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[agent jefe]

Okay, I'll try to be as detailed as possible to avoid needless posts and to hopefully get a fix faster(knock on wood).

ITS A LONG POST SO THERE IS A SUMMARY AT THE BOTTOM!!!

My system ran great since launch day. A freeze about once every month(usually when going through the guide really fast while hosting a game and streaming music via USB so probably just a overload freeze). Never once any graphical errors or slow framerates or anything abnormal. Then last week I got the good ol' 3 lights of death with error code 0020 on a cold start. the lights were 1,3,4(general hardware failure if I'm not mistaken). I checked every connection and tightened every screw, especially the heatsink screws and nothing. Although there were no heat issues Im aware of, I did the AS5 upgrade while I did the heat gun trick. Now it works great for two days and back to the red lights again. Did the heatgun trick again and it worked for three days great, then same thing. It always happens on a cold start and never during gameplay  plus nothing is getting abnormally hot so I'm pretty sure heat issues are out. Any ideas?

    Summary:
1. After one year of perfect perfomance, 3 lights of death(1,3,4) and error code 0020 on a cold start.
2. Checked all wires and connection plus tightened all screws, especially the heatsinks. PSU is green when               on. Still dead.
3. Did AS5 just to do it. Still dead.
4. Heat gun revives it for two days runnin perfect, then dies on cold start.
5. heat gun trick second attempt with more heat for a longer duration. 3 good days then dead again.

Always get the lights on a cold boot and it comes up instantly. No startup screen or anything. Once they appear I cannot get it to work at all until the heatgun comes out.

Please Help!!!

[RDC]

I think that heat gun trick is a 50/50 shot at best, and is probably warping the board doing more bad than good in the long run. I had my 360 torn down for a few weeks getting into what caused my 3RLOD 0102 error and the heat gun did squat for it but bring it back for a little while. Even after I got my real Hot Air Rework setup and reflowed everythingthe right way with the right tool it still didn't revive it. Mine had a slightly bowed board that when it was all together was pulling the board down from the GPU heatsink just a hair. That whole X-clamp AND screwing the sinks to the case is about a half brained idea in the first place, one or the other is fine, not both. I had to hack out the back of the case where the X-clamps sit, so when it was all back together the board didn't bow and the sink stayed on the GPU. I set my fans to run at 12v and I've had not one issue with the bloody thing since then.

WHAT IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE
(IMG:http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f320/RDCXBG/360%20SUX/XClampsCPU2.jpg)

WHAT IT DOES LOOK LIKE
(IMG:http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f320/RDCXBG/360%20SUX/XClampsGPU2.jpg)


Take it all apart and set the mobo on something that doesn't conduct, then plug everything back into it and see how it runs. Make SURE you keep the fans on it and set them so they blow on the GPU and CPU sinks and it'll be fine for testing purposes. If it runs fine that way and ya have no issues, then put the mobo back in the case and see if it sits in there perfectly flat, or if it "rocks or tilts" at all. If it does I'd say it has a similar issue as mine.

BUT, since you say yours only does this from a cold boot that leans more toward a crappy solder joint somewhere though, hence why it starts working after the heat gun and there's no problems while it's running, but that's the flip side of what I though was wrong with mine,it would die after running for awhile, but only together and it was fine all apart. You may want to have it redone by someone that has a rework setup and see if that produces a better result. I wouldn't take too many more trips to the bench with the heat gun on the board, you may be making it worse.

[agent jefe]

Thanks RDC. Trying your route now. I noticed that it bows with the screws in the other day so I have a little hope.

What is rework?

[RDC]

Rework basically just means removing the part and reinstalling it correctly, or just reflowing the solder so it makes a good connection.

[agent jefe]

oh gotcha.

You might like this RDC, I got the mobo on the table here. if it sits flat, suspended from the corners(bowing down in the middle) or even flexed down gently i get the lights. if I bow it UP in the middle I get repetive good starts. I wonder if mine is the same problem as yours but backwards. I'm gonna run with this by spacing the board up in the middle with rubber pads and without screws in the heatsinks, buy the rest of the screws in minus the center long screw for longer test sessions.

[agent jefe]

Okay, I got pissed and heatgunned the hell out of it which I'm sure was a bad idea. Either way its working for now but I expext it to break again by friday due to the prior attempts. However I did notice in the last half hour of testing that Oblivion is running smoother than after the last two heatgun attempts.  I'm so sure of this I'm wishing I had video of it before and after right now...

I'll bump if/when it breaks agin. Thanks so far RDC and anyone else that at least looked at this thread.

