What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

[tom66]

I have got a PS3 here, with a problem.

Immediately when plugged in, the red light blinks on and off and the console beeps three times. The light continues to blink on and off until unplugged. Pressing the eject button makes it beep three times as well.

It doesn't have a yellow light of death. It won't even turn on - the power button doesn't need to be pressed for this to happen.

I have tried to reflow the system, with no result.

I am thinking it's more and more likely to be a different problem. But it's far less common than the yellow light of death, so there's not much information on the internet about it, apart from pay sites which I absolutely refuse to deal with.

[mockingbird]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

I saw the popular "heatgun" reflow last night on Youtube...

The guy takes the heatgun, waves it around the board to "heat the board up", and then moves it in a circular motion over one of the processors.

...Pathetic.

I noticed that there were only like three radial caps on the whole board, and if memory serves me right, they were polymers. I think if you took a diabetes syringe, filled it with liquid flux, squirt the liquid underneath the chip and then baked it in the oven (Double check - I have never baked a PS3 board before, and I'm not sure if this is safe), you might get better results.

This is the proper way to reflow (lead-free solder) in the oven:

- Preheat the oven and leave the card 4 minutes at 150ºC
- Up the temp to 230ºC and leave 2/3 minutes at 220-230ºC
- Open the oven door to lower the temp to 150º, close the oven door, leave the card for 3 minutes more.
- Off the oven, leave the door opened and let the card cool naturally for 40 minutes.

[tom66]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

I saw the popular "heatgun" reflow last night on Youtube...

The guy takes the heatgun, waves it around the board to "heat the board up", and then moves it in a circular motion over one of the processors.

...Pathetic.

I noticed that there were only like three radial caps on the whole board, and if memory serves me right, they were polymers. I think if you took a diabetes syringe, filled it with liquid flux, squirt the liquid underneath the chip and then baked it in the oven (Double check - I have never baked a PS3 board before, and I'm not sure if this is safe), you might get better results.

This is the proper way to reflow (lead-free solder) in the oven:

I've done reflow before - I have used it to make my electronics projects - usually on a hotplate. So I basically ignored all of his advice and reflowed it in the oven. Same problem.

I then disconnected the 12V power plugs. Just the standby/control connector. Still beeps. Tells me that the problem is away from the CPU/GPU and more likely to be a PSU fault or a busted component.

The capacitors are NEC.Tokin tantalum "Proadalizer" caps. There are 2 caps per phase and four in total for the CPU and another 4 for the GPU, in the same configuration. While they could be busted, I doubt that. There are also some polymer and electrolytics scattered around the board and a good share of ceramics. Contrasted with the Xbox 360 which is just full of electrolytics, although mostly from Rubycon and Panasonic.

The PS3 had an 80GB HDD in it - I've heard that this is significant?

I think that something is going wrong with the PS3's first power on checks - but exactly what remains to be determined.

[mockingbird]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

Hmmm... This is more complicated then... Sorry, I can't be of help.

The old Xenon 360 had lots of electrolytics... Rubycon MFZ and Nichicon HZ (Though I don't understand why they didn't just go all MFZ or all HZ)...

The new slims have virtually no electrolytics, just all solid polymer...

[lmcancu]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

"This is the proper way to reflow (lead-free solder) in the oven:
Quote:
- Preheat the oven and leave the card 4 minutes at 150ºC
- Up the temp to 230ºC and leave 2/3 minutes at 220-230ºC
- Open the oven door to lower the temp to 150º, close the oven door, leave the card for 3 minutes more.
- Off the oven, leave the door opened and let the card cool naturally for 40 minutes."
__________________

Why is this step needed?
"... close the oven door, leave the card for 3 minutes more."

[multimeter]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

actually i reflow the 2 large chips under the main heatsinks on the ps3's using a heatgun and injected flux,4 mins for each chip on high power from the heatgun with absolutley no problems whatsoever,proberly done about 15 or 16 of them now,over a span the longest one being 2 years now taking heavy usage from the owner,and still going strong,and always emphasize to them to get the fan extractors made for the ps3,the chips do desolder themselves due to the main problem being the big chips get dramatically HOT,so far so good,it takes me 45mins to strip ,repair and reasemble one from start to finish..

[multimeter]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

and also remember when you do it to remove the cmos battery,bugger me they go off with a bang if you dont!

[multimeter]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

I have got a PS3 here, with a problem.

Immediately when plugged in, the red light blinks on and off and the console beeps three times. The light continues to blink on and off until unplugged. Pressing the eject button makes it beep three times as well.

It doesn't have a yellow light of death. It won't even turn on - the power button doesn't need to be pressed for this to happen.

I have tried to reflow the system, with no result.

I am thinking it's more and more likely to be a different problem. But it's far less common than the yellow light of death, so there's not much information on the internet about it, apart from pay sites which I absolutely refuse to deal with.

tom,redo your reflow,its 99.9% that it is the cpu AND gpu,its the ylod problem,4 mins high power each chip,when done DO NOT move the mother board for 30mins as you will cause the chip to "slide"

[tom66]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

tom,redo your reflow,its 99.9% that it is the cpu AND gpu,its the ylod problem,4 mins high power each chip,when done DO NOT move the mother board for 30mins as you will cause the chip to "slide"

Are you sure? Because I did the reflow. Several times. And I found it beeps, before power button is pressed, whether or not 12V is connected...

