Well After weeks of having this broken RROD (Red Ring of Death) Xbox 360 kicking about the house, It was time that i took a moment to try out a few of these fixes which can be found on most 360 sites…
after all, I already had another xbox 360 which was really reliable (fingers crossed).
Update
The Best Method to repair your console is getting
RROD fix kit
Multipack
FIX 1: Penny Fix
The first fix for the Red Ring of Death was to try the so called penny fix, were taking 8 to 12 pennies(GBP) securing them together and placing them on the bottom side of the console on-top of the memory chips, which i suppose was to push the board up a bit making better contact between the motherboard and the chips CPU & GPU,
giving the memory chips better heat protection, much like the heat sinks already in the xbox,
this i thought might work after a few bits of tinkering. After various tries gluing un-gluing, I thought it best to move onto somthing else cause this was going nowhere fast…
feel free to check out the video i followed from You-tube
FIX 2: X-Clamp Fix
This fix was about replacing the mounting screws which holds the X-clamp onto the motherboard and in return puts better pressure on the CPU – GPU, i followed the guide from Llamm’s page using basically the same materials they had..
- 4 12mm Cheese Head Screws
- 8 M5 Nylon Washers – 1 mm thick
- 16 M5 Steel Washers – 1 mm thick
with this fix i followed the guide to replacing the mounting screws, adding new thermal compound, adjusting the screw tightness, again & again & again & again…
but still had the three Red lights, so after much playing about with this fix I gave up.
FIX 3: Heat Gun Fix
This fix was about trying to heat up the motherboard sections around were the CPU & GPU where, along with the memory modules, this was to combat any broken solder joints on the board (or Dry Solder points) this could be caused with overheating inside the xbox console, causing the solder points to basically melt under the heat, were the points get so hot they melt and break apart.
to fix this get your self a good strong heat gun, heat the solder back up with a heat gun.
Please do keep in mind that if your Xbox 360 is getting an error and is still under warranty, getting it replaced is the easiest and best option.
But, if you have no warranty, and you have a heat gun, try this out.
Follow the guide and remember to cover all the sections that ARNT supposed to get heat to them… you don’t want to cause further damage to the system by melting say the SATA connection to the DVD Drive, (cough oops)
So im my opinion the Best method to getting your Xbox 360 Back up and running is to get a nice heat gun cover the motherboard in foil and heat it up to a crazy temperature, but also please don’t move the board one you get going, remember your trying to melt the solder not make it run down the board, unlikely but never the less try to keep it still and don’t move it….
It worked for me, if only i tried that method first, i wouldnt be here writting this post other wise..
Tags: 360, Ring of Death, RROD, Xbox
Must say never heard of using a heat gun but sounds like a viable method.
the penny fix worked for me i had trhee red ligths …thanks.
hi martin
been watching your video for heat flow on 360 any particular brand of heat gun i should go for?
thanks adam
@Adam the heat gun ive been using was the cheapest in Argos, 20bux
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/7110168/Trail/searchtext%3EHEAT+GUN.htm
Mass Effect 2 finally RROD’d my 2006-era XBox, which I replaced with a new one with HDMI and quietude, but these tips may make mine useful for someone else.. Incidentally, are there any recommendations on upgrading the heatsinks or cooling in the case to prevent overheating/solder-cracking once the heat gun fix is done?
@Dr. Kenneth Noisewater
That’s unlucky, although im surprised it lasted that long… as for upgrades,
I would def.. say so, upgrading the fan system inside the box along with real good thermal paste on each heatsink along with some commonsense, ie: leave it in a nice open area with plenty of air flow around it will prolong the life of the box,
but!! in the end it will still die @ some point.. Ive never really seen any rrod console last more than 3 weeks,
So Marty did yours die again then?
