PS3 Red/Yellow Light of Death

[Paul Komski]

Have a neighbour who has the problem stated in the title. On hard power-on I think I can hear the HDD making what may be clicks (but not too sure) and the red LED goes solid. Touching the front on/off results in the apparently well known three beeps associated with the right LED rapidly cycling green yellow green and then flashing red until you touch the on/off again - at the same time the left LED goes blue and goes off again. During the same phase you can hear what sounds like the blue-ray starting to spin (no disk in it as far as I know) and then spin down.

My guess is that the HDD may just need replacing but I have never had a play station in my possession before let alone having opened one of them.

There are repair guides out there for a price (http://www.ps3lightsfix.com/?hop=index1104) but before getting one or before just carefully attempting to open the thing up I thought I would ask if any members have either any practical advice or know of a good guide to go for.

The basics don't appear to be any different from troubleshooting a PC but just like laptops they may not be so simple to access until one has done it a few times - and preferably with a good (possibly free) manual.

[Paul Komski]

Hard Drive was easily removed and appears OK having tested with HD Tune. There is a DVD in the BlueRay Drive and which is not what spins for a second or two at power-on. Don't know how or whether one should attempt to eject the DVD. The short spin at startup must be some fan deeper inside and without additional advice/manual I am afraid to delve deeper into further disassembly.

[Paul Komski]

Bit of a one-man thread here but I think I should add that I got it fixed.

Stripped it down then cleaned off the old and put on new thermal paste and reassembled. It was overheating is my best guess.

[jlreich]

Good job Paul. :cool: I have never opened one up or even seen one for that matter as I am not a console gamer. But it does make sense that it is very much like a laptop. A computer is a computer, even if it is one made to perform specific tasks. Like they say the most difficult thing is to figure out how to get it open. :p

[Paul Komski]

He, he. I just kept unscrewing any visible screws whilst adding a bit of "gentle prising" here and there. The first screw that holds the top on was the most hidden of all. Once the mobo was totally unscrewed it took quite a leap of faith and the use of a fair amount of force to prise it up off the two CPUs - the very reverse of taking a CPU of a motherboard.

Compressed air blew out loads of dust from the fan and heat sinks. Loads of caked junk on the CPUs was cleaned-off and arctic silver re-applied and the unit reassembled.

Getting the PSU off was slightly problematic because it still seemed fixed after all (one was not so obvious) the holding-screws had been removed - but once again trying some gentle force in different directions allowed it to be lifted out.

Powered it up and no more Red/Yellow light of death - instead a nice steady Green and the ability to eject the DVD. I was dead chuffed I can tell you.

I am told that it is possible to install Linux onto them but that would be another day's work. ;)

[jlreich]

I have heard that pretty much all the consoles and hand held gaming systems can be hacked and Linux installed on them. I talked to a guy one time that is one of those guys that just has to take apart anything and everything he gets his hands on and he has bought and hacked just about everything you can think of just for fun. It isn't that he has a use for them, he doesn't want to play games in anyway, he just can't help himself and he has the cash to do it. :p