playstation3 cechp01 bluray problem

[chitowner]

Hi folks-

OK, I've done the usual google stuff, found a few things on youtube and elsewhere, but ultimately no joy, so here's my situation:

First, I am not a gamer, I really don't know anything about this stuff- BUT- I build my own PC's so I do know what I'm doing. Tech is not mystery to me. I am just trying to ix this console for my girlfriend's kid, OK?

A PS game got stuck in the bluray drive. I had to disassemble the thing to get the disk out. Got it to turn on with green light only, but it will not pull a disk in. I've examined the various components and there is nothing blocking the disk- I can shove one in easily, but there is no traction to pull it in.

I have found that Sony keeps changing the innards on these consoles- the BD drive in this machine has "BMD-031" imprinted on the controller board. It connects the system via a standard 4-wire connector, presumably for audio, and a small ribbon cable which connects from the left side (in operating orientation) of the controller board to the system mainboard.

I don't know what other details are important, but I have pics if wanted. Does anybody have a clue what I'm missing to re-set this thing?

Thanks,
CT

 

[ericm888]

same exact issue

I have the same issue.

Friend of mine though he was cleaning his PS3 w/ compressed air - turned out it was WD-40.

Disassembled, washed all the plastic, used circuit-board cleaner on the rest, dropped some arctic-silver on the procs/heatsyncs, put it all back together.

Same exact problem. Drive won't take in a disk or spin-up. I do get a blue flashing light when I hit the disk-detector switch, get 3 beeps when I hit eject and the drive is in the no-disk position, and flashing blue when I hit eject and the drive is in the has-disk position (motor assembly needs to be removed to do this by hand). Entire system works except for the gd BlueRay drive.

What I learned so far:
- 4 pin power connector is like molex - 5v,ground,ground,and supposedly 12 volt. I get 5V from pin1, nothing on pin4 - perhaps controller needs to send the req.
- drive connector is some proprietary bs, although some speculate it's IDE.
- Some parts-vendors claim it's related to the drive controller board, specifically the motor-control chip.
- Some other less-fortunate individuals who bought new controller boards and/or entire drives found out that the DRM chip on the unit was somehow tied-in w/ the system via firmware version and/or SN - so PS3 games won't play after the transfer.
-Some speculate that transplanting a good motor chip to the controller fixes it. New chips are readily available, but with some 70-odd solder-points w/ maybee 1mm in-between seems mildly impossible.
-Some speculate transferring the DRM chip to a good board also works, but they seem to be talking about the BMD-001, which looks a little different. Could be our BMD-031 doesn't even have this chip, cause I ain't seeing it. Maybe our version has it on the mb.

In any case, I order a BMD-001 off ebay, being shipped from hk, so it could be a while. In the meantime: I tested all the IO cables, no break there, everything seems solid. Inspected all the capacitors and junk, they seem fine, no popped mini-fuses. Totally bizarre. Next steps would be trying to trace indv circuits, I may also attempt to breakout the I/O cable to an IDE interface, plug in a CD drive or something, see if I can at least get it to eject or spin or something. May also try plugging the BR drive into a molex connection, see if I can get it to run while plugged into the PS3.

When the 001 arrives, I'll give it a shot. If it spins the drive, maybe i'll have a shot. Maybe it will even play PS3 if that happens. If not, then the problem has to be w/ the MB.

Could also be some kind of intrusion detection set this all off. Sony is kinda evil that way.

If you get no blue flashing light, then it might be the thin i/o connector that plugs the disk-detector switch into the controller. I had that backwards a few times, only had a green light. Could also be your disk-detector/loader switch is faulty - they definitely have those on ebay in great #s (top-mount and bottom mount version, ours is bottom mount.)

Let me know if you find out anything. I'll let you know how the controller swap experiment goes.

 

[Grall]

Next steps would be trying to trace indv circuits

Why go through all that work? May I suggest a much simpler recourse:

Get a PS3 Slim instead.

You'll get a fresh new product warranty too that way. No need to order junk from HK either...

I may also attempt to breakout the I/O cable to an IDE interface, plug in a CD drive or something, see if I can at least get it to eject or spin or something.

Don't do that, you'll most assuredly zap your PS3 mobo. Even if it is IDE on a physical level it's nearly 100% guaranteed stuff has changed on a logical level (this IS sony we're talking about here!). I/O protocol is most lkely different, to stop people from doing what you're suggesting, the I/O voltage is also bound to have changed. IDE uses 5V I/O, PS3 is sure to use (much) less. This is where the zapping comes in, btw.

 

[ericm888]

different goals

You're looking at it from the viewpoint of getting back to actually using the unit. To me, its not even about the unit anymore.

I purchase thousands of dollars of electronic BS every year. 50% of these items fail in under 6 months, 20% fail in under 18 months, and the other 30% never worked in the first place.

Why does this happen:
- Manufacturers try to make the unit as small as possible, thus the wires and solder points are as small as possible and have to be assembled by machines. This makes the units fragile and prone to failure during manufacturing and usage.

