3 red rings on xbox 360 start up.

[wrightygtt]

Just wanted to post a link about the 3 red rings of death, in case anyone is unfortunate to have this, which seems to fcuk every xbox sooner or later, I'm no geek, or computer Wiz, but this has been a problem for me, which started yesterday.
Went to turn on my xbox 360 and nothing just an error, with 3 red lights flashing, did a bit of research and found its to do with overheating, and piss poor designing of the heatsync to a chip underside, as the circuit board flexes through heat and time.
My warranties run out so rather than pay £80 or more, and losing my sexbox for a month, i had a crack..
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo2dl2vlwis&feature=related


Heres the link, anyways I followed this guys instructions on youtube which is based in 3 parts, all the parts for the job I got from maplins, and the bolt size for the "Kit" which he's hush hush so he can sell them is 5mm/ 10mm, with a phillips head.
Like I said I'm no Computer geek, but followed all instructions, and after letting the system overheat for 20mins, making sure the fans are still directed at the dvd drive etc so they don't fry, it now works as good as new.
Reliability I can't say, but I'll report back in a month or so!:)

[Mr_Dave]

The best (and proper) way to do it is re-solder the CPU and GPU chips. But as you can't get to the pins, you ideally you want a small gas soldering gun and some big tips or a deflector. Or you can just gently and slowly heat up the CPU and GPU with ya hot air gun (like you use to strip paint) to re-solder the dry joints ;) Keep away from them small memory chips tho, they don't like the heat much!

Getting the thing to over heat or messing with the clamps does work sometimes, but its a real pikey way of doing it :D:D:D Lots of old wives tales out there about them too... towels and all that crap!

We've fixed almost 70 at work in the last 2 weeks :D

How old is yours by the way? They've re-designed it a couple of times, the latest of which is just out. The early ones are the worst! :)

Theres a couple of tricks to fix dodgy DVD drives too ;)

[wrightygtt]

Hello, Pikey is my middle name:D:wasntme:, my Xbox is 2-3 yrs old, Like I said i'm no computer Wiz, but when I followed the guide I put screws in instead of the x plate with nylon washers, cleaned up the chips and underside of heat syncs with panal wipe, put fresh paste on chips and let it over heat, but with the fan situated over important components so they don't frazzle, this re solders the break or so I under stand? But yeh you could get your soldering gun out I suppose.:p See how it fares, touch wood, if not its back to the drawing board its going superb at the minute!

[wrightygtt]

Just out of interest fella, how much do you charge?

[Mr_Dave]

Just out of interest fella, how much do you charge?

lol, well nothing! We bought in a load of 'Customer returns' xbox's and took a flyer on em. Usually with that kinda deal 60-70% work straight off, and you fix as much as you can of whats left. But with the Xbox, 30 out of 150 worked..... the rest we had to prick about with. Aint worth it really from a business point of view cos they're so cheap new these days, and it takes quite a bit of time dicking about with them.

Plus I'm sick of the damn things!!! Crap design, go buy a Playstation :D

:agree:

[wrightygtt]

Nah!!! I fooking love xbox live, mainly because I can keep in touch with my cousin and mates in Newquay where I used to live for a while, few beers a couple of games of Golf:cool:, damn I'm boardering on Nerdsville.:cartman:
To be fair I did have a playstation2 for 8 years chucked it about left right and centre, pretty much everythings fallen off, but it still runs, says it all really!

[steer from the rear]

mine developed the red ring 6 months ago it was still in warranty with microsoft so send it away i though, never got round to sending it they charge £60 to fix it so followed the guide on here:

http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/xbox-360-repair.htm

very good but i couldnt be arsed with the washers just the bolts and the holes in the case, overheated it and all was good. i traded it in the next day with my ps2, got 160 quid for both and they had a ps3 for 225 quid. result call of duty 5 all night :coffee:

tell you what is a load of balls this "remote play" with a psp sounds great i thought except you cant play any thing maybe they shoud of called it remote settings coz thats all you bloody can do!

[5alldaway]

i had the ring of death on my old 360 and the overheating trick worked, so i traded it in for a ps3, this trick only sorts it temporarily tho

i have an elite now and that had to be sent off to be sorted, but still had warranty so didnt get charged, all round good service, and ps3 is gay :)

[c7borg]

My mate recons all you need to do to get rid of the red rings is wrap the xbox in a towel and let it overheat and it will reset itself!!

sounds bizarre but he swears it works :rob: <<-- I wanted ::shrugs:: but this smiley makes me laugh

[wrightygtt]

Not going to jinx it but its still going strong---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
anyone got any tips for cleaning cd's that scratch, and don't work?as mine seems prone for this.
I used a bit of 2000 fine wet and dry sanding paper, and used a mechanical mop. Seemed to do the trick----Lol.
To be honest although not a hard repair on the xbox, it made me remember how much I used to like electronics at school and am thinking about doing evening classes, to learn properly/ outside work(I'm a paintsprayer)

[c7borg]

Not going to jinx it but its still going strong---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
anyone got any tips for cleaning cd's that scratch, and don't work?as mine seems prone for this.


Go to blockbuster or gamestation and pay £2 it worked for my copy of COD4 until I scratched again doh! I think Game do it aswell but probably charge more and last time I went they said they were too busy!?!

[blue mackay]

Go to blockbuster or gamestation and pay £2 it worked for my copy of COD4 until I scratched again doh! I think Game do it aswell but probably charge more and last time I went they said they were too busy!?!

i bought a disc cleaner made by jml seeing as game and that charge £2 per disc this cost me about £5 to £10 excellent is all i can say!!!!!!
just looked it up it was 8.99 great kit and stops shops robbing ya

http://www.amazon.co.uk/JML-Disc-Clinic/dp/B001AQ1N2C/ref=sr_1_1/278-5123264-4041063?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1231329635&sr=8-1

[wrightygtt]

awesome cheers fella's:agree:

[wrightygtt]

Still going strong!:smokin:

[5alldaway]

u smell

[wrightygtt]

:crap::wasntme:
Thanks for your contribution!

[dangerous dave]

my elites going strong since buying it 3-4 months ago and have all of 3 hours use:smokin: only played gear of war but have fear, fable2, and halo3 all sealed as new, must find time to play and get a 32" hd tv in my room.. :(

[wrightygtt]

Schweet, if you get the time, 'll give you a royal ass whoopin!:cartman:

[THE MASTER]

if you ever get pissed of with a game
just pop the CD in a micro wave for a few seconds
:laugh::popcorn:

[Shakes]

i can fix the red lights of death, well ive done 6 or 7 now for freinds etc, anyone has this problem send it my way, you pay p&p both ways, ill fix it for free.
im sure one day the favour will be returned.
basically the older xbox's didnt have enough support on the main board causing the board to bend whilst it got hot, sollution, take the board out tape 2 rubbers behind the board to support it, (sounds like a bodge job i know but i assure u this works)
problem 2.the gpu tends to overheat sollution, easy remove the gpu add more thermopaste.
same goes for the cpu.
you can find the problem with ur xbox simply by holding the connect button and pressing power, the lights will flash in a sertain order let me know the combo ill tell u the problem ;)
also i can get the xbox's flashed with the latist ixtreme firmwire £25-£35 (depending on ur drive.
games all work well on xbox live (as long as u dont play them b4 there release date)
games are 3 for £10 enjoy

[Shakes]

My mate recons all you need to do to get rid of the red rings is wrap the xbox in a towel and let it overheat and it will reset itself!!

sounds bizarre but he swears it works :rob: <<-- I wanted ::shrugs:: but this smiley makes me laugh

Nooooooooooooooooooooo rofl :laugh:

[wrightygtt]

I bought a brand new xbox a year or so ago, as my last ones did work but became temperamental and low and behold this ones done the same with the 3 rings, I honestly feel like chucking it through the fcuking window tbh!

I thought they fixed the 3 red rings on the later models:dearme::crap:.

evidently not:mad:

[car.crash]

mine did the same, so i bought the repair kit off ebay and it worked great for 4 days. now screen freeze every 5 mins. i spoke to microsoft and they had extended the warranty to 3 years so it was still just within warranty but its now void as i have opend and molested it :(.
call microsoft and see what they say on the matter. i just orderd a new old style machine from currys so i hope this one doesnt do the same as im not paying £200 for the new 250 gig when i have a perfectly good 20 gig hard dirve here.
also what the crack with the new 4 or 250 gig? why such extreme memory changes rather than 100 or 250, doesnt make sense to me.

[wrightygtt]

mine did the same, so i bought the repair kit off ebay and it worked great for 4 days. now screen freeze every 5 mins. i spoke to microsoft and they had extended the warranty to 3 years so it was still just within warranty but its now void as i have opend and molested it :(.
call microsoft and see what they say on the matter. i just orderd a new old style machine from currys so i hope this one doesnt do the same as im not paying £200 for the new 250 gig when i have a perfectly good 20 gig hard dirve here.
also what the crack with the new 4 or 250 gig? why such extreme memory changes rather than 100 or 250, doesnt make sense to me.


Not sure mate, that repair worked on my last one for nearlY 3/4 months, but like you was void because the stickers were tampered with. So spent quite abit on a new one when it was 60 gig. Didn't even know they offered more? I struggle to use 20 gig tbh as I don't play it that much just fancied a game of fifa and the fcuking thing conked out on me.

[car.crash]

give them a call and see if they extended your warranty.

[wrightygtt]

Will do mate cheers, Curry's offered me an extended warranty at an extra cost come to think of it...

















But I didn't go for it:laugh:
I'll give microsoft a call, I know when my cousin bought his from blockbuster they just replaced it, no questions, no reciepts, no boxes ,his wasn't even new. For a brand new item with a game:scratch:

[dangerous dave]

you really have to sort the overheating clamp problem before they fail, but whose gonna open up a brand new xbox and start fecking with it..

i'll wait till mine fails and worry about it then, im not cheap like you marc, i'll go mad man and buy the most expensive package i can find, even if it comes with games i already have...

why.....

cuz im a cnut:agree:

[car.crash]

Your 30 and live with your mum, you can afford to go mad :).

[dangerous dave]

Your 30 and live with your mum, you can afford to go mad :).

Hey!!!! I'm 28 you pecker :(

[markey b]

i've done 2 now with the 'replacing the xclamp method'

both are still going strong, the towel trick works, but only for a few sessions of gaming

[wrightygtt]

I dropped mine and it now works again:cool: Must just have the magic touch..

Technical disclaimer-- I take no reponsibility if you try the same:laugh: so for now I'm up and running:agree: