Yeah i thought my 360 was dead too, and i cudnt be arsed to open up my 360 and try the heat gun method, even tho my warranty had expired. But there is an alternative (n00b) way of trying to fix it. It doesnt always work, but if you dont have a heatgun and you dont wanna open up your xbox, you dont have anything to lose. It will take up 15 mins of your time if that.
What i did was load up the 360, and leave it there for 15mins while on the 3 red lights. Also while u wait, place a thick towel and cover the back of the vents, so effectively the xbox 360 heats up (ironic since everyone seems to tell you to keep the 360 cool). So with the towel in place wait 15mins, and when the 15mins are up remove the towel and the back of the 360 should we quite hot. Now simply switch off the 360 and turn it back on. With any luck the 360 should load up back to the dashboard. (I filmed it, and i will post it on youtube soon. i can give u the link if u dont believe it works (IMG:
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However on my first attempt, it would load up the 360 and when i started to play any games, it would freeze loads. And when the 360 was turned off for about an hour the three red lights returned. So i did it again, this time makin sure the 360 was well ventilated, after the towel was removed, and played as many games as possible. I was expectin it to freeze again, but i was playin for an hour straight, and no problems watsoever. I decided to leave it turned off all night, and the next mornin it continued to work.
This method seems a very crude way of fixin a 360, but it seems to work for me. Kinda reminds me of the old fashioned valve pcs which needed time to heat up be4 it wud start working (IMG:
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My 360 was one of the early models, manufactured in october 05. Apparently these were notorious for breaking. Sumthin bout how the ram and chipsets are assembled, using BGA, and some of the solder joints can come loose, as the solder was not properly heated or wat not. Also summit bout the heat sink, aluminium foil was used on the earlier models? Anyways im a n00b and dont know much about the specific details (wierd since I got a computer science exam today and i still kno jack shit (IMG:
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It seems now the problem has fixed with the current 360s, and this new 'performance' patch could be killing off the old 360s.
When was your 360 manufactured? Was it before 1st Jan 06? If so you could go to microsoft and ask for a free repair since in september last year, MS said they would repair the ealier models for free, but mentioned nuthin bout warranty, so u could go follow it up with them.
But I would recommend the heat gun fix if u feel adventurous (IMG:
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This post has been edited by shenmuemaster: Jan 15 2007, 10:59 AM
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Topic: Black Screen -3 Red Lights. (Read 93 times)