Coming to Terms with PS3’s YLOD

Dealspwn writes: The YLOD. The Yellow Light of Death. This is the dreaded sickness that PlayStation 3 owners fear. With my PS3 nearing its sixth birthday, it finally happened to me. While hardly as prevalent as the Red Ring of Death in the Xbox 360’s early days, the flashing yellow light is still cautiously feared amongst the PS3 community.

In order to cope with this grim occurrence I’ve incorporated the experience into my regular feature, The Sunday Seven. This isn’t a guide on how to fix the problem yourself, no, no, that’s a different fire hazard for a different day and for someone else to tell. This is what was running through my mind as I tried to come to terms with it and ultimately how to bring it back to life.

Hopefully, this won’t happen to you. So use this as a cautionary tale, an amusing anecdote by someone clearly a bit too much attached to a console or as a comparable accompaniment to your own past woes. Let’s face it; this is probably some form of karmic retribution any smugness of having a PS3 when everyone’s 360s were melting.

[maniacmayhem]

YLOD is just as old as RRoD, not necessary for this day and age.

[YoungPlex]

BS, I recently had the YLOD happen to me! I was pissed, but quickly found a temporary remedy just long enough to turn it on and play a game and traded it in! The cool part was that I was able to back most of my stuff up, got double trade in credit, and was able to get a new PS3 SS for just about free; it was on sale for $199.99 with 4 games and a 500gig HDD.

[bggriffiths]

Ha, nicely done dude!

[knowyourstuff]

Yeah, when I spent 80 bucks fixing my PS3, I backed up the hard drive to get all my old stuff back. This was a couple of years ago so I had to pay 300 bucks for another PS3, as there was no trade in special at the time, and no free games special either despite there being one only a few days prior to it happening. I decided to give my old PS3 to my sister, it died a few months later. I already sent it to get fixed to the same guy 5 times, and after 3 months of fixing it initially he wouldn't fix it another time. Oh well, I wasn't going to give him a cent more for it.

[slayorofgods]

I suffered the YLOD too, I actually think it is preventative knowing what I know now and going the the re-flowing process of trying to extend the life a little.

There was no way for me to have known this early in the ylod epidemic, but changing the thermo compound after owning a ps3 for five years will prevent the ylod.

[DOMination-]

No they fixed it with the jasper board that shipped with elites in 2007.

[Dark_Overlord]

@slayorofgods

"There was no way for me to have known this early in the ylod epidemic, but changing the thermo compound after owning a ps3 for five years will prevent the ylod."

Changing the thermo will make it last a bit longer, but not much. To properly fix it, you need to get it re-balled with leaded solder (The Xbox and PS3 both use that cheap crappy lead free solder).

[legionsoup]

Some kid will get a broken PS3 because of you. So selfish.

[cleverusername]

So then some poor gamer ended up buying it just for it to break within days!

[Dir_en_grey]

Only if people understand why a system get YLOD or RROD.
Most people probably know it's over heat, but they never stop to think why it over heated.

Overheat causes the circuits on the board to melt, and it's likely to snap during cool down, which will cause RROD or YLOD. 360 had a bad design not letting the heat properly escape, so it made it more likely for the RROD to happen.

But older systems are at risk of overheating due to dust clogging up the ventilation. (For new systems too if you don't put it in the ventilated place for the heat to escape)

The fix is called re-flowing by melting the circuits to try to reconnect the snapped circuit back together.

Because for time consuming and other reasons, people can't tell exactly which one of the circuit is snapped so they melt everything, and there's no guarantee every line well melt back properly and evenly, which is why your system is likely to break (circuit snapping again) after it's fixed.

So, if you have an older system you should just air blow it and keep the ventilation clean and clog free. Cuz dust is going to build up no matter what. And you really only have yourself to blame if it dies. (well there's also the likely hood of drive failure but that's the same for all PC parts and is easier to replace w/o worrying of the same part breaking down again)

[kayoss]

@Dark overlord
I had the ylod 4 years ago and look online on how to fix it. I re-thermaled it and it was fixed for about 2 months then i got it again. I did research and found that you have to re-ball it. I didn't want to do that so I cut two openings in the ps3 where the problem was and intergrated two large computer fans on it. So when the ps3 is turned one of the fan would turn on and blow cool air into it, the other would suck out the hot air to keep the ps3 cool. The air inside the ps3 would always be circulated with cold air. The same ps3 been working for 4 years now. I play gran turismo 5 on it and leave it on for hours while I go to work.

[YoungPlex]

"legionsoup
Some kid will get a broken PS3 because of you. So selfish."

"cleverusername
So then some poor gamer ended up buying it just for it to break within days!"

Calm down kiddies, Gamestop warranties their systems to work for 30 days, and I know for a fact that that system died in a matter of an hour or less! So if some little kid suffered it was only until he got the replacement, had it not been that way I probably wouldn't have done it.

