Thanks Steve, I was told about it when I did the last 'trying to fix' videos on the PS3s but I never researched properly until now. It would be interesting to see how many can be repaired this way or if it is still mostly the main chips that cause the problems :-)
Yes. They can cause YLOD. And it's known for a while. Most people only thought that the RSX/CPU was the fault. In some cases, they were from the original model to the first slims model (known as 20xx). Many laptops with those NEC Tokins (they lose their capacitance and cannot deliver to the CPU) also failed. When you heat them, they restore back their capacitance. So many thought after heating the RSX/CPU, the problem was fixed or that they where the cause. No, in most cases it were the NEC Tokins. I've replaced lots and the systems still works till this date. Others that after reballing (when properly done with proper tools) failed after a few months or a year (back in 2012) pointed to other problem. Replacing those NEC Tokins (for tantalums), again, fixed the problem. That's why models from 21xx didn't came out with those NEC Tokins. You can measure around the CPU/RSX to see if it's still making proper contact or apply pressure to them and see if it works (lol), cause those power cicles (turn on the console, it heats up, you then power off and it cold down) also makes the solder deform. If not, look for other areas like fuses and those tokins. :) Final note, i did got alot of consoles and some were already opened and without any visual damage or component (even replaced the NEC's), i then tested/dumped the flash memory (NOR/NAND) and some had a brick (maybe the original user failed when attempting to exploit the console or replace the memory with other and never had a backup), like the serial didn't match the case and so on or the dump had bad sectors or the data was incomplete but if the (what's known for) per-console data is intact, you can try and write a valid ROS 0/1 to it and flash it back (you need a hardware flasher of course) and it might the only problem with the console. So, we never know...YLOD can be from many other things.
You have to remember that the YLOD literally means 'General Hardware Failure'. Unlike the Xbox 360, where a RROD CAN be identified via system code that people have recovered, we currently have NO way of identifying which component in the PS3 actually fails. Whilst this fix has worked for a number of people, others have also removed 50% of the capacitors (8 caps out of 16) and found that the PS3 is still capable of working, meaning that there's a chance that this will not work. There's no guarantee but if you've got a dead board already, what have you got to lose?
It's a similar if not the same issue with laptop GPU's and all in one PC's of the 2009 - 2012 era (Most famously on Apple products). The Tantalum capacitors wear out much faster then they should and screw up stuff like the power rails feeding the GPU. Reason why people thought reballing/baking the boards (or wrapping your PS3 in a towel worked is that applying heat to a tantalum capacitor can break up some of the crystallization byproducts that shouldn't be forming if the caps weren't being run near their maximum thermal and voltage ratings (typical design recommendations from what I read is to go 50 to 100 percent higher on the voltage rating of the cap depending on the specific internal chemistry).
@@Techburn997 when i was younger we had a xbox 360 got it around launch and it got the red ring of death and putting a towel around it worked a couple of times but did not after a couple times
@@jok3yjesu339 The xbox 360 suffered from a different issue from what I remember where the heatsink mounts would cause the board to warp and thus break solder joints. But I have always wondered if it could have been both. Might have to find an original 360 with RROD and do some experimenting
@@Techburn997 if you put flux all around the chips and reflow it. That works alot better than just straight up not using any flux on the xbox 360. Do that and put some really good thermal paste like arctic silver or MX 5 and should last quite some time especially if you add a fan mod to it that will increase air flow. The older xbox 360 models did suffer from poor air flow due to the case design and the fans not running fast enough for proper air flow
I have been reading a lot about this discovery and waiting for reliable video proof on this fix. Nice video, Thanks. Now then, any reputable Aussie repairers fancy a go lemme know.
Did this for a client, you just need to take a knife to the NEC Tolkins to scrape off the majority of the caps and then heat the pads to remove the remaining pieces. Replaced the top 4 Tolkins with 16 tantalum caps, left the 4 on the bottom side becuase they are actively cooled with the bottom shield whereas the top ones are just ambiently cooled. The bottom Tolkins also bridge the pads up top.
Brilliant Vince, I highly doubted that you would fix that as it was still showing a short, I was amazed it worked and very happy for you. Nice work, your persistence paid off, what a pain those caps where to remove...
Amazing! I had actually seen a video and even heard about how some electronic technician had said that those capacitors used in the PS3 or any other Electronics from the early 2000s were rubish and were the cause of the yellow light of death, he was saying how the chances of those lead free solder balls actually breaking were very small and did not believe it to be the cause of the problem.
Dude you are a techno wizard, a garage electrical engineer. Haven't been here in a while and I'm still surprised. Thanks for the inspiration and education sir!
This is one of the few things I've seen on this channel that I've actually repaired, not as competently as you do it though. I couldn't really afford one back in the day but I bought 3 or 4 broken ones on ebay and replaced the Blu-ray drives or reflowed them with a heat gun if it had Ylod, made just enough money to justify keeping the best one for myself.
Great timing! just the other day I ordered an "untested" BC PS3 which actually was tested (The seller had other listings that were working for sale, so they pulled a fast one on me) that actually had this problem. Maybe I could get it working. and by the way, Bad Company 2 is probably one of the best military shooters ever made and still has an active community to this day, especially on PC. I don't much care for shooters, but that one is something else! just in case anyone was reading...
