Yes. Weak bga solder. That's why when you reheat your ps3 in oven it kind of melts them and allows them to reattach. That's why reballing is better(read: bga=ball grid array). And there are types of materials used for solder each allowing higher temperatures. Well fat ps3s atleast didn't had a good one which caused them to ylod
I am not going to enter in much detail here lad, not going to throw any diss tracks here, but everyone already proven that the BGA isnt the issue on these machines, it never was from the start, its well described in my NEC/TOKIN Repair Guide, i myself have a C04 which had YLOD, never reballed or reflowed, just replaced the capacitors in question, and still runs till this day, with the original 2006 BGA Grid, so is no luck, its just common sense.
Reballing only worked for the wrong reasons, the reasons were the degradation of the NEC/TOKIN capacitors,which lead to insufficient supply of current to the CPU and the GPU, if one fails, the whole unit fails with it, until they are replaced, TOSHIBA laptops had a similar issue with the same capacitors,and by applying heat, they work again, but the time-frame is unknown, but extreme heat,seems to make them last longer, thats why reflow never worked for long,and the hair dryer worked only for 30 min.
The Lead Free aloy has a tolerance point of 217ºCs, at that temperature, the solder can be removed from the MB, the PlayStation3 inside is 70/80ºCs max, that temperature doesnt even make a dent in the BGA Grid, dont you find it odd that the only the Phats and 2000 Slims have the YLOD issue,and the preceding models the 2100 and above dont? Thats because $ony replaced the NEC/TOKINs with proper Tantalum Capacitors,which corrected the flaw,thus increased reliability, the same aloy was used all across generations, nothing changed, the same can be done to the Phats and 2000 Slims, if you want to bring thoes machines back, i had reballed PS3s with Lead-Free solder,and never lasted me as they should, and Reballing Centers,never guarantee you a proper functioning machine
The only console that is worth reballing,and is really need it, are the 1st Gen XBOX360, due to the ATI Chipsets from the era, indeed had bad solder joints, people just created this silly myth without any proper knowledge, and they payed for it,by getting ripped of,bigtime, but Reballing a PS3 at this day and age wont cut it, unless your know your BGA is corroded or you need a chip repalcement.