12.31.2011

Fun'n'Games v28 - PS3 surgery

YLOD. Yellow Light of Death.

Something that every (nerdy) Playstation 3 owner fears. I had my PS3 since the launch day. November 2006. I was one of those kids that after being unable to get one at the store due to them being sold out got mine off Craigslist.

Overpaying a few hundred over the asking price, $700 cash in pocket, I went to Alphabet City, Ave D and e3rd street, lobby of a project building. Blinded by instant gratification I bought it from some sketchy dude, not even knowing if it works or not - I just knew the plastic was in the box. 20gb version, no Wifi, but I didn't care. I had it. Next a trip to Best Buy. A router, 2 extra controllers and 3 games later I successfully dropped twelve bills on video games within 30 minutes. Yep.

Fast forward 5 years. Not many original launch PS3's still functioning out there. I took care of mine. Besides popping a 320gb hard drive in there, I didn't tinker or mod it in any way. So needless to say when 2 nights ago the lil bastard stopped working I was gutted. I restarted it 1000 times and same thing occurred. Its on for 3 seconds, beep beep beep, and the normally welcoming green light flashed yellow for half a second, followed by the ugly pulsating red. Quick googling revealed that it's indeed THE YELLOW LIGHT OF DEATH. Say good bye - time for a new PS3. A few quick remedies recommended didn't seem to work.

Unable to face reality I went to sleep immediately. Life as I know it has changed. It seemed that I will have no choice but to buy one of the new age "slim" PS3's. No more heat sensitive on/off and eject buttons. No more shiny piano black plastic or gigantic size. No more hungry power supply that could give a college dorm size fridge a run for its money. Fuckin savages. Foul jumpin jesus swines.

The next day I give google another shot. There seems to be ONE solution out there which involves watching through SIX 10 minute long youtube videos, requires silver based heat compound and a heat gun. It also requires taking apart your PS3 down to the motherboard, literally taking out about 60 screws and bolts, disconnecting leads, popping tiny plastic clips outta place. You had to "overflow" the graphics and CPU processors. Melt the solder and reset them back into place.

At a store next day, holding a new PS3 in my hands I decided there was nothing to lose. I put down the PS3, hit a Home Depot and Radio Shack, picked up a six pack and went to town.

3 hours, a few left over screws and a few snapped lil plastic pieces here and there later, PS3 lives! I am now an official PS3 surgeon. Thank you Gilsky for creating the tutorial. You are a god damn hero.



5 comments:

andynahnah said...

congrats!

dj c-sick said...

thats awesome

r4i gold said...

It is very difficult to make surgery any devices but I think you have done really great job. I heartly appreciate your work which you have done in your PS3 but I would like to suggest people those who don't know detail about any devices.

Curtis Chorizali said...

unfortunately the ps3 stopped working a few weeks later and i ended up purchasing a new slim model.
if you do end up working and fixing yours MAKE SURE to back up all your game saves right away. I learned the hardway that all my game saves are gone and new slim PS3s dont accept HD's used on old PS3s.

dj c-sick said...

i didnt even think about that, that blows