PlayStation 3 Teardown

Written By: Mint137

Published: 24/10/09

Comments: 48

PlayStation 3 Teardown

Published: 24/10/09

Teardown

Introduction

This is a teardown of an original launch 60GB PlayStation 3 system. One of the best units out there that had backwards compatibility and the card readers. Sadly this unit has a GPU a problem so it's broken.

Edit: Nickname fix, formerly Karasumachitose. Apologies to any inconvenience this causes.

Tools

Step 1

There she is, one of the two original PS3 models available at launch (60GB).
It's got PS2/PS1 backwards compatibility and a multi-card reader. The current PS3 Slim doesn't have the card reader. The other launch model lacked the card reader and WiFi (20GB).

I turn it On and it just automatically shuts off ok Google

Timothy Thompson - 07/05/20

Step 2

Let's get started!
Remove the hard drive access cover from the bottom of the PS3.

Step 3

Use the Phillips screwdriver #1 to remove the blue screw.

Step 4

Lift up the metal lever.
Slide the hard drive towards the front of the case.
Pull it straight up and out of the unit.
This is all you need to do to access the PS3's hard drive.

Step 5

Remove the warranty sticker.
Obviously this voids your warranty. You have been warned.
Use your fingers and pry up and remove the foot underneath the sticker.

Step 6

Use the Torx Screwdriver (T8 or T10) to remove the torx screw from the space behind the rubber foot.
This screw has a security bit but most are able to remove it successfully with a normal Torx driver.

Mine was a T10

Zach Tharp -

this screw came out using a phillips #1or#2 with no issue.

turtlefresh -

A 1/8 flathead screwdriver fit perfectly for me on this screw.

Nathan H - 22/04/20

I have an original CECH-A01 fat model and I had to use a T3.

Qwerky Pengwen -

Step 7

Place PlayStation face up such that "PlayStation 3" is oriented so you can read it.
Place your palm on the PlayStation 3 logo and slide the plastic front cover towards you and off of the outer plastic shell. Set it aside.

How Do you open

dantdm numor - 25/05/18

My case is still stuck, and refusing to budge… I removed the screw and HDD already.

Logan Stevens - 28/05/19

Step 8

Remove the metal receiver that held the torx screw you just removed.

Some PlayStation3 gen 1 consoles do not have a removable receiver. If yours does not, just skip this step.

Joshua Law - 31/03/18

No people. Ignore that last guy. Stick to your guns and hold your ground. Even if your specific console does not HAVE the removable receiver, remove it anyways. :|

Freaking GENIUSES up in here.

Gary Hall - 12/08/18

Step 9

Remove the 9 screws from the outer plastic shell using a #2 Philips driver.
6 large screws
1 medium screw
2 small screws

The annotation on the photo in Step 9 is inaccurate. The blue circle should be aqua/cyan coloured, while the two cyan/aqua coloured circles should be blue. No biggie, great disassembly otherwise.

paulius -

Quote from paulius:

The annotation on the photo in Step 9 is inaccurate. The blue circle should be aqua/cyan coloured, while the two cyan/aqua coloured circles should be blue. No biggie, great disassembly otherwise.

I double checked it, it should be correct. There is only one medium screw and two small screws.

Mint137 -

If you leave the two small screws until after you remove the top (they aren't attached) it will make things easier because the card readers will stay down and there will be no ribbon cable to deal with when removing the top.

Julian Turner -

I have found the same. It can be a mess otherwise.

Joshua Law - 31/03/18

Step 10

READ THIS ENTIRE STEP AND THE NEXT ONE BEFORE PROCEEDING. Locate the two locking tabs on the back of the PS3. Push them in simultaneously and lift the outer plastic shell off of the main board but BE CAREFUL as there is a ribbon cable connecting the shell to other hardware.
Ribbon cables are very fragile. Take care when removing or inserting ribbon cables.

