PS3 Freeze

[Kev360]

So I recently picked up a CECHC03 PS3 (broken) for a good price.

It works and reads discs and turns on, but only when cold. As soon as it heats up a little from idling on the xmb, it freezes showing artifacts like this.

I have seen something like this before with faulty 90nm RSXs and I may just be optimistically thinking does it just need a bit of a clean and maybe the rubber (eraser) trick? It works consistently when cold / just turned on and GLOD after a hard reset after the crash. The GPU shows no sign of glitching during its working period, only artefacts upon a sudden freeze.

Of course the only real solution is replacing the 90nm RSX with a 40nm RSX, but thats ££ and time consuming.

I guess the real question is, has this happened to anyone else? And if so what was your fix?

[MattKC]

This hasn't happened to me before, but it does seem pretty indicative of a GPU failure. It may not be the GPU specifically; if it only happens when the GPU gets warmer, it could be one of the few times a reball is warranted (the solder could be damaged and could only show up as the metal expands from heat). Perhaps the eraser trick could even (temporarily) address this simply by putting a little more pressure on the chip.

I'm spitballing so don't take anything I'm saying as gospel. As you say, the real fix is probably to Frankenstein it with a newer GPU.

[Kev360]

Yeah so my PS3 Syscon error codes display the following errors. It's dead Jim. I need to frankenstein it, or maybe(?) its an NEC Tokin being faulty (1001) and the Livelock is a red herring. Or more likely, vice versa : In which case, damn.

1001 : Power to CELL (CPU)
1004: Power (AC/DC)
1601 : CELL Livelock Detection
1701 : CELL BE Attention
2022: DVE (AV Out Port fail)