PS3 (Research/Experimental) - NEC/TOKIN Capacitors Replacement - YLOD

[Revak3115]

So i have a 20GB Backwards Compatible System. if the system is cooler then 60C it will crash in PS1 games with the YLOD or if i turn off the system with the power button/software-options, it will shut off then immediately do 3-beeps with no YLOD. if the system is warmer then 60C none of these issues seem to happen...(from my experience) when it hasn't been turned on for a week it will take 2 or more tries to power on the system without YLOD. so would this perhaps fix these issues i'm having?

So today I replaced one cap for each Chip. So one (4 small caps) for RSX and one (4 small caps) for the CELL and it fixed these issues for me. It no longer has any issues. thanks for the awesome tutorial and guide.

 

[Naked_Snake1995]

So today I replaced one cap for each Chip. So one (4 small caps) for RSX and one (4 small caps) for the CELL and it fixed these issues for me. It no longer has any issues. thanks for the awesome tutorial and guide.

Could you post, a photo of the final work on the board, that would really help futher out the research, appreciate it.

May your console last years without reballing

 

[Revak3115]

Could you post, a photo of the final work on the board, that would really help futher out the research, appreciate it.

May your console last years without reballing

Sorry for the bad lighting the metal shell was halfway on. I replaced the RSX NEC and it didn't fix the crashing when powering off only when I replaced one of the cell NECs it fixed the crashing when powering off.

 

[Naked_Snake1995]

Sorry for the bad lighting the metal shell was halfway on. I replaced the RSX NEC and it didn't fix the crashing when powering off only when I replaced one of the cell NECs it fixed the crashing when powering off.

So it YLOD/ 3 Beeped each time when you shut it down normaly?

 

[Coaleb]

So as someone who has only one ps3 I was wondering how hard is this actually to do? I have done some soldering on some old gameboys and such to backlight them. I want to do this as last of us crashes in the city and I'm suspecting its these capacitors.

 

[Revak3115]

So it YLOD each time when you shut it down?

Before I replaced the CELL NEC yes it did. It wouldn't give me the Yellow light but it would beep 3 times specifically after the PSU makes a "click off" sound and blink red until I pressed the power button again. so far after replacing it, it hasn't done the beeping or crashed in anything it seems to be running perfectly.

now if I replace all the NECs you said I need a Jumper wire going to each positive points.
Do I put a jumper wire on all the NECs or just the ones on the underside of the board?

 

[Naked_Snake1995]

So as someone who has only one ps3 I was wondering how hard is this actually to do? I have done some soldering on some old gameboys and such to backlight them. I want to do this as last of us crashes in the city and I'm suspecting its these capacitors.

You don't need to suspect, they indeed are, TLoU and GT6 are the ones who crashes on the early 20/60Gb,due to the strain they put on the RSX workload, which these capacitors cannot longer provide, so in order to fix thoes issues, a full capacitor replacement its advised.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

 

[Naked_Snake1995]

Before I replaced the CELL NEC yes it did. It wouldn't give me the Yellow light but it would beep 3 times specifically after the PSU makes a "click off" sound and blink red until I pressed the power button again. so far after replacing it, it hasn't done the beeping or crashed in anything it seems to be running perfectly.

now if I replace all the NECs you said I need a Jumper wire going to each positive points.
Do I put a jumper wire on all the NECs or just the ones on the underside of the board?

Hmmmmm.... It does exactly like mine, mind you i only did a 1 NEC replacement, just on the RSX, the CELL its untouched, so the 3 Beep Shutdown problem still persists, but the machine stays on for countless hours without any issue, but since you mentioned that replacing the NEC on the CELL side erases the problem, i might do that.

Ive did some research a while back on this NEC YLOD Shutdown process with @sandungas, we've concluded that indeed more NECs had to be replaced, but didn't know where on the RSX or CELL side, guess that evens the odds, there must be a pair responsible for the Start Up and another for the Shutdown process.

Anyway, just bridge on both sides, but just 1 pair of Tantalums, catch my drift?

Bridge the Tantalums on the CELL and RSX on both sides of the board, i am sure there its a trace shared between the positive points on one end, but not to the other.

