![\"IMAG0462\"](\"https:\/\/www.wildbluesky.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMAG0462-300x179.jpg\" "\\"IMAG0462\\"")
I cannot condone this behavior.\u00c2\u00a0 However, I was desperate.<\/p>\nI cannot condone this behavior.\u00c2\u00a0 However, I was desperate.<\/p>\n
This past Black Friday (good timing) my ‘fat’ PS3 decided to shut off in the middle of marathon run of Borderlands.\u00c2\u00a0 It happened while it was loading a new area, so I thought maybe it just crashed.\u00c2\u00a0 Turned it back on, and after about 2 minutes it beeped and shut off again.\u00c2\u00a0 I tried a few more times before giving up and asking the almighty Google what the problem might be.<\/p>\n
The more I read, the more I started to suspect heat issues.\u00c2\u00a0 That diagnosis made sense – if I left the unit off for some length of time, I could get maybe 10-15 minutes out of it before it’d die on me.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I hoped that would be long enough for a transfer of all my save data.
\nIt was not.<\/p>\n
A common problem with these older models is the thermal compound they use between the CPU\/GPU and heatsink.\u00c2\u00a0 I figured I could at least try that.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s the worst that could happen?\u00c2\u00a0 I’m out $5 worth of Arctic Silver and some of my time.<\/p>\n
There’s surprisingly little to the PS3 inside.\u00c2\u00a0 Almost the entire bottom half of the unit is heatsink and fan.\u00c2\u00a0 Once the case is cracked, the bluray drive, power-supply, hard drive, and a bit of wireless gear is removed, the mainboard and heatsink are pretty easy to get at.\u00c2\u00a0 There are all sorts of ‘quick fixes’ floating around using hairdryers, standing it on end, putting the whole thing in the oven, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 Forget those, take the thing apart.\u00c2\u00a0 Give it a good cleaning while you’re at it.<\/p>\n
Once I got the mainboard off the heatsink, I could see exactly what everyone was talking about.\u00c2\u00a0 The thermal compound had turned into this chaulky gunk.\u00c2\u00a0 Being the backyard do-it-yourselfer, I looked into my universal toolkit and pulled out some WD-40 to clean it off.\u00c2\u00a0 After cleaning the excess and letting it dry awhile, I decided to throw the mainboard in the oven for a bit.\u00c2\u00a0 Some people have reported success with ‘reflowing’ the board – heating the solder just enough to get it to flow back where it is supposed to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Normally they use a heat gun for this (a hairdryer won’t get hot enough) but again, I used what I had handy.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t encourage you to follow me.<\/p>\n
After letting it cool then applying new thermal compound, I put everything back together.\u00c2\u00a0 I haven’t really stress-tested it since, but it stayed on overnight and completed the system transfer just fine.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not sure I’d trust it for much more than a bluray player at this point, or as a secondary one for gatherings… but at least my backwards compatible, 4 USB port having, memory card reading PS3 still lives.\u00c2\u00a0 For now.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.wildbluesky.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMAG0461.jpg\" "\\"IMAG0461\\"")
<\/a>The Guts<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Back Together. Yuengling Optional - but highly reccomended<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I cannot condone this behavior.\u00c2\u00a0 However, I was desperate. This past Black Friday (good timing) my ‘fat’ PS3 decided to shut off in the middle of marathon run of Borderlands.\u00c2\u00a0 It happened while it was loading a new area, so … Continue reading