About a month ago, I was struck by the horror that PS3 owners fear above all others: the yellow light of death. Also known as the yellow blinking light of death, the red light of death and the red blinking light of death, if you ever see your PS3's power light flash yellow once, beep three times and then flash red until you cut the power, you have this problem.

All this really means is that there is some kind of connection error inside the PS3 itself. Sometimes the HDD has slid part way out of its cradle and simply needs to be reinserted for a quick fix. But more often than not, the problem comes from overheating. Occasionally, this error is temporary and if left to cool down, the PS3 works fine again. However, what happens about 80% of the time is that the overheating causes the solder between the CPU and the mother board to melt or crack, causing a loss of connection.

Of course, PS3s under warranty can be sent in to Sony and will be replaced (with a refurbished model) for free. Those no longer under warranty can be replaced for about $150. But sadly, since Sony Japan refuses to repair American PS3s, and sending it to America for repairs would have cost over $300 (and taken several months), I was left with two options: buy a new PS3 or try to fix it myself. Because I had one of the rare PS3s with backwards compatibility (and nothing to lose), I chose the latter option.

Now this is not a tutorial on fixing this terrible problem. For that I suggest Gilksy's guide on YouTube. However, I will tell you what such a fix entails. First, you must disassemble your PS3 completely until all you have is the mother board. Then you reflow the solders by melting them with a heat gun (think hair dryer but hotter) and letting them cool to reform their original connections. Then, just slap some thermal goo on top of the CPU and GPU and put the PS3 back together. The process takes about 3 hours and cost about $40 total, including the heat gun.

The problem with this fix is that it only works for a few weeks on average. By using no clean flux, you can strengthen the solder during the reflow, but even that only increases its life span to a couple of months before the process needs to be repeated again.

In my case, the fix only lasted 3 days. When the yellow light returned, I was left with Uncharted 2 stuck in the dive and no way to get it out. On top of that, because each PS3 hard drive is encoded to only work with one PS3, that meant I was unable to transfer or back-up my saved games. So, left with little choice, I reflowed the PS3 a second time, popped out the game, and back-upped all my saves manually (since the back-up utility only backs up PS3 saves and not PS1 or PS2 saves). Then I went to the store and bought a new PS3 slim with a 3 year extra warranty.

For people with a tight budget who need a stop-gap to make it until they can buy a new PS3, the reflow fix is a great discovery. However, since it is not a matter of “if it will break again” but rather “when,” it really is nothing but a temporary fix. Each reflow after the first takes several hours and around $10 which, little by little, adds up. For me personally, doing this twice was worth it for the sheer experience of the thing, not to mention my years of saved games.

Lastly, I have a word of advice for all people out there looking to buy a PS3 this Christmas: Do not buy it used. With little more than a screwdriver and a $20 heat gun, anyone can take a broken PS3, reflow fix it, and sell it to you. Then, a week or a month later, you will have an expensive paperweight and no warranty. So buy new and remember, if you buy with a credit card, most credit card companies will double the length of the maker's warranty for free.