Print

[BurnDown]

Ok, so i bought a 360 with the 3 red lights. When it arrived, i checked the error codes on llamma.com and apparently it means "memory error / memory overheating". I was kinda hoping it would be a GPU error as they seem easily fixable by the x-clamp replacement.

Anyways, the guy I bought it off had tried the heat gun fix, which got it to work for another 2 weeks but the red lights returned. I figured I may aswell try the x-clamp replacement anyway, as it wouldn't hurt. I used RBJTech's MKIII method, but it failed. I had heard the unplugging the fans until the console overheated often got failed x-clamp attempts working. I was doubtful, and didn't want to cause more damage to the console, but went ahead with it anyway. To my surprise it worked, so I cut the back grills out of the case to improve air flow, did the shroud divider mod, and applied arctic silver. All went well for 2 weeks, but now its dead again. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

I have the same error code as before (0110), and I'm unsure what to do. If the ram is the problem, i need to find a way of cooling it. The ones on top of the motherboard shouldn't be too tricky, i can just add some VGA sinks. The ones underneath the mobo could be tricky though, obviosuly theres no room to add heatsinks to them. My other 360 has thermal gap filling pads on each of the ram chips, but this one doesn't. Would it be a good idea to add some, or are there any other mods that I could do??

Also, if I do get the thing up and running again, I will need more ways of keeping it cool. I have the Pelican Air Flo 360, but tbh I think that restricts heat flow rather than improving it. The obvious solution is the 12V fan mod, but with recent report of people getting banned from LIVE, I'm not sure I wanna risk it. Unless theres some sort of resistor that we could solder to the fan socket, so that the correct voltages are still running across it??

So I'm after a bit of advice. What can I try, to get this thing going again, and to hopefully keep it going??
Any suggestions are welcome, and thanks in advance.

[BurnDown]

Anyone got any ideas? I would like to get this thing working and back together tonight, if possible. I'm now considering doing the 3 penny fix, as well as the x-clamp replacement. A lot of people have claimed the 3 penny  fix has worked for them, but others have complained that it flexes the mobo too much. I'm thinking that the x-clamp replacement might prevent this from happening. What do you think?

Thanks.

[G0t M4xx 21]

of all the 360's I've fixed, 0110 and 0020 have to be some of the hardest to fix errors.

For me, I would have first done a reflow of the GPU with a SMT rework station (heatgun works too), while adding liquid flux to the BGA.

Next, x-clamp replacement. I like trying to reflow the board first, it seems to make more sense to actually resolder the broken BGA connections, then try to mechanically force them together ONLY if the reflow fails.

If that fails, then you pretty much have nothing to lose, try whatever. I've had some luck heating the motherboard in the oven at 400*F for around 7 minutes (with liquid flux under the CPU and GPU and RAM), take it out as soon as you see the large capacitors starting to bulge, you DO NOT want these to start leaking. Most of the plastic components on the board are fine, they won't melt, EXCEPT if your eject/connect buttons are the BLUE ones, they melt, it's best to desolder them first. When heating the board I put it on 1 inch aluminum standoffs (so nothing contacts the bottom of the board), then set it on a baking pan.

[BurnDown]

Hey, thanks for the advice. However, I have already gone ahead with the 1 penny fix (rather than 3), and put more washers on the bolts on the GPU side. The 360 now boots *touches wood*, but I havn't had a chance to test it with a game yet, so it may not be totally fixed.

Anyways, if it dies again, I might consider the reflow but to be honest, the thing only cost me £40 so I may aswell just scrap it. I do own another fully functional 360, I mainly bought this for the fun of fixing it.

Thanks again.