I know exactly what you mean dude, I usually do that anyways as its always good to do that after you taken a console apart for the first time.
Ive already messaged someone on ebay, going to pay for a full reball i think, it'll also guarantee the console working for another 6-12 months minimum
Frustrating isnt even the word for it, the amount of times ive formatted these HDD's i got here, also reapplied paste and gone over the whole board with alcohol to make sure all the connections are right
Its Baffled me for the last 5+ days, reballing the cpu and gpu or the southbridge is the last ideas i have in mind
Just out of curiosity, how much are they charging?
Fingers crossed it'll be case closed after you've had it done lol.