Xbox 360 X-Clamp fix.

dlmalloc

dlmalloc

dlmalloc

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I recently got given two xbox 360s from a couple of mates (including controllers, hard drive and cables!). They both had the red ring of death (three lights) and I've successfully fixed them both by reclamping the heatsinks and reflowing the solder.

I am wondering how long they will last? Anyone here done this before and seen a decent lifespan?

Before
After
 
I've had mine working for 9-ish months with the X-Clamp fix.
A mates has gone about 2 years...

I've heard that there are plenty that fail again quickly but I've just not experienced it myself.
 
Another option is to cut the fan wires and link the to a 12v source on the board.

Fans sound like hell, but I found temps lowered from around 55-60'c to 45'c over the gfx chip. They RROD because of the heat, help get the heat out quicker and it should dramatically improve the life of the fix :)

I've had rrod's fail from 1 year to 2 months. Current one was oven baked, xclamp fixed and fan fixed and has had some major gaming over the last 2 months, 8 hours + and is still ok.
 
They will usually go again in a few weeks if they are going to.

If they last that long however you are usually good for at least 6 months. They do vary a lot and its really try and see.
 
Whats the best way to reflow? Seen take fan off and heatsink for few minutes and turn on - or heat up with heat gun with xbox off...

one of my mates has rrod out of warranty and he asked if I could fix it for him.

Its the 1 red light and e74 error.

thanks
 
It's the heatgun, The other ways or much less precise. There are a few guides out there on how to do it.

Oven trick is another reflow method, but it's again, like running the system with no HS and fan, its just shooting in dark.
 
I took the fan out and only cooled the CPU. It's the GPU that is generally the problem. Since the CPU has the temp sensor and gets hotter quicker than the GPU, if you towel it or just don't use a heatsink then the CPU will overheat before the GPU gets hot enough to do a good reflow job. (power is cut, and they both cool down).

Both xboxs still alive and kicking.
 
I found taking the x clamps off completely and replacing with bolts/washers with new arctic silver seemed to work just fine, and took no more than 30-40 mins from start to finish to do.
 
wannabedamned said:
It's the heatgun, The other ways or much less precise. There are a few guides out there on how to do it.

Oven trick is another reflow method, but it's again, like running the system with no HS and fan, its just shooting in dark.
Click to expand...

no its not at all, the heatgun method is the one that is hit or miss because you can only heat a little bit at a time. Plus, its hard to control the heat properly with a heatgun.

oven baking is the best method. You remove the board from the case and remove all of the cooling at so the board is bare.

I bought some oven gloves and towels from the charity shop and its worked great. You need to cover the board leaving just the cpu/gfx open to the heat top and bottom. So wrap it with old towels/oven gloves to get a decent layer, nice and thick. Then you cover that in silver foil, shiny side out, and again, leave the cpu/gfx open to the heat. The point of the insulation is to stop all the plastic bits from melting.

Then, you put it in a preheated oven. Gas mark 9 for 10 mins. Take out and leave on side to cool for several hours. Do xclamp, new heat paste, and cooling mods.

I've a few that need doing so if I get chance this weekend i'll take photos while I do it :)
 
My current console never RROD'd but was showing the symptoms of being very close to doing it; screen was going shades of purple and green during gameplay.

So I removed the X clamp and bolted the heatsink through the mobo for the graphics chip and applied AS5 to it. Also reseated the cpu heatsink with AS5 and bolts.

Warmed the gpu up by blocking the airflow to the heatsink and kept the fan on the cpu and monitored the gpu heatsink temp with a IR temp gun :D

Left it heating up for a few mins (cant remember how many now) and its all worked fine ever since, approx 5 months ago I would say.

I have noticed the air is hotter coming out of the back of it now too, so I would say the AS5 makes a massive difference in getting the heat out of the chip and into the heatsink.
 
AHarvey said:
no its not at all, the heatgun method is the one that is hit or miss because you can only heat a little bit at a time. Plus, its hard to control the heat properly with a heatgun.

oven baking is the best method. You remove the board from the case and remove all of the cooling at so the board is bare.

I bought some oven gloves and towels from the charity shop and its worked great. You need to cover the board leaving just the cpu/gfx open to the heat top and bottom. So wrap it with old towels/oven gloves to get a decent layer, nice and thick. Then you cover that in silver foil, shiny side out, and again, leave the cpu/gfx open to the heat. The point of the insulation is to stop all the plastic bits from melting.

Then, you put it in a preheated oven. Gas mark 9 for 10 mins. Take out and leave on side to cool for several hours. Do xclamp, new heat paste, and cooling mods.

I've a few that need doing so if I get chance this weekend i'll take photos while I do it :)
Click to expand...

I have to disagree, You apply heat to the known hotpoints. Where as with the oven fix you're heating the hotpoints, which is fair enough but at the same time you're also heating parts of the board that arent problematic.

To use an analogy.

Oven baking is akin to nukes and killing\wounding innocents, Where as the heatgun is akin to a surgical strike team.

Both work, I'd just prefer the precise approach. And as said, I've fixed plenty, with only as single Xbox 360 RRODing again, and 3 PS3s, none have YLOD'd again. Where as I know people who have had to oven bake their systems more than once.
 
apatia77 said:
Am I the only one still with the same 1st Xbox 360 that I bought in 2006?
Click to expand...

Nope I have my original xbox 360 from 2006 too. I was starting to think it was invincible from any fault but it had the RROD yesterday for the first time ever. I let it sit for a while, turned it back on and it worked for 5 seconds then turned off again.

I used the microsoft troubleshooting guide on their website and figured out I had a loose connection in the powercable. A quick check and I found the problem...the power lead wasn't fully seated into the back of the console, a result of my laziness I hadn't pushed it in fully. Now it works fine (just turned it off after having it on for over 12 hours straight, in and out of games and watching sky player)

LOL

My Xbox is still technically invincible.
 
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Get it professionally reflowed or even better, reballed. You can get a reball done for around £50 which involves the GPU being removed and the old lead-free solder removed and replaced with leaded. This is the only permanent fix and the only way I'd ever have confidence to say an RROD 360 has been 'repaired'.

Then again, with how cheap 360s are these days, it's not really worth forking out 40-50 quid to get a normal 360 reballed unless you have a specific reason to need that particular console to live again.
 
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Since doing the fix myself on my xbox i've just left the top half of the cover off, i've also turned the fans over so cold air is flowing into and over the heatsinks. I don't understand why they have the fans pulling warm air out.
 
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