As like some people, i was 1 of the unlucky 1's to get a yellow light of death on the ps3 :(
these are the things iv tryed to get it working egen:

1. push n hold the power button for 5 second to do that reset trick
2. hold the ps3 upside down then turn it on to do that fan trick
3. tryed cleaning the dust out of it
4. tryed removing the hard drive
5. took it apart a little bit(took out the blu-ray & power box) & put it back

there might av bin a thew others i tryed but they all failed.
at the weekend im taking it to my mums boyfriend for a complete strip down of all the parts & see if we can find out the problem to this. he fix's computers on a regular basis & hes pretty good so he should be of some use. even tho the ps3 isnt a pc but its close to 1.

iv seen a video on youtube where some 1 did get it running but without video or sound. chack it out:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=s76nJJqY6w4 part 1
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I33xhBgY-rw part 2

Anyway if you think of any other ideas feel free to share them here =)

dude
i so hope people figure this out
mine got the YLoD
right before 2.40 came out
but good luck i hope u recieve help

It's really sad that I find tons of websites with fixes for the Xbox 360 ROD and little to no mention of a fix for the YLOD. Which of course means there really must not be any. I guess if a chip is fried, it's fried.

Speaking of the aforementioned chips, are they soldered to the motherboard? So in other words you can't remove the chip from a working board to put in another (meaning a board that may have a fried gpu but not cpu and vice versa).

I guess most people are just shelling out $150 plus tax to Sony when it happens? Those that break the warranty sticker are just using it for a doorstop?

On another note, why does the PS3 only get one forum on this board, while the PSP, Xbox360, etc. get more than one?

well i wish there were some kind of fix for it
im pretty sure there has to be a way

I know someone who takes apart PS3 quite often and the thing is the YLoD is not one common problem like Xbox 360. Some could be "bricked" in a way that formatting the hard drive could fix the problem. The more serious problem on others was the GPU was totally melted or burnt up. There's not an easy fix for that.

I have dealt with several broken ps3's and the only time formatting the hard drive fixed a problem is when the menu indicated it was corrupted (and doing it in the machine did not fix the problem so it had to be done in another machine or a computer).

Two machines have the YLOD and I completely dismantled them and examined the chips. They seem fine (no melting, smell or any obvious damage). Still, the machines do not turn on. I reformatted the hard drives and that did nothing for the YLOD.

My impression based solely on trying to fix these machines is that the YLOD indicates some kind of a hardware error. It could be a fried gpu or cpu, bad blu-ray drive, bad hard drive, or maybe even a bad fan. The ps3 boots and does a quick check of its internal hardware, if any of the devices reports an error it shuts down immediately. Which sucks because we have no way of knowing what the problem is and which device is causing it.

I had a third machine that was DOA. It didn't even turn on. I switched the power supply on it and that did not resolve the issue either. I know for sure formatting the hard drive would have done nothing.

The information that I have just posted is more than I have read on any site or seen on youtube. There is so little information out there about this that it is staggering (especially compared with the 360 which only has one year more in distribution than the PS3).

I guess people are willing to shell out $150 plus tax to just not deal with it. I think its more fun and challenging (and cheaper) to fix them on your own -- if you can of course. And yes, once you break that sticker, Sony will not acknowledge that you exist. So there's fear involved too I suppose. $150 plus tax vs. the chance that you cannot fix it.

That being said, me still thinks there might people out there who are being tight lipped about it. ;)

I know someone online is selling a manual on "how to fix" your ps3, but from what I understand it's complete BS and just shows you how to take it apart and, most likely, format your hard drive. :(

But like I said, most of what I see online are people asking for help and being told to send it back to Sony.

Come on, where's the gumption!?!?!

I'd say the issue here isn't gumption my friend, more like how far are you willing to go here? I posted on another forum that if this actually a hard hard issue, you may have more problems than you know. If this console is say like a laptop on has the necessary data on it for a restore... I don't think I need to say more. Judging though from what I've been reading lately; I'm wondering if this is false positive. Bear in mind I work in computer retail and I've seen it where the unit wouldn't power on not because of a bad power supply, but a bad mother board / main board.

computers 101: all bios instructions are on board. Meaning its an eeprom chip. If that sucker goes bad... there ain't thing one you can do about it. However I something else caught my eye on another post that does make question sanity... why would there be ANY need of a magnet inside a console system when there isn't any in a computer? If you are willing to open it up somebody stated on a post about some magnet being apart of the blu-ray drive. If this this on any of the chips... odds are that's your problem. Thankfully eeprom chips can be rather durable, and a magnet may not hurt it as long as there isn't any power. Usually it'll take a large electrical shock to frag it, because the way they make these chips, thankfully, is to be erasable by either UV light (you'd see a small piece of glass in the center.), by electrical means, or by design like a flash / jump drive.

If its the main board... take to a electronics shop see if they can run either a continuity test, or a ohms test I believe. I would tell to do it yourself, but I fear you could end up destroying it IF it were good. Most main boards I've seen usually have testing points on them to check voltage. A qualified electronics technician would know what I'm talking about. If its got a separate board for power... going to have find a way to get a replacement part.

