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[RBJTech]

Hi all,

I got my ebay 3 Red ROL console though the post today - so I thought I'd abuse it straight away !  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/muhaha.gif)

First thing I did was to whip off the heatsinks - it's a release console so yep had the silver foil on the GPU ...  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grr.gif) - CPU wasn't too bad - anyway, all got cleaned off and AS5 applied.

Next I just bent the legs of the X-clamps a few degrees more to give some more pressure on the die's.  Reassembled it all - turned on - still 3ROL ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Never mind - lets do what I haven't had the bulls to do with my proper 360 - test the limits of the thermal shutdown etc ..

For the test I used a stopwatch and my trusty IR temp gun - this is HEATSINK temperature as close as I could get to the die itself.

I ran independent tests - ie I used a fan on one whilst I let the other one cook, No AV lead in either, so had 4 ROL whilst the test was running ...

Here are the results (same graph - just one is Deg C, the other Deg F) -

(IMG:http://rbjtech.bulldoghome.com/photos/BDRES/rbjtech_bulldoghome_com/temp_c.gif)

(IMG:http://rbjtech.bulldoghome.com/photos/BDRES/rbjtech_bulldoghome_com/temp_f.gif)

Before I decided to record the results, the console gave me the 2 lights (ie overheating) - fine.  But when I recorded the results - it did not - it just kept going and actually SHUT OFF the power to the console for both the GPU and CPU ...

GPU shut off the console @ 54 Deg C, CPU shut off the console @ 73 Deg C  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

But the best thing of all after doing the tests .... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) the console now boots fine, and I've been running a game intro on it for the last 2 hours solid without a hitch ... I'm feeling pretty smug I can tell you ...

No doubt it won't last (maybe it will once I mod if properly..) - but useful info on the shutdown temps anyway ...

One further test I plan to do is to check the fan voltage on CPU/GPU temp - I'll add this into the graph soon ...

Cheers,

Richard.

[ferrari_rulz_02]

i have heard some people say that if you run it to thermal meltdown, it will work again...strange

[dokworm]

Not strange really, the chips gets the solder connections hot enough to soften them and in some cases the solder connection that was faulty becomes (relatively) good again because of the extreme heat.
This is effectively what the towel or heatgun methods do.

If you then modify your board to stop it flexing again , and add extra cooling you may end up with a permanent fix.

[mattygabe]

I'd say those numbers sound pretty normalized, at least in terms of PC parts.  Now, I know comparing a 360's parts to a PC's parts isn't exactly qualitatively the same, but I think most CPUs start to run into problems once they hit the 70 degrees celsius.  Graphics chips, however, I cannot speak on behalf of.

Nice research!

[RBJTech]

QUOTE(dokworm @ Mar 14 2007, 10:14 PM)

Not strange really, the chips gets the solder connections hot enough to soften them and in some cases the solder connection that was faulty becomes (relatively) good again because of the extreme heat.
This is effectively what the towel or heatgun methods do.

If you then modify your board to stop it flexing again , and add extra cooling you may end up with a permanent fix.

 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) Normal solder melts @ ~190 Deg C - The heatsink temp was a LONG way off that before shutting down and I can't see the BGU points being that much hotter   It's probably a board flex thing that's fixed it ... but that was not my intention for the post (there is enough 'fix's' about at the moment) but it was a nice bonus !  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)