I recently bought a BC PS3 and the last Friday I sent it to a reparation service. I opened it and it looks very clean I hope that the Nec Tokins are the problem :)
Nice going Vince,a member on the PSX-Place let me know of your video, i expected a bang with thoes electrolyte caps, looking forward to the full replacement. Currently we are still researching on which is the best method for the NECs, what i advise from personal experience and to avoid the hassle, is to have 50% NECs and 50% Tantalums, replace the NECs on the top board where the processors aren't present, and leave the underneath ones as they are, the reason being is that the bottom ones are actively cooled by the fan itself, and the top ones are passive, but with most of the heat concentrated on top, thoes NECs are thr first one to die, and also if you go via full replacement, you might not get it working again due to the bridge between the circuits, so leave at least one NEC, if you plan to do a full replacement, it acts as an internal bridge for the Tantalums, eliminating the need to wire unnecessary jumpers. One of the test subjects before i made the thread on PSX-Place was my personal 60GB CECHC04, at the moment is approaching is 7th month since the replacement, still working as we speak, at the moment i am searching for a A01 or B01 to add to my PlayStation collection, so looking forward to your next video.
Naked Snake!!!! I instantly recognised your name and icon :-) You did a great write up, I also went on to read about 15 pages of comments under your tutorial, didn't have time yet to go through all 40+ pages of comments but it all makes for an interesting read. I think on the revisit I will do just the 2 GPU caps on the top board to see how that goes. The others can always be done at a later stage. Just debating whether I need to install 8 new 470uF caps in place of the 2 large NECs or if I should try 3 and 3 or 4 and 3 to bring it closer to the original 1200uF. Thanks for sharing the tutorial with everyone and for commenting over here. Good work. (I will copy and paste this on the other length video as well) Cheers :-)
If i recall correctly, the top side have 4 NECs, 2 on the RSX and 2 on the CELL, what i would do for starters, is to replace all 4 NECs on top with 4x330uF or 4x470uF at 2.5V for each NEC, the other 4 NECs on the bottom you can leave them as they are, they are not really a concern, i simply recommend 470uF for the Phats, simply it didn't work for me for my 60Gb, mine are 470uF rated at 6.3V,is all i had during replacement, but before the 470uF, I did salvage a few 330uF and 470uF from dead boards, worked as well, until a few Tantalum contacts snapped during the salvage , that's why i disclose on the thread 470uF for the Phats and 330uF for the Slims, just to be identical to the NEC spec which is 1200uF each for the Phat and 1000uF for the Slim, but you can use 330uF for the Phats as well, worth the try. Happy repairs
Thanks for pretty much always being willing to think and act outside the box, mate! It helps us all learn! Brilliant video. Can't wait for the follow-up video showing the process of replacing them and which specific tantalum caps you use!
I’ve been planning to do this for a while on mine. Many people have had success changing capacitors. NEC tokin capacitors are known to go bad. They changed them after the cech 2002 models. Great job Vince
Vince, you suprise me over and over again. What an accomplishment again! It's so cool to see, that as you gather new experience you can revisit old projects.
Looking forward to the re visit. I scrapped out like 20 to 30 of these last year with the exact same problem lol. Seriously vince that was an awesome fix and very useful to know. You da man
@@Mymatevince no way man I got an actual response from you, you made my day lol, big fan of the channel. And deffo looking forward to the re visit video. Keep up the good work matey.
Nice proof of concept with those electrolytic caps :) I have PS3 Slim 120Gb CECH-2004 A. Bought it new in 2009, still works but the battery which keeps time and date, seems to be on it's last legs. Often it's asking to set the time & date at startup after it's been disconnected from the wall socket but of course it gets the correct time anyway from internet so not a big deal. Eventually, I suppose I should disassemble my PS3 and replace the battery. Right now I've started looking for PS1 cd spindle part, attempting to replace the old spindle which has lost plastic parts from it and sometimes it doesn't hold the disc properly.
That. Was. Amazing! When that power light stayed green that just blew me away! Now you need someone to give it a long hard gaming session to see if it lasts. Great work Vince. Be interested to see if Steve comments ;)
Sorry if this comment is late I would recommend getting a new mic with a pop filter because I feel that would help a lot and everyone wants to enjoy your amazing voice to the fullest!
Well done Vince. I am really looking forward to the revisit. This cap thing just blew my mind, as I have a PS3 phat glven to me and it has this exact problem.
I was skeptical at first but since I'm someone who likes to challenge common beliefs, I gave it a try and boy, was I glad that I did so! Just like you, I didn't have those tantalum capacitors. It just so happened that I have 4 of those 470uf capacitors you were using. Did the same thing and it worked! Well, at first it didn't but right before I was about to give up, I checked the legs of the capacitors and one of them was touching each other... Separated the legs and wow, it works! I tried running it for an hour or so and it still works! Yes! So I just want to say, "Thank you for sharing this!!!" I'm going to swap those capacitors to the tantalum ones when they arrive :)
Oh , my , god , Vince.... I fix PS3s as more of a hobby , and I never knew it was even possible to recover a YLOD ps3, and then you've just gone and done it in one video. I'll be honest the whole time watching I had no hope you'd fix it, to most people, it's impossible, I don't even try anymore... but when it turned on a steady green and the HDD activity light flashed, my jaw was just dropped. I'm completely blown away and infinitely impressed\proud of you! This was for a CECH*G* motherboard too! They're the first revision after removing PS2 BC, they use the old layout (you can tell as the ports at the back are to the right than the left). These are known to be the least reliable of the PS3 fat models, and you've just gone and saved one :0 To me this is absolutely unbelivable. I've got a CECHG on its last legs, 9/10 times it will do the YLOD, until it finally turns on, maybe now there's hope for it ! Again , I am absolutely amazed, I can't wait for the follow up video with new capacitors !!
It's so strange to see one of these back from the dead, looking at this older dashboard style, this PS3 hasn't be turned on since late 2010 !, or at least, not updated ;) Maybe you should get more than just 8 capacitors, as you also have a CECHG03 (identical to this one, the 3 at the end just means UK, the 4 for this one means EUR), maybe you could try fixing it too! I think it's the one you borrowed the powersupply from even.
