I got an EPProm reader/writer and SMD skills

[ps3haze]

Okay here is my idea and what I can do.

First off I'm pretty new to the PS3 got my first working slim 2 months ago and I have YLOD launch 20 gig phat. I have 2 types of professional eeprom reader/writers (TopMax and Up2008) with several adapters including BGA and 48 pin TSOP plus many others. I have a hot air station, reball station, and plenty of BGA and SMD experience. Various meters and a nice little scope. Suffice it to say I have a fairly decent electronics workshop in my basement. I'm not bragging just giving some background.

Now I don't really want to mess with my slim because it new and under warranty and working flawlessly. But the phattie I want to rip apart. First things first I want to reflow the BGA chips with some flux (I have the right stuff) and see if I can't fix that YLOD.

Once the 20GB is working again I want to read the NAND.

What will I be seeing? Is it encrypted? Are people interested in the NAND dumps if I post them? Can I copy the NAND to another PS3? Could this exercise help revive a Waninkoko brick?

I doubt I'm doing something totally new so I 'm hoping for some answers but if I'm venturing into new territory I'm still gonna go for it.

/haze

[JEB101]

I am glad to see a hardware guy here! I envy your basement setup.. I only get to work with that kind of gear if I go to my friends shop after hours.. haha

I would say if you are experienced in removing BGA chips I would reball with some leaded solder, should lower the temps and solve your YLOD issue..

As for the NAND, I'm not 100% sure, I just made a dump and didnt really take a closer look (just wanted a backup). Placing the image on a second console wouldn't be a good idea, I'm fairly certain there is machine specific stuff on the nand, and would probably not boot..

I'm going to keep an eye on this thread.. Hopefully somebody has some solid answers for you!

Cheers,
JB

[jappi88]

it would be very helpfull if you can post a nand dumb from a Phat Ps3, can be used to help for a Brick solution, if you wanna demolish your ps3 then you can brick it after reading the nand and read again after a brick... anyway great to have you here

[JEB101]

it would be very helpfull if you can post a nand dumb from a Phat Ps3, can be used to help for a Brick solution, if you wanna demolish your ps3 then you can brick it after reading the nand and read again after a brick... anyway great to have you here

That's a good point.. Something you could do (WARNING RISK INVOLVED) would be to do the Waninkoko V1 CFW (AFTER A DUMP FOR THE LOVE OF BRICKS) and then dump again, and post both firmwares up..

Somebody might be able to spot out what / where it went wrong and potentially find a way to patch in a working lv2!

But please make sure to dump both NAND's (2*128) before (if) doing that... lol

Cheers,
JB

[defyboy]

I am also a hardware guy, I have been repairing these things for other people for a while. I have only just repaired a couple of ylod consoles for myself now that we have a bit more freedom with these consoles.

From my experience, a reflow is usually sufficient, These do not seem to have the amount of thermal stress experienced in the xbox and a recurrence is not as likely to occur if reflowed correctly. A reball would be a definitive solution if you have the ability however.

As for reading the NAND's, there is some info out there on doing it with the infectus chip. As I understand, they are dual and interleaved so you might need some trickery to read them properly. I am currently working on a low cost NOR flasher with a teensy++ that I wish to make compatable with the NAND's if you are interested in working with me on this.

I still have not had a chance to study the contents of the flash, I have been told they aren't encrypted with a per console key, so we may have some luck flashing older firmwares back into consoles.

[ps3haze]

well what is it worth to you


LOL just kidding. You guys asking a lot these TSOPs are a bugger to remove and reinstall. I'm hoping I can pull it off once... but twice :P

I tell you what I will think it over but you got a good chance of a yes here.

But the thing with this 20GB is maybe not YLOD here is what it does.

It won't boot most times unless it is cold. Once you get it powered up it runs fine until you turn it off. Once it is off it won't power up again. Now it tends to boot just once after each tear down and rebuild. Sometimes I need to try 20 times to get it to power up but it used to.

Now this all happened about a year ago. It has been sitting since then and the last time it would not boot

I'm gonna try and reflow any and all BGA with a small shot of no clean flux.

wish me luck.

[altimit]

That's a good point.. Something you could do (WARNING RISK INVOLVED) would be to do the Waninkoko V1 CFW (AFTER A DUMP FOR THE LOVE OF BRICKS) and then dump again, and post both firmwares up..

Somebody might be able to spot out what / where it went wrong and potentially find a way to patch in a working lv2!

But please make sure to dump both NAND's (2*128) before (if) doing that... lol

Cheers,
JB

I second this. a before and after of a CFW brick could greatly advance our recovery research. And in your case should do no harm because in theory you should be able to just revert to your BEFORE dump and restore your system.

[cmal1492]

I have a hot air station, reball station, and plenty of BGA and SMD experience.

You guys asking a lot these TSOPs are a bugger to remove and reinstall. I'm hoping I can pull it off once... but twice :P

What I wouldn't give for a hot air station... that said, using only a soldering iron I am able to effectively remove a TSOP multiple times without damaging it or the PCB - but once you get past 5 or so times on the same TSOP you really really want that hot air + solder paste + TSOP paste stencil. Either way, good luck with your experiments.

I second this. a before and after of a CFW brick could greatly advance our recovery research. And in your case should do no harm because in theory you should be able to just revert to your BEFORE dump and restore your system.

It's a good theory that doesn't seem to hold up... from what I understand there are checks via hash data external to NOR/NAND to verify files on flash at runtime - so just flashing back a dump isn't enough... it seems this check was implemented to prevent infectus downgrading way back in 1.xx firmware. I'm hoping I'm wrong, but between that (maybe it's simply not knowing what firmware would make a good backup that can be reflashed at will?) and not knowing what the NAND ecc algo is I haven't bothered to break out my NANDs as of yet.

[Rustmonkey]

If you can figure how to identify and deal with bad NAND blocks, you'd make a lot of RSOD guys very happy

[Mark Webber]

well what is it worth to you


LOL just kidding. You guys asking a lot these TSOPs are a bugger to remove and reinstall. I'm hoping I can pull it off once... but twice :P

I tell you what I will think it over but you got a good chance of a yes here.

But the thing with this 20GB is maybe not YLOD here is what it does.

It won't boot most times unless it is cold. Once you get it powered up it runs fine until you turn it off. Once it is off it won't power up again. Now it tends to boot just once after each tear down and rebuild. Sometimes I need to try 20 times to get it to power up but it used to.

Now this all happened about a year ago. It has been sitting since then and the last time it would not boot

I'm gonna try and reflow any and all BGA with a small shot of no clean flux.

wish me luck.

HArdware here as well.
It seems your PSU is your culprit though. Easy to check, just remove power for 10+ seconds and try again. I have a few here that get reallll hot and have to completely cool down before they will refire.

Reflow wise, becareful of the paste you use. Make sure it is 100% dry before firing it up. Most take 12 minutes, but some of the paste I have used took hours under the IC to fully dry. If you can get access to an IR system instead of hot air, then use that.