By the way I wouldn't recommend trying you remove ANY chips... if you try them on another board, you'll fry it. Usually whatever it is designed for is where it should stay.

One final thing: the XBOX 360 doesn't have any known hard drive issues, its got an issue with the solder melting off its main baord, giving you the red blinking lights of death. I believe the offical record of returns for this is EVEN HIGHER now. Around I think 6 or 9 million units... only reason why there hasn't been anything reported on Sony's side; because they bought an XBOX first, and it caused them some fear is one just one side. The other: I believe this issue is at a 1 in 1500 units... maybe less maybe more unlike the 360's 1 in 50 I think. (please bear in mind all estimates are guesses and are not facts and are not meant in any manner to dismay, or otherwise defame a product.)

In seriousness I think Sony is quite aware of it! Because of the XBOX system being an unusual fierce competitor it has stepped up their service in a few ways console wise that was definitely unheard of when they first release play station. I suggest you check sony's website; there might be some 1-800 number that may be listed to give help as to this, maybe so far as give you trouble shooting over the phone, if your careful. Just don't play like your calling from a repair place... Sony has it listed in their products, I believe the PS3 is included, to call them for replacement or repairs and do not return it to the place of purchase. If your wondering why, there was a class action suit against Sony due the PS2 not being able read a major portion of 'blue hue' discs... sometimes lessons are learned the hard way. Check with a local gamestop, or babbages. or funcoland, I THINK; they have the right number to call.

Originally posted by jeice28:

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I'd say the issue here isn't gumption my friend, more like how far are you willing to go here?

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Well, once you break the warranty seal on the PS3, Sony will not even talk to you, so "all the way" would be my answer to this, as I've broken the warranty seal on the three machines I am dealing with. If you call the 800 number and you tell them the seal is broken, they will not honor the $150 plus tax repair. In fact they won't touch it. :(

Quote:

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However I something else caught my eye on another post that does make question sanity... why would there be ANY need of a magnet inside a console system when there isn't any in a computer? If you are willing to open it up somebody stated on a post about some magnet being apart of the blu-ray drive.

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The blu-ray drive inside is enclosed in its own shell, and the magnet had fallen inside of that shell. There's no way the magnet could have touched any of the main board chips unless the shell had a hole in it (which they don't).

Quote:

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If its the main board... take to a electronics shop see if they can run either a continuity test, or a ohms test I believe. I would tell to do it yourself, but I fear you could end up destroying it IF it were good. Most main boards I've seen usually have testing points on them to check voltage. A qualified electronics technician would know what I'm talking about. If its got a separate board for power... going to have find a way to get a replacement part.

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This is a good idea and something I didn't consider. Thanks!

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By the way I wouldn't recommend trying you remove ANY chips... if you try them on another board, you'll fry it. Usually whatever it is designed for is where it should stay.

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I looked the chips over more carefully and there doesn't seem to be any easy way to get them off, so I'm not going to mess with them.

Overall I think you are correct though in that a lot of the problems with YLOD is indeed a bad motherboard. And those cannot be fixed. I've looked over two different motherboards and there is no obvious burning or scarring of anykind...nothing melted...so there's no easy 75 cent fix with materials purchased at a hobby shop with these (unlike the XBox 360's as you mentioned).

The part that is frustrating is the YLOD occurs when any number of problems happens inside the machine. Bad fan, bad power supply, bad GPU or CPU -- it's an all encompassing error. If there were different blinks, colors, or beeps for different problems, that would make it easier to diagnose before breaking the seal. For instance I don't even know if a fan that has died is enough to cause the YLOD, or if the fan has to die, THEN the chips overheat to cause the YLOD. Moreover, a bad blu-ray drive won't even trigger a YLOD -- it either reads the disc or it won't.

For instance, a PS3 will boot and not give a YLOD if you remove the hard drive or the blu-ray drive. I've also removed the wireless card and the memory card reader on applicable models and it will still boot without the YLOD.

In other words, YLOD in most cases does equal a bad motherboard. I guess the chips are so easily damaged that there is no visual evidence of that damage.

At any rate, if I ever see another machine that has YLOD I will NOT break the warranty sticker. There's apparently nothing that can be done by an end user unless you can get a working motherboard for the exact same unit to repair it with (and if you can get it for LESS than the $150 plus tax that Sony will charge to replace the unit).

so absically there is no fix for a ylod
aside from sending it back to sony?
that sux
there has to be a way

Okay look the 2 videos on the top are from me and i am still looking for a way to fix the ps3 it is a computer like everyone thinks it isnt its just compressed to hell the only thing that i couldnt get was the video or sound

That doesn't matter. If the mobo is hosed, just like any computer the only way to fix it is to get a new mobo. That's the bad news... however odds are whatever data is on the hdd is completely recoverable, and can quite possibly be moved over to a new ps3 without an issue... hell I'd dare say just take the drive out of the next one pop in your old, and you ought to be laughing because most of that update stuff ought to be on there. You game data sure as hell will be, and if you wanna have more fun... take that hdd out of the cradle buy yourself an enclosure, and you got yourself an external hard drive on the cheap!