Gaming Systems repairs?????

[ibamars]

I am going to browse these forums, but, I was wondering if anyone here does repairs for Xbox 360 or Playstation3 or any other kinds of gaming systems.

I got a phone call yesterday from a guy who was in a panic attack because his PS3 got whats called a YLOD (yellow light of death). Similar to Xbox 360 RROD.

He tells me he can't find anyone in this area to fix it. So I go looking online. Guess what. Nothing, I couldnt either, except maybe Geeksquad.

So I am thinking of venturing in to this side of repairs. Anyone have any experience or tips on how or what they do for these kinds of services.

I am still in the way beginning phases of research on this and finding out what prices and parts are out there. I already downloaded a manual for the insides of a PS3 and mods that can be performed. Will probably try and experiment on mine here shortly, or a broken from EBAY. If you have any experience could you share your wisdom

Thanks.

Oh BTW, after doing some research on line for his fix there was cheesy video on youtube on how people are temporarily fixing the YLOD.

 

[JW The Computer Guy]

I think you need to re-apply the thermal grease on the cpu, it should stop the YLOD

 

[ComputerClinic]

If there is no one else in your area who would do it, I say go for it. Let the customer know that you don't have any real experience with PS3s but you are confident in your technical abilities (only if its the truth lol). Also give them a good discount for letting you learn on their system.

I did this a few months back with a PS3 that wouldn't read discs. The customer decided that the repair wasn't worth the money (would have been about $175 including the replacement blue ray laser lense). I was able to figure it out all right by researching online. And even thought the client decided not to fix it, I got some needed experience and a bench fee.

 

[Blues]

I have 2 PS3 one has that YLOD the other is a new sexy slim I may dismantle my old original 60GB and try and do that to it.

 

[MobileTechie]

I've been asked a few times and turned it down.

Since then I've looked into it and it seems that some of the common problems require some quite tricky work, such as GPU reflow or even reballing. Given that i don't even do that sort of repair on laptop mobos I was put off.

 

[andrewrost3241981]

Like one of the previous posters, I too have been asked to do this but have turned it down. I don't know enough about them and I don't know if it would be worth it to take the time to learn how to repair them. Gaming systems change so often, and once a new one comes out you would have to take the time to learn to repair the new type of system.

 

[iisjman07]

People come in with XBOX 360's that have RROD'd, and we accept them and *try* to get them working again. The problem is, it's not just one problem that affects the consoles, meaning not all are repairable. On the table behind me there are four, of which 1 is now working thanks to a work-mate, although he did find one of them in a bin during a week of bad weather . Still waiting for a PS3, I wanna open 'er up...

 

[JimO'C]

A YLOD is just overheating but unlike the evil XBOX 360 its fixable, and quite easy.

All you need to do is open it up, clean the dust out, and apply new thermal grease to the cpu.

DO NOT USE PASTE THAT IS CONDUCTIVE LIKE ARTIC SILVER!!!

I fixed the YLOD on my PS3 80GB 4 months ago, took about 1 hr, and it works fine since, play it every day, and movies on the weekends.

Plus I do folding at home so its on almost 24/7

 

[NYJimbo]

This is a great resource for info on repair of RROD on XBOX:

http://llamma.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=21225&start=0

130+ pages of people trying to do it.

 

[lexvetica]

we have a custom rig for repairing RROD in our basement, we also repair PS3 this way also ... basically we built a plastic mounting "clamp" to hold the motherboard and use the heat gun to re-flow the problem area, works great with the custom program running to add or reduce temps over serial cable

 

[shill]

I'm actually considering getting into game system repairs and motherboard repairs. I think it could bring in a lot of extra money.

 

[coreyspeed]

my mate at work does this, he said it only takes around 20 seconds under a BGA repair station for them to be fixed, dosnt even take of the chip or reball it.

 

[FrancePCSupport]

Hi

I have a console repair "arm", it's away from the normal business (PC side) but with 3 kids at school here in France, it didn't take long for the word to get round about my console services. Xbox 360 RROD, PS3 YLOD, bricked PSPs. I started getting a site up but to be honest all the work has come in through local people and referrals. Now I wouldn't say its enough to retire on, but every time I get a job in, it's straight into the "do you know about my computer support service". there are many sites that sell all the main components required for console repair (I use divineo but I think they are france only). Everything from laser/drive replacements, screen replacements and modding parts.

 

[TechguyUK]

AFAIK the YLOD (PS3) and RROD (XBOX360) are generally due to the GPU or CPU overheating and causing the solder BGA to come away from the chip/board. Reflowing the relevant solder BGA is normally the fix for these faults. (don't you just love TLA's )

Now some thoughts on actually doing this... I've seen 'amateurs' use a hair dryer, a hot air gun, a kitchen oven and a toaster oven all with varying degrees of success, fire, smoke and/or repeat failure rates.

The 'professionals' seem to use commercial reflow ovens to reflow the whole circuit board or infrared BGA rework stations to reflow the specific chips.

From my investigations this professional kit is expensive and unless I really wanted to invest in the right equipment and seriously grow this aspect of the business my feeling is to leave it alone or maybe look at reselling the services of a professional electronics repair facility.

 

[MobileTechie]

AFAIK the YLOD (PS3) and RROD (XBOX360) are generally due to the GPU or CPU overheating and causing the solder BGA to come away from the chip/board. Reflowing the relevant solder BGA is normally the fix for these faults. (don't you just love TLA's )

Now some thoughts on actually doing this... I've seen 'amateurs' use a hair dryer, a hot air gun, a kitchen oven and a toaster oven all with varying degrees of success, fire, smoke and/or repeat failure rates.

The 'professionals' seem to use commercial reflow ovens to reflow the whole circuit board or infrared BGA rework stations to reflow the specific chips.

From my investigations this professional kit is expensive and unless I really wanted to invest in the right equipment and seriously grow this aspect of the business my feeling is to leave it alone or maybe look at reselling the services of a professional electronics repair facility.

These are my thoughts too. I don't see me getting a return on the £1000's spend on BGA stations. It sound like even using those automated tools can be hit and miss. Although I might think differently if I was convinced I could repair laptop mobos with it.