I know!!!! I couldn't believe it when the light stayed on. I didn't really think it would work. I hope when I change out the other NEC next to it that it will still work. I will double check the 2 previous failed PS3 fixes to see the state of them. I know I definitely screwed up one of them, as from memory the solder balls came out of the CPU or GPU when I heated it up. I think on the fully backwards compatible one I might be OK though. I will watch back my vids to see. As soon as the caps arrive I will film a revisit on this to see what happens :-)
Hahaha, when You melted the capacitor packs, i thought "He totally butchered it O_O" and the electrolytic capacitors sticking out looked totally ridiculous but, wow, it worked?! *lol* Good job, being daring *lol* XD
yeah the bloody obsession of him with setting everything to 400 degrees. You could see from the instant smoke that is was on the hot side. My tools never EVER have seen the 400° setting.
Fantastic!!! Not heard about those caps failing before - got a PS3 donation here to look at, will consider those caps on that before doing a reflow! Amazing news this!
With the hot air gun, a slower air flow gives the air more time near the heating element to heat up. High air flow means you get cooler air, and it's also easier to blow small components out of place. Especially so with a small nozzle on the front.
Son of a....amazing! For so long ive had the YLOD on my PS3 but now we might have a better alternative to reflowing. Would love to see a burn-in/ torture test.
What a result, never seen them caps before, they look well dodgy imho. You can insulate legs using heatshrink and electrical tape or capton tape to just make sure the legs don't touch. Why do you need four? Could you not aggregate the 4 into a total farad value and just have one of them tatumoneal capacitor set per bank? Its always nice to get a freemans when someone has gotten it wrong, the £4 1947 Avia watch I got was one such case where the seller said it needed a new battery...
Hi there Vince, greetings, well good job and good guess you have done here and plus another working product sold as bad again... As for the capacitors they are big flat multilayer and you need them to reassemble the console back properly... The replacement of them will be probably a nightmare without specific tools and technique
Thats awesome seeing that green light but All this time people were getting a yellow light 30% chance of the time it was the capacitors 70% chance it was the chips people were sending it for repair it was instantly getting a reball with doing that it was actually damaging it more all along it was the capacitors needing replaced
You my mate, just turned water to wine! What a twist! Lol. For years 99% of YLODs was thought to be the GPU. And for years my 60GB PS3 has just sat in the box (YLOD twice) Probably still works, but the trust is gone. Don't have the expertise to change those chips either. They looked mega difficult to change over...
With respect to reflowing or reballing CPUs and GPUs -- as Louis Rossman always angrily points out, a lot of the time with these chips the broken connection is actually between the silicon die and the chip package and *not* between the chip package and the PCB. If the problem is indeed cracked solder balls under the chip, then you can reball it, but if there's a broken connection inside the chip package it is not worth the effort to fix--you're better off just putting a good chip on.
Another great Vid mate and good to see other repairers trying to div into this NEC Tokin fix that adds another possible solution for a YLOD repair. Im sure u have seen the debates going on in the PSX Place in regards to these, so the more word that gets around to try tackle these together the better.
great video. I repared aaalooott playstations and also ps3's, never mind a YLOD could be a cap problem, i repaired hundreds it was never, in no case, anything other than an CPU problem, reflowed, worked fine. but to check if there is a short between the caps and GND is very simple, will proof that in every further repair first. thx for this great TTF video :)
Great Job Vince, You are as good with soldering as I am haha. Take a look at some of Big Clive's LED projects, He gives so much info about soldering (especially how important tinning is, that's why those caps went on a bit rough i think lol) Also, I've never used the heat gun before, but my guess would be to have a lower airflow but keep your hand moving in circular motion constantly maybe? It seems the concentrated heat in one place gives some issues
I think you should leave it as is and use it as a daily driver till it dies again just to see how long you can get away with it on a project you already assumed was a lost cause. I love how you think. "Well it's no good, but I might as well open it. Well it's still a lost cause but let's try pulling stuff off. Well it's no good and I don't have the parts, but may as well see if I can make it work with different parts. Oops I fixed it. Now I have to finish fixing it." That's why I subscribe Vince you're awesome.
Amazing I have a PS3 fat that does this strangely enough looking for repair videos about it i found your channel nearly a year ago,so i guess it paid off. (i'll try this soon)
I got my PS3 60gb refurbished by Sony in 2013 since mine had the ylod. I believe it was the last year they stopped fixing old ps3 fat model's. I still have mine working perfectly fine today. I did not replace thermal paste. I did install a fan controller on mine to keep it cool. Makes me wonder if the capacitors in mine were changed or upgraded to more reliable ones
Yeah, it was a recent find that the YLOD is actually NOT usually caused by the main chips (CELL/RSX) in any way. It turns out that most failures of the PS3 Phat models are with those cheap little capacitors next to the chips. Glad I never sent my 60GB launch for reflow or reball! Haha
I'm actually amazed at this, I have multiple 60gb BC PS3s lying around so I might have to try that on one of them, Got a 40gb and 80gb to fix too (I bought a joblot but never got round to sorting them, I'm not a bad owner :D)
Gotta love that moment when "sold because no display" then plug in hdmi and or avi cable and works without a hitch lol I got my ps3 slim for 5$ with same symptoms". Also great news on the ps3 fat repair was kinda scared to see you use that giant cap lol glad it didn't pop wouldn't want so see that happen.
Tantalum caps works differently than normal caps, they also have different ESR. Typically, high frequency devices use very low ESR. This fix may cause further problems but now you know what to do ;)
It seems the Super Slim model was the best manufactured, the drawback was not PS2 playback and in my personal experience my bluetooth and WiFi died after 10~ years. (Wired control and Internet still works) Side note: the Xbox360 S or gen2 (the one with the matte finish) was the best manufactured; the original(base and elite form), gen 3 and gen 4 (black chrome finish and the semi-XboxOne style) were pretty weak. P.S. Glorious repairs, repairing a console always feels like bringing someone back from death.
Obg.. pela sabedoria que vc nos passou! Amigo mais eu estou com uma placa do ps3 S. Slim que não sai nem a luz do sinal óptico será que é alimentação!?
In high power switching regulators like these the capacitors are all about low equivalent series resistance (ESR) and inductance (ESL). Two non-ideal properties of capacitors that can render them useless at high currents/high frequencies respectively. Electrolytic capacitors are the poorest capacitors by a wide margin, but they're cheap and offer the most capacitance per physical volume. This probably works because there's multiple of those NEC Proadlizer capacitors in parallel. If you'd replace them all with electrolytics they'd do such a poor job at filtering that it would be unlikely to work/be stable. In short, electrolytics and any other type of capacitor are nothing alike.
What's happen if i use only the electrolitic capaccitor 470uf 16 v.? I need to use tantalium? , is the only way or it's works fines with the electrolitic?.. sorry for My English
Those cap's are complete rubbish. They do save space, but they break very fast (if they last more than 4 years, with daily use, you're lucky). Not only on PS3, but on some laptops as well (some Toshiba models that use only 1 nec/tokin under the cpu socket, it replaces 4 330uF caps). Good video and nice fix, by the way.
g`day old mate vince nice little win mate looking forward to part 4 ep 2 when you get the new parts ... when the top came off i did say to myself this one has gone to silicon heaven but you pulled it back into the light well done nice save cheers james D
LMAO after seeing you try to fix it with those capacitors, I tried it on mine and it worked! Now I can order the correct parts to fix it properly and the delid the CPU and GPU to apply new thermal paste.
I believe the fully backward compatible ones essentially had a PS2 built in to them. The funny thing is that any PS3 is capable of emulating PS2 games at full speed so I don't know why they thought that was necessary other than for a little bit better compatibility. You can/could obviously buy PS2 classics on PSN and install and play them on any PS3 but only the ones with the extra hardware can play from the disc, though I don't think this is actually a hardware limitation of the PS3 because if I'm not mistaken it can be worked around with CFW.
Just for future reference, The DualShock 3 SixAxis controller requires a data USB cable (all 4 pins) and an intelligent host to charge. It will not charge from a typical phone charger, but it will charge from the PS3 or a personal computer, and possibly other devices that support USB protocols.
Very nice find there Vince keep up the amazing work I got a question for you if you wouldn’t mind me picking your brain about a broken Wiiu I have. Cheers!
You can remove the warranty void label by warming slightly with a heat gun and peeling it off it won't leave its void behind and you can put it back with the same method.
Hi Vince, on my side it’s a total fail. I got a hakko soldering iron and a heat gun, I have two types of solder, liquid flux and no solder is sticking to my board... I think my iron is on the highest setting too. Any advice? Thanks!
I got a PS3 like that, when starts It Just bip 3 times and ylod, i replace the capacitors and now It turns Green for 3 seconds but them ylod again, any ideia?
Great fix! I've not seen that fix before for these!
Thanks Steve, I was told about it when I did the last 'trying to fix' videos on the PS3s but I never researched properly until now. It would be interesting to see how many can be repaired this way or if it is still mostly the main chips that cause the problems :-)
Why don't you try it @TronixFix ?
Buy 20 of them and try to fix them 👍🏻
Yes tronicsfix please buy a bunch of these and do this fix!
inspired? @tronicsfix
@@Mymatevince I repaired my ps3 with ylod
This is the only guy I've seen who does no bullshit tech fix videos.
Every one should be like him. Good job sir.
Seriously, I am an electronics engineer and I didn't expect this to be the cause of failure. Great find and fix.
Tuned down the volume because part of me was expecting a massive BANG from that cluster of capacitors ;)
I just droped my jaw when I saw this working ... Everybody and their mother allways said its the main chip ! I cant freaking belive it !
Yes. They can cause YLOD. And it's known for a while. Most people only thought that the RSX/CPU was the fault. In some cases, they were from the original model to the first slims model (known as 20xx). Many laptops with those NEC Tokins (they lose their capacitance and cannot deliver to the CPU) also failed. When you heat them, they restore back their capacitance. So many thought after heating the RSX/CPU, the problem was fixed or that they where the cause. No, in most cases it were the NEC Tokins. I've replaced lots and the systems still works till this date. Others that after reballing (when properly done with proper tools) failed after a few months or a year (back in 2012) pointed to other problem. Replacing those NEC Tokins (for tantalums), again, fixed the problem. That's why models from 21xx didn't came out with those NEC Tokins.
You can measure around the CPU/RSX to see if it's still making proper contact or apply pressure to them and see if it works (lol), cause those power cicles (turn on the console, it heats up, you then power off and it cold down) also makes the solder deform. If not, look for other areas like fuses and those tokins. :)
Final note, i did got alot of consoles and some were already opened and without any visual damage or component (even replaced the NEC's), i then tested/dumped the flash memory (NOR/NAND) and some had a brick (maybe the original user failed when attempting to exploit the console or replace the memory with other and never had a backup), like the serial didn't match the case and so on or the dump had bad sectors or the data was incomplete but if the (what's known for) per-console data is intact, you can try and write a valid ROS 0/1 to it and flash it back (you need a hardware flasher of course) and it might the only problem with the console. So, we never know...YLOD can be from many other things.
You have to remember that the YLOD literally means 'General Hardware Failure'. Unlike the Xbox 360, where a RROD CAN be identified via system code that people have recovered, we currently have NO way of identifying which component in the PS3 actually fails.
