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[justscrapping]

Please help? I bought my son's xbox360 HDD 4 1/2 months ago - now we have 3 flashing red lights - xbox360 said for 139.40 i could send it in but i feel untrustful of them since they sold us a faulty system to begin with.  How are they getting away with this?  How is this happening?  What are people doing about it?  I am so upset?  Mom in Ohio.

[caseyhalone]

when its not getting anything on screen and still the 3 red RoL, is that the same solder reflow problem? The fans do not seem to spin up at all. would doing the 12v mod help things out?

[poxtomod]

QUOTE(caseyhalone @ Nov 27 2006, 11:53 AM)

when its not getting anything on screen and still the 3 red RoL, is that the same solder reflow problem? The fans do not seem to spin up at all. would doing the 12v mod help things out?

I did the heat gun trick and would advise anyone else with 0102 error( 3 red lights) to do the same, I also redid the Arctic Silver thermal compound as well and my box is working perfectly.  
  I saw the video and it says to allow the board and solder to cool slowly, which I did, but the video did not show how exactly to do this. My method was the same but after blasting the board for the last time I waited about a minute then gave it a 20 second blast on low again. I repeated this another two times with growing wait times rhen let it cool for three hours. The microsoft site clearly says it might take acouple of hours to internally cool.
  If you are having problems please try this. Do not be in a rush or the Heat gun trick may no work well for you. I would also like to add that metal that cools to quickly becomes brittle and hard, where as slowly it stays softer and more durable.
I will run my box for the next couple of hours to see if it is fixed and let you guys know.

[82ross]

Heatgun reflow worked for me for a couple of weeks then the freezing started again and pretty quickly 0102 returned. Ill have another bash at it soon. Just another reminder to everyone over the moon that it works again, it may not last forever.

Pisses me off especially when my v1 xbox is sitting there working fine years later. Ill probably wait a year or so till all this poor manufacturing is resolved and they move to the smaller chip production process and maybe have a better cooling solution and them buy a new one.

[macrohard360]

Damn .. All these threads are now starting to worry me.  I wish I would have did some more poking around on the forums before I made my purchase..  And stupid me, I opened up my console thinking it works who cares about the warranty.  I like to mod cases and was even contemplating flashing my drive because one of my new game is already starting to scratch.. This system is the first system where I actually might some start making backups for myself.  I cant believe this crap!.

It was manufactured 8/5/06.  What are the failure rates on or around that manuf dates?  Are those systems more reliable or do they have just has high failure rates?

[0db]

Heat gun success on the 3rd try - I think!

First attempt yielded 3 red lights again

Second attempt would start a game but then freeze after about 2 minutes... no red lights though

Third attempt I found the sweet spot on my heat gun dial (apparently above 50% it was getting colder again!) but at the 50% mark it was REALLY hot... I actually thought I cooked the board this time, I could have sworn I let the smoke out of one of the capacitors.  But sure enough, it started up great and I played R6:Vegas for over an hour without any hangups...  I'm putting an intercooler on it and hoping for the best now!

[sky2k2]

Hello everybody,

This is my experience with Three Lights of Death...I used hot air gun to repair my console and work 2 weeks, but  error comes again!, so I try again but I can tell you why a hot air?...and my answer is because solder is bad and GPU is very hot!!...so after time I see behind in the motherboard back to GPU there pyramide of capacitors..here is the problem (maybe for me only)  there is a  piece (capacitor) out..so I used one from my broken cellular and boyla (same size)...my Xbox work again...but...there is a delicate work, ok, now my xbox take again error 102, I open again and my piece that I solder was out of motherboard...my solder was bad...and now I seek for flux and try a better solder...so this is my experience..


A friend bring to me another console with error and there is the same problem a capacitor is out from back to GPU..Is the same solution...delicate work..

Then I tell you that when you used your hot air gun, maybe your capacitors from back GPU is on board yet...and you come back to life with hot air...but remember solder is lossing properties and maybe error comes again.

That´s was my experience

Thanks

And sorry for my english

Sky2k2
Grettings from Mexico!

[FUVictim]

I'm having a 0020 error code (unkown.. possibly overheating?)..
Not sure this would help.. but what do you guys think?

