Fixin' RROD's - anyone have experience with xclamp?

[Kais]

Brother in law is asking me if there's any other way to fix his xbox than to send it in, and I recall x-clamp. Has anyone tried it, and if so, did it actually work well?

[xopher]

If it's still under warranty, go with that.

Xclamp is more of a preventative measure.

[Darus Grey]

It also damages the system more in the long-term, eventually making it unrepairable, it's a ghettofix at best.

The proper way to fix an RROD is to reflow the chip(s), i.e. resoldering them, to do it you need someone with a reflow station, the other option is to buy a heat-gun and do it yourself, this is also a ghetto fix, since a heat-gun isn't a real reflow station(and doesn't include the tools to analyze the work, i.e. make sure you did it right), but it is the ONLY legitimate method that actually FIXES the problem.

Towels, Bakes, pennies, Xclamps, etc, only delay the problem until it's irreversible.

Ultimately you need to reflow the xbox, and then implement some form of additional cooling to make sure it doesn't happen again, like put the xbox in another case, cut a lot more holes in the case to increase airflow, replace the fans/heatsinks with much better 3rd party ones, etc.

[Kais]

welp, guess it's out of my league then
thanks dudes

[xopher]

The reason this happens is because the Xbox 360 is classified as a toy and they can't use lead based solder when manufacturing it. The "child friendly" solder they use on xboxes and PS3s melts at a much lower temperature.

[Darus Grey]

Actually, that's not true at all(don't know where you heard that).

Lead based solders have the lowest melting points, rosin based(common type used in electronics) melt at almost twice the tempature of lead based, and above that there's silver based with highest melting point(until you start getting into hyper-industrial stuff).

The issue isn't the solder, it's that the 360's cooling system is woefully inadequate and allows the chip to get to to the 150C+ that allows even rosin-based solders to melt. They don't actually melt either(the system shuts down before then), they get to stress points where they're about to melt, but when the system does its damage control and turns off, the sudden cool-down makes the solder-balls holding the chips crack. It would ironically be better if the safeguard just let them melt.


Lead-base is only still in use specifically because of it's low melting point, as it's much easier for beginners to use(it's also primarily used in plumbing more than electronics).

[xopher]

Actually, that's not true at all(don't know where you heard that).

Lead based solders have the lowest melting points, rosin based(common type used in electronics) melt at almost twice the tempature of lead based, and above that there's silver based with highest melting point(until you start getting into hyper-industrial stuff).

The issue isn't the solder, it's that the 360's cooling system is woefully inadequate and allows the chip to get to to the 150C+ that allows even rosin-based solders to melt. They don't actually melt either(the system shuts down before then), they get to stress points where they're about to melt, but when the system does its damage control and turns off, the sudden cool-down makes the solder-balls holding the chips crack. It would ironically be better if the safeguard just let them melt.


Lead-base is only still in use specifically because of it's low melting point, as it's much easier for beginners to use(it's also primarily used in plumbing more than electronics).

Then why my lead-solder reballed RROD 360 work fine now? And everyone else who has had their console reballed?

I have heard of zero reballed 360s ever red ringing again.

[Darus Grey]

Then why my lead-solder reballed RROD 360 work fine now? And everyone else who has had their console reballed?

I have heard of zero reballed 360s ever red ringing again.

Because their much lower melting point allows them to reflow when they over-heat?

As I stated, the issue with the 360 is *precisely* because the solder *doesn't* melt, it *cracks*, because the tempature get's really high, but just not high enough.

My correction was specifically that (commercially available)lead based solders have a higher melting point, it is indeed untrue. Ultimately the cooling system is at fault, not the solder(it is perfectly adequate for its use, it shouldn't be getting that hot).