Xbox360 Rings of Death FIX – Overheat Solder Reflow

71

iHacked has a video that shows the method to repair your XBox 360 by allowing the GPU solder joints to reflow. You may have seen the towel method that looks simple but has questionable results.

"Generally, the 3rrod error is caused by a solder problem, where points on the GPU/CPU have worked loose – or a temperature problem causing the same result. Following this guide, you should be able to fix these joints, quickly and easily! We have used this process to repair over 10 Xbox360s successfully."

 

 

 

 

 

You May Also Like

Raspberry Pi Bullet Time Recorder

5 Cool Self Balancing Skateboards

PIC Tengu – 18F2455 Microcontroller

71 Comments


  1. All those 360s failing because of there crappy CPU soldering? Tt shouldnt be that hard to tweak the crappy soldering machine on the production line.

    Tipical microsoft qualety for you.


  2. I have heard that it was the switch to lead free solder that was the problem. But if that was the problem I shouldn’t take this long to work out the kinks.


  3. This… actually won’t help a lot of launch consoles. The 3xRRoD is the ‘generic’ error code. It could mean anything from I can’t figure out my security code, to the GPU is overheating.

    Also, this has nothing to do with the paste. None. It was because Microsoft had to switch to PB-Free (lead free) solder at the very last second in the development cycle of the console–and unlike lead solder, you can get ‘tin whiskers’ from the pb-free solder. This is why the towel trick works–it melts the tin whiskers and they stop making the GPU short circuit.


  4. I would not consider this or even call it a reflow, in fact that is very misleading. I would call this more of a pressure/aggitation to regain contacts on bad solder joints. I have several reflow stations and there is a huge difference between what they are doing and actually reflowing a board. normally the posts here are very accurate, but this time, IMHO this is nothing more than misleading.



  6. Wow, I never knew *carpet* was an appropriate work surface for motherboard repair…


  7. Wow, very misleading. Stupid MS using brackets that pop the solder, theres one stupider thing about the 360, the build plan.
    The build plan requires the box to be opened and closed 4 times. The thing is a MASSIVE pain to open, even with the tool.

    The really bad part is, they KNOW it’s the ‘x’ clamps and they haven’t changed it on the 65nm that came out last fall. They make NO money off of the free 3 year warranties and they don’t fix that crap, wtf?

    And lets not even start on how easy it is to hack. Firmware patch? The hell is that?


  8. “The really bad part is, they KNOW it’s the ‘x’ clamps and they haven’t changed it on the 65nm that came out last fall. They make NO money off of the free 3 year warranties and they don’t fix that crap, wtf?”

    actually about that as a small business owner and having to purchase items as well (granted nothing near the quantity of ms) i can understand somewhat why they are doing what they are doing. if they have a massive stockpile of components because of a purchasing agreement i can see the bean counters showing more of a profit fixing bad units rather than doing it the correct way. Granted this is not a popular solution to anyone but honestly i can understand them doing so for such reasons.


  9. warranty shipping + warranty man hours < 8 screws, 8 bolts, 16 washers?

    I have a friend that warranties his box every 2-3 months and he’s not the only one. No WAY can that add up


  10. My first thought was: “alright!! a hot electronics chick!”
    Then I saw her put the motherboard directly on the carpet…
    Then I didn’t see any actual reflow soldering…
    False alarm; just a hot xbox chick, I guess.


  11. Very bold girl for working with motherboard on a carpet.



  14. I work for a communications equipment company, and we had big troubles using lead free BGAs. Mostly is stemmed from the fact that the lead free parts need higher reflow temps than the leaded process. If you use the lower temps, the BGAs do not bond with the pads correctly and can fracture from the pads when they go through temperature differences.


  15. I have fixed around 60 xboxes with this method and only had a few failures my first one was done 7 months ago and it is still working well check my ebay details if you want.
    sipix111



  17. Lost my interest and respect when she set a circuit board on carpet. Any first year electronics student will tell you that is very stupid. Carpets are full of static electricity throughout the year and in all climates. Just because it doesn’t zap doesn’t mean it isn’t damaging to electronics. The fact she also handles it while sitting on that carpet makes it even worse! Even if a static charge doesn’t kill a (integrated)circuit, it can severely weaken it and its reliability. Considering the Xbox360 is a piece of crap just waiting to find an excuse to die, this is pushing it.