Step 11

Disconnect the ribbon cable and set the shell aside.
If you want to remove the plastic card reader, locate its two locking plastic tabs that hold the card reader to the shell, spread them, and lift the card reader off of the shell.

Step 12

To remove the plastic card reader, locate its two locking plastic tabs that hold the card reader to the shell, spread them, and lift the card reader off of the shell.

Step 13

Working on the main unit, lift up on and disconnect the black RF wire from the wireless assembly using a spudger.

Step 14

Remove the flat ribbon cable from the wireless assembly.

Step 15

Remove the four Philips #2 screws from the top of the wireless assembly.

Step 16

Lift the wireless assembly off the main board and set it aside.
Disconnect the ribbon cable from the main board and place it with the wireless assembly.

Step 17

Locate the other wireless assembly which the black RF wire is connected to.
Remove the one Philips #2 screw retaining it to the main board and lift off the assembly and set it aside.

The black wire is taped in, so make sure you do not use force if it’s not coming out.

N7 RiZe - 21/02/19

Step 18

Remove the cables that attach the power supply to the main board.
Remove the AC connector from the power supply.

Power connector on my 20gig launch unit was epoxied. If this is the case with yours be VERY careful. Mine popped off the board, now searching for a fix.

Ryan Burns -

Step 19

Remove the 5 screws using a Philips #2 from the power supply, and lift the power supply straight up and off of the main body. Set it aside.
There are 2 power pins connecting the motherboard to the power supply as you remove it.

Step 20

The screws holding the blu-ray drive to the main board have already been removed in a previous step.
Unplug the power connector (gray) on the side of the player.

Step 21

READ THIS ENTIRE STEP BEFORE PROCEEDING. Lift the player up slowly to expose the folded ribbon cable beneath it.
Remove that ribbon cable from the main board and set the drive/cable aside.

Remove the ribbon cable from the drive end, not the motherboard end. The clip holding the ribbon cable to the motherboard is difficult to reattach and will often snap. It does make it a bit more difficult to disassemble but far safer.

Root Ginger -

I had to use two spudgers to pry the clip UP on the motherboard to release the cable.

Andrew Hathaway - 24/06/17

If you do break the clip on the motherboard side, just clip the ends off the broken clip and, using the thin side, push it in the remaining motherboard recess so it keeps the ribbon connection in place. There are multiple youtube vids if you need additional info. Had to do mine and worked like a charm.

lemoyce78 - 05/06/18

Step 22

Remove the ribbon cable attaching the on/off and eject switch circuit board to the main board.

This just broke my PS3 permanently.

TheTank20 -

Step 23

Remove the 4 Philips #2 screws retaining the circuit board to the case.
Remove the circuit board from the case.
These screws are medium length, different from most of the other Phillips #2 screws.

Step 24

Remove the 9 screws from the main body.
5 Medium Philips #2 Screws
2 Small Philips #1 Screws
1 Ground Philips Screw with Washer
1 Bolt Philips Screw (under AC cord)

There seems to be a significant flaw in the design here where a screw can damage the USB port power traces on the motherboard. For some reason they ran the traces right under the screw holes. Should there not be nothing there (better situation would be a hole).

Temi B - 16/06/14

What does the bolt philips screw look like?

mglmoncraft - 31/03/19

Step 25

Grab the main board at the locations shown in the picture and lift the main board off of the back casing.
Set aside the black shell.

Step 26

On the main body, locate the 5 plastic locking tabs holding the rear plastic I/O shield to the main body.
Pry the tabs away from the body and lift the rear shield away.

Step 27

Remove the fan power connector.

Step 28

Remove the 3 Philips #2 screws holding the fan to the main body.
These are extra small screws
Lift the fan straight up and out of the body.
Check out the size of this thing.

Step 29

On the top of the mainboard, EVENLY remove the four large Philips #2 screws holding the heat sink.
Removing them evenly reduces strain on the GPU and CPU.
Remove the plates and the screws from the main board.

