360 died...E74..Attempt repair?
- Thread starter cu3ed
- Start date
I've done two boards in the oven @ 230c for 2 mins with the original heatsinks attached. They both worked after.
Infact I think the compression helps solder it back together again (providing you didnt heat it too long). And the heatsinks themselves limit the heat exposure to the CPU/GPU cores which could otherwise get damaged.
Honestly I wouldn't bother with tin-foil, it has a minimal effect on limiting heat exposure to the capacitors and you risk causing an electro-static short to the components when wrapping it.
Just cover up plastic bits liable to melt, like the blue buttons at the front. The rest is pretty much safe.
After having personally trashed a load of capacitors on a 360 board, I can say that the foil DOES help. From those pics it looks fine.
As for the heatsinks, up to you, but I'd still advise against leaving them on. In theory if your washers are spaced out enough the pressure on the GPU/CPU substrate shouldn't be that great, but it's still more of a risk than I would want to bother running myself.
Well I've gone and done all that been discussed and all is working right now, so time will tell how good a job i have done of it, tho i personally feel its couldn't have been done any better in term of how to do the x clamp replacement as well as re-flowing it in the oven for 4 mins.
Thanks for all the input...fingers crossed this lasts now!
All in all as i have Artic cleaners, and Artic5 thermal paste, this cost me 3.50 for the new screws and washers lol, not bad!
Thanks for all the input...fingers crossed this lasts now!
All in all as i have Artic cleaners, and Artic5 thermal paste, this cost me 3.50 for the new screws and washers lol, not bad!
You could do that, but the problem with the 360 isn't just down to the cooling. It's quite a few things - partly cooling, the poor heatsink clamps and a lack of proper standoffs so that the motherboard is able to warp over time. Also, the metal chassis has two raised bumps which are used effectively as motherboard standoffs but it doesn't help that in some metal cages, the two raised bumps are too tall, causing the board to flex even more.
In short if you sand down the two metal bumps (if they're too tall - they aren't always) then get the board bolted down properly (ie. drilling the cage out and using longer bolts that go through, with washers under the board) you are creating more support for the motherboard so that takes care of the flexing issue. In the process you're removing the x-clamps as well, so that alone should do the job nicely.
I understand people generally have the opinion of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and I normally completely agree with that. However with the 360 I'm not taking any risks where I can help it
I've carried out the above process on a fair few 360s that have been faulty (combined with oven/heatgun trick) as well as perfectly working consoles. Not had any problems yet but only time will tell.
In short if you sand down the two metal bumps (if they're too tall - they aren't always) then get the board bolted down properly (ie. drilling the cage out and using longer bolts that go through, with washers under the board) you are creating more support for the motherboard so that takes care of the flexing issue. In the process you're removing the x-clamps as well, so that alone should do the job nicely.
I understand people generally have the opinion of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and I normally completely agree with that. However with the 360 I'm not taking any risks where I can help it
I've carried out the above process on a fair few 360s that have been faulty (combined with oven/heatgun trick) as well as perfectly working consoles. Not had any problems yet but only time will tell.