Hey all,
So i was bored one day and decided to replace the thermal paste in my ps3 - its out of warranty so i was not worried about removing the warranty sticker.
Heres what you need:
1x T6 torx security screw driver (I ended up using a small flat screw driver)
1xphilips screw driver
1 million Q-tips
1xisopropyl alcohol (I used acetone since i couldnt find isopropyl)
So I started off my disconnecting my ps3 and letting it sit for a while so it could discharge. I then proceeded to remove all the screws and remove the mainboard from the ps3 case (there are plenty of tutorials on this so i wont give a guide on it).
This is how the ps3's thermal paste looked cracked and dry and didnt cover the entire chip properly(now u know why there are so many YLOD problems):
As you can see from the above pics - the thermal paste that Sony applies is of poor quality - it was all dried out and cracked and obviously not applied correctly as you can see alot of it has dribbled over the edge, almost touching the mainboard which is dangerous since its a conductive substance.
The below pic show the heatsink side:
Anyways, i dipped the qtip in some acetone and started to clean up the RSX chip first. I started with the edges and worked my way in:
Acetone:
Cell chip cleaned:
As you can see above, the cell chip wouldnt clean up as well was the rsx one - it appeared to be stained.
Cleaned heatsink:
I had reapplied the thermal paste with some thermaltake grease i bought from matrix warehouse but i forgot to take pics of that bit! The thermal take grease is alot more fluid so u have to be very careful to apply the correct amount so it doesnt leak off onto the motherboard when u put everything back together. I used a business card to spread the grease evenly across the heatsink and then dropped the motherboard over it. All in all the ps3 runs perfect! The fan doesnt come on as fast any more and hopefully it will give me a few more yrs out of the ps3.
Anyways, hope this was insightful! Let me know if you have any questions!
So i was bored one day and decided to replace the thermal paste in my ps3 - its out of warranty so i was not worried about removing the warranty sticker.
Heres what you need:
1x T6 torx security screw driver (I ended up using a small flat screw driver)
1xphilips screw driver
1 million Q-tips
1xisopropyl alcohol (I used acetone since i couldnt find isopropyl)
So I started off my disconnecting my ps3 and letting it sit for a while so it could discharge. I then proceeded to remove all the screws and remove the mainboard from the ps3 case (there are plenty of tutorials on this so i wont give a guide on it).
This is how the ps3's thermal paste looked cracked and dry and didnt cover the entire chip properly(now u know why there are so many YLOD problems):
As you can see from the above pics - the thermal paste that Sony applies is of poor quality - it was all dried out and cracked and obviously not applied correctly as you can see alot of it has dribbled over the edge, almost touching the mainboard which is dangerous since its a conductive substance.
The below pic show the heatsink side:
Anyways, i dipped the qtip in some acetone and started to clean up the RSX chip first. I started with the edges and worked my way in:
Acetone:
Cell chip cleaned:
As you can see above, the cell chip wouldnt clean up as well was the rsx one - it appeared to be stained.
Cleaned heatsink:
I had reapplied the thermal paste with some thermaltake grease i bought from matrix warehouse but i forgot to take pics of that bit! The thermal take grease is alot more fluid so u have to be very careful to apply the correct amount so it doesnt leak off onto the motherboard when u put everything back together. I used a business card to spread the grease evenly across the heatsink and then dropped the motherboard over it. All in all the ps3 runs perfect! The fan doesnt come on as fast any more and hopefully it will give me a few more yrs out of the ps3.
Anyways, hope this was insightful! Let me know if you have any questions!
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