I cannot explain this in the exact words, but ill use one of my board schematics to explain it, ill do it tomorrow, but its pretty easy to understand.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

 

[Revak3115]

Hmmmmm.... It does exactly like mine, mind you i only did a 1 NEC replacement, just on the RSX, the CELL its untouched, so the 3 Beep Shutdown problem still persists, but the machine stays on for countless hours without any issue, but since you mentioned that replacing the NEC on the CELL side erases the problem, i might do that.

Ive did some research a while back on this NEC YLOD Shutdown process with @sandungas, we've concluded that indeed more NECs had to be replaced, but didn't know where on the RSX or CELL side, guess that evens the odds, there must be a pair responsible for the Start Up and another for the Shutdown process.

Anyway, just bridge on both sides, but just 1 pair of Tantalums, catch my drift?

Bridge the Tantalums on the CELL and RSX on both sides of the board, i am sure there its a trace shared between the positive points on one end, but not to the other.

I cannot explain this in the exact words, but ill use one of my board schematics to explain it, ill do it tomorrow, but its pretty easy to understand.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

i own the A01/B01/E01 B/C PS3s the B01 WAS the only one with any issues and runs a-lot cooler since it has a 15-blade fan, at least it runs cooler then my A01/E01. i will eventually do this to the rest of my PS3s that use NECs but these replacement Caps cost so much.

its nice to know that these PS3s can be fixed Semi-Easily.

if you replace a CELL NEC let me know the results i would like to know since we both had the same issues.

thanks for clearing up the Bridging stuff that doesn't sound as confusing now

Anyways, Thanks Again For this Very Helpful Tutorial

 

[AluCarD3939]

Hi everyone, i am new here.
I have a ps3 fat that CECHG03 with powering up issue, when i try to boot the console it will goes like : Green>Yellow>Blinking red
if i keep trying turning it on for like 5 min continuously, it will run normal. if the console was off like for 1 hour or 2.
Then i need to start the process again, since i saw this topic via reddit, i knew the issue was with capacitors.
What i am planing to do is going to replace NEC Capacitors with Tantalums but i want to know which one to start.
Also Naked_Snake1995 i want to help since i got start up process issue maybe this will give you info to your research.

Also i found this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/328...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_4,searchweb201603_55
Its 2.5v 470uf, what do you think? should i buy it ?

 

[Naked_Snake1995]

i own the A01/B01/E01 B/C PS3s the B01 WAS the only one with any issues and runs a-lot cooler since it has a 15-blade fan, at least it runs cooler then my A01/E01. i will eventually do this to the rest of my PS3s that use NECs but these replacement Caps cost so much.

its nice to know that these PS3s can be fixed Semi-Easily.

if you replace a CELL NEC let me know the results i would like to know since we both had the same issues.

thanks for clearing up the Bridging stuff that doesn't sound as confusing now

Anyways, Thanks Again For this Very Helpful Tutorial

I did this morning on the CELL side, and i must say Holy $h@t [emoji23]

No more annoying beeps on the shutdown, guess even i have to learn something new each day [emoji23]

Thanks for sharing the info, ill make sure to add it to the tutorial as a troubleshooting for this specific Partial/YLOD problem.

Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

 

[sandungas]

So as someone who has only one ps3 I was wondering how hard is this actually to do? I have done some soldering on some old gameboys and such to backlight them. I want to do this as last of us crashes in the city and I'm suspecting its these capacitors.

Is not hard to do, usually there are many solder works where is needed a solder iron with low power and a very small tip (like 1mm or even 0,5mm).. but for this work is not needed
Actually, you can use one of that rusy solder irons overpowered and with a huge tip for this

The easyest way to remove the factory tokins is by "destroying" them... there are 2 ways to do it
With a knife as Naked_Snake1995 suggested... or by touching the tokins in the middle at top with the solder iron and holding it for lot of seconds

Personally i think is safer to do it with the solder iron... if just is going to be more "dirty" because there is going to create lot of toxic smoke, materials residues, etc... Is going to be needed to clean up all the area later with isopropil alcohol but i think is better because this way there is no need to struggle with it

