Worked like a charm

Il Mio Problema

I was playing a game a couple fridays ago and suddenly the system crashed. It didn't happen often, but when it did, I wasn't under the impression that the system was dead. I went to restart it a few minutes later and it booted, did a system check, and brought me to the browser...which it allowed me to navigate for about a minute and then shut itself down again. This is when I knew there was a real problem.

La Mia Riparazione

I was VERY diligent about tracking my steps and where each screw went. The provided video didn't match up 100%, but it was EASILY close enough to guide me through the process. I went SLOW and steady and cleaned EVERY part thoroughly. I REALLY liked the provided driver kit, but did have a couple screws strip out, as they were HEAVILY torqued. I was able to get them out and I should have replaced them, but I put them back in, as I will likely not do this process again. After getting it back together the bluray drive wasn't working, as I missed one of the flat flex cables. I pulled it apart and corrected this problem in less than 10 minutes. Having done it once, I am confident that I could do it all again in WELL under an hour. I also added an external cooling device, to aid in keeping the internals well ventilated.

Il Mio Consiglio

I would HIGHLY suggest this fix, and the iFixit kit. It was very reasonably priced, for a fix that has brought NEW life to my ps3. I have run the console a couple times for 8+ hour gaming sessions, and it is working flawlessly. Btw...maybe I just got lucky, but my system is about 9 years old, and I had ZERO problems before this. I have read other people's YLOD symptoms and mine were MUCH less severe. I anticipate that this fix could keep me happily gaming for YEARS to come. There are a LOT of people saying these systems had design flaws, and that 4-5 years was about the max you could get. My experience does NOT align with this assessment. I have also read that this is NOT a permanent fix. But I don't necessarily agree with that assessment either. I expect that this bit of system maintenance will keep my ps3 alive for a GOOD time to come.