The Ultimate Xbox 360 Oven Reflow Tutorial

Hello guys.

I mentioned it a couple of times already and after my first experiments with that sort of fix I now decided to release an own guide as well with a video.

I played around with the temps quite some time and the insulation that is needed to prevent the plastic parts and the capacitors from danger.
Unlike in Deary's and adrenaline_wave's previous tutorials this insulates really only the necessary parts and leaves the whole area around all main chips uncovered so that you can effectively reflow every single chip on the entire mainboard.

Here you can discuss the tutorial on our forum and get support if somethings unclear:
http://forums.xbox-experts.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=968

Also here somebody made a tutorial for a reusable heatshield which should be quite handy :)
http://xbox-experts.com/tutorial/u6-reusable-heat-shields-for-oven-reflows/

The Material kind of varies so read through and see what you really need, every oven is different etc...

Materials:
- A lot of Cello tape, 4 rolls of the cheap stuff, you get like 6 or so for 1
- Electric tape, also quite a bit, ~1 big roll or 2 smaller ones
- Small advice dont take super cheap chinese stuff it should not feel like rubber,( when you slide over it with your finger you shouldnt feel any resistance) The other stuff starts smoking really bad I paid 1.50 for my big 25m roll at Home Depot
- aluminum foil
- an oven or a microwave that got an <u>oven-only(NO MICROWAVES!)</u> function
- A grill, cookie sheet or so
- Something to keep the mainboard at distance to the grill/cookie sheet: I used screws, washers nuts and a uniclamp mounted to the bottom to keep it like 5mm away from the grill, some X-Clamps would also do the job.

For the Advanced ones who want a perfect and easy insulation that costs a bit more:
-Replace the Cellotape and the electrictape with heatresistent insulation tape.
This stuff is used to insulate oven pipes and camins you find it at Home Depot in that section it is approximately 1.5mm thick and it got an aluminum shielding, so look for the silver color...
You get a whole roll thats enough for like 50 reflows or so for 15 but I couldnt be arsed to spend that much
- Soldering equipment to desolder caps, if you got the skills otherwise you just gotta insulate more this step is optional...

The Tutorial

1. Desoldering caps(optional)

This step is optional and should only be applied by people who are familiar with it got the proper equipment and have desoldered many caps before.
If you are unsure just leave it then you have to insulate a bit more but for me it was a 2 minutes job, and for the newer mainboards it is not necessary to desolder those caps anyway they mostly got these metal caps that you dont really have to insulate at all in this area...

So skip to step 2 if this is the case, but mine was a launch Xenon with those tard caps so...

To desolder caps I find it easiest to insulate the finger tips with some electric tape so that you dont burn em, 2 layers..

This is the fellow I am planning to desolder

Then you take it with your finger tips and kinda hold it with that, on the other side with your right hand the soldering iron with a blob of fresh solder on it.
The fresh solder is important because you have to cook the old leadfree stuff so that it mixes with it then its easier in the end.
Recommended is a really strong soldering iron or a soldering station, I always turn it up to a 400C then it goes quite easily.

Then you put the tip of your soldering iron to the first leg, make sure the solder blob includes the entire joint this way it transfers the heat better, then slightly move the cap to the opposite site of the leg you just desoldered, this was you actually pull the leg out a slight bit.
If you just pull up nothing will happen because the other leg is still connected to the board.
Then go on with the other leg, and push the cap to the opposite side again, repeat that over and over and the cap will be out entirely after a bit.

You gotta train that a bit then it gets quite easy you basically just swap between the two joints rapidly then until the thing is out entirely, takes me about 20 seconds to get one out this way...
Note you need a proper iron that gets hot enough otherwise the whole procedure is a pain a proper soldering station with adjustable temps and lots of tips can be bought for about 20 on ebay.

I desoldered them on my Xenon like that, the one right of the RAM is most important imo and the one at the Southbridge, additionally you can desolder the yellow ones if you like insulating is easier then...

