"Ray Carlsen" wrote in message
...
Google PS3 BGA reball

Thanks, Adrian. The first thought that came to mind when I saw the
reball video is that I've lived too long. ;-) I might try the "flux and
reheat" process. My eyes are just not up to any more than that.

Ray

I tried these kitchen table 'reflow' processes for a while (although
actually on my professional workbench and using sophisticated hot air rework
equipment !) and I can pretty much say that I had total success with every
one - for about a week ...

Then they come bouncing back. It's known as "YLOD" or yellow light of death.
It is caused by the solder balls under the two BGA ICs giving way due to
thermal cycling, and in no small part I feel, as a result of the fact that
lead free solder is used, which lacks the ductility of the old leaded
solder.

Out of all the ones I did, I think I only had one that survived, and that
was my son's one too. I tried just about every temperature and duration
combination, as well as various different techniques for applying the heat,
including pre-heating the board, and using liquid flux. I tried all sorts of
thermal paste when re-attaching the heatsinks, including large thick dollops
of standard white paste, as Sony themselves seem to favour in the original
construction, thin scrapings of the same stuff, and thin scrapings of artic
silver, as most people on here will swear is the right way to go. In every
case, when reassembled, the unit would come straight back on, and work a
treat. You could play DVDs in it, or use it as a permanently powered media
server for weeks on end, and it would keep going. But send it back to a
serious gamer to actually play games on, and it would be back inside a few
days.

I think that these games are so processor and graphics-engine intensive,
that the amount of heat generated is just too much for any tenuous 'fix'
obtained by the kitchen table methods which are, make no mistake, definitely
*not* actually re-melting solder balls under those ICs.

Just as a matter of interest, the game "Call of Duty" seems to be the big
one for re-killing them.

By all means give it a go, and if you follow the instructions of any of the
people on the net who are publishing these fixes, you probably will get at
result, initially. But don't get too excited, as there will be a good chance
that you will see it come back to haunt you ...

Arfa