Oven Trick

McShave · 21 May 2018 at 20:55

I've lost count of how many times I've done this with graphics cards and Xboxes in the past for myself or others. The part that most people forget or don't care about is that if the thing has failed due to the part getting too hot (and cooling again) a lot, it's best to add in a better cooling solution. The last generation of Xbox 360s came with a far superior cooler. You could buy that grill cheap as chips and add them to your diy fixed machine. You could overheat the Xbox and fix it but unless gave it a better cooling solution it's always going to go again sometime.

Same with GPUs. If you're gonna cook it, look out for better cheap third party cooler shrouds or even just better fans. It could make the world of a difference.

dacads · 21 May 2018 at 21:22

TheMightyTen said:
Did it with 2 Xbox 360s back the RRoD days. They worked until the day I got rid of them (which wasn't the next day before somebody says )

I used a heat gun, then sold the 360

Sasahara · 21 May 2018 at 21:39

jsmoke said:
It's called reflowing. They actually use this method in the making of the motherboards although as you can imagine it's all clinically done.

Only partially, most of the solder is added after the reflow oven process. There are almost no plastics in place when reflow is done in the factory oven.

The wave soldering is where most of the solder is added.

This is a great video to show the manufacturing process.

If using the oven works, your lucky, but it can potentially damage other parts.

neodude · 22 May 2018 at 12:20

Sasahara said:
Only partially, most of the solder is added after the reflow oven process. There are almost no plastics in place when reflow is done in the factory oven.
The wave soldering is where most of the solder is added.

Yep, Surface mount parts are reflow soldered. Pin Through Hole parts are Wave Soldered.

Daaaavvveee · 22 May 2018 at 12:58

Glanza said:
Used to be this or the towel trick on the original xbox 360s when they had RROD.

I have done that a few times!!

Gerard · 22 May 2018 at 13:02

I tried it with an old 3870 and all it did was make the ram chips fall off

Hades · 22 May 2018 at 13:02

iamtheoneneo said:
A more detailed explanation of why it works and why 200c is a myth. TLDR you only need 120c as re-balling isn't the problem.

Ahah, another Louis follower

I was about to find that video to post here.

Street · 22 May 2018 at 13:17

I've done it with a hot air gun on a few laptop GPUs in the past with mixed results!

Clearcut · 22 May 2018 at 13:17

I put a chicken in the oven and it killed it.

SickAsAParrot · 22 May 2018 at 14:08

We've got a proper reflow rig at work, it works on individual IC's but uses an area heater to heat the back of the board (to prevent thermal shock problems) whilst an IR lamp heats the device itself. It only heats at full temp for 15 seconds. 225 C for leaded solder and 245 C for lead-free. You also surround the IC with gel flux to make sure the joints make properly.

TacticalFish · 22 May 2018 at 14:14

Does anyone know if this works with a microwave too?

wedrum · 22 May 2018 at 14:16

your doing it all wrong, the microwave is where its at.

EDIT: beaten to it

itchy · 22 May 2018 at 14:25

TacticalFish said:
Does anyone know if this works with a microwave too?

Tickled my day. pmsl