Xbox 360 & PS3 make me wonder...

[nncoolg]

I have been thinking about the problems that have been common place in the next gen gaming consoles, especially the 360's, the 360's 'red ring of death' and PS3's 'yellow light of death' faults that are apparently attributed to non-lead solder failing on the circuit boards. The way people 'fix' them is to heat them up by running them wrapped up in a towel or use a heat gun on the circuits and 're-flow' the joints, only to of course fail again. Makes me wonder if we we start having similar faults in cars with components with said fake solder? Bit of a concern I think....

[Gannon]

Im a little sceptical of the 'wrap with a towel' method of remelting the solder.

Solder melts at around 190degC but most integrated circuits can be damaged if their temperature rises above 125degC

So theoretically, if the circuit board inside your XBox or PS rose enough to melt solder, every IC inside should be ruined.

No doubt it may have worked in some cases, but i wouldn't recommend it.

Consumer electronic equipment has to ROHS compliant because it usually ends up in landfill. I dont think car electronics fall into this category

[nncoolg]

yep, the whole re-flowing thing sounds very dodgy, but remember, we are talking about lead-free sloder, so it could be just like plasticene