Playstation PS3 YLOD recovery & Hard Drive upgrade.

We purchased our PS3 on release date around 6 years ago.

It has been faultless. 100% faultless….. Until the other day.

I took it from its rack to upgrade the hard drive (HDD) to 640GB as the original 60GB was full, so carried out my first ever FULL data back up, then swapped in the new drive.

To do this:

• Carry out a system update on your PS3.
• Back up your PS3 onto a removable hard drive or memory stick.
• Remove the old hard drive.
• Put in the new hard drive.
• Follow the on-screen instructions and format the new drive.
• Restore from the back up you made.

You can even buy a case for the removed drive and use it as a stand alone storage drive.

This was no problem…. but…

… a day later and ‘BEEP BEEP BEEP‘… power off. Nothing to do with the new hard drive, but I was lucky to have carried out the back up!

To be honest, I was expecting this to happen at some point. Maybe my moving it around to swap the hard drive didn’t help – but either way, it’s 6 years old and this early model fault was waiting to happen.

It suffered the fate of quite a few other ‘fat‘ PS3’s….Yellow Light of Death (the yellow light only blinks very quickly on then off).

What generally happens is over time the paste that joins the cooling part of the PS3 to the ‘brain’ goes hard over time and the two parts lose contact causing the brain to over heat.

This can cause a problem anyway, and the PS3 will shut down to save itself. The thing is, when the connection between the cooling and the brain (actually two processing units… not really a brain) starts to separate, it puts some strain on tiny soldered connections, and one or more might disconnect…. BEEP BEEP BEEP.

This problem occurs mostly with people who move their PS3’s around a lot, as the continued joggling accelerates the problem.

Anyway, the solution to the problem is to either:

1. Pay Sony to repair it – and that generally means they just send you a refurbished unit and you lose all of your data – and it takes weeks.
2. You could give it to someone else to repair – and pay them upwards of £40 (from what I have seen)
3. You could buy a new PS3….
4. You could fix it yourself…. OH NO!!! DIFFICULT!!!

Actually… fixing it yourself is really very easy. Just stay calm, have enough room to lay all the bits out, buy or borrow a heat gun (get one for about £15 on Amazon) and buy some Arctic Silver 5 3.5g Thermal Paste from Amazon.

Simply put: Take PS3 apart. Clean old paste off. Heat up board*. Put on new paste. Put PS3 back together.

*The heating of the board 're-flows' the solder and fixes the broken contacts.

A search on YouTube came up with some great tutorials, but by far the best one that I found was by a guy called DAX79. His video was instructive, not preachy, and not over complicated. As an engineer myself (not electronics!), and having written manuals, I know the importance of making something as simple as possible – and this guy does a fantastic job.

After watching the video through once, I then put it back to the start and slowly worked through the process. There are some top tips to help you out:

• Use the correct tools. Anything else can cause you problems.
• Take your time.
• Lay all the parts out neatly as you take it apart. You’ll appreciate this when it comes to reassembly!
• Don’t Panic.
• Try and keep all of the screws you take out in a bag or tub along with the bit that they secured to the PS3.
• Don’t Panic.
• When you heat the board, keep the heat gun moving. Do it for about 10 minutes. Let it cool for a good 30 minutes before even trying to move it. I recommend repeating this operation as some people find that one heating doesn’t work. So… Heat for 10 minutes, cool for at least 30 minutes, heat for another 10 minutes, let cool for at least 30 minutes.
• Make sure you clean the old paste off thoroughly.
• Don’t Panic.
• Once working, make sure you update your PS3 and fully back it up as soon as possible. Some people say the repair might only hold for a month, two months… a year…. Either way, you almost lost EVERYTHING… so DO A BACK UP this time…. It might not go wrong again… but you’ve just had a lucky break and saved all of your data – and you might not be so lucky next time.

Why do I train?

