PS3 Issue, blinking light, not sure if YLOD

[Beautiful End]

So here's the rundown: a few months after I originally bought my fat 60gb PS3, I decided to upgrade the memory to 250gb (I bought it used at Gamestop about 5 years ago). I also decided to change the thermal paste myself since I figured its never been done to my PS3. It worked and helped and I've done this about 4 times ever since. Yesterday, I changed the thermal paste again since the last time I did it was almost 2 years ago. I don't use my PS3 as much anymore but still.

Everything was fine. I plugged it in, worked like a charm and ran as usual. Then I noticed I needed a system update so I told my PS3 to update and turn off afterwards, as I usually do. I took a shower, came back and the power light was blinking. It was just red but...its never done that before. I tried turning it on; it said it didn't turn off properly and it needed to make sure data was not corrupted. No biggie, I thought. Its done that before. But before it was done, it turned itself off after beeping. After that, it basically turned on with the PS3 logo (no corrupt data message), the system beeps twice or three times and turns off before the intro logo song thing ia done. It just cuts it off and turns off.
Here's the weird part. I assumed my PS3 update messed it up so I turned the power source off (button on the back) and let it rest for a while. It wasn't overheated or anything especially since I had just changed the thermal paste but I heard somewhere that helps sometimes. After an hour, I turned the power back on, turned the system on and it worked fine. I noticed the update didn't install, though, but now I'm scared that the update might destroy my PS3 for one reason or another.

Anyway, anyonr knows whats going on? Is my PS3 dying? Is this ok? Should I try and run the update? Any help would be appreciated it.

 

[SnowyGamester]

Hard to be certain but from the symptoms I don't think it's a software issue otherwise leaving it turned off shouldn't have made a difference. Maybe it's overheating...if that's the case then from what I understand it should also give you a system message if you're using it when it begins to overheat but obviously it will shut itself down to prevent damage if you don't turn it off when the warning appears which seems consistent with the symptoms. Listen to see if the fan is running properly, maybe put your hand over the vent to make sure it's blowing air out...perhaps you didn't plug it back in properly when you put it back together.

If it were the YLOD I'd expect it to occur when you try to turn the console on since the YLOD (usually?) indicates that the solder attaching the CPU or GPU to the board has cracked and become disconnected due to the heating/cooling cycle you get from general use so it shouldn't power on at all though if it's in the process of the connections breaking down it may be possible for it to happen while powered on, I'm not sure...I'm working mostly from conjecture. Regardless, the way to identify the YLOD is the power light becoming yellow for a fraction of a second (it can be hard to spot), beeping three times and then flashing red continuously, usually during boot. I got a YLOD PS3 from a friend and if that's the problem it's not an easy fix...I tried cracking it open, fluxing up the processors and trying to reflow with a heat gun but it didn't do shit. It was an interesting learning experience but unfortunately motherboards aren't really designed to be repaired.

 

[Beautiful End]

You were right; I opened it again to check and the fan wasn't plugged in properly. I plugged it in and now I can hear it running. Its interesting how fast my PS3 decided it couldnt work without it (basically iy was ok for a minute before it threw a fit) which is actually a good thing cause I probably would have damaged it seriously if it hadn't turned off by itself.

Thanks for the input. It was a simple fix but one that I would have never figured out on my own.

 

[SnowyGamester]

Spoiler: My face when

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