PS3 Fault finding YLOD with the SYSCON - First steps and Error reporting

[kindpepperoni]

Hmm, if you are getting 0 ohms short on the RSX... It sounds more like it already was "reflowed" or something.
I don't think a reflow will help. Especially if it's reading short in the core.
Might as well remove it completely and check out of board. Then you will clearly see how your short is internal to the chip.

With the chip off the board if I get resistance than the chip is bad? I don't know if I'm equipped to do that all I have is one of these 450C adjustable handheld hot air wands.

 

[kindpepperoni]

Hmm, if you are getting 0 ohms short on the RSX... It sounds more like it already was "reflowed" or something.
I don't think a reflow will help. Especially if it's reading short in the core.
Might as well remove it completely and check out of board. Then you will clearly see how your short is internal to the chip.

Here are some pics of where I am measuring resistance. Please confirm I am doing this right and that it appears there is a problem with the RSX.

Spoiler

 

[Pacorretaco]

Here are some pics of where I am measuring resistance. Please confirm I am doing this right and that it appears there is a problem with the RSX.

Spoiler

Yes you are probing correctly. 0 ohms there is not normal no.
It is probably a shorted RSX core unfortunately. Especially possible if it was previously "reflowed" or something.
To make sure the definitive test would be to remove RSX from board and check.

Because In theory I guess it could also still be one of the little ceramic capacitors causing the short to GND. But I doubt it, I've never seen that,. Maybe if you want you also could inject 1v there with a bench PSU and see what's getting hot. Probably it's still the RSX core.

 

[kindpepperoni]

Yes you are probing correctly. 0 ohms there is not normal no.
It is probably a shorted RSX core unfortunately. Especially possible if it was previously "reflowed" or something.
To make sure the definitive test would be to remove RSX from board and check.

Because In theory I guess it could also still be one of the little ceramic capacitors causing the short to GND. But I doubt it, I've never seen that,. Maybe if you want you also could inject 1v there with a bench PSU and see what's getting hot. Probably it's still the RSX core.

Hmm I've had it in this setup for about 10 mins and no heat. I have my power supply set to 1 Volt and the board is pulling 528mA. I'm spraying the board down with 99% IPA to see what is drying quicker. I can't really see any sections sticking out. RSX is not warm.

 

[vyktormvmpay25]

After many months another cok002 saved with his 90nm rsx.
It was 3034 and 4402.
One fact I do not understand.
Before touching board it was 2.2 ohms cpu and 2.4 ohms rsx.
After nec exchange and reball both, it went like 3.2 rsx and 3.7 cpu, nec's were not oxidized inside, but still didn't think to delid anymore on board as soon or later they fail anyway so just in a try if I get cpu/rsx with same values on board though won't work.
Well it seems fine at quick test.Seems that nec's internal resistance was low somehow.
I will test it few days then it will be passed to owner.

Spoiler

 

[Pacorretaco]

Hmm I've had it in this setup for about 10 mins and no heat. I have my power supply set to 1 Volt and the board is pulling 528mA. I'm spraying the board down with 99% IPA to see what is drying quicker. I can't really see any sections sticking out. RSX is not warm.

Hmm, if you felt nothing warm maybe you need to give it more amps. That thing wants to take way more than 500mA.

Something will get hot eventually. Remember to check the small ceramic capacitors on the other side of the board. After all you are mostly doing this to see if you get very lucky and it's one of those getting hot while the core is cold.

Otherwise next step always was to remove RSX from board.

 

[RIP-Felix]

Okay, here's a weird one.

I have been testing PS3#8, which is a CECHA01 with a 40nm RSX using the ORBIS Mod chip. So far everything has been testing fine. Wifi, Blutooth, Bluray, DVD, PS3, & PS1 were fine. However something strange happened in PS2 games. The screen goes black and stays that way! I can connect the controller. However it behaves differently each time. First time it was froze like a GLOD. PS button didn't bring up the menu to return to the XMB. I had to restart. The second time it did bring up the menu and restarted to XMB just fine. And the third time it actually YLOD! SYSCON error is a 80 1701 (BE attention).

