PS3 PS3 temperature vs ambient temperatures

[leandronb]

Hi guys i always see people commenting about their PS3 temperatures and most are under 70c on CPU, while mine are always at upper 70c.
So i'm not sure if there is something wrong with my PS3 Slim or most people that report low temps just live on really cold places.
I also don't remember my PS3 being so hot and loud in early years, around 2010. Just now i am noticing that it can get hot and loud really easily. Maybe it was always like this and i just didn't noticed, but i think a 70% fan speed can not go unnoticed. I repasted it recently with not much change in temps, the console was really clean inside, i don't live in a dusty environment, maybe this helped.

I did a little test yesterday, i played resident evil 4 and after a while the fan was at 70%, so i left to XMB and let it there for an hour. The temps stabilized 75/57(CPU/RSX) at 70% fan speed and ambient temperature was around 35c or more. Later that day i turned the AC on and put at 22c, and left the console at XMB for more than an hour so the temps stabilize, the console got to 73/57 at 40% fan speed, that is still far from quiet but much better than 70% fan speed that was before.

I use my PS3 in vertical orientation because i think it can draw more air. Using a fan on the bottom did not help much with temps. I don't know why it get this hot even on XMB, maybe is the recent cfw, or webman, because when i used kmeaw 3.55 long ago i didn't have these problems or maybe i just didn't noticed because i didn't have a way to check temperatures.

Just tested again, turned on my ps3 and launched call of juarez gunslinger, after 30 minutes the cpu was at 79c and the fan went to 70% speed.
What do you guys think about this? Thanks in advance.

 

[Coro]

Hi guys i always see people commenting about their PS3 temperatures and most are under 70c on CPU, while mine are always at upper 70c.
So i'm not sure if there is something wrong with my PS3 Slim or most people that report low temps just live on really cold places.
I also don't remember my PS3 being so hot and loud in early years, around 2010. Just now i am noticing that it can get hot and loud really easily. Maybe it was always like this and i just didn't noticed, but i think a 70% fan speed can not go unnoticed. I repasted it recently with not much change in temps, the console was really clean inside, i don't live in a dusty environment, maybe this helped.

I did a little test yesterday, i played resident evil 4 and after a while the fan was at 70%, so i left to XMB and let it there for an hour. The temps stabilized 75/57(CPU/RSX) at 70% fan speed and ambient temperature was around 35c or more. Later that day i turned the AC on and put at 22c, and left the console at XMB for more than an hour so the temps stabilize, the console got to 73/57 at 40% fan speed, that is still far from quiet but much better than 70% fan speed that was before.

I use my PS3 in vertical orientation because i think it can draw more air. Using a fan on the bottom did not help much with temps. I don't know why it get this hot even on XMB, maybe is the recent cfw, or webman, because when i used kmeaw 3.55 long ago i didn't have these problems or maybe i just didn't noticed because i didn't have a way to check temperatures.

Just tested again, turned on my ps3 and launched call of juarez gunslinger, after 30 minutes the cpu was at 79c and the fan went to 70% speed.
What do you guys think about this? Thanks in advance.

you fan is on syscon (that is ps3 controls fan). you getter better cooling (and louder fan) with auto.

since your cpu is so mush higher than rsx (graphics processor), i would think it is the problem. maybe need new paste (on both cpu and rsx but cpu will benefit more).

 

[leandronb]

you fan is on syscon (that is ps3 controls fan). you getter better cooling (and louder fan) with auto.

since your cpu is so mush higher than rsx (graphics processor), i would think it is the problem. maybe need new paste (on both cpu and rsx but cpu will benefit more).

I used syscon just to have a baseline to compare. Also i changed the thermal paste recently with no change in temperature, i think i will probably need to delid to see if the temperature improves, and since is a risky process i will take to someone that can do it for me.
When i use webman auto #2 the fan is really loud, most of the time around 75%.
Here is a picture when using in max 78c setting.

