Xbox 360 graphics sometimes become fuzzy?

lol. Seeming as it would have been an 06 model, the HANA would have been a QFP and not a BGA based package. Hence, a good drag solder would have fixed it.

All the penny trick does, is gives it a little bit more weight and it surprisingly makes one of the legs on the QFP make a good contact with the solder pad.

My cousin used to do this for his elite.
He used to just stand on the 360, basically crushing it. It worked, but not for long xD
I then fixed it for him with a reball. haha.

 

In all these years I've been working with XBOX360 repairs I can count with the fingers of ONE hand how many times I had to REPLACE an ANA chip. And I never EVER had cold joint problems on a ANA CHIP. EVER.


It's aways on the GPU when the ANA has connection problems (colors go wrong, no video only audio or similar crap).

There's no such thing as cold joints on ANA chip because it's a QFP, not a BGA.

 

Cold joints can happen on DIP too, its not just BGA.

But I assume you know that.. but its not how your post reads =/

 

I do know that, but honestly I work with this kind of stuff since 1992 and I never really saw cold joints on DIP mounted devices that used to work then stopped working.

Same apply to QFP chips. A assembly should be really bad (and will be visibly ugly, to naked eye) to have cold joints. The ANA chip on the XBOX360 do not heat enough to cause mechanical stress that is serious enough to crack joints. The GPU on the other side, do. And it's a BGA while at it.

HDMI XBOX360s do suffer of cold joint problems on the HANA chip because it's a BGA and the companies assembling the units more than often use sub par assembly methods and materials, resulting in oxidization, low quality joints or even complete disaster.

Same thing happens under the GPU, CPU and South bridge chips on the XBOX360. I'm just saying that the ANA chip for being a QFP usually have nothing wrong with it's soldering.

 

Ive had cold joints on a DS lite (EM10) and an amiga 1200 surface mount resistor (which is why the mouse didnt work!).

So I dont think you can generalize that much. (however, I do agree that its probably not the ANA)

 

Well they were surface mount FILM resistors, which can be easily damaged by even a screwdriver touching one of their corners.

I usually solve that kind of problem (the resistor get it's corner corroded by mechanical damage, removing the conductor and breaking the circuit) by making a blob of solder on each of it's sides.

Also the grease from one's finger can act as corrosion agent which can lead to the same kind of fault. That's the reason why Hard Disk Drive manufacturers tell their customers to not touch the printed circuit board of the drives (finger grease).

 

Well when you think about it, all the heat from the GPU is flowing right over that X/H-ANA chip, and all of the other components too. A pin CAN become a bad joint.


*lol, 1,234 post count =^_^=*

 

No, it can't. There's not enough heat to cause that problem on ANA chip because the contact/interface area for each pin is way too wide for that to happen. It's physics not magic what we're discussing here.

 

So then you're saying that the ANA chip does not break at all. 99% of the time it is GPU?

 

100% of the time.

When ANA/HANA break we have things like a color missing (when using analog cable, one of the outputs is blown) CVBS or SVIDEO does not work but the other outputs do, wrong colors or no video but audio is ok, HDMI does not work but analog cables do, etc ...

Oh and since ANA/HANA are part of the southbridge circuitry (It's the clock gen for the SB CPU) if it's completely blown the console will not even respond to a power up request as the SMC WILL NOT BOOT UP.

 

Hmm... Well here is a little story.

When I was new to electronics. Like, idiotic new. My first Xbox 360 got the Red Rings.
So, I researched on Google ways in which I could fix it. I found the x-clamp fix was the best, and so, I cooked my 360 under its own heat output until the thermal overload kicked in.
My 360 then worked for a good 2 months, until when playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the screen would go entirely yellow. It would flicker on and off sometimes too iirc. I was playing though component.

So, I looked this problem up. After a few hours of research, I got a hair dryer (before I even knew what a heat gun was) and heated up the ANA chip.
Amazingly, the problem was solved. I did not reheat (cook) the console again. Just a heat on the ANA chip.

A few days later, the same problem came back. So, I opened it up, and reheated it.
Problem was now, it would not turn on.

Because I was stupid, I sold it the console.
This lead me to believe the ANA was the problem. A good drag solder would have fixed it my view today.

 

It only worked because you opened it, took the board out of it's metal shell and when you do that you cause a torsion movement which has a effect on the already cracked joints under the GPU.

In your "wettest dreams" a HAIRDRYER is hot enough to even have a effect on ROHS compliant solder whose fusion point is well above 250 degrees Celsius.

 

A1200 had never been opened

And yes, new solder on each side and back in business.

Love buying "faulty" items when they are that easy to repair.

 

That's how men who know what they're doing do business !

 

Well maybe my mums hair needs 250 + degrees to dry???? LOL

At least I now know what was the problem with that console, and my knowledge has increased more regarding the Xbox 360 and electronics. Thanks Oliveria!


On another side note, what about the E74? Still related to the GPU??

 

E73 and E74 happens only when the XBOX360 Kernel cannot init the EDRAM properly (the 10MB ultra fast memory that the GPU has on it's package).

And obviously since that RAM is used to render 3D graphics, it can start the video far enough to show a error screen on your TV or monitor.

Still the error reported on the Ring Of Light is the VERY SAME it reports on the screen, E74.