Hardware Buying a cheap RROD 360

[sjones900]

If I were to buy a RROD 360 with a falcon motherboard what are the chances of revival? Or is it just pretty much a crapshoot?

 

[Quincy]

It depends on what kind of RRoD it is. I have an ex-RRoD box myself, and it still works after some mods

 

[mudbone]

Man you really never know what your getting! I only buy them if i know they have not been opened up and attempted to be fixed! RROD is one thing, an idiot not knowing what there doing trying to fix it just makes things even worse usually! Good Luck!! Dont spend too much!!

 

[sjones900]

All I know about it is that it has 3 red lights. Which probably indicates e74, and it has not been tampered with. I'm hoping this turn into a steal but I'll be pretty disappointed if it doesn't. Is there a definitive RRoD fix? I haven't done of these in a while.

 

[431unknown]

Some RRoD can be fixed and work fine for a long time and then some can be fixed and RRoD again the next day until you cant fix it with out a reflow/reball. I wouldn't buy a RRoD now anymore personally.

 

[Joe88]

I bought a rrod system, big mistake on my part
I never got it working properly, it would just rrod after a few weeks again
but it worked out as I sold the system for more then I paid for it (payed $50 for a 120GB elite with wireless network adapter/ sold it for $110 except for the hdd)

 

[sjones900]

Well here's another question, is it more effective to turn the xbox on and let it cook? or apply the heat with a heat gun?

 

[431unknown]

If you do the heat gun there is a greater chance of you fucking it up, but if done right it will last longer.

 

[sjones900]

If you do the heat gun there is a greater chance of you fucking it up, but if done right it will last longer.

Thanks for the advice. I may just go with the traditional way, seeing as I don't have a heat gun right now anyway. Will solder flow help as well?

 

[Quincy]

If you do the heat gun there is a greater chance of you fucking it up, but if done right it will last longer.

Thanks for the advice. I may just go with the traditional way, seeing as I don't have a heat gun right now anyway. Will solder flow help as well?

First things first, ask for the Secondairy error code ( ask him to turn his box on with the eject button pressed, press the sync button once, thats the first digit, Sync button again, that's the second digit, sync button, thats the third digit, and finally sync button, that's the 4th digit). Report that to me and I will look through my documents and give you possible fixes,

 

[raulpica]

E74 will just return EVER and EVER. You're wasting your money.

There's no way to fix it without a complete reball. In the best case your 360 is gonna last a few weeks, in the worst a few days.

 

[mudbone]

Quincy is right you need all of the info before you go ahead and try fixing it!

And just turning it on and letting it fry in no way will make it work!

You need to atleast:
-Open 360
-Remove Motherboard
-Remove Heatsinks
-Remove old thermal paste from chips and heatsinks(qtip and goo gone works good!)
-Heat the board and chips with a heat gun(No a hair dryer will no work!)
-Apply new thermal paste and re-attach heatsinks(most radio shacks have thermal paste)
-Re-assemble and test

Watch this video, this is the easiest way to get most rrod's back to life!


Then there is reballing which is a more permanant fix, but not advised unless you have the proper equipment and skills!

 

[Krafter]

I've been getting into re-flowing myself but I invested in some equipment to do so and not just a hardware special heatgun. I don't have the fancy equipment that the pro's have but it's still decent stuff. Something to keep in mind is there is a process to re-flowing including a heat curve that needs to be met for proper re-flow and cool down of solder. With a heat gun, there is no way to control the heat. If it gets to hot then the solder could bridge. If it's not hot enough then the solder will crack again. If it cools to fast then it will become brittle and can crack again. I have done a lot of study on this and find that a heat gun in not recommended as it is still labeled as a temporary fix. If you can get a RRoD board dirt cheep then it might be worth a try but you might just be tossing your money out the window if the fix doesn't last or not at all.

 

[Devante]

I can vouch for heat gun being temporary.

I've fixed RROD on 5 separate XBOX 360's as well YLOD on a PS3 and all systems have lasted anywhere from a month to a year but always came back.

I've re-fixed a few a few times, especially my JTAG Xenon and my PS3 (at least 3 times each) and now they only last about a month.

 

[Quincy]

Quincy is right you need all of the info before you go ahead and try fixing it!

And just turning it on and letting it fry in no way will make it work!

You need to atleast:
-Open 360
-Remove Motherboard
-Remove Heatsinks
-Remove old thermal paste from chips and heatsinks(qtip and goo gone works good!)
-Heat the board and chips with a heat gun(No a hair dryer will no work!)
-Apply new thermal paste and re-attach heatsinks(most radio shacks have thermal paste)
-Re-assemble and test

Watch this video, this is the easiest way to get most rrod's back to life!
[media]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=MEvfBS6Tams[/media]

Then there is reballing which is a more permanant fix, but not advised unless you have the proper equipment and skills!

One big mistake here is that you automaticly say that the problem that causes the RRoD is the GPU BGA chip. That's not necesairy the problem. It could be other (random) hardware failure as well, the ram chips? The ExCPU? Just plain ol' overheating?

 

[sjones900]

Hmm.. well all this considered. Would it be more efficient to have the GPU reballed? I can't do this myself, but there are some local game repair businesses that do this relatively cheap.

 

[dilav]

Reball is the best way to fix them if done right. However most places charge a lot to reball a system. E74 is graphics related, usually the GPU or the HANA chip.

 

[DinohScene]

Had a Xenon RRoD with a GPU and RAM failure.

Fixed it several times before it started to go RRoD as soon as i pressed the ROL button.
Never bothered fixing again and i think i trashed the board.
Only to find out that I could've just dumped the KV and sell it.

Such a mistake );

 

[Zalda]

i also got 2 very cheap (around 15 euros each) broken 360's in my range, these are the details i know:

one with 3 red lights, other with 4 red lights
both don't have a HDMI port (so they are a phat 360?)
both have a HDD of 20 gigs, and the insuranceperiod is over
all the cables are there, the boxes are gone

i have no experience at all in this, but what are the odds I can get any of these consoles working again? maybe i can put them together to fix the broken parts or something like that?

 

[BORTZ]

From what ive seen, most RRoD 360s are "fixable" but the fix isnt permanent. Most revert to RRoD status in a few months. The heat syncs separate again over time, even with Arctic silver 5.