Playstation 3 Blinking Red, beeping three times fast

[megasdkirby]

Hello everyone!

No, but PS3 is not dead. :)

This is a friends PS3. It's the original 60GB model.

Problem is as follows, according to him: He was watching a movie, when all of a sudden the console shuts down by itself. He then proceeds to turn on the unit manually (touch button) when it starts to "boot" but then immediately turns red, blinking red with three consecutive fast beeps. It continues to blink endlessly after this.

What could be causing the problem? It's not the HDD, as he took it out and the same thing occurs.

Are they any free FAQs about this?

Thanks!

[Dangerboy]

From Sony's Page:

# Shut the PLAYSTATION 3 down completely and let it cool down to room temperature, then try running it again.
# If the fan cannot be heard before the system shut down, the PLAYSTATION 3 may need to be sent in for service.
# If there is no airflow from any of the vents, the system may need to be sent in for service.

Sounds like possible board failure. I Believe flat fee repair is $150 (might be less since the price drop.)

[megasdkirby]

Will the console boot up without an HDD installed?

[Moriya]

I don't think it would.
Sounds like an overheat. Since its a 60gb, I am gonna assume its no longer under warranty.

[Dr. Dib]

According to the sources of Google, well PSUforums, you can boot it up without the hard drive in the console. The PS3 will start and say it needs a Hard Drive to run.

[megasdkirby]

Well, I am trying to fix his PS3 today.

From everything I checked, it seems it has the YLOD syndrome. And they (as in internet folk) say it's quite common (though they also admit it's quite rare...so which is it?)

I also read about using a heatgun preset to 350 degrees celsius to "reflow" the solder on the CPU and GPU (which they say is the cause of the problem).

Has anyone done this? Any recommendations before I tacke this beast?

[gokugohandave]

660F seems to be quite a bit to be blowing on a cpu and gpu from a heatgun, unless it is surface mount, then i dont see another way of doing it.

[megasdkirby]

Well, I received the thermal compound a few days ago. I purchased Artic Silver 5, since it's the best, in my opinion.

I opened his console today. Way too many things to take out, like the drive, shieldings, cables, connectors, etc. After some time, I managed to isolate the motherboard. Wipped off the ceramic thermal paste it had (with rubbing alcohol) then left it to dry for a few minutes.

Applied the heatgun method on both the CPU and GPU. In circles, I passed the gun at a distance of 2 inches from the chips for around 25 seconds each (one cycle for the CPU and another for the GPU). Did this three times in a row (CPU/GPU, CPU/GPU, CPU/GPU) then quickly around the board. Left it to cool down for 30 minutes.

I then applied the AS5 on both the CPU and GPU and reattached the heatsink, fan, shieldings, etc. Naturally, I cleaned off the old ceramic thermal compound on the CPU/GPU as well as on the heatsink assembly.

After everything was re-connected, I turned it on...AND IT WORKED! :)

Been fooling around with the console, and everything seems perfect! :)

This was the tutorial I used:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_Ic1_TY-GU

It's well worth it, if done correctly.

Any questions, feel free to let me know! :)

[gokugohandave]

glad to see you got it working, if you couldnt I was gonna make an offer, ive been dying to find a "dead" ps3 that only needs a cd drive or something.