Will someone please think of the children, oh the humanity... They should've bought a Wii lol!

[Emzx99]

Well played. It's almost impossible to find good deals with Gamestop, looks like you got one though.

[bggriffiths]

thankfully MS and Sony seemed to have cleared up their acts with more recent versions of their consoles. Or does anyone still have problems with either?

[guitarded77]

I had two hard drive failures with one of my 1st gen slims, but that's not Sony's fault. I had my FAT die a couple years ago, but it had thousands of hours on it and the fan failed and the automatic update kicked in on a 100++ degree Texas summer day while I was at work and the air was off. But with 3 PS3's I've never had a premature death. However, I keep my consoles as dust free as possible (inside and out), and I keep them in well ventilated spaces so they don't get too hot. I also have a 360 Pro-model with Jasper chip set and a Slim 360. I haven't had any problems with them, but they haven't had the same daily abuse my PS3's have had.

[jc48573]

the only difference between the two is that YLOD takes longer to happen. All I can say is that YLOD will happen to all "launch consoles" eventually. It's usually around 6 years.

[-Alpha]

Hey, don't get me nervous. I intend to buy a PS4 on launch, which is a first ever for me. Poor launch owners. Always getting bit in the ass for being loyal.

I always thought it would have been good on the parts of companies to offer some reward system for early buyers-- throw in some older games for free, start them with some online store credit, discount prices on games, etc., but I guess they can always rely on the diehard fans to sell to.

[Karpetburnz]

wow, I havnt had it yet and my PS3 is about 6 years old, Im suprised I havnt had it already.

[GamersRulz]

I have a launch PS3, still kicking a$$

[rayzorn]

still have a launch 60 here with a changed out hard drive and i havent had one problem. and even if i do its not hard to fix with a little time and a heat gun. helped one of my buddies fix his.

[legionsoup]

I have 2 launch PS3s. Both are on and played almost on a daily basis (one by me, and one by my kids), and mine are still going strong. They even play PS2 games!

[Derekvinyard13]

These are the exact reasons why I'm never buying launch day consoles ever again, there is always a problem

[YoungPlex]

I agree that both Sony and MS have had problems, but I don't think that Nintendo has ever had these issues. Both my 360 and PS3 (Original models) took a dump on me, but my Wii is still alive and kicking. I bought a Wii U because I'm pretty sure it will not have these problems. Oh well, I'm still buying a PS4 at launch.

[UnholyLight]

You never know. My first Xbox 360 waaaaay outlasted what it was supposed to (it was one of the closer to launch consoles..purchased Feb '06). I think I made it all the way to around November 2009 before I had 2 Red lights due to a failing fan and it wasn't able to distribute enough heat away from the console it finally gave out. I gamed many many many hours on that console in those years haha so I guess it was expected.

My friend came up with the ingenius solution to pull the face plate and body plates off and vaccuum clean the vents out...turns out there was tons of dust stuck in there too so that probably also created the problem hahaha. Also surprisingly, I had not really heard of YLOD before then, and suddenly my friend and 4 other playstation guys in our high school at the time all had the YLOD pretty close to one another (these were launch PS3's)

Other than that, I got a replacement, then sold it to a friend and I bought a Xbox 360 "slim" and it works perfectly.

[Irishguy95]

Nintendo don't have these issues because they don't use up to date hardware.

[Upbeat]

God I haven't heard of anyone getting the YLOD for about 4 years lol. article in my opinion is completely useless. and my opinion is Fact :)

[delboy]

I've had two laser lens replacements and one ylod on my ps3,then decided to buy a slim.
My fatty is still working after ylod fix but my laser is dead again for the third time.
So why would I even consider buying ps4 before Sony irons it out with ps4 slim?

[Reverent]

Regarding your comment history, I highly doubt you even own a PS3.

[Ragthorn]

I'm with Reverent, judging by your comment history, you seem to also be a Nintendo fanboy.

[delboy]

Silly fanboys, I own two ps3 and ower 40 games.
But that doesn't make me a Sony belivever or worshiper.
In fact I belive that ps3 will be the last Sony product I have ever bought.

[IAmLee]

I've still got my FAT PS3, haven't had one issue.
I've had an xbox, but that got RRoD

[Sucitta]

Re-Ball is the only way to really fix YLOD = )

[Persistantthug]

If your PS3's fans are kicking in significantly louder and longer than when you 1st bought it.....it's not a magical reason.......
It's generally because your thermal paste is drying out.
http://www.youtube.com/watc... <------- 6:00 mark

Change paste immediately.
If you're too afraid to open your PS3, I recommend looking for a mom & pop type of shop in your area. Craigslist has some in my area.... probably yours too.

Good luck

PS....I've changed mine, so PM me if there's anyone with questions :)