    I was expecting a heat gun somewhere in this video, no such luck.

    Geez, stick with lead, it works.


  18. Done this myself on 2 xbox. It worked good for a couple of month then the red lights come back.


  19. WOW.. Forget the 360 rrod fix. That chick is HOT. I would like her to work on my circuits anytime. And so what if she was kneeling on the carpet. She needs to protect those knees.
    As for electronics on the carpet, meh.. we all make goofs. Stop being so picky and focus on the hot chick.. She wasn’t suggesting you use carpet was she..



  21. I used this fix for my xbox 360 and it worked i didnt us the screws or the washers I just reused the brackets and just bent them a little to give more pressure on the chips, I used the other steps and my xbox works!!!!!! I’ve only been playing it for about a half hour,but it working now and I hope it stays that way. Thank you to the people that made this video, it’s greatly appreciated.


  22. i dont see why you have to overheat the xbox if any of yahll know please tell me thanks


  23. Getting it to overheat is a risky move to reheat the silver solder enough to melt any whiskers (the real problem here) and re-seat all associated components.

    Tightening the heatsink while it’s hot helps with the so-called “re-flow”.


  24. WOW! along with the fact that she did all this on her carpet and did nothing but melt the solder further more hopefully making contact again…she powered up the board WITHOUT the DVD drive CONNECTED!!! If microsoft do any of there software checks, thats enough to have the console banned from Xbox Live!!! Naughty naught! 🙂


  25. First off this is a lame video this dosnt fix every single xbox360 works sometimes but not always and not forever. Dont ever do the towel trick period that will just melt thermal paste and get inbetween the chips and short them out. The odds of this working on every single xbox 360 is slim to none. Personally to even prevent 360 ring of death you gotta solder a additionaly fan on the heat sink blowing through the heat sink toward the back fans. and this is lame cause what if you gotta really solder stuff theres no way to do it right considering a machine does this cheap ass microsoft should of just put a dam chip socket on the board in the first place with better fans directly on the heatsink its self. Very sad that i paid that much for a xbox360 to see the side contents lame as shit prob about a 30 to 40 dollar motherboard if that with a shitty drive not to mention only seen 2 on board mem chips not sure how much at that. cheesy design period and not worth the 250 even for basic or elite systems. yeah and the chick in this video dosnt tell you that placing microchips on carpet can short out the memory chips slim chance of it actually happening but it is posssible.Any other fix that actually work on all of them e-mail me. djjoseloco@hotmail.com


  26. @lame:

    Your name is such poetic justice…

    Microsoft knows what they were doing–and they make mostly good hardware. What happened here was a Failure to Communicate.

    Lead Free solder melts at higher temperatures than Leaded solder. When they made the engineering samples/prototypes, they were all PB solder, but when the production units were made into PB-Free solder–that is when the proverbial doodoo hit the fan.

    The BGA on the main CPU wasen’t properly melted, so the ‘pins’ get disconnected when the CPU heats up. That’s all there is to it.


  27. lames not the real name tried this trick like 10 times and it still hasnt work on my xbox atleast i didnt pay for the broken one yeah i know about solder i went to school for electronics.actually a friend brought it to me after he did the towel trick so maybe thats why it still hasnt worked for me


  28. only thing i can think of is getting a thin enough guitar string and cleaning out the silver he melted into the chip underneath cleaned some out but i cant see far enough under to see if theres more silver melted under it.


  29. you said they know what there doing what is that over charging? a ton for a flawed design it flawed by them they should fix them all for free


  30. cute chic in video though sees pretty handy wit a screwdriver


  31. but then again microsoft has been getting away wit flaws and bugs of its own for years why do you think there os’s always have patch updates and service packs


  32. and whys a new computer a year later seem slower then the first year ya bought it?


  33. fresh os install?


  34. wondering why bill gates retired?after the xbox came out?


  35. xbox360 that is conscience come into play?


  36. This might work but as a help-desk support tech for laptops, the fact she put a mobo on the carpet several times makes me cringe. Ive done lappy reflows many times, and this was not a reflow, more like a melt and pray.