So what about the PS2 functionality not working could cause a GLOD and 80 1701? Why would it not affect anything else (PS3 or PS1)?

Lol...so I frankenstein modded a BC phat PS3 that can't play PS2 games! Kinda defeats the purpose! @DeadEnd have you encountered any problems playing PS2 games? It's not the mod chip messing around with the PS2 functionality is it? @vyktormvmpay25 you did a 40nm Frankenstein right? Did you have any issue running PS2?

I have no idea what might be causing this. So I'll take any suggestions! My only idea is the CPU BGA popped some connection that communicates with the EE+GS. I could try reflowing the CPU as a last resort, but want to get other opinions and ideas.

 

[marciolsf]

80 1701 (BE attention).

My first thought was actually BE errors, but according to the wiki only modes C-E uses the BE to emulate the EE... On A-B models, the syscon boots the hardware back into ps2 mode using a modified ps2 bios (if I understand the documentation correctly).

If that's the case, I wouldn't think it's actually a BE error since the BE shouldn't be in control when you're in ps2 mode... But obviously I don't know as much about as some other people around here, I just spent a ton of time reading the wiki, so I could be completely wrong too

 

[vyktormvmpay25]

Ups didn't test ps2 games. I will later today.
OK before going out just quick testing a game.
On 90nm game was running fine (4.87 evilnat) resolution 720p.
On 40nm with modchip first try went black screen. Reset unit, took another try game went fine and resolution 576p. I can't see where it can be changed as this will be automatically. Only thing is changed on this unit that SB debugging enabled.
Think @RIP-Felix have a delid issue or have to reball it, not sure. Nec's exchange?
Also I did not exchange that mosfet yet. We need to investigate more if that isn't a hardware issue.
Ah and diag pin is left grounded to access syscon uart easy. Could be thermal config area? I have not modified in syscon on any.
DeadEnd have 65nm and for him it work fine.
I will also prepare another 65nm unit, have what I need, just need time.

Spoiler

The first test I think I have to exchange that mosfet.

 

[Pacorretaco]

Okay, here's a weird one.

I have been testing PS3#8, which is a CECHA01 with a 40nm RSX using the ORBIS Mod chip. So far everything has been testing fine. Wifi, Blutooth, Bluray, DVD, PS3, & PS1 were fine. However something strange happened in PS2 games. The screen goes black and stays that way! I can connect the controller. However it behaves differently each time. First time it was froze like a GLOD. PS button didn't bring up the menu to return to the XMB. I had to restart. The second time it did bring up the menu and restarted to XMB just fine. And the third time it actually YLOD! SYSCON error is a 80 1701 (BE attention).

So what about the PS2 functionality not working could cause a GLOD and 80 1701? Why would it not affect anything else (PS3 or PS1)?

Lol...so I frankenstein modded a BC phat PS3 that can't play PS2 games! Kinda defeats the purpose! @DeadEnd have you encountered any problems playing PS2 games? It's not the mod chip messing around with the PS2 functionality is it? @vyktormvmpay25 you did a 40nm Frankenstein right? Did you have any issue running PS2?

I have no idea what might be causing this. So I'll take any suggestions! My only idea is the CPU BGA popped some connection that communicates with the EE+GS. I could try reflowing the CPU as a last resort, but want to get other opinions and ideas.

I'd say don't panic yet. After all you can't really draw too many conclusions even if you wanted.
First try the easy things. Different ps2 games, go in settings and disable upscaling/smoothing. Create/delete VMC, rebuild database... If it's new iffy firmware version try with old one.

Or just be stubborn and try more times. These machines are just not that good even if they are good.

