My RROD fix

[SMELTN]

I love the towel trick

[FiB3R]

I love the towel trick

How long does it usually keep you going for?

[Brad.]

We need tons of pictures, I'm curious about this (Y)

+1 (Y)

[Drew]

OK, I'll see how it go's with just the x-clamp fix, new fans and lapped heat sinks, as you and PiracyX think the towel trick is a really bad idea. I wasn't really looking forward to using a heat gun for anything other than stripping paint anyway.

I'm assuming that the firm I contacted about re-flowing, are just going to use the heat gun method anyway?

Have you got a rough idea of how much re-balling would cost?

I was given a RRoD 360 last year for free from a friend as he bought an elite and said if I could fix it it was mines...

All I did was order the X-Clamp fix & it's still going strong to this day, all I did was put the x-clamp fix on & then do the 2:30 burn-in trick with no fans etc connected until you get the 2 red lights.

I personally wouldn't use the heat gun unless doing the burn-in trick fails :)

[Phemo]

I'm assuming that the firm I contacted about re-flowing, are just going to use the heat gun method anyway?

Depends how professional they are. If it's some dodgy company then more than likely. If it's a proper electronics company they'd be using an SMD rework station (check Google images to see what some of these things look like). They're basically the proper kit for the job and it'll heat the underside of the board as well as the area around the chip to professionally reflow the solder without affecting any other part of the board.

If it's a professional job and the price is right, it's worth doing. A professional reflow and xclamp replacement (so the crappy xclamps don't cause the board to warp and break the solder joints again) should ensure a near permanent repair.

Not sure how much a full reballing would cost but it basically involves using a rework station to take the CPU/GPU off, all the old solder balls need to be removed, the chip and motherboard joints cleaned, new solder balls applied and then the new chip affixed to the board. I don't know exactly what it'd cost, but it's probably not that far off what a brand new 360 Arcade costs.

[FiB3R]

I was given a RRoD 360 last year for free from a friend as he bought an elite and said if I could fix it it was mines...

All I did was order the X-Clamp fix & it's still going strong to this day, all I did was put the x-clamp fix on & then do the 2:30 burn-in trick with no fans etc connected until you get the 2 red lights.

I personally wouldn't use the heat gun unless doing the burn-in trick fails :)

That's pretty reassuring. I'm gonna try and sort it without any heat tricks for now, and take it from there.

Depends how professional they are. If it's some dodgy company then more than likely. If it's a proper electronics company they'd be using an SMD rework station (check Google images to see what some of these things look like). They're basically the proper kit for the job and it'll heat the underside of the board as well as the area around the chip to professionally reflow the solder without affecting any other part of the board.

If it's a professional job and the price is right, it's worth doing. A professional reflow and xclamp replacement (so the crappy xclamps don't cause the board to warp and break the solder joints again) should ensure a near permanent repair.

Not sure how much a full reballing would cost but it basically involves using a rework station to take the CPU/GPU off, all the old solder balls need to be removed, the chip and motherboard joints cleaned, new solder balls applied and then the new chip affixed to the board. I don't know exactly what it'd cost, but it's probably not that far off what a brand new 360 Arcade costs.

Thanks for the info. Re-balling sounds like it would be very expensive, even more than a new console, perhaps? These guys quoted me ?60 or ?70 (I can't remember) just for a relatively simple re-flow.

http://www.creativeit.tv/

That was for a 2 hour turnaround, if I dropped it off and collected it.

Haven't had time to do the lapping tonight, but I got it open and got the heat sinks off. Had a close look at the mobo too, and didn't see any sort of scorch marks.

Should have some pics up tomorrow night.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

At ?60/70 you are like ?30 short of just buying a new 360 from Sainsbury:/:/

[Groovedude]

i bought some bolt set off ebay with heat paste, set me back ?4.00 + ?5.00 on some heat pads.

worked like a charm havent had a problem yet, and i done this months back.. its worth the ?10.00 in my opinion what have you got to loose.

[Jase]

I am going to try the towel trick now.

[FiB3R]

At ?60/70 you are like ?30 short of just buying a new 360 from Sainsbury:/:/

Exactly!

i bought some bolt set off ebay with heat paste, set me back ?4.00 + ?5.00 on some heat pads.

worked like a charm havent had a problem yet, and i done this months back.. its worth the ?10.00 in my opinion what have you got to loose.

That's what I like to :)ar :) The bolts cost ?3.00 delivered, and I've already got some Arctic Silver and some little ram sinks. But I saw a video ages ago, might have been Systm on revision3, they used a thermal camera to show the inside of a PC, and using ram sinks with sticky pads actually acted as an insulator.

So without using some sort of thermal glue, I probably wont use them.

I am going to try the towel trick now.

Apparently not a good idea, but good luck.

[Jase]

Towel Trick worked perfectly fine.. my 360 is working.. Question is; For how long?

[The One!]

my 360 dosen't get hot coz i did the 'X-clamp' fix, installed heatsink from the falcon mobo and 'Talismoon Whispermax fan b4 it shows up the RROD. :D

check the link for some pix : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3898...mp;id=508679579

[PiracyX]

At ?60/70 you are like ?30 short of just buying a new 360 from Sainsbury:/:/

I think the Sainsburys deal has ended now.

