RRoD: What, Why and Fix
The most common of the brings about of these failures tends to be broken or “cold” solder factors beneath the graphics processing chip (identified as the GPU).
Manufacturing game consoles comes with tons of intricacies. A person of these is the ecological effect of your merchandise. Since of this, 360′s are made utilizing lead free of charge solder. This is superior for the world but terrible for the existence of the console. There is a heat cycle included in employing devices with processor’s (CPU’s and GPU’s). In the course of these heating and cooling durations, there is stress on solder joints as the motherboard tends to move a tiny little bit when cooling. This is regular and typically does not cause destruction. The insufficient volume of direct in the solder can make the joints substantially much less adaptable, and they commonly crack a little. Positive this can manifest with leaded solder, and it does all the time. The difference is when it happens 500 power cycles in comparison to 4000 electrical power cycles is the distinction among your 360 console lasting 18 months and your 360 console long lasting 6-8 several years. Now that is a great deal big difference! There are several ways to resolve these output complications. Some are ineffective and some are worth the excess weight of a 360 in silver…
“The Penny Take care of”
This is exactly where you place a penny in concerning the GPU chip and the warmth sink. This may have labored for someone, somewhere, who had a loose x-clamp, but it doesn’t deal with the overheating or the breaks in the processor solder and it is a poor plan. It could tighten the x-clamp, and resolve the existing error, but it triggers even larger troubles. There is a layer of thermal paste concerning the chip and the heat sink that is quite crucial to the cooling of the chip. The penny will not only bodily damage the chip, but also disturbs the cooling process and sales opportunities to burns on the chip. I have witnessed the penny under the x-clamps on the bottom of the motherboard as properly. This is even even worse as it tends to make tons of shorts and damages lots of of the little factors. This take care of will render your Xbox 360 useless and irreparable.
“The Towel Correct”
This plan arrived from the believed that wrapping a towel all around the cooling vents of your Xbox 360 would warmth the solder incredibly hot enough to reflow the chip. This is not achievable. There are a lot of elements involved in accomplishing a successful reflow. The motherboard has to be preheated to a workable temp in order for the solder to dispense evenly, there is a precise technique to heating the chip itself, there requires to be sector unique flux for the solder to adhere accurately and on… and on… and on. The only matter I have heard the towel method do, is absolutely nothing.
“The Oven Reflow”
This fix is achieved by placing your motherboard on a baking sheet in the oven. This is the most important nightmare mend I have at any time experienced to date. DO NOT DO THIS!!! It does not do the job and it destroys several of the elements on the motherboard!!! Your capacitors will burst, your resistors will slide off and your motherboard will curl up like bacon. This will render your Xbox 360 useless and irreparable. Sufficient said I hope!
“The Hotplate Reflow”
See above…
“The Hairdryer Reflow”
This fix is preposterous. I have found a whole lot of exploded capacitors from this as perfectly. Do not attempt this strategy. Not only does it not resolve your Xbox 360, it can problems you DVD push as very well. This will render your Xbox 360 ineffective and irreparable.
