PC Workshop continue to achieve great results in restoring PS3’s back to working order and overcoming the dreaded YLOD (yellow light of death) which unless remedied means the end of the road for the damaged PS3.
We have just repaired two of these and the general turnaround time can be as little as a couple of hours dependent on other work commitments but no longer that the following day.
The first and most likely cause of PS3 YLOD is a failure of hardware components within the console itself.
Specifically, because your PS3 will tend to overheat whenever it is being used for long hours at a time and it will subsequently cool down when it’s not being used this effect which cannot be avoided has the solder between the graphics chip and the motherboard expanding and contracting which over time cracks, causing the connection to the motherboard to get loose and then the YLOD.
This basically means that the connections between the internal components of your PS3 and the key platform which runs them are either lost or broken.
The one other possible source of your PS3 problems would be due to a faulty power supply that is attributable again to overheating but this time, the problem’s caused by malfunctioning diodes or capacitors. This is much less likely to be the cause however.
If you wish to prevent this yellow light of death problem from recurring after you’ve had it repaired, you should prevent letting your console lieing flat on its side on the carpet or desk or if pushed up against the wall, whereby the vents airflow could potentially be blocked.
It would also be good maintenance to clean the console occasionally (every month or so) using perhaps a hoover or either a slightly damp cloth or even cotton swabs. Your main focus should be to clean up the air vents from dust to ensure that they’re not obstructed in any way at all. This will reduce the possibility of your PS3 overheating constantly.
PC Workshops success rate is around 95% at the moment in fact we cannot truly remember the last time we had a failure.
