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[GMSkel]

QUOTE(kirca @ Jul 6 2009, 05:48 AM)

Can you tell me if holes are clearly visible with naked eye. And what did you use for resoldering  (soldering iron, heatgun,?).
Thx

the holes were visible to the naked eye. the biggest ones were on the solder points coming from the ANA chip and the AV/HDMI port. I did notice a few more throughout the board. some on the ram. i used a magnifying glass to check the whole board.

i used a soldering iron. you really need a steady hand to do this.

i haven't had the e74 error message pop up yet, but i was playing Fable 2 and i traveled to a town and noticed some graphical glitches: blue lines at the top half of my screen. I turned off my 360 and on again, luckily no e74 message, and i went back to the town that gave me the glitches, and had no glitches since. i'm thinking it was the 360 overheating.

i have a talismoon whisper fan, and 2 xcm core cooler fans. i'm going to remove the core cooler fans, because they could be doing more harm than good since they're not really drawing air from the outside. it seems like they're just circulating the hot air inside, i don't know for sure, but i just want to test it out..

[GMSkel]

got the e74 error today after not using the 360 since yesterday. removed the core fans and did the baking trick.. 360 booted up, and i played for an hour. waiting to see what happens after resting cycle..

[Ronaldo VII]

My 360 got the E74 error about 5 weeks ago. Finally had a Heat Gun delivered today and did the fix in this guide.

It has fixed the e74 error, but when the xbox turns on the fans start going and get really loud, even with no game in. They started doing this before the heat gunning when we had left the console for a couple of weeks and tried it again. Is this a natural occurrence after the e74 error or is there something else wrong with my console that needs looking into?

I've heard elsewhere that the fans should do this initially but I don't want to leave them on at increasing speeds if they shouldn't be.

[neilw5112]

hi guys im a newbie
followed these instructions and went to start it up and light on power brick turned red as soon as i plugged it in!!
Is my console now officially dead or can i make it live again?
thanx in advance

[Ronaldo VII]

QUOTE(Ronaldo VII @ Jul 13 2009, 06:13 PM)

My 360 got the E74 error about 5 weeks ago. Finally had a Heat Gun delivered today and did the fix in this guide.

It has fixed the e74 error, but when the xbox turns on the fans start going and get really loud, even with no game in. They started doing this before the heat gunning when we had left the console for a couple of weeks and tried it again. Is this a natural occurrence after the e74 error or is there something else wrong with my console that needs looking into?

I've heard elsewhere that the fans should do this initially but I don't want to leave them on at increasing speeds if they shouldn't be.

Ahh, sorted it. The fan cover wasnt on so it wasn't focussing on the CPU, causing the fans to take off. All done now, cheers for the fix guys!

[xXBlackChaosXx]

I just got the 3-74 error but im a complete noob on opening the 360 and all so i was wondering if this is so easy that even a noob can do it?

[taggart]

Instead of a heat gun, would it be possible to use a standard oven set to 100 F ?

[Kendo2748]

QUOTE(taggart @ Jul 23 2009, 09:22 PM)

Instead of a heat gun, would it be possible to use a standard oven set to 100 F ?

The oven would heat everything, the heat gun is required to target a certain area on the PCB.

[countchocula]

hey guys just wanted to share a possible longer lasting solution to e74 that's working for me.  so a little background: i have an elite/falcon about 1 1/2 years old. rrod after 1st year did lawdawgs fix was solid for about a year.  then e74. did the e74 fix from this tutorial (with heat gun to gpu/hana) worked fine.  couple of  months later e74 again.  after each fix my xbox would work for a shorter amount of time.  after 5th time it was like less than a week.  then i read how the warping of the solder and board may really come into play when you shut your system off and the chips are still really hot but your fans turn off (probably why the problem is seen next time you turn your system on).  so after i did the e74 fix i took several steps to increase system cooling during and after play.  

