PS3 blu-ray drive dead

Just thought I'd add my experience

On Tuesday picked up a 40gig Ceramic White ps3 for $80 on Craigslist. He said it needed a new Blu-Ray lens and they were available online. I figured the guy wasn't tech saavy and didn't want to bother. I read through the entirety of this thread and ordered a lens. I bought it from techloops.com on Wednesday. It was $65 shipped to AZ and came in today. Excitedly I started working on it.

Then I discovered the guy had already disassembled the ps3 before. All the bolts had a little wear on them and I thought maybe the guy had already tried to replace the lens and I was going to be SOL. But unthwarted, I continued on. Then I got all the way down to removing the lens from the tracks those bolts were factory tight and mark free. So it looks like he had got all the way down there and decided not to bother. The replacement was easy and took about 15 minutes all together. If I ever do it again (hopefully I won't have to) it'll be much faster.

Anyhow, I reassembled it and fired it up. I put in Warhawk and a few seconds later it started up. I didn't feel like playing a game so I swapped in a BD movie and it's been playing ever since. So the drive has worked for about 50 minutes so far and I'm hoping it continues to. I'll update if it craps out. I'd like to give props to the vendor. Techloops.com is in CA, has the part in stock, shipped extremely fast and it wasn't a bunk part. Thumbs up from me! HK vendors are pretty sketch from the posts I've read on this thread. Keep it in the US guys, that way you actually have someone to reach out to.

 

Wow, you got a CERAMIC WHITE ps3 for just $80?

Man, I way over-payed. Dropped about $180 on a standard Black 40gb before buying the replacement laser.

 

Yup, he wanted $100, told him $80 and I'll pick it up immediately. It did not include a control. I'm not sure how many of these busted ps3s people are buying in hopes of fixing are comimg with anything, though.

Also, I'll add that I read somewhere in this thread that smoke damages the lenses. Well, this guys apartment was so disgusting it was unbelievable. It smelled worse than the smokiest bar you could imagine. I was there for 3 minutes and I had to change when I got home. The box smells like it, and when the ps3 fans turn on you can still smell it. I'm hoping it goes away but I wouldn't doubt that the smoke did have ill effects on the lens.

 

Wow this is great I did not think it would be that simple, the hardest part is making sure that it is aligned right. I need to pratice some soldering

 

It always looks easier in a video

The silkscreening on that motherboard made realigning it a piece of cake. I don't know if there's an outline on the controller board, i haven't found my heat gun yet

 

Your right lol, alteast taking it apart looks like the easy part.

I was checking out this site http://www.solder.net/stencilquik/default.asp they have different options but this stencilquick might be a nice solution using solder paste instead. The only set back is that it cost about 70 bucks for a pack of 10.

 

It looks awfully simple...I just wish there was some text along with the video to tell what was going on. Can someone explain to me how (in the homebrew-type video) running a soldering iron across the pins reballs them? Looks to me like he was just cleaning the old solder off the chip... I didn't see where they put it back on?

 

yes, its looks simple but its just the look, i try to explain step by step the way to do it like you see in video number 2(take in mind that the correct metod is like you see in vido number 1, the video number 2 is a home made metod and could fail) by the way the video does not show some important steps:
1. with a heat gur or a hot air solder station heat the chip doing circle moves until you can carefully pull it out IMPOTANT!!!: DO NOT PULL HARD
2. use flux and a desoldering braid to clean the chip and the controller
3.put a lot of flux in the chip and start to put solder (solder paste better) heat it with the air gun solder station or with the solder iron as you see in the video (this way you are "reballing" the chip)
4.clean the excess of flux with isopropilic alcohol
5.put a thiny layer of flux in the controller and then put and allign the chip (there are thiny marks in the controller for correct allignament)
6.start to heat the chip gently until it gets firmly atached as you see in the video.
7.try it, if not work, heat it a litle bit more, and try again if it not work stat all over again.

IMPORATAN!!!, you can literaly fied your controller with this metod if you heat it for too long !!!

 

by the way here you have a better video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB1InDsWCjQ

 

Thanks for this site...they've got some pretty awesome stuff by the looks of it. That EZ reball kit with the templates also looks good. Anyone interested in splitting one of these kits? I'd be willing to buy and then split/ship out and you could pay me via paypal. Let me know. I'm anxious to see if this would work but not anxious to shell out $70 to find it doesn't!

