Chosen Solution
I have both a PS4 with a BLOD and a fat PS3 with a YLOD. I have attempted the washer fix on the PS4 and a reflow with a heat gun on the PS3, both have failed. My thinking is that I have very little to lose since I bought both of the systems broken for very cheap, so I might as well try this understandably difficult procedure. This is my plan, if you have any suggestions or improvements please let me know: I will buy both these kits: Are lead solder balls good? Is there a concern because it’s from China? http://www.aliexpress.com/item/4-pcs-Dir… http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2013-Hott… I do not own a soldering station, was thinking about using a Bosch heat gun (Reaches up to 600C/1100F). I am aware this is not a great idea. What should I pay attention to, in terms of board or chip sagging, frying, or anything else? What temperatures should I use? I will be reballing the PS3 first, that way I get some practice before moving on to the PS4 which I care much more about it working compared to the PS3. I will be buying flux, thermal paste, copper strip etc locally, and I do own a soldering iron. I am no technical master but I have worked at a PC repair business and am no stranger to motherboards CPUs and the like. Thanks in advance, Euler. Update (07/04/2016) @tronicsfix You are not being discouraging, quite the opposite ;) You have been very helpful and I appreciate that. @oldturkey03 @mayer I’m gonna see if I can find a shop near me that has a rework station. Again, I live outside the US so my options are very limited, I talked to one shop that made me a ridiculous offer and the guy was a jerk as well. In case I can’t find a shop like that: Does this sort of a machine fit the job https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10706 Do you know what solder the PS3/PS4 use? Or even better at what temperature they flow?
I can’t speak to the PS3 as I have not messed with those. If you use a heat gun you will ruin the chip if it’s not already dead…this isn’t it “might” ruin it…it WILL ruin it. By the time the chip gets up to temp the board will most likely popcorn (delaminate). This type of repair is extremely difficult the first time even when you have a proper rework machine.
There’s quite an extensive article on tfix.co.uk about PS4 reballing if you need to learn more about how it’s done and what are the benefits.
I have a PS3 fat 60gb that had YLOD, and I made the reflow and IT WORKED, is still working after six months. I can assure you that it works and is not like you will break it for sure, the thing is that you need to know how to do it carefully. My first advice would be to completely disassemble the PS3, and work only with the Main Board. Second advice: first heat the board evenly to a certain temperature, And then heat the GPU and CPU units. That is because if the board is cold, and you heat the proccesors only, the part of the board where the processors are will expand but the rest of the board will not. And if that happens some circuits might break, making the board useless. And one more thing, for me it did not work the first time that I tried, I think becaused I was a little afraid of burning something up, so I did not use full heat the first attempt. However I inmediatly tried again when I saw it didn´t work but the second time I placed it full heat. And then it worked! Funny fact: I do not have a heat gun so I actually did it with my sister´s hairdryer XD
reablling/reheating a ps3/ps4 will not really fix it, rather just a temporary fix. you can ask many guys out there from EEVBlog forums and they will give you the same answer. so if you want to fix it, replace the actual chip.
