Post: [TUT] Permanent Method to Prevent YLOD & Hardware Failure from PS3 Overheating
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05-16-2014, 04:27 PM
#1
Respect_Cartman
Maggbot timeout!
If you follow this method properly than I do not see a reason for you to ever get YLOD or Hardware Failure from system overheating.
Background
Since summer is approaching and many folks including myself and especially those that are living in hotter climates do get concerned about console overheating. That is why I started to do my own research to find a good solution to prevent my PS3s from overheating and honestly I could not find a single product that had decent reviews for affordable price. So my quest lead me to look at how other people have been addressing overheating issues and I basically came to the understating of increasing the air intake and some people using laptop cooling pad to prevent a hot air pocket forming beneath PS3. But from the videos I saw, I did not find a long term solution that will answer all the problems i.e.
- If you are just making an open intake than you are running into your fan sucking in dirt and dust. Bad Idea because excess dirt and dust will result in YLOD!
- Making holes at the bottom – Sure helps release the heat quicker but creates a hot air pocket at the base and will result in console eventually going up in temperature.
- Putting your PS3 on a laptop cooling pad may help a bit but not a long term solution as they suck air from the bottom and push it to the base. This may cool your console from the bottom but will trap some hot air inside your console for longer than usual.
After doing some research and using my field experience with hardware, I came up with a reliable and long term solution while keeping affordability in mind. My project was originally based on the methods I learned from UltraNSC on YouTube (link in credits) but I found few flaws upon utilizing his technique.
1. He really did not give details of proper tools to use. Using a round medium grove bit (as shown in the video is a bad idea because it slips. I learned the hard way, hence the delay in posting this TUT lol).
2. Using a bug mesh is not good enough because I saw significant dirt build-up in a short amount of time.
3. It was hard to frame the mesh without stretching it uneven or ripping it from sides.
4. It is risky because if you screw it up wrong, you will leave extra holes that will result in your cooling fan sucking in dust and they just look ugly (Unless you don’t mind paying for a new top plate).
5. Although heat was being dispersed quickly but hot air pocket was still being formed under my PS3s.
Why My Method?
After doing much research on how PS3 cooling system works and products being offered out there, I decided to go take the hands on approach and come up with a method that you will take pride in yourself and be easy on your pocket at the same time. Since I already own a drill machine and a drill bit set. My method only cost me about $15-20/console (that is cheaper than any console cooling product out there)
So far, I have performed my method on 4 different PS3s, 2 running 4.46 Rebug D-REX and 2 running Rogero 4.55 CEX. So far all four systems are performing well and temperatures are staying in 50s even after running them for straight for 5-7 hours.
** DEX running in upper 50c range & CEX in lower 50c range. **
Estimated Time of Completion: 1-2 hours (depending on how fast you can take your PS3 apart and how good you are with your tools). It took me between 1 to 1 ½ hour on first system and avg. of 45 minute on other 3.
List of Materials
1. Standard tools that you may require to disassemble your PS3 i.e. Screw driver set, Ice cube tray or pill box (for screws), nose plier, etc.
2. Marking pencil/marker & a ruler/tape measure for measurements.
3. Super Glue or any glue that will make a strong bond between two plastic surfaces.
4. A pencil compass to make a 120mm circle on top plate. (if you don’t have one than steal from your sibling’s from his/her geometry box or use an can or object that has roughly 120mm lip. In my case, empty yogurt tub :p).
5. Drill Machine & ½” Wood Spade/Paddle Bit and 1/8” or 1/16” drill bit (depending on screws supplied with your fan cover).
You can use other bits but this bit will make this process effortless and cut your time in half (if not more).
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6. 120mm PC Cooling fan cover with grill and plastic frame. Make sure the filter you buy comes in a grill to prevent ripping and easy placement over your PS3. I purchased one below for about $5 from Amazon.
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7. eForCity 3-Fans USB Cooling Pad. I am recommending this particular fan for the following reasons:
a. It is very easy to turn fans upside to blow air out instead of blowing air to the base of your console.
b. It has 3 small fans that make absolutely no noise. (I tried one with 230mm fan and it was loud and annoying)
c. Is it like $4-6 on.
d. LEDs are a bonus.
b. It has 3 small fans that make absolutely no noise. (I tried one with 230mm fan and it was loud and annoying)
c. Is it like $4-6 on.
d. LEDs are a bonus.
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8. USB extension Male-to-Female & USB wall plug (to keep your console USB ports free)
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9. Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste (Optional, if you want to apply a fresh coat of thermal paste on your CPU and GPU. Will add about 10-15 minutes to this process but it is worth the time!) If you want to watch on how to apply paste to your CPU & GPU than watch the video in step 1 below.
Tip: I use alcohol wipes for cleaning. They are typically a common household item and they don’t leave any fiber residue like regular cotton balls. Also, once you apply an even and thin layer of paste, make one small pea size drop in middle of each cell to increase contact between two cells.
***Caution: One tube of arctic silver should last you to cover a minimum of 2 (4 cells). If you are using any more than ½ tube on each console than you will get overheating issues, even YLOD because heat is not transferring from cells to the heat sink properly***
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Method
1. Disassemble your PS3 and separate your top and base plate. Also, I recommend to apply a fresh coat of thermal paste to make your PS3 cool even more efficiently and increase its life. Watch the video posted below to learn how to disassemble your PS3, applying new coat of paste and reassemble it after completing this tutorial.