Anything else to suggest? replace paste? add 12v fan?.. right now I'm simply getting the red lights (no boot to dashboard) so would doing this be a possible "fix" to have it boot again?  It came right after the nov. 30 patch for the 1080p update.. had no problem before that...  

my warranty is over and I had a bad time (a couple in fact) with M$ customer service, so I'd like to fix this on my own.. I have nothing else to lose.. it's either that or use it as a doorstopper...  thanks!


EDIT: Thanks Sky2k2.. that's helpful.. I guess it's a bit to "delicate" for me though... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)  If that is my problem, I will probably try to have to find a 3rd party repair shop that can fix this quick.. I don't want to wait for 20+ days for M$ to fix it.. and then get a "refurb" that is going to eventually have the exact same problem... =S



This post has been edited by FUVictim: Dec 9 2006, 03:14 AM

[ewok666]

QUOTE(sky2k2 @ Dec 7 2006, 10:56 PM)

Hello everybody,

so after time I see behind in the motherboard back to GPU there pyramide of capacitors..here is the problem (maybe for me only)  there is a  piece (capacitor) out..

Which capacitor was it? They are numbered on the board.

Thanks

[Vytautus]

So, I see this topic across many blogs and many posts, how come Microsoft isn't doing something about it?  I'm a share holder and this ticks me off!  I spent over $500 on my games and console and now I can't even play AND have to pay $140 to get it repaired with 90 days additional warranty!  Man, computer games are much safer!  I get 3 years warranty on that game console.

This is most upsetting that it's a known problem.  I'm assuming I can buy a hot air gun and fix it, it's an error 0102.  I'd prefer to throw it away at this point and sell my stock.

[pdawg17]

I added some AS5 and used a hairdryer for 20 minutes and it only worked for 10 minutes or so...I guess I'll go grab a heat gun and try again ...error code 0102...

[pdawg17]

So I went out and got a heat gun, started it up without the drive/case no problem...put it in the case and when I started it up I got error 0001 (PSU problem)...now I took it out of the case again and I'm still getting 0001 (I was hoping I had a short on the case)...I thought I maybe overdid it with the heat gun but yet it worked afterwards before putting it in the case...

[St8kout]

I'm the new guy here and wanted to pass this on in case it hasn't been covered.

All early models are STILL under warranty until March 2007.

I got the dreaded screen-freeze/3-flashing-red-lights two weeks ago on my production date Oct 19, 2005 model. MS not only replaced it for free but even sent me a prepaid prelabled return box. Just got the new one last night. That's better than any service I've ever had with any electronics. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

This post has been edited by St8kout: Dec 13 2006, 07:55 PM

[Safrole]

QUOTE(82ross @ Nov 29 2006, 06:27 PM)

Heatgun reflow worked for me for a couple of weeks then the freezing started again

I read so many of these.

Do you know about the towel trick, where you wrap it up and let it overheat for a bit?  It works, for a while.  Obviously it doesn't remelt the solder, but it works for a while.  So temporary success can be had with simple heating.  The difference between simple heating and solder reflow is only a few degrees.

How do any of you know you actually melted any solder at all?  First off, if you used a hair dryer you need to have your head examined.  You aren't melting anything with mom's hair dryer, so don't waste your time pulling the whole box apart to do essentially nothing.  Go big or stay home.

I put some little smashed out solder chunks on top of each component.  When the solder melts, the TOP of the part is at the right temperature.  Go a little past that to melt the bottom.  Make sure not to blow a molten chunk of solder onto the board if you can help it.

When the reflow works for such a large number of people, but you have another group that finds the solution only temporary or even unfruitful, you have to deduce that their technique is flawed.  More evidence is the monkeys who emulate the look of the video (by using a HAIR DRYER) then post results as if they really executed some valid technique.

Don't have a rework station?  Use solder chunks.  It's the only way you'll know for certain that you've exhausted this method short of abusively overheating your board.

START WITH THE POST ON 11/13/2006
BGA Reflow Technique for I-Book

[Le Nikolaz]

Safrole
Mate i heared about 6 months of working 360 after heat gun, and it must be still working...
Another guy's 360 is working about 3 months, he done that heat gun fix by himself.
Nobody of them as i know made 12V mode for fans or something else in that way.
So i hope that this method can really fix 360 for a very long time:) But these are only dreams of mine.

This post has been edited by Le Nikolaz: Dec 19 2006, 08:48 AM