What causes the yellow light of death in a PS3?...

[Jameson Rook]

I took it apart to replace the abysmal stock paste and even tried some car scratch remover to remove the scratches on the body and chrome.


Anyway, I was wondering if there's anything else I could do to prolong the lifespan of the console? I've heard mixed opinions on preemptive reballing, so I won't risk it. The unit already has the 19 balded fan but even after the paste change, it gets quite hot if a game disc is running, I wonder if that's normal? I haven't had a fat PS3 in perhaps 8 years.

Very interesting. Could you elabortate on how you removed the scratches? I would very much like to do this to my PS3 too. What product did you use? What technique?

Also, don't waste your time looking into reballing. It's pointless. The whole solder cracking/reballing thing has already been debunked by Louis Rossmann on youtube. What you actually want to do, is delid the CPU and GPU and replace the garbage thermal paste with some liquid metal or MX4 or something. That will yield the best results. My PS3 used to spin up to "jet engine" mode after being on for 10 minutes, now it's 100% silent all the time.

I took it apart to replace the abysmal stock paste and even tried some car scratch remover to remove the scratches on the body and chrome.

Very interesting. Could you elabortate on how you removed the scratches? I would very much like to do this to my PS3 too. What product did you use? What technique?

He said he tried a scratch remover product; I think the better question is if it actually worked.

Yeah, I used a car scratch remover or more specifically, a headlight polisher- the ones used to restore headlights from yelowing. I forgot the brand but I assume any brand meant for cars would do since it won't damage glossy surfaces. I wiped the product horizontally with a microfiber cloth, the same principle as your car as you don't want to go in circles because it would create swirls. I'm surprised how much scratches went off and as you can see, the super scratched chrome is almost spotless. You can re-do as much as you like, just keep in mind that the scratch remover must also act as a lubricant, so avoid rubbing hard with bare microfiber cloth without the product on as that might create more scratches.

Once I was happy with the results (took about 3 applications), I used car wax on the PS3 and buff it out, being careful not to get any wax in any crevices or the USB ports. I honestly couldn't believed it it made a PS3 that looked like a crash test dummy into something quite spectacular.

Keep in mind this technique will only work ONLY on glossy consoles like the fat PS3, Gamecube's plastic circle lid or the original PS4's left HDD cover. For matte consoles like the Slim, PS2, Gamecube shell etc you'll need dashboard polisher instead. I learned the hard way when I tried it on my Gamecube and made it worse!

My best advice is to try out any kind of scratch remover or headlight polisher and start at the back of the console first. Wipe with some pressure in one direction, buff it out with a clean microfiber and see if it got rid of anything.

[AndehX]

Yeah, I used a car scratch remover or more specifically, a headlight polisher- the ones used to restore headlights from yelowing. I forgot the brand but I assume any brand meant for cars would do since it won't damage glossy surfaces. I wiped the product horizontally with a microfiber cloth, the same principle as your car as you don't want to go in circles because it would create swirls. I'm surprised how much scratches went off and as you can see, the super scratched chrome is almost spotless. You can re-do as much as you like, just keep in mind that the scratch remover must also act as a lubricant, so avoid rubbing hard with bare microfiber cloth without the product on as that might create more scratches.

Once I was happy with the results (took about 3 applications), I used car wax on the PS3 and buff it out, being careful not to get any wax in any crevices or the USB ports. I honestly couldn't believed it it made a PS3 that looked like a crash test dummy into something quite spectacular.

Keep in mind this technique will only work ONLY on glossy consoles like the fat PS3, Gamecube's plastic circle lid or the original PS4's left HDD cover. For matte consoles like the Slim, PS2, Gamecube shell etc you'll need dashboard polisher instead. I learned the hard way when I tried it on my Gamecube and made it worse!

My best advice is to try out any kind of scratch remover or headlight polisher and start at the back of the console first. Wipe with some pressure in one direction, buff it out with a clean microfiber and see if it got rid of anything.

Thanks, I'll try it out!