Super Excited just fixed my first RRoD!

SnoT

SnoT

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So a buddy had an older (5/22/06 Manufacture date) xbox360. It was sent to MS once before and he bought it used from gamestop a year or so ago. Well it got the RRoD late last year. He just went out and bought a new one. He has been letting it sit since it "died".. Well he asked me the other day if I wanted to take it and see if I could do anything with it. He said he didn't care if I fixed it or not as it was just sitting there anyway.

Well I read/watched as many how-to's as I could. I went ahead took it apart and did the repair on it today.

Put it back together and w00t it's fixed! Left it on with a game in and running for an hour now and no issues so far.

First time I've really fixed something like this.
 
[quote name='SnoT']So a buddy had an older (5/22/06 Manufacture date) xbox360. It was sent to MS once before and he bought it used from gamestop a year or so ago. Well it got the RRoD late last year. He just went out and bought a new one. He has been letting it sit since it "died".. Well he asked me the other day if I wanted to take it and see if I could do anything with it. He said he didn't care if I fixed it or not as it was just sitting there anyway.

Well I read/watched as many how-to's as I could. I went ahead took it apart and did the repair on it today.

Put it back together and w00t it's fixed! Left it on with a game in and running for an hour now and no issues so far.

First time I've really fixed something like this.[/QUOTE]

Congrats...care to post more details about this?
 
Completely tore down the Xbox 360 took the motherboard out.

Took the "X Clamps" off the back of the board so I was able to remove the heatsinks from the CPU/GPU.

*** Parts List ***
Here are the offical home depot part numbers:
Qty - 8 Machine Screw Pan - Phillips 5 x 10mm (DR# - 313) UPC - 030699 801282
Qty - 16 Flat Washer Nylon #10 (DR# - 610) UPC - 030699 869381
Qty - 16 Flat Washer Steel / ZINC Plated 5mm (DR# - 606) UPC - 030699 363087
Thermal Paste (Artic Silver ect.)
*** Parts List***

Clean the Heatsinks you can use goo gone or other adhesive remover. Carefully clean the tops of the CPU/GPU. Apply a TINY bit of thermal paste you don't need alot at all. Then use your finger to evenly spread it around the CPU/GPU.

Then with the parts we got from Home Depot / Lowes wherever.
You take the screws, (This is what I did other tutorials have you put different amounts of washers on top/bottum) put 1 Steel washer first, then 1 nylon washer, then insert the screw from the bottum of the motherboard.

I do this for all 8 holes that hold down the 2 heatsinks.

I then use tape to hole the screws in and then put 1 nylon washer and 1 Steel washer on the top side of the motherboard/screw. (Nylon washers go against the board.)

Reattach heatsinks.

Put motherboard back into the metal tray/cage of the case. Plug the fan back in but don't put it in it's spot yet. (you'll know why in a moment)

Plug the DVD drive in and put it back in prop the fan on the DVD Drive / CPU heatsink so only the CPU is getting air not the GPU.

Turn the system on with the power coord and AV cables plugged in.

leave sit on for about 45min.

Turn system off. Unplug cables and proceed to reassemble.
Once assembled (depending on how fast you did it.) if it's been 10-15 min that should be plenty of time for the GPU to have cooled down.

Hook system up and turn it on. Magic it's fixed...

Microsofts fix is to add a copper heatpipe and aluminum heatsink onto the GPU that already has an aluminum heatsink on it.

*** NOTE ***
This fixes most cases so if your Xbox is under warranty send it to MS. My buddy's had already been fixed was out of warranty and whoever sold it to GS had tried to open the case already so MS wouldn't even touch it.

From what I read, the RRoD is the solder heating up and coming apart from the GPU. Doing this "X Clamp" mod. Puts max pressure on the GPU and overheating it again then letting it cool down fixes the breaks in the solder. (Or so i've read.)

Sorry if this is somewhat confusing.

There's plenty of tutorials on the net if you want more detail. But this is the basics of what I did.

So far the system is still working fine after a few hours of being on.

I will test it further after work tommorow and play some MW2 online with it.
 
I know all about this fix. The only problem I have with it is that when it DOESNT work, it comes down to the overheating step. It either works or it doesn't.

Did you have any trouble with the overheating step? I've heard some people have to do it multiple times.

Also, how much did you spend trying to repair the 360? Total cost for supplies?

And do get back with your results from playing MW2 online. Thats where my system had the most trouble.
 
Total cost was about $6 (Not counting gas to the store).

I already had the T9, and T10 bits, plus the thermal paste. So if you don't have those the cost will go up alittle.
 
Totally forgot about this thread....

So I was having issues with the xbox myself it would lockup after about 10minutes of play.

took it back to my buddy's house used his PSU that came with the 360 and it's been working fine since.

Thinking I might have had a different wattage PSU so could have caused an issue?

Dunno either way it's fixed and working fine.
 
I fixed a broken 360 i bought off of a coworker real cheap,with this same process awhile back. It's been working fine again ever since then. Ya microsoft has changed the wattage and pins on the psu plug several times now.
 
The X-Clamps fix is not permanent, it is only a temporary fix. It will work for a little while, but by no means will it give much more life to your Xbox. In reality, the X-Clamps "fix" is similar to the Towel Trick, in that it heats up your Xbox more so it works. I think somehow by melting things closer to the console/motherboard/something else, but it won't work forever.

I hear you will be lucky to get three weeks out of it.
 
Still, pretty cool that you managed to fix it yourself, regardless of how long it will last. Its still some BS that 360 users even have to know how to do this, though. Thanks MS.
 
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