02/11/2023
On Feb 7th, 2023, I made my first purchase for a used PS5 console from Facebook marketplace. The price is really good told the seller that I will be heading over there and drove 40 mins to the location to pay for the console. I was told it is working and said there's also someone else interested in the console as well, so I jumped the opportunity to claim it without having to test it myself.
Little did I know after paying the seller cash and driving 40mins with traffic back home, the seller quickly left the chat and blocked me from communication, I was getting suspicious why the seller did that until I went home, plugged everything in and got "no signal" on the display. Powering on worked, but nothing on screen (after testing 5 working HDMI wires), I suspected, I got scammed from false advertisement claiming that "everything work." I did the research on the serial numbers on the PS5 and found out it is past warranty and if I send it in to Sony, I would be charged $229 plus tax for the repair.
Since the seller is no where to be reached, and out of warranty services from Sony is just expensive, I took it upon myself and attempt to repair the HDMI port. With limited tools, arming with just a soldering iron, flux and kester silver solder and watched plenty of youtube videos to prepare for this (TronicsFix), I was ready but hesitant. After removing all the screws, prying the metal plate gently, I was finally greeted with the motherboard and saw how tiny the HDMI legs are. I did not see ANY issues with the pins on the HDMI port, so I suspect there are cracks underneath the solder joint. So I got to work quickly, adding flux and then add a small bit of solder in attempt to drag solder to all the pins. Then found out how difficult to hand solder when solder melts to the pins, it creates tiny bridges. The work took 4 hours in attempt to remove the solder bridges I accidentally created with the help with a LOT of flux and alcohol wipes and FINALLY cleared those bridges.
When everything was done, I assembled the PS5 half complete just to see if there's anything on display, and I was worried that if it isn't the HDMI port, I would fear the worse that it would be the IC chip and I don't have a hot air station to repair that kind of work. So I kept my fingers crossed and pray and then the display appears and with the playstation sound. I was HAPPY that finally I was able to do this on my own, with lots of patience and experience with soldering. I never thought I was able to repair the HDMI port and feared the worst. But the challenge is, I did not go back to the seller, I took it upon myself and learned a new skill in micro soldering. Thank you guys for checking out my very first HDMI repair without using a hot air station. My first PS5 I've owned and fixed
