Heatgun Reflow And Thermal Paste Fix
Disclaimer:
Proceed at your own risk. I take no responsibility for your actions. Do not operate a heat gun unless you know what you are doing with it and you are aware of the necessary safety precautions. Heat guns can get hot enough to start a fire. Opening your xbox voids any manufacturers warranty that may exist for it.
Basic Info:
This tutorial describes a fix for many common problems with the xbox 360. The fix applies to all the different video problems including artifacts, pixelation, horizontal and vertical lines, color distortion, and no video output. It also applies to many different RROD problems. You can find out how to get your RROD error codes and if anyone has fixed an RROD xbox with your specific error codes with Google and Youtube. I did not come up with this method, I have just compiled all the information in one thread to help anyone else attempting this fix. All the sources I found are linked at the bottom. I was able to fix my broken elite with this method.
Stuff You Need:
- Heat gun: I bought a Wagner HT 1000 at Home Depot for $26. It has 2 heat settings, 400° C and 540° C. They have and even nicer one for like $35 that has 12 settings.
- Arcticlean thermal compound remover and surface purifier: Comes together in a kit, I got mine at Radio Shack for $10.
- Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound: Make sure you get Arctic Silver 5 and not regular Arctic Silver. They sell it at Radio Shack for $10, but my local store didn't carry it. I ordered mine on Amazon for around $5 with shipping.
- Kester 951 liquid flux: Doesn't have to be Kester specifically, but it has to be a no-clean, halide-free liquid flux. It's generally sold in a huge jug for $18 retail. I ordered a 1.25 oz bottle on Ebay for around $3 with shipping.
- Torx size 8: Can be used to remove both the 8 and 10 torx screws. I got mine on Ebay a long time ago to mod controllers for like $5.
- Eyeglass screwdriver: I used an eyeglass screwdriver when removing the case to poke the tabs for the top and bottom pieces of the console. I also used it to poke the tabs for the back part of the console. You can get them at stores like CVS and Walgreens for around $5.
- Flathead screwdriver: Try to find one with a small thin head. This helps a lot when removing and replacing the x-clamps.
- Scissors: Used to cut the tape, the plastic, and the tinfoil.
- Tinfoil: the thicker the better. I just used normal household tinfoil and 2 overlapping layers.
- Plastic: Some sort of thick plastic is a necessity. All I could find was some bubble wrap and one of those white plastic mailers that's used by USPS. If you are going to use bubble wrap on the bottom layer, you need a thicker plastic above it. If you are using just a thick plastic, one layer of plastic may be fine.
- Tape: You need at least electrical tape. I also used masking tape on the bottom layer against the board, but masking tape is not necessary. I used masking tape because it would leave very little residue and to conserve my electrical tape.
- Cue tips, cotton swabs, paper towels, or a soft cloth: Having all of these will help, but only one of them is needed really. Used to clean the stock thermal paste, excess flux from the board, dust from the board and components.
Step 1: Cleaning The Chips And Heatsinks:
The first step is cleaning the chips and the heatsinks. You'll need Articlean thermal material remover and surface purifier. I got it at Radio Shack for $10. Apply the thermal paste remover to the surface of the chip and heatsinks where the paste is, let it sit for a minute or two, then remove the residue. You can use an old credit card to remove bigger pieces, just don't apply too much pressure, you could damage the little components on the chips. I used Maxell blast away air sprayer to spray under the chips when I was finished and I noticed that some of the liquid had gotten underneath them. I took the time to clean under both chips thoroughly by spraying under them and wiping up the residue on the other side with cue tips. Here are some before and after pictures of my chips and heatsinks:
There was very little paste between the chips and the heatsinks. It seems to have pressed out from around the chips when the heatsinks were installed. It's also far too much paste. It's possible that just swapping the paste for Arctic Silver 5 alone may be enough to fix some of the RROD and video problems people are having. You can try putting it back together at this step to see if the paste has fixed the problem. I did not want to have to take it apart again. Many people wouldn't even consider opening their broken xbox to attempt this fix, even if it's out of warranty.
