Microsoft=0, Me=1

[pocket-rocket]

My brother in law gave me a Halo special edition Xbox 360 a short time back that he couldn't find paperwork for the warranty when it RRoD'd (Red Ring of Death), so I took it upon myself to take it apart to try to fix it since I had nothing to lose.

Error:



And the final outcome after about $7 in screws and washers (to get rid of the crappy x clamp) and $10 in silver thermal paste from Best Buy? I now have a working Xbox 360 that I have $17 invested into

[IsaacHayes]

What was the issue? Overheated? I take it the x-clamp was some heatsink retainer?

[pocket-rocket]

Yeah, the x clamp holds the heat sinks down to the GPU and CPU from under the board, creating a high stress point in the middle of the board under the chips.

Not my pic:


Also Microsoft also used the wrong kind of lead free solder when they made the 360, which tends to crack under stress and heat. I took a heat gun and heated the top and bottom of the motherboard for about 4 minutes to reflow the solder since the problem areas (under the GPU, CPU and a couple other video related chips) are surface mount IC's that I can't get to with a soldering iron, and I don't have the equipment to redo a Ball Grid Array style IC setup.

[IsaacHayes]

Ahh I see. So the heat gun actually worked to reflow it? LOL. Lead free solder SUCKS. I hate having to solder something that was soldered with that crap. I need a hotter iron to really do it.

[pocket-rocket]

Yeah, so far it works. The downside is I have no games or charging cord for the controller (wireless). I suppose I could pop a DVD in it to see if it will play it, but I would rather have a game to pop in to really get the GPU cooking to make sure it really is fixed. Luckily for me this is the only time I have dealt with lead free solder. And yeah, I had the gun set to around 730*F, but kept it moving the whole time. I'm shocked it didn't kill the lables on the caps at that temp, but they are all intact, lol.

[Superdave]

nice work!


I've had a few of those come into the shop as throw-aways, they always seem to disappear once they're fixed though...

[pmaniac69]

shit, thats exactly what happened to mine, wish I would've known this, same error and everything cause a E 74 isn't the RRoD, E 74 is a GPU problem


all well

[pocket-rocket]

shit, thats exactly what happened to mine, wish I would've known this, same error and everything cause a E 74 isn't the RRoD, E 74 is a GPU problem


all well

I was under the impression that anything that caused red lights around the power button was classified as a "RRoD". Mine also had changed when powering it up while pushing down on the HANA chip by the A/V port too, which led me to believe that chip is the one that was causing the problem. I had also read sometimes the HANA/ANA chip was the problem area sometimes on the E-74.

[SappySE107]

Sell it while it works and get a wii:P

[pocket-rocket]

The thought had crossed my mind, but do you have any idea how much they give you for it at GameStop? I think it was something stupidly low like $50 tops (after checking to make sure it's not RRoD'd)... Just because mine is a special edition, I don't think I can get any more out of it. Then the real kicker is they turn around and slap a $150 price tag on it. I might go there today and see if they have any decent cheap used games though. My last 10 PS2 games have all been used, but I make sure I see the bottom of the discs and pick the best looking one before I buy it.

I've got a friend that bought one that he knew was RRoD'd a while back and wants me to fix his for him. Mine was the guinea pig, lol.

[pocket-rocket]

Small update:

I went to GameStop today and picked up Quake 4 ($5 used) and Gears of War ($10 used) and my nephew and I logged about 2 hours total on the 360 with no problems. Since I had used that PVC tape I have (that rocks) to cover the top of the heat sink so the fan and shroud were forced to draw air through the heat sink instead of just over the ends of it, I am going to tear it back down to make sure the tape did not melt. I felt the exhaust fans and it did feel good and hot back there. Not screaming hot, but you could tell that the GPU and CPU of that thing do generate some heat. Here is a pic of the heatsink setup with the GPU on the left and the CPU on the right (I put some clear plastic over the top of the GPU heatsink so air was drawn all the way through it instead of just the end as well).





You might noticed I didn't tape over the ends too much because I wanted to tape over as little of the heat sink as I could and still get away with tape sticking. Most of the guys I saw online that did the same mod had used electrical tape (thicker than my PVC tape) and had covered like half of the heat sink- not something I wanted to do to something that dissipates heat... I got the idea for doing the heat sinks like that because one guy had noticed after he did that the left fan (the GPU fan) seemed to blow hotter air out which meant that there was less heat left inside the case. So far so good

[IsaacHayes]

Good mod! I've never seen the inside b4 but that is a good upgrade.

[pocket-rocket]

Thank you Here is a stock shot when I first pulled it apart since you haven't seen the guts of one before:



This:



now looks like this... :



It should reduce turbulence and increase suction that the exhaust fans generate since the holes didn't line up so well between the sheet metal and plastic case. My thoughts are since heat is what kills them the best thing I can do for it is make it easier to remove the heat from the case. I thought about doing the 12 fan mod since the fans only run at about 7 volts wide open at the moment, but I haven't decided yet. I also considered throwing it on a switch to go between the console controlled voltage and strait 12 volts using a double pole double throw switch. That is still in limbo though.

[Superdave]

Did you have any problems opening it up? I seem to remember those are a pain in the ass to take apart.. lol

[pocket-rocket]

I had made some keys to stick in the holes in the back. I used the clear cover for a spool of CD-Rs to make them. You cut a piece about an inch tall and make it as long as you need, then mark where the holes in the back of the case are and cut in about 1/4 inch. You can pop it apart without the tool, but I have plenty of CD-R and DVD-R spools around here.