Is my PS3 still overheating after replacing the thermal grease? Did I screw it up?

you must fit the heat pads too, or you may need new ones

i left mine off and no matter what i did the fan would spin up fast and loud, once i replaced the heat pad it was then whisper quiet

edit, I'm working from memory of a year or so ago, but the pads fit between the 2 square bits on the back of the heat shield and backside of cpu and gpu the board, i didn't think they would be that important but they were

 

Pea-sized is way too much AFAIK. Some people say pea-sized, some people say grain of rice, but the only way to know you're applying the right amount is to apply it by hand with a credit card or similar making sure to get it all even. From watching my dad do that multiple times, I can say wih certainty that a pea-sized blob of thermal paste is way too much. You want enough to make proper contact, but too much will affect the thermal conductivity in a bad way, because the heat has to pass through more material, and the thermal paste is not as thermally conductive as metal (though Arctic Silver does contain metal, it's not all metal)
I don't own a PS3, but from what I've heard modern consoles tend to get hot, just not as bad as the 360. So it might be normal, but I haven't been there to feel how hot it's getting, so I don't know for sure.

 

get your system reballed ASAP! its old, which means the solder joint are old and being to ware out. dont get a reball done and youll be getting a visit rom the YLOD. and if anyone says to just do a reflow with liquid flux, ignore them because that will only prevent ylod for a little bit.

 

His System does not need to be reballed (YET).
He would have to remove the heatspreaders, (the sheets of metal where you put the thermal paste on) the ones labeled as RSX and CELL BE.
here is a great tutorial for it!
http://bgamods.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=198

Now you are probably wondering WHY you would have to do this.
As described in your first post your paste is dried out and is crumbling.
The same thing is happening to the stuff under the Metal sheets or rather the heatspreaders.
They will be hard to take off since they use something else called Thermal Adhesive.

TLDR:
To get cooler temps, you will have to do this process.

 

try put more pressure betwen cpu heatspreaders and coller.you have to prepare piece of hard paper and stick on plate with super glue.guy named nsc on youtube have many tutorials "how to".

 

install webman and setup manual speed for about 40%. enable automatic speed and set for 65-68 celsius.

 

I reccomend Arctic silver 5. Spread it.

 

Any idea how thick in mm the square piece should be? I don't think I have any packaging of that thickness by default.

 

To be sure that you put thermal paste correctly just remove heat sink again and check how evenly thermal paste spreaded after being put under pressure. If it's even and covers something like 85-90% of the metal heatspreader then it's ok, now just remove the thermal paste and apply again the same as before.

Arctic MX-4 is a really good thermal paste, for any digital electronic, be it a laptop, pc, or a console.

But as @soratheultima mentioned before, to get good results you need to remove heat spreaders from cpu and gpu, as there's thermal past too (and thermal adhesive), but it's real risky (but it's the only real fix). It's easire to remove from gpu, but you need to be very careful removing ot from the cpu (I myself killed two ps3 before I learned how to do it). To remove cpu heat spreader you need some very thin tool and a heat gun or a strong hairdryer. There are videos and guides online for this procedure, look it up.

 

Use arctic Silver 5 and a credit card to spread it evenly on the heat spreaders. Then place a half a pea sized ball in the middle of the cpu & gpu. The idea is to make sure there is no air gaps between the heat sink and spreaders. Make sure you get the heat sink clean in the process.

you can also install a minimum fan speed switch if you want. I usually do when I rebuild them and they keep the processors about 10C cooler.

As long as the processors stay below 80 you should be fine.

 

Sorry for offtopic, but why in nearly every thread about termal paste there are some people who suggest arctic silver 5? It's a very good thermal paste, sure, but it isn't so much better then arctic mx-2 (1-3° C difference) but it is MUCH more expensive (like 3-4 times more expensive) and much harder to find. So what's the point? I just can't understand it.

 

Arctic silver has small amounts of silver in it. Hence the name. Silver is great at dissipating the heat. You can get it on amazon for about $6 a tube.

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if you’re looking at terms of cost, it’s only $2 or so more for as5. Don’t know if I would want to go cheap on a CECHA01 console worth about $300 to save $2.

 

@VyperS_702, the thing is, where I live, arctic mx-2 is sold for about $7.80 for 8g, mx-4 for same price but for 4g and arctic silver 5 for $15.3 but for 3.5g, so it's much more expensive, at least where I live. I once bought arctic silver 5 for classic style xbox 360 (it was falcon afair) which worked for about a couple of weeks and then got RRoD (I got it reflowed). After it got RRoD I reballed the gpu and this time I used arctic mx-2. The difference in temperatures was 3-4 degrees at most. Arctic mx-2 is a really good thermal paste, my favourite even, with a very fair price to quality ratio. It dries up very slowly so you don't need to apply it every so often, much much better in conducting heat than low cost greases and it's price is really good for its quality. So I wonder, why many people think arctic silver 5 is so much better? Btw, in case of OP, only applying new thermal grease will not solve anything, he needs to remove heat spreaders and replace thermal paste underneath them, this is the only sure fix of his problem (judjing by experience).

 

It will need Delid CPU and GPU and that Paste will need replaced underneath the Heat Spreader/Heat Plate.

And it can be a bstard to do without the right tool I have been there done that and Failed!

So either Delid and replace the paste underneath or WaterCool or another modification is required.

I intend to get another at some point and will have to face the same problem yet again.

I had internal Fan going 100% aswell as Nyko InterCooler Exhausting At back with x4 small Fans Exhausting and a Fan at top Exhausting.
And x4 USB Fan set blowing Air in.

Arctic Cooler MX4 also applied.

Temps continued to climb and PS3 was already unbearable due to sound like a Compresser running.

The CPU was the main culprit climbing constantly at 80 Degrees at climbing.

I even made HDD External and PSU and still it really is like a George Foreman Grill.

Only other option would involve heavy modding to fit a PC Case.