 

[Coro]

I used syscon just to have a baseline to compare. Also i changed the thermal paste recently with no change in temperature, i think i will probably need to delid to see if the temperature improves, and since is a risky process i will take to someone that can do it for me.
When i use webman auto #2 the fan is really loud, most of the time around 75%.
Here is a picture when using in max 78c setting.

i would recommend setting 68c as max temp, 40% min speed, and trying auto #1.

also set ps2 fan to at least 40% maybe even 45%. (if you play ps2)

if you open it up again, try to check the power supply box. shine a flashlight inside and look for dust, hair, fuzz, dead cochroach legs, or anything clogging up the airflow.

what model do you have? cech-??

 

[sandungas]

We use to compare the temperatures of CELL versus RSX because sometimes it can be seen that one of them is working fine and the other doesnt. In your case the problem is in CELL because is around 16ºC over RSX

It could be because a mistake in the manteinance tasks you did in the previous days (incorrect thermal paste application, or how the heatsink seats on top of CELL, or the pressure generated by the screws, or things like that)
But also it could be because you had the PS3 without any use since months ago... maybe the thermal paste under CELL IHS decomposed in that time or went dry, etc...
Also... it could be because when you was doing the manteinance the heatsink was "sticked" to the IHS and when you pulled from it the IHS moved it a bit (so the dry paste under CELL IHS was degraded even more)

Anyway... you are at that point where it looks like it needs a deliding, but is a risky thing, and we are not completly sure if is really needed
So, personally.... i would try to do some more checks and tests (reassemble, replace thermal paste again, check how each part matches with each other, etc...) just to be sure that the problem is under CELL IHS

If you are getting a it bored/scared of messing around too much with it... and you decided to take it to a professional to do a delidding then yeah... just do it, this is going to fix it

Btw, when using factory settings (syscon mode) the temperatures of 75ºC or so are not so rare, the thermal design of the PS3's is intended to keep them working around that values
The problem is that range is a bit in the limits or what we could consider safe

 

[Fin9ersMcGee]

One of my Ps3s, an early fat, suffered from high temps. I changed the thermal paste which didn't make much of a difference.
I couldn't be bothered to delid this one so I tried the eraser trick. This brought my temps down to a reasonable level.

The eraser trick involves placing a soft but firm material (like an eraser) on the PCB on the opposite side to the processor. This adds extra pressure between the processor die, IHS and heatsink resulting in better heat transfer.


I've marked in yellow where the eraser needs to go.

Worth a shot before trying a delid. Much easier.

 

[leandronb]

i would recommend setting 68c as max temp, 40% min speed, and trying auto #1.

also set ps2 fan to at least 40% maybe even 45%. (if you play ps2)

if you open it up again, try to check the power supply box. shine a flashlight inside and look for dust, hair, fuzz, dead cochroach legs, or anything clogging up the airflow.

what model do you have? cech-??

I have cech-2501A. The airflow i think is fine, i can feel a good amount of air going outside on the back of console. I opened it again recently and repasted just to be sure i didn't left anything loose. Everytime i open it, it is really clean, just a bit of dust in the case, but no clogs of dust or anything.
I don't play ps2 games because of the temperature and the noise, last time i tested, i had to keep the fan above 70% to keep it below 78c. Also, if i put 68c as max temp the console just can't get to it without air conditioner, even with max fan speed.

 

[leandronb]

We use to compare the temperatures of CELL versus RSX because sometimes it can be seen that one of them is working fine and the other doesnt. In your case the problem is in CELL because is around 16ºC over RSX

It could be because a mistake in the manteinance tasks you did in the previous days (incorrect thermal paste application, or how the heatsink seats on top of CELL, or the pressure generated by the screws, or things like that)
But also it could be because you had the PS3 without any use since months ago... maybe the thermal paste under CELL IHS decomposed in that time or went dry, etc...
Also... it could be because when you was doing the manteinance the heatsink was "sticked" to the IHS and when you pulled from it the IHS moved it a bit (so the dry paste under CELL IHS was degraded even more)

Anyway... you are at that point where it looks like it needs a deliding, but is a risky thing, and we are not completly sure if is really needed
So, personally.... i would try to do some more checks and tests (reassemble, replace thermal paste again, check how each part matches with each other, etc...) just to be sure that the problem is under CELL IHS

If you are getting a it bored/scared of messing around too much with it... and you decided to take it to a professional to do a delidding then yeah... just do it, this is going to fix it

