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[dougMod]

my heat gun fixes last for like a day and i can only play the xbox for like 20 mins at a time...am i doing something wrong?

i think i may just sell it

[headtrip]

Xbox 360, bought 1 month ago... firmware flashed... 3 RED LEDS...

It happened originally after some hours of non-stop gaming (resulted in crash).
After reboot (artifacts & crash)
After 2nd reboot 3 RED LEDS ;(

This was the situation till yesterday...

What we did/tried now:

Open up the console, removed everything. So Only the mobo is in the case with the DVD drive connected and the 2 casefans.

Booted up the console...
Waited till it gets overheated ( 2 Leds instead of 3)
Turn off the xbox.

Place a big home-kitchen airventilator over the xbox.
Boot again...
Green LEDS !!!

As long as the venilator is blowing on top of the xbox it works ok (tested with some several hours gaming need for speed carbon, gears of war, cod3).

So when we turn off xbox and boot it again with the vent on, its ok !

When we turn xbox on without vent (with or without original airduct for the 2 fans), it crashes after 5-10minutes giving artefacts errors.
Reboot gives us back into the famous red led situation.

Mostly this is solved by letting the console cool down totally...
Boot... overheat... Reboot with vent...
And again no red lights...


Conclusion:
Since many people speaking about this prob, I guess the initially overheating caused some solder to brake some connections.
Now, the overheating "heals" the connection in a kind of "light" way.
With the amount of heat, the connection gets broken again, resulting in the artefact errors.
If we cool all the parts well enough, the connections stay fine.


Just a few thoughts from a frustrated Xbox360  400 euro owner

[wizer]

Started with the 3 red leds. Did the heat gun trick 3 times and finally got the box to boot, but then later got an error 74. Took the xbox back apart and noticed that there are 3 of the small resistors on the bottom of the mobo under the video chip missing. I Guess maybe I got it a little to hot.

If someone could tell me what these are and where to find them, as impossible as this sounds, I am would like to try and replace these.  

Thanks

[2501]

I can also throw in my two cents for the heatgun fix.. except I took it alittle far. I have a true-- Milwalkee heatgun, and I heated my bga chips to the point that it was dangerous, and then pressed down with my finger. I had my hand wrapped, and later resorted to an "ove-glove" but none the less, after everything cooled down, my 360 thew out the "no-av pack" error. I plugged it in and boom, it booted. It even started gears of war. I didn't bench it to test how effective it was because I didn't have the fans hooked up.


My brother gave me his 360 after he got 3rol 0102. I began to solder all the cold spots on the board that I could see, then proceded to AS5 the cpu/gpu. I finally broke down and heatgun'd the board and it seemed the only fix for me. the 360 is out of warranty, and I had nothing to loose. I'm going to bench it and let it run gears of war with the full fans hooked up and see how effective it was.

 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/muhaha.gif) I just got a fully working 360 w/o hdd for free. Knowledge is power. I also have a hot-air machine, so if it comes down to it, I'll blow off the bga chips entirely and try to re-mould them.

BTW... as I forgot to mention.. as wizer found out the hard way.. be VERY careful when using the heatgun only to heat the necessary area on the board and keep it constantly moving. Things can blow off, and things can melt. It doesn't take that much effort to heat the bga chips, and if you just take your time, they will get hot enough to move without taking the other electronics off.

This post has been edited by 2501: Dec 29 2006, 04:49 AM

[mygameswirelesscom]

QUOTE(wizer @ Dec 29 2006, 03:49 AM)

Started with the 3 red leds. Did the heat gun trick 3 times and finally got the box to boot, but then later got an error 74. Took the xbox back apart and noticed that there are 3 of the small resistors on the bottom of the mobo under the video chip missing. I Guess maybe I got it a little to hot.

If someone could tell me what these are and where to find them, as impossible as this sounds, I am would like to try and replace these.  

Thanks

hey i see you have don same as me !!
it is not EZ to solder ..
most time this damage whan you puting the heatsenking unit
dont even try to just solder togetther it will boot to dashboard but
whan you playgames it will frezz..
i try put same pice and resolder but no good !!
it looks you could solder but you need to see the mobo if it is
touching the cpu if it not macking connacion it will frezz whan you playing games
if you want to try i will give you the pices
let me know see if you could solder

[Slapnutzz]

Mine ran fine for about 3-4 months.. Hardly used though, flashed my Hitachi and everything was fine.  Played for hours and hours.  Started it up the other day and got the 3 red lights..  Hit it, wiggle it.. It starts.. Then craps out.

Bought another cause I can't find my receipt.  Worked for 3 days, same thing.. Haven't even flashed the drive yet.

This thing is so poorly designed it's a joke.  Putting a 3.2ghz triple core next to a full blown ATI gpu was such a newbie mistake it's laughable.  I laughed out loud the first time I opened it.

Somebody, or most likely a team at MS recommended liquid cooling.. Those people should be promoted and the bean counter that said no should be canned, if he hasn't been already.

