My PS3 launch Phat just YLODed on me - what to do?

[Grall]

I tried to turn it on like 15 mins ago from standby which is how it's been sitting since I used it last time, fan spun up to speed, and just as that happened it beeped 3 times, power light turned yellow briefly (green + red LEDs simultaneously I'd think), then it shut off again and started flashing the red LED at me.

I did install the latest firmware, the one which Rockstar initially claimed killed phat PS3s but then backtracked on (perhaps on Sony's insistence, I dunno), and it worked fine initially. Then out of the blue this happens. It was just fine yesterday for frig's sake! Cycling the hardwired power switch doesn't improve matters, and what's worse, it's got a DVD held hostage in its optical drive, one I was intending to continue watching today...!

Can this be remedied through some simple set of actions, or is my unit now officially FUBAR'd? Googling on "YLOD flashing red" and such gives 160k hits, I'd just like to hear if anyone here's had their unit started behaving the same way and then managed to fix it...then again considering it's a couple years old now and it's been running quite a few hours and it's a launch unit as mentioned, maybe the phat lady's sung, I dunno.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Sounds dead. Standard procedure is to either pay Sony to replace said console, or do the YLOD fix to be able to back up your HDD to an external device, then deactivate your account and buy a new PS3, transferring all your stuff over.

 

[Grall]

But what I can't wrap my head around is how it'd manage to kill itself whilst sitting in standby mode... It doesn't make any sense. And it starts booting too, then just turns itself off by itself. Something doesn't add up here, has anyone seen any attempts at tracking the number of people who's had their consoles die on them with the latest (alledged) phat-killing firmware versus previous releases?

...Because it makes me mighty curious my console chooses this particular opportunity to go belly-up on me.

 

[-tkf-]

But what I can't wrap my head around is how it'd manage to kill itself whilst sitting in standby mode... It doesn't make any sense. And it starts booting too, then just turns itself off by itself. Something doesn't add up here, has anyone seen any attempts at tracking the number of people who's had their consoles die on them with the latest (alledged) phat-killing firmware versus previous releases?

...Because it makes me mighty curious my console chooses this particular opportunity to go belly-up on me.

When you console was turned on, it was hot.. then it cools of and stuff breaks when the circuit boards gets cold. I think the classic error is the soldiering.

Reminds me i need to backup my phat 60

 

[Reznor007]

My PS3 got a "red line of death" error about 2 months ago. It's actually a pretty easy fix. Just disassemble it and pull the motherboard out, pour some flux under the CPU and GPU, and run a hot air gun over the chips for a bit to resolder the connections.

There's lots of tutorials on youtube.

 

[orangpelupa]

But what I can't wrap my head around is how it'd manage to kill itself whilst sitting in standby mode... It doesn't make any sense. And it starts booting too, then just turns itself off by itself. Something doesn't add up here, has anyone seen any attempts at tracking the number of people who's had their consoles die on them with the latest (alledged) phat-killing firmware versus previous releases?

...Because it makes me mighty curious my console chooses this particular opportunity to go belly-up on me.

there some talks about what making YLOD, something like goes from cold to hot for many times in console life, power cycle, it can break the solder.

my old xbox also got this same problem. i just left my xbox for 3 days, after i back home and turn it on. Goes to dashboard, login live, then it suddently red-ringed.

i just add pressure to the GPU and it worked again. So i suspect it is the solder....

 

[goonergaz]

But what I can't wrap my head around is how it'd manage to kill itself whilst sitting in standby mode... It doesn't make any sense. And it starts booting too, then just turns itself off by itself. Something doesn't add up here, has anyone seen any attempts at tracking the number of people who's had their consoles die on them with the latest (alledged) phat-killing firmware versus previous releases?

...Because it makes me mighty curious my console chooses this particular opportunity to go belly-up on me.

As already stated it's down to the solder getting dry-joints caused by heating and cooling - todays solder has no lead which seems to be to blame.

Mine died after being on most of the day xmas day (playing music), the next day YLOD

Fairly easy fix, but only a temp one to xfer your files...I'm sorry for your loss

 

[rabidrabbit]

I had the YLOD on my PS3 fat last year, the console just freezed and shut itself down while playing Sports Champions.
The YLOD really doesn't give much warnings in advance, it can hapen while powering on or during a game, it's always an unpleasant surprise.
I did the hot air gun fix, replaced the dried thermal paste and it's still working. Fixing was pretty easy if you follow the instructions and remember to keep track of every screw, there's a lot of screws and a lot of them are different sizes.
I did buy a new PS3 Slim, and haven't really used the fixed PS3 much. It was on for over 10 hours continuously while I was transferring the data to the new PS3 (that really took long!), and I've occasionally used it for a couple of hours every now and then, and it's not broken again yet.

 

[Grall]

I feel sad now. Thanks for the help and advice, it's appreciated... Probably means this is the end of the line for me though with regards to playstation. With the loss of account infos, locking game saves to the system (meaning I can't just swap HDDs) and so on I can't be bothered to try and salvage my stuff. Buying a hot airgun just to try and fix a borked console is just too much.

I suppose this should teach me a lesson when it comes to early adoption of new hardware, although I doubt it'll stick in my mind. I'm too much of a gadget geek I suppose.

 

[goonergaz]

well if you're anywhere near Farnborough hants I'm happy to give it a go for free - done a few now, ideal to get your data xfered

 

[BoardBonobo]

My first fat died after a year of being left on 24/7 folding for Beyond3d!! My second now sits in its box awaiting a new home as I've moved on and have a slim now. It has a powered 10 port usb extender and 2x1.5TB HD attached along with a 500GB internal.

It was a sad affair losing the first one, and the cheek of Sony charging for a refurb replacement was almost too much. But now I've got used to LoveFilm, iPlayer, and Mega Mind on Blu-ray I'm sold completely!!

Come to think of it that 2nd 1.5TB HD takes my data acreage to 70TB's.