Btw, when using factory settings (syscon mode) the temperatures of 75ºC or so are not so rare, the thermal design of the PS3's is intended to keep them working around that values
The problem is that range is a bit in the limits or what we could consider safe

I was thinking about this, maybe i did something wrong, and to be sure i did all the steps again and repasted, but still no luck. I have this console since 2010, and there was a time that i stopped playing it, never fully stopped, but months without playing, the paste under ihs is probably dry. Since last year i started to play my backlog and i am playing until now, but the noise got annoying, because to keep it under 78c when is warm here, the fan needs to be almost at 70%. And another problem is some games like the last of us, that uses pre rendered cutscenes. When the scene starts the cpu gets cooler and the fan goes down in speed when using dynamic control but when the game resumes to real time graphics the cpu heats up fast and to compensate the fan needs to go almost to 100% the cool it again faster.
Also what is the "good" temps to look for on a slim? I tried to keep it at least below 78c but maybe that is too dangerous.
There is a store in my city that already helped me before by fixing a hdmi port and they said that will do it for me, and if the temps do not get lower i don't even have to pay. I hope they can get it to be cooler again like before.

 

[ItsmeAJ]

I have cech-2501A. The airflow i think is fine, i can feel a good amount of air going outside on the back of console. I opened it again recently and repasted just to be sure i didn't left anything loose. Everytime i open it, it is really clean, just a bit of dust in the case, but no clogs of dust or anything.
I don't play ps2 games because of the temperature and the noise, last time i tested, i had to keep the fan above 70% to keep it below 78c. Also, if i put 68c as max temp the console just can't get to it without air conditioner, even with max fan speed.

This is pretty high imo for a slim model, mine is 21xx and with webman settings max temp at 65c, the fan run ~60%-70% while gaming to keep mine at 65c with ambient temp ~ 30c.

 

[pinky]

that's pretty high. from my understand, the cell can endure heat pretty well, but not the rsx chip. I don't game on my ps3 very often, but I have played some ps2 games on it. I keep the fan running at 50% in ps2 mode. my temps never get above 62 (usually in the 50s). my temp threshold is 68 which is default for wmm. that's a good temp for it not to get too high or be too noisy. I recommend it.

 

[sandungas]

The best way to show how the PS3 fan factory settings works is with a graphic, is something like this for all PS3 models
*the curve i drawn is not accurate, is just a dirty sketchup i made fast to show it to you

1) When you boot the PS3 the fan uses low speed (i guess the goal is to allow the motherboard to warmup)
2) When temperature reachs 55ºC it enters in the "normal working" range, there are a lot of speed adjustments in this range
3) When temperature reachs 75ºC the speed increments increases (compared with previous increments)

https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Thermal#Fan_settings_per_PS3_model_based_on_syscon_data_reads
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/s...o-what-does-it-mean.26148/page-11#post-227184

The PS3's are designed to work in a range up to 75ºC, the engineers that configured the fan settings knew the "danger zone" is around 75ºC (or 80ºC)
They also decided to create this weird "warmup zone" at beginning where the motherboard is cummulating the heat a bit, for some reason i dont get completly but anyway... they knows better than us

Anyway... what we know for sure is the PS3 can handle 75ºC without problems, when everything works fine (good thermal paste, etc...) and your PS3 stays in the range under 75ºC then everything is fine, no need to worry

The problem is what i mentioned before about being "too close to the limit"... if your PS3 is working normally at 75ºC and something gets out of control an small increment in temperature (lets say just 3 or 4 ºC) is going to push you into the danger zone of 80ºC so easilly
Otherway... if you console is configured to work normally at lets say... 70ºC and things gets out of control that small increments of temperature are still under a safe range (70ºC + 5ºC = 75ºC... still safe)

In my oppinion thats the real reason why is better to stay away from 80ºC "just incase" things gets out of control

 

[snkplkn]

Good point. 70c is the safety limit. The CELL & RSX temps can rise pretty quickly in a matter of few seconds (if you have observed Temps/fan info while playing games long enough, you know this very well). A PS3 at 75c definitely means thermal situation is not good (culprit is usually paste under IHS). So when Temp spikes occur, PS3 & your custom fan settings don't even have time to adjust to spike. These spikes are not a problem in most games. but in games like Uncharted 3, TLOU, GTA5 etc, these can be a problem.

