Removing xbox 360 parts

[nos10]

hi all,

I'm just wondering if someone can tell me if I were to remove parts from my xbox like the usb ports and the ROL board connector then I turned the xbox on would I get a red ring of death?

the reason I'd like to know is I'd like to be able to turn the system on after removing each part to test everything is still booting up correctly.

thanks.

[tom61]

It only red rings if there's a problem with the GPU, missing stuff that it can detect will give you just one red light. Connectors themselves it shouldn't be able to detect, just make sure you have a video cable connected when you test (it can detect that it is missing if no config pins are jumpered).

[nos10]

thanks for your reply.

I have one other question you or someone else might be able to help me out with.

I'm having allot of trouble desoldering parts of the xbox MB.

I have a variable heat control soldering iron with max temp at 450 C.

The way I am removing the solder is to put a blob of leaded solder on the solder point i want to remove, then I place desolder braid on the point
and heat with the solding iron. This is working fine for some pins but there is always 2 pins on each connection on the xbox mb that seem to be soldered allot
thicker as I can not get the leaded solder to blend with the original solder enough to make it flow so the braid fails to suck up the older solder.

so far I have managed to remove the front usb port and the ROL board connectors.

with both of these connectors most of the pins desoldered quit easily using some lead solder and solder braid to suck up the hot solder from the points.
but with each of the connectors there were 2 pins that were very hard to desolder each one took atleast 2 hours to get out cleanly.

I am now in the process of desoldering the 2 memory card slots. theses are also giving me allot of trouble with 2 pins on each connector.
each memory card has 5 pins and 3 on each desolder without to much hassle but i cant get the last 2 pins on each to flow enough to suck the solder up with the solder braid.

is there something I'm missing here? any tips or hints would be much appreciated.

thanks

[tom61]

An odd technique you've been using. Directly heating up the braid on top of the solder usually works. If that doesn't, put the soldering iron directly on the solder, wait until it melts, then very quickly pull it off and put the braid on top with the soldering iron on top of it.

[nos10]

hey tom,

thanks for your help and fast reply.

I have already tried to heat the solder then place the braid right on top and still no luck. I'm about to go give it another go for an hour or so lol.

are there any other methods that work better? I dont mind investing money in equipment if it will make my life easier.

would a better solution be a desoldering iron with an inbuilt solder sucker? or can anyone recommend a better way??

cheers

Update**

I just spent over an hour trying to desolder 1 pin.

here is a pic of what im working on.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/824/photopz.jpg/

the two large solder points in the pic are just connector points to hold the memory card slot in place.

if you look at the memory card pins u can see on both card slots the 3 middle pins have been desoldered.

then if you look to the left and right of the memory card slot pins u can see there is still one solder point remaining on each side of the slots.

these solder joins are much thicker and I just cant get them to come free.

this is really driving me mad and i dont want to go out and by a desoldering iron if that is not going to help.

I'm sure anyone who has taken parts of an xbox MB has had the same issues and there must be a better way then what im doing right now.

thanks again.

[tom61]

There's the heat and pry method that should work here. Heat up the solder on one side and pull on the connector on the that side, switch to the other side, heat it up and pull, it'll move a little at the time until it pulls off completely. Though, it looks like those pins are just for a mechanical connection, you could just cut off the part on the other side.

As far as a desoldering iron, I personally prefer using a separate spring loaded solder sucker.

[bassmasta]

The $10 Radioshack desoldering iron with the attached pump can work quite well, once you get the hang of it. It's 45W, which should help with melting the lead-free solder. It worked for me, for the most part, and has really worked for Ben (Heck), who has made quite a few laptops.

It's cheap, at least in my opinion, but if you want to stick with braid, you could probably do that.

Also look into flux, it helps with soldering/desoldering.

[nos10]

hey guys, thanks for your replies.

after trying again and still having no luck I decided to lash out and buy a proper de-soldering tool as I plan on using it quit a bit I think its a good investment.

Its an 80w desoldering station with a variable temp, it has a max temp of 480 C.

here is the listing on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... K:MEWAX:IT

and here is a youtube video of it in action.



I'd love to know what you guys think and if you think it will do the job well.

I'm thinking if you guys are using a cheap 10$, 45w soldering iron with a solder sucker then this 80w de-soldering iron should do the job with no trouble at all??.

cheers guys.

[tom61]

That station looks pretty nice, though a bit overkill unless you do this kind of stuff a lot. Keep in mind that more heat is not always a good thing, you can damage the board and lift traces off it if it's too high. Since that can be dialed in to a specific heat, you should be good, so long as you don't turn it up too high. (I'm not sure on the exact setting needed for this application)

[humakabula1]

350-380*c is the temperature i use