Then the less easy but still obvious things. You did this on an unknown machine. (botakompong would have never done this, first try to give a chance to original RSX without swapping directly, probably it will just work simply with heating a bit, maybe for months (remember the fake tokin fixes that "work" for months?) ...)
Good news is you have more chances at real success. Do the right thing and do the frankenstein thing to another board that you have that actually needs it... and would be e-waste without it. (Failed reball, missing BGA pad... Just my memory, I'm sure in 8 machines there's more than 1 better candidate)

The thing about the last resort swap is that it's still a "success". The thing revived. But it's not a magic bullet or something that will make everything great or better somehow. Temperatures are pretty irrelevant if you ask me.

(Lastly if you suspect about the fan settings you can just revert to default and the machine will be none the wiser.
But I can tell you It shouldn't be the problem at least with my settings. I tested this a lot)

Good luck. And remember it's probably something stupid, no need to feel bad. It's not the first time we hear about a CECHA with ps2 problems either. It might be the ps2 hardware itself. Who knows

Edit: And the last thing... This after all is still experimental, so it's something to keep in mind. Nobody else has done it yet. You are the first one here doing this. Both vyktor and DeadEnd did it to a COK-002 board. The emulation works quite differently too in the more primitive COK 001 which were not even available in most areas of the world.
Of course the whole point here is it's soon to draw any conclusions yet. Good thing we do this for fun

 

[DeadEnd]

Okay, here's a weird one.

I have been testing PS3#8, which is a CECHA01 with a 40nm RSX using the ORBIS Mod chip. So far everything has been testing fine. Wifi, Blutooth, Bluray, DVD, PS3, & PS1 were fine. However something strange happened in PS2 games. The screen goes black and stays that way! I can connect the controller. However it behaves differently each time. First time it was froze like a GLOD. PS button didn't bring up the menu to return to the XMB. I had to restart. The second time it did bring up the menu and restarted to XMB just fine. And the third time it actually YLOD! SYSCON error is a 80 1701 (BE attention).

So what about the PS2 functionality not working could cause a GLOD and 80 1701? Why would it not affect anything else (PS3 or PS1)?

Lol...so I frankenstein modded a BC phat PS3 that can't play PS2 games! Kinda defeats the purpose! @DeadEnd have you encountered any problems playing PS2 games? It's not the mod chip messing around with the PS2 functionality is it? @vyktormvmpay25 you did a 40nm Frankenstein right? Did you have any issue running PS2?

I have no idea what might be causing this. So I'll take any suggestions! My only idea is the CPU BGA popped some connection that communicates with the EE+GS. I could try reflowing the CPU as a last resort, but want to get other opinions and ideas.

I have just tested a few ps2 games and encountered no issues. All of mine were running fine in 1080p upscaled. This makes me want to swap with the 40nm and see the results. It could be that COK001 board is a different beast, but I don't want to jump to conclusions. I imagine it would be unlikely that the modchip would be causing such issues. All it's doing is just fooling syscon to think that RSX is 90nm.

Remember, I have also done the swap to an untouched machine with the warranty seal intact. And it had confirmed A0403034, A0404402 error codes. I took the 65nm RSX from a slim board which had some kind of YLOD fault (didn't diagnose it at the time) and I used lead balls. My rework machine uses ceramic heater on top instead of hot air. These are the first few differences that come to mind. Not sure if any of it matters in the end. You could try to do the swap for another machine and see if the situation is any different. Also maybe you could tell me which ps2 games were you testing?

 

[RIP-Felix]

I just wanted to post about the 1701 here because it was SYSCON related, but I decided to move my response to the above to the Frankenstein thread since it seemed more appropriate.

Back to your regularly scheduled discussions.

 

[Nidavellir]

Hello, my old PS3 Fat CECHG03 YLOD after turning on it gets a ylod about 8-9 seconds 3 beeps the fan starts at full speed and turns off, I started syscon for diagnostics, the program returned error A0801200.
According to the description from github "A0801200 = CELL overheating - poor thermal paste or no heatsink attached, GLOD symptoms"
My question is, can anyone diagnose what is the cause of the A0801200 error?
I replaced 4 nec-tokin before but I haven't heard of syscon so I don't know if it's related to anything.
Sorry for the language but it is not my native language.

