Retro Gamers: PS3s that were backwards compatible and got the YLOD are being resurrected

This mod (Frankie Mod / Frankenstein Mod) is at least over a year old now, but I just recently discovered it. Apparently, this repair/mod was found in a Sony refurbed PS3 Phat that was BC.

Essentially, the original PS3s were shipped with a 90nm RSX GPU chip. As you all are aware, it was very unreliable and caused many YLODs.

Then the slim models shipped with a 65nm and 40nm RSX GPU chip.

Well, what Sony did for warranty work on the Phat models was replaced the 90nm RSX chip with a 40nm RSX chip and applied some code work revisions to get the chip to work with the motherboard.

Well, low and behold, the gaming community has been able to reverse engineer what Sony had done and is bringing these old BC models back to life.

Just think, a single PS3 that's BC, and a PS5 will provide you with 5 generations of PlayStation. That's incredible.


If you have one stuffed in your closet, take a look at these repair shops. It's going to be costly, but it might be worth it. Depending on who you go with, it could be a $400-600 repair. Some Frankie Consoles on eBay can be about that same price.

PS3 Model Information

Some of those places have eBay shops where you would purchase your repairs while also offering PS3s with the mod already completed. What most of them do is source a 65nm or 40nm chip from a slim model since you can't really purchase these chips new off the shelf. Be aware though, the repair isn't 100% successful. The repair process itself causes risks to damaging the board due to excessive heat and desoldering.




In other news, any PS3 can be backwards compatible nowadays with CFW (custom firmware). It's not 100% reliable due to the structure of some games, but CFW for PS3s now include a PS2 emulator that will attempt to play PS2 games.

Here's a list of compatible PS2 games that can run on the CFW emulator:

https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/PS2_Classics_Emulator_Compatibility_List