PS3 part deux

[exxos]

that came from a pet household fur-sure

[rubber_jonnie]

that came from a pet household fur-sure

[rubber_jonnie]

Doing some research it seem that one of the potential causes of the problem is bad Tokin capacitors. They are low profile large devices and there are at 8 on my board, 4 on top, 4 underneath:

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I warmed up the 2 that sit under the GPU and it now boots. It's not quite right, but is suggestive that it would be worth doing a Tokin replacement, so I will order a couple of cap kits now and do the two below the GPU that I warmed up and see what happens.

[stephen_usher]

Progress at least.

[rubber_jonnie]

Progress at least.

Indeed, and a relatively cheap option to try. If after replacement it boots without an image on-screen I'll have to consider reflowing the GPU.

[rubber_jonnie]

So the caps arrived today, more from Zedlabz, who I am beginning to rather like as a supplier.

In total, you need 4 caps (470uF low ESR) per Tokin. Don't be under any illusion the the Tokins will just lift off with a bit of heat, because the ground and power planes are huge, so need quite a bit of heat, and the Tokins are not solid, in fact even a little heat and the top cover comes off like the lid of a box.

So it's a case of using a combination of soldering iron, hot air, and a pair of tweezers to pick everything away. Once cleaned up, rather than put the new caps at an angle as some do, I decided to put them straight, and that meant cleaning up the large ground trace a bit further back from the original pad, but it was easy to do with a fibreglass pencil.

I tinned the +ve pads of the caps and the board, and soldered in that end of the cap, leaving a big enough gap between the ends of the caps to get in with a heavy chisel tip on my soldering iron for the -ve ends.

I had to set the iron to max and use a bit of hot air, but it eventually it soldered up nicely.

This is the end result:

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You can see the other Tokins under the CPU (There are another four on the other side of the PCB), but I was lucky, because they weren't needed and the PS3 powered on just fine!!!

PXL_20231216_144653648.jpg (189.18 KiB) Viewed 18898 times

I was all ready to give the GPU a reflow, but it just works, so just makes me wonder how many PS3s have been scrapped like this, it's really not a difficult fix if you can solder and have the patience to pick off the old Tokins bit by bit.

To satisfy all the wonderers out there, I put down some solder mask on the exposed areas to prevent corrosion.

For some reason the DVD drive wasn't spinning up, but after a bit of a clean, it's all good now and works just fine.

[stephen_usher]

[rubber_jonnie]

Hehehehe

[HigashiJun]

Well done !

[rubber_jonnie]

Well done !