Written by When Sony launched their PS3 consoles some years back, they claimed a “1% failure rate”, which when compared against most general electronics, this failure rate is, in many instances, quite low. Generally, the failure rate benchmark for electronics is set at 5%, so you can see why the PS3 would boast such a low failure rate. However, in recent times a new phenomenon has arise; the Yellow Light of Death. This coined term was invented on many PS3 forums across the net, and by my observations, this issue is much larger than it first appeared to be. This is one of the most serious issues to plague the PS3 in recent times. It can be very annoying; frustrating to say the least. After a long year at school, or a long week a week, many people just want to be able to kick back, relax and enjoy their PS3. I love my PS3; I really do. It’s a work of art, I watch Blu-Ray movies on it, I play GTA5, and I browse YouTube from it too! But that yellow light is what really set me off.
But what causes it? Well there are many reasons for the cause of the infamous “YLOD”. Sony has stated that it is a “general hardware failure”, so this could be anything internally that has failed. However, by my own observations and experience, I have found it to be the excessive overheating of the motherboard, effecting both the RSX and GPU chips, thus rendering the PS3 useless. To overcome this you need to heat the chips with a heat gun and apply a new coat of thermal compound to protect these chips. This is because when the PS3 was originally designed, heat ventilation wasn’t properly designed, and therefore overheating can occur quite easily within the PS3.
Now, I’d like to hear your case; tell me about your own personal YLOD experience 