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I have to agree with Stang. X-clamp replacement will work, but eventually, because of the nature of what needs to be repaired, it will fail somewhere down the road. I will elaborate:
The xbox 360's GPU, CPU and RAM chips are mounted to the motherboard with a process called BGA soldering. BGA stands for ball grid array. That means that those chips has no legs to solder to the board. Instead, before they are mounted, little solid balls of solder are placed onto the solder pads, then the chips are placed on top of the solder balls. They are done so robotically so the chips are perfectly aligned. Then, the board is literally baked from the top and the bottom. It goes through a range of temperatures that are engineered to melt the solder in such a way that mounts the chips to the board. Once its cooled, the packages are x-rayed for flaws and then considered mounted in their homes.
I personally blame two things on RROD, lead free solder and the x-clamps. The x-clamps are what holds the heat sinks onto the motherboard from the back side. The way the clamps are designed causes a slight outward flex on the motherboard. Over time of turning on, playing some hardcore games and getting some heat up and cool down cycles, that outward pressure can cause some of those little balls of solder to seperate from the solder pads or just plain break in two. When that happens, you get RROD.
Now, enter the x-clamp replacement. What happens here is the x-clamps are removed and trashed, CPU and GPU dies are cleaned and new thermal compound is added, bolts and washers are used in the place of the x-clamps, but instead of mounting them from the backside of the motherboard, you drill out the holes in the case to accomodate the bolts and you have a system that allows the motherboard to lie perfectly flat with no flex. That all sounds nice and cool, but remember, that solder that was pulled loose or borken is still pulled loose or broken. The x-clamp replacement just allows you to crank the pressure down till the broken points are just jammed back together to complete the connection. The result? The 360 works again, but because those solder joints are just jammed back together, who can say for how long it will remain effective.
Hey Stang, nice place man!! Thought I'd drop by and make a few posts. I've been a member for a little while, just hadn't posted any. Been to busy taking in the wicked cool PSP stuff you guys got!!
I honestly had no idea, I actually sent a moderator from here to your other site for help since I had no clue about you being a member here lol, sorry for not contacting you first about that :/
So the latest batch's of 360's are just as prone to RROD as the launch units? I hope not, I was planning on getting another one. I still have my busted 360 sitting here mocking me
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I was going to x-clamp it, but I am not confident enough in my skills to do it myself. I have a launch 360, with my horrid luck I know something awful will happen to it yet again! I was thinking of getting an Arcade package and tossing my existing hdd on it. I just do not want to be burned again.
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I would at least try the x-clamp. Even if you do something thats a little wonky, beats it staring at you and doing nothing anyway.
If you get a new one, chances are extreme that you'll get one of the un-moddable lite-on drives. At least for now its un-moddable. You could just leave it stock, or wait it out and mod it, or not
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