Hardware Help with last step! Power supply

[ivoyko]

Well i moved all my pieces from last message how i remembered or i could with my screws but now i opened power supply stuff and isnt the model thn u have to regulate a couple screws, its one how this dude:
In his video dude explained thn he have that one than he searched in every place forum and Youtube and he only see stuff about model with regulators. Finally where u see people replies he says thn he bought anoteher bc he doesnt has a good reply.
Someone can help me with this? I give more info if you guys need it. Merci.

 

[Foxi4]

Explain what you're trying to do. Why do you want to mess with the settings of the PSU? Modern ones are switch mode, they're dead set to a certain voltage on each line.

 

[ivoyko]

my ps3 turn off in seconds without any message then i did a full clean to everything but people on Youtube says thn problem its from PSU and from that ''regulators'' than mine dont have.
I tried it before open the PSU and the PS3 still without work.
Model its 3004-B...

 

[Foxi4]

I understand the problem a little bit better now - your power supply is unable to keep a stable supply on the lines. There's a number of faults that would render a PSU unstable - it could be faulty capacitors, faulty voltage regulator, some kind of transistor, there's a lot that can go wrong on a supply like this.

https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Regulators

There's a lot of different regulators in circulation, and to top it off, without closely examining the supply you have no idea what the fault is - this normally isn't something you can fix by tweaking a screw. What's the model number of your specific supply?

The "screws" you're referring to are two potentiometers that used to be found on older PSU boards, they regulate the voltage on the 5V and 12V line of the supply. Modern supplies don't need them - the voltage is already set by the voltage regulator which regulates switching as needed, it doesn't need to be tuned like this. Turning them on the old boards would allow a little bit more power to pass through and meet demand by raising the voltage slightly, but it is, and always was, putting a band-aid on a hole in the ship - there's usually a different problem with the board that actually caused the fault in the first place and without probing the lines you'd have no idea how far past the safe limit you are.

To be honest, this is a part directly connected to mains voltage, with some beefy capacitors to boot. If you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't be messing with it and you should replace the whole supply unit - save yourself some time. What you're doing carries a risk of death or injury if you're not familiar with electronics. I know it's not an answer you wanted to hear, but it's safer this way.

 

[ivoyko]

Well i dont know how expensive can be a new one and if its easy to find. Im a little scared bc maybe i find and buy it then i connect it and then broke alone. When i tried it before open PSU i think the PS3 has burn smell bout couple seconds but when i saw wht happened i couldnt smeell nothing. Then if i buy one and explode o something,,,
PSU inside says "EADP-185AP" but cover number end its AB.

 

[Foxi4]

Sounds like a short circuit and "magic smoke", hopefully it didn't damage anything.

There's another thing I wanted to explain. You don't actually *know* that the power supply is at fault. You're guessing that it is because that's what you read, but that's not necessarily the case - you haven't probed it with a multimeter to check or stress tested it with another PS3 or a test load.

Here's how this works - the PSU gets mains voltage out of the wall which goes through a bunch of components (some kind of switching setup, transformer, inductors, capacitors etc.) and ends up with a kinda-sorta stable 5V, 12V and control signals. Those two power lines then are processed again on the motherboard through "mini supplies" in the form of VRM's before they actually hit any of the logic components, like the CPU and GPU.

Any component on that power distribution track can be at fault and you wouldn't really know the difference just by looking at the symptoms. For all you know, one of the MOSFETS could be overheating, shutting down, the console stops getting power and abruptly shuts down - that won't give you a prompt. It's *usually* the power supply since that's the part of the unit that does the heavy lifting, but you don't know that for sure without checking.

Long story short, there's a reason why repair stores charge money for repairs - troubleshooting isn't a matter of following a guide, you have to actually investigate the parts, look for bulging capacitors, black smears on PCB's, burnt or broken tracks etc. - what you can do as a consumer with no gear or experience is replace the part and hope for the best. If you've never worked with electronics before, a power supply is the last thing you should touch because half of it operates at high voltage, and not just when it's plugged in - capacitors hold charge even after you disconnect it. You can get hurt in a hurry if you touch the wrong connections.

EDIT: Your EADP-185AP power supply costs £12 on eBay, or around €14. Ask yourself if it's worth the headache. Power supplies are consumables - if you had the right equipment and know-how you could try and fix it, by all means, but it sounds like you're poking in the dark.

 

[ivoyko]

Oh thanks. Im searching a full PSU but if i buy it an then isnt enought... Youtube people cheat noobs users as me, they make everything look so easy. I dont have any place near thn can repair it, my city sucks.

 

[Foxi4]

Oh thanks. Im searching a full PSU but if i buy it an then isnt enought... Youtube people cheat noobs users as me, they make everything look so easy. I dont have any place near thn can repair it, my city sucks.

Well, there's a reason why you saw videos for the supply with manual adjustment and no videos for the one without any - one can be tweaked and forced to work, the other needs actual repairs to be coaxed into action. To be fair though, this might be a good thing - overvolting your PS3 too far would actually damage the motherboard, possibly beyond any reasonable repair. At least in your case you can still give it a shot with a different supply. Alternatively, you could try powering it up with an ATX supply, if you have one spare - it's a common way of testing motherboards without an actual PS3 supply and it only requires a few wires. By doing this you can find out if it's the PSU's fault or the board's.

https://www.psx-place.com/threads/tutorial-connect-atx-power-supply-to-ps3.17180/

 

[ivoyko]

So sad... i have a laptop then i cant... i just can hope dont break something more important while i try fix my ''tiny problem'' Stoped working for me suddenly and i still have a lot of stuff thn i wnt play and no PS4 for me bc well so expensive.

 

[Foxi4]

I can't really think of another supply that would have both a 12V and a 5V line that you could repurpose, perhaps a 360 power brick, but that's complicated. I wish I could help you more, but I don't want you to get hurt and I don't think you have the tools to diagnose the problem, so my suggestion is finding a spare supply - it's a surefire way to get this sorted.

EDIT: One thing that you *can* check that is unrelated to the power supply at all is the pressure on the chips - the CPU and GPU need a certain amount of pressure in order to function, that's how they detect contact with the heatsink. If that contact is inadequate, the system will shut down (hence the popularity of shims). Try tightening your heatsink screws - loose sinks cause similar behaviour.

 

[ivoyko]

i tightened tht 4 screws that comes with 2 metal pieces to max. I should do another turn on try but without wnt, i disconnected a flex its outside his place now and i cant move it back to it. im a dissaster.
I still have a couple of metal pieces thn i dont used.

 

[Foxi4]

i tightened tht 4 screws that comes with 2 metal pieces to max. I should do another turn on try but without wnt, i disconnected a flex its outside his place now and i cant move it back to it. im a dissaster.
I still have a couple of metal pieces thn i dont used.

Yikes. You might want to try a reassembly, it should all fit neatly into place. I hope you had fresh paste as well, and all of the pads are back on the correct components.

 

[ivoyko]

Well i changed the thermal paste today... and i think each screw its in his place but when u see Youtube videos (are my guide) then dont do a first plane from each screw. I need to see where go tht metal pieces or if i skipped something. Flex its tht one thn go to power button, bc tht i can try turn it on haha!

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Well i changed the thermal paste today... and i think each screw its in his place but when u see Youtube videos (are my guide) they dont do a first plane from each screw. I need to see where go tht metal pieces or if i skipped something. Flex its tht one thn go to power button, bc tht i cant try turn it on haha!