I heard some of my mates trying to get one but came away from various stores with nothing.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

I think the Sainsburys deal has ended now.

I heard some of my mates trying to get one but came away from various stores with nothing.

Ah that's too bad :/

[FiB3R]

I'm back :woot:

I've done a fair bit of reading about lapping over the last 2 days, and was really wondering if it was wroth doing it at all, but the X-Clamp parts arrived today, so it was time to make a choice.

These are most of the things I've read on the subject.

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

Link 5

Link 6

Link 7

Link 8

And here are some pics of where I am with it so far. :)

I've only used the 400 grit paper so far. It took about 45 mins on the GPU heatsink, and about 25 mins on the CPU heatsink, just to get them flat. That's with regularly rinsing the paper and heatsinks in the shower, and taking lots of photos. (and the odd swig of beer and a smoke break)

You can see from the pics, that the smaller chip on the GPU wasn't even in full contact with the heatsink. I'm not sure if this is because I'd used too much thermal past last time, or because the heatsink was so uneven.

I should have this finished tonight, so I'll post more pics when I'm done. Fingers crossed, it works. :unsure:

Edited October 15, 2008 by DARKFiB3R

[SiCKX]

Towel Trick worked perfectly fine.. my 360 is working.. Question is; For how long?

It works for the last time.

What you did was overheat the chips until it resoldered the melted parts.But you did it the wrong way with the towel.Also any "fix" besides reballing is a 2 weeks-1 month fix in 90% of the cases.Keep toweling it until,eventually it dies completely.The only 100% real fix is this one: http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDet...roduct_id=67291

[FiB3R]

The only 100% real fix is this one: http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDet...roduct_id=67291

We shall see :shifty:

[FiB3R]

Well I didn't manage to get a shine on the heatsink, but that's not really the goal anyway. The goal is to get it as flat as possible, and on that score, I've made a definite improvement. It feels very smooth to the touch, but looks very dull.

Also, I'm a ######. The X-Clamp bolts I bought, only come with enough parts to do one of the chips, I thought I was going to be doing both! But as it's the GPU that's the problem, I think it'll be OK.

Here you can see the new bolts with the 2 washers on each, and there's also a sprung washer on each, under the mobo.

This looks like a lot of thermal paste but it was scraped on with a credit card, I also scraped a tiny amount onto the heatsinks, just enough to kind of stain the metal. (the tape is there just to stop me making a mess)

The Talismoon fans didn't arrived yesterday and I got impatient, so I connected the power and video leads, and turned it on. Instant RROD. So I let it sit there without any fans for 3 minutes, shut it off and went to bed.

The fans still haven't arrived today, so I gave it another test without fans and it worked! So I put it all back together and it's been running since 1:30pm (playing burnout) The only thing is, I don't remember it being this loud. I think the fans might be running at full speed constantly!

I'm not confident at all right now.

[FiB3R]

Aaaaaand down she go's :'(

Right in the middle of a game of Dead Space.

Screen just went black, no sound, power still on. Turn it off and on again, gets to the dash and freezes. Try again, Freezes at the globe with corrupt graphics.

No RROD, but no joy. **** YOU MICROSOFT!

[Lexcyn]

Aaaaaand down she go's :'(

Right in the middle of a game of Dead Space.

Screen just went black, no sound, power still on. Turn it off and on again, gets to the dash and freezes. Try again, Freezes at the globe with corrupt graphics.

No RROD, but no joy. **** YOU MICROSOFT!

This was the same thing that happened to my buddy's XBOX. We tried the complete x-clamp replacement, as well as lapping/new thermal paste but still RROD's and does the freeze.

Mind you his was the first gen XBOX so it could be those are just meant to be shoddy. =/

[Astra.Xtreme]

Here's a method that may be of some interest to some people.

So I have a launch 360 that red ringed, so I fixed it with the X-clamp method. No problem and worked for about a year.

Just recently It starting freezing and RRODing again, but if I messed with the X-clamp it would work for that gaming session, but die again the next day.

I figured then it had to be some solder point or whatever, so I did some searching around and read about something ridiculous somebody did to revive their 360.

I gave it a try and sure enough, it's been working like a champ for the past 2 weeks.

Interested? Get ready for it:

1. Open up the 360 and strip it down to just the motherboard.

2. Preheat your oven to 450-455 degrees. No higher!

3. Take foil and wrap the capacitors (So they don't leak)

4. Put the motherboard on a cookie sheet on top of foil

5. Put in oven for 10-12 minutes

6. Take out, let cool down, and put it back together

If you're nothing else works, give it a try. What do you have to lose?

Sorry if somebody posted this already. Don't feel like going through every post.

[FiB3R]

I'm Back :)

[Brad.]

I'm Back :)

What did you do this time?

[FiB3R]

Did the fix to both the CPU and GPU and used a slightly different method of attaching the heatsinks.

Like this pic, but with more washers so that the mobo is actually flush with the washers and raised parts of the inner cage.

Will post pics later.

Hope it lasts a little longer this time. It's definitely quieter, so I know I've done something right lol

[Brad.]

Definitely one of the most reliable fixes by the look of things.

I have a 360 that Red Ringed on me a month or so back. Instead of fixing it I just bought a new Jasper Arcade. Might get round to fixing the other one :/

Not sure if I can be arsed though to be honest :p