RROD Xbox 360 repair march cambridgeshire
RROD is the acronym given to the red ring of death I suffered just before the Christmas 2011. I went through some google searching and official xbox registration to find that I was just outside the 3 year guarantee and so would be without my xbox for 8 weeks potentially and for 70 quid.
WARNING : REMOVING OR TAMPERING WITH THE XBOX CASE WILL VOID ANY WARRANTY YOU MAY HAVE ON YOUR PRODUCT WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SUBSEQUENT DAMAGE YOU MAY DO TO YOUR XBOX. IF WE ARE TASKED BY YOU TO FIX YOUR XBOX WE WILL DO OUR BEST BUT WE MAKE NO GUARANTEES THAT YOUR XBOX WILL WORK AGAIN IF WE DON'T GET IT TO WORK THERE WILL BE NO CHARGE HOWEVER.
Being a computer hardware person I decided I had the skills to fix it myself since this fault is due to a product design flaw (and the reason why the guarantee is extended to 3 years). I have changed GPU's and CPU's before in various PC's and have experience with silver paste see thermal grease.
It is fair to say that you need to take your time and not rush the process it should take around an hour if you are careful. The more care you take the longer lasting will be the solution.
Notes on RROD fix
Do not use the towel fix or other fix that overheats the xbox (CPU and GPU chips) temporarily, this will cause them damage and the performance will suffer if the work at all after repeated fixes like this.
One online video says that it isn't important to really clean the surfaces prior to reapplying the thermal silver or arctic silver as the top brand is. For the 20 minutes you will spend with your rubbing alcohol on this its worth doing DOIT !! Getting the best surface to surface contact with the right amount of silver is key. How much is enough - I didn't put enough on one of the chips first time a small peas sized amount wont make a massive mess would be my recommendation - please comment below your guide.
My fix didn't work for both processors the first time round and the temperature of one of the sinks was not high enough so it wasn't well done - re-applying on this chip with more silver and more careful tightening the second time saw it work so it goes to show there is a little playing and knowing what is happening can help. Part of the reason I wrote this guide. Here in this guide you have probably enough information to try and fix it yourself like me. You will probably need some tools like the T8 screwdriver and T10 as these special screwdrivers can't be done without. There is a case tool apparently that has these on it please comment if you know how well they work. I bought a very cheap kit for under 2 pounds which had the screws and silver paste from ebay. Then realised I needed the T8 - some kits come with this driver. So check around see what you have in the garage.
When it comes to doing the job make sure you have space and a clean environment some stuff to clean up - the silver gets messy if you don't take care ! While you are on ebay get an anti static band or use some advice in getting rid of static to work on computers like this. Take care with getting the case off to minimise damage the hardest parts are the back spines as you will find out persevere and do this when you are not pissed at anything ;)
What is the root cause of the RROD ?
An obvious design flaw is the x-clamp holding each chip to the motherboard and heat sink and as some claim poor quality solder (skimping on the cost of solder on such a product is mindless to my mind) attaching the chip to the motherboard. Four screws replacing the horrid clamp allow for a stronger more even pressure. In the case of new xbox's I don't know if they fixed it or changed the solution. Mine being over 3 years old now had this setup and was an elite (i think has an extra cooling part on the graphics chip heatsink) otherwise I don't know of any difference. When I was a kid a console didn't last much past 12 months before it was no longer able to play the latest games not so today ! When the prices drop a lot beware..ok back to it. Over time the solder joint either cracks giving what's known as a dry joint and setting off the RROD error or overheating of the chips because of the poor fit of the heat-sink against the chip face. This is where the towel fix could appear to work using the temperature rise from forcing the xbox to heat up (some use rods to block the fans at the back to achieve the same) re-melting the solder into a better place. This won't do anything to the x-clamp and could damage the chips beyond repair. For this reason never buy a used console as many do this when they get problems down the line your xbox is again RROD. So the x-clamp is the probable cause in stressing the solder under the normal high temperatures in there and cracking the joint.
The fix involves removing the old clamps ,taking steps to use the new correct bolts and nuts and re-melting the chip to the board (no soldering equipment) just using the xbox switched on without fan until it overheats (giving 2 lights) then shut-down - final tighten the screws which now hold the heat sink onto the chip SEE THE VIDEO BELOW. Good luck
Related Helpful Links
Thermal Grease Thermal Paste
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_grease
How to remove the XBOX case without a tool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaxIB6cXTYM
The best How To (yes by a girl ! called PINK THREAT !)
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1271373/360_three_rings_of_death_fix_real/