PlayStation 3 - Silicon Level Teardown - 10 Year Anniversary

[flextard]

Hey guys,

I am starting a 'little' project.

Since yesterday (17/11/2016) was the 10th launch anniversary of the PlayStation 3, I'm compelled to finally do something with my YLOD unit.

I want to extract all dies and post pictures and updates here as I go along.

It will depend on the level of frustration, but I might also do a couple videos for youtube; on a "zombie" channel I started a while ago. 

My plan is to decap all chips by the end of November and image by Christmas. Maybe have a microscope livestream around xmas / new year.

More info to come...

Wish me luck and let me know if anything.

Cheers.

PS: Some motherboard pics below.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5EkGVz1ZBSwbkNlaEcyd3V1RVE
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5EkGVz1ZBSwM0xpMm1tT3llbEU
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5EkGVz1ZBSwemFqalF6cHJmbjQ
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5EkGVz1ZBSwQ3NPekFGY1RUcVk
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5EkGVz1ZBSwTnRJLVNnN19LUW8
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5EkGVz1ZBSwcnFVMFU2emJlbVU

[flextard]

OE128. I smelled something.

 This thing got so hot that the fan shroud melted. 

(I'm not the first owner. It came to me in 'iffy' condition already)

[flextard]

OE128. I smelled something.

 This thing got so hot that the fan shroud melted. 

(I'm not the first owner. It came to me in 'iffy' condition already)

Seems like Japanese motherboard designers really liked this weird capacitor before it was discovered that this "proadlizer*" device is really prone to fail and really hard to replace without stinking your room.
They are usually the root of failure for many Toshiba laptops and a Sony gaming consoles.
It's also widely used in hard core over-clocking GPUs, which anyway over-clockers don't expect their GPU to last more than 2 years.

*: Polymer broadband noise stabilizer, a polymer cap based feed through capacitor for GHz EMI attenuation, designed for high speed processors.

Wow, thanks for the info. 

I then assume that those are the bastards shorting the cpu and gpu rails.

[flextard]

I'm now tempted to strip those things out first and jump them to see if the thing boots.

[flextard]

Haha, that's what I call a bodge.

[flextard]

I'm now tempted to strip those things out first and jump them to see if the thing boots.

Not likely. YLOD is mostly caused by cracked flip chip solder balls. These lead free level 1 balls are prone to crack over many and many times of thermal cycles.
You may be able to fix it by putting it in an oven or just reflow the entire board, but this fix won't last long and it is considered considerably unethical to sell such a temporarily fixed unit.
Improper underfill and improper solder alloy are the two biggest reasons for this to happen. The same issue also haunts 2009~2012 Macbooks and many GPUs, especially ones from NVidia.
Leaded solder balls for flip-chip-to-interposer connection is exempted by RoHS under exemption ID 15, but for some reason, chip makers just want to use the lead free rubbish.

I see. I had come across this flip-chip bump issue a few months ago through Louis Rossmann's youtube channel. The reflowing hype never struck me well either.

I heat gunned this ps3 once and it worked for a day, then I gave up. It was a freebie.

I recently became suspicious about shorted capacitors, but didn't realise that the OE128 was a cap (thought it was a magnetic filter). It feels like the short is lower impedance at the actual pads of the OE128's, so maybe... I'll take them out first and report on that.

[flextard]

Here is an old ATI flip-chip GPU.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5EkGVz1ZBSwOGx5WFpzLTdSdzA

I extracted it early in the year but haven't sanded it down yet.

/Edit: link replaced

[amyk]

OE128. I smelled something.

 This thing got so hot that the fan shroud melted. 

(I'm not the first owner. It came to me in 'iffy' condition already)

Seems like Japanese motherboard designers really liked this weird capacitor before it was discovered that this "proadlizer*" device is really prone to fail and is really hard to replace without stinking your room.
They are usually the root of failure for many Toshiba laptops and Sony gaming consoles.
It's also widely used in hard core over-clocking GPUs, which anyway over-clockers don't expect their GPU to last more than 2 years.

*: Polymer broadband noise stabilizer, a polymer cap based feed through capacitor for GHz EMI attenuation, designed for high speed processors.

//Edit: typo.

In the case of the Toshibas, putting a part rated for only 1000h at 105C right underneath the CPU is just planned obolescence.