[SOLVED] What causes a motherboard edges to do this?

[Blbabs]

This is a 9 year old xbox 360 slims motherboard. I'm trying to figure out why it failed but I'm not going to try and get it repaired. I'm just curious about the cause of the RROD. I was able to get the RROD code from it but I found no results on the code it gave me (0-1-0-1).

^^^^ None of that information really matters.

The only thing I noticed wrong with this board ,or any of the components going in, was the blackened edges and I'm just curious about what causes that and if anyone else agrees that the cause of that is what possibly caused it to fail in the first place.

Also I did notice a bit of moisture inside the case while I was taking it apart so I'm assuming some moisture got inside and did this but I have no idea if that's true.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Sure looks like galvanic and moisture related corrosion to me. Whether it caused your problem is anybody's guess, because I'm not sure I've ever seen a motherboard do that before but I'm not usually dealing with Xbox motherboards, only those used in consumer and business machines mostly, but since that kind of corrosion certainly does a number on batteries and electronics in flashlights that are stored in damp places or exposed to moisture I would assume the same here.

 

[Blbabs]

Sure looks like galvanic and moisture related corrosion to me. Whether it caused your problem is anybody's guess, because I'm not sure I've ever seen a motherboard do that before but I'm not usually dealing with Xbox motherboards, only those used in consumer and business machines mostly, but since that kind of corrosion certainly does a number on batteries and electronics in flashlights that are stored in damp places or exposed to moisture I would assume the same here.

Would the issues that come from this just be something along the lines of insufficient power to close sections on the board? I don't really know what that area of the boards purpose is.

 

[Darkbreeze]

ANY area of a motherboard, or an PCB such as those on a graphics card, daughterboards, power supply boards, printed circuits of any kind on any kind of PCB structure, could always affect ANY other area of the board.

If you don't have a professional factory repair schematic diagram, or training on that specific component, or perhaps many years of electronics repair experience, then it would be nothing more than a guess trying to figure out which traces, mosfets, capacitors, resistors, switches, fuses or other components go to what. Something on one side of the board could go specifically to something on the other, or only something right next to it. Too hard to even try to guess at. Besides which, when it comes to things like copper sulfate or galvanic corrosion, by the time you can SEE the corrosion, it has usually progressed well beyond what you can see, into sockets, under insulation, etc.

Really, from your picture, it's pretty hard to even see what's going on. Some better images might paint a more accurate picture.

 

[drea.drechsler]

This is a 9 year old xbox 360 slims motherboard. I'm trying to figure out why it failed but I'm not going to try and get it repaired. I'm just curious about the cause of the RROD. I was able to get the RROD code from it but I found no results on the code it gave me (0-1-0-1).

^^^^ None of that information really matters.

The only thing I noticed wrong with this board ,or any of the components going in, was the blackened edges and I'm just curious about what causes that and if anyone else agrees that the cause of that is what possibly caused it to fail in the first place.

Also I did notice a bit of moisture inside the case while I was taking it apart so I'm assuming some moisture got inside and did this but I have no idea if that's true.

It looks to me to be an oxidized copper layer. That's not really a problem unless you are planning to solder to those surfaces. Any mechanical attachments should 'bite' through the oxidation layer to make effective enough contact.

If you wanted to clean it bright and shiny there are ways: probably the best is just use a mildly abrasive pencil eraser since you won't have to worry about neutralizing it after. But there's really no need to.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It looks to me to be an oxidized copper layer. That's not really a problem unless you are planning to solder to those surfaces. Any mechanical attachments should 'bite' through the oxidation layer to make effective enough contact.

If you wanted to clean it bright and shiny there are ways: probably the best is just use a mildly abrasive pencil eraser since you won't have to worry about neutralizing it after. But there's really no need to.

I think the aesthetics of the thing aren't where the concern is, since apparently the board doesn't "work".

 

[Blbabs]

I think the aesthetics of the thing aren't where the concern is, since apparently the board doesn't "work".

It looks to me to be an oxidized copper layer. That's not really a problem unless you are planning to solder to those surfaces. Any mechanical attachments should 'bite' through the oxidation layer to make effective enough contact.

If you wanted to clean it bright and shiny there are ways: probably the best is just use a mildly abrasive pencil eraser since you won't have to worry about neutralizing it after. But there's really no need to.

It's definitely not about appearance. I'm just trying to figure out what the cause of the machines failure was because the codes displayed about the failure have no listed info. So if it was the board or not that caused the machine to stop working, I have no idea. But with just a visual inspection this is all I saw that was obviously not right. So if this isn't what wouldve caused a failure I don't even know where else to look and I don't even have the proper tools to inspect it any further.

 

[drea.drechsler]

It's definitely not about appearance. I'm just trying to figure out what the cause of the machines failure was because the codes displayed about the failure have no listed info. So if it was the board or not that caused the machine to stop working, I have no idea. But with just a visual inspection this is all I saw that was obviously not right. So if this isn't what wouldve caused a failure I don't even know where else to look and I don't even have the proper tools to inspect it any further.

Well...it's awful hard to say with certainty, but the mfr. left that area copper plated and bare for a reason. It LOOKS like it's intended to make contact to a shield or wall in the case. If that electrical contact becomes unreliable, as with screws coming loose, and exposing copper in the contact area to moisture which accelerates oxidation then it could create ground loops or allow EMI to propagate. That can cause all manner of odd and inexplicable errors.