I broke off one of these screws, 'Philips #2 screw' has not gotten me a correct screw from google.

Any clue what exact screw this would be?

I have an idea how I could remove the broken screw, but any suggestions?

R zaiD -

Search on Ebay under PS3 Screw there are some on there with clamps.

Root Ginger -

Step 30

Flip the main board over.
Lift (or pry with fingers) the heat sink straight off of the mainboard and processors.
Force will be required as the thermal paste "glues" the heat sink to the processor.
Note: If new thermal paste is readily available, clean the old paste off well and apply new thermal paste at the time of reassembly. If new thermal paste is not available or you are cheap, do not disturb the "old" thermal paste.

Looks to me if your goal is to replace the thermal paste, this is as far as you need to go. Apply the new paste and begin reassembly. Here's a video showing how to apply the paste: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyXLu1Ms-...

objbuilder -

Wich is the best way to apply the paste and what brand do you reccomend?

roblyons39 - 28/08/15

Just use a small dot, not bigger than a pea right in the middle. Let the heatsink spread it out.

Randy Laird - 17/08/16

DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU DO HAVE THERMAL PASTE!!!

If the thermal paste is disturbed you MUST remove all the old paste and apply new (unless you are okay with destroying your processors). To remove the old paste, cotton swabs work best. Once you have removed as much as you can, dampen a cotton swab with rubbing alcohol and carefully clean the processor surface AND the heat sink surface using small circular motions, being careful to not allow any alcohol to contact the main board. Do this until ALL traces of the old compound are COMPLETELY removed. Once removed, allow a short amount of time for the alcohol to completely evaporate. Once the alcohol is evaporated, place a SMALL amount of new compound (I use Arctic Silver) directly onto the processor (about the size of a pea OR LESS). Using a straight edge (such as a credit or ID card) carefully spread the compound into an even, thin layer which completely covers the surface of the processor.

Gary Hall - 12/08/18

This is not as hard as it sounds. Just take your time and get it as even as you can. And gaps in the paste will result in “hot spots”, which can easily damage your processor (this is why just “letting the heat sink spread it out” is such a bad idea). The layer should only be about 1/64” (0.016”) to 1/32” (0.031”) thick. For reference, a common sheet of paper is about 0.004” thick, so roughly 4 to 8 sheets of paper thick. Do remember that this is NOT as critical as I am making it out to be. It is simply a reference for “a thin layer of compound”. Don’t overthink it.

Gary Hall - 12/08/18

Now that your fresh compound has been applied, reinstall the CLEAN heat sink as evenly and gently as possible. Install the fasteners and tighten, tightening and alternating n SMALL INCREMENTS. The idea here is to tighten the heat sink in as even a fashion as possible. This helps to ensure the most even distribution of thermal compound as possible.

I have repaired many Xbox 360s and PS3s in my time, and have never had this method fail, and as en electrical engineer would encourage anyone to follow these procedures when replacing any thermal compounds.

Gary Hall - 12/08/18

Step 31

Remove the 2 Phillips #0 screws from the hard drive enclosure.

Step 32

To expose the mainboard, remove the watch battery from the mainboard.

Step 33

Using spudger, carefully pry the metal shielding away from and off of the top of motherboard.

Step 34

Turn the motherboard over and remove the metal shielding on the opposite side. Pry with a spudger or with your fingers.

Step 35

Check out all the chips with heatspreaders on this thing.
There's the Emotion Engine chip and Graphics Synthesis chip that allows the sweet backwards compatibility.
IBM Cell processor... This CPU has 9 cores, 10 threads and it runs @ 3.2GHz .

i have a SERIOUS PROBLEM. i put my ribbon cable from my bluray drive into my ps3 while it was on and i heard a pop. the drive was no loner able to recieve power and i saw someone else had the same problem but on a differnt ps3. they said it was the ic chip on the daughter board and i dont even know where that is.... im only 16 and i plan on being an electronic engineer can anyone please help me because im a SEMI-noob future genius noob now.

