PS3 hairdryer fix

[leestudd30]

Anyone heard of it? My PS3 had the yellow light of death and at the weekend I saw some videos of them being repaired with a hairdryer! Basically, I wrapped the ps3 in a towel, put it upside down and used a hairdryer on max to get hot air through the vents on the back for 20 mins. Afterwards, used a fan to cool it down for 20 mins also. Plugged it all in and hey presto, it worked again! Was well chuffed, no idea how long that repair will last though, could be hours, could be weeks. Using it for a few hours tonight so will find out!

[lozz]

What ps3 have you got - the slimline or the old chunky..
My old one as never overheated but the slimline we have lasts a hour or so before it does.

[mjb]

Interesting. I wouldn't have thought the plastic casing would be able to withstand the temperature required to reflow the solder (around 220c). I thought ABS melted at a little over 100c... Then there's the softer plastics like the wiring insulation in the PSU or the drive mechanism, and of course the poor HDD to think of...

Amazed it works A safer way would have been to strip out the main PCB and either lob it in the oven for a bit or hit it with a heat gun

[lozz]

Interesting. I wouldn't have thought the plastic casing would be able to withstand the temperature required to reflow the solder (around 220c). I thought ABS melted at a little over 100c... Then there's the softer plastics like the wiring insulation in the PSU or the drive mechanism, and of course the poor HDD to think of...

Amazed it works A safer way would have been to strip out the main PCB and either lob it in the oven for a bit or hit it with a big hammer/wheelie bin job

Edited that for you sir

[leestudd30]

Well I had bought a kit to fix it with thermal paste and I'd bought a heat gun, I'd had the ps3 fixed with the same problem before, for all I know that's what they did! I did take the hard drive out, does say on the net to remove it first. I was amazed too, I just thought I'd try this first before taking the thing apart, needs to last me till xmas at least when I can buy a PS4!

[Sonia406]

Interesting. I wouldn't have thought the plastic casing would be able to withstand the temperature required to reflow the solder (around 220c). I thought ABS melted at a little over 100c... Then there's the softer plastics like the wiring insulation in the PSU or the drive mechanism, and of course the poor HDD to think of...

Amazed it works A safer way would have been to strip out the main PCB and either lob it in the oven for a bit or hit it with a big hammer/wheelie bin job

Edited that for you sir

[gumby6371]

I've seen a few modified XBOX 360's mounted in nice big pc cases with 120mm fans to keep them cool, I've even seen some with a PS3 and a 360 mounted in the same case.

Always fancied having a go if I saw cheap consoles suffering with over heating issues, the extra cooling you get in a roomy PC case should iliminate the overheating a treat and good quality pc fans run almost silently as the RPM's are much lower on nice big fans and they move a lot more air.

Should be some cheap ones on the bay after crimbo