Fix XBOX360 ring of death with RE-7500

[Trion]

I have used RE-7500 to sucessfully reflow the processor and GPU of XBOX 360 and have fixed the infamous "ring of death". This is something that can get a technician a minimum of 50 euros to do, if not more.

I'd never be able to do it with a hot air rework station or even with the cheap Tornando infra.

This in one more way to recover the cost of RE-7500.

[Fonefingz]

what is it you have to do?
just reflow the chip?

[Trion]

Well the problem with the 360 is that it has a badly designed cooling system. What happens is with overheating the balls tend to get desoldered. Part of the problem in those made till Oct '06 is that the X-clamp for the heatsinks puts uneven pressure on the processors and this too makes the balls break. So what many ppl try to do is give even pressure between the heatsink and processor. If this works as in the 360 repair manual available online, its good n cheap. But sometimes reflow is needed. I reflow both the CPU and GPU, put back the heatsinks applying artic silver thermal paste. The paste Microsoft uses too isn't that good. It needs to be totally removed and replaced with artic silver. I also make a few minor modifications to get the 360 to cool better to prevent future problems. If u google for 360 cooling modifications, u'll get a couple of links.
Keep in mind that the PCB is double sided and has components below the processors that can fall off if u r not careful. What i do is preheat the board to around 75 degrees with upper heater off. Then i turn off lower heater and turn on upper heater on fast reflow till temp reaches around 100-105 degrees. Then i keep on reflow for abt 30 secs. Then i cool the board. I use Aluminium foil to cover the surrounding components as the tape supplied with Re-7500 isn't available here.
Unless the processor is fried (about 6% of cases), u should be able to successfully repair the 360 and make some cool bucks and earn respect of the gamer community.

[Raheeeeb]

@Trion

Good infrmation posted here , could you post some photos of your succeeded process

[ahmadz]

thanks you ????????>>>>>>

[TRABEL]

very good information ....
how many times did you try with hot air station ? , do you use any flux with reflaw ?
thx

[skkeptik2]

i have a lot expirence with xbox360 , yours xbox,repaired with this way (heating) will work one month and the reheating will not help you anymore, real problem is memory ic-s,from other side of the board,easyest way , not heating board is posted on net a few moths ago, need to put real eraser-ruber to evry memory ic, eraser-ruber,that one evryonehave in house,must be 4*10*20 mm
just remove original, and place there new one,maded from yours kids eraser , mount x-box 360 again,and it will works forewer

i made 16 pcs till now and all still wrking


eraser-thing used in scool for erasing wrong writed words
sorry for bad english

[Trion]

@skkeptik2,
Shall try that too. BUt i'm sure u agree that the cooling was very bad in the older 360s. I have a little experience in these and am always willng to learn from others. In normal PCs memory can cause problems, so shall do what u suggest too. I want my customers not to have problems for as long as possible. Any idea what MS is doing to the 360s they repair? Heard they're giving retrospective warranty to non modded 360s. Here there r lots of modded ones.
I heard one of the things MS is doing is using a new heatsink.
Thanks for sharing the info though. By sharing we all grow together.

[Trion]

@Raheeeeb,

I'll try and take pics the next time i get one. Word needs to spread that i'm doing this kind of repair. I feel in a few months there'll be several coming in once they fail.

Thanks for all your help with Re-7500. Your videos are a great asset and your advice is always appreciated.

BR
Trion

[Trion]

@Trabel,

I didn't risk it with hot air. Hot air is mostly for older generation phones and motherboards. FOr newer ones, infrared is a safe bet. I didn't need to use flux in the cases i had done.
BR
Trion

[Raheeeeb]

Originally Posted by skkeptik2

i have a lot expirence with xbox360 , yours xbox,repaired with this way (heating) will work one month and the reheating will not help you anymore,

Trion may be use re heating but sure re flow the balls is the good solution to insure that the ball re formalized and all solder cracks is removed and the connectivity of the solder ball surface become effective.
as the board while working the temperature is reach to 70 degrees

Originally Posted by skkeptik2

real problem is memory ic-s,from other side of the board,easyest way , not heating board is posted on net a few moths ago, need to put real eraser-ruber to evry memory ic, eraser-ruber,that one evryonehave in house,must be 4*10*20 mm
just remove original, and place there new one,maded from yours kids eraser , mount x-box 360 again,and it will works forewer

i made 16 pcs till now and all still wrking


eraser-thing used in scool for erasing wrong writed words
sorry for bad english

Yes to make a pressure or the chip package might work but still you make a pressure to press all four surfaces of connectivity is a way , but what about opretaing high resolution games for continues 7 hours ?
did you try to re flow the four memory chips ?
did you try to re ball the four chips?


Thank you for share your personal experince we all here to exchange experiences

Br
Raheeeeb

[Trion]

@Raheeeeb,

Any suggestions to improve the procedure so we properly reflow the ICs? Also if i were to need to reball them, how can i get stencils of the right size for reballing?

Thanks in advance.

BR

Trion

[TRABEL]

well , from what i hear , MS replace this bad xbox360 free of charge without any shipping costs ... even if not in warrenty ... ??
is this correct ?

[Trion]

@Trabel,
I think you did not read the part about them replacing only non modded xbox360 units. Also there is no certainity that the units they give under warranty won't have the problems again. By the way, one unit i fixed did come back, so i shall try out skkeptik2's suggestions on this one besides reflowing the Processors.

[Burnt Cobba]

@skkeptik2

mate can you place any more info on this or what to search for pls? I got a slight idea of what you are referring to but not 100%. Would appreciate some more details pls.

thanks for any help