Repair Sharks Xbox 360 Reflow and Reball Services

Repair Sharks has done it again. We are now offering full reball services for Red Ring of Death (RROD) Xbox 360 consoles. We are constantly striving to offer better services here at Repair Sharks. Recently we started offering reball services to a select customer base and are now happy to now announce full availability for anyone looking for quality reball services of their Xbox consoles.

What causes the RROD?

The Red Ring of Death is typically caused by broken solder joints between the Graphics processor chip and the motherboard. Heat is a major contributing factor to the RROD. Under high temperatures the solder can soften and break away from the board. The motherboard itself is a big contributing factor to this issue. The motherboard under constant high heat can begin to flex or become concave. When this happens it starts to pull away from the rigid chip and break the solder joints between the chip and board. There are some other issues with various chips that can attribute to this issue but the GPU is the most common.

What exactly is an Xbox 360 reball?

In simple terms a reball is when a chip is removed from a motherboard, cleaned, and set up with new solder balls on each contact point of the chip. The chip is then soldered back down to the motherboard. Ball Grid Array or BGA chips are designed in this fashion. The graphics chip on the Xbox is a BGA type chip and can be reballed to fix certain issues like the Red Ring of Death.  From the factory the Xbox GPU is soldered to the motherboard using lead-free solder. Most reball techniques used to repair the GPU issue use lead based solder. The lead-free solder has a different melting temperature, moving to lead based solder generally results in a stronger longer lasting bond between the motherboard and the chip. Reballing is a corrective measure whereas reflowing is a patching method.

What is a reflow?

Reflowing can and does work to fix the Xbox 360 RROD issues. Reflowing is where various chips are brought back to the solder melting temperature in order to rejoin the BGA chips solder balls back to the motherboard. If a reflow is done correctly with the correct tools it is capable of lasting for months to years. This method has been the norm for many repair centers and home repair techs. Equipment and processes however can vary greatly and will provide different results. At Repair Sharks we have engineered a method which has lasted our customers and we cover our work with a two month warranty so customers can have peace of mind.

Why reball over reflow?

Reballing is generally considered a longer lasting repair method. Reflowing works very well if done correctly using the proper equipment but a reball if done correctly can help to alleviate some of the issues that actually cause the RROD to begin with. The move from lead-free to lead based solder is an improvement over the intial design however Microsoft has not corrected their design flaws with the Xbox 360 units. Unfortunately there is no 100% fix for this issue. Xbox users have to deal with the high probability that their console will fail at some point no matter what is done to correct the issue.

Which should I choose, reflow or reball?

Reflow is generally the first choice for repairing the Xbox. The cost associated is generally much less than a Reball due to the time and equipment needed for each process.  Make sure to use a reputable company that has a solid process in place. There are many ways to reflow an Xbox and some will cause more harm than good in the long run.  By talking to a professional technician at Repair Sharks we can help determine which method is best for your situation.  If you’re Xbox has been repaired already and you are experiencing the RROD for a 2nd or 3rd time then many people lean toward a reball service.

Are there any other options for my Xbox 360?

Repair Sharks is now offering enhanced build-ups for the Xbox 360 console. We have introduced two new custom cooling mods that can aid in reducing internal temperatures by up to 8 degrees Celcius. Given the heat issues with the Xbox this is a significant cooling increase over the stock setup. We offer custom internal heat transfer upgrades which draw more heat away from the board and transfer it to the metal housing of the Xbox. Additionally we have introduced a third fan mod into the Xbox which increases airflow draw and push within the console helping to reduce GPU temperatures. The combination of these two mods has proven to work well and Repair Sharks engineered these two mods to work together.  Other repair centers choose to re-wire the main fans so that they operate at 100% all the time rather than variable as the Xbox is originally set up. This causes an extremely high DB of sound emanating from the rear of the Xbox. It becomes unbearable at times the console sounds like a jet engine running next to your TV.

Repair Sharks offers Reflow, Reball, and enhanced cooling mods for the Xbox 360 console. Reflowing is generally a quicker process and can be completed within 1-3 days of receipt. Reballing is a much more involved process in which we take our time to ensure the best possible results. Turn-around time for this service is about 10 business days. We have combo repairs available that include our reflow service with our enhanced cooling mods. This method has proven to work rather well. Repairing the initial problem then adding in additional cooling components helps alleviate the causes of the problem. Once again there is unfortunately no 100% fix for this issue but Repair Sharks is dedicated to providing the best possible service for helping our customers. Feel free to contact us with any questions. You can also visit our Xbox 360 repair page.

Gaming Console Repair

9 thoughts on “Repair Sharks Xbox 360 Reflow and Reball Services

  1. tiffany says:

    took my ipod touch apart and dont know how to put it back together but i knew that i have shouldn’t.

    • slacker29 says:

      Yes we can, it takes about 2 weeks to complete the repair. We have a high success rate and offer a warranty. Please feel free to give us a call 516-499-6892. Thanks, RS

  2. Kendal Pendelton says:

    Hey this was one of the best articles I have seen. Have you heard that the new xbox 720 is in the beta program? I heard about it when I was playing Black Ops 2, so I googled xbox 720 beta and there it was. Wonder how many they are going to be selecting?

    • slacker29 says:

      Would be nice to see a complete overhaul of these consoles. Still a PS3 fan personally and it would be nice to see the next gen Sony console as well.

  3. dinesh says:

    pls send methe perfect temp og xbox 360 cpu and gpu and ps3 cpu and gpu temp upper and lower heat

  4. Bob Wettermann says:

    Reflowing the motherboard of your Xbox 360 allows the solder balls located beneath the CPU, GPU, RAM, and other chips to reconnect with their contacts on the motherboard. Since I’ve been working on getting into more hardware repairs, and specifically component level repairs. In doing so, I’ve been researching the GPU issues that many machines have that require either a reflow or reball to fix. In researching Xbox 360 repairs, the consensus seems to be more that a reball is unnecessary and won’t provide any more that a proper reflow will. I have seen people say that reballing will provide a better fix than reflowing the xbox, but it seems to be leaning on the side of reflowing vs reballing.

  5. Brendan says:

    Would it be possible for you guys to put broken micro resistors/or capacitors back under the cpu of an Xbox 360 motherboard? While taking off my Xclamps my tool slipped an knocked some off along with another one off to the side of the motherboard. I have all of them in a baggy. Along with this I been trying to repair my rrod which I may need a reball as well. My dash is 7371 which is why I’d like to fix this one or at least swap the cpu to another matching working motherboard I have because I want to jtag for my own personal backups an programming.

    • admin says:

      Under the CPU are the solder joints for the the chip. There are some adjoining chips near that. Not sure exactly what you are referring to but our motherboard tech may be able to repair it. Give us a call if you like at 516-499-6892.

Comments are closed.