@sandungas

I have a theory about YLOD which i cannot prove right now. We have a very hot summer right now (room temp around 34c). So i was playing TLOU & suddenly had YLOD in Prologue segment after cutscene (after Joel's car crashes & people are running everywhere). Interestingly, this is also a point where game has Temp spike (along with other sections like Deer hunting scene). I tried again & noticed that fan speed rises from 47% to 65%. Interesting. The PS3 now runs well in other parts of game (max Temp set at 72c, fan max speed handles the game at 50%).

But something more interesting. I fixed another Fat PS3 with YLOD (right on startup), just by reinstalling thermal paste. No change in NEC TOKIN, no other fix. The FAT model was on completely dry original paste. After installing fresh thermal paste, the PS3 runs fine (of course on custom fan control). In fact, i found that many people fixed their PS3 YLOD just by changing thermal paste.

Why does YLOD occur? Of course there are many causes and Old NEC caps are a big reason. But i think thermal situation might be another important reason. I think PS3 has a system where it measures rate of Temp increase. Suppose Syscon measures that Temp is rising like 5c/second, Syscon shuts down PS3 immediately with YLOD to protect against hardware failure. This is just my speculation.

We know that PS3 has a warning system of Temps (is it 90c?). I think PS3 also has an internal system where it measures Temp spikes. YLOD may be connected to this also.

I also remember this old thread.

https://www.psx-place.com/threads/ps3-working-after-8-years-of-ylod.28261/

What i strongly suspect? When you power on the PS3, there is a mechanism in PS3 which measures the rate of change of Temperature. If the suitable range is not met, PS3 goes into YLOD. Suppose ambient Temp is 30c & you power on PS3. If PS3 detects that Temp increase rate is very large, it won't continue. This is to check whether heat dissipation system is properly functioning or not. This is just my theory.

 

[pinky]

I get somewhat paranoid with my laptop 10TB hdds (soon to be 6 of them, but only 4 plugged in at once). I've had this setup for years. if the ambient temperature is hot, one or two of them will be hot as well. just ALPHA (E:/) usually. I don't like it. hot for an hdd is 50C. that's not bad, but that's not great either. below that is excellent.

 

[snkplkn]

I have cech-2501A. The airflow i think is fine, i can feel a good amount of air going outside on the back of console. I opened it again recently and repasted just to be sure i didn't left anything loose. Everytime i open it, it is really clean, just a bit of dust in the case, but no clogs of dust or anything.
I don't play ps2 games because of the temperature and the noise, last time i tested, i had to keep the fan above 70% to keep it below 78c. Also, if i put 68c as max temp the console just can't get to it without air conditioner, even with max fan speed.

No doubt that there is a problem in your PS3. It remains to be found out the real cause of overheating. Thermal paste under IHS goes bad specially in old Fat models. But 2501 is newer model and i don't see people complaining about thermal paste under IHS in these models. I would suggest that you check if the new paste of top of IHS is properly installed. But if IHS is really the problem. You need to consider delid. Constantly running fan at 70%-80% is not recommended. You need to fix underlying heating problem.

 

[sandungas]

Good point. 70c is the safety limit. The CELL & RSX temps can rise pretty quickly in a matter of few seconds (if you have observed Temps/fan info while playing games long enough, you know this very well). A PS3 at 75c definitely means thermal situation is not good (culprit is usually paste under IHS). So when Temp spikes occur, PS3 & your custom fan settings don't even have time to adjust to spike. These spikes are not a problem in most games. but in games like Uncharted 3, TLOU, GTA5 etc, these can be a problem.

@sandungas

I have a theory about YLOD which i cannot prove right now. We have a very hot summer right now (room temp around 34c). So i was playing TLOU & suddenly had YLOD in Prologue segment after cutscene (after Joel's car crashes & people are running everywhere). Interestingly, this is also a point where game has Temp spike (along with other sections like Deer hunting scene). I tried again & noticed that fan speed rises from 47% to 65%. Interesting. The PS3 now runs well in other parts of game (max Temp set at 72c, fan max speed handles the game at 50%).

