Hot take: I think reflowing cracked BGA chips with a heat gun is overrated

I keep seeing people in forums recommend hitting PS3 or Xbox 360 GPUs with a heat gun to fix the red ring or YLOD. I tried it on three consoles back in 2019, and every single one failed again within two weeks. The real fix is reballing or replacing the chip, but nobody wants to hear that because it takes more work. I ran a repair shop in Portland for five years, and I only saw heat gun reflows last past a month maybe twice. Am I missing something, or is this just a temporary bandaid that everyone pretends works?

2 comments

2 Comments

derek992mo ago

Read some guy on a forum say reflows are just a "temporary solder massage.

kim_martin2mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, I've seen plenty of reflows hold up for years just fine.