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[henmill]

about two months ago, my 360 from december 05 finally gave up the ghost.  so i did the heatgun "fix" and it had been working for about a month and a half, but i then started getting checkerboard graphical errors every few days.  Then about a week ago, it went back to it's state of 3lod.  i then came upon lawdog's tut, and found out that he recommended rbjtech's tut over his.  So yesterday i set out to find the parts at a local ace hardware store (we don't have home depot or lowe's in my town) and was unable to find any "wing lock washers" so i used standard lock washers.  after completing the tutorial, i tested it, and it fixed the 3lod, but i was getting graphical freeze ups within a minute or two of powering on.  i then made sure all my nuts were tightened evenly, then found one on the gpu that wasn't quite tight enough.  tried again, no dice.  so i then let it sit with now fans on for about 2-3 minutes, tested it, and it's been running fine for a few hours now!

thanks to everyone who contributed to this fix, and most especially lawdog and rbjtech for helping me to resurrect my 360....again!

[ydgmms]

QUOTE(ydgmms @ Apr 11 2007, 01:29 AM)

In mid-March a 0102 3rlod xbox came to me. I did the heat gun tricked. It worked fine for me while I tested it for a few hours. After giving it back to the customer, he called me a couple of days after - 0102 again.

He brought it back and on March 30th, I did the replacement of the X-Clams using Lawdawgs tutorial (it was before RBJs came out, like a day). Anyway, that night it froze twice while playing Tiger Woods 07, but has been flawless ever since. I have played it EVERYDAY for easily 3-4hours a day. *A LOT* more over the weekends and Easter holiday days. It froze only once after that, but I believe it was caused by my impatience (internet went down... tried to make it do a lot of Live tests, while getting music, while loading games and pressing the Guide button a lot)..
Anyway.

Its been over a week and like I said, has been used EVERYDAY for 3-4 hours average. Probably more.

In addition to the X-Clamp removal:

Heatsinks on two RAMs and SouthBridge
Thermal conductive pad on 6 RAM (2 under GPU and 4 on bottom)
hardwired the gpu side of the fan to 12V (for testing purposes - want to replace the fans with talismoon)
Arctic Silver 5 on CPU/GPU
air duct mod

Addendum:

 Customer came to pick it up Friday (April 13) - heh friday the 13th -... came back today(Saturday the 14th) WORSE.

I had put it away Wednesday nite to hook mine and test mine out. So I hadn't played his xbox since then. His carrying case causes the xbox to lay on the backend. So the back of the 360 becomes the bottom and the front becomes the top. So I THINK the weight of the heatsinks at that angle caused the board to bend more. And now it barely boots up half the time, after over a week of full hardcore playing (or at least in my opinion)



So now, if thats the case, I do believe RBJTech to be a much more secure fix possbily longterm fix, especially if you use the 360 vertically. Since the weight of the heatsinks will be supported by the metal cage.



Now, only to find a better way to cut the fins off the GPU heatsink...

*pissed off it didn't stay fixed*

[makaveli86]

RBJT!!! i think i got it!! k well not yet...so i took washers off and and i put it back together...now i boot it, and it starts doin the green light scan (where it goes around the 4 corners), but then it hits the bottom right light and that one blinks red. so basically now it blinks 1 red light at the bottom right. what does that mean? thanks again, gettin closer

[sirsmooth]

QUOTE(brywalker @ Apr 14 2007, 04:33 PM)

All you need to do is find an M5 bolt with a smaller head.

Smaller head?
The head is not an issue because its nicely countersunk at the bottom of the shell.

Does anybody know the clearence gap between the dvdrom and the GPU heatsink?
Enough room for a washer and nut?

That way only 1 fin will be needed to be cut.

cheers smooth

[makaveli86]

i got it!! looked around the net, the light that was flashin for me was apparently hardware related. so i swapped a dvd drive from another unit i had and wouldnt u now it.... ALL GREEN LIGHTS BABYY!! loving it! thanks again everyone, keep you posted how long it works. RBJT not sure how i'd add my success to the polll you got going, but just lettin you know mines workin...so if you could add it for me, greatly appreciate it. thanks again smooth for ur hint on tightening it a little more, worked like a charm!

