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[InterestedHacker]

I have a 2nd 360 that I purchased from EBAY with the RROD and I wanted to share my own personal findings here from my years of experience in electronics.  Most of the articles out there are very useful and for the most part very accurate with regards to the 360 common faults.

Firstly there's the problems with discs getting scratched.   llamma identified the main cause of this and it does seem the most likely solution.  If you are getting scratched discs, this is the most likely cause.  I have identified this problem on 2 XBOX 360's so far and the problem is resolved by adding the foam pads.

http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/Refur...0-DVD-Drive.htm

Next comes the RROD...  Clearly it's caused by a combination of issues:-  lead free solder, bga chips, manufacturing problems (soldered incorrectly?), and most importantly temperature issues related to the design of the 360.  Seperating the air flow between the GPU and CPU has proven highly effective, as well as adding copper heat sinks to the ANA chip, and the other 2 exposed RAM chips next to the GPU (not the 2 under the heat sink).  

To anyone trying to work out where the fault is on their PCB related to RROD, there are a few things that can be useful.  Firstly there's the hot / cold tricks, using a hair dryer and freezing spray, for the most part you can warm up a specific area of the PCB, ie. particular chip and often you can nudge the 360 into a successful boot.  This will provide clues as to the culprit BGA chip.

I have found that error 0020 seems to be related to either the chip north west of the GPU (assuming you are looking down on the PCB with CPU to right of the GPU.  Adding a small amount of presure on the chip (is this the ANA chip?) seems to allow a boot.

I have had some success using a hot air gun.  The melting point of the solder used on the 360 is around 217 degrees as far as I understand, the hot air gun offers 250 and 500 degree settings, but directing this heat accurately is the main problem with this method.  The first time I tried this it worked, until I glued a copper heat sink onto the aforementioned chip (NW of GPU).  The heat from the glue gun used to attach to small blobs of glue to either side of the heat sink seemed sufficient to cause the problem with the solder connections again.   Following a longer blast with the hot air gun, and after re-attaching the new copper heat sink it seems fine.

What experiences have you had with error 0020 and what experiences have you had using a hot air gun to resolve the bga problems?

Clearly, once you have resolved the bga problems you need to ensure that the 360 is kept extremely cool or temperature problems are just going to result in further bga issue.

Does anyone else have any useful tips and tricks?

[dblue]

ill try some of your info out on my 0020 and let you know how it goes. ''years of experience in electronic' maybe your should look into 0002, because it a power problem and i havnt found some that could fix it

This post has been edited by dblue: Dec 22 2007, 04:42 PM

[geniusmind]

AMAZING!!!!!
I have been in a 0020 rrod situation, i slightly pushed with one finger onto NW chip respect to GPU and my 360 booted perfect like a charm!  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)  I think i will use its four holes to attach a retention system made up by myself that keeps this chip pressed onto MB.

I have a solder air station too, but i will use hot air like last try...

Stay tuned!!!  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)


GM

[geniusmind]

Two screws and a little bar keep NW chip a little bit pressed. I'm playing continuously for two hours and it seems it is a good solution (until now...)!

Next days i'll see how much this solution is really a solution!


Thanks!!!



GM

[yenson]

where is the "nw"chip