many other repairs at ifixit.com, and
if you run into any problems during your repair, there are solutions in the playstation 3 repair
guide on our site.
If your watching this on youtube, don't forget to subscribe to our channel and of course
you can follow us on twitter at twitter.com/ifixit.
Thanks for watching and happy repairing.