PS3 Thermal Paste

Disclaimer - If you decide to disassemble your PS3, not responsible for any mis-adventures, damage, etc.

4th Gen - PS3 Slim - CECH-20-xxA

My PS3 Slim was starting to frequently freeze / lock up. Recovery options scan failed to fix the issue and eventually lost the ability to boot up the PS3. Ran tests on the hard drive (hooked up via PC) and determined it was good / not causing the issue.

Decided to disassemble the PS3 and discovered the thermal paste was completely dried out and pushed to the side. After re-doing the thermal paste, and blowing out any dust, the PS3 Booted up correctly with no issues.

Teardown Guide - http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/PlayStation+3+Slim+Teardown/1121/1

Note: You will need a Secure Torx #8 Bit / Screwdriver for three of the screws on the Slim CECH-20-XXA Model.

After applying new thermal paste.

1st Gen - PS3 60gb - CECHAxx

I decided to take the potentially risk of opening the ps3 (and possible killing it), removing the old thermal paste and re-applying fresh paste.

Instructions on how to disassemble a 60gb PS3 - https://web.archive.org/web/20141024165647/http://www.llamma.com/PS3/repair/PS3_disassembly_tutorial.htm

My battery died on the camera before I could take the picture of the existing thermal paste. The thermal paste was dried out completely, with a lot of it pushed to the side of the chip. The operation was a success :)

My PS3 after applying Arctic Silver 5 applied to the CPU / GPU.