Reflowed an old Xbox 360 GPU with a heat gun and it actually worked

I saw the red ring go away after 3 minutes of heating the chip to 380 degrees and it booted right up, has anyone else had luck with this fix holding up long term?

2 comments

2 Comments

riley_bell19d ago

Man, that brings me back. I did the same thing to my launch day 360 back in 09 after it red ringed for the third time. Wrapped the whole motherboard in tinfoil like a baked potato and hit it with a hair dryer for like 10 minutes because I didn't have a heat gun. It actually worked for about 6 months until my little brother tripped over the power cord and yanked it off the shelf. The console fell three feet onto carpet and never turned on again. Pretty sure the fall did it in, not the reflow.

harris.aaron19d ago

Yeah I used to be one of those guys that thought reflowing was just a bandaid fix that would crap out again in a week. But I did the same thing on my old 360 about 2 years ago (hit it at 385 for maybe 4 minutes) and it's still going strong in my buddy's basement. The trick seems to be getting the heat even across the whole chip and not just blasting one spot. I'm actually surprised how well it held up, figured I'd be buying a new console by now.