[multimeter]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

Are you sure? Because I did the reflow. Several times. And I found it beeps, before power button is pressed, whether or not 12V is connected...

is the ps3 the one with the black "shiny"lid to it?,or the one with the more "matt black"as in the newer models,normally the shiny lid ones are almost always the ylod,which the cpu/gpu reflow should work ,i havent had one of matt black ones come to me yet with problems,the only other problem i have found is the bluray laser goes faulty on them,it seems the psu in both models is very good,check the touch pad where the on/off button is.it seems the beeping you are getting is from a permanantly pressed on/off button?,possibly a ribbon trapped under that panel,normally tho it will beep once to say its powerd on,also check the eject button side of the console as what you are describing with the 3 beeps,is when you press the eject button it will beep 3 times when there is no disk in the bluray player,this could possibly be continusly pressing it self due to a trapped ribbon or dirt under the touch panel

[multimeter]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

Turn the mains switch off, hold the eject button.

While holding it, turn the mains on, when the power light is green, release it, it will beep

The fan will operate at the highest speed possible and will eject any disc that is inside.

After about 15 seconds the fan will stop spinning and the ps3 will beep 3 times and blink a red light.

When this happens, turn the mains off and on then turn it on normally.
this at least should tell if the main fan is working,hence one of the rails is kicking power where it should be,your fan should spin at high speed

[tom66]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

is the ps3 the one with the black "shiny"lid to it?,or the one with the more "matt black"as in the newer models,normally the shiny lid ones are almost always the ylod,which the cpu/gpu reflow should work ,i havent had one of matt black ones come to me yet with problems,the only other problem i have found is the bluray laser goes faulty on them,it seems the psu in both models is very good,check the touch pad where the on/off button is.it seems the beeping you are getting is from a permanantly pressed on/off button?,possibly a ribbon trapped under that panel,normally tho it will beep once to say its powerd on,also check the eject button side of the console as what you are describing with the 3 beeps,is when you press the eject button it will beep 3 times when there is no disk in the bluray player,this could possibly be continusly pressing it self due to a trapped ribbon or dirt under the touch panel

Shiny lid, old 80 GB model.

Its kinda in pieces at the moment, but I have a friend who really wants one so I'm gonna give it another go.

I will check if the eject button is stuck down, maybe it is that simple. I've tried holding it down but it does the same thing. The fan never runs but the PSU does output 12.2V when the control pin is triggered.

[multimeter]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

Shiny lid, old 80 GB model.

Its kinda in pieces at the moment, but I have a friend who really wants one so I'm gonna give it another go.

I will check if the eject button is stuck down, maybe it is that simple. I've tried holding it down but it does the same thing. The fan never runs but the PSU does output 12.2V when the control pin is triggered.

ok,it really is pointing towards the touch panel itself then,when you say the control pin is triggerd,do you mean by the button itself or,by creating a bridge on the output rails of the psu?,if it outputs 12v by the bridge in the psu then you have a faulty touch panel,in which case if you hold down say eject and try pressing the power button nothing will happen,i.e,no 2 buttons will work together ,they have to be separatly pushed in order to work,i would take out the touch panel pcb and check with a multimeter,each button should read open circuit until pressed obviously,quite an interesting one this !,also another thing to try would be cleaning the points where your finger goes to turn on,they are really sensitive and i think they may be more of an "optical" switch as in using a light sensitive resistor (photo cell),any dirt on it would fool the switch thinking its being pushed continuously

[tom66]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

ok,it really is pointing towards the touch panel itself then,when you say the control pin is triggerd,do you mean by the button itself or,by creating a bridge on the output rails of the psu?,if it outputs 12v by the bridge in the psu then you have a faulty touch panel,in which case if you hold down say eject and try pressing the power button nothing will happen,i.e,no 2 buttons will work together ,they have to be separatly pushed in order to work,i would take out the touch panel pcb and check with a multimeter,each button should read open circuit until pressed obviously,quite an interesting one this !,also another thing to try would be cleaning the points where your finger goes to turn on,they are really sensitive and i think they may be more of an "optical" switch as in using a light sensitive resistor (photo cell),any dirt on it would fool the switch thinking its being pushed continuously

I'm wrong... it beeps whenever the eject button is pressed... I will check the buttons...

[dustinarden]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

i'm having the same exact problem with my PS3.

Tom66 if you find a solution to this issue and it works for mine, i'm going to owe you something big

[tom66]

Re: What causes the flashing red light on PS3s?

Okay so I set it up, just the PSU and motherboard... no bluray or HDD yet... and no casing...

Plugged it in. Beeps dee-dee-dee (three beeps) in rapid succession, then the power LED blinks continuously. If I then press the eject button, it beeps three more times, nothing happens. Power button does nothing too. I check the button and it's just some kind of metal contact and it looks okay.

The power LED never goes green or yellow. It beeps immediately upon power up with no user interaction.