 

[RIP-Felix]

Hello, my old PS3 Fat CECHG03 YLOD after turning on it gets a ylod about 8-9 seconds 3 beeps the fan starts at full speed and turns off, I started syscon for diagnostics, the program returned error A0801200.
According to the description from github "A0801200 = CELL overheating - poor thermal paste or no heatsink attached, GLOD symptoms"
My question is, can anyone diagnose what is the cause of the A0801200 error?
I replaced 4 nec-tokin before but I haven't heard of syscon so I don't know if it's related to anything.
Sorry for the language but it is not my native language.

Sounds like you diagnosed it yourself. 1200 = Overheat. So delid, re-paste, and try again.If you need to make a DIY delidding tool, I have a guide here.

Were there any other errors in the log? Or were they all 1200? The log can hold up to 32 errors. My guide has some code you can use to retrieve them.

 

[Nidavellir]

Sounds like you diagnosed it yourself. 1200 = Overheat. So delid, re-paste, and try again.If you need to make a DIY delidding tool, I have a guide here.

Were there any other errors in the log? Or were they all 1200? The log can hold up to 32 errors. My guide has some code you can use to retrieve them.

Thanks for the answer. When I have more time I will try and tell you if anything has changed

 

[RIP-Felix]

I have my power supply set to 1 Volt and the board is pulling 528mA. I'm spraying the board down with 99% IPA to see what is drying quicker.

Oh, dear God! Please don't spray a flammable polar liquid on an energized board! It just seem to me like a bad idea, for obvious reasons.

 

[Pacorretaco]

I have an untouched COK 001 board suspicious of SYSCON problems. No red light. 5v Ok. 3.3v OK but 1.8v is 3+v! Resistance there is about 2kohms instead of rising to about 50k

Total power draw is about 3w instead of the normal 1.8w from the wall.

Anybody has seen something similar?

I guess worst case involves replacing Syscon, but then also CPU and NAND?
Because if it's actually a bad Syscon, then that's the only way right?

If the Syscon itself is actually OK, you think the 1.8v regulator could be causing the issue? Even if it were, the overvoltage is worrying

 

[vyktormvmpay25]

Been looking at schematic it says ic6006 must be 1.8v ever. Try replace. See after removing vreg resistance to syscon pin of 1.8v without vreg on board. Then try swapping from one that is working.

 

[Jeff The Animal]

I have an untouched COK 001 board suspicious of SYSCON problems. No red light. 5v Ok. 3.3v OK but 1.8v is 3+v! Resistance there is about 2kohms instead of rising to about 50k

Total power draw is about 3w instead of the normal 1.8w from the wall.

Anybody has seen something similar?

I guess worst case involves replacing Syscon, but then also CPU and NAND?
Because if it's actually a bad Syscon, then that's the only way right?

If the Syscon itself is actually OK, you think the 1.8v regulator could be causing the issue? Even if it were, the overvoltage is worrying

ive got a ps3 slim (JTP-001) that was like that, was the syscon in my case, also syscon chip was getting mega hot too... board was in a bad condition with flux everywhere and some bubbles on the pcb, too much heat was used in that board bfore.

 

[Pacorretaco]

Been looking at schematic it says ic6006 must be 1.8v ever. Try replace. See after removing vreg resistance to syscon pin of 1.8v without vreg on board. Then try swapping from one that is working.

Unfortunately resistance there still unchanged after removing ic6006.
About 2.2 Kohm
Should be rising to about 50 Kohm.

Maybe I'll try replacing with another one from another board. But I don't think it will work.

ive got a ps3 slim (JTP-001) that was like that, was the syscon in my case, also syscon chip was getting mega hot too... board was in a bad condition with flux everywhere and some bubbles on the pcb, too much heat was used in that board bfore.

Well in my case the board looks untouched. And the power draw was only about 1 watt more than normal standby. So obviously nothing mega hot.