PS3 RSX chip came off the motherboard

#1 26 Oct 2009 @ 17:36
Recently I was fixing my PS3 and while making my way to the motherboard the RSX chip came off and I was wondering if anyone knew how I could get it back on there.

Here are some pictures so you can see what it looks like.

http://s538.photobucket.com/albums/ff344/saltru18/

Salvador Trujillo
AfterDawn Advertisement
#2 26 Oct 2009 @ 18:23
hhmmm, unfortunately you may be SOL, but you could try replacing it with some heat paste (as you would with the proccessor of a PC), and clipping it back in.

Good luck.


#3 26 Oct 2009 @ 18:47
What does "SOL" mean? And where can I get some Heat Paste?

Salvador Trujillo
#4 26 Oct 2009 @ 18:53
SOL is Sh*t outta luck.

You should be able to get heat paste from any computer shop, however, if you don't know what you're doing you may be better getting someone in a computer repair shop to help you out in order to avoid further damage.


#5 26 Oct 2009 @ 18:57
damn,well thanks for the info.

Salvador Trujillo
#6 26 Oct 2009 @ 19:11
Good luck with the repair, however, don't take my word as gospel. Someone else may come along soon who has more knowledge about this than I do.
I have never seen anything like that on these forums though, and i've been here for coming up to 2 years.


#7 26 Oct 2009 @ 22:41
Theres no connectors on it so it appears to only funtion as a heatsink, you should be able to easily reattatch it with some new high quality thermal paste as already suggested. I'd clean off all the cheap paste that came with it on the other chips aswell and put on some better stuff while you're in there.

#8 26 Oct 2009 @ 23:43
do you recommend a specific brand of thermal paste? Or know a place where I can get some?

Maybe Radio Shack?

Salvador Trujillo
#9 27 Oct 2009 @ 19:14
Arctic Silver 5 is the best brand to use. Use isopropyl alcohol to clean off the old thermal paste, then apply a thin layer of as5 when its dry. Make sure the layers not too thick, you want to applying about a grain of rice size thermal paste then spreading it evenly.
#10 28 Oct 2009 @ 16:20
Arctic Silver are you sure? I've tried that stuff before and it doesn't seem nearly as strong as the glue it already had. The glue or whatever was on the RSX heat sink was really hard to take off. And AS5 has more of toothpaste feel to it even when it dries.

Salvador Trujillo
#11 28 Oct 2009 @ 16:33
If the heat sink past turns into a Crispy Critter Hard Scab then it is not transferring heat properly anymore. It should stay a tacky past for its useful life.
#12 28 Oct 2009 @ 16:55
would anyone recommend that I try adding a few drops of krazyglue on top of the thermal paste to make the heat sink stay on.

Salvador Trujillo
#13 28 Oct 2009 @ 17:00
No. Nothing but a very fine thin layer of paste between the heat sink and connecting pads. If you want to glue anything, maybe on the side of the heat sink where it makes contact with the chip heat transfer plate. But only paste between the contact points.
#14 28 Oct 2009 @ 17:10
Got it. Thanks.


Salvador Trujillo
#15 28 Oct 2009 @ 17:27
Here is a listing of Arctic Silver products from Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLis...Arctic%20Silver


Just out of curiosity....would thermal adhesive be the better choice??:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100013

#16 29 Oct 2009 @ 1:57
As canuckerz pointed out, what broke off is not the chip itself. That is an IHS (integrated heat spreader). Same as the metal cap on the old K6 and P4 CPUs. It's designed to simply provide a larger surface to dissipate heat and also to disperse the physical pressure from an external heatsink to prevent cracking the silicon wafer (the blue diamond).. It appears that the 4 glue points are just structural metal, so you could CAREFULLY scrape/sand the old glue off, then use a very thin layer of thermal adhesive (not plain Arctic Silver) to fasten it back on. You could probably even go so far as to add a thin layer of Arctic Silver to the wafer to improve its heat transfer (which I'm shocked wasn't there to begin with).
#17 29 Oct 2009 @ 8:07
Well, I hate being wrong but ebega is rite. Use the Thermo Adhesive. I was not aware of such a thing. We use regular Past all of the time out here on 700amp SCR’s and 1200amp IGBT’s but they are all compression type situations. I definitely agree with ebega on the Thermo Adhesive.
#18 29 Oct 2009 @ 16:35
I wish you would've told me sooner. I tried putting the AS5 on the heat sink put all together and turned it on but it still didn't work. Do you think they sell thermal paste at Radio Shack?

So just to make sure I get it right next time.
1.Apply Thermal Paste to the black connectors.
2.Apply AS5 to the blue wafer.
3.Any thing else I should do?

Salvador Trujillo
#19 30 Oct 2009 @ 8:37
From looking at your pictures, it doesnot look like anything goes on the Blue chip, just the 4 heat transfer points.
#20 30 Oct 2009 @ 12:01
I'm not 100% sure but I think there was some thermal compound on the blue wafer diamond but I probly wiped it off and forgot about it.

Salvador Trujillo
#21 30 Oct 2009 @ 12:11
Another picture that i saw looked like it had past on the heat sink plate but not on the Blue part. I know, that dont make sence.
#22 30 Oct 2009 @ 12:24
So in your opinion would putting some AS5 on the blue chip help or make things worse?

Salvador Trujillo
#23 30 Oct 2009 @ 12:40
I dont know. Your pic of the back side of the heat sink and Blue chip does not look like anything was ever on it. I only saw 1 pic on Google that looked like the Heat sink had Paste on it where it would connect to the Blue surface. Did you ever get any Display at all from your PS3 yesterday after the work you did on it? If it is a Heat problem, you would think you would get Video for a few seconds to a few minutes before it overheated.
#24 30 Oct 2009 @ 13:10
yeah the first time I tried to fix it and turned it on it worked for about 5 seconds then shut off again.

Salvador Trujillo
#25 30 Oct 2009 @ 13:28
It dont work, so putting AS5 on the chip cant make things any worse.

Thats what the co pilot said to the piolot just before the plain went down.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 30 Oct 2009 @ 13:30
This discussion thread has been automatically closed, as it hasn't received any new posts during the last 180 days. This means that you can't post replies or new questions to this discussion thread.

If you have something to add to this topic, use this page to post your question or comments to a new discussion thread.

Subscribe to AfterDawn's weekly newsletter.