Post by: kidderboots on June 02, 2007, 01:51:00 PM
Things you'll need:
12 pennies
Electrical tape
Hot glue gun
First you open your 360 up (see tutorial on how to)
Take out the mother board
Flip the motherboard upside down
Locate the 4 Ram chip that are black and around the GPU
Take 3 pennies, stack them on top of each other so it looks 3 pennies thick
With the electrical tap wrap the pennies so no copper is showing (make 4 seperate stacks of pennies)
On each ram chip use a very small amount of hot glue to stick the stack of wrapped pennies to the ram
now when you flip the motherboard upside down the pennies should sick to the ram
When putting the screws back in do not screw the black screws that hold the CPU and GPU- leave them off
Screw all the other screws on slow and tight and observe the inputs so that they match up with the holes in the metal casing (example USB ports, AV, Power etc)
You will notice the front USB ports seem to be just barely showing through the casing holes, thats fine
Make sure the fans are reconnected etc and test before putting back together
The reason this works as apposed to alot of other methods is because it kills mulitple birds with one stone
over heating-> there is now some space under the board so the board doesnt get as hot
bad Ram connection->obvisouly the ram is getting pressured back on to the motherboard
GPU/CPU issues-> with the released unneeded tension off the x clamps they dont seems to come unsolderd
I have waiting 11months to post this fix anywhere till i have tested it for a long period of time. I have done about 40 with this method and only on one did it fail to help.
Please post with reponses on how this worked for you, thanks
Post by: gummyworm31 on June 02, 2007, 03:23:00 PM
Post by: kidderboots on June 02, 2007, 06:53:00 PM
This post has been edited by kidderboots: Jun 3 2007, 01:58 AM
Post by: chemicalthunder on June 02, 2007, 08:24:00 PM
Maybe if I added some cooling fan at the back it might be okay.
Post by: slamdunkfunkk on June 02, 2007, 11:20:00 PM
Make sure the fans are reconnected etc and test before putting back together
Bit OT but I don't think I did this bit when I did my first (not yet tested) X-Clamp fix. Bugger.
Slam
Post by: kidderboots on June 03, 2007, 12:57:00 PM
Post by: Antediluvia on June 03, 2007, 01:29:00 PM
Thanks for the tip
Post by: kidderboots on June 03, 2007, 02:10:00 PM
Post by: DrJeckyll on June 03, 2007, 03:38:00 PM
Out of curiousity. Has anyone tried placing erasers/pennies or anything else next to the ramsinks instead on of the ram?
Post by: kidderboots on June 03, 2007, 08:54:00 PM
Post by: abadfish66 on June 04, 2007, 12:17:00 AM
Also, is these latest finds starting to rule out the gpu and cpu as being the problem with the red lights?
Post by: wyldstallions on June 04, 2007, 03:00:00 AM
So far no problems of overheating, even with extended game sessions, (also using an intercooler) but the insulation effect of the rubber does slightly concern me that it may cause the unit to fail long term.
I was thinking of wrapping the ram eraser in alu foil to help transfer heat out to the case.
Post by: DrJeckyll on June 04, 2007, 04:01:00 AM
Post by: kidderboots on June 04, 2007, 01:05:00 PM
Post by: abadfish66 on June 04, 2007, 01:51:00 PM
If were looking to dissapate heat, will we be looking for a better transfer to the pennies other than hot glue, maybe articsilver adhesive. Just brainstorming
Post by: kidderboots on June 04, 2007, 02:00:00 PM
Post by: DrJeckyll on June 04, 2007, 02:22:00 PM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Jun 4 2007, 09:41 PM) 
that extra pressur eon the gpu is not needed when you do this fix (3 penny) you release the pressure by undoing the screws and apply the pressure on the actual failure the ram- its was thought that the heat sink was the cause of the majority of problems when in fact %99 of the time its the ram chips- trust me apply the pressure with a hard substance (not rubber) like the pennies to the ram halpes in mulitple areas on your board. by doing whats stated above with rubber in multiple areas and putting rubber under the dvd drive is doing the same as this fix- but your just adding work thats not needed. when you put rubber under the drive your applying pressure (from the top) to the ram...but in turn yoiur also pushing on your dvd drive in a spot that should be pushed inturn could mess up your drive. anyway yeah you could take the electric tape off but i have seen that one wrap of tape does the trick. thanks for posting guys- let me know the results
More likely you're just countering warping caused by the pressure from the gpu. I believe this works about the same as my nutfix (and any other X-clamp replacement for that matter). The board has something to rest on. But don't forget that X-clamp. There is a lot of pressure from that thing. Way too much which could cause trouble in the future. Loosening the screws can cause more warping because the board is free to bounce up and down with the heatsink.