2. Turn your base plate upside down and draw horizontal lines about 1 ½ to 2 centimeters apart. (You can be creative and make patterns but make sure all the holes should be even so heat can be dispersed equally from all sides)
3. Take your drill machine, insert ½ wood paddle bit and start making holes in straight lines. You can get creative and maybe form a pattern but keep in mind, the goal is to allow heat from motherboard to escape efficiently and evenly.
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CAUTION: Make sure that you avoid groves for motherboard screws on the bottom plate (see below). If you drill holes near them or somehow drill through them than your motherboard may not sit properly.
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4. Your PS3 slim fan is 95mm but you will make holes in a 120mm diameter to increase air flow. Take your PC Cooling fan cover and place aprox 1" from the bottom edge of your PS3 and aprox 1/3” from the left and draw a horizontal and vertical line.
Note: I am not putting exact measurements because I am not sure which model of PS3 you have. You will have to take a rule or a tape measure to measure the distance of your fan from the front and left of your console body. It is more effective if you are making holes right above the fan to allow air flow directly into the cooling fan.
5. Take a pencil compass or any container with 120mm mouth, place it exactly against the vertical and horizontal lines and draw a circle around it.
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6. Carefully place your drill bit about 1 cm in the circle and start drilling holes with even gaps.
CAUTION: Place cover on a sturdy, non-skid surface and if you are doing it alone than ALWAYS use a non-skid/rubber mat and place heavy objects on each side of your case to prevent any slips or accidents.
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7. Now take your PC cooling fan filter and place it on top of the holes you have created and mark the holes where you will drill holes for your screws. (look in picture above).
8. Now depending on the width of supplied screws, properly place the bit in drill and drill a hole on top left and bottom right hole. It is important to keep the curvature of top plate in mind and place filter down from both sides to drill accurate holes.
9. Once holes are drilled, screw in filter to see if your filter is sitting flush with your top plate and there is no gap from either side.
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If you are satisfied with the results than drill holes for the remaining two screws and finish securing the filter on top plate.
10. After securing your filter you can reassemble your PS3 as normal by following the video posted in step 1.
Your finished product should look like this…
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11. Now take eForCity 3-Fans USB Cooling Pad and remove screws that are holding each fan in place from the bottom. Take each fan out, flip it upside down and push it back in their respective slots (You may have to use a bit of force bit they will sit back in and be careful to not break the acrylic sheet because it is kind of flimsy).
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12. Once each fan is properly sitting in its slot than use super glue on each side to secure them permanently.
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13. Once super glue has dried, now put cooling pad where ever you would like to store your PS3, place your PS3 on the cooling pad, use USB extension with wall plug to turn your cooling pad on and enjoy hours of gaming without any worries of overheating or YLOD
Important Tips & Recommendations
1. If you have your PS3 placed in an enclosed media center than instead of payload setting you may want to use manual setting from your control fan utility to adjust the fan speed anywhere from x70-x80 to increase the intake. I keep my DEX at x80 and CEX at x70 because my PS3s are setup under a HD Projector that emits massive amount of heat.
2. Just like your gaming PC with high flow cooling fan, open your PS3 every 4-6 month and use a compressed air canister or an electric air blower to clean any dirt/dust buildup.
3. Regardless of following this tutorial you should change thermal paste at least once in 12-16 months to increase your cell’s life.
Results
*** One of my test consoles would shut down after playing game for 10-15 minutes and red light will start blinking red. This Method has permanently resolved this issue and his console runs the entire night without over freezing, heating or shutting down at all. Maximum temperature recorded after playing game for 4+ hours = 54C CPU & 58C GPU ***
Looks like…
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After 2 hours of playing GTA Online...
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After 4 hours of playing GTA Online...
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After 6 hours of playing GTA Online...
(I will upload this picture over the weekend as I forgot to take picture late at night)
Future Tutorials
That day my brother was feeling a little extra creative and we made the following additions ...
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Credits
Myself for performing research, refining methods, finding suitable components and performing this method on several PS3s.
colt380 (my brother) for lending a helping hand in this project. and helping throughout this project.
All members of Project Mayhem for always supporting me. Destiny Force, LiZzBeAr7SiNs, MocahNutz, Poison Virus, raymo2u, Reaper25, trippy_driddy
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Additional thanks to Wolf & Keysnsamples (from Se7ensins) for guiding me in troubleshooting PS3 over heating issues
UltraNSC for the initial idea. You can watch video of his work You must login or register to view this content.
Video Credits
GC-Repairs
Additional thanks to Wolf & Keysnsamples (from Se7ensins) for guiding me in troubleshooting PS3 over heating issues
UltraNSC for the initial idea. You can watch video of his work You must login or register to view this content.
Video Credits
GC-Repairs
***Disclaimer: Anyone mentioned in credits including myself are not responsible for any bodily, property or physical damage. You are responsible for your actions! If you are not an adult than perform all of the stated above actions under adult supervision. Opening your PS3 will void any warranties that you may have on your console. This method has been tried and tested on 4 different consoles for over a month without any YLOD, motherboard failure or any other issue.***
The following 30 users say thank you to Respect_Cartman for this useful post:
01-17-2015, 10:43 AM
#20
That1Guy24
Are you high?
04-04-2015, 06:39 PM
#21
baned4lifemods
Do a barrel roll!
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