How to Fix Yellow Light of Death Or YLOD

The PlayStation 3 is the most powerful console in the world, but this doesn’t mean its infallible. Although it does boast all of the top accolades such as, graphics, sound and an on board blu-ray player this doesn’t mean it isn’t prone to the odd glitch.

Microsoft were hammered for their red ring of death syndrome by Sony fan boys, but it seemed that shortly afterwards Sony experienced a similar problem albeit with a different color.

The yellow light of death as it is known became an epidemic across the globe. Unlike Microsoft, Sony refused a free repair, refusing even to acknowledge any manufacturing defect. All across the country people are turning on their PS3, to be greeted by the notorious yellow light. But all is not lost, fear not fellow yellow death light sufferers, help is at hand.

Its important to not that the cause of the problem is the same for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, so the fixes are applicable for both. First thing you need to do is ensure that you cannot get it repaired for free under warranty, no, good. Next you will need to be capable of minor electrical repairs and the right tools for the job, mainly screwdrivers. Also you will need some replacement thermal paste, this is very important.

The process is called re-balling and involves the CPU and GPU chips on the motherboard. Basically the thermal paste transfers heat from the chips to the the fan. Sony of their own admission used a cheap thermal paste, it has a tendency to harden and crack, depleting its ability to function. When the thermal paste cracks and depletes the solder inside the chips starts to heat and cool quickly, when this happens the solder gets mixed, bridged is the technical term and cracks. So in theory you need to remelt the solder fully to take it back to its original state, causing it to resettle back into its relative slot. Finally replacing the thermal paste with an improved version.

Although this sounds very complex it can be done by anyone with very limited electrical knowledge, but because it is such a delicate operation its easy to get wrong. If you do get it wrong you risk causing more harm than good, possibly even destroying the chips. That’s why it would be recommended that you use a guide to walk you through the steps. Some of the guides you find on the internet are scams, but these are the best: