New here so sorry of this is posted in the wrong section.
Just a bit of background
I’ve repaired other electronics but want to get better/learn more about board repairs and fault finding on different devices.
So as I don’t have a ps5/didn’t have a ps5 I though what better device to start with and if I can fix it I’ll keep it to use myself.
So I’ve been searching for a while to get a ps5 with a power issue. More looking for a beep on beep off issue.
I’ve bought disc edition ps5 sold as powers on then powers of. The board in it is a EDM-032 and I’m pretty much 100 percent sure I’m the first person to take a look at it as the warranty sticker is intact and screws all seem ok.
However the issue seems to be more a long BLOD issue and it doesn’t actually really turn off.
It beeps on, pulsing blue light and that’s about it. No display, it can’t be turned off and there is no visible damage to the hdmi port. I’ve also looked over the hdmi encoder and that looks ok. The fan also spins. Power supply is fine supplying 12v.
I’ve check along the main power rail and I’m getting the correct voltages of 3.3v and 5v. Not sure on area code on the board but where I have measured correct voltages was just below the usb port area if that makes sense.
I don’t have a thermal camera but have powered the ps5 up shortly while open and checked some areas to
Make sure they are not getting super hot just with my hand carefully.
I have also gone through some areas of the board testing caps with a multimeter and I’ve now found 2 shorted caps around the dialog IC. I’ve attached a photo of the caps below circled red.
Since finding them I have put some IPA on them and the dialog IC and the dialog IC doesn’t really get hot but after a short amount of time the 2 shorted caps get quite hot.
The dialog IC visually looks ok and I can’t see any burns to it or any bridging under it so I’m leaning more towards the caps themselves being at fault.
I’m just wondering if anyone knows what caps they are and if anyone has any advise on if I should replace the dialog IC or any other areas/components nearby to check for shorts?
Not sure how to add the photo sorry maybe because this is a new account.
The 2 caps that are shorted are to the right of the dialog IC. There is a small coil by them by the looks of it and they go to pin 5 (5th pin down from the top right of the dialog IC)
does the ps5 remain with a flashing blue led? it would be interesting to do a UART diagnosis, in any case a continuous flashing of the blue led would indicate a problem of microfractures of the apu or gddr spheres. in the meantime if it is possible for you to do a UART diagnosis it would be better. as soon as I get home I will check a card in my possession and tell you the voltage drops of those 2 capacitors.
I’ve actually reassembled this console and I think it’s probably the apu. Not sure if I’ll continue with repair attempts. May not be the best fault for my first repair attempt on a ps5.
I havnt done UART but there was two other caps slightly above the other 2 I mentioned that where also shorted. again not sure if they should be shorted as sometimes it doesn’t seem to be a dead short to ground straight away.
So I removed the dialog ic and the short was still preset so I removed each of the caps 1 by 1 and tested for shorts again and even once all the caps where removed the short was still present and that area of the board goes through the board and then somewhere else so I searched around and couldn’t find where the short goes.
I did clean the Liquid Metal off the apu to see if it had leaked and it’s fine plus I couldn’t see any fractures in the apu by eye but there may be micro fractures I can’t see like you mentioned. So I put everything back to how it was and reassembled.
Do you think it’s still worth trying uart? Is there a way to determine which GDDR is bad without a thermal camera?
The banks circled in the photo are shorted to ground on both sides too. Is that normal?
The coils of this six VRMs are low impedance and mostly misstaken as shorted to GND.
The two caps are four caps and they should smooth the 0.8V rail for the SSD controller. I would use some IPA and see if one one the four caps is getting hot.
I’ve got this board back out of the console. I’m going to order a ttl uart converter to see if I can get any error codes.
Strangely enough the short around the dialog ic isn’t showing up now. Maybe that was a mistake with my testing.
I’ve got my bench psu connected to the board and I’m checking standby voltages at various areas of the board .
I’m still struggling to find info on voltages and where to probe but I appear to be getting correct voltages around the south bridge.
One area I’m not getting voltage is around the hdmi encoder. There are no shorts around the hdmi encoder but I’ve found the image below online and they had no readings in the exact same areas.
Could this indicate a bad south bridge?
The below photo is the one I’ve found online and the 4 reading circled I’m also not getting anything for on my board.
I seen online someone mention that you can put washers on the apu clamp to apply more pressure if the apu isn’t making contact with the mainboard fully.
Seems more likely to be a short in this case anyway.
Your UART error codes have no time stamps and no temperatures for APU or for pcb. The seqence number is 213C = Main SoC Reset Release. It seems that the APU isn’t responding/powering on at all.
Did you check on the APU the state of the liquid metal and check if the seal to the black covered parts is intact?
Yeah I did clean the Liquid Metal up and then smear it back onto the apu as everything looked fine. Seal seemed to be intact with no Liquid Metal leaks off the foam or main seal.
The apu does get warm by hand when powered up. Not hot but it does slowly warm up when the console is powered up.
I cleared the codes again and then powered the console up with the board in the console. Pulsing blue light and same error codes unfortunately. I did also tap the board at the back of the apu area and it was quite hot so I think this must be an apu fault.
Think I’m going to sell the console for parts to try and recoup what I paid.
Will probably try and get another with a beep on beep off issue. If I manage to get another in the meantime I might use this one for parts.