  38. it works like a charm. i had code 0102 and i followed directions and it so works. when i plugged it in i had three lights for like five minutes. went and smoked a cig, two lights. let it cool for 45 min. put it together. the only thing i had to do different was drill holes for the new screws. must have got the wrong head size lol!!!. played for 2 hours. no problem. thanx for the help!!!!


  39. LOL, talk about BS. All they’re doing is overheating the unit to melt to soldier, re-tightening it, and then preying it will keep a connection.

    The kit is nothing more than some screws and plastic washers you could buy at a hardware store for a fraction of the cost.

    I don’t even want to get into the BS of arctic silver. That junk has been tested against stuff like common toothpaste with the same results.

    Even if you do get this to work, it will not last because the 360 was knowingly constructed with substandard materials. It’s not just a design flaw, it’s a materials flaw. Microsoft knows about it but refuses to do anything about it except make excuses and false promises to buy time. Dump the 360 and purchase a different console, PS3, Wii, whatever. Microsoft only understands one language….$$$


  40. i agree with you about microsoft. there a bunch of @#$%’s for putting out a system that is prone to brakeing. i bought some thermal paste from radio shack and the hardware from the store. i paid @ $7 for it all. 1 hour of labor. its worked since may 4 and ive been playing @ 6 hours a day. as soon as my xbox 2 lighted i turned it off and turned a fan on it. it still isnt rigth of microsoft, but it works.


  41. I went through the whole mess of doing this blasted Red Ring of Death repair. Everything went great, until I put it back together and hooked it to my TV, then the Red Ring of Death came back. I’m about ready to take a sledge hammer to the damn thing. How come I never had trouble with the original Xbox?


  42. what code did you 360 have. did you turn it on after you reflowed(overheated)you xbox.


  43. Worked for me. Have had no problems since. Has been two months.


  44. I didnt have 3 rings death…Mine would play audio but blank screen with purple dotted lines after a day of color messing up…And have newer model with the extra heatsink coming off with copper tube but this method worked great the washers I bought where to thick so i had to ditch the metal and just use the plastic thanks for the help


  45. Oh sweet… she tried to put the RF Frontpanel under two lashes first, too. Its just so… logical. 🙁


  46. I had a E73 1 red light error code.I went to radio shack and home depot for all the supply’s . they cost me around 30 dollars . I tried the x clamp fix and i havent had any problems for about 3 days… this method is worth trying before you spend 200 on a new arcade .


  47. OK anyone hat thinks thinks the chick is hot has never had a g/f. Her eyes are on the sides of her head. I would never date anyone that ugly but im not desperate like some people.


  48. And the “music” sucks nuts


  49. well i had an e 74 1 Red light this time … tryed the reheat twice . i think the system is done this time. well i almost got another month out of it. =) maybe next time.


  50. Tried this fix on many 360’s with the RROD and the single led I’d death on the lower right hand quadrant and I can say that this isn’t a true fix but much rather a quick fix fir the masses. As other people have stated it’s a problem with the lead free solder used and the flexing of the pcb board caused by constant reheating and cooling due to excessive heat. The true fix would involve a reflow station ( approximately $7000) to resolder the chips (GPU, CPU, RAM, Northbridge and possibly the ANA video chip sitting between the GPU and the fan) back on the pcb properly. As you see this is well outside of means of the general populous. What happens is the lead free solder wasn’t heated up enough to form a proper bond or the pcb flexes due to excessive heat (the heatsink on the GPU is insufficient for the heat output) and eventually chips become unseated. It is possibly a couple of problems combined that lead to the unseating of the chips. When you use the screws, washers and over heating method you don’t actually really melt anything. Solder melting temps are much higher and the system cuts power to the chips before it even approaches that point hence the two flashing left quadrants. Instead the overheating makes the solder maleable combined with the high pressure from the screws forces contact between bad solder joints thereby giving the illusion of fixing it. Don’t get me wrong, this is probably acceptable considering the costs of the true fix but in the long run the probl will probably reappear. How long before it breaks again? Who knows. I’ve 360’s that would refuse to come back to life using this method, ones that would fail again in a matter of weeks or months and one’s tha have been working fine for about a year now. But 360’s that do RR again usually become unfixable without a complete reflow. This is due to the pcb flexing cause by the high pressure of the screws. If you actually look at the back of the motherboard after fastening the screws tightly you will see a slight bow where the CPU and GPU are. Luckily I have a friend who has access to a reflow station and when he’s not busy at work I go to work on the unfixable 360’s. The ANA videos display chip is also another culprit since it sits so close to the GPU. The two RAM chips also sometimes unseat as well as northbridge. The unseating of these other components don’t seem to be due to heat but much rather pcb flexing. It’s hard for a flat chip to make contact with a curved pcb especially on with already weakened solder joints. So you have to tighten to force contact in the heated maleable solder but only use just enough or you will cause the pcb to flex too much leading to other problems. This is something that most people will not mention because they don’t know the whole story. Complete reflow is ideal but the quick fix is acceptable too. All in all the quick fix seems to work on 85% to 90% of first time red ringers and that percentage drops down to 10% to 15% of repeated red ringers and the rest need a complete reflow. I just want people to be completely informed before they make thier decissions. I also apologised for spelling errors as this was typed on my iPhone.