 

Hey,

Sorry everybody, I honestly haven't had 10 free minutes in over a week now, long story but hopefully I'll have some spare time this week and give this a whirl. I have 4 controller boards in total, so I can practice on one first. I am a formerly certified solderer from a previous life, so I should (SHOULD) possibly have some of the skills to do this as shown in the videos (thanks for those Federico, they're really good ones!).

If/when I actually get to this, believe me, I'll post up the results

 

Thats great man, hopefully if this works you can make some business on the side lol

 

Hi, yesterday i start to practice the desoder/solder thing in one of the controller boards, the ones that doesnt match mi system, I do this.

1- I use a heat gun to desoder the chip, very easy, it takes only 40 seconds.
2- I clean the chip and the controller, then reball the chip as you see in the videos
3- I apply flux to the controller, then I align the chip, and then I resolder it with the heat gun, I use a small tweezers to hold it in pace, because the air moves it.

The results was the following:

1- test the controller before start the process (load disks, the laser moves and emit light, the disk spins, but because the controller doesn’t match the system does not play games)
2- ones I take out the chip I try the controller an its completely dead (dos not load disks, the laser dos not move, the disk does not spin at all)
3- after mi firs attempt to resolder the controller was still completely dead
4- but after mi second attempt the controller was back to life, everything works the same way as before the rework

so mi conclusion is : Its possible to do the swap this way, the problem is this: I still does not have the guts to try it on the matching controller board.

 

That's good news Federico, thanks.

My original controller board was already damaged thanks to the wanker I bought it from not packaging it properly for shipping, so I don't have much to lose. I still haven't found my heat gun, though, but I do have a small propane soldering iron that can be used without a tip as a heat gun, I may try that one (I have a ton of old motherboards from my desktop and laptop hobby that are dead already ).

 

Hi all, just need some confirmation if possible as I'm a little confused and not been back for a while. I have a system which never displays the 'bubble' however will load and eject disks fine and play downloaded games.
I have replaced the lazer (complete mechanism less board) with no joy. The lazer could be a faulty one as it seems that many people of reported this.
I have checked the disk and it spins (never in same position that is was loaded in)
I have updated the firmware so it's unlikely to be this.

I was going to replace the chip but never got round to it, now winter is here I have time to play. The confusion I have is other people (only a few) who don't get the 'bubble' also have problems loading disks. Mine does all that fine......any thoughts

 

grazy,

I think people who have trouble physically loading disks are in a different boat or are unlucky enough to have multiple issues (sometimes caused by not re-assembling the drive properly, as I have personally experienced ).

The fact that you're not seeing a bubble tells me that the drive isn't recognizing any disk is inserted at all. Do you hear the motor spin up when you put in a disk?

 

Thanks for the quick response....
If you mean the motor which spins the disk, that definately works as the disk can spin for ages, I guess when trying to read it. If I recal correctly I also see the lazer assy move. Hope this helps with your diagnosis of my problem.

 

So you've replaced the laser assembly and the symptoms haven't changed. The disc spins, and the laser moves, so it sounds like that drive controller IC chip on the board is good. Sounds like the problem is somewhere else...possibly up the line on the controller card. This is interesting since the motherboard still knows the BD drive is there and since you say you can still play downloaded games, etc. that would rule out a bad ribbon cable leading to the drive.

I wonder if the BGA chip that holds the firmware is messed up, even though it lets you play downloaded games and detects the drive. I don't know if that's possible or not - oxbullsey probably knows more.

 

I STILL CANT BELIBE IT!!!, today i get the streght and confiadence to try to swap the BGA chip from mi dead controller boad to a new one, i do all the precces explained in my previous post, and ones i try it on the ps3 i cant belibe mi eyes, THE PS3 IS WORKING !!!, load and play games movies and cds, so here is mi conclusion:
1- the key that links the controller to the motherboard is in the BGA chip
2- is posible to swap it (it was dificult but posible)

I´M SO HAPPY, not only because i made mi ps3 working again, but for the challange it was, thanks everyone for your help and suport, Federcico

 

ok This is so weird ..I got this PS3 for 130 bucks wouldnt play any blu ray media ...replaced the laser wouldnt read blu ray move apocolypto but played MGS4 fine I beat the whole game and played online for about 5 hrs strait no issues at all so I figured certain movies have issues from what I hear no worries............so today I get a game pass and rent fallout 3 and LBP ..and I get the bubble for a few secons then ot goes away and it stops spinning with both games I put back in MGS4 plays fine...plays all demos from hdd just fine ...im doing a full format restore but doubt that will work anyone have any ideas HELP PLEASE!!!!