Game Console Preventative Maintenance

The most common question that I am asked from our customers is "How can I prevent my Xbox 360 or PS3 console from failing in the future?"

When it comes to preventing the Xbox 360 from getting the Red Rings of Death (RRoD) or the PS3 from getting the Yellow Light of Death (YLoD), you must take precautions to prevent too much heat from affecting the consoles.

Here are some simple steps that you can take to keep your console from getting too hot.

1. It is very important that the consoles are very well ventilated.

                This includes keeping other hot electronics far away from your console. You want nice cool air to be brought into the system and hot air being blown out and away from it. Most of the hot air will blow out the back of the console so it is very important that you have the back at least six inches of clearance.  We recommend six inches ALL around the console, so if you do put it in a cabinet (Please don't), the console will be able to get some fresh air. 

2. I also recommend that you have the console laying flat.

                This means keeping the console horizontal as opposed to standing up vertically.  Air will draw in from the sides.  You can put a piece of paper against the opposite site of where the hard drive is and you will be able to let go of the piece of paper and it will stay in place since it is getting sucked in by the air that is being drawn in.  This air is what will move through the heatsinks and then get hot and blown out the back.

3. Do not set your game console on carpet.

                This should go without saying; however, you would be surprised how many times I hear that people put the console on the ground... on carpet.  Hot consoles get carpet hot, hot carpet gets hot consoles hotter!  Also, the closer an electronic device is to the ground the more dust and derby the device will draw in since that is where most dust and derby settles. 

4. Put your consoles up on a higher platform. 

                Putting the consoles up higher will also help with young kids shoving anything and everything into the DVD/Blu Ray player of these consoles.  The PS3 and the Wii consoles will suck most items in that young kids just find fascinating and when you go to play your favorite game or movie you will wonder why your disc won’t go in the drive... but I digress.

5. Blow out your dust!

                If you have dust build up in the system, the hot air can't escape due to a blockage of dust being built up on the all sides of the consoles as well as the heat sinks inside. Blow the system out once a month with a can of pressurized air that you use to clean your keyboard or any kind of pressured air that is strong enough to break up the dust build up. Some have used a strong vacuum to suck the dirt out which will work as long as the suction is strong enough.  I recommend using the air first and then the vacuum. 

These are the some main factors that cause the additional heat buildup and can shorten the life of the game consoles. If you've done all this and the system fails, it is truly a hardware failure that you could not prevent from happening. All electronics fail sooner or later... that is where GameDay Resources comes in!

Methods for Repairing the RRoD and YLoD: Part II

The other aspect of the Reflow process is the size of the chip, meaning the temperature needed in order to get the lead free solder to the point of melt is also based on the size of the chip.  The greater the size of the chip or area the greater the heat plus amount of time it will take to get to the point of melt.  Using a heat gun to get the GPU to the point of melt while the heat is blowing around other components that are very small in size will cause smaller components to get too hot, the solder will liquefy and the smaller chips will move out of place and cause permanent damage to the board.  Also, in using a heat gun you will need to monitor the temperature of the GPU as you are attempting the Reflow since you do not want to go above the 400 degree Fahrenheit mark or 200 Celsius. 

There is the amount of time that the GPU should be heated base of the size of the area of the chip that must be adhered to as well.  Based on the specifications for getting solder to the point of melt, you cannot just blast the chip to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and expect any type of good results.  You are trying to get the lead free solder to the point of melt at a safe rate.   If you get the chip to 220 Celsius then the time to liquid (TAL) is about 30 seconds, meaning if you took the chip to the highest degree over several minutes, then maintained that for an addition 30 seconds the lead free solder would flow, which is not what we are trying to accomplish.  There are four steps in the reflow process which need to be followed; the first step is the Preheat Zone; this is where you are getting the entire motherboard warmed and avoiding thermal shock.  Again you are trying to avoid ramping up heat to quickly to keep from damaging sensitive components on the motherboard.  The next step in the process is the Soak Zone; this is where you are safely bringing the temperature of the board up to the Reflow Zone.  Obviously, the next step in the process is the Reflow Zone which is where you are maintaining a level of heat adequate to get the solder to the point of melt over a short period of time.  The last part of the process is the Cooling Zone; this is where you will bring the temperature of the board down slowly over a short period of time to keep from causing any weak solder joints.

Preparation is actually one of the very first steps and very important step in repairing the Xbox 360 from the RRoD.  Once you have disassembled the Xbox 360, you need to clean the motherboard.  You can use distilled water, but you would have to completely dry the board prior to the Reflow process or you can use electro static alcohol made specifically for electronic components.  Also, you will need to use liquid flux around the GPU and CPU prior to the Reflow process.  The flux will help to clean up the lead free solder and remove most of the oxidation that has built up around the solder balls. At this point you are ready to reflow the GPU on the motherboard with your heating device whether it is the heat gun, hot air solution or with the preferred method of the Infrared system, like the PACE IR 1000.  Once the motherboard has been properly heated you are going to need to allow time for cooling of the motherboard; the time needed to cool prior to assembly will depend again on the size of the chip that was heated.  With the chip cooled you are ready to reassembly the console or device, whether it is an Xbox 360, PS3 or other device. 

GameDay Resources makes some minor changes to the Xbox 360 to help eliminate as much of the heat as possible by adding a small resistor to the motherboard which will speed up the fan drawing out more of the heat that is created by the Xbox 360.  Adding the resistor helps to speed up the fan as well as keep the fan quiet, as opposed to rewiring the fan with the DVD power cable.  Rewiring the fan to the power cable will also increase the fan speed, but it will also make the fan very loud which can take away from the enjoyment of game play.  We also make some changes internally to help draw out some of the heat from the front of the console so the overall temperature of the system runs cooler than the original design.  We have also developed some methods for the PS3 during the reflow process to help increase the life expectancy once the GPU has been heated. From our latest improvements to our reflow process we have had very good results in units that had repeated failures over a small period of time as well as seeing better results of units that did not have repeated failures.  GameDay Resources continues to improve their processes with research and development in an effort to provide our customers with the very best customer experience that is available with today’s video game consoles.