Whilst this fix has worked for a number of people, others have also removed 50% of the capacitors (8 caps out of 16) and found that the PS3 is still capable of working, meaning that there's a chance that this will not work.
There's no guarantee but if you've got a dead board already, what have you got to lose?
@@pqtat718 mines red dead that is crashing but not gta v tho , could it be the nec/tokin capacitors faulty?
@@pqtat718 a have the slim model , what capacitor should i use?
should i replace it all? or the rsx only?
Vince is a legend for saving stuff from going into landfill.
Had no idea the caps could cause that always heard it was the main chips
Great fix
It's a similar if not the same issue with laptop GPU's and all in one PC's of the 2009 - 2012 era (Most famously on Apple products). The Tantalum capacitors wear out much faster then they should and screw up stuff like the power rails feeding the GPU. Reason why people thought reballing/baking the boards (or wrapping your PS3 in a towel worked is that applying heat to a tantalum capacitor can break up some of the crystallization byproducts that shouldn't be forming if the caps weren't being run near their maximum thermal and voltage ratings (typical design recommendations from what I read is to go 50 to 100 percent higher on the voltage rating of the cap depending on the specific internal chemistry).
I have been shouting back in June!!! Check the comments on his previous videos.
@@Techburn997 when i was younger we had a xbox 360 got it around launch and it got the red ring of death and putting a towel around it worked a couple of times but did not after a couple times
@@jok3yjesu339 The xbox 360 suffered from a different issue from what I remember where the heatsink mounts would cause the board to warp and thus break solder joints. But I have always wondered if it could have been both. Might have to find an original 360 with RROD and do some experimenting
@@Techburn997 if you put flux all around the chips and reflow it. That works alot better than just straight up not using any flux on the xbox 360. Do that and put some really good thermal paste like arctic silver or MX 5 and should last quite some time especially if you add a fan mod to it that will increase air flow. The older xbox 360 models did suffer from poor air flow due to the case design and the fans not running fast enough for proper air flow
I have been reading a lot about this discovery and waiting for reliable video proof on this fix. Nice video, Thanks. Now then, any reputable Aussie repairers fancy a go lemme know.
Did this for a client, you just need to take a knife to the NEC Tolkins to scrape off the majority of the caps and then heat the pads to remove the remaining pieces. Replaced the top 4 Tolkins with 16 tantalum caps, left the 4 on the bottom side becuase they are actively cooled with the bottom shield whereas the top ones are just ambiently cooled. The bottom Tolkins also bridge the pads up top.
Should invest in a preheater at some point when dealing with PCBs that are basically just a stack of massive ground planes.
Shambles1980TRealOne
Right, but there’s a saying:
Better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
Brilliant Vince, I highly doubted that you would fix that as it was still showing a short, I was amazed it worked and very happy for you. Nice work, your persistence paid off, what a pain those caps where to remove...
Amazing! I had actually seen a video and even heard about how some electronic technician had said that those capacitors used in the PS3 or any other Electronics from the early 2000s were rubish and were the cause of the yellow light of death, he was saying how the chances of those lead free solder balls actually breaking were very small and did not believe it to be the cause of the problem.
This was awesome, totally worth watching the long version
Dude you are a techno wizard, a garage electrical engineer. Haven't been here in a while and I'm still surprised. Thanks for the inspiration and education sir!
This is one of the few things I've seen on this channel that I've actually repaired, not as competently as you do it though. I couldn't really afford one back in the day but I bought 3 or 4 broken ones on ebay and replaced the Blu-ray drives or reflowed them with a heat gun if it had Ylod, made just enough money to justify keeping the best one for myself.
Dedication, dedication, dedication, that’s what you need
“Wow these tokins are pretty hard to get off!”
NSC: Hold my beer.
Great timing! just the other day I ordered an "untested" BC PS3 which actually was tested (The seller had other listings that were working for sale, so they pulled a fast one on me)
that actually had this problem. Maybe I could get it working.
and by the way, Bad Company 2 is probably one of the best military shooters ever made and still has an active community to this day, especially on PC. I don't much care for shooters, but that one is something else! just in case anyone was reading...
I recently bought a BC PS3 and the last Friday I sent it to a reparation service. I opened it and it looks very clean I hope that the Nec Tokins are the problem :)
Nice going Vince,a member on the PSX-Place let me know of your video, i expected a bang with thoes electrolyte caps, looking forward to the full replacement. Currently we are still researching on which is the best method for the NECs, what i advise from personal experience and to avoid the hassle, is to have 50% NECs and 50% Tantalums, replace the NECs on the top board where the processors aren't present, and leave the underneath ones as they are, the reason being is that the bottom ones are actively cooled by the fan itself, and the top ones are passive, but with most of the heat concentrated on top, thoes NECs are thr first one to die, and also if you go via full replacement, you might not get it working again due to the bridge between the circuits, so leave at least one NEC, if you plan to do a full replacement, it acts as an internal bridge for the Tantalums, eliminating the need to wire unnecessary jumpers.
One of the test subjects before i made the thread on PSX-Place was my personal 60GB CECHC04, at the moment is approaching is 7th month since the replacement, still working as we speak, at the moment i am searching for a A01 or B01 to add to my PlayStation collection, so looking forward to your next video.
