Overheating & outside of warranty

Mikey23

Before doing any too stupid (either a) forking out too much for a repair, or b) screwing up a heatsink fix), I'd appreciate a 2nd opinion if anyone had a sec.

My Xbox is comfortably out of warranty, with 2 red lights. It's free of dust & been well-kept in a ventilated area, for all the good it did. The lights return regardless of time left to cool - not if left idle, just after 5-10 mins after disk is inserted. Fan & rear of machine not noticeably hot, but makes a loud noise before stopping.

Since an Arcade replacement is €180, I'm not keen on a costly repair that may or may not truly fix the problem. And since it's not a RROD(never thought I'd wish for one, but there you go!), there's no freebie from Microsoft. The likes of **** say they'll give you a quote after you send it to them, which doesn't really suit.

This is my 3rd console now, with an RROD and a brand new one behind me. What would ye do if ye were me?

DARK-KNIGHT

Mikey23 wrote: »

Before doing any too stupid (either a) forking out too much for a repair, or b) screwing up a heatsink fix), I'd appreciate a 2nd opinion if anyone had a sec.

My Xbox is comfortably out of warranty, with 2 red lights. It's free of dust & been well-kept in a ventilated area, for all the good it did. The lights return regardless of time left to cool - not if left idle, just after 5-10 mins after disk is inserted. Fan & rear of machine not noticeably hot, but makes a loud noise before stopping.

Since an Arcade replacement is €180, I'm not keen on a costly repair that may or may not truly fix the problem. And since it's not a RROD(never thought I'd wish for one, but there you go!), there's no freebie from Microsoft. The likes of **** say they'll give you a quote after you send it to them, which doesn't really suit.

This is my 3rd console now, with an RROD and a brand new one behind me. What would ye do if ye were me?

ok think of it like this 60 euro is the cheapest fix from someone i have heard about! so in my opinion what i would do is sell yours on adverts for someone to repair! loads of people into that and buy a new one! think about it 3 fixes is a new console and a new console will have a 3 year warantee so you are gaining all the time:) best of luck,

Ray:cool:

RaoulDukeHST

I have the same problem. I took it apart, cleaned with compressed air - same. I took out the processors, cleaned the thermal gunk off them and the heatsink, applied new thermal paste, - it lasted 45mins that time but then was back to 2 rings.
I decided to give up and get a new arcade model. It should be a lot quieter than my current xbox and a lot less demanding on electricity.

Mikey23

Cheers lads. Reckon I'll give Microsoft a ring first for a quote, then strip it down, and failing that buy the Arcade. It really is crazy though - after my previous RROD experiences, this one has been treated with kid gloves.:(

Black_Knight

Give this guy a shout
witnessmenow

Hes in athlone but could easily be down in Galway soon.

Mikey23

Found one of the factors that was at fault: classic human error. When my flatmate moved out, he took the wrong power brick and I never thought of checking it since. I've heard his has been acting strangely too, with all manner of red light combos. Essentially, mine needed 16.5A but had 14.1A and vice versa.

Anyone have any theories as to what the damage is? Planning to take it apart tomorrow evening so suspect I might be hunting or a new fan & adding thermal compound to the heatsinks etc.

For the record, swapping the power supplies back this evening seemed to get mine running longer before the dreaded 2 lights reappeared. Now hunting to see if that warning can be reset maybe.

Black_Knight

You could always try make it RROD. Wrapping it in towels is supposed to help it on its way to RROD.

Mikey23

Heaven knows I'm tempted, but the 2 red lights appear after less than 10 mins use - well under, usually. Once that happens, there isn't a peep from the Xbox - it's as if it's in standby - so RROD could take days to follow.

blondeonblonde

I've had the same problem, my xbox is about 3 years old and out of warranty - called microsoft and they quoted 70/80 euro to fix it... Definitely not worth it... Thinking bout taking mine apart to see if its caused by dust build up... after that i'll probably just bin it. Would be keen to know if anyone has acually managed to fix this problem themselves...

0ubliette

lads, i fixed mine in about an hours work, its EASY. If youve already stripped it and cleaned off the old thermal paste, then youd be comfortable doing the x clamp replacement method.

sure you could pay MS 90 euro to fix it, or you could spend 10 euro on this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=380130406006

and fix it for free. It has all the screws, washers and nuts and torx wrenches you need to take the console apart and put it back together minus the ****ty x clamps (theyre the reason the early consoles overheated).
I bought the kit off ebay for 10 dollars, it gives you a link to a PDF that talks you through it step by step, and i also watched some youtube videos by some guy who does the same method (but cause its a video its easier to follow than reading the pdf)

Long story short i had my xbox fixed in about an hour or two, and saved myself either buying a new one or sending it off to MS and being charged for a repair.

Mikey23

Excellent stuff, advice much appreciated.

Mikey23

Thanks again to Oubliette - fixed my Xbox this evening, with the help of an extra pair of hands from the missus! Would have thought she appreciated the break from it in the meantime

For anyone else with the same issue, I'd recommend the eBay link above - useful kit all round - but don't try to overthink matters with alternative guides. I'd a second one in the house which differed slightly in the order of the steps and the final process used to overheat the Xbox at the end.

Fired a replacement fan in it for good measure - http://www.amazon.com/Whisper-Fan-360-Xbox/dp/B000H1V56U - which runs much quieter.

0ubliette

Mikey23 wrote: »

Thanks again to Oubliette - fixed my Xbox this evening, with the help of an extra pair of hands from the missus! Would have thought she appreciated the break from it in the meantime

For anyone else with the same issue, I'd recommend the eBay link above - useful kit all round - but don't try to overthink matters with alternative guides. I'd a second one in the house which differed slightly in the order of the steps and the final process used to overheat the Xbox at the end.

Fired a replacement fan in it for good measure - http://www.amazon.com/Whisper-Fan-360-Xbox/dp/B000H1V56U - which runs much quieter.

Nice one, glad it worked out well for you. And saved you the 90 euro repair fee in the process
It really is easy, a bit of care needed when handling the motherboard and taking off the heatsinks, thats about it really, aside from that, simple as!

blondeonblonde

Hey guys, i got this kit from ebay as well. Haven't gotten around to trying it out yet though...Was looking on the site to see about taking xbox apart - one of the last steps is to actually overheat the xbox and it says the following:

"What you DO NOT WANT is for the unit to actually overheat giving your TWO flashing red lights (1,3) at which point the 360 cuts off power to both the CPU and GPU preventing them from actually getting hot. Again is probably the difference between someone who succeeds and someone who fails."

My xbox already has the two rings so does anyone know if it's even worth my while taking the whole thing apart if it has two red rings already???

Did any of you who used this fix actually have two red rings?

Have been xbox free for the past 4 months! With the new COD coming out would like to have it fixed soon!!!

Cheers

Mikey23

Yep, I'd two red rings (discussed above).

As you've pointed out, the wording in that guide isn't always great. What he means is when you get to that point (after carrying out the previous steps in the guide), you want to avoid getting two red rings when you want to reset it using the heat fix.

In your shoes, if you're also out of warranty etc, it's well worth giving it a go. Do it slowly, don't skip anything and follow the instructions to the letter. Best of luck!

shoveltooth

When my xbox got the two red lights , I sent it off to microsoft saying it had rrod ( only had warranty for rrod). I got it fixed for free and got one month free trial of xbox gold also.
Result

blondeonblonde

Cheers Mikey, will give it a go... it's worth a try anyway... will let ye know how it goes!