[mzone]

ok just a update on my x clamp experience.

i done the x clamp method, but my 360 still freezes, i get graphic errors then it goes to 3 lights.
ive tryed tightning / lossing screws,  letting 360 over heat ( 2 lights) lthen let cool down, its boots ok but it seems the freeze pretty quickly when putting a game on.

watched a dvd earlyer after i messed with bolts small turn each,  worked ok all through dvd but soon as i put a game in it freezed, i rebooted 360 and darn 3 lights  

[makaveli86]

mzone, gettin the same thing...and from what i'm guessin, its a simple case of the nuts loosening up causin the heatsinks to loosen up...i only say this because i left my unit on for a bit, and it booted up pretty well... green lights for once, lol. then i left it on for a bit, came back still green. turned it off, and then turned it back on...3rols . tightened up some nuts, and tried again, green lights....so i'm GUESSING thats the problem...atleast with mine...trying to figure out how i could make it so that the nut doesn't loosen up. probalby due to parts vibrating and since i dont have a flush surface on the gpu heatsink, it causes it to come off easy... thinkin about purchasing a dremel tool and simlpy redo the gpu heatsink..

p.s. wat do u think about the idea of soldering the nuts to the bolts, might this prevent further problems with nuts comin loose?

[lawdawg0931]

OK, fixed my sons box with RBJTech's method awhile back & got it going again (after my method began freezing video after a week or so). I then bought another 3RLOD box off E-bay, and attempted the same fix. Initially it worked (RBJTech's method), but then kept freezing up after approx. 1 minute.
I keep reading peoples success stories using my original method, so I figure it's worth a shot - and converted this second xbox back to my tutorials method. Everything seems to be working fine for now, no more freezing video.
My point: It appears by multiple peoples posts that both tutorials are having very good results overall. If you apply one method over the other, but get mixed results...try the other tutorials method & see what kind of results you get. DO NOT deviate from the listed parts (or at least the parts technical specs) , as RBJTech & myself have checked & re-checked clearances using said part #'s. The only allowable deviation seems to be the # of washers used between the motherboard & the heatsink (2 or 3 washers) - you just have to see which allows a little play. This ensures that the heatsink is resting firmly on the GPU/CPU, and not on the washers. Just a thought..    

[makaveli86]

lawdawg, i went through both tutorials, but found the essentially very similar. I performed RBJTech's tutorial because in an earlier post you said you recommend us doing his. Could you briefly explain how yours is different from his, and why yours might work on some consoles and his might work on some consoles? bahh, dont knwo if this makes sense, it is 4:30 am right now

[DaniloMQ]

Lawdawg, my history until now is 12 taken, 12 x360 fixed!

All the customers are playing happilly A few of them are hardcore GOW players so the test is extensive lol, hours and hours in the night playing online and all working fine

Here in Brazil i saw some people going to the store to get a m5-.80x12mm and when this person sended me the picture of the screw it had 12mm allrighm but just the body! another 1.5mm with the head, so , he asked for the screw and got the wrong one and when he tried his x360 kept freezing

So maybe this has got something to do with all the freezing cause i still havent got a x360 that showed this prolem after the clamp mod.

[sirsmooth]

Well, I still think the problem is the hacking/cutting the GPU fins, we have to find a better mothod here.

You HAVE to make sure the fins are fully cut off to the base of the heatsink, if you have tiny bits of fins sticking up the washers will not sit flush and neat, so after time(the heat of the heatsink does not help) the small bits of fins gets crushed and then the washer will drop a little.

Make sure you get a dremel or something similar and smooth those fins down so its nice and flush.
Make sure the first washer on the GPU sits down flat.

[lawdawg0931]

@makaveli86
When we're talking about board flexing, we're talking about very minut amounts. It's just the possibility of one flexing a little different than the other one. I still feel that RBJTech's method is a more secure method, but like I said...if one doesn't give good results - try the other!

@DaniloMQ
The 12 you have had success with...which tutorial were you using? Just curious

[dagretchen]

Hey everyone, I just finished the modifications following RJBTechs tutorial and everything's running well I've only had it running for an hour, but things are looking good.  I made one minor adjustment to RJBTechs method, as I could not find any spring washers, I replaced that portion with an actual spring, which was a serious hassle to get on the machine screw as it kept flying off and hitting the ceiling, lol.  For the baking portion, I only let it run for 3 minutes without cooling (which did not cause a 2 light error), the GPU heatsync became so hot that it was beginning to burn me, the CPU heatsync however only became warm, and the smell coming from the GPU was fairly strong so I stopped.  

Anyways, hopefully everything continues working.  Thanks again everyone  

[DaniloMQ]

QUOTE(lawdawg0931 @ Apr 15 2007, 04:58 PM)

@makaveli86
When we're talking about board flexing, we're talking about very minut amounts. It's just the possibility of one flexing a little different than the other one. I still feel that RBJTech's method is a more secure method, but like I said...if one doesn't give good results - try the other!

@DaniloMQ
The 12 you have had success with...which tutorial were you using? Just curious

All using your guide

like the pics below

http://img7.photobuc.../x360fix_06.jpg

http://img7.photobuc.../x360fix_07.jpg


PS: yep, im pacote, but i was banned long ago so i register with this new nickname

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(DaniloMQ @ Apr 16 2007, 11:28 AM)

PS: yep, im pacote, but i was banned long ago so i register with this new nickname

thats illegal in these forums...