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[ajenthavoc]

Here's my little 3 red light anecdote.

I bought my 360 back in December and have been playing it extensively for the past 10 months.  Just yesterday i got the three lights of death with a 0020 secondary error.  I called MS and they offered to repair my console for $139.  After exchanging dialog for a bit I gave him the impression that MS would lose me as a customer unless they repaired my box for free.  He then said "let me talk to my supervisor" and after listening to some Bjork while on hold for several minutes he comes back and offers me a 50% discount on repairs.  I told him that I'm highly disappointed MS would even ask me to pay for their error and I told him I'll try to fix it myself, after which if I fail I'll send it for repair.  He said that'll be alright (which was unexpected considering I told him I'll be trying the heat gun technique I heard about online) and I told him he must include his guarantee in the ticket as well as my discount in case I call back... he agreed.

So anyways, after reading around for a several hours and finally getting frustrated that I cant log onto GOW and kill some bastards on live, I decided to take my frustration out on the poor vegetative xbox.  After finally prying those damn heatsink mounts off, here's what I found.
(IMG:http://www.travertineinternational.com/images//img_3618%20(large).jpg)

(IMG:http://www.travertineinternational.com/images//img_3620%20(large).jpg)

(IMG:http://www.travertineinternational.com/images//img_3621%20(large).jpg)

(IMG:http://www.travertineinternational.com/images//img_3622%20(large).jpg)

Now I've built plenty of computers and there are two basic rules when it comes to applying thermal compound.

1: Dont put too little.

2: Dont put too much.

What I see here is much more than I would consider "too much". This is ridiculous! There's thermal compound globules on more than just the chip... and that could be very bad.  At this point I don't know if this could be the cause of my issues or not (I havnt gotten around to reapplying compound yet).  I had post this before.  Either way, I'll probably update here later on regarding my success or failure after re-applying thermal compound and/or heat gunning it.

[ferrari_rulz_02]

sounds interesting, let us know how you go.

i would say that this is just a victim of mass-production

[ILLusions0fGrander]

wow.. im surprised he told you it would cost that much.

i had mine since launch, and GoW fried it, they charged me nothing except the price of me shipping it to them.

good luck on fixing it though.

This post has been edited by ILLusions0fGrander: Dec 4 2006, 06:37 AM

[ajenthavoc]

QUOTE(ferrari_rulz_02 @ Dec 3 2006, 08:56 PM)

i would say that this is just a victim of mass-production

You're probably right, but if they've mastered the ability to precisely position components onto the mainboard by the millimeter (I'm sure it's more accurate than that) then I'd imagine the task of accurately applying and spreading thermal compound would be trivial.  Then again I've never managed the development of an electronics mass production line before so what would I know...

So here's the story so far:  After spending upwards of one hour trying to effectively remove as much of the damn gunky thermal crapound as possible, I have grown to hate MS ever more.  That stuff is like clay.  I've removed cheap thermal compound before off of old processors but this has proven to be many times more difficult.  It's like trying to scrape the gum off the side of your $300 shoes. Anyways, I've finally finished removing the crud and applying good old Artic Silver (CPU) and Artic Ceramique (GPU)... i tried booting up the system and same shiz.  Gonna have to wait till tomorrow to buy myself a heat gun so I can fry the solder back into place (hopefully).  Either way, we (and maybe Microsoft) will know for sure tomorrow... in the mean time I might as well take advantage of the lack of distractions and study.

This post has been edited by ajenthavoc: Dec 4 2006, 07:29 AM

[ferrari_rulz_02]

well we all know that m$ uses dodgey thermal paste. they have since the stat of the xbox 1. there is also the possibility that if the system has overheated, it has caused too much stress in the cpu or gpu, rendering them inoperable.

[ajenthavoc]

Well I finally got to buying my heat gun and frying the shenanigans out of my box (was funner and less stressful than I thought it would be).  So after the 2 minute procedure, as described by modfreakz, I let the thing cool during dinner and then popped the heatsink back on and powered the naked mainboard + fan + dvd drive up.  Two seconds later I was cursing for a good few minutes as the lights taunted me a new error code of 0001.  So I looked down and I saw a yellow light on my power brick.  At this point two options were going through my mind.

1: set up a camcorder and make another "I DESTROYED MY XBOX BY RUNNING IT OVER WITH A FORKLIFT" video on youtube.

2: put the POS back together and just cough up the dinero so MS can solve my problem.

Of course, as tempting as option 1 was in the heat of the moment, after cooling my temper down I realized how attached I had grown to the poor little bugger.  So I began to put the thing back together so I can call MS and ship them the pile of heap tomorrow.

After slapping the board into the metal cage and screwing a couple tiny blackies in... I decided to try my luck once more.  I inserted the DVD then the power and video cables and clicked the power button expecting the worst... First green...

probably the longest .5 seconds of my life

then RED SHIT GREEN YEAEWYQA!!@!


For some reason when the board was outside of the cage it didnt start up correctly due to a power issue... maybe it had to do with grounding, I dunno.  All I know is I now have a working xbox 360 again!  There is hope in my life again!  Now the next test is to see how long this 'fix' lasts...

[ferrari_rulz_02]

well that is very interesting indeed. of course there may be some grounding security in place so that the mobo cant run out of the case... but id say more likely it was a loose connection. if it starts playing up again, check the board over for lose and/or dry joints

[alongenemylines]

the 360 works fine if you have everything taken apart.  i know from experience of trying to hunt down my overheating issue.

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(alongenemylines @ Dec 5 2006, 04:59 PM)

the 360 works fine if you have everything taken apart.  i know from experience of trying to hunt down my overheating issue.

so there for it had to be a loose or not connected joint or cable