The Dreaded RRoD...

[64M320N3]

I previously opened up my 360 to do the 12 Volt fan mod, so I voided my warranty.
...and now my 360 has an RROD. I have tried the x-clamp mod and nothing. At all. I remembered to heat up the GPU and everything. Attempted tightening it and heating it up 3 times and I have nothing. I don't want to do the towel trick because it could be worse in the long run.

So, are there any other methods that have worked?

[joeyjoe9876]

i know someone that can fix it for 40$ plus return shipping.

[64M320N3]

Well that is great and all, but could you tell me what he does? I have already "tampered" with my 360. And also, I wouldn't doubt he just does the x-clamp fix. It works for most people, I am just one of those unlucky fellows who has a different problem.

[Squidlekins]

I had an xbox that committed red ring suicide once. I did the x-clamp mod and all it did was make it work for two more weeks before it died permanently... I don't think that the x-clamp fix is really that great, because I did it exactly according to the internet videos. You can always sell it for about 30$ on ebay, make it someone else's problem, or part it out.

[64M320N3]

Very good to know. Anyone else have any contributions?

[snowpenguin]

Well, this seems to be working out well for you.


I thought I remembered seing the RROD was often due to cracked lead free solder joints damaged by heating up from overheating, maybe reflowing with a heat gun will do the trick. Someone who knows waht they're talknig, comfirm or disprove me please.

[Tallon]

how could towel trick make it worse :S i've done it about 7 times on same 360.. lasted a few weeks each time
got lazy of doing that and bought a new one but I'm sure my old one would work if I kept doing it

[snowpenguin]

The towel trick is bad for your 360. Notice how many times you had to do it.

[stephen0205]

couldnt you find someone who could reball the solder in the cpu and gpu, wasnt that the problem that the heat caused ???

[joeyjoe9876]

theres some info about it in this thread http://thepurplecube.org/forums/index.php?topic=6857.0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Harlequin]

The X-clamp isn't the only solution, depending upon which version of the box you have. Some also have additional options that can fix this issue.

1. the 8 - 12 penny fix, mounts some pennies on the ram to provide downward pressure and re-connect with the solder.
2. shaving the risers - earlier xbox 360s had risers that were a clear 1 mm taller towards the center. This put far too much pressure on the board and helped it to warp.
3. zinc whiskers - zinc based solder can grow "whiskers" of almost 1mm per year (weird isn't it). Since the board has 1mm spacing on some points, well, you see how that can go. A heat gun can sometimes fix that.
4. replace the x-clamp of course. There are too many tuts for that.

There is a "enhanced edition" of the x-clamp fix that includes all of these options. I recommend checking that out. It is possible to take these two or three extra steps and extend some life to the ol xbox. I should think/hope that the broken solder isn't an issue in your case since you already did a fan mod. I don't know your exact circumstances, but it would seem to me that if you had already taken precautions related to overheating, then the solder shouldn't have gone above it's tollerance level and should be broken. A heat gun to counteract whiskers might be an idea.. but be carefull..

[rikitheshadow]

I'm not an expert on this so don't quote me on this.

A large percentage of the RROD issues is of course heat, stock coolers suck, the chips where too big, and needed too much juice. Another simple cause is how someone has the unit situated during game play time. People who kept their units vertical have been known to be victim to RROD on older xboxs because the chip's solder points would begin to weakin under the heat causing the chip to slide and possibly short (of course over time, never immediately).

Besides insuring that the solder points on the CPU and the GPU are not causing shorts, and maybe modding the stock cooler, try keeping your unit horizontal.

As I said above, i'm no expert, you may even keep it horizontal all the time, don't quote me on this.

[64M320N3]

As I said above, i'm no expert, you may even keep it horizontal all the time, don't quote me on this.

I do, so I won't.
Well, I knew why the 360 had problems (which I will elaborate on in a second), I just wanted to know perhaps what Microsoft does with their refurbs or what other people have done to their 'box other than the X-Clamp that has seemed to work.

Now, as for my elaborations on the problem, there have been many misleading claims, mostly about the solder the Xbox 360 uses. Now, this stuff isn't bad, and it would definitely be much better than using regular solder on the processors because it has a higher melting point. As with all solder, however, if it is subject to high temperatures for an increased amount of time, the solder will become brittle most likely causing a cold solder joint. So yes, you can blame Microsoft's rather archaic chassis design with passive cooling. If you have ever soldered something for too long you might notice that you did not get a very strong connection, and this is why. The X-Clamp fix can help reconnect some, but of course pressure will not always work in these situations. It needs to be heated up to melting point so it may reconnect again... which leads me to another point: the towel trick.

Now, the towel trick has been notorious over early Xbox users for "fixing their 360". What it basically does is expand the broken solder joints so that they are reconnected for a certain period of time, thus making the fix temporary. What it can also do is overheat other parts on the board and dry out the caps, neither of which are good. That is why I am not willing to do it.

As this board is pretty much dead otherwise I will try some other techniques such as melting the processor with a heat gun, although I see some forthcoming in the near future with this method. My 360 takes almost 30 seconds to determine if it has the rings or not, so if that helps anybody diagnose my problem and/or the solution than that would be great. I will continue to work on this project and keep you guys posted (as it is pretty much dead otherwise).

[Squidlekins]

At this point... you should probably sell it on ebay... Although I'm not sure if there's really a market for them anymore, broken 360's that is. In fact the way I got my first 360 was by buying a broken one, sending it to microsoft to fix and then keeping it... great way to get a $40 xbox if you can wait a few weeks

[64M320N3]

I'm thinking about simply buying a newer revision 360, although I know I can fix this one somehow, perhaps alter the cooling system and casemod it with my new CNC and make some dough.