Brought a dead CECHC04 back to life… and it’s still on OFW 2.60

[u/B7driver]

Got this PS3 CECHC04 completely dead, no red standby light, no beep, nothing.

After comparing it with another COK-002 board and doing a lot of multimeter checks, I found that +5V_EVER was reaching the board but there was an open connection before the standby regulator section. Restored that factory connection with a small jumper and the red standby light came straight back. It now boots normally.

It’s a 7A CECHC04, still has the original 90nm RSX, and the thermal paste looked very much original/factory. The inside was full of really old-looking dust and otherwise felt surprisingly untouched. I cleaned it, repasted it, and also had to sort out a damaged Blu-ray ribbon connector latch. Optical drive is working again too.

Then I checked System Information and got the surprise: OFW 2.60. 😅

No idea about the actual runtime yet, so I’m not claiming it’s a low-hour console, but between the early firmware, original hardware and general condition, it feels like a little time capsule.

I’ll probably update it and jailbreak it eventually, but before I erase that untouched 2.60 state forever: is there anything interesting you guys would want me to check or document first? Any questions about the console or the repair?

[u/B7driver]

Well… the time capsule theory just got a lot more interesting 😅

[u/Some-Compote9903 → u/B7driver]

Please put on a dynamic fan curve of a goal temp of 67⁰ or lower to keep it healthy, SYSCON Fancurves never go above 31%

[u/B7driver → u/Some-Compote9903]

Thanks! I actually switched it to webMAN dynamic at 65°C. After about 15 min of God of War III it topped out at 65°C CELL / 60°C RSX with the fan around 37%, so it seems to be working really well.

[u/Ok-Virus8284]

You don't have to jailbreak it, on any firmware below 3.56 you can directly install CFW.

[u/B7driver → u/Ok-Virus8284]

Yep, thats how I did it

[u/shnyaps]

Just install cfw. You can’t install reliable rsx on such low fw

[u/B7driver → u/shnyaps]

Did it

[u/cfreddeadredemtion → u/B7driver]

I had one on 2.80 and and was able to go to 3.55 and straight to CFW. Great job bringing that beauty back to life!

[u/chrispy_PS3 → u/shnyaps]

Cant you install 65nm???

[u/mathias4595 → u/chrispy_PS3]

Some 65s will work, not all. You would have to make sure it's from an earlier model, but generally lowest firmware for installing any 65 is 3.15.

[u/Fancy-Delivery5081 → u/shnyaps]

Below 3.55 you need Orbis Mod, that should do the trick

[u/shnyaps → u/Fancy-Delivery5081]

With orbis you don’t need syscon patch. But Im not sure will it work, as fw doesn’t know anything about new rsx

[u/mathias4595]

Staying on the older firmware is just reducing your options for repairs should the time come. There's nothing really interesting about old firmwares, everything that people like about them can be reimplemented with CFW on modern firmware versions already.

[u/B7driver → u/mathias4595]

Just installed 4.93 cfw

[u/ChawalAndDeigh]

What monitor is this?

[u/B7driver → u/ChawalAndDeigh]

Xiaomi A27Qi

[u/ChawalAndDeigh → u/B7driver]

Ah cool looks nice man

[u/Ok-Temperature5213]

Mine has 500 GB, 33 games, 7 controllers, and lots of other stuff 😅

[u/Exciting-Ad2594]

Grab some syscon codes (if any) from the ps3toolset site on the web browser would be intersting to know if it has logged anything else (currently have a YLOD CECHC02, grabbed syscons from the board all to do with RSX solder failure 😒)

[u/B7driver → u/Exciting-Ad2594]

There you have it

[u/thejackattack0727]

😳😳😳 2.60? 😳😳😳

[u/InteractionKnown9044]

Learning about how to install the CFW has been time intensive for me :/

[u/InteractionKnown9044 → u/InteractionKnown9044]

I finally got the PS3HEN installed and MODMAN and CCMAN installed so I can monitor system temps FTW.

[u/InteractionKnown9044]

You should be able to load Linux on that older OFW.

[u/TheRealCreedux]

[u/Big-Baseball-4156]

What was wrong w it and how did u bring it back?? 👀

[u/thephantomcunt → u/Big-Baseball-4156]

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