The point is... with the knife you need o apply "forces" (that could crack some copper trace or could create scratches)... and by "burning" the tokin with the solder iron the board is not going to suffer


Edit:
Btw, if some of you have a solder iron with a set of replaceable tips... like this ones... the best you can use for this task is the number 7 starting from the left... you know, the biggest one, intended to be used for some "brute works" and also intended to transfer a lot of heat to the motherboard

 

[Naked_Snake1995]

Is not hard to do, usually there are many solder works where is needed a solder iron with low power and a very small tip (like 1mm or even 0,5mm).. but for this work is not needed
Actually, you can use one of that rusy solder irons overpowered and with a huge tip for this

The easyest way to remove the factory tokins is by "destroying" them... there are 2 ways to do it
With a knife as Naked_Snake1995 suggested... or by touching the tokins in the middle at top with the solder iron and holding it for lot of seconds

Personally i think is safer to do it with the solder iron... if just is going to be more "dirty" because there is going to create lot of toxic smoke, materials residues, etc... Is going to be needed to clean up all the area later with isopropil alcohol but i think is better because this way there is no need to struggle with it

The point is... with the knife you need o apply "forces" (that could crack some copper trace or could create scratches)... and by "burning" the tokin with the solder iron the board is not going to suffer


Edit:
Btw, if some of you have a solder iron with a set of replaceable tips... like this ones... the best you can use for this task is the number 7 starting from the left... you know, the biggest one, intended to be used for some "brute works" and also intended to transfer a lot of heat to the motherboard

I usually do it with two steps, burn the NEC Plastic Cover,which creates a lot of plastic burnt fumes,unless you deal with it, and then when the interior its exposed, with a knife carefully pry it open underneath, you can use a screw driver to smack the knife slowly with the tip, avoiding scratching the PCB, if you know what you are doing,you can have a clean working enviorment on the PCB,even with the not most appropriate tools, if you take your time and patience, so you can remove it at once with some pliers, clean the board contacts,and you are pretty much done.

I say with a knife to pry it underneat,because with the soldering iron,they are a b@tch to remove,even at 500ºC Iron tip, it doesnt come off that easily.

 

[Naked_Snake1995]

Hi everyone, i am new here.
I have a ps3 fat that CECHG03 with powering up issue, when i try to boot the console it will goes like : Green>Yellow>Blinking red
if i keep trying turning it on for like 5 min continuously, it will run normal. if the console was off like for 1 hour or 2.
Then i need to start the process again, since i saw this topic via reddit, i knew the issue was with capacitors.
What i am planing to do is going to replace NEC Capacitors with Tantalums but i want to know which one to start.
Also Naked_Snake1995 i want to help since i got start up process issue maybe this will give you info to your research.

Also i found this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32832548758.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.1d886bc9vwpVZM&algo_pvid=63d8d946-bd0d-42c8-a711-9b7d8650ac48&algo_expid=63d8d946-bd0d-42c8-a711-9b7d8650ac48-1&btsid=368e76fc-ff31-4202-930d-c353d92bdcfa&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4,searchweb201603_55
Its 2.5v 470uf, what do you think? should i buy it ?

Judging by the description,you have a partial NEC Capacitor failure, and thats on the RSX, if it turns on after a few attempts then, yes, just focus on 1 NEC for now, it should fix your issue without any hitch,just be carefull when removing the NEC, as its a bit of a pain to get it off.

Thoes capacitors that you showed, will do just fine, 470uF at 2.5V, place 4 for each NEC/TOKIN.

 

[sandungas]

I usually do it with two steps, burn the NEC Plastic Cover,which creates a lot of plastic burnt fumes,unless you deal with it, and then when the interior its exposed, with a knife carefully pry it open underneath, you can use a screw driver to smack the knife slowly with the tip, avoiding scratching the PCB, if you know what you are doing,you can have a clean working enviorment on the PCB,even with the not most appropriate tools, if you take your time and patience, so you can remove it at once with some pliers, clean the board contacts,and you are pretty much done.

