xbox 360 (3 red light help)

[M12MKD]

Hello all,

My xbox has died yet again! First time was the 4 red lights of doom but this time its only 3. Not the power back as the light is green on it so its another problem relating to the hardware? Has anyone on here had the 3 lights and has been able to fix it themselfs? Or is it going to be send off for repair job?

Thanks

PC

[Babs]

Send it off!

[M12MKD]

cheers babs I was kinda thinking that was the answer. Might just buy just the basic xbox as cheap as possible might be easier and quicker.

Brother repaired the 4 light one and its been fine for some time now so well had to happen lol

Thanks

PC

[mannyo]

This is going to sound daft, but should get it going again for a period of time, although it will fail again with the same problem but you can do this over and over a few times.

Remove the HD and memory units from the xbox and and game disk from the drive, the only things you need connected are video and power.

Now get a good thick towel or a duvet and turn the XBOX on so the 3 lights are showing, Wrap the XBOX up in the towel/duvet with the 360 powered on so no air can enter. The power supply should be left outside the towel/duvet. Leave it running for about 15 mins, unwrap the 360,switch it off and let it cool for a few mins as it will be Very hot.

Connect everything up and your 360 should be working perfectly again for another week or so.

Or

Do what I did, go out and buy a 360 Arcade version and plug your HDD into that and off you go.

[M12MKD]

cheers mannyo I guess its worth a go, if it dont work then I'm no worse off than I was lol give it a go tonight

[Babs]

I had three lights and the report back said about the DVD drive and motherboard being a problem.

If mine dies again I'm just gonna buy an elite!

[djswivel]

If it's less than 3 years old, send it back. Of not, do the xclamp fix. This fixes 95% of RRoD errors (I've done about 20 successfully now, with only 2 that were properly dead). I wouldn't suggest the towel trick as basically it's forcing the xbox to overheat without resolving the original problem.

[Nick P]

I've been lucky with mine. Dec '05 launch day unit and never had a problem with it.

[M12MKD]

xclamp fix was done las time when it had 4 lights and that cured it. might be worth redoing in and cleaning it all again. Just over 3 year old now.

To be honest I've ever had a problem with mine until I started using xbox live lol

[TriggerFish]

I thought the 4 lights was the AV lead incorrectly plugged in?

The towel trick can work, but isn't a permament fix.

Does anyone know how the towel thing works? My guess would be its heats it all up enough for the solder to expand and make contact, completing the circuit again. (Assuming its the CPU connection failing.)

[djswivel]

Does anyone know how the towel thing works? My guess would be its heats it all up enough for the solder to expand and make contact, completing the circuit again. (Assuming its the CPU connection failing.)

AFAIK, this is the case. But it also causes other connections to expand which will lead it to fail again later on.

When you did the xclamp fix last time, what thermal paste did you use? Unless you use Artic Silver I bet it's dried out. Happens a lot with the cheaper paste.

[SnailUK]

Might just buy just the basic xbox as cheap as possible might be easier and quicker.

To be honest, i wouldn't bother. My last 360 RROD had about a 7 day turnaround, and cost me nothing.

[M12MKD]

AFAIK, this is the case. But it also causes other connections to expand which will lead it to fail again later on.

When you did the xclamp fix last time, what thermal paste did you use? Unless you use Artic Silver I bet it's dried out. Happens a lot with the cheaper paste.

I'm fairly sure he used artic silver as I think he made comments about not using cheap stuff. Unless what came in the "repair pack" was just cheap muck?

Its the weekend and being billy no mates I will take it apart, re-clean and re-paste it all up and see if that does the trick if not I will look into sending it off.

Do I take it that sending it off via mircosoft is the way to go?

[Babs]

Yes, get it sent

[M12MKD]

I thought the 4 lights was the AV lead incorrectly plugged in?

The towel trick can work, but isn't a permament fix.

Does anyone know how the towel thing works? My guess would be its heats it all up enough for the solder to expand and make contact, completing the circuit again. (Assuming its the CPU connection failing.)

yer sorry my bad, it was 3 lights last time too............if I had a brain I'd be dangerous!!

[M12MKD]

ok I think I will have to send it off, re-done the fix and it worked fine, turned on play a game but after a few mins again froze and now has over heated again.

3 lights are back. Its always kicked out a fair bit of heat but now its only warmish air that is coming out.

Stupid xbox! :(

[djswivel]

If it was overheating, it would be 2 red lights. Are you forcing it to heat up after you've done the fix? Not overheat, but heat up a lot. Without doing this, the xclamp fix is probably not going to work.

[Robshaw]

Please don't cause the xbox to overheat. I know the towel trick does work but as said above - It isn't good in the long run.

If you don't know what you are doing - Leave well alone and send it back.

