Hardware So i have the red ring of death...

link491

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Recently, a client of mine gave me an Xbox 360 (Elite Model), with all of the cables. He said it was his sons and that his son didn't want it anymore, for an unspecified reason. I took the machine home and when i plugged it in, it gave me a red ring of death.

I want to know, is there any way for me to fix it myself? Or can i pay somebody else (microsoft or third party) to fix it?

Any help is well appreciated

~link491
 

smizzoker123

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happen to me once, i did the 'towel trick', you wrap it up in a towel covering all the vents, and let it run for 15 min. then let it sit for another 15 to cool off. it actually worked fine for another year until i spilled coffee on it and completely wrecked it. this way could possibly make it worse, but i said screw it because it was past its warranty and i figured i couldn't make it any worse.
 

Reisyukaku

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I repair 360s all the time.. it depends which red rings you have.. 2 means over heated cpu/gpu and 3 means its fubar, lol.. the 'towel trick' as stated above would be the easiest temporary fix without opening the machine for the 2 rings.. otherwise what I do is open it up, detach the CPU and GPU heat sinks and scrape off the old dried up thermal paste and apply new paste (I use arctic silver 5, which is kinda expensive, but its pretty quality stuff)
 

DinohScene

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lolwut? the 360 I built runs a xenon mobo and it runs like a champ

90 nm CPU and GPU.
Their running far to hot, as well as insufficient cooling.

The only way to preserve a Xenon/Zephyr is to reball the GPU/CPU/ANA and RAM chips.

The tin solder under the stock chips will continue to crack and break.
 

brickmii82

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Well, I sorta disagree with trashing them. Especially if it just needs a reball. I have a guy here in Arizona that will reball a console for me for 40 US Dollars. I'd imagine that would be close to the running price elsewhere. If you're willing to put in the work, then I say its well worth it! No Box Left Behind!!
 

ISO-Man

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Xenons aren't worth it personally.
No HDMI no hacking besides Xkey and DVD flashing.

Their rubbish basically
The boards I have done with no HDMI has high failure rate for the reason already given from few posts above. Reballing isn't an option when used working Xbox's are around $50.

I'm not a fan of the towel trick :)


ISO-Man
 

brickmii82

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The boards I have done with no HDMI has high failure rate for the reason already given from few posts above. Reballing isn't an option when used working Xbox's are around $50.

I'm not a fan of the towel trick :)


ISO-Man
I see broken consoles all day on Ebay for $50, never any working ones. Craigslist here in Arizona has them at $80 once in awhile however the going price is $100. That's with brick and A/V. If you could point me to $50 falcons though..... go ISO-MAN!
 

ISO-Man

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I see broken consoles all day on Ebay for $50, never any working ones. Craigslist here in Arizona has them at $80 once in awhile however the going price is $100. That's with brick and A/V. If you could point me to $50 falcons though..... go ISO-MAN!
I bought mine locally. I usually look for units that have extras. I paid $80 for one unit that had complete rockband setup, controllers, and games. Deals are to be had by those who are patient :) Check around locally for any trading sites, paper, or gatherings. Ebay is getting harder to get a deal on anything, and RROD on Ebay has already been messed with. I bought one locally from ebay and repair attempt was made by seller and actually removed a complete section of solder trace. Too many of those RROD on Ebay don't sell. Why? They are overpriced gambles. You can pull a dick move and hang out at Gamestop and if you see someone bringing their xbox gear in, tell them you will pay x amount more than Gamestops offer.

As to type of boards, I don't keep track of type except when pairing power supplies. If you don't currently own a wifi adapter for a phatty, I would get a slim. It has wifi built in. My complaint with slim is taking the case on/off. Otherwise, they are nice units.

You may even get lucky poking around locally and find someone with reballing capabilities and get it done cheap.

ISO-Man
 
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Harsky

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It is possible to fix a 360 yourself by scraping off the old thermal paste and replacing it with a better one like I did but I knew it was going to be a short term fix so I traded it into my local gaming store for some measly store credit. The funny thing was that they told me to come back in one hour as they needed to do "extensive testing" on it. After an hour passed, they said they're surprised that it's still in excellent working condition.
 

ISO-Man

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It is possible to fix a 360 yourself by scraping off the old thermal paste and replacing it with a better one like I did but I knew it was going to be a short term fix so I traded it into my local gaming store for some measly store credit. The funny thing was that they told me to come back in one hour as they needed to do "extensive testing" on it. After an hour passed, they said they're surprised that it's still in excellent working condition.
Local gaming stores don't offer much at all. The dead PCB units I keep still for the DVD drives. I have several good PCB units that had bad DVD drives.. I am ready to break down and buy a flashing device to extract/inject keys. Thermal paste is critical, but the design flaw (1of them) Is the tension of the heatsink against the chips. Their default setup start to give a little in tension on the x causing the heatsink not absorb the heat properly. I don't use x clamp at all. All I use is plastic washers and flat-head screws. Just like an engine block, I advise to semi tighten each one jumping cross corners. Then tighten each just a click or 2 past snug. Too tight can cause the plastic washers to break or flatten and you would have same issue as you began with. Posting tip in case Link491 hasn't tried to fix it or found the walk-through guide on this site.

ISO-Man
 

daxyd

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I have a rrod 360. I was doing the towel trick. I wanted to see what it would do. I have done it before. But this time, I was lucky.... So I did the trick and guess what?
IT BOOTED UP NORMALLY BUT THE RED RINGS WERE STILL THERE! WTF??


its probably not going to work again :(
 

DinohScene

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"Towel trick" is one of the worst things you can do.
Permanent repair can be achieved by reballing the console.

Right now, unless it's a JTAG, get a new one.
 

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