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[xXvdubXx]

Just recently my xbox began to overheat.  It got a lot louder than it is supposed to be, then turned off and blinked 2 red lights on the first and third controller LEDs.  I looked all over and found out that it was in fact overheating.  So I called microsoft and asked all the questions and found out it would be $100 to fix it.  I said ok thanks and hung up.  I'm not going to pay $100 to fix my xbox.  So the following day, my dad and I decided to open up my xbox and see what was wrong.  We opened it and experimented.

We tried the following

• Checked for loose heat sinks
• Tightened screws for heat sinks
• Removed heat sinks and cleaned off all thermal paste
• Re-applied better thermal paste
• Used a seperate power block

Although we've made it run a little longer than before, which is now a couple minutes instead of a couple seconds, we still haven't arrived at the problem.  We are completely baffled as to why we can't get it to stop overheating.

If in order for you to help me you need the error code, my error code was 0013.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Chimp5000]

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=484726

Scroll down until you find the error codes.  It says 0013 is the "RAM overheating".  Im not totally sure how to fix it, I don't think they should be over heating.  But just incase, try adding small memory heatsinks to the chips and do the 12v mod to get things cooled down.  You can pick up the memory chip heatsinks at a local radioshack or maybe staples.

Than again, i've never had a problem like this before, so my suggestions may do nothing at all.

This post has been edited by Chimp5000: Jun 4 2008, 04:56 AM

[xXvdubXx]

just one quick update-

I don't think anything is actually overheating.  My reasoning for this is because, when I got home from Graduation Rehearsal today, my dad and I proceeded back to my room to check my xbox again.  He said just turn it on once and see what it does.  So I used my remote to turn it on and it turned on for literally 2 seconds before "overheating" and flashing those 2 obnoxious red lights in my face.  In my personal opinion, nothing on that motherboard can overheat that quickly.  So what could be wrong?

Also, do you possibly think the eraser trick would help at all?  My dad found it online and asked about it and seeing as i've never heard of it I figured i'd ask here.

[Wilhelm_I]

QUOTE(xXvdubXx @ Jun 4 2008, 07:07 PM)

just one quick update-

I don't think anything is actually overheating.  My reasoning for this is because, when I got home from Graduation Rehearsal today, my dad and I proceeded back to my room to check my xbox again.  He said just turn it on once and see what it does.  So I used my remote to turn it on and it turned on for literally 2 seconds before "overheating" and flashing those 2 obnoxious red lights in my face.  In my personal opinion, nothing on that motherboard can overheat that quickly.  So what could be wrong?

Also, do you possibly think the eraser trick would help at all?  My dad found it online and asked about it and seeing as i've never heard of it I figured i'd ask here.

Well I dont think that the RAM can overheat so quickly.
Search on this board there was a guy who experienced and solved this error like 3 months ago.
I guess he heatgunned his board but I am not too sure...

This post has been edited by Wilhelm_I: Jun 4 2008, 06:23 PM

[xXvdubXx]

Ok, problem resolved!

My dad and I just did what you said and we heat gunned it and messed around with my power supply (which broke shortly after I posted originally) and now I have hours of gameplay without any disturbance thus far.  Thanks for the help.

[xXvdubXx]

Ok, well if you remember me saying problem solved, I lied.  It's been a week and 2 days and it broke again on wednesday so it only lasted for about a week, which seems longer than that, but in fact was only a week.  I am going on vacation this weekend and we are going to try it again only maybe keep it on there longer and see what happens and if it just breaks after another week i will know it is futile and stop fixing it and bring it over to my friends house and shoot it with a .50 Caliber

[Wilhelm_I]

QUOTE(xXvdubXx @ Jun 28 2008, 04:14 AM)

Ok, well if you remember me saying problem solved, I lied.  It's been a week and 2 days and it broke again on wednesday so it only lasted for about a week, which seems longer than that, but in fact was only a week.  I am going on vacation this weekend and we are going to try it again only maybe keep it on there longer and see what happens and if it just breaks after another week i will know it is futile and stop fixing it and bring it over to my friends house and shoot it with a .50 Caliber

LOL
Which errorcode does it show now?
If it is still the 0013 you didnt reflow it properly, follow my heatgun tutorial, preheat it on step one for 1 minute and then heatgun it on the 2nd step for another 4 minutes.
Do it for both sides.
Just read my tutorial it is all written clearly in there.

If you decide to shoot it take some pictures would be nice as a wallpaper or something

[xXvdubXx]

Ok, just got back home from vacation, which to say the least was a good time

Now this is kind of interesting, so lets start from when I posted last.