Step 2: Isolating The Plastic Parts:
The second step is to isolate the plastic components on the motherboard. This step is important, because you could easily ruin your motherboard by destroying one of the caps, or port casings. Heating without isolation will greatly increase the chance that you will damage your board. If you heat a cap up, the solder can reflow, causing the joint to break. The cap can even explode. Use as many layers as you can and take your time. My layers were like this: bubble wrap, plastic mailer bag, and 3 layers of tinfoil. You'll want to isolate all the parts outlined in the pictures below. I taped the bubble wrap sections to the board with masking tape and then taped them to the back of the board. I cut the tape down the middle to make thinner strips. Tape the bubble wrap as close to the components as you can against board. Try to get your layers as air tight as possible. The mailer bag went on the same way, but I used electrical tape to cover the masking tape. I taped over the seams where the mailer plastic overlapped itself. The tinfoil was kind of a pain to get on and to get it to sit right against the board. The tinfoil layers cannot possibly be air tight. I tried using sewing pins to hold the tinfoil in place, but I was not able to get that to work at all. I applied almost 3 layers of tinfoil, overlapping and increasing the size of the sections for each layer. On the third layer I used much bigger pieces than I did in the first two, that seemed to work well. With that much isolation material, you have to make sure you get as close to the components as possible with each layer, otherwise you will get too close to the chips where you taped the layer to the board. Here's some pics of my isolation:
Step 3: Applying The Flux:
You will want to do this in a well ventilated area. Tilt the board at a 45 degree angle and add a few drops of flux on the side of the chips. Wait for the flux to run under the chips and come out the other side. I repeated this for each side of each chip twice. I did not flux the RAM chips as much as the raised chips. You do not need to flux the top part of the chips. If you apply excess flux, you can use cue tips to clean it up, or just leave it since it's a no clean flux. Make sure to cap your flux when you are finished using it. You will also want to clean out the dropper. Try not to wait too long between applying the flux and heating the board, which is the next step.
Step 4: Heating The Chips To Reflow The Solder:
Proceed at your own risk. I take no responsibility for your actions. Do not operate a heat gun unless you know what you are doing with it and you are aware of the necessary safety precautions. Heat guns can get hot enough to start a fire. I practiced with my heat gun by lightly burning some paper sheets in a notebook at a distance of about 6 inches. That helped me get a feel for the distance at which the gun would burn things. I suggest practicing with the heat gun this way to prevent you from burning the board. The gun I used is slightly hotter than the one that was used in the tutorial I followed on YouTube
here. In the video the gun was positioned about 3-4 inches from the board. I positioned my gun about 6 inches from the board for the longest part of the heating, which was just beyond where the gun would burn paper in a notebook. I started on the low setting and preheated the bottom and top of the board for about 1 minute. Then I switched the gun on the high setting and heated the chips in small circular patterns at a distance of about 6 inches for 3 minutes. Near the end of heating, as the board got hotter, I decreased the distance of the gun by 1-2 inches to make sure it was getting hot enough. Do not keep the gun in one place too long or you will burn the board. Use fast moving circular patterns over the exposed area like in the video. You may see some smoking, just back the gun off slightly. You should not see a lot of smoke. I made sure the GPU and ANA chips got a lot of attention and did not pay as much attention to the CPU and the RAM. I used an android stopwatch app to time the last part. I switched the gun to the lowest setting after the 3 minutes, so that I could bring the temperature down slowly. I let it sit for about an hour.
Step 5: Applying The Arctic Silver Thermal Paste:
Use the Articlean surface purifier to clean the chips and heatsinks where you will be applying the paste. Let them sit for at least a half hour after cleaning to make sure all the leftover residue has evaporated. I applied the paste to the chips and the heatsinks using a credit card to spread a 1 cm thick square where they make contact. The big flat heatsink had 2 squares. I applied enough paste to make sure that there would be a layer between the chips, but not so much that it would press out everywhere when the heatsinks were reinstalled. I saw some stuff mention using a rice size piece of paste, but you should use more than that.
Information Sources:
