Tutorial to fix your Xbox 360 RROD using Soldering kit!
Have you encountered the dreaded RROD that every Xbox 360 users gets nightmares just thinking about it. If you ever came across a RROD, it typically means that your Xbox 360 is completely done for and needs to go to Microsoft for repairs. Microsoft have officially recognized this as designs flaws and not enough quality assurances tests done on their part so they decided to extend the warranty of the console to 3years. Some of you might even tried the infamous “towel fix” but this time lets do some real stuff that will last.
Still there is a debate on what actually causes the RRoD, but according to the folks at iHacked they believe its is just a soldering issue.
“Generally, the 3rrod error is caused by a solder problem, where points on the GPU/CPU have worked loose – or a temperature problem causing the same result. Following this guide, you should be able to fix these joints, quickly and easily! We have used this process to repair over 10 Xbox360s successfully.”
360 Three Rings of Death FIX -REAL – video powered by Metacafe
Just take a look at the video and i’m sure if you bricked your 360 and screwed your warrenty opening it before the Microsoft tech staffs, I’m sure a new wave of hope will hit your head and that dusty 360 might have a chance. Apparently they tested this method on 10 different 360′s and fixed each of the ten different ones that had gotten the RRoD.
[ iHacked via hacked gadgets]
This Tutorial works!
I repaired my Xbox360 today. I’m so happy =)
Thank you for everything!!!
you could also try the x-clamp or towel method, ive linked to relevant tutorials on how to get that done, this method i haven’t really tried.
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Towel-Trick-Explained-to-Fix-the-Xbox-RROD&id=2728185
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-X-Clamp-Modification-Method-to-Fix-Your-360s-Red-Ring-of-Death&id=2728036
Worked now the question is for how long? excellent video with the essential details included. didn’t think it would work but now I’m getting requests to fix others. thanks
This is the type of design problem that typically comes about by a rush to market.
Worked for me as well, second time I’ve needed to do it and used the ‘heat up and re-seat’ approach as per video and now works a treat.
Didnt work for me.
I used RROD FIX PRO and it helped. The main thing is fully attaching new screws.
when i plug in my cord and turn it on the fan wont even work
I’ve done this and still have issues with my E74 error reaccuring…
why would this happen? is there any way i can fix this perminately :((
great job on fixing a fixed 360….I dont think it was even broken to begin with
This worked great, but I noticed when I was cleaning the thermal paste off of the chips that an excessive amount of thermal paste was used and it looked like it had ran off the heatsink during a extended gameplay session and shorted out on the surface mount resistors and diodes.
I know that arctic silver 5 is conductive and the material I cleaned off seemed to be very similar. I used acetone and my old sonic toothbrush head and lots of cuetips to remove all the old thermal paste before using just enough arctic silver to ice the top of the chips. I followed the instructions to the heatup phase when I powered it on to heat it up it worked again! So I quickly shut it down and tightened the screws, checked again, fine! So I reassembled and have ran it nonstop for 2+ hours not a single glitch or freeze and no RROD! Be careful with the thermal paste just use enough to coat the top of the cores.
Thanks again for the help.
To Fix the RROD on 360, just try this. Seriously. In less than an hour you’ll have it fixed, for good.
http://fixredring360.blogspot.com/
After that, you can charge to fix everyone else’s! lol
I din’t know that so beautiful play with xbox O:O
How long do you think this will last? Because I don’t really want to keep doing this over and over again. I’m kind of skeptical about the over heating. It fixes that but wont it effect or hurt something else? Please reply.
@Mike
I used this method over a month ago and have been using my 360 more than ever. Don’t be afraid to try this what have you got to lose? Just take your time and don’t force anything.
To my horror, when I opened my X-Box 360, this trick had already been done. I had purchased it off eBay about 18 months ago from a shady character. Now I know why. But I went thru the steps anyways. It looked like he had not used the Arctic Silver Thermal Paste. At first, just 3 lights. Then I got the two and cooked it for 3 minutes. But it back together and still RROD. Played with it for anther hour. Still RROD. Let it run for 10 min, nothing. ON A WHIM, I UNPLUGGED THE FAN & IT CAME TO LIFE. Put it all together and I’m up & running.
My point is this. Follow the directions, read the comments, and if necessary, redo the paste. I don’t know how much life it has, but I will redo this again if it happens again.
Thank you to the sponsor of this forum!
I tried the other fix with the three pennies on the black underside chips and I have tried the girl with the lisp’s tricks and this xbox is hammered. Well hate to say it and be negative people buy buy another one and sue xbox if it breaks because if you are here and already spent thousands on this piece of shit then you know where I am coming from. I don’t know what to say but I got another xbox today and am going to use the other for experimentation under the microscope and see what the problem is. It is not hard to see that it runs hot so I know this is a problem with microsoft and them being cheap. the system was rushed onto the line to meet the halo3 needs and the damn japs cut us short again. I got the new one I will examine the old one and let you all know what I find. 11 times I fixed this one and it quit again after 13 hours and halo3 seen to be the program that overheats it most FYI. anyways I am a pro hacket and an it tech guru if anyone wants to chat its canzcustoms@hotmail.com. Good luck
@Patrick
how long did you leave it on when the red lights came on.
I left it on for 14 hours and played halo 3 and orange box and it did fine the whole time then the static screen came up and the xbox was down again for the fifth time and after all the mods. I reheated the board with a pen torch and it seated all the soldier joints again so the problem is the soldier, it is just too low of a temperature.
Awesome… metacafe gave u this video for free?? I have never found an xbox solution..
Works temporary. Be prepared to do it again. and again…. and again.
This XBox 360 Repair guide with Videos will Fix the Three Red Light Error – and Repair your XBox 360 in under 1 Hour
3redlight(dot)tk
Tried it, did nothing but go right to two red rings, doesnt seem to actually be running to even get it to overheat.
wait, so the rrod is just a result of poor contact between the chip and heat sink? because all that was accomplished in this video was the removal old thermal paste and the application of a new coat.
i did everything, but when i turn it on the fan was on 1 sec then shut off and 3red rings y?
i have 2 questions.
1. what size srews did you use to srew down the heatsinks?
2. how long does this work before i have to redo it?
Just do the towel trick. Worked for me.
My 4 year old 360 decided to no longer show video so I was gonna throw it out the window when I figured I’d try that towel trick. All it does is over heat the unit. Let it cool for atleast 20 minutes then turned it on, all good. No more crappy color and I’m not pissed that it may be my brand new LCD.
Thanks! Now have 360 up and running!
modify the fans to blow in much better cooling this way
This works great! I tried another method pretty close to this but had no luck, followed this one with the stuff i already had and it worked first go!
botomax: No, what isn’t explained is that you’re essentially reflowing the solder between the chip and the pads on the motherboard, using the heat of overheating chip. The essential step in this tutorial is to perform an overheating after applying the paste and loosely attaching the heatsink.
The loosely-attached, Arctic Silvered heatsink keeps the chip in place during the overheating process and prevents the chip from catastrophically overheating, which would kill your chip permanently (not just cause the solder to melt and the chip to detach). After you overheat the chip and melt that solder, the chip cools down and returns to its place on the motherboard, soldered up correctly to its pads the way surface-mount soldered chips on PCBs do with solder paste in a reflow oven.
After the “reflow” is done, you tighten down the screws with your new heatsink connectors (not those crummy X retention connectors) which do a better job of keeping the chip properly cooled and held in place so it doesn’t disconnect under the heat. The Arctic Silver also helps keep the chip in place compared to the silicon thermal paste Microsoft used.
Soldier like they say then search on youtube and find the video that shows how to mod your xbox 360 by adding 8 mini heat sinks on all the video card chips. You will have to drill 4 holes on the bottom of the xbox 360 but this will help out with even more ventilation. You have to cut out a section of the GPU heat sink for 2 of the mini heat sinks to work. I personal did all these things and went a step further by placeing a laptop cooling pad under my xbox, plugged into the wall with a usb/wall outlet adapter found at radio shack. This force more room temp into my xbox360. I also have the xbox intercooler on the back. May sound like over kill and it is, but I have ran my 360 for over 72 hours a very hot environment (Afghanistan) and have been running the same moded system for over 7 months now. The part, Artic silver compound and adhesive plus laptop cooling pad cost about $40. Yes you can have Microsoft repair it for about the same cost but now you know you have a very cool temp operating system.
Not wearing a ESD Wristband = Strike 1
Putting it on Carpet = Strike 2
Being retarted enough to think that just bolting it down tighter will fix the 360 Perm is PRiceless…
You want to learn how to fix these things for good. Then Watch my Tutorial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ_kzgLMuT0
I put my motherboard in the oven @ 200*c for 8 minutes, as good as the towel trick, only more thorough
OK…I bought an xbox off ebay that was rrod. Upon opening the unit I found that the xbar mod had been done, but it was done wrong. I corrected the mistakes.
Heating the cpu and gpu and then tightening them down is a great idea…
Needless to say, It has worked for many hours without fail. Not a bad deal for $31.00.
Thanks for the tutorial…
Laying that board on carpet is not a good idea. Carpet holds static!!
@david rutchik
I had mine fixed like this, gave out 5 months later.
My son and I just followed the video and everything went as you said. The only thing is after we did the repair and powered it up the first time with the screws just snug we had three rings for about 10 minutes before it went to two. Then we tightened up the screws and put her back together. It all seems like it is working fine once again. Thanks for the video.
@Kushman
did you not see the red lights?
@botomax
The problem is the soldering of the gpu coming loose from the motherboard. thats why he heated it.
@smokeysmom
the towel trick is horrible. never do that. it destroys parts of your xbox, and will cut its life in half. this will only prolong the life of your xbox.
Would anyone happen to know if a banned 360 can be reset somehow? To factory settings, I mean. I accidentally bought one online, but nothing I’ve tried seems to work…
@Chad
I did the same thing (bought a used one online that was modded and I didn’t know it). It got banned and later got the RROD. I just sold it on ebay. There’s nothing you can do to un-ban a console that I’m aware of. MS takes that sh*t seriously.
wos ur porw strep lit rade
@alroy
I dont get it, i opened my xbox, and i dont have the two ” X’s ” to remove, i just have the screws . the ” X’s ” are stuck with those two things .