Playstation 3 Capacitor Replacement + YLOD - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: lachlanjb1
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 07, 2016, 05:16:15 am
content: Hello Forum!(First post by the way so go easy on me.)Recently I picked up a faulty Playstation 3 to learn about electronics, as well as try to get it working again. The unit suffer’s from the yellow light of death, indicating an error somewhere on the board. From what I understand this fault is commonly caused by bad solder on the ball grid array on either the GPU or CPU I heard that these fault can typically be fixed by heating the CPU and GPU in order to reform the solder in the ball grid array under each chip and make a better connection. (I know this is sounds dodgy but it did fix an Xbox 360 only two weeks earlier). The previous owner had put really poor quality thermal pads on some IC’s (which had set rock hard) so I decided to try and scrape them off with a knife. Unfortunately my knife slipped and snapped one of the tiny SMD capacitors off the board (at least that’s what I think it is). I tried to solder it back on and reflow the mother board in an oven. However the Playstation still isn’t satisfied. I have attached some photo’s of the motherboard and would really appreciate it if anyone could give me some guidance. I had a look online and actually found the service manual and found the component.Link to the Service Manual:http://docslide.us/documents/60gb-80gb-ps3-service-manual-5th-edition.htmlIt’s component C6057.I have included some pictures of the component that broke off.Are these capacitors polarised?Is there a way isolate the problem?Could I replace this with a ceramic capacitor of similar value?ThanksLachlan

author: fubar.gr
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 07, 2016, 03:53:02 pm
content: These are ceramic caps and they are not polarized.Size is 1005 (10 mils by 5 mils) and capacity is 1 microfarad. Max voltage rating is 10 Volts.I searched the Element 14 website with these parameters and couldn't find a cap in this size, but the pads look large enough to accommodate aslightly smaller 0805

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 07, 2016, 04:10:30 pm
content: Quote from: fubar.gr on December 07, 2016, 03:53:02 pmThis is not 01005 (size of piece of dust), and not even metric metric 1005 which is the same as 0402. Also there is no size info in the schematic for this particular cap. I would say a lot of capacitors look like imperial 0402 (metric 1005 on schematic), and this cap looks like imperial 0603. Those which are marked as 2012 on the schematic (should be metric) = imperial 0805.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 07, 2016, 04:23:31 pm
content: As of this capacitor itself, lack of it shouldn't affect anything. There are plenty of other capacitors on the same power rail, so replacing it won't fix the problem.

author: Harrkev
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2016, 06:29:59 pm
content: Wraper nailed it. Without that cap, the worst that you will ever encounter is MAYBE an occasional glitch or unexplained crash or lockup (unlikely). If the unit won't boot without the cap, the chances are vanishingly slim that it will boot with the cap.

author: Postal666
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2016, 06:54:14 pm
content: just an observation: is that flux (or crud) on the passives below the regulator on the right, or is that area burned?Rule #1 check for voltages. A shorted supply line could pull the CPU/GPU down (if that's the case) and cause the system to report the YLOD? Possibly, I dunno. No experience with the PS3 topology. I would give the hardware a thorough look, ala Louis Rossman, before chalking up the reflow a failure, if it was even necessary to begin with. Good luck!!

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 07, 2016, 07:12:46 pm
content: Quote from: Postal666 on December 07, 2016, 06:54:14 pmAs he said he reflowed it, I guess, he put some tacky plux around the BGA and then fried the whole board in some kind of oven. Therefore what you see should be burned flux oozing through the vias.QuoteAnd two weeks later it will fail again, as this is not solder ball issue. Failure occurs in the chip itself, heating just makes a walking dead of it, which keeps going for a few weeks more.QuoteVery common myth and bullshit exploited by some dishonest repair technicians.

author: Postal666
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 07, 2016, 07:28:51 pm
content: Yeah, OP wasn't real clear if they reflowed before or only after the cap fail. re-reflowed maybe?Kudos for the LR link, wraper. That's what I'm talking about. If all supply voltages are good and still YLOD I'd toss it. However, if a rail IS down it might be valuable learning to diagnose/repair it and hope (unlikely) that the re-reflowing didn't fubar anything else.

author: lachlanjb1
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 11:16:16 am
content: The unit was purchased with the fault with my intention of trying to diagnose the fault and hopefully fix it. I'm only 17 and am still quite a novice when it comes to electronics. The warranty sticker was broken when I purchased it, and it appears that the original owner had reflowed the board at some point and it has failed again. (Due to the presence of flux on the board). I was going to try reflowing the board again just to see if it would work as an experiment. But this was when that capacitor broke off.My question now is: Whats the point of that capacitor being there if there is already other capacitors doing the job?The ps3 in question is an original launch day model with PS2 backwards compatibility (which is actually quite hard to find in Australia since they cost over $1000 back in 2006) so I would like to fix it as opposed to just throwing it in the bin.

author: Postal666
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 09:13:35 pm
content: Quote from: lachlanjb1 on December 08, 2016, 11:16:16 amIf that's the case, then sadly it's toast, as explained in the LR vid.QuoteMost likely just some decoupling/RC filtering on whatever line that trace is. As wraper said, at worst it might cause some random hiccup, but will in no way be the cause or solution to the YLOD.I'm a beginner as well...I would still take the opportunity to measure everything, compare to the schematics, try to gain some insight on how things work. You have an opportunity at some fantastic resources here on the forum. Explore that board. Anything you can't figure out on your own....ask. Between the "hands on" with the board and the forum members, you will gain insight and intuition that WILL eventually more than recoup the cost of a bad board.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 08, 2016, 09:33:58 pm
content: Decoupling capacitors usually are used in large numbers on particular rail, often of different values (like on this schematic) to provide good decoupling at wide frequency range. Usually they are distributed close to the power pins of ICs, sometimes there may be almost a hundred of them under some large BGA. So lack of one ceramic capacitor may or may not somewhat reduce stability, but it would be an utterly rare case to make the device completely inoperable.

author: fubar.gr
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 09, 2016, 04:13:55 pm
content: Actually that capacitor is the main filter cap in the output of a voltage regulator.At 1uF it is much bigger than the other 4 caps (0.1 uF each), so there is a very small chance that its absence could cause the PS3 to not boot.So you have nothing to lose by replacing that cap. They are dirt cheap and in any case you'll get some experience on SMD soldering!