Hi, i just bought a xbox elite from ebay, it had 2rrod. I got it today, and did the usual x-clamp fix and AS5 thermal paste on it. I then had it working for about 15mins. It wall all working fine when all of a sudden it got 2rrod. When i turned it on it came up with 2rrod instantly, so it cant of been overheating. So I first cut the little trace for the cpu temp sensor, as I thought it was causing the problem. It wasnt, as I then found out it had the 0031 error code which means overheating ram. Now I know that this ram is in top condition, as the owner said the xbox had never froze (freezing is usually due to the ram). So i tried pressing down all the ram chips i could find, but it still didnt work. I then took the gpu heatsink off, and put 2 pennies between the ram and heatsink and screwed it back on, BAM, worked a treat. So now i know it is because of these 2 ram chips, what I want to do is do a reflow, so I dont have to put pressure on them which puts strain on the motherboard.

How would I go about reflowing these 2 ram chips, should I add flux under the chips first? ( I have a variable temperature heat gun)
Also, once I have done the reflow should i keep putting pressure on them?
And how can I keep them cool in the future, so this doesn't happen again?

Help much appreciated.
if i fix this successfully, i will make a youtube tutorial on how to fix it!

Thanks

Seb Smith

You sir!
Remove those coins at once!

You will need liquid flux that you can get under the chips.
Then reflow at the normal temperature.

The penny trick is bad, so take the coins out.
If you like you can put a small dot of thermal paste on the rams so they will be cooled by the gnu heatsink.
Also look into buying some small copper heatsinks for VGA chips.

just removed the pennies, now it goes on a 3rrod with error code 0001, what the heck is happening i hope i havent broken it!

ok, this is really strange, i will tell you what just happened.
i removed pennies, tested, got 3rrod, came down and posted the above post.
went upstairs again and turned it on again, now this time it waited a little longer, made a sort of clicking or shorting sound, and then gave me the same error
i turned it off imediatly, then tried turing it on again. This time what happens is when i turn it on, there is a small kind of whining sound coming from the back of the cpu heatsink, it gets louder and louder until it stop and gives me 3rrod again. I cannot imagine how this has happened. There is also a strange burning smel coming from the back of the cpu heatsink. The cpu heatsink gets warm, but the gpu one stays completely cold.

I cannot understand it. I have broken the xbox by doing nothing.

I really need some help!

Thanks for the help so far!

Seb Smith

that is strange..
you should reflow the motherboard.
starting with gpu then test.
ram then test.
cpu then test.
if that doesn't fix it, then i am afraid you going to have to keep that mobo as 'parts'

just discovered something yesterday! when i tighten the cpu heatsink, the rror turns into a 0022 and theres no burning smell. i think it definitely needs a reflow, but i was wondering if i should try an oven reflow this time? I am going to use flux this time aswell, so it should reflow better. also if i cant get it to work, i am just gonna pull every single mosfet from it (becuase they all work) and replace them into that jasper board i have so that works!

I have been doing some research and found oven reflows put less stress on the board and cause less thermal flexing, but are much harsher on the board. I have only had 1 success with heatgun, and it lasted 5 minutes so I am not sure which one to do?

Thanks for the help!

Seb Smith

sorry, forgot to put in the post above that i think the penny trick actually broke the soldered joints under either cpu gpu or ram. they must have been very delicate before hand, and by flexing/bending the board a bit they broke

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=42323&start=0
there are links to both types of reflows as well as some extra note for the future

EDIT: do whichever one you feel like doing.
if you didnt use flux last time, that is the reason it didnt last long.

OH OH PICK ME, PICK ME!

I worked on xbox's for a few years and that is a classic case of the heatsink being to close to the gpu/cpu. try loosening the screws or if you dont have screws try clearing of some thermal paste from the cpu/gpu. if all the above fails, try a reflow

Hi, I did a reflow, but it still gives me 0022. Actually when I looses the screws it turns into a 0001 error which is strange. I think its a gonner this xbox so I am going to take all the capacitors and mosfets out of it and put them on my other jasper board so that that one works. At least it wont just be a useless board! Also I am saving up to get one of the new slim models, which will be really exciting as I cant wait to take a look inside at the new motherboard and how its put together. I will maybe put a windows and blue led's in it or make it into an xbox 360 slim laptop If I have enough money for the other parts!

Thanks for the help!

Seb Smith