PS3 Red light of death

[rccrasher65]

I have a Sony PS3 model#CECH-2101B that turns on normal(green)light, for 4 seconds, then turns red flashing light. It seems to be typical GPU failure, due to bad solder. Looking for someone who has experience reballing the GPU, and CPU, with leaded silver solder. Any Help would be appreciated. Not looking for temporary Youtube fix.

[stj]

Re: PS3 Red light of death

you dont need a reball, just a pro reflow and removal of the metal covers from the chips to replace the paste under them.

if that is the problem, that red light could also mean the psu is bad among other things.

[rccrasher65]

Re: PS3 Red light of death

sony does the reflow,only temp fix. unleaded solder is the problem. console turns on for about 3-4 seconds, then flashes red. psu not the problem. thanks for info.

[stj]

Re: PS3 Red light of death

ps3's dont fail because of leadfree solder, they fail because of poor thermal transfer between the chip's and the heatsink and the fan running too slow.

i'll tell you now, whatever you do with the soldering, if you dont remove the metal covers from the chips and re-grease them with AS5 or similar silver paste and then run a file manager with a fanspeed mod in it, it will fail again.

the xbox360 is no different, thermal problems make them fail, but in the 360 it's because the heatsink is too small and stuck under the dvd drive.

and now the new xbox-one's are starting to fail - i dont know the details yet, but i bet it's bad thermal management again.

[rccrasher65]

Re: PS3 Red light of death

Thanks again, for all your help.

[nojgib]

Re: PS3 Red light of death

I reball chips and most times when I lift them there are a few balls in the corners that never flowed onto the pads on the chip. I have never seen a reflow last reliably so I don't even offer that as a service, though at times I do use that method to locate the fault then reball that chip. I have also come across many consoles (and laptops) that the chip itself it at fault and the heat temporarily allows the chip to function (though most of these have had unprofessional repairs attempted).
I have never done any fan mods and I have consoles still running years later.
I do agree though that the heat spreaders must be removed from the chips to replace the thermal paste under them as it is no longer doing its job.

[rccrasher65]

Re: PS3 Red light of death

What do you charge for a reball of the GPU. STJ can you elaborate more on that file manager mod for fan speed. Where do you get that, and what is it? Thanks for all your help and time, George

[stj]

Re: PS3 Red light of death

assuming your console is running custom firmware, it's built into most modern file managers like webman.

if your not running custom firmware then i'm shocked - being able to put all your games on a harddrive and load them from a menu is the only way to go.

http://rebug.me/

[rccrasher65]

Re: PS3 Red light of death

STJ, NO custom anything! I'm not a gamer.I'm Just a dad trying to keep my daughters console working.