PlayStation®3 General Discussion

[LukeFranky]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this forum and would like some advice after attempting to fix an old PS3.

When I powered on the PS3 it would give me a green light but absolutely no sound or video. I spent some time online and tried reseting the video and getting into the safe mode menu. The unit would respond with the expected beeps but I could get no sound or video to show on my TV. I put it down to being a GPU issue.

I then opened the unit, cleaned it and tried the so called "penny" fix by coating some five cent pieces in themal paste and placing them between the processors and the heatsink. This simply made the unit run hotter and the fans spin faster.

I removed the 5 cents. I was out of themal paste and options so I tried the "toothpaste" trick as a last resort. Using toothpaste as a themal paste worked! I actually got sound and SOME video response from the unit.

The screen had many colour dots over it in both HDMI and AV. I tried resetting the video settings again, no better. However, I was able to bring up the safe mode menu, the screen still had coloured dots all over it but I could see the menu options and use them so I tried the various restore options. They made no difference at all.

Basically I have got the unit to a point where I can hear the PS3 main menu but I only see coloured dots. Seeing the safe mode menu is the best I can achieve so far.

As far as I tell I have two options: try some decent heatsink or do a reflow and new heatsink.

I have a heat gun that runs at 300c on low fan speed and 400c on high speed. The reflow guide I have says to use a gun at 350c so I'm thinking my heatgun may work to do a reflow but I'm not sure a reflow is necessary since I'm actually getting some video response. My assumption is the GPU is still overheating.

What are your recommendations? I'm not planning on buying a new PS3, I only want to try get this one to work on my own.

Thanks in advance

[YonNZL86]

Due to the fact you have opened your console and played around with the internals............ we here at PlayStation support cannot assist you in this endeavor.

[LukeFranky]

I can understand why PS employees wouldn't respond after opening the unit, but am I allowed to ask other community members for help?

Thanks for the heads up.

[iLythium]

Toothpaste as thermal paste? That's an interesting solution, albeit not likely a permanent one. At least your components will smell minty fresh!

[iLythium]

If you're still having issues with your console LukeFranky, please give our support centre a call on the relevant contact number and we will be able to assist you further.

Phone (Australia Support) : 1300 365 911

Phone (New Zealand Support) : 09 415 2447