Naked Snake!!!! I instantly recognised your name and icon :-) You did a great write up, I also went on to read about 15 pages of comments under your tutorial, didn't have time yet to go through all 40+ pages of comments but it all makes for an interesting read. I think on the revisit I will do just the 2 GPU caps on the top board to see how that goes. The others can always be done at a later stage. Just debating whether I need to install 8 new 470uF caps in place of the 2 large NECs or if I should try 3 and 3 or 4 and 3 to bring it closer to the original 1200uF. Thanks for sharing the tutorial with everyone and for commenting over here. Good work. (I will copy and paste this on the other length video as well) Cheers :-)
If i recall correctly, the top side have 4 NECs, 2 on the RSX and 2 on the CELL, what i would do for starters, is to replace all 4 NECs on top with 4x330uF or 4x470uF at 2.5V for each NEC, the other 4 NECs on the bottom you can leave them as they are, they are not really a concern, i simply recommend 470uF for the Phats, simply it didn't work for me for my 60Gb, mine are 470uF rated at 6.3V,is all i had during replacement, but before the 470uF, I did salvage a few 330uF and 470uF from dead boards, worked as well, until a few Tantalum contacts snapped during the salvage , that's why i disclose on the thread 470uF for the Phats and 330uF for the Slims, just to be identical to the NEC spec which is 1200uF each for the Phat and 1000uF for the Slim, but you can use 330uF for the Phats as well, worth the try.
Happy repairs
Thanks for pretty much always being willing to think and act outside the box, mate! It helps us all learn! Brilliant video.
Can't wait for the follow-up video showing the process of replacing them and which specific tantalum caps you use!
I’ve been planning to do this for a while on mine. Many people have had success changing capacitors. NEC tokin capacitors are known to go bad. They changed them after the cech 2002 models. Great job Vince
CECH 210x actually, 200x still have the NEC FUKINs (but only on the GPU)
Vince, you suprise me over and over again. What an accomplishment again!
It's so cool to see, that as you gather new experience you can revisit old projects.
My jaw dropped when i saw it working... My old PS3 I still have has the same issue, I will definitely try this! Thanks for the video 🙏
I was gonna start watching a movie and now here's a video from Vince.. so I'm gonna watch the movie tomorrow :D
Exactly the same think ... how werad
Hi Im still Suprised that Console makers still have'nt found a way to make consoles smaller, well done Vince
Looking forward to the re visit. I scrapped out like 20 to 30 of these last year with the exact same problem lol. Seriously vince that was an awesome fix and very useful to know. You da man
Thanks Chris, it would be interesting to know if it works often and long term or if I was just very lucky :-)
@@Mymatevince no way man I got an actual response from you, you made my day lol, big fan of the channel. And deffo looking forward to the re visit video. Keep up the good work matey.
Nice proof of concept with those electrolytic caps :)
I have PS3 Slim 120Gb CECH-2004 A. Bought it new in 2009, still works but the battery which keeps time and date, seems to be on it's last legs. Often it's asking to set the time & date at startup after it's been disconnected from the wall socket but of course it gets the correct time anyway from internet so not a big deal.
Eventually, I suppose I should disassemble my PS3 and replace the battery.
Right now I've started looking for PS1 cd spindle part, attempting to replace the old spindle which has lost plastic parts from it and sometimes it doesn't hold the disc properly.
That. Was. Amazing! When that power light stayed green that just blew me away! Now you need someone to give it a long hard gaming session to see if it lasts. Great work Vince. Be interested to see if Steve comments ;)
Get you a reflow station man. Bet everyone would love to see you attempt your first reball.
Sorry if this comment is late I would recommend getting a new mic with a pop filter because I feel that would help a lot and everyone wants to enjoy your amazing voice to the fullest!
Well done Vince. I am really looking forward to the revisit. This cap thing just blew my mind, as I have a PS3 phat glven to me and it has this exact problem.
I missed the "yes!" exclamation when you got it working.
I was skeptical at first but since I'm someone who likes to challenge common beliefs, I gave it a try and boy, was I glad that I did so! Just like you, I didn't have those tantalum capacitors. It just so happened that I have 4 of those 470uf capacitors you were using. Did the same thing and it worked! Well, at first it didn't but right before I was about to give up, I checked the legs of the capacitors and one of them was touching each other... Separated the legs and wow, it works! I tried running it for an hour or so and it still works! Yes!
So I just want to say, "Thank you for sharing this!!!" I'm going to swap those capacitors to the tantalum ones when they arrive :)
Oh , my , god , Vince....
I fix PS3s as more of a hobby , and I never knew it was even possible to recover a YLOD ps3, and then you've just gone and done it in one video.
I'll be honest the whole time watching I had no hope you'd fix it, to most people, it's impossible, I don't even try anymore... but when it turned on a steady green and the HDD activity light flashed, my jaw was just dropped.
I'm completely blown away and infinitely impressed\proud of you!
This was for a CECH*G* motherboard too! They're the first revision after removing PS2 BC, they use the old layout (you can tell as the ports at the back are to the right than the left). These are known to be the least reliable of the PS3 fat models, and you've just gone and saved one :0
To me this is absolutely unbelivable.
I've got a CECHG on its last legs, 9/10 times it will do the YLOD, until it finally turns on, maybe now there's hope for it !
Again , I am absolutely amazed, I can't wait for the follow up video with new capacitors !!
It's so strange to see one of these back from the dead, looking at this older dashboard style, this PS3 hasn't be turned on since late 2010 !, or at least, not updated ;)
Maybe you should get more than just 8 capacitors, as you also have a CECHG03 (identical to this one, the 3 at the end just means UK, the 4 for this one means EUR), maybe you could try fixing it too! I think it's the one you borrowed the powersupply from even.
I know!!!! I couldn't believe it when the light stayed on. I didn't really think it would work. I hope when I change out the other NEC next to it that it will still work. I will double check the 2 previous failed PS3 fixes to see the state of them. I know I definitely screwed up one of them, as from memory the solder balls came out of the CPU or GPU when I heated it up. I think on the fully backwards compatible one I might be OK though. I will watch back my vids to see. As soon as the caps arrive I will film a revisit on this to see what happens :-)
Hahaha, when You melted the capacitor packs, i thought "He totally butchered it O_O" and the electrolytic capacitors sticking out looked totally ridiculous but, wow, it worked?! *lol* Good job, being daring *lol* XD
yeah the bloody obsession of him with setting everything to 400 degrees. You could see from the instant smoke that is was on the hot side. My tools never EVER have seen the 400° setting.