But something more interesting. I fixed another Fat PS3 with YLOD (right on startup), just by reinstalling thermal paste. No change in NEC TOKIN, no other fix. The FAT model was on completely dry original paste. After installing fresh thermal paste, the PS3 runs fine (of course on custom fan control). In fact, i found that many people fixed their PS3 YLOD just by changing thermal paste.

Why does YLOD occur? Of course there are many causes and Old NEC caps are a big reason. But i think thermal situation might be another important reason. I think PS3 has a system where it measures rate of Temp increase. Suppose Syscon measures that Temp is rising like 5c/second, Syscon shuts down PS3 immediately with YLOD to protect against hardware failure. This is just my speculation.

We know that PS3 has a warning system of Temps (is it 90c?). I think PS3 also has an internal system where it measures Temp spikes. YLOD may be connected to this also.

I also remember this old thread.

https://www.psx-place.com/threads/ps3-working-after-8-years-of-ylod.28261/

What i strongly suspect? When you power on the PS3, there is a mechanism in PS3 which measures the rate of change of Temperature. If the suitable range is not met, PS3 goes into YLOD. Suppose ambient Temp is 30c & you power on PS3. If PS3 detects that Temp increase rate is very large, it won't continue. This is to check whether heat dissipation system is properly functioning or not. This is just my theory.

I would say the safe max temperature is 70±5ºC
The "±5" represents many things, is mostly because the temperature is moving up and down constantly, also because when talking about it we try to be precise but the reallity is the temperature values we see in custom homebrews are not so precise (have a delay of 3 seconds "per sample")
If you are playing TLOU take a look at this point of the game, in it the temperature increases like there is no tomorrow
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/cecha-ps3-ylod-saga.20826/page-14#post-182517
Is very notable because it happens in a point of the game where there is "nothing" around you... is one of those points of the game where the game developers wanted to transmit to the player the feeling of "emptyness"... there are no enemies, no music, and you are surrounded by a big city completly "dead"... and suddenlly the fan speed starts ramping up and you are going to be like "hmmm something is going to happen" (but doesnt happens anything)... and after some minutes of investigation you will realize is caused by the presence of an small lake at a road end

The YLOD could be many things, what happens with the tokins is like a bottleneck (and interferences/ripple) in the power lines... CELL and RSX crashes because are underpowered
Im not sure how many other things could cause a YLOD, i dont have much experience with it

And im not so sure how many things related with thermal control does syscon... many time ago i thought it was using some kind of "timer" when temperatures are decreasing (to keep the fan at high speeds for some minutes even when is not needed, as a prevention incase temperatures starts increasing again), but since some syscon models was hacked, dumped, and the real fantable settings was published... i realized is not using a timer
So... dunno about your theory, but right now i think the thermal control is a bit more simple than what i thought

 

[leandronb]

Is fixed. A delid solved all the problems. Now i noticed that rsx is hotter than before but maybe because the fan is not spinning fast as it was before or maybe the thermal paste used under ihs is not as good as the original one.
I opened a game and tested a little bit with syscon, but cpu temps were really low and the fan was not increasing the speed as fast as before and rsx was getting hotter than cpu with the low fan speed, so i set MAX temp to 68c and temps got really better.
Then i quit the game and switched to manual speed at 40% to compare to previous results, CPU at 58c and RSX at 63c. Increased fan speed to 50% and temps decreased to 56/59.
Set to AUTO mode in webman, restarted console and temps stayed at 59/64 at 39% fan speed.
The last test i did was turning on AC to 22c and turn on console on AUTO mode, temps got to 56/62 at 33% fan speed. After loading the game enslaved odyssey to the west, and run for 30 minutes temps were at 55/64 ar 39% fan speed.
I set the MAX temp on webman to 65c, but i think i will use the AUTO mode, is it better? Do you guys have more tips or other recommendations? I really appreciate all the help and info you guys gave me here, thanks.