@Stephen
well, ive had a few consoles break on me, but this time its just the DVD drive, i got a few extra ones kicking about ill get time over the coming week to get it fixed, so i can get to the action :)
Well I have been looking for some xbox insight on the web for a couple days as mine has stopped operating. Have not had the red ring of death but it seems to freeze at critical moments. I don’t know if I have a problem other people have or whether I have a particular problem all of my own, I hope not. Anyhow thank you for the information.
the heat gun works thanks. for the red ring of death .thanks thanks and more thanks. i love my xbox
ok, so i have actually ended up fixing numerous 360s by combining the pennyfix, x-clamp fix, and the heat gun fix. On a side note, the heatgun that i got was for 20 dollars at Home Depot :p
I call this fix the Ultimate RROD Fix, By Edox. I usually replact the shitty compound with artic silver 5 thermal compound. I recommend this fix definetly… :D
Managed to fix my 360 with the Heat-gun trick.
3 lights RROD
error code was 0020
confirmed error source was CPU.
ezpower heatgun (thing is older than I am) [im 24]
words of warning:
Solder balls are $!%&ING SHARP!
I cut my self several times trying to get the X clamps off so I could replace the cooling compounds.
(I guess it just needed some blood XD)
to try to prevent this from happening again, I have mounted 2 12V fans on the back of my 360 powered by a 100W power supply pulled from an old comp, and spliced into a breaker to short the power check wire (green) to ground (black) thus allowing it to operate without being connected to a comp…
other notes:
immediately after doing this, a friend wants me to do this to theirs…
….I told him I’d do it for a soda….with no guarantees what may happen.
Had someone do the heat gun on mine, worked like a dream! Thing is, he didn’t even open the box he just hit the xbox on the side with a heatgun !! So, the seal is still intact. Didnt burn the plastic but test first if ur gunny try anything.
Any fool-proof method to repair an xbox 360 disk which has a circular scratch around the middle?
Take any scratched disk to family vid or blockbuster and theyll clean it for $1
Many people have suggested the heat gun and also the towel tick (where you cover the assembled XBOX in towels and run it for an hour). Having opened my XBOX to fix it, I noticed that the square heat-sink pads that are on the chips seem to be quite “wet” with some type of fluid that keeps them pliable and helps them transfer heat. The pads likely get compressed and thus no longer make contact with the metal casing, so that drops their efficiency. But there’s something else: the mother board has got this sticky fluid on it and I wonder if that fluid is conductive. If so, using the heat gun or towel trick might cause the fluid to evaporate and that may be what’s solving the problems. If the fluid is conductive, then it would be shorting those exposed points near or at the chips. The penny trick may work for some people if it’s one of the square pads themselves that is touching the chip legs (and now the pads are gone) or if the board has fluid on it, then the heat gun may do it. But this theory depends on whether the pads or their fluid is conductive. I don’t know yet but I’ll post again what I find-out.
You say you gave up on the fix on Llammas website after doing all that stuff….but did you remember to overheat the GPU for 30-45 minutes like that fix states??? It states on Llammas site that if you don’t Overheat the GPU to allow the solder to reposition itself then the fix WILL Fail and you will still get RROD!! Sounds to me like you skipped that part….considering the Heat-Gun method seemed to work for you…..hense why the fix on Llammas page FAILED for you!!! Read the guide again……it clearly states when you’ve replaced the xclamps with the Screws/washers you MUST place the fan ontop of the DVD drive so 1 fan is directly over the CPU to keep it cool while the system overheats the GPU….and this part of the guide is the part that will make the fix Successful!!! Missing this 1 important step = Failure in fixing the RROD!
“As quoted on Llammas xclamp fix tutorial”
Now for the most important part and most likely the point where the majority of people who were unsuccessful completing this fix failed.
This step requires you to overheat your GPU. Many tutorials tell you to unplug your fan and turn it on until it overheats. There is one major flaw with this approach. The thermosistor for the overheating protection of the 360 is contained within the CPU. The problem is that the CPU overheats without any airflow before the GPU is able to get sufficiently hot to “reflow” the BGA solder connection that has failed