Sony's Original PlayStation 3 (2006)
Technically, I bought mine in March 2007. I also bought my first HDTV — Full 1080p. A TiVo HD. A bunch of Blu-ray movies and a few PS3 games. And I replaced my old Panasonic 5.1-channel receiver (no HDMI inputs) with an Onkyo 7.1-channel receiver (3 HDMI inputs).
At first, I was in heaven...
Not only did the "OG" PS3 play the new "next-gen" games — it played all of my old PS2 games. Thinking I don't need my PS2 Slim anymore, I prepared to sell it. I transferred my game-saves, from the 2–3 memory modules I had, to my PS3's HDD — with a USB-adapter. Then, off to GameStop — to trade the PS2 Slim for some more PS3 games.
I upgraded the Seagate 60 GB 5400 RPM 8 MB-cache HDD to a Hitachi 320 GB 7200 RPM 16 MB-cache HDD.
I also installed Yellow Dog Linux 5 (PPC/PPC64) in "Other OS". It was a neat trick, but virtually useless. The PS3 only had 256 MB RAM.
I even bought a 1 TB External HDD, for system backups. 1st used to backup the 60 GB HDD. And then restore that backup to the 320 GB HDD.
And I watched my first 1080p movie: Casino Royale (2006).
Heaven doesn't last...
Just 2 years after I bought it, I started having some problems. Although I cleaned it with compressed air, every few months, the fan would ramp up to a loud whine after just 20 minutes of game-play. The original PS3's Cell Broadband Engine was fabricated using a 90 nm process. Because of the form-factor of the case and the layout of components, the heat-sink and fan were mounted underneath the processors and motherboard.
Cooling the RSX Reality Synthesizer — the PS2 chip — was not an issue. But, the 90-nm-node Cell BE produced a lot of heat. To help dissipate heat from the CBE, Sony used silver-based solder. Silver is an excellent thermal conductor. Silver-based solder, however, has a lower melting-point than lead-based solder.
And the Cell Broadband Engine was mounted upside down.
The descent into hell...
I had never heard of "the yellow light of death" (YLOD). I was unaware that I should leave my PS3 on — idling — for 20 minutes before shutdown. That would allow the fan to cool most of the melted silver-based solder — so it solidifies — before the shutdown parks the HDD, the optical drive, and the fan. Otherwise, the abrupt stop of spinning components can jolt the solder away from the pins and contacts on the Cell BE and its motherboard socket.
Then gravity does the rest — because it is mounted upside down.
YLOD research and DIY repair...
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are the videos I found — and used — to complete D!Y repair on my PS3 a dozen times: 2009–2012. I also replaced the optical drive — twice — when I could no longer DIY the original optical drive.
Eventually, the optical drive controller — which is paired with the motherboard for DRM (Digital Rights Management) — failed in a way that I was unable/unwilling to repair. My original PS3 still works as a digital media player. But, without the paired optical drive controller, I cannot play any games on it — not even the downloaded games on the HDD.