-I am an animal when it comes to electronics. Giving me an iPhone - for instance - is synonymous with giving an iPhone to a Gorilla. The Gorilla is going to shake it around, throw it against a rock, take it apart, and eat it. I will later find the iPhone in my basement, broken, and encased in gorilla droppings. Then again, I could be underestimating the intelligence of gorillas and overestimating my own.

Either way - I could initiate a warranty, purchase a new one, get an RMA - all of these options would accomplish a goal of obtaining the item in working condition with a minimal level of effort and risk.

For me - obtaining a new item requires me to throw away the old one, which is an admission of defeat. Even if I decide to purchase a new one for a faster CPU or better design - the old one is still useful for something. Even if I break it in the end, I still learn something, practice soldering skills, and get to take things apart which is fun - what I will do with these skills later in life is still open to question.

This is my friend's PS3, however, so I don't want to completely destroy it - however I do have some sort of insane drive to get it working again - even though I will never really use it in the end.

-------
Speaking of the PS3 - the voltage on the BD is coming in from a separate connection than the IDE cable. From research, appears to be 5V/12V, but I haven't been able to confirm the 12V as nothing is coming out of the associated pin on the MB. I haven't seen anything suggesting near 5V on the IDE cable itself - mostly "signals," but that doesn't their isn't some level of voltage there.

If you see anything about 5V or such on the 40 pin cable, let me know.

Various posts have speculated IDE or SCSI, but no one has really tried it. For Sony - the more parts you buy/manufacture, the cheaper they are - therefore parts in the PS3s drive may be the same parts that would go into a laptop or desktop drive. Could be that they threw out the IDE cable to save space and put in this other cable. Its just a theory.

Putting together a breakout board for this would be a pain - quite possibly impossible, but it is an option, I'll save it for a last resort.

The big problem is - why is the BD not getting voltage on wire #4. I checked the mainboard, power supply, and drive - I don't see anything blown on it - but that doesn't mean a chip hasn't failed.

Even if a chip fails, I should see 12V on the line itself, even if the drive doesn't use it. Only reason why I wouldn't see this is if the 12V line has a switch somewhere in the MB that prevents the line from becoming live until its requested.

If anyone has heard of such a thing, let me know.

Next steps would be
- confirm that 12V is constantly live on molex
- try to map molex to the drive itself, see if it starts working
- try the -001 board, whenever it gets here from hk, not holding my breath.

Doesn't help that I can't find a -031 board anywhere.

 

[ericm888]

3v

So I was testing, and for a brief period, pin#4 was giving out 3.3V or so. It stopped after a while.

So it would appear its 5v/3.3V not 5V/12V

In any case, I also tested similar connector on ATX, both 5v and 3.3v are live the whole time, same w/ regular molex 12v/5v.

In any case, when you get both 3.3v/5V at the same time, it still doesn't work, blue flashing light on disk load, then nothing.

 

[ericm888]

Some progress

I made 2 adapters:
#1 PS3 BD power to Molex female
#2 PS3 BD power to Molex Male

So if nothing is connected to the mb's BD power connector, I get 0 Volts out of pin #4

If I connect the PS3 BD drive, I get 3.3V, but no action on the loading motor or anything else.

If I use adapter #1 to connect a regular DVD drive to the PS3:
I get 2.4V from pin #4
I get a little blinking action on the BD drive
No loading motor or anything else. Similar behaviour.

If I use adapter #2 to connect an ATX PSU to the BD drive
Force-feed it 5v/12v from molex connection

The load moter starts working - it attempts to bring in a disk.

I haven't seen the drive spin-up or laser action yet: but this at least offers some info. Note, this is the first time I have ever seen this drive do anything.

Still, makes me wonder whats up with pin #4. Is that pin on-demand voltage or something, given the variable voltages I am getting? Is the PSU/MB going bad, or could it still be the controller. Still haven't ruled out the laser assembly, as that has fixed a lot of peoples problems.

In any case, a small ray of hope seeing it suck in a disk finally.

Also, FYI - here is the supposed pinout from the PS3 BD drive, and a small discussion about it:

http://www.ps3-hacks.com/forums/about3975.html

I could probably obtain the same 60 pin connector, put it on a printed circuit board, map the corresponding pins to an IDE connector with a circuit-writer or something - but that seems like a lot of work for diagnostic purposes, and a PS3 controller is coming in the mail anyway. Besides, there are at minimum 20 pins that won't match up, Sony proprietary, probably diagnostics.

Also, found some supposed hints on entering various diagnostic states here:
http://www.edepot.com/playstation3.html
"Hold Eject button down for 6 seconds (while PS3 is on): force disc to eject.
Hold Eject button down for 12 seconds (while PS3 is on): reset Blu-ray.
Hold Power button down for three beeps (while PS3 is off): Enter PS3 diagnostic mode (repeat procedure twice)"


Will post when something else happens.