Worst Timing Ever

Benihana

Benihana

Benihana

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16 May 2006
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Copenhagen
My lovely girlfriend bought me GTA V for my Xbox, I got a few hours in (12% ish, saved to a USB stick) and now its decided to RROD (3 rings flashing, freezes on startup). I really dont want to buy another 360 just to finish GTA as I would likely get a PS4 next. What would be the best solution to get a few more months out of it?

Anyone else had GTA V kill their Xbox? Mine is a 120GB HDMI Elite (175w power brick) which I thought were more immune to RROD...
 
I heard a lot of people say to avoid doing that trick? Perhaps using a hairdryer instead on just the GPU/CPU would work, apply some arctic silver and re-attach the old heatsinks? I've no idea!
 
Interesting! I just heard people say that you can damage a lot of other sensitive components by doing this. How long did you leave it on for? How many hours did you play Fallout 3 before sending it off?
 
Wtf?! Lol, the towel trick.

How the heck does this help/solve the problem. Wouldn't this turn your console into an oven and kill the poor thing?!?

Electrical components + heat and no ventilation = expensive door wedge.
 
I'm thinking it makes sense to target the culprits with a hairdryer instead rather than heat the whole xbox. Perhaps that then some new paste and a desk fan blowing on it constantly will allow me 2 more months of life out of it!
 
Well I tried cleaning it out, used some artic silver 5, re-tensioned the x clamps and used a hairdryer to try and reflow the solder, no dice, same RROD and freezing. I then thought I have nothing to lose and tried the towel trick for 20 minutes, lo and behold it booted up, and loaded into GTA 5 first time! Sadly it froze after 5 minutes and returned to RROD :( Is it worth trying the towel trick again for longer?
 
neoglow said:
Wtf?! Lol, the towel trick.

How the heck does this help/solve the problem. Wouldn't this turn your console into an oven and kill the poor thing?!?

Electrical components + heat and no ventilation = expensive door wedge.
Click to expand...

Do a bit of research. The initial problem is caused by heat, solder and warping.

So the towel trick\oven trick\heat gun trick. All do the same thing and allow a reflow of the solder. Obviously heat gun is much more accurate.

I generally use a heat gun, and it definitely does the trick. But the other 2 methods are proven to work....sometimes. :D
 
I used the pennies trick back in the day, think it was 4 stacks of 3 pennies in electrical tape, they put pressure on the ram chips and keep it locked in tight, fixed my RROD death Xbox 360. I even managed to sell it and it still works to this day :p
 
Hah, worth a try I guess! Was this an original or revised xbox, mine has the RAM chips on the underside and there are some thermal pads, did you remove them?

The X clamps on mine say it was made in Dec 2007, I guess it has lasted longer than most, I just dont want to buy another for only this game. Sucks that the new consoles are not backwards compatible :(
 
Dug these up from the archive ;). Both the consoles I still have that I fixed with this technique are still going! Launch day premiums lol, infact one of them is the console I'm playing through GTAV on right now!

Chris1712 said:
- Preheat oven to 230 degrees C (Gasmark 8)

- Strip the 360 down completely, remove the heat sinks so all you have is the motherboard with all the cores exposed

- Wrap all the capacitors and connectors up in tin foil, leaving the CPU, GPU, RAM and ANA scaler chip exposed

- Put the motherboard in the oven on the middle shelf and wait for 4 minutes

- Remove the motherboard and leave to cool

- Re-apply some Arctic Silver 5 to the CPU and GPU, and re-assemble the xbox (with your chosen washers/whatever, just not x clamp)

Looks like this....

pic02781ck0.jpg


I've revived 5 out of 5 boxes with this method thus far.
Click to expand...

Chris1712 said:
I repaired about this time last year, still going strong.

Heres what i did........

xclampms9.jpg


Not the greatest picture i know but you get the idea, part numbers on there to. They didnt have the normal parts people use so made up my own mix.
Click to expand...
 
Towel trick or most indie game stores will repair it for around £30, it's not a garunteed fix for years but will hopefully give you enough time to finish GTA5
 
Personally I used the fan trick where you put a cotton bud in the fans at the back and leave it for a few minutes.

It worked and it has never broken since which is quite amazing seen as I have had this Xbox since launch.
 
Not many stores in Denmark that are willing to repair these, at least not at a cost that makes sense. My last resort will to get one off ebay/DBA (the local ebay) at a cheap price that I can then sell on for the same amount later (hopefully). That or wait till after christmas when the market will be flooded with people selling them!

I just my fingers to shreds on the cheap/sharp metal and am not too keen on tearing it down again already. I may try the towel trick again, and stopping the fans. The oven is a last ditch effort! Are the x-clamps really that bad? I bent them backwards so that they are now really strongly pulling the heatsinks down.

One other option I thought of was to set the output to 720p, or just lower than 1080p, surely this takes the strain off the GPU/CPU a bit and may help them run cooler? Or is it purely down to the solder/stress and not so much the heat anymore?

Thanks for all the hints guys, hopefully I'll get it sorted soon!
 
As above, get that sucker in the oven. It works really really well. Changing the output resolution won't make much difference as the GPU will be rendering the game at 720p (usually) then it gets scaled by a different chip to whatever your video output is, this is not particularly taxing nor on the cpu/gpu bit which is affected by the x-clamps.
 
Jeez you guys really want me to cook my xbox dont you! Sadly I'm off on holiday this evening, but when I return (and my sliced fingers have healed) I will rip it apart again and bake that sucker!
 
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