Repair guide : YLOD (Yellow Light Of Death) Playstation 3 Fat

Lift off the small silicone cover to release the screw that's holding the smart plate in place.

This screw, circled in red in the photo, secures the smart plate on your PS3.

Delicately push the smart plate cover down towards the bottom of the console.

Then grasp it in order to remove it from your Playstation 3.

Now lift the smart plate and remove it completely.

Now lift the top cover in order to remove it from the PlayStation 3.

Using a nylon spudger, delicately lever up the latch that secures the cable for the memory card reader in its connector.

Now remove the cable from its connector. To do this, delicately pull the cable. No resistance should be felt.

You can now completely remove the top cover from your PS3 Fat.

Disconnect the power supply cable for the Blu-Ray reader.

To do this, delicately pull the cable up to remove it from its connector .

Now delicately lift the Blu-Ray reader.

As indicated in the photos, use the nylon spudger to delicately lift the latch.

This connects the Blu-Ray reader to the logic board.

Now delicately pull on the cable in order to remove it from its connector.

No resistance should be felt.

As indicated in the photos, use the nylon spudger to delicately lift the latch.

This connects the Blu-Ray reader to the logic board.

Now gently grasp the power board cable and remove it from its connector.

These secure the power board to the internal frame of your PlayStation 3 Fat.

Now grasp the power board and remove it from its placement.

These secure the power supply board bracket to the internal frame.

You can now grasp and remove the bracket for the power supply board from its placement.

These secure the internal frame of your PlayStation to the bottom cover.

Now remove the hard drive access door using the nylon spudger.

Lift the internal frame (metal structure) in order to remove it entirely.

Delicately unplug the power supply cable (AC-In) on the back of the power supply block.

This secures the earth cable to the internal frame of your console.

Now remove the switch + power supply plug block from its placement.

Delicately unplug the power supply cable (DC-In) on the front of the power supply block.

These secure the metal power supply block to the internal frame of your console.

Delicately lift the power supply block to remove it from its place.

As indicated in the photos, use the nylon spudger to unclip the two plastic brackets. These brackets secure the front panel to the internal frame of your PS3.

Turn over your PlayStation 3.

Like in the photos, unclip the 3 brackets holding the rear panel to the internal frame of your PS3.

Unclip the final bracket (on the left) holding the rear panel to your PS3.

Now, very delicately, lift off the rear panel. You shouldn't feel any resistance.

With the nylon spudger move the fan cable delicately out from under the black plastic clip.

This should give them some slack.

Unplug the fan from the power supply.

These secure the radiator (heat sink) to the internal frame of your PS3.

Remove the first support bracket using the nylon spudger.

Do the same for the second bracket.

Now lift the radiator (heat sink) up to delicately remove it from its placement.

Using a nylon spudger, delicately lever up the antenna connector in order to disconnect it.

Move the antenna cable aside to prevent it interfering with future steps.

These secure the WiFi/Bluetooth board to the frame of your PS3 Fat.

Now grasp the WiFi/Bluetooth board and remove it from the console.

Then delicately place it in front of your PS3.

Using the nylon spudger, lift the latch for the connector carefully, releasing the cable.

Then disconnect the cable carefully, no resistance should be felt during this step.

You can then lift the protective metal sheet from the motherboard to a 90° angle in order to release it from the brackets securing it.

You can now completely remove this protective sheet.

Now lift the mother board in order to remove it completely.

Now turn the motherboard over, and equip yourself with Arcticlean 1 (provided in our YLOD kit).

Put a few drops on one of the processors covered in thermal paste.

With a clean cloth, now clean off the thermal paste residue.

Do step 46 again, applying a few drops of ArctiClean 1 solution on the second processor (graphics).

Still using the cloth, clean the residue dissolved by the ArctiClean 1 solution.

Now, using a nylon spudger, unfix the first thermal pad.

Repeat the previous step, unfixing the second thermal pad from the other chip.

Put a few drops of the ArctiClean 1 solution on the radiator/heat sink where it was in contact with the processor.

Then, again with a clean cloth, clean the dirty areas until all thermal paste has been removed.

Now restart this operation on the other processor.

Heat the chips for 20-30 seconds each with a heat gun on low power, or a hair dryer for around 1 minute.

Now take out one of the two large thermal pads in our YLOD repair kit.

Now peel off the protective film on the black side of the thermal pad.

Next stick it onto the first chip.

Do the same thing again with the second chip.

Take the bottle of ArctiClean 2 and put a few drops on the processor of the PS3.

Do the same thing again but on the graphics processor.

Using a clean cloth, spread the ArctiClean 2 across the entire surface of both processors.

This is to increase the quality of the thermal bond.

Now put a thin layer of thermal paste along the right side of the processor of your PS3 Fat.

Using the plastic card (provided in our YLOD kit), delicately spread the thermal paste across the processor.

Now put the thermal paste on the other processor, as indicated in the images.

Now, again using the plastic card, spread it across the surface of the processor.

Now take out the small thermal pads provided in the YLOD kit.

Remove the transparent plastic films.

Now do the same thing as the previous step, but on the grey chips.

Using the nylon spudger carefully peel the protective films off the thermal pads (blue in colour).

Now place the protective sheet back on the motherboard.

Turn the logic board of your PS3 Fat back over.

Now, using a nylon spudger, unfix the thermal pads still present on the motherboard.

Replace the removed pads with 5 new ones, as indicated in the photo.

Now remove the protective blue film on all the pads.

You can now put your PS3 Fat back together. Your YLOD problem should be resolved.