Thursday, November 4, 2021

Sony PS3 capacitors remove and replace - YLOD repair

I've already talked about this topic on the this post here: https://davidegironi.blogspot.com/2021/09/sony-playstation-3-fat-ylod-repair.html

Summarizing Sony Playstation 3 Fat use a kind of capacitor, namely the NEC/TOKIN, that dies after a while due to thermal stress. The result of this damage is the Yellow Led Of Dead (YOLD), in other word your PS3 will not boot.

The "uneasy" part on replacing those caps is the removal. For this reason I want to share with you the method I've used.

Keep in mind that this procedure may damage your PS3, so do this repair at your own risk, i am not responsible if your PlayStation 3 will not work anymore.

The trick I've use to remove those caps is to use a chisel. You can find it in the linked video. You just have to pay attention not to use to much force.

Once removed you have just to clean the trace with a soldering iron. I've used one with a big thermal mass, this helps cause there's a pretty big ground plane to heat.

Last step you have to install new capacitors, doing this keep in mind you have to stay "low" cause over the new caps there will be the metal frame of the PS3. By the way like I've said in the linked post I've used 470uF Tantalum capacitors, model 2R5TPE470M9. 4 for each of the NEC/TOKIN removed.

Removing the original caps you will lose the VCC join between the caps head, so you have to replace this with a piece of wire.

If you have done a good job, and the damage was just on capacitors, you are good to go, your Playstation 3 will boot again.

Notes

  • read risk disclaimer
  • excuse my bad english