In the above posts you mention that your brother fixed it last time. (I have a small feeling if the case has been opened and the seals broken - They arn't going to touch it. I know I wouldn't.)

Where are you based? I could help you out if you arn't that far away....

Hope this helps,

Rob

[M12MKD]

The seal is broken but which I never picked up on until well out of the return time the seal was broken before my brother had a look at it. He did mention this at the time so I'm guessing its one that was eturned to the shop before I bought it.

But to the point yes the seal is broken. Fix as per the guide and allowed to heat up until the lights flashed as per the instruction (I'm hoping that the instructions are correct).

Its been fine since it was fixed, no problems at all well until now. The only thing I done just before it crashed and went wrong was download a game demo and it was whilst playing the game it started to freeze up and then had trouble re-starting, only getting some times to the start up xbox logo. Then 3 red lights.

It worked after re-doing the fix, turned on fine and logged on to live, but when I started playing a game it froze up again. Did this twice and then 3 time 3 red lights. Turned the power off and left it for 10 mins and it turn back on and all was ok. But again it would freeze when playing a game but would play a DVD ok. Was fine so I watched the DVD and dosed off leaving the xbox on for about 2 hours, when I woke up it had frozen again and the next morning would not turn back on (3 lights).

So I just dont know?

Rob I'm based near Heathrow, if you have any helpful links or suggestion I'd be grateful.

[M12MKD]

If it was overheating, it would be 2 red lights. Are you forcing it to heat up after you've done the fix? Not overheat, but heat up a lot. Without doing this, the xclamp fix is probably not going to work.

How do you get it to "heat up"?

[djswivel]

While it's out of the case, but in the cage, and all assembled (except the case), position the fans so that they are cooling the exposed heatsink but not cooling the other one (the exposed one being cooled is the CPU, the covered one under the dvd drive is the GPU). Leave it like this for 10-15 mins. It can take 2 or 3 goes to get it to work after, but it probably will. Just make sure that it doesn't overheat with the 2 red lights, otherwise it'll be knackered.

[Babs]

Lian Li XB-01B Black Aluminium Quiet Xbox 360 Case, no PSU

[M12MKD]

Lian Li XB-01B Black Aluminium Quiet Xbox 360 Case, no PSU

cheers babs, funny enough my bro was only talking about this the other day, how the xbox seems not that great in its noise and heat removal. He suggested I opt for a setup like that.

I will say that the elite is almost silent compaired to my xbox!!

djswivel - thanks for that I will pass it on to my bro and he will have a go when he is feeling better as he has man-flu at the moment.

Thanks all!

[Rob.]

The XBOX 360 has to be one of the MOST rushed designs I've seen! I've got an Apple PowerMac G5 which basically runs the same CPU... one of them, at 1.6ghz. It has 9 speed controlled fans in an all aluminum case..

The XBOX has 3 (yes, 3!) of these chips albeit 2 chips and 3 cores running at.. what is it? 3.2ghz??

They cool these with 2 small fans running at half speed.. Hmmmmmm

The thing that actually kills the box isn't the heat causing the solder to melt... though this is part of the problem. The Heat causes the main board to flex, it's this combined with the X-Clamps using the centre of the underneath of the CPU & GPU as a tension point (round of applause here for that amazing feat of stupid design) that then causes the chips to start popping of when the solder heats up.. if it wasn't for the heat sinks X-Clamps there be no trouble...

The above is why the only true fix is replacing the x-clamps with real nuts and bolts hardware and then using the towel trick as a tool to reflow the solder one final time with a nice even spread of pressure coming from the top of the chip rather than the underneath. The New Xbox's still have these clamps the apparently the chips are now GLUED to the main board to keep the attached!

Sorry.. Rant over.. I just fixed one and couldn't believe how poorly designed it was!

One last little rant....... why is the HDD designed to cover up a 3rd of the ventilation holes when attached.. I mean, my god! Lets cover up the cooling holes on something that gets hot with something else that gets hot..!!! CCOOOMMMMMEEE OOOONNNNNN!

Sorry..

[SnailUK]

The thing that actually kills the box isn't the heat causing the solder to melt... though this is part of the problem. The Heat causes the main board to flex, it's this combined with the X-Clamps using the centre of the underneath of the CPU & GPU as a tension point (round of applause here for that amazing feat of stupid design) that then causes the chips to start popping of when the solder heats up.. if it wasn't for the heat sinks X-Clamps there be no trouble...

From what i read, thats a side effect, the cause is actually the thermal design of the main CPU chip.

Apparently they had IBM design the CPU, but at the last minute decided to do the thermal design themselves, to save a couple of million.

Whoever at Microsoft did it messed up thus the chip gets too hot, and everything around it suffers as a consequence.