2. The insulation

Then start insulating with the cello tape I always got 6 main section that I divide the board into for the insulation:

1) the one in front where the ports buttons etc are
2) left of that the area from the ports up to the Southbridge and SATA port
3) the Ethernet, AV-port and fan header
4) bunch of caps right of the ANA chip
5) the area from PSU plug tothe USB ports
6) the bunch of caps left of the USB port and above the 1st area

Start wrapping those sections one by one into severaly layers of cello tape, in the end there should be at least 3 layers.

Also really really important the caps can take quite some heat but the most important is to give the small buttons an extra insulation, the eject and sync button they melt super easily.
If you got some parcels you can for example take the cushioning pellets from that, take one put it on the button then fasten it with electric tape around it otherwise just a lot of layers of electric tape and a layer aluminum in the end.

Make sure everything is covered perfectly and it is fixed, especially around small parts like the SATA port it easily gets loose there and when it does the whole thing melts and you will have fun replacing it like me :P.

This is what it should look like when you are done with the first section.

Thats what the whole mobo will look like afterwards

I used up 3 big roles in the end, it is really a lot...

Then you go on with the next layer or two actually in my case of electric tape, make sure that this really covers everything and also the bottom parts this stuff doesnt melt and is supposed to shield the cello tape which will fuck up if you leave any gaps.

Done it looks like that.

Then go on with aluminum foil, two layers as well, you put it on really tight this stuff may definitely not get loose so do some blow tests when done.
You can also use needles to fix the aluminum, you just pierce through the other layers...

When it is done itll look like that

If there is still thermal compound on remove it before putting it in the oven afterwards itll be harder to remove..
Can use alcohol and qtips for that.

3. How to keep the mainboard at a distance from the grill/cookie sheet

I built a sorta stand out of M5 screws, washers nuts and a uniclamp(X-Clamps do the job as well with some prep work).
There are many ways I am sure this is just what I did...

First the screws

Then washers(5 per screw for me)

Then you mount the mobo

Put another washer on

And then fix the plate to the board with the nuts...

Then you are done...

4. The actual reflow with timings and temps:

Before reflowing it is recommended to apply Flux to the mainboard and let it float under the chips.
Flux got the function to renew the solder and make it more sticky, this way stronger joins will develop after the reflow which will make the repair last longer.

You basically let it float under the chips and then move the mainboard around in different angles til it floats out, when you are sure all the solder under the chip is covered let it dry a slight bit for like 5 minutes.
Afterwards start reflowing

Some more info on flux usage and suppliers can be found in this thread:
http://forums.xbox-experts.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=63

For that I actually made a video of me reflowing that 0022er board.
You can find all the temps and stuff in there and a video is better than me explaining it anyway.
So enjoy my funny German accent :P

Temps and Timings:
-1:00 150C(302F)
-1:20 180C(356F)
-1:00 210C(410F)
-4:00-4:30 230C(446F)

Note this is just for small ovens if yours is not a microwave or toaster size one it will take way longer to heat up.
The temps and timings vary depending on each device yet usually it works out best for bigger ovens to preheat to 180C, then put the board in and increase to 230C, once it has reached the temp(230C) leave it in for another 3:30-4:00 minutes.

In total the board should not be under these temps for longer than 10 minutes so that you dont stress the insulation too much.

5. Removing the insulation

After it has cooled down you carefully remove the insulation, avoid bending the board this would break the solder balls again.

The solder balls should now all look pretty clean and shiny

Thats it basically, now apply the Hybrid fix and it should be good again.
I fixed a couple of difficult ones with that already the one on the pic was my cousins which had 0022 and wouldnt be fixed by Hybrid for long.
The thing has been working longer than ever before so far, could now post one of those retard oh my god it shows green lights again videos but I think you can take my word on that...

Last but not least I dont take any responsibility if you break your console even more with that or harm yourself or whatsoever you do all on your own risk.
This is really a Last resort fix and should only be applied if all else has failed.

Credits:
Initial Idea and first tutorial 2007:
Adrenaline_wave@X-scene
Deary@Llamma
everybody else who participated

Feel free to repost the tut translate it or whatsoever just link back to the original, if you translate it gimme a shout then I will add a link to your tut on this one.