One week after the repair, my PS3 is still running strong. At times during DVD or Blu-ray viewing, the fan gets noticeable loud, however that is nothing compared to the balls out crazy overdrive loud the fan kicks into while playing games. It is really random; cannot pick up a pattern to notice when the PS3 fan is going to decide to rid its case of some excess heat. While this PS3 has always had this issue, based on my knowledge of YLoD and listening to the fan post repair, I am resolved to the fact my PS3 will overheat again.
The repair was straight forward; except for the ribbons and a couple of other places where I was not 100% sure how to remove a part or going in reverse, put a part back in place. Now that I know how the ribbon connectors work, I could probably do the job again fairly quickly. In fact, I would say that I have enough confidence to try this repair for any friends and acquaintances that have a YLoD PS3.
One thing I did that may be helpful for others that wish to attempt a “do-it-yourself” repair is that for each step or section in the strip down process, I put screws, ribbons, small pieces, etc into a zip-lock bag, and then labeled the parts for future reassemble reference. To explain, I ended up with zip-lock bags for HDD Brackets, Cover Plate / HDD Blue Screw, PSU, Bluetooth, (Step 17) Sprung Brackets, and Power – 4 Screws / Main Bracket 8 Screws (Step 14). For any odd sized screws along the way, I made simple paper labels which I then taped to the screw, and put in the appropriate bag. I think this approach helped the reassemble process go smoothly.
The only real concern I had was on the use of the thermal compound kit. I ended up with a little paste left over. Does this mean I used too little? If I would have used the entire shot filler material, would that have been too much?
At this point I have tested everything, which made me realize that if I have to move to a slim at some point I would really miss the front loading media slots for camera memory cards. I enjoy the convenience of sticking a camera memory card into the PS3 and immediately watching the images and videos in my living room on the 42” Sony Bravio. Of course I also use my laptop as a media server, so there would be a work around.
The only really odd thing I encountered was during my backup process. Once I got the PS3 running again, I immediately backed up all my save files, however some could not be copied; not allowed to be copied is a better description. High Stakes Poker and Heavy Rain come to mind. This may be worth further investigation.
In conclusion, I am obviously happy with the results. I got the satisfaction of fixing my PS3, learned a lot in the process (thermal compounds, heat guns, tons of PS3 parts, oh my!), and was able to recovery my PS3 data. I am not confident that this repair will last very long, however any time I get between now and a future Slim model was money well saved. The great thing about this project is most anyone can do it successfully if they take time to read a repair guide. Patience and a willingness to make a mistake (trying something new) would also help.
