Why Did My Xbox 360 Get the Red Rings of Death (RROD) or PS3 Get the Yellow Light of Death (YLoD)?

I get asked this question all the time, “Why did my Xbox 360 get the red rings of death (RROD)?” or “Why did my PS3 get the Yellow Light of Death (YLoD)?”.   The answer to this question is mainly due to the lead-free solder balls that are used with the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and the Central Processing Unit (CPU) chips of the Xbox 360 and PS3. Even though Lead solder would be a better choice for this application, back in 2006 the European Union Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) came into effect and prohibited the use of Lead in most consumer electronic products.  Lead Free solder is harder to melt than Lead solder, but will break down more easily and does not set up as well.  

Due to some inefficiency with the lead-free solder, a poor displacement of air flow, and high amount of heat that is produced from the GPU, the beak down of the lead-free solder occurs.  You will get fractures in the solder balls under the GPU as well as the CPU causing what is called “Cold Solder Joints”.  When you get enough cold solder joints your game console will shut down and the Xbox 360 will give you one, two, or three red rings (RROD) and the PS3 will give you the Yellow Light of Death (YLoD).  Yes this happens to most Xbox 360’s and PS3’s.

This article is mainly focusing on the Xbox 360, but can also be related to the PS3 since both consoles use the lead-free solder and both produce a serious amount of heat that mainly comes from the GPU which runs the graphics of the intense games that are played on these consoles.   When you are playing games on your console, the graphics chip is processing an enormous amount of code from the games and the more code is being processed the hotter the GPU will get.  The Xbox 360 produces enough heat to begin affecting the lead-free solder and it starts to break down and then oxidize; the oxidation is somewhat equivalent to corrosion.  (You get enough corrosion on metal and it starts to break down the metal and it becomes brittle, so goes oxidation to lead-free solder.)

When I am explaining to a customer why their system failed, whether it be an Xbox 360 or a PS3, I give a much shorter and less in-depth answer so their eyes don’t get glazed over.  But, I also let them know how we go about repairing their Xbox 360 or PS3 and help to eliminate this problem from reoccurring anytime soon.  Even though we can repair the Xbox 360 and PS3, it should be noted that failures will happen again in time.  Most people want a permanent fix to their game console; unfortunately there is no permanent fix, but we strive to keep the console working for a long time with some of the things we do that will dissipate much of the heat that these consoles produce.

So the next question is, how do I repair the cold solder joints on the Xbox 360 or PS3 and get rid of the oxidation and back to playing games? That will be answered in my next blog post, so stay tuned… you don’t want to miss our repair techniques and helpful tips if you chose to do it on your own.