Dont get me wrong, the fix was just great!
That means there’s still hope for the others that he couldn’t fix.
he just destroyed 1 cap box while reflouing the main chips
it's amazing to see these old consoles being given a new life instead of tossing them in a landfill. this is how it should be with electronics.
That was an amazing video. I got my 60GB Phat PS3 reballed back in the day. Still humming along. Look forward to the rest
Excellent job!! I never thought that it would work. This is why I watch your channel 👏
I am proud to say I pointed Vince towards the capacitors back in June yet nobody listened.
That's amazing mate. Thank you SO much for this very informative video
What a facinating fix. i think you have just schooled a lot people, loved it
Fantastic!!! Not heard about those caps failing before - got a PS3 donation here to look at, will consider those caps on that before doing a reflow! Amazing news this!
Nothing short of amazing! Love your willingness to try things!
Dude you’re just being bashful, you’re definitely very good at what you do, the way you think about things and fix them it’s awesome
I always believed in you Vince, I didn't have one doubt that you couldn't fix it.
With the hot air gun, a slower air flow gives the air more time near the heating element to heat up. High air flow means you get cooler air, and it's also easier to blow small components out of place. Especially so with a small nozzle on the front.
Son of a....amazing! For so long ive had the YLOD on my PS3 but now we might have a better alternative to reflowing. Would love to see a burn-in/ torture test.
What a result, never seen them caps before, they look well dodgy imho. You can insulate legs using heatshrink and electrical tape or capton tape to just make sure the legs don't touch. Why do you need four? Could you not aggregate the 4 into a total farad value and just have one of them tatumoneal capacitor set per bank? Its always nice to get a freemans when someone has gotten it wrong, the £4 1947 Avia watch I got was one such case where the seller said it needed a new battery...
Hi there Vince, greetings, well good job and good guess you have done here and plus another working product sold as bad again... As for the capacitors they are big flat multilayer and you need them to reassemble the console back properly... The replacement of them will be probably a nightmare without specific tools and technique
Thats awesome seeing that green light but All this time people were getting a yellow light 30% chance of the time it was the capacitors 70% chance it was the chips people were sending it for repair it was instantly getting a reball with doing that it was actually damaging it more all along it was the capacitors needing replaced
My phat ps3 had the same issue but I did the fan thing you said and bing, it runs now. Leaving it on to see how long it lasts. Thanks!
Love the Strauss. That music makes even a PS beautiful.
i love u vince, you helped me to understad what was wrong with a lot of faulty things that arrived to me! so i love your videos, greats from mexico!
What a Result! Well done Vince
You my mate, just turned water to wine! What a twist! Lol. For years 99% of YLODs was thought to be the GPU. And for years my 60GB PS3 has just sat in the box (YLOD twice) Probably still works, but the trust is gone. Don't have the expertise to change those chips either. They looked mega difficult to change over...
They are easy, you dont even need a hot air station.
@@RandomGuy-om1vy So is it a secret?
With respect to reflowing or reballing CPUs and GPUs -- as Louis Rossman always angrily points out, a lot of the time with these chips the broken connection is actually between the silicon die and the chip package and *not* between the chip package and the PCB.
If the problem is indeed cracked solder balls under the chip, then you can reball it, but if there's a broken connection inside the chip package it is not worth the effort to fix--you're better off just putting a good chip on.
Another great Vid mate and good to see other repairers trying to div into this NEC Tokin fix that adds another possible solution for a YLOD repair. Im sure u have seen the debates going on in the PSX Place in regards to these, so the more word that gets around to try tackle these together the better.
great video. I repared aaalooott playstations and also ps3's, never mind a YLOD could be a cap problem, i repaired
hundreds it was never, in no case, anything other than an CPU problem, reflowed, worked fine. but to check if there is a short between the caps and GND is very simple, will proof that in every further repair first. thx for this great TTF video :)
Awesome fix vince. Looking forward to the revisit
There’s absolutely no way this will wo-
**PS3 actually works**
.................¿?¿?¿?¿?¿? 🤯
Nice work brother. If Sony only new this years ago
@ your probably right.
Your getting good at this Vince, nice bodge on the caps, who would have thought it would work, keep em coming mate, nice content 👍
Great Job Vince, You are as good with soldering as I am haha. Take a look at some of Big Clive's LED projects, He gives so much info about soldering (especially how important tinning is, that's why those caps went on a bit rough i think lol) Also, I've never used the heat gun before, but my guess would be to have a lower airflow but keep your hand moving in circular motion constantly maybe? It seems the concentrated heat in one place gives some issues
great fix! been having this problem! ill try this, please upload a continuation of this one.
Wow, I haven't seen the capacitor trick work in a while, that was lucky!
You right. But this is not trick. Just most of the reball is done wrong.
@Bruh Moment not usually the issue to be fair
@Bruh Moment stop spread bullshit i bet you dont know how to solder
I think you should leave it as is and use it as a daily driver till it dies again just to see how long you can get away with it on a project you already assumed was a lost cause. I love how you think. "Well it's no good, but I might as well open it. Well it's still a lost cause but let's try pulling stuff off. Well it's no good and I don't have the parts, but may as well see if I can make it work with different parts. Oops I fixed it. Now I have to finish fixing it." That's why I subscribe Vince you're awesome.
That's just how those capacitor usually come off. They are a pain in the rear.
Amazing I have a PS3 fat that does this strangely enough looking for repair videos about it i found your channel nearly a year ago,so i guess it paid off. (i'll try this soon)
Happy for you Vince, waiting the revisit!
wow learn something new everyday. thanks Vince!