Isaac King -

Advice- Next time make sure the system does NOT have power.

aarongeister - 11/02/15

Step 36

More Chips!
IBM Cell CPU
Nvidia RSX GPU

How do I remove the RSX chip so I can see if it's the issue

David Staffen -

Step 37

Consider your PS3 disassembled.

Author

Mint137

Member since: 24/10/09

3997 Reputation

16 comments

ii got a broken ps3 from my step dad, it turns on but theres no picture. I've taken it apart 3 times now and couldnt figure out how to get it fully apart. I've put everything back together and it does the same thing. So i didnt mess it up and more than it was. lol. From what i was told it was on top of a tv and a dog caught the cord and pulled it down. It slammed down on the back of the system and hasnt been able to show video and sound. Like i've said, i've tryed to mess with it but i know nothing about this stuff. Any ideas as to what could be broken? The port itself is cracked, but i've tryed HDMI and that doesnt work either. Any advice is helpful. Thank you.

shujinflik -

lol couple years later, no all u have to do is switch out the fan inside your ps3 :) it happen to mine or buy a new ps3 and switch hard drives :)

Mikegart victoria - 01/10/15

It's the GPU

kajussls121 - 15/04/19

I love the way you post a warning as to how fragile the ribbon cable is and then say, "remove ribbon cable" without any detail as to how to release it. Thanks. Now my PS3 is trash.

sonofjay817 - 16/06/16

Instructions not clear enough. Stuck my finger in a light socket.

10/10, would electrocute self again.

Randy Laird - 17/08/16

watch ifixit's video on youtube, it helps a lot, these pictures help out more after you see the video...

David Stevens - 15/09/16

Help! How to recover photos from a dead ps3?

Lin Brown - 22/01/17

Hello,

I'm wondering why SIXAXIS Gyroskope might stopped from working after reaseambly.

Can you please suggest something?

Alexander

ilychev - 18/05/17

Take the HDD out and get a new one or check what's the problem

kajussls121 - 15/04/19

Can you fix it again after splitting it? Bc. My Ps can't turn on, only in 1 second and then it turns it self off. So i told it too my dad, and he said "can you get in to the computer itself, without breaking it and then fix it again, after that" and i aswered "i don't know, i'll go chek" and here i am, knowing how to split it but not fixing it again. Uhh so please answer me... Can it be fixed again after splitting it??!

Lucas - 12/09/17

Great teardown tutorial. Can confirm it saved my butt when I needed to open a 60GB CECHA01 PS3, which I successfully did in addition to (a) replacing the thermal paste, and (b) clean all the dust off.

Only problem with this tutorial is what sonofjay817 mentioned: poor instruction regarding the ribbon cables. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: the receptor end for the Blu-Ray ribbon cable needs to have a small black tab pulled open BEFORE removing, and BEFORE inserting the cable. I accidentally got it open by chance, but you might not be so lucky without my warning - and if the ribbon cable is done for, you will need to replace it completely.

Paulo - 07/01/19

I followed this tare down tutorial to clean my PS3s and replace the thermal paste on my two 60gb models, afterwards both now YLOD on me. I wish there was something for re assembling everything because following the instructions backwards obviously hasn’t worked for me (both were perfectly working since new before this).

N7 RiZe - 21/02/19

My PS3 one's I turn it on it always go back off and I continue turning it on it keeps on for about some minutes then finally it comes on and works perfectly … what the course of it going off

olanrewajueajayi ajayi - 21/04/20

What kind of PSU it is using?

Karlo Miguel Borja - 26/04/20

Interesting, the internals of mine looks quite different. I have 2 GIANT heatsinks not shown here, maybe they were added later due to overheating

Josh Goodrich - 29/06/20

@step9 the big screw sizes are:

complete length 50mm (with head)

without head 48mm

threadded part 20mm

core 2mm

core with thread ~2.9mm

Peter Kvcs Tlk -