For those I train with – Why I do it… (from 2008): Fitness Starts HERE 2008

Almost immediately after I started getting into this keeping healthy lark I ended up with a work related (badly) screwed back, which I used Nordic Walking to recover from… only to then get hit by a severe infection (leaving me asthmatic on top of the lung problems I already have) and the feral cat attack (through which I met John Devaney…. bloody cat).

Each set back just makes me want to come back harder, but each time I find it physically tougher, although that won’t stop me trying… Next step, KICKBOXING!!!!

I already go to a boxing class run by SMA, where the positive attitude of everyone really helps push me. I’ve never been good at fast, hard training (lungs again…), but if I am to fix that problem (and the dodgy wrist left over from the feral attack), then this class is really a kill or cure. It’s a tough class, no word of a lie!

I’m now going to go to the kickboxing class that SMA run. This should help me with stability, coordination and even more fitness/health issues… Kill or Cure, Kill or Cure!

I will be ready to take on that Arctic Survival for my 40th….

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Enough already

Okay, a while back Chris brought me a free fall parachute jump experience as a birthday present.

I didn’t ever want to bungee jump – I see no point.. sure it’s a rush, but you don’t do anything yourself… You jump, bungy stops you. With a free fall parachute jump you jump, you free fall, you pull the cord, you fly the chute. With bungee jumping you just jump… that thrills me as much as a roller coaster… too tame, too controlled. If you’re going to do something, do it properly.

It was one of those life affirming things… at 15 odd thousand feet you look down and it’s all down to you to step out of that doorway… and you do it… one of the most phenomenal experiences ever, and one I shall never forget.

I felt so alive – and yes, it was in controlled conditions, but things can (and did) go wrong.

Well, since I have been hit with this lung problem I am determined to not take the hit – I want to go and do something amazing. I want it to be something I could share later with Alex – I want it to be an experience and a lesson.

I’ve always been pretty good when situations get ropey. When people lose their heads in dire situations I tend to cement into a calmer person. Odd that – situations I would think I’d panic in and I actually become very focused.

So, I’m taking the step and will be booking on on a survival week. I’m looking at some course run by ex-SAS instructors. After all, the two Para’s who instructed my freefall learnt all they knew as a matter of life and death – and the same with the SAS guys. If anyone can put on a good course, it’ll be those that have had to survive in extreme conditions themselves.

These are good skills to learn, and something I can pass down to Alex.

I see 2 and 3 day courses available, but I want to go as long as I can in one go. No point in just messing about, so I’m going to go for a weeks survival – Instructor, a small tobacco tin box of essentials and me… something like that anyway.

Once I’ve done this course (hopefully mid 2010… maybe even do it as a fund raiser), there are other course available as you become more experienced. The one I am aiming for after the woodland survival week, is the Arctic Survival course. Yup… off to the Arctic to rough it…. build your own shelter, make fire, find food… no gas stoves or tents… proper survival.

It’s my way of kicking back at the set backs that my health has caused me… I get knocked down and I’ll fight back twice as hard.

I’m not one for holidays. Sure they are relaxing, but at the end of it, you’ve just been away, la de da… I’d rather go and do something – have an adventure… learn a skill and see things few other people have seen.

Who’s up for joining me? Next time it snows we’ll just point and laugh at the people who think it’s “really cold…..”

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I told you the all seeing supreme being was malevolent…

The coldest temperature in England early today was -10C recorded at Farnborough in Hampshire, while several other towns recorded -7C.

The big chill today tightened its grip on London and the South-East with temperatures hitting as low as -10C making it colder than parts of Greenland and the Antarctic.

Yup… that’s what the news was this morning… You may have guessed I live in Farnborough, so I am sorry, but I think this might be all my fault….

You see, not satisfied with taking away my boiler and central heating, someone decided it would be a laugh to turn down the outdoor heating to -10 degrees C.

What am I talking about, you may ask… well look here, here and here at my previous blog entries…and then laugh along with me… Har. Har. Har.

That’s not rain from that cloud you know…

The Almighty supreme being says: "You have made me laugh so much I am now WETTING myself in hysterics!!!