I got my PS3 60gb refurbished by Sony in 2013 since mine had the ylod. I believe it was the last year they stopped fixing old ps3 fat model's. I still have mine working perfectly fine today. I did not replace thermal paste. I did install a fan controller on mine to keep it cool. Makes me wonder if the capacitors in mine were changed or upgraded to more reliable ones
Yeah, it was a recent find that the YLOD is actually NOT usually caused by the main chips (CELL/RSX) in any way. It turns out that most failures of the PS3 Phat models are with those cheap little capacitors next to the chips.
Glad I never sent my 60GB launch for reflow or reball! Haha
I'm actually amazed at this, I have multiple 60gb BC PS3s lying around so I might have to try that on one of them, Got a 40gb and 80gb to fix too (I bought a joblot but never got round to sorting them, I'm not a bad owner :D)
Gotta love that moment when "sold because no display" then plug in hdmi and or avi cable and works without a hitch lol I got my ps3 slim for 5$ with same symptoms". Also great news on the ps3 fat repair was kinda scared to see you use that giant cap lol glad it didn't pop wouldn't want so see that happen.
I have a YLOD PS3. After watching this video, I'm going to give this kind of fix a shot.
Tantalum caps works differently than normal caps, they also have different ESR. Typically, high frequency devices use very low ESR. This fix may cause further problems but now you know what to do ;)
Yes the original NEC-Tokin caps are polymer-tantalum capable of very high frequency.
That was a brilliant result wow I did not expect that,.
Well done Vince, great fix!
Hi Mate, I was wondering if the capacitors below RSX are still shorted after your fix.
Great job getting them fixed Vince. 👍
It seems the Super Slim model was the best manufactured, the drawback was not PS2 playback and in my personal experience my bluetooth and WiFi died after 10~ years. (Wired control and Internet still works)
Side note: the Xbox360 S or gen2 (the one with the matte finish) was the best manufactured; the original(base and elite form), gen 3 and gen 4 (black chrome finish and the semi-XboxOne style) were pretty weak.
P.S. Glorious repairs, repairing a console always feels like bringing someone back from death.
Obg.. pela sabedoria que vc nos passou! Amigo mais eu estou com uma placa do ps3 S. Slim que não sai nem a luz do sinal óptico será que é alimentação!?
In high power switching regulators like these the capacitors are all about low equivalent series resistance (ESR) and inductance (ESL). Two non-ideal properties of capacitors that can render them useless at high currents/high frequencies respectively. Electrolytic capacitors are the poorest capacitors by a wide margin, but they're cheap and offer the most capacitance per physical volume. This probably works because there's multiple of those NEC Proadlizer capacitors in parallel. If you'd replace them all with electrolytics they'd do such a poor job at filtering that it would be unlikely to work/be stable. In short, electrolytics and any other type of capacitor are nothing alike.
Thanks for the info :-)
What's happen if i use only the electrolitic capaccitor 470uf 16 v.? I need to use tantalium? , is the only way or it's works fines with the electrolitic?.. sorry for My English
Those cap's are complete rubbish. They do save space, but they break very fast (if they last more than 4 years, with daily use, you're lucky). Not only on PS3, but on some laptops as well (some Toshiba models that use only 1 nec/tokin under the cpu socket, it replaces 4 330uF caps).
Good video and nice fix, by the way.
g`day old mate vince nice little win mate looking forward to part 4 ep 2 when you get the new parts ... when the top came off i did say to myself this one has gone to silicon heaven but you pulled it back into the light well done nice save
cheers
james D
The huge capacitors bulging out like trees made me laugh, amazing fix, very entertaining to watch
LMAO after seeing you try to fix it with those capacitors, I tried it on mine and it worked! Now I can order the correct parts to fix it properly and the delid the CPU and GPU to apply new thermal paste.
it is really wow 40:50 :'D
well done mate really well done . this is what i like when you are making some thing from nothing :'D never giving up
Holly crap! Rick Sanchez eat your heart out.
Good job man, I can't believe that worked.
I believe the fully backward compatible ones essentially had a PS2 built in to them. The funny thing is that any PS3 is capable of emulating PS2 games at full speed so I don't know why they thought that was necessary other than for a little bit better compatibility. You can/could obviously buy PS2 classics on PSN and install and play them on any PS3 but only the ones with the extra hardware can play from the disc, though I don't think this is actually a hardware limitation of the PS3 because if I'm not mistaken it can be worked around with CFW.
Just for future reference, The DualShock 3 SixAxis controller requires a data USB cable (all 4 pins) and an intelligent host to charge. It will not charge from a typical phone charger, but it will charge from the PS3 or a personal computer, and possibly other devices that support USB protocols.
Thanks Lard :-)
Wow very interesting, Can't wait to see the update.
Excellent Vince! I will definitelly try this out!
Awesome fix continue the good work you are great a big bravo for your work
Very nice find there Vince keep up the amazing work I got a question for you if you wouldn’t mind me picking your brain about a broken Wiiu I have.
Cheers!
You can remove the warranty void label by warming slightly with a heat gun and peeling it off it won't leave its void behind and you can put it back with the same method.
Ohhhhh thanks m8, your experiment save my PS3, i change all nec/tokin for electrolytic and it works!!
Hi Vince, on my side it’s a total fail. I got a hakko soldering iron and a heat gun, I have two types of solder, liquid flux and no solder is sticking to my board... I think my iron is on the highest setting too. Any advice? Thanks!
What kind of ps3 is your fav
Mine is phat
I got a PS3 like that, when starts It Just bip 3 times and ylod, i replace the capacitors and now It turns Green for 3 seconds but them ylod again, any ideia?