Xbox 360 Capacitors. Common Failure?

[Magnapro]

I have worked on hundreds of xbox 360 mainboards and have seen many come back from Microsoft Repairs with Caps Changed.

Does anyone know if there are certain caps in the Xbox 360 that are prone to failure and should be replaced by default?

OR

is Microsoft just removing caps and plastic ports so they can oven rework/reflow boards?

I am well aware of the problems with the cracked leadfree solder and I have a computer controlled rework machine to repair the boards and sometimes reball the chips.

However this is sometimes not enough to keep system from returning to red ring error even when xray's show no cracked or bridged solder points.

I also see that Microsoft sometimes changes the values of the caps from board to board Some have bank of 6.3v 1500uf capacitors and others have bank of 6.3v 2200uf caps.

Its too much time to try and test each and all the caps on each board. not enough money in repairs to justify the time. however if there were say a few or even a bank that was known to fail or improve reliability with changed value. Then it may be worth just changing them in the process of reworking board.

Even though there is only one other post on this forum about xbox 360's, I posted here because most people on gaming related forums have no electronics training what so ever and spout nothing but BS about xclamps and towel tricks.

I am hoping for a more educated answer to the reason why Microsoft seems to always change caps when they work on boards and should I consider such an extreme approach to repairing xbox 360's.

Any thoughts anyone?

Sincerely, Magna

[Scenic]

Re: Xbox 360 Capacitors. Common Failure?

i'd say they have to remove them for resoldering the BGAs ..
(as i don't think the company fixing them for MS is doing it manually .. they prolly have a bit more expen$ive automated machinery for reflow soldering..)

most of the caps are usually toast anyways because of that stupid f*ckin "towel trick" that does more harm than good.. -.-

the person who thought of that "trick" deserves to be shot..

[Toasty]

Re: Xbox 360 Capacitors. Common Failure?

From the few I've seen, the ones in the heat stream are most likely. Found a few here and there in the area between the GPU/CPU heatsinks and the fans. Other side (front) I haven't had any (yet).

Two I have in now are both RROD and have Nichicon HZ's and Rubycon MCZ's both date-coded 0530 & 0535. These should be past the problem era, but I will pull a few and double check. There are also some 4v Fujitsu polys (I assume), which I would never consider to be a problem.

The cap replacement from MS is likely a CYA procedure from the failed caps problem. MS doesn't need the Dell type hassles.

Are you doing the GPU pipe cooler upgrade on units, or just staying with the reflow fix?

Toast

[Magnapro]

Re: Xbox 360 Capacitors. Common Failure?

Most of the systems I work on are newer and already have the updated gpu heatsink and extra pipe and sink. I get most of my systems by the pallet from store returns so they are usually less than a year old. Its actually the jaspers that are harder to repair as they are red ringing without being old enough to fill up with dust and dirt. No sign of cracked solder on the few I have x-ray. Manufacturing defects that are hard to track down. I rework most, part out and scrap the rest.

Anyone know why MS is changing caps from 1500uf to 2200uf mostly on the Falcon boards?

Magna