XBox 360 Ring of Death Comprehensive Rework & Repair System

ZEPHYRTRONICS ZT-7 HOT AIR REFLOW CENTER

Soldering & De Soldering the GPU, CPU & the Samsung "Memory Chip"

Understanding the GPU, CPU, Memory Chips and Ball Grid Arrays (BGA's):

Q: What are these chip packages that Microsoft® calls the GPU, the CPU, and the Memory Chips? And why do they look so different from other components?

A: These are electronic chips that are packaged in what are called Ball Grid Array formats (BGA's). They are a relatively new form of Surface Mount Devices (SMD) and are similar to other components in that they have an integrated circuit (die) within the package and that they have connections to be soldered. However, instead of leads at the side of the chip, the connections are balls underneath the chip (See Below):

Above Left: Bottom Side of a QFP Surface Mount Chip with the leads at the side for soldering to the PCB.

Above Right: Bottom Side of a Ball Grid Array (BGA) Chip with solder spheres (balls) at the bottom for soldering to the PCB.

Many of the chips on the XBOX 360 Printed Circuit Board are packaged in the BGA format shown above including the GPU, CPU and Memory Chips. Indeed, most consumer electronic PCB's today incorporate more and more BGA style chips as they are more robust in construction and have faster gate speed for processing.

Once the BGA is placed and soldered onto the PCB, you can no longer "see" the connections (balls) as they are underneath the chip and no longer visible to the eye.

Finally, the XBOX PCB's components are all soldered to the pads with lead-free solder, not the traditional solder that everyone is familiar with. Lead-free solder requires higher than traditional temperatures which makes preheating the PCB imperative.

Good News! Believe it or not, BGA's are surprisingly easy to remove and replace with the right equipment, the proper procedures. And Zephyrtronics has built into the popular ZT-7 System so many great features including effective preheating fo those lead-free solder joints so as to make your job now much easier to perform.

The ZT-7 is easy to operate and includes closed-loop and digital temperature control, plus digital countdown timing, and industry standard pre-heating and thermal ramping to enhance the quality of your work. Of course, the ZT-7 is not limited to just working on XBox PCB's, but is ideal for prototyping tasks, low volume production runs and rework and repair of most all SMT and BGA tasks.

For more specifications and product details, click here to see the full webpage on the ZT-7 Hot Air BGA & SMT Rework Center. Also, feel free to call us at our factory in Los Angeles County between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM Monday through Friday at (909) 865-2595 or e-mail us at sales@ameritronics.com.  We are here and happy to help.