The PS3 has only been on the market for three years and about two months. So no one can say they've had one running for four years.

The problem with a lot of consoles is that they don't come with special care instructions like vacuuming vents, constant dusting, etc. They're a lot more complex than the consoles that had no moving parts (cartridge based, no internal fans). And with the increase in power and larger cooling systems than were present in PCs just a generation ago, it's no surprise there have been plenty of hardware failures, both from user neglect and inadequate design.

And sometimes it doesn't matter how much you baby your equipment; it can still fail from normal use, even if it's because you chose to play for several hours on a hot summer day (which is far from unreasonable).

On a side note: the reflow technique worked fine on the bricked 40GB SKU. Took the better part of the weekend to learn how to do the tear down and repair job (plus a trip to Home Depot for another heat gun), but it was worth it. It now runs so quiet in idle that I can't hear it over the little fans in my laptop.

Currently backing up and saving the data on the drive, and will have to check with my bro in law to see if he wants to swap it in for a Slim while it's working or keep using it. I'm actually kind of curious to see how long the repair job lasts.

I'm considering picking up a broken PS3 or two on Ebay to see if I can get those working as well.

I've heard that even if you do that, it could only be a temporary fix. Though it probably depends on how you reflow it and put everything back together.

cleaning is always nice.... touching the pieces, not so much...
Then again, one would think we're more able of handling parts delicately than 5 year old chinese kids who build these PS3s no?

I'd say once you repair a PS3 like this, it's likely running on borrowed time.

How neatly you disassembled and reassembled everything without breaking or bending anything unnecessarily, how evenly you applied the heat to the chip components, how you applied the TIM and generally, how damaged the motherboard was before being repaired would all factor in how long the repair lasts I'd imagine.

Listening to the fan should tell you whether the console is overheating again. I'm kind of hoping using better TIM than the factory paste will help (maybe springing for a syringe of MX-3 would be a good idea), but I do know that some people who have successfully resurrected a console in this way, end up having to do the repair again down the line.

If you reflowed the solder joints more than once, you'd definitely want to use non corrosive flux to keep the joints from getting too dry and brittle.

But the important thing for this fix is that I was able to pull the game saves and video clips that were on the console. A console, sad to say, is pretty much replaceable compared to your data, depending on what you keep on it. Backing up data is always a good idea, but... face it; not too many people do this religiously for a console.

If you used a heatgun to reflow it will likely fail inside of 3 months.  The only way to get PS3 reheats to last generally is using non corrosive flux with a progressive heating profile, preferably with a preheater.  Reflowing the GPU fixes most issues, generally the CPU isn't as much of an issue but on occasion it can be to blame.  Best of luck with your fix, with any luck you may have one that only needed the mildest of reflows, if you used flux then your chances are already better!

Well done you !

I encourage all PS3 owners out of warranty to do a little spring cleaning once in a while.

I may well crack my mates open this weekend and resit the heatsinks with some new thermal compound.

Prevention is better than cure people.

Hello Lawsuit ;)