[ll Wade ll]

Ok ive had this error going on for about 2 months now. Just recently i opened the xbox to see if i can see if ne thing is wronge. I was also getting the error 0021 which according to the forum is the firmware OR the south bridge. So i was trying different things to see if i can fix my xbox. I opened it up and it didnt give me ne errors for about 5 days. After the 5 days i got the same F***ing errors again which really pissed me off. When i play games it takes           maybe 10 min to freeze on a game and when i play it Lags like a B****. Then i decided to take off the cd drive keep it hooked up and movie it over to the side to its not on the GPU. And ever since i did that it has NEVER froze on me again and doesnt run slow or lag. After about an hour my gpu if u feel the sinc WOW IT'S F***ing hot. I don't know if that has the problem because when the cd drive is on there all it does it lag and freeze PLZ, PLZ, PLZ i want to know if this has ne thing to do with it because i am not going to send it to microsoft if i can fix the problem by myself. I hope this faq Helped u all out and if there are any other questions. Send me an e-mail at [email protected] Plz and Thank u

[RDC]

You aren't sending it to M$ now anyway, since you've had it apart your warranty is void.

What faq?    Far as it sounds you've taken your 360 apart and now it runs better than when it's together, and you want to know if ?what? has anything to do with the problem you're having?

Yes the GPU heatsink gets incredibly hot, but having the DVD drive out and it running with no extra fan on it makes it even hotter than when it's installed, because the air doesn't flow over the GPU sink like it's supposed to. It doesn't flow over it very well in the first place either though. Since you've already taken it apart you may as well upgrade the thermal paste on the GPU and either install a better set of fans in the back or mod yours to 12v. They make more noise running at 12v, but move plenty more air and doesn't cost ya anything. My Hitachi drive makes more noise spinning a disc than the fans running at 12v do.

[ll Wade ll]

Ok even though my waranty is void i didnt have the waranty ne wayz so what does that matter. I Want to know what the hell error code 0020 is. Thats my main problem. And how come i cant send it in to microsoft it shouldnt matter cause i didnt have a warrenty so they would still have to fix it. shouldn't they?

[LeeWatkins]

Had 0102 error on my old 360. Tried Hot air gun worked for months tried again and accidently touched gpu when cooling and knackered solder connections. I noticed that as well as my board having a slight warp but my GPU seemed to have a slight warp !! as well. Got new 360 now MS28, it loads faster ? but still seems to run quite hot. What is everyone`s opinion of the taliman fans or 12v my fans?

[RDC]

QUOTE(ll Wade ll @ Dec 21 2006, 03:01 PM)

Ok even though my waranty is void i didnt have the waranty ne wayz so what does that matter. I Want to know what the hell error code 0020 is. Thats my main problem. And how come i cant send it in to microsoft it shouldnt matter cause i didnt have a warrenty so they would still have to fix it. shouldn't they?

If M$ does anything the "fix" your 360 it will be to replace it and charge you the price of a new one, so you're not getting a freebe or cheap repair outta that deal unless you're planing on pulling off some type of fraud, and that's not gonna fly here at all.

First you said it was 0021, now it's 0020, the error codes and what most are thought to be can be seen here. Unless M$ releases exactly what they are and how to go about fixing them that list is yer best "shot in the dark" for some of them, including 0020.

If ya want some help with yer 360 try what's already been suggested (thermal paste and fan upgrade) and see what that does for it. It may need to be reworked before it straightens out, it may need to be replaced. I wouldn't go reflowing the chips on the board unless you've done that kinda thing before, the amount of heat involved, if not used properly, will cause more problems than you're having now.

[ll Wade ll]

The fan upgrade doesnt do nothing ive tried it befor. As for the thero paste i will try that and get back to the thread on how that work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[RDC]

QUOTE(LeeWatkins @ Dec 21 2006, 05:11 PM)

Had 0102 error on my old 360. Tried Hot air gun worked for months tried again and accidently touched gpu when cooling and knackered solder connections. I noticed that as well as my board having a slight warp but my GPU seemed to have a slight warp !! as well. Got new 360 now MS28, it loads faster ? but still seems to run quite hot. What is everyone`s opinion of the taliman fans or 12v my fans?

The Talismoon fans are nice from what I understand, you may have to mess with the LEDs on them to get them to fit, but they move more air and are quiter than the stock ones. Running the stock ones at 12v will get you plenty more air as well as noise. I'm not sure I need to be running mine at 12v now that I've gotten the bowed board issue straightened out, but the noise isn't something that drowns out my stereo when I'm playing a game or watching a DVD, so it's more of a "better safe than sorry" mod in my case.

Do you still have that 360, I'd like to see some pics of tat SNAFU as well as point out that's the kinda stuff that can happen if you're not extremely careful when gunning the board like that.

[ll Wade ll]

Stupid shit that didnt work at all it's still doing the same thing. It takes longer than it did befor but it's still doing the same shit Now the only other thing i can try is using the air gun trick which i really didnt want to come down to that but i guess i have to (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) And microsoft is stupid they dont know what the hell im talking about when i tell them about the sinc button and the eject button all they say to me is OHHH we dont follow that. WTF kind of answer is that,  its there system they made it that way,  and they dont even use it BULL SHIT. They just dont wanna tell u because they'll loose money.

This post has been edited by ll Wade ll: Dec 22 2006, 04:45 AM

[gwisawesome07]

just wandering how things are progressing for people that have this error.

i started out 0110, heat gunned it and worked for a while, now getting the 0020.

hate to tear it down and heat gun it again but looks like thats my task for tomorrow.
ill post updates


if you've had 0020 let me know what you did/ how it turned out