Alright everyone the upper section is a vital area you have the power board, the DVD drive, the controller port and heatsink for the EE in this area. Make sure that your console has had some time to rest without activity and power. If you just turned it off give it about an hour. The heatsink isn't a fun thing to get burned by and it's worth the wait. You can check back periodically on it but during that time make sure the power cable isn't plugged in.

Once you're sure it's ready to finally be opened proceed with caution. In newer models I hear a lot about cable damage to the ribbon that Sony uses in the console. Lift the back up slightly and slide the case away from the drive door as pictured below. You want to keep things relatively level when doing so as you don't want it getting unplugged. Once you clear the drive and controller ports tilt the case slightly up and to the right. This should expose how much slack is avaliable for the ribbon or wires to move. If there is a bit of slack to it then feel free to continue turning it to the right and either standing it in a vertical position next to the system or just flipping it over completely. You now are able to view the powerboard which is fastened down by 4 screws. In front of that is the heatsink for the main processors and in front of that are the control ports. The giant black box is the DVD drive unit. In most cases this is going to be where the focus is for repair.

Examine your drive. There should be 2 screws holding it down with a yellow hue to them. Leave these in. It holds the drive to the rest of the system. If you unfasten these and pull on the drive you're going to disconnect the cable from below and create another task to handle which I'll go into later just in case it does happen. Look and find 4 small black screws (may vary per model) if you have a magnetic screwdriver to get these then all the better. Otherwise watch your hands and attempt to tip these out by turning the console when you get each one unthreaded. Keep in mind it's going to suck putting the one by the heatsink and EE in. Once all are removed the cover may or may not wish to lift up. Do not pull on it until it rips off! The tab on the left as illustrated can be pulled out and then lifted to remove the top.

The exposed laser can be seen. At this point make sure all outside elements are away from the console. From here we'll go into the lens cleaning and the tray fixes. Depending on how the system was left there might be a game disc in there right now. Pick it up and place it back in the case. Lens Cleaning will start things up with a short bit on removal for those seeking to replace a dead unit and install a new one. Then Tray fixes will follow.