Having opened a lot of PlayStation 3 consoles, I have discovered that you can cause a BGA defect just by opening your console. Every console I have opened, I have recorded and watched it back. Having done this I have found that if the console is hard to open due to the thermal paste acting like glue between the heat spreaders and the heat sinks, you can pull on the CPU and GPU chips causing a broken solder joint on the ball grid array. This can result in an instant YLOD or a GLOD.
Sometimes, the console will boot but run badly and over a short period of time and begin to show system errors. This can be prevented by heating up the CPU and GPU, the thermal paste loosens, making the console easier to open and reducing the risk of a system error.
I have had people ask if they can heat the chips with hot air, either by using a hair dryer or using a rework station. Basically, don't do this. You would have to heat the heat spreaders by taking out the fan. You won't be heating the chips evenly, and you won't know how hot the chips are getting. This can have a detrimental effect on the console and defeating the object of what we are trying to achieve. By following the tutorial, you are heating the chips evenly as its heating them from the middle of the chip. also, you know the console is reaching safe temps, or if you're running custom firmware, you know exactly how hot they are getting.
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