good news everyone, ifixit guide saved my fatty PS3!! huzzah!

Meu Problema

after around 5 years of CONSTANT use my PS3 decided to give me the dreaded yellow light of death. as soon as i saw the yellow light i got on amazon and overnighted a new one to my doorstep. i had read the newer models run a lot more quiet and run a little faster when loading menus and such. i had been kinda waiting for the fatty to kick the bucket. however, i had all my save games on the fatty PS3 as well as a bluray disc that i needed to get.

Minha Solução

even if the ifixit repair kit didnt fix the fatty PS3 i was going to give it a glowing review anyway. the kit comes with everything needed to do the fix. for the price you get a heat gun (ive been wanting one forever just to stick on the shelf in case i need one, now i have one!) and a nice little tool kit with various bits for small electronics.

the step by step guide and video made this fix easy for anyone. if you can follow written instructions YOU CAN DO THIS. its not really that hard. it does take some patience, but 50 bucks and a few hours is well worth the possibility of not having to go out and buy another PS3 if you dont have $250 laying around.

Meu Conselho

have a small phillips head screw driver available to suppliment the kit you get. i would imagine the kit phillips bits would do just fine, but i have a small phillips head screw driver in the kitchen junk drawer and it worked well on the bigger screws.

when you are heating up the motherboard and the chips to "reflow" the whatever that is broken in the board, dont be scared. the thing is already broken anyway, kinda hard to break it even worse.

when you have to remove a couple of the ribbon cables pay close attention to their orientation and how they go back in. it may be a good idea to get a piece of tape and write down the connection point on the ribbon. i didnt do this and i did do a little head scratching when putting things back together, following the tear down instructions in reverse. also pay close attention to the depth at which the ribbon cables go into the connections. again, i was scratching my head a little but got it all back together and working in the first try.