-first i modified the tin case the motherboard sits in.  i cut the honey comb out in the back which cover the fans.  i also cut a 5" rectangular section of the honey comb on the air intake side (this is the right side if you looking at your system laying horizontally). i just used some wire snippers to cut them.
-after i put it back together i left off the plastic screen on the intake side also.  don't mess with the rear plastic honey comb as you need it to attach a fan.
-i bought and attached the intercooler 360 TS fans on the back.  The TS model is important since it is activated with heat sensor and has an independent AC power supply. this keeps it on for a minute or two after you shut your system off.
-i also placed a 5" computer fan right up against the air intake where i made the hole  to force air into the unit.  the model is a sythe " s-flex" sff21d (12v) and the AC adaptor is a cs power supply.
-my xbox is horizontal and so i place 4 little glass tea candle holders (they are the little glass cups to hold tea candles) underneath to raise it about 1"  not only does this allow better cooling underneath but this centers the 5" fan on the unit slightly overlapping above and below.  now there is not only airflow inside the xbox but also above and below the entire system.  
-i connected both the intercooler and the 5" fan on the same AC multitap so  i just plug in one unit when i want to play.  
-after a game session i shut the xbox down but i leave the fans plugged in for about 15-20 min.  the intercooler will automatically shut off after a minute or so and the 5" fan just stays on.  i don't think you should leave the 5" fan plugged in constantly as it will force more dust in your system.  

-one note is that although the inter cooler does work (i can feel a more powerful air flow) it is a bit louder.  

so far this has kept my system going for over 3 weeks. after game play the system is much cooler. a couple of hours on Gears2 and the top and bottom are cool to barely warm.  hopefully this lasts a while but if dies again i let you guys know.

[playakrc]

hey guys i've been reading through all the pages and i've done the clamp fix and heat gun.. but i have to do it every 2 weeks. and it starts out as seeing horizontal lines at the dashboard and if i shut it off i get the e74 with the 1022 error.

 i started playing madden today and before i played a game the menu was a little messed up in the game. then when the football game started you could see lines on the players and on the field. it would disappear for a few seconds or at certain cut scenes in the game. i played a full game saved and went out to the dashboard with the lines still there. the lines are visable on the bottom right corner and most of the dashboard is fine.

i left the system on for a few mins at the dashboard and the lines disappeared. i tried playing another game of madden and they reappeared.

if this little story can help any of you guys figure out which chip is really the problem on this p.o.s microsoft built can you tell me so i can focus on one chip because im tired of opening it up and using the heat gun. its annoying and i know most of you here think so to.

[mem0001]

hey guys - im new in the room and i have to say that everything that i have read so far is pretty good. two things though:

1) i've put pressure on the hana/ana chip and have no fix for e74.

2) i've put pressure on the heat sink and no fix for e74.

The red light only comes on when i have the video cable plugged in (i have tried multiple cables also). When the cable is NOT plugged in with power on, the green power light just blinks continuously - nothing else.

Is there a way to interpret the red lights when pushing the sync and cd eject buttons? (it cycles 2 lights, 4 lights, one light)

Any other suggestions of what to try?

[mem0001]

hey everybody - ignore that last post.

i went to lowes and got the heat gun. i took the heat sync off the gpu and turned the motherboard over. i covered the bottom of the motherboard with aluminum foil and left only the gpu uncovered - that way i didnt heat anything else. i used low heat, about 6 inches away, for 1 minute (exactly), while moving in circles to heat the bottom of the gpu. afterwards, put the heat sync back on and plugged it up - GREEN LIGHTS EVERYWHERE!  

by the way, i heated ONLY the bottom of the gpu.

i played a game with no trouble and plan to leave it on for a while just to make sure its fixed. i've looked around the internet for a while and couldn't find a definite answer of what the cause/solution to this problem (e74) was until i got here. THANKS TO YOU ALL!

[gr0wism]

About 4 days ago I did this, and it fixed my E74 and I was playing my box fine, but just today the artifacts started coming back



Did i not do it correctly?

[soldave]

As my Xbox is the black Xbox elite (or whatever it's called), it has a HDMI socket and it came with a HDMI cable. As I've got an old skool TV I never plugged it in but I thought I would just take out the standard A/V cable and plug this one in, but just not connected to a TV. Fired up the Xbox and lo & behold there was no flashing red segment on the front of the console.

Would this mean it's just my A/V cable that's duff?

[sirpyke29]

My question is when you take the heat sink off and are about to attempt the reflow on the bottom of the mobo, where is the mobo sitting? are you just sitting it between 2 chairs? is it propped up or is it lying flat on the table? Im just asking because if you heat the chips, would you not want pressure on the chip so it can be reseated or is it just a case of just melting the solder a bit?