It doesn't take a genius to know that excessive heat cycling in a small area is asking for trouble in any application.  

I want my money back, cause it can't be fixed.  And my PC plays better games anyway.. And it's cooled properly.

[RDC]

QUOTE(wizer @ Dec 28 2006, 09:49 PM)

Started with the 3 red leds. Did the heat gun trick 3 times and finally got the box to boot, but then later got an error 74. Took the xbox back apart and noticed that there are 3 of the small resistors on the bottom of the mobo under the video chip missing. I Guess maybe I got it a little to hot.

If someone could tell me what these are and where to find them, as impossible as this sounds, I am would like to try and replace these.  

Thanks

Without knowing which parts are missing it's impossible to even try and tell ya what they are. What are the board designations of the ones you have missing? They should be labeled RxRx or RxTx, x will be a number like R4R5 or R3T2.

This is a scan of the bottom of the board right under the GPU if ya nee something to compare yours to.

[dj_adamix]

Hey guys, so reading all those posts i came to conclusion that error 0102 can be fixed using heat gun, which is true, i fixed mine using it BUT and now ppl give me some ideas how can we keep the console cooler to minimalize the risk of havin 0102 again later on. well im my case i had 0102 then i fixed it. added 12V mod on fans plus aluminum foil on gpu heat sink. well that didnt help. my error came back week later. any ideas how can we keep it cooler ? i was thinking about making my own case or like puttin it in a PC case and just apply good  CPU heatsinks with fan on it. any other ideas? CUZ how i said keeping it cool its a main key for error 0102.

[Safrole]

You never fixed the problem that caused your error in the first place.  You had a microscopic crack in one of the BGA connections.  You still do.  You got it pretty hot, and the tiny movement from thermal expansion made the crack grind a little, which allowed electricity to flow again, but then after a while the crack opened back up, just like it's been opening slowly for the last 3 or 4 months and you never knew it.  Every time your machine goes through a thermal cycle, it's another few nanometers, heh heh.

Run the heat gun fix properly.  Put some little pieces of solder on your components as you heat them up.  Smash them out or they'll want to blow off onto the board (bad, but they don't stick).  When they change shape, back off a little and keep heating that part.  If you want to get really fancy, put a piece of solder wick on it and when it wicks up it won't blow around.  Between the superheating of each individual component, be sure to go back around the entire board and keep everything very hot.

[Darth Darius]

Well after my 9th time to do the heat gun trick and , last just a few weeks with middle play, i decide to buy another 360 (with extended garant. course) after a month , with my head cold , ill do this with my old , and death 360:

i "cook the modbo like this":

http://i140.photobuc...pg?t=1168622456

Sorry for the quality its a cellphone!!!


Thinking in just do the same "repair", but in the time ill drink a cold tecate beer i just see my refreshing drink an say "aluminium", i finish my beer an cut a piece like this:

http://i140.photobuc...pg?t=1168622771

well i cut 2 pieces and fold them to get thiknes, in the form of the ram and the other chip, put some artic silver and put between the heatsinks and chips to create pressure, be careful to cut exacly the chip form to avoid short cuts, put it back together an tested for 3 weeks, i got the brand new 360 stored under my bed, if you got nothing to loose, try this!!!

Cheers!!!!

[Slapnutzz]

Did the heatgun on the new xbox that crapped out before i returned it.. it worked.

Did it on my original dead xbox and it worked too... for a few days.. now it's locking up a few minutes into any game.

we gotta get a website/registry together to monitor this shit.. i smell a class action here.

[davidrose9]

My turn at this and 3 friends that I know of so far al in the last 2 months red lights of death this should go to a class action suit alright awful this is just awful. Heat gun and artic silver on it's way here as I am using a friends who's already had limited success himself this is hard to swallow my 360 built 12-24-050purchased in April 2006 out of this we get what a chance it works a few days or weeks Hope I hear of some sort of class action Microsoft must pay or recall or be held accountable somehow.
Post later with results thanks all great posts in here all sides are being examined.

[dangerouseddy]

my nephews had the 3 ring of death error 0102, i took the heatsinks off and the thermal compound seemed to have broken down.  seems to work fine now ive put a new lot on there

[deskstar]

Without a doubt its down to the shoddy way this box is manufactured,two days ago i got the ring of lights error code 0102 so i fired up my heat gun got out the silver foil stripped the box down and started to heat up the board first on low then on high for 2mins on each setting let it cool for 1 hour,before you put the heat syncs back in make damm sure you use a good quality thermal compound (artic silver) or you will just get over heating errors but now after the heat gun fix my 360 boots up every single time and plays for as long as i wish, remember keep the thing cool TRY IT, IT REALY DOES WORK  

[Hendrixtwin]

I have done the heat gun trick to mine also replaced the thermal paste with silver stuff and have replaced stock fans with the talismoon and have done he cardboard heating trick. No red lights but the games freeze after about 20mins of play.
Do I need to use the heat gun again? Can I just heat the bottom of the board or do I need to take off the heatsink again and replace the paste?

Thanks for any tips.