anyone have knowledge with reballing?

[t-maxxracer32]

Hey guys some of you may know that I have been fixing RROD 360s for the past year or something and Ive run into some problems with a few of the systems getting the error months later..

I was tired of this happening so i looked into the permanent real solution. Something microsoft should be doing to actually fix the problem and i came to the conclusion that the leadfree solder balls are what cause this problem. They simply crack and come apart from the board causing the RROD.

im not about to make a huge thread about the causes and stuff my point in this thread is to see if anyone here has ever reballed a chip on a board or does anyone do it for a living?

ive been looking into machines and i think this one would be perfect
http://cgi.ebay.com/JOVY-7500-BGA-Xb...item5ad76128f9

comes with the stencils to reball and the xbox 360 mounting peice.

it is quite costly but could be an investment for me and a great job oppurtunity because there is money to be made as long as you do it right..

to sum it up..

1. Does anyone have info on reballing and the technique for it.. or how hard is the actual task because it doesnt seem to be terrribllyyy difficult
2. if you know anything about this technique how would this machine work for the xbox 360?
3. does this sound like a decent business plan?



--buy 360s off ebay, freinds, manufactuers, etc fixem and then resell them.

if you buy a 360 for about 40 bucks and fix it the profit margin is around 40 bucks.. and i figure it should only take me an hour or 2 per xbox.

also if i get freinds or people who know about me to bring their 360s to me i can charge 40 bucks and fix them.

what do you all think about this idea?

keep in mind this machine really can fix any type of SMD chip.. so itd be great for phones, cameras, ps3, wii, future systems? etc

thanks!

[rawfuls]

To me, sounds like a good idea, especially since RROD'ing is a huge issue with the XBox.

One thing I've always wondered, since I fix iPod touches, mostly cracked screens, make about $20 - $30 per iPod, is what happens if I mess one up.

What's my warranty policy?

Not many people will go with a "company" that is run out of your bedroom/garage, etc, especially with no warranty/guarantee policy. Now I am just balling it out there, but Microsoft fixes them, well replaces them, works on them if they trash it, oh well, that's only about 1/3000000 xboxs. No big woop.

You know? I may just be rambling on something totally not true.

[t-maxxracer32]

best thing about what im doing is that if i cant fix it i just say sorry its not the gpu and cpu chip its an actual software problem that i cannot fix.

once i tell someone that there just like uh... okay...

I dont charge them and i do lose some of my time but i havent actually had to use that excuse yet.. but when people ask what was wrong with it and I tell them the gpu and cpu chips overheat and cause the solderballs to lift up and crack, and what i do is clamp them down. i get the same responce.. uhh... okay...

with what you do... if you break it then its your fault not theirs.. but if you make them sign some type of paperwork saying your not responsible for anything other than cracked screens then you shouldn't have a problem..

now if you fix a freinds itouch and break it.. thats another story cause youll see him around everyday.. it really just depends what kind of business man you wanna be.

If i buy this machine and charge 40 bucks to fix it if i cant fix the thing i just wont charge them. Ill give it a 30 day warranty or something like that also to the ones i do fix.

thanks for your input man! hopefully your itouch business picks up so you can make some good money!

[squeeforever]

Keep in mind, you can also offer it as a service on eBay. Start a BIN auction with the price you charge and there ya go. Should provide plenty of business to keep you busy and pay off the machine. Plenty of people do it on things like bricked PSP's, broken screens on phones, etc. I've considered doing PSP's, since I can fix one in about 10 minutes, but never really bothered. Not to mention I can add LED's to the triggers, custom firmware, etc, but the LED's wouldn't be cheap to do and most people wouldn't wanna pay the price since soldering SMD's is a HUGE PITA and it takes forever to do it correctly.

On a side note, do reflash the firmware on the 360 dvd drives for burned games, right? What would you charge me? I have the Halo 3 edition and I'm not 100% sure I want to open it up, but if I do, I want to reflash the firmware. I just don't want to get banned from Xbox Live.

[rawfuls]

Originally Posted by t-maxxracer32

best thing about what im doing is that if i cant fix it i just say sorry its not the gpu and cpu chip its an actual software problem that i cannot fix.

once i tell someone that there just like uh... okay...

I dont charge them and i do lose some of my time but i havent actually had to use that excuse yet.. but when people ask what was wrong with it and I tell them the gpu and cpu chips overheat and cause the solderballs to lift up and crack, and what i do is clamp them down. i get the same responce.. uhh... okay...

with what you do... if you break it then its your fault not theirs.. but if you make them sign some type of paperwork saying your not responsible for anything other than cracked screens then you shouldn't have a problem..

now if you fix a freinds itouch and break it.. thats another story cause youll see him around everyday.. it really just depends what kind of business man you wanna be.

If i buy this machine and charge 40 bucks to fix it if i cant fix the thing i just wont charge them. Ill give it a 30 day warranty or something like that also to the ones i do fix.

thanks for your input man! hopefully your itouch business picks up so you can make some good money!

That's what I'm beginning to do, print out a nice ol' contract, you get strange looks from parents when a 15 year old kid is making his friend sign a contract, then again, business is business.

My first few iPods, I had a couple touches lying around... After I got my iPod touch... , that people had thrown at me saying, if you can fix it for under 50 bucks, do it, if not, just keep it, considering I live in a "wealthy" neighborhood, but now since the economy is going down the pooper...

Anyways, a few of them required new screens, some needed new boards, I took the time and fixed em all, and told myself I'd use em incase I messed up an iPod, I could replace their broken one with one of the working ones...

I'm beginning to stop my little business, I used to only do it on weekends, but, now I'm getting to lazy.

Anyways, squee has a good point, have a BIN listing on fleabay.. Youll get lots of buyers.

[t-maxxracer32]

Originally Posted by squeeforever

Keep in mind, you can also offer it as a service on eBay. Start a BIN auction with the price you charge and there ya go. Should provide plenty of business to keep you busy and pay off the machine. Plenty of people do it on things like bricked PSP's, broken screens on phones, etc. I've considered doing PSP's, since I can fix one in about 10 minutes, but never really bothered. Not to mention I can add LED's to the triggers, custom firmware, etc, but the LED's wouldn't be cheap to do and most people wouldn't wanna pay the price since soldering SMD's is a HUGE PITA and it takes forever to do it correctly.

On a side note, do reflash the firmware on the 360 dvd drives for burned games, right? What would you charge me? I have the Halo 3 edition and I'm not 100% sure I want to open it up, but if I do, I want to reflash the firmware. I just don't want to get banned from Xbox Live.

ya ill have to look into all the different options to get the business going, but here is something else that i can do for people

Ill also add some red LEDs in the case plus paint the insides to math the red and black theme

I mod controllers too with new leds RF chips lights in the dome etc

there definetly is a good amount of money to be made here but like rawfuls said.. you cant get lazy as this will be my only job when im up there..

I do have another question...

if i decide to bring my airbrush up to my apt.. is there any type of vacuum that will suck in all the smell that the paints throw out? I dont wanna be hotboxing in my room all day

Oh and as for the firmware.. From my understanding as long as you do a stealth patch to the games you will not have a problem getting banned on xbox live. Personally I would not take the chance on playing burned game on live.. but if i decided to be a baddass and try it then id do it on an account that was only 3 months..

I have not successfully modded a HDD yet, but am in the process of getting it done..

Id like to be a one stop shop. fix, mod, upgrade do whatever they want me to do.


heres some work ive done..

it actually is a nice dark red.. but looks almost pinkish
I know the striping isnt perfect but it was my first attempt. it also has a red ROL plus a rapid fire chip installed


Along with an ebay shop and craigslist I will start a youtube channel and every case i make, controller i mod, etc I will post up and throw an ebay link along with it so maybe people there will also send me there stuff.


Ive been trying to think of a name for my "company" and came up with these..

everyday modding
sikkazzmods
sikkmods
elitemodding (unless its taken..)
one stop mod shop

keep the responses coming.. Im hoping someone can inform me on this machine or know a machine that will get the job that i want done.

but so far after a number of searches this seems to be the best machine for me.

[What's_nitro?]

From the description it looks like it's just an infrared projector. You aim the light at the chip to desolder it, then use the stensils to re-apply the solder balls, then re-solder the chip onto them.

Definitely a money maker. I've seen the lots of broken XB360s for sale on eBay. If you could take the time to fix them all you would make a pretty penny.

I need one of those machines!!! I've fixed my console 3 times the normal way and each time it came back.

[t-maxxracer32]

yap thats how it works. ive fixed a few freinds 360s and everytime the system breaks they come right back to me and expect me to fix it again.. its quite irritating.

to be honest my personal 360 is an elite that i bought from walmart a few months back.. I got tired of my old elite breaking down on me

[What's_nitro?]

The one I have (that keeps breaking) is a "refurbished" HDMI console that had the mod done to it already... That lasted about 3 months, then I fixed it. That lasted about 3 weeks, fixed it.... 3 days later... Exponential decline. I'm going to buy a new console at some point...

[t-maxxracer32]

2 options id say for you.

have you ever tried the heatgun method?
basically heat up all the chips with a heat gun (not hair dryer) for about 10-15 secs each then hit the cpu and gpu for 30 seconds

let it cool down then flip it over and hit those 4 ram chips for 15 seconds each.

then put the xclamps back on

this is how i find my best success.. they last for a few months with this trick

option 2 would be a walmart scam. they are a little trickier now they they got the new warranty sticker but it can still be taken off with careful work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UHwWB0f4gQ

[What's_nitro?]

I have a heatgun so I'm going to try that method.....once.

[t-maxxracer32]

haha if you do just make sure to tin foil all the capacitors so they dont burn up on you.

so does this seem like a legit approach to "start my own business" while im in college?

[What's_nitro?]

Yeah definitely. Just make sure you're willing to stick with it, and have the time to do so while you're at school. I also think it would be a good idea to come up with some sort of disclaimer for people to acknowledge before you do the work. I noticed that eBay listing says it's for Spanish countries only () so you'll need to contact the seller and see what they can do for you.

[t-maxxracer32]

what do you mean they say its only for Spanish countries?

because of the language its in?

They will ship it to the U.S so even if it does come with a Spanish manual or something along those lines i have friends that can help me with that.

I do fear that after a while ill get bored of doing this work but I figure as long as this is my only income I should have the desire to stick with it.

Lately I haven't gotten much time to do this type of stuff but when i took a week off from work I got a heck of a lot done..

Im going to wait till the end of the week to order it. Im waiting on my boss to tell me if she will start giving me weekends off.. that way I only work 2 days a week and have a good amount of time to devote to figuring this machine out!

[What's_nitro?]

In the description it says: "THIS LIST IS ONLY FOR SELECTIVE SPANISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES - PLEASE LOOK FOR A JOVY REPRESENTATIVE IN YOUR AREA FOR YOUR LANGUAGE". Yeah, maybe that just means it comes with a Sp manual. If you already talked to them and they will ship to the US (do they consider the US a SP speaking country? lol) then it must be OK.