Back in July, a post on psx-place claimed to have found the real cause of the PS3’s YLOD: The “tokin” capacitors that filter power for the main chips inside the PS3. Displaced Gamers, as always, has done an excellent job both articulating the problem and asserting that it might be a fix, not the fix.
All these years, people assumed the problem was the same as the Xbox 360: Lead-free solder on the CPU and GPU. While that might still be part of the problem, the capacitors will deserve equal attention. I’m hoping to have more experts in the gaming community test this fix and help get more data out there. Sadly, there’s still plenty of “reballing” scam services out there, like the one I encountered a few years ago and I hope more info and research will point people to the real reballing services and honest shops that will properly repair your PS3.