When  I had posted last, I said that my xbox had broken again and that I probably needed to re-heat gun it, however I was leaving for vacation the following morning and decided to do it over vacation.  This all seemed like a good plan so that night I packed up all my xbox stuff and got it prepared to go.  Left on saturday got to the hotel, left on sunday morning arrived to beach house for sunday afternoon.  I went upstairs after coming back from the beach, eh, around 6 p.m (EST) hooked up my box just to try it out and blam, it worked?  What it worked?  Yeah, I was baffled as well.  It worked for about 3 days then for some reason it did it's "overheating" thing again.  So, the following day my dad and I ripped it open and proceeded to heat it again.  (We did it a little bit better this time, more like the tutorial but not exactly)  We finished and left it in the metal pan case and it worked like a charm for about 2 days.  Then it broke again.

This is where we are now.

My dad and I decided we'll open it up again but we won't heat it right away, instead we are going to do the x-clamp replacement mod first, and get rid of those damned x-clamps.  Then we'll heat it up again and see if it runs, then run it without the fans installed and wait for it to overheat the real way and then put everything back together and see what happens.

Think that'll work?

[brandogg]

Terrible idea. Open the system, remove the heatsink(s), and remove the thermal paste. Heat gun the board (as per the many tutorials available - Wilhelm and jimwross have this covered) properly, and let it completely cool down. Reapply fresh thermal paste (AS5 is best of course), *THEN* replace the X-Clamps with the proper hardware. Tighten the heatsinks down good and snug, without causing the motherboard to flex, make sure your fans are plugged in, and put that piece of shit back together. Do *NOT* run your system without the fans, that will basically destroy everything you did with the heat gun.

[Wilhelm_I]

QUOTE(brandogg @ Jul 7 2008, 06:34 AM)

Terrible idea. Open the system, remove the heatsink(s), and remove the thermal paste. Heat gun the board (as per the many tutorials available - Wilhelm and jimwross have this covered) properly, and let it completely cool down. Reapply fresh thermal paste (AS5 is best of course), *THEN* replace the X-Clamps with the proper hardware. Tighten the heatsinks down good and snug, without causing the motherboard to flex, make sure your fans are plugged in, and put that piece of shit back together. Do *NOT* run your system without the fans, that will basically destroy everything you did with the heat gun.

Yes thats the basic procedure you kind of have to replace the X Clamps and only tighten them up snug without flexing the mainboard as brandogg said...
if you use the X Clamps after that the mainboard is still flexing and it is just a matter of time until the solder balls become loose again...

[xXvdubXx]

Ok, I did it all right i believe, so far so good.  It's been 3 days since i've done it and It's still working fine.  The only thing I think I did wrong was I think I may have gotten the wrong nylon washers.  I think they may have been too thick because when I sit it back into the metal case the plugs are too high up.  Like I have to push them down to insert the cables.  Is that a problem or no?  Will just screwing everything back together work.

And Also, I assume now that I should NOT rescrew in the heat sink screws, seeing as there is nothing to screw into...

[ph0neman]

not sure if i understand you... but you definitely need to re-screw those heat sinks onto the gpu and cpu.  otherwise they will not remove the heat from the processors.  if the screws or the hardware are preventing you from doing so  you may need to get some different washers and screws.  i did the fix from llamma.com and it has been working for a about a  week with no problems...

good luck sounds like you and dad about it fixed  

[xXvdubXx]

Yeah, I mean I did the heat sink x-clamp fix but I mean when you are putting it back together.  By putting the silver screws that hold the mobo to the steel case pull the mobo down so I can plug everything in or what?

If that is too vivid then:

After screwing the heatsinks down with the x-clamp replacement tutorial, and after placing the MOBO down into the metal 360 case, the ports to plug in USB/Ethernet, A/V Cables, and Power Cable are moved up slightly so the cables won't go in smoothly.  I have to push down on the input port on the motherboard to make the port accessible to the external cable.

[Wilhelm_I]

QUOTE(xXvdubXx @ Jul 10 2008, 12:35 AM)

Yeah, I mean I did the heat sink x-clamp fix but I mean when you are putting it back together.  By putting the silver screws that hold the mobo to the steel case pull the mobo down so I can plug everything in or what?

If that is too vivid then:

After screwing the heatsinks down with the x-clamp replacement tutorial, and after placing the MOBO down into the metal 360 case, the ports to plug in USB/Ethernet, A/V Cables, and Power Cable are moved up slightly so the cables won't go in smoothly.  I have to push down on the input port on the motherboard to make the port accessible to the external cable.

Mate your 360 will break very soon again if you do it like that.
The board is flexing bad it is taken under pressure by the 6 long case screws already.
You will have to disassemble it again and either get rid of the washers in between mainboard and the head of the screw...
Another solution would be to drill holes in the metal case so that the heads of the screws fit through...
If you leave it like that the 360 will ROD very soon again and the error code can be a really bad one since you are flexing the whole mainboard not just the small area under the GPU...

[xXvdubXx]

oh, no i didn't screw it back in once with the screws and washers yet.  I didn't know what would happen if i did.  I mean I kind of figured that I would flex the board entire board if i screwed all the long screws back in.  I just have it sitting in the metal case right now.  It doesn't have the white plastic outer shell on.  I was just wondering if you guys had tips on what i could do so it wouldn't flex when i decided to put the shell back on.