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[RacerZ]

I have had an Xbox 360 since December 2005. It never had any overheating problems.

I recently disassembled my 360; while disassembled (i.e. case bottom removed), it worked fine.
After reassembling it, it IMMEDIATELY (within a few seconds of turning it on) overheated (red lights in quadrants 1 and 3 - i.e. the two left quarters of the circle of lights).

I opened the case up again, to make sure the fans were both running and to look inside in case anything was wrong etc.; I found nothing wrong.
In fact, the console works fine again (no overheating) while the other half of the case is left unattached.

I am sure that it will overheat (red lights flashing in quadrants 1 and 3) again as soon as I reassemble the case again (less room for air to flow), since I haven't changed anything since opening it.

It is currently sitting on a newspaper with a DVD case in the middle, to raise it up a bit, with only the top half of the plastic shell (and the faceplate) attached, so that I can control the DVD eject without the controller.
Both rear fans are operating.

The manufacture date is 11/29/2005

Any suggestions, now that I have it open and can easily access the internals, would be greatly apptreciated.

In the meantime I will research more heatsink posts.

This post has been edited by RacerZ: Aug 20 2006, 08:18 PM

[RacerZ]

Sorry, I can't edit the OP anymore (due to the time limit).

As I was re-assembling it just now, I tested it at various points along the way, down to testing it after each group of screws.

Everything was fine until right after I screwed in the extra long screws!
Then it gave me the two red circles of death again.

I removed the 6 (5 actually since I forgot one) extra long screws and it immediately worked again!

Very bizarre, but I guess I may have to just leave those off it worst comes to worst.

First I'll see what they are screwing into...
Perhaps a power, SATA or fan wire got shifted (while it was in a disassembled state) and it is being shorted out by the screw???

This post has been edited by RacerZ: Aug 20 2006, 09:13 PM

[IAmCanadian]

try putting both parts of the case on, but with no long screws.

[RacerZ]

Thanks for the tip.

I actually got it resolved Sunday evening, but couldn't post an update yesterday.
I figured out that 8 screws, which I now know are to hold the heatsink tightly in place, were slightly too loose - they were in about 80 - 90% of the way (I had intentionally loosened them slightly while loosening the long screws when I still thought that was the problem).

The whole time I had the console open for testing (about 4 weeks) I never had a problem, despite all the screws being loose, obviously because there was more airflow.

I had followed the anandtech disassembly guide, which said to remove the 8 black screws.
I found another post (googling yesterday) that specifically said NOT to remove those and that they were for the heatsinks.

Anyway, after tightening them Sunday evening, both the overheating symptom that was occurring at one stage of re-assembly and the fans going full blast that was occurring after loosening the screws stopped.

It works fine now.
I assume no permanent damage occurred, since the auto shutdown takes care of that right?

This post has been edited by RacerZ: Aug 22 2006, 03:45 PM

[grim_d]

QUOTE(RacerZ @ Aug 22 2006, 03:14 PM)

I actually got it resolved Sunday evening, but couldn't post an update yesterday.
I figured out that 8 screws, which I now know are to hold the heatsink tightly in place, were slightly too loose - they were in about 80 - 90% of the way (I had intentionally loosened them slightly while loosening the long screws when I still thought that was the problem).

so how come people who do rear windows dont have this problem..they dont have screws in at all.

[IAmCanadian]

QUOTE(grim_d @ Aug 22 2006, 08:29 AM)

so how come people who do rear windows dont have this problem..they dont have screws in at all.

what the hell are you talking about?

And BTW, you must take those 8 black screws out if you're taking the mobo out, there are two X clamps holding the heatsinks, but yeah, they don't hold the heatsink very tightly.

[grim_d]

windows on the back, so you can see the x-clamps, the cage must be cut so that you can acctually see the board and the clamps. therefore there nothing to screw the screws into.

Many people have done it and im just wondering how they manage to stop it from overheating then if that is the case.