I say with a knife to pry it underneat,because with the soldering iron,they are a b@tch to remove,even at 500ºC Iron tip, it doesnt come off that easily.

Ok, yes is a bit of using both methods... the solder iron to try to "burn" it the most posible, and eventually tweezers/knife to remove small parts of the tokin material bit by bit

With the tiny SMD LEDs happens a bit the same... is almost imposible to desolder a LED without destroying it, the lighting material is made of plastic and is delicated... so the best approach to desolder them is to touch them with the solder iron in the middle to "destroy" and burn them... then use tweezers to remove the burned plastic materials... then add a lot of solder tin on top (to improve the heat transfer) and remove the metal rests of it entirelly with the tweezers

Technically it should be posible to remove them only by heat (even with a hot air gun)... but is needed lot of heat because the tokins are soldered to big areas of copper
That big areas are dissipating the heat

 

[littlebalup]

I still have a couple of yloded unopened units. I'll try that asap.

One question, why using 4 x 470uf tantalum capa in place of the 1200uf tokin? 4 x 330uf should be enough.

 

[Naked_Snake1995]

I still have a couple of yloded unopened units. I'll try that asap.

One question, why using 4 x 470uf tantalum capa in place of the 1200uf tokin? 4 x 330uf should be enough.

I recommend 470uF for the Phats from my experience, 330 didnt work for me, but you could try, i even did a combination of 2x330 and 2x470uF, it worked but it wasnt enough to hold the ground on more intensive titles.

 

[sandungas]

I still have a couple of yloded unopened units. I'll try that asap.

One question, why using 4 x 470uf tantalum capa in place of the 1200uf tokin? 4 x 330uf should be enough.

I told them several times :P

I recommend 470uF for the Phats from my experience, 330 didnt work for me, but you could try, i even did a combination of 2x330 and 2x470uF, it worked but it wasnt enough to hold the ground on more intensive titles.

Dude, it was not working because the tokins works in groups
CELL have 4 tokins = 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf = 4800uf total
RSX have 4 tokins = 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf = 4800uf total
You replaced only one (or 2) from a group... but is needed to replace the 4 together of each group

In other words... lets say you had:
CELL have 4 tokins = 1100uf + 900uf + 1000uf + 600uf = 3600uf total
By replacing only one (or a couple) of them the resulting capacitance is not enought

This is why i insist to say that is a lot better to repace all the tokins in groups of 4

 

[littlebalup]

I told them several times :P

Dude, it was not working because the tokins works in groups
CELL have 4 tokins = 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf = 4800uf total
RSX have 4 tokins = 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf = 4800uf total
You replaced only one (or 2) from a group... but is needed to replace the 4 together of each group

In other words... lets say you had:
CELL have 4 tokins = 1100uf + 900uf + 1000uf + 600uf = 3600uf total
By replacing only one (or a couple) of them the resulting capacitance is not enought

This is why i insist to say that is a lot better to repace all the tokins in groups of 4

I agree. If 330uf didn't worked is probably because other // tokins lost some capacitance. Better to replace all of them.

 

[Naked_Snake1995]

I told them several times :P

Dude, it was not working because the tokins works in groups
CELL have 4 tokins = 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf = 4800uf total
RSX have 4 tokins = 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf + 1200uf = 4800uf total
You replaced only one (or 2) from a group... but is needed to replace the 4 together of each group

In other words... lets say you had:
CELL have 4 tokins = 1100uf + 900uf + 1000uf + 600uf = 3600uf total
By replacing only one (or a couple) of them the resulting capacitance is not enought

This is why i insist to say that is a lot better to repace all the tokins in groups of 4

I think i didnt express myself in the right way,my apologies, but when i mentioned a combination i meant a group of 4 for 1 NEC, thats being 2x330 and 2x470, but the order was this 330/470 on one end,and 330/470 on one end, but as i mentioned before it worked,but it wasnt holding the ground for more demanding titles.

The issue with this NEC fix is that,you dont know which NECs are good and operational,and which are bad, its a shot in the dark fix kind of thing, but thats another concern, at least with 470uF on the RSX and CELL for me holds just fine, and honestly i am sick of touching this C04 to be honest!