Fix your Xbox 360's RRoD by yourself, without towels or soldering irons! If you no longer have a warranty on your Xbox 360, and it has gotten the dreaded Red Ring, there is hope. As most of you know, the RRoD is a sign displayed by the 360's "Ring of Light" when there is a general hardware failure. While this can be caused by any part(or lack thereof) on the 360, the general cause is from excessive heat, which stresses the solder joints on the CPU and GPU. Over time, these joints can become seperated, which causes the Red Ring to visit your console, usually when you have a new game to play and you've taken the day off...
What this fix involves is nothing but mere screws and washers. Seriously, no overheating your console, adding new fans(although you can add them if you like), or towels. Ever since I installed it I haven't had the console freeze up once.
What this fix involves is nothing but mere screws and washers. Seriously, no overheating your console, adding new fans(although you can add them if you like), or towels. Ever since I installed it I haven't had the console freeze up once.
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Before you even think to unplug your 360, let's work in a bit of intelligent forethought.
For starters, why would you need to repair the console yourself? If you have a working warranty, I highly suggest you send the console to Microsoft for repairs,as a repair will void your warranty. While Microsoft dropped the ball on product quality in efforts to get the 360 out before the other consoles, they picked up the proverbial dirt-covered ball by extending all warranties to 3 years.
If you plan on actually reviving the 360, don't use the towel trick. What it does is overheat the inside of the console by blocking fan intakes, temporarily doing something to make the 360 run for a brief period of hours to days. While it may be the quick and easy approach, it also overheats every other component in the 360, which is never good. It can cause chips to fail, capacitors to dry out, release the magic smoke, and possibly spark a fire. So unless you hate your Xbox something fierce, don't do this.
And of course, if you're on your 4th Red Ringed Xbox 360, and are considering buying a PS3...
FIX IT, REGARDLESS OF WARRANTY!
I would hate to see someone give up the pinnacle of gaming due to a simple flaw, over a Blu-Ray player with gaming functionality.
So, if your warranty is void, or you're about to join the dark side of gaming, read on!
For starters, why would you need to repair the console yourself? If you have a working warranty, I highly suggest you send the console to Microsoft for repairs,as a repair will void your warranty. While Microsoft dropped the ball on product quality in efforts to get the 360 out before the other consoles, they picked up the proverbial dirt-covered ball by extending all warranties to 3 years.
If you plan on actually reviving the 360, don't use the towel trick. What it does is overheat the inside of the console by blocking fan intakes, temporarily doing something to make the 360 run for a brief period of hours to days. While it may be the quick and easy approach, it also overheats every other component in the 360, which is never good. It can cause chips to fail, capacitors to dry out, release the magic smoke, and possibly spark a fire. So unless you hate your Xbox something fierce, don't do this.
And of course, if you're on your 4th Red Ringed Xbox 360, and are considering buying a PS3...
FIX IT, REGARDLESS OF WARRANTY!
I would hate to see someone give up the pinnacle of gaming due to a simple flaw, over a Blu-Ray player with gaming functionality.
So, if your warranty is void, or you're about to join the dark side of gaming, read on!
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A simple guide to red rings is:
1 quadrant = cable connection error
2 quadrants = overheating of system
3 quadrants = internal system error aka RROD
All you need to do is properly connect your cables, however, doing this tutorial wasn't necessary and if you didn't do it right you may have shot your system :(, if you did do it correctly, then your fairly safe in the future from the true RROD.
did you google it? i think i found a site with fixes for it but idk what the link is anymore.
and you should try hooking it up to a tv, because if you dont then ALL of the red rings will blibk and mean you need to hook it up to a tv...try those ideas then come back. idk
I'm happy that I can give this better-than-original xbox 360 to my nephew!
A couple of points:
1. the smaller Torx screws are T8, not T7 - having nipped out to buy a T7 bit I had to go back for a T8!
2. for those in the UK reading this - Maplins do a silver thermal paste and remover kit for £10 by Akasa; the cleaner worked a treat used with cotton buds on the motherboard connections and with kitchen roll on the heat sinks. They also have Torx bits.
3. There's no need for two different lengths of screws - 15mm length is plenty, I think you'd be fine with 12mm screws. The M5 washers in B&Q are a good fit on the ground points on the board - 3 under the motherboard and two on top worked for me, no nylon washers required.
4. It might not work first time but it does work! I thought I must have a different problem causing the RRoD after this didn't work first time, but before spending more money thought I'd have a fiddle with different numbers of washers and tensions. By loosening off the screws slightly and as suggested in the main text pressing on different corners of each heat sink whilst powering up, I found which side needed to be a little tighter and which a little looser, tightened up screws accordingly and got it working just fine. So if it doesn't work at first, experiment a little.
Once again, thanks, great post.
That way, the screw and washer combination would be held in place securely and when the heatsinks are screwed into place, they have an adjustable tension that is far cheaper and effective than the original X-Clamps were.
Maybe something like this:
If one were to fix the screws in place using my method they would then be, um, fixed. The half nut/spring washer combo may well provide the perfect standoff height but then you wouldn't be able to screw into the heat sinks as the screws have been rendered immovable.
However, this doesn't stop us from drilling though the heat sink, using the same clearance drill that was used to enlarge the holes in the motherboard case, use longer screws and another M5 nut and spring washer at the other end.
The X-Clamps are then gone, the "stand-off" height is perfect and the tension between heatsink and CPU/GPU can be controlled with easier access.
I don't know if this would pose problems when reintroducing the motherboard to the case, I haven't tried it yet, but if it doesn't then I certainly think it might have some merit.
my question is, inder the gpu heatsink, is it nessary to appaly washers to this application, or (with said application of thermal paste) only appalying even cross tension with bottom mounted screws? or are "spacers" needed?
second, i cut the bottom of the enclouser case entitleing the airea of the x molds, intending on grounding out each screw head to the case, but figured that would aid in air flow temp, would i have bottential probibility of mobo fluxuation or warping? beeing 2-3 inches from support to support? im also doing a back side case mod where ill be cutting out a stencil of r2d2, painting my case black, eching where needs be wight, & cutting out the blue aireas & installing a wight film papper with a few blue leds, on the opposing side ive cut a window over the cd tray, cut the disk drive 2/3, revaling most of the spinning disk, , the intake out take fans are in a v formation at 45 degree angles from the top of the heat sink, having then diagonally through the case, im adding a window over the cpu heatsink top with plexi & a blue led pointing upward, , i also made hidden blocks that deflect direct light from hitting cd lazer airrea, i plan on j tag after i fix rrod & makeing a base stand out of an old external usb hdd, & painting it to match, i wanted my own dark side r2d2 edition xbox because i cant afford a new one that looks cheezy to boot, i got this broken one free, :)
thanks for the help & sorry for the lecture
#1 tip to avoid Xbox red ring of death is to prevent the causes of Xbox overheating.
#2 never try to re-solder Xbox your own unless you are knowledgeable at it or you have a repair guide with you.
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