(Ring of Death) Spike in Death rates

[muller1000]

Don't get me wrong about the 360 is a powerful piece of technology, however I promised to post when my 360 died, as I started the thread back in May. For consumer technology reliability should be made number one priority, at least be able to run for 2 years without hardware failures.

About the hacking comment, just a bit pissed and letting off steam as I really believed with the mods that were done I would at least get 2 years lifespan !!

The 360 average lifespan is 18 months......anything more is a bonus!!!!!

[muller1000]

This generation the 360 will be known as the RROD console & finish second. The Wii will win the console wars & the PS3 will become popular at the wrong time when other consoles will be launching their new system in 2010 -11.  I just hope M$ get the next console right as they have failed in the current one....way too many failures!!!

[pokecancer]

My xbox 360 was one of the first production runs. I got it when it first came out. It worked great until about a month ago. I was hoping I was just a lucky fool who had a working 360 console that wouldn't die. At the same time, my brother had been struggling for months to get an xbox 360 in working order. First they let him go get a brand new one. The new one died 3 days later! So this time they refurbished it and sent it back. Again after a month it died. About this time mine also took a dump. My brother got it fixed and sold it on ebay and got the elite now. Hopefully this fixes his problems.

Microsoft wouldnt honor my warranty though because I had opened the system before. So I had my friend fix it for me with the xclamp method and I'm not sure of the specifics of what else he did, but now it works great.

My question is even though I modded my system(and voided my warranty), shouldn't Microsoft be held responsible for fixing my console seeing as how all of these problems were the RROD and obviously because of their faulty electronics. I would not have modded my console if I thought I would need my warranty. It seems to me that my original warranty with them was voided by them. I don't know anything about the law pertaining to this, does anyone?

[Thinkdiff]

If you sent your console in before the 3-year RRoD warranty went into affect, there's a chance your account is noted that the system was opened. After they started the 3-year program, they kind of stopped caring if the box was opened or not. Many have gotten repaired boxes with no warranty stickers. If you did notable modifications to the internals, however, they won't work on it. What exactly did you mod in your box?

[pokecancer]

I sent it after the extended warranty went into affect. I only flashed my firmware and never had sent it to xbox before that.

[zillionare]

it's called a 360 for some reason other than advertised....mabye because they only last 360 days(if your lucky ) before RROD. Doesn't seem to matter if it's elite/legendary/epoxied/heatsinked or even refurbed.

Only lasting fix I have found is the xclamp replacement.

I have also started seperating the fan drafting with my own mod, to devote 1 of the fans to the CPU and the other to the GPU.
this mod seems to draft the GPU much better and doesn't require much moddification at all. just a little flap in the air duct behind the heatsinks and before the fans.

I can post a pick if requested.

peace, zil

[bunghoolio]

I am now on my 3rd 360 in less than 12 months!  I got so p***** off with RROD I went and bought one on EBAY last week.  Took around an hour to find out where the loose BGA connection is, now it works fine =D

Just found this article which makes interesting reading:-

https://www.manncorp.com/expert_04.6x_xbox_repair_station/Xbox%20360%20Repair_071207a.pdf

I emailed these guys about the equipment in this link. They want $14,500 AU. for it!!!

[Arakon]

And that's only for desoldering, not even reflowing and resoldering.. for those you need additional parts.

[gigabite]

wow that's a very very very neat solution for de-soldering...man that's very cool way worth the 14,500 if you know how to professionally re-ball them AFTER you de-soldered them....i've done heaps of research into this (a little of the problem also but we all knew it) it is very expensive and VERY hard to get right...with the 360 being the prices they are now...you'd need to be re-balling TONS of units to make any profit because you'd have to charge cheap...like what about $250...then for another $30 you get an arcade...and for a bit more you get a pro...so cost vs time, effort, equipment etc...is NOT worth doing it now (unless your working global scale reparing motherboards from repair centers, dim sims anyone  )

gigabite

[Megabug]

Well, the station is more for BGA Rework than desoldering.

They say, that most problems with the solder are beeing fixed by this methode/station.


And when my 360 dies I have a SMD Rework station at home. Only need to build a pcb preheater.

[Tiros]

The technical reports I have read, from other than a company trying to sell a glorified hot air gun, say that the thermal cycling that leads to failure, also changes the properties of the solder. Makes it brittle. It will not reflow as new, ever. The only *real* option is to reball and redo completely.

[foodex]

my brothers console died about 2 months ago i know it was built '06 unsure of month, the dumb twit sent the machine off to be repaired under warranty and left his back-up of crackdown inside the system. Now they fixed the problem (it was error 0021) but they had taped the game to the outside of the machine and gave him a 1 month live sub, he also got back the same drive so it didn't have to be re-flashed.

[gigabite]

^^ XD tiros is right guys - the solders melting point is DRAMATICALLY increased as the 360 becomes hotter and cool etc...so...some serious intense heat (wich most smd rework stations...rework stations NOT reflow OVENS can't reach....plus..it needs bottom heat also..hence the need for a pre heater or an oven) is needed to RE melt that solder just to de-solder it

gigabite

[bunghoolio]

Is there a cheaper way we can replicate what this expensive machine can do? Most of us wouldn't be keen on reballing 8 BGA Ram, CPU, GPU and that other thingy!

[Oneohm]

That is pretty cheap for a reflow station. Decent sized backheater but it seems very limited in what it can do. I disagree with their temperature profiles. Hopefully they can achieve good reflow with this thing. Might be worth a demo.