Okay, I think it's finally time to provide an update to my thread and some closure as well.
Since I first posted about this problem in September 2018, there has been over 300 posts on this forum related to my problem, most in this thread, some in Naked Snake's famous Tokin thread and others, but the problem remained the same.
I persisted with using my console in the current condition (turning off only one certain games) for about a year and a half. About two months ago, I noticed that my console YLOD on a game that it has never done that before. I figured it was just a random shutdown, as all PS3's are susceptible to this at one point or another. However when it happened again randomly about a day later, I knew this wasn't a coincidence anymore and my problem was getting worse.
I finally decided to make the decision of removing the Tokins and soldering tantalums on, in hoping that it would solve my problem. After reading Naked Snake's guide on here carefully I took my console apart again and tried to remove just one Tokin on the bottom of the board, feeding the GPU as many people try replacing this one first and have luck with their problem. However, this is where I ran into a bit of trouble.
Removing most of the old Tokin from the board wasn't too difficult (minus the positive pole rails that remained in place which i simply couldn't remove with the tools I had). What put me through hell was actually trying to solder the tantalums correctly onto the board. The actual space you have to work with and the tantalums themselves are extremely small. It also didn't help that I had no prior soldering experience, or the correct soldering iron/tip/solder to carry out the task. Here was the end result of the work attempted by myself;
There were too many problems with the work I had conducted so I realised i needed external help. This is where I reached out to a fellow board member wrx884, who has worked on repairing PS3s previously and has good knowledge of soldering electronics. After discussion, I shipped the unit out to him to try replacing these capacitors and tidying up the mess I made. At first, only 4 tantalums were installed in place of the Tokin i removed and the unit was tested. The unit fired up again (great news since i was certain that i would have damaged something with my poor soldering work) however the unit would still YLOD on Tekken tag 2.
Next, the remaining Tokin on the bottom of the board that feeds the GPU was replaced and the unit was tested - no change. Still YLOD present. At this point, both Tokins that feed the CPU on the bottom of the board were also replaced with tantalums and suprise... NO MORE YLOD! Tekken tag 2 was no longer causing shut down in game anymore. The unit was tested in game for over an hour with no change. This confirms that the Tokins that feed the CELL were bad in my case. Also worth noting that once the top caps were removed from the Tokins, there were burn marks present on almost every Tokin on the bottom side of the board. This must be the cause of the Tokins failing over time - they simply burn out. From what exactly? I cannot say. Here are photos of the burned Tokins;
Here are some photos of the fantastic work done by wrx884!
So, to put a conclusion to this thread, the two Tokins on the bottom of the board that feed the CELL were the cause of my partial shutdown. In about the middle of this thread, the Tokins were suggested to me as the fault, however at the time, there was not much certainty or information out there about Tokins causing these kinds of problems. It was mainly still revolving around the BGA issue.
Now, I want to stress that while not every YLOD is caused by Tokins, it was definitely the cause of my specific issue and probably many others. The only thing I am confident in saying after all this is that to anyone having PARTIAL YLOD; meaning you are getting the YLOD only on CERTAIN GAMES which are well known for causing this (Gran turismo 6, Black ops 2, TLOU, Tekken Tag 2, Uncharted 2, and a select few others) you can be pretty confident to assume that the YLOD is caused by the Tokins on either the CELL or GPU. In my case, it was the CELL, however it may be the GPU for the next person. The shutdowns were getting worse and if they weren't replaced, there is a chance that the partial YLOD's i was experiencing may turn into full YLODs that arent repairable by simply replacing the Tokins - best to try and save your console before it gets worse.
If you have this problem and are thinking of doing the job yourself, I dont mean to discourage but I say from experience - make sure are confident with a soldering iron and make sure you have good quality equipment or you run the risk of completely destroying your console. Thanks again to Naked Snake's Tokin thread, wrx884's services offered and everyone else on here who has given me advice.
HAPPY GAMING!
. I'm glad to be a part of this awesome community and I hope to be very useful to others as this forum have been to me.
