Hardware PS3 won't boot, power supply didn't fix anything. Help?

[Devil May Cry]

I bought an old PS3 with hopes of fixing it because the symptoms it has resemble that of a burnt out power supply. So I bought a power supply from eBay pulled from another PS3 (same model APS-231), swapped them and it fixed nothing. Is there something I'm missing here? Below are the issues:

• No light when plugged in
• Pressing the power button while plugged in will briefly turn it green and you can hear the disc drive booting up, but then it will abruptly shut off
• Eject button just makes the typical sound when there is no disc in the system
• Happened to notice this, but the Blu-ray drive is kind of loose. Is this supposed to be firmly secured?

If anyone knows what my next course of action should be, that'd be awesome. Thanks!

 

[Wisenheimer]

I would try checking the hard drive (sometimes that will prevent a boot) and doing a reflow if that doesn't work. If it is something else, probably not worth the cost of repair.

The Bluray drives on the fats are not secured by anything once you take off the top cover.

 

[Devil May Cry]

I would try checking the hard drive (sometimes that will prevent a boot) and doing a reflow if that doesn't work. If it is something else, probably not worth the cost of repair.

The Bluray drives on the fats are not secured by anything once you take off the top cover.

Thank you for replying! I'm hoping this won't require a reflow (I don't have any of the tools), so I'll check the HDD. I'm also getting the seller to hopefully swap the power supply I got with a different one.

 

[Wisenheimer]

Thank you for replying! I'm hoping this won't require a reflow (I don't have any of the tools), so I'll check the HDD. I'm also getting the seller to hopefully swap the power supply I got with a different one.

Well, all you really need is some thermal paste and a heat gun, but usually you get a YLOD with errors a reflow might fix (cracked solder on the GPU usually). It could be something else, like a busted ribbon cable, a blown capacitor, a burned out transistor or resistor. Look for scorching on the mother board and make sure the capacitors are not bulging. If a capacitor is bulging or ruptured, or a part is burned out, you might be able to solder a new one on.

 

[Devil May Cry]

Well, all you really need is some thermal paste and a heat gun, but usually you get a YLOD with errors a reflow might fix (cracked solder on the GPU usually). It could be something else, like a busted ribbon cable, a blown capacitor, a burned out transistor or resistor. Look for scorching on the mother board and make sure the capacitors are not bulging. If a capacitor is bulging or ruptured, or a part is burned out, you might be able to solder a new one on.

Huh, okay I'll keep an eye out for those. Are the replacement parts cheap and easy to swap?

 

[Wisenheimer]

Huh, okay I'll keep an eye out for those. Are the replacement parts cheap and easy to swap?

It depends what it is. If it is something you can cut off the board and resolder, like a resistor, it is easy. If it is something like an IC chip, it is just not worth the effort.

Usually on the PS3 it is cracked joints on the GPU, and you can often fix them (no guarantee on the length of time) by heating up the solder on the GPU so that it melts and reforms. If that is the problem, it will usually work aftwerwards. The second time it YLOD, that is a sure sign that you are living on borrowed time. Unless your "reball" the processor, reflows are going to be a temporary solution because you can only reflow cold joints so many times before they become too brittle.