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Troubleshooting the Yellow Light of Death on PS3

The Playstation 3 displays a yellow-colored light on the console if something is wrong with the hardware. This yellow light displays for two specific circumstances involving the Playstation 3. The first is when the system overheats, while the second denotes a hard drive failure. You can take steps to fix both of these hardware issues with the Playstation 3.

Things You'll Need

Flat head screwdriver
Phillips head screwdriver

Instructions

- 1
  Turn off your Playstation 3 and move it to a well-ventilated area. If your Playstation 3 was laying on its side, move it into the vertical orientation. Move the Playstation 3 off carpeted areas, and on to a flat, clean and elevated surface. Turn on the Playstation 3 and watch the lights. If the yellow light does not appear again, the system overheated. Move your Playstation 3 to an area with better air flow.
- 2
  Disconnect the Playstation 3 from power if the yellow light appears again. Disconnect all other cables, and reconnect these cables and the power cable. Boot the Playstation again to determine if the cables were not connected correctly.
- 3
  Disconnect the Playstation 3 from power. Use the flat head screwdriver to pop off the top of the hard drive enclosure, located on the top of the console. You can identity the proper panel to remove by the label "HDD" on it.
- 4
  Unscrew the single retaining screw holding the hard drive in the Playstation 3. Slide the HDD out. Swap this hard drive with a replacement drive to determine if the fault is with the drive. If the yellow light goes away with the replacement drive, you will need to get rid of the old drive.
- 5
  Contact Playstation 3 support if the yellow light does not go away after the hard drive replacement. Another hardware component such as the motherboard may be damaged or faulty, requiring a console replacement.

PlayStation 3