  51. hahaha is she fixing that on a carpet, correct me if im wrong but can u not get a static charge from carpet


  52. Yes you can get a static charge from walking across the carpet and sometimes it can blow out memory chips and processors etc rare but can happen.


  53. How i fixed my xbox to prevent the ring of death. I took it appart found a fan already on the board and i tied into to that fan and soldered added a fan to it and fastened it to the processor heat sink so it cools it and wont overheat the solder joints and or processor. Worked great never had a problem with it since had it for over 3 to 4 years.


  54. Again i seem to think it was the type solder microsoft used while solderin the processor to the board had lead in it and eventually became brital and the joints didnt hold up to heat so it is microsofts problem to fix them all no one should accept responsibility for fixing there defect anyways microsoft should have to cover all repairs regardless.!!!!!


  55. Actually, it was that Microsoft switched to a lead-free solder that caused the problem. The new lead-free solder required a higher melting temperature, which it barely received. In other words, it was enough to “sort-of” melt it, but not reliably allow it to flow properly once in contact with the cooler PC board (which slightly lowered its temperature causing it to cool too quickly before flowing properly and making a good mechanical and electrical connection).

    Had the solder been the standard Nickel/Lead combo (tried and true for decades), this would never had been a problem. However, due to environmental whining, it was changed to an alternate solder at the last minute.

    By the way, lead doesn’t get hard and brittle. It’s positives is that it is soft and has a low melting temperature. Perfect for soldering. It’s weakness is that it’s not very strong by itself, and required nickel to add to the solder’s strength, which only slightly raised the melting temperature. Nickel covered the mechanical needs and lead covered the electrical needs.

    There’s a good chance that the reliable electronic components you have around are soldered with nickel/lead solder. The ones that fail early or act funny are probably soldered with some sort of alternate or silver solder. (look up “solder wiskers” on Google for an interesting read).


  56. She’s hot… not smart rofl


  57. well, i just got done with the procedure with success- though not exactly as expected (never got the q1/q3 overheat lights). i removed the heat sinks, cleaned them and the chips to a mirror shine, used arctic silver and the recommended hardware. snug tightened the screws and reassembled for first power on. still had the q1/q3/q4 rrod and continued to after two more boots with the same result. maybe i didn’t leave the screws loose enough? before taking it all apart i unplugged the fan assembly and booted- viola! green lights on two boot cycles! i reattached the fan plug, tightened the screws (cross pattern of course) and reassembled. powered it on to my tv and played need for speed for an hour. right now, its a success.

    btw i bought the above mentioned system on ebay for $20 with the rrod on purpose. i found it quite dirty- dusty heat sinks and fans, dusty air inlets. cleaned it out with soapy water, alcohol and q-tips. apart from the marred tab holes in the back, i gots me a great working system for $40 (20 for the unit, 10 in h/w from lowes and 10 for the paste from ‘the’ shack)


  59. Just wanted you to know that this is the best fix video that I have seen. Works great!

Comments are closed.