Instant 2 red lights the moment I switch my 360 on

Davey_Pitch

Davey_Pitch

Davey_Pitch

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My Elite has been giving me trouble for a little over a week, with graphical corruptions aplenty, but I've been using the towel trick to keep it going till my backup Premium came back from MS.

On Saturday the console was having a funny day, so wrapped it in the towel again, played happily for a few hours till it showed the 2 red lights to signal it had overheated. Removed the towel and all was fine, and I continued to game for another couple of hours with no problems.

On Sunday the towel wasn't needed as the console was fine all day, even through a 6 hour Devil May Cry session. This was the first day I'd not needed to wrap it in a towel so I thought the previous days' overheating may have done something more permanent. Unfortunately it turns out it did.

Yesterday when I went to switch the Xbox on, the fans instantly span up incredibly fast and noisily, and the console showed the 2 red lights right away. For the rest of yesterday and today, it's done the same thing without ever even getting as far as the Dash. Thankfully my backup console arrived today so I can at least carry on gaming.

My question though is whether this is something other people have experienced, and whether they think doing the X-Clamp fix will sort out properly? I've never done it before but I'm an IT Tech so dismantling the Xbox to do the fix isn't an issue for me, and I've found a good guide to doing it. Unfortunately it's out of warranty so getting MS to fix it would mean paying them, and I don't want to give them any more money unless I have to.

So, any ideas good people of OcUK?
 
Nope, that's all 4 lights. 2 lights means the console is overheating, which is kinda hard for mine to do when it's been switched off for nearly 16 hours in a well ventilated spot.
 
Oh yes you are right my mistake, sorry don't really know how to fix the problem though. If you already have another xbox I guess doing the X clamp fix wouldn't hurt to try?
 
Davey_Pitch said:
Inside 2 seconds? Possible I guess, but I wouldn't have thought it likely.
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Do you not remember the old videos of the first Socket A Athlons (AXIAs and AYHJAs iirc :p) with the heatsink removed?! FIRE!

edit - Here's the very video I remember. The old 1400 socket A and a Palomino shortly after they came out.... Not sure how the 360s are set up though in terms of thermal protection ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4l8aQ07yvU
 
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No No No.

You phone up MS. My console has 3 reds etc etc etc. You get a replacement the same as you have with your spare. The very worst that can happen is they get it back and say it only has two. At which point you say well it had 3 when I sent it.

They don't have a leg to stand on.

I say this to everyone and not one person has ever had an issue.

My nephews had an unwarrantied console that gave two red and then later ate discs. Both times we sent it back with 3 reds. No problems.
 
[SKR]Phoenix;13612601 said:
Haha! Permanent my ****! It will break again unless you xclamp mod it.
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What he said. The one I just had back from MS is one that I've had back from them once before. They use a substandard clamp to keep the heatsinks in place and it warps over time. I really don't know why they haven't gotten around to fixing it properly themselves yet.
 
The fans do ramp up almost immediately when the heatsinks are not correctly attached, and 2 red lights follow straight away.

Oven bake and x-clamp should sort it out :)

thepharcyde said:
What do MS do to fix 3 red lights. Is it a permanent fix. Waiting for mine to come back.
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They replace the motherboard.
 
Wrap the naked motherboard in aluminium foil leaving only the CPU, GPU, HANA/ANA and memory chips exposed. Whack it into to a preheated oven at 230 degrees for around 3-4 minutes.

This re-flows the solder and results in a more reliable fix than just doing the x-clamps alone.
 
I xclamp fixed mine and did the overheat trick when rebuilding it, been rocksolid for months now, even when I left it on for a week when i went on hols.
 
DreXeL said:
Wrap the naked motherboard in aluminium foil leaving only the CPU, GPU, HANA/ANA and memory chips exposed. Whack it into to a preheated oven at 230 degrees for around 3-4 minutes.

This re-flows the solder and results in a more reliable fix than just doing the x-clamps alone.
Click to expand...

Yep, works great in conjuction with an x-clamp replacement.
 
Just a quick bump to say that I finally got around to doing the oven bake and x-clamp fix last night and the Elite, which would red light inside 2 seconds, lasted through a 3 hour gaming session with no blips or graphical errors at all. I won't go as far as saying it's a proper fix yet, but if it lasts through a couple of weeks with no problems I'll be much more confident about it :)
 
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