Cornelius

iTrader: (2)

As there are so many Xbox 360's around and myths about repairing the RROD, I'm going to make a guide about the best way (in my experience) of fixing this common problem.

Towel trick - This is probably one of the most famous myths of repairing a 360.

Good point: you don't have to open the case and ruin the Security seal and the Xbox can still be sent back to Microsoft for repair.

Bad point: Totally crap way of repairing - not very effective and if you're lucky and it does work, it won't last long before the RROD comes back.


Why do we get the RROD?

In a nutshell, the 360 is a poor design and the fans aren't of a very good quality. On heavy graphic rendering games, such as COD4 the GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) becomes VERY hot. The heatsink is directly under the DVD player and is held onto the mainboard with a so called X-clamp. These are flimsy peices of metal and after a while they have a tendency to distort with the heat generated by the GPU. With all this heat and vibrations from the DVD, fans etc - some of the soldered joints on the GPU fails causing the RROD, or E74.

As the CPU (Central Processing Unit) has a much larger and more efficient heatsink, this rarely fails.

The towel trick is partially correct, because the GPU needs to be heated to such an extent, the solder is melted creating a circuit once again, but with the towel trick, the whole Xbox is heated. The CPU has a thermostat built into it so when it overheats, it shuts the console down before the heat can do it's job.

I've got an Xbox coming over soon for a repair so will make a guide for my method of fixing it.

Items required:

T8 torx bit
T10 torx bit
thin bladed electrical screwdriver
Nail varnish remover
Arctic silver thermal paste
M5x10 screws -Qty 8
M5 washers - Qty 24
Talismoon Whisper fan

Time to do repair - around 2 hours


More to follow

FLAT ERIC

iTrader: (1)

This guide made me laugh.

Disclaimer :- Only proficient electro mechanical engineers should use this guide.

Micareds X-Box RROD repair guide...

Cornelius

iTrader: (2)

LMAO, that's known in the trade as percussion maintenance

WRX_Dazza

let me guess, the only item you didn't need to buy specifically !!!

FLAT ERIC

iTrader: (1)

It's in the manual.

Before a skilled technician touches his tools he must check his cuticles are in order.

ryansss

Hi guys, Well fairly new to this forum, but I did a few repairs for peps on the DC5 forum.

All the modern consoles are crap in the way they are manufactured. I fix about two a week for friends and friends of friends. I had the dreaded red lights a couple of times and wasn't covered under warranty due to having flashed drives, so I sat down with the net and a couple of the broken machines and it all went from there.

Towel trick - Don't do it!! Sure it heats up the broken connection, but there are a few heat sensitive parts that you shouldn't get hot.

3 red lights - kits off ebay are okay and I fixed my first machine using these. you get bolts and washers to replace the old x clamp. The compound provided is normally cheap so if you have the confidence then go for it, but maybe use artic silver compound (ebay). Very important to polish up the top of the chips and remove all the old dead compound using an appropriate cleaner.

1 red light - (H) ana chip. Its the graphics chip that sits towards the back of the console behind the disc drive. Again the console has got hot, board warped and the chips lost connection with board. I find a heat gun is the only option but you must be very carefull and slowly heat near the board for two mins, move in close do the underside for a min, then close on top for a max of two mins then move the gun away and apply heat from a distance for a further two mins. After leave the board alone for at least 30 mins to let all cool.

no picture - Getting no picture or graphics glitch? its like the above and just needs a little heat or pressure. I found that 9 5p's wrapped in electric tape and placed between the plastic wind tunnel and chip can sort this. Just leave the console running for an hour after and turn on and off and 90% time it works without having to heat up the machine with a gun.

Drive not opening - trys to open but can't, that means you need a new drive belt.

Dirty disc errors - new drive time. Each drive has a electronic key to match the board. I can flash any drive with the right key, but it means you can't go on live. Another way round is to get the same make drive (360 has at least 6 different ones) and swap the boards round, but involves solder and patience. Laser changes are an **** to do, but you may have better luck. Remember to set the pot on the new laser (multimetre fun).

I use a heat gun as a last resort to get the board hotter than the console can run. An xbox gets hot, but at a certain temperature it will shut down hense why a gun is good and very important to only heat up the area you are working on and not the whole board. Silver foil is handy for icovering the parts you aren't heating up.

If that scares anyone feel free to PM me and if you are still stuck I do repairs for anyone able to get the machine to me in southend. I'm about 2mins drive from the seafront in westcliff. I also do PS3 yellow light fixes, and all ipod repairs and iphone. Prices are alot cheaper than shops and if I can't fix I don't charge.

WRX_Dazza

nice one mate, i might be your first customer

no rush though, its my "spare" box - but i does mean i dont have a disaster recovery
plan in place should me trusty box fail me

xdave

i phoned microsoft and sent mine to germany for the repair all free of charge !
the towel trick worked once lol

grahamk23

is this fault the same as the 3 red lights?? the towel trick worked for a while, then i pulled it apart and cleared the heat sink and reaplyed. now its back to 3 red lights. is it worth repairing or just buy a new??

Cornelius

iTrader: (2)

It is the 3 red lights - more commonly known as RROD Red Ring Of Death