 

[sandungas]

The difference of temperatures is fine for a PS3 slim, the problem has been fixed
For curiosity sake... try to change the "theme settings" to disable the wave/sparks animation playing in the background in main XMB and you should have smaller RSX temperatures
And... try to repeat the test inside rebug toolbox/multiman/irisman... this apps displays the temperature too... the difference is when you are "inside" them there is a bit of workload in CELL (but not much for RSX)... so you should have CELL temperatures a bit over RSX
And when you are "ingame"... yeah... this is when RSX should be over CELL and having fast variantion of temperaturs and temperature peaks...the resulting fan speed is always calculated using the max high peaks of RSX (i mean... is not given priority by code, is just what should happen for a healthy PS3)
All that is normal

 

[db260179]

So based on your model, it will have a JTP-001 or JSD-001 motherboard. These have 45nm CELL and 40nm RSX.

A Possible fault i've found with these boards is the Buck IC controllers go bad and create overvoltage.

But in your case the delidding helped.

You can verify by measuring the voltage near the two grey inductors, it shouldnt be exceeding 2.20v, if it is then they are bad.

I'm afraid those new IC controllers (part no. PK7FE-FDMF6704-1) are near impossible to locate these day, you will need to find a donor board if you are capable to replace?

What is a IC buck controller you ask? - Well its those black chips above the CELL and RSX, they regulate the voltage.

The older fat ps3 models have a similiar issue, but not so common. You can still get their IC buck chips from Aliexpress.

This issue is not so common and only repair places know of this issue (where i got the info from).

I have cech-2501A. The airflow i think is fine, i can feel a good amount of air going outside on the back of console. I opened it again recently and repasted just to be sure i didn't left anything loose. Everytime i open it, it is really clean, just a bit of dust in the case, but no clogs of dust or anything.
I don't play ps2 games because of the temperature and the noise, last time i tested, i had to keep the fan above 70% to keep it below 78c. Also, if i put 68c as max temp the console just can't get to it without air conditioner, even with max fan speed.

 

[snkplkn]

Is fixed. A delid solved all the problems. Now i noticed that rsx is hotter than before but maybe because the fan is not spinning fast as it was before or maybe the thermal paste used under ihs is not as good as the original one.
I opened a game and tested a little bit with syscon, but cpu temps were really low and the fan was not increasing the speed as fast as before and rsx was getting hotter than cpu with the low fan speed, so i set MAX temp to 68c and temps got really better.
Then i quit the game and switched to manual speed at 40% to compare to previous results, CPU at 58c and RSX at 63c. Increased fan speed to 50% and temps decreased to 56/59.
Set to AUTO mode in webman, restarted console and temps stayed at 59/64 at 39% fan speed.
The last test i did was turning on AC to 22c and turn on console on AUTO mode, temps got to 56/62 at 33% fan speed. After loading the game enslaved odyssey to the west, and run for 30 minutes temps were at 55/64 ar 39% fan speed.
I set the MAX temp on webman to 65c, but i think i will use the AUTO mode, is it better? Do you guys have more tips or other recommendations? I really appreciate all the help and info you guys gave me here, thanks.

The Temps are in good range. People have obsession of running PS3 at low Temps at range which is an overkill. No need to set Auto Temp at 65c. I would say that 70c or 68c is an acceptable limit. Also you should be testing your Temps on Games like GTA5 (highly recommended), Uncharted 3 & TLOU to get the real picture about performance. Also the CELL/RSX Temps are more accurate after about 1 hour of gameplay. So start from ambient temperature and take Temps after 1 hour of gameplay. PS3 takes about an hour to fully heat up.

By the way, what tools did you use to delid?

 

[leandronb]

The Temps are in good range. People have obsession of running PS3 at low Temps at range which is an overkill. No need to set Auto Temp at 65c. I would say that 70c or 68c is an acceptable limit. Also you should be testing your Temps on Games like GTA5 (highly recommended), Uncharted 3 & TLOU to get the real picture about performance. Also the CELL/RSX Temps are more accurate after about 1 hour of gameplay. So start from ambient temperature and take Temps after 1 hour of gameplay. PS3 takes about an hour to fully heat up.

By the way, what tools did you use to delid?

I will test again with GTA V today, I finished all these games you mentioned again last year i think, with these dangerous temperatures that i had before and thought everything was fine and my city that was hotter. I hope the high temps i was getting did not made a damage.
I didn't delid myself, i really like this console and didn't have the courage to delid and risk losing it, i took it to a repair shop here in my city, they are very good and do this all the time.