3.3V and Ground shorted, can't find the source. Help pls.

[Sampsonay]

Alright so when I initially put this thing together, my dumba** didn't check for shorts before plugging in the console and turning on the power supply. I was getting no green LED when the PSU was plugged into the console, but I did get a green LED when the PSU was unplugged from the console. I realized the 3.5V rail was shorted to ground, and I re-inspected my GPU flex cable real close and found this tiny little bridge that i missed:



I got rid of that bridge, and the 3.5V PSU pin was no longer shorted to ground. Great, now the PSU turned on when plugged into the motherboard. I then re-attached the GPU flex cable, still no short... But when I plug in the PS1digital to the flex cables, the 3.3V via and ground via are shorted.

I probably removed and re-attached the GPU flex cable like 5 times with the same results. Here's a picture of my last attempt:


I know it's not the prettiest job. I did accidently push a few pins around. But I made sure to carefully move them back to their pads with an exacto knife. Even with the GPU flex cable attached to the pins, 3.5V is not shorted to ground. However the second I attach the flex cables to the PS1digital.... the short to ground is back. I checked all of the individual solder pads on the other flex cables and none are bridged for sure.

Here is the what my GPU pins currently look like with the flex cable removed:


Here's what my GPU flex cable currently looks like on both sides:


Also these two pins at the end of the flex cable are shorted together, i'm not sure if that's normal or not:


And here is what my PS1 currently does when I try booting it up without the PS1 digital installed. It just plays like half of the bootup sound with no image:

I checked a bunch of fuses all around the whole motherboard and all of them were good, but i'm not sure if I missed any...

Any and all help is appreciated. I'm really stumped here.

 

[Sampsonay]

UPDATE: I reattached the resistor that I removed from the motherboard (this is a PU-18 board) and the console boots up just fine now. I'm so relieved lol. Atleast I know that is fine. I'm now definitely suspecting that GPU flex cable, though I may be wrong.

 

[invaderyoyo]

Your flex cable in the picture of your “last attempt” is shifted one pin to the right. Here’s a picture from the install guide.

 

[Sampsonay]

Your flex cable in the picture of your “last attempt” is shifted one pin to the right. Here’s a picture from the install guide.

Yep you are right, i fixed it and was able to proceed. However now i think my audio flex cable isnt working. I was getting sound at first, but after i reassembled my console it turned into loud static noise. I tried redoing this cable but am only getting about 3v on the 5v test point, the PS1digital now only blinks a blue light upon being powered on. I confirmed no bridges with a multimeter too.

 

[invaderyoyo]

Yep you are right, i fixed it and was able to proceed. However now i think my audio flex cable isnt working. I was getting sound at first, but after i reassembled my console it turned into loud static noise. I tried redoing this cable but am only getting about 3v on the 5v test point, the PS1digital now only blinks a blue light upon being powered on. I confirmed no bridges with a multimeter too.

You checked the fuses again?

 

[Sampsonay]

You checked the fuses again?

I just got it working, my multimeter was not detecting continuity between the 5v pins and a couple sound pins. They visually looked perfectly connected so i just ran jumper wires from the audio IC to the end of my flex cable. Looks janky as hell but it works, so im good!

 

[mmcpaul]

Replaced a fuse on the board that was marked '50' that is for the 3.3v circuit and everything came back to life. Got the replacement fuse from console 5.