Post by: kidderboots on June 04, 2007, 06:48:00 PM
Post by: boomstick777 on June 04, 2007, 09:12:00 PM
Was about to do a full gpu heatsink x-clamp replacement so kidderboots if this works mate i will love you lol saves me a lot of hassle.
Not getting my hopes up just yet (well not to much) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)
Will update 2moro...
This post has been edited by boomstick777: Jun 5 2007, 04:14 AM
Post by: The Prankster on June 04, 2007, 10:03:00 PM
Cheers.
Post by: boomstick777 on June 05, 2007, 05:18:00 AM
I hope it will keep going long enough for me to save some extra cash to buy a new (Unbanned live) console and sell mine for spares or what not
AWESOME!
kidderboots =
Update the fans spin faster and the base of the console (metal case) is no longer scorching hot like it used to be? weird!
Hope this fix lasts...
at least until mass effect
Post by: kidderboots on June 05, 2007, 01:37:00 PM
QUOTE(boomstick777 @ Jun 5 2007, 06:54 AM) 
Awesome! It works just played gears of war for 30 minutes cant play it any longer gotta go out damn! that is the longest it has worked for weeks! I found that with no screws in the gpu or cpu x clamps via base of console it would overheat getting 2 red light error. So i managed to screw 7 of them back in the 8th wouldn't connect with the mobo becausce it is raised. I know the board is probably scewed now at an angle but dont give a s**t becausce this things works now!
I hope it will keep going long enough for me to save some extra cash to buy a new (Unbanned live) console and sell mine for spares or what not
AWESOME!
(IMG:http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/5643/uploadxg4.jpg)
kidderboots = (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)
Update the fans spin faster and the base of the console (metal case) is no longer scorching hot like it used to be? weird!
Hope this fix lasts...
at least until mass effect
The prankster check out Boomsticks test- I am telling you i'm not making this up- i tested all the other methods and tried my method (3penny fix) and its worked for 11months and counting. Thanks for the update boomstick! should last you for awhile - dont know ho wlong after all the methods you've done...but still obviously a success. Thanks everyone. please continue to test and leave feedback- and pranksters i urge you to try it if you get the chance
This post has been edited by kidderboots: Jun 5 2007, 08:38 PM
Post by: DrJeckyll on June 05, 2007, 02:01:00 PM
Post by: The Prankster on June 05, 2007, 06:10:00 PM
Almost 99% of 3RLOD errors, whatever the 'hidden' error code be, can be fixed with these methods, penny, eraser, lawdawg, rbjtech etc. Don't take my 99% seriously though lol, but a lot of them are easily fixed with these methods.
@kidderboots
Yeah sorry, that was my bad, I've already fixed one of my xbox 360's with 3RLOD, with lawdawg0931's method, I'm not saying anything of the nature that this won't work, the simple problem is the flexing of the motherboard, so all that needs to be done is have 'things' to correctly align the motherboard with the metal chassis... pennies in your case, erasers in another, but screws that are the correct size in my case.
I'm not against this, and certainly it will work. It's just kind of ironic the 'Twelve Cent Fix' lol. Goodluck with your 360.
Cheers.
This post has been edited by The Prankster: Jun 6 2007, 01:15 AM
Post by: kidderboots on June 05, 2007, 07:37:00 PM
THANKS for posting. keep giving feed back on other units !
Post by: roof22 on June 05, 2007, 07:51:00 PM
This is a excellent cheap fix.
In the end i am not touting that this is the best fix, but for the dad and son who just had enough to get there own shiny new 360 and now its not working, this is worth a shot for them!
Post by: kidderboots on June 06, 2007, 10:19:00 PM
Post by: Heet on June 06, 2007, 10:31:00 PM
Definately a cheap spacer trick. Good job!
Post by: DrJeckyll on June 07, 2007, 02:59:00 AM
Post by: qasem on June 07, 2007, 04:20:00 AM
Post by: tolien on June 07, 2007, 08:18:00 AM
Post by: throwingks on June 07, 2007, 07:58:00 AM
http://www.afrotechmods.com/ram.htm
If you get copper pennies, they dissipate heat very well.
Post by: DrJeckyll on June 07, 2007, 08:37:00 AM
Post by: kidderboots on June 07, 2007, 04:41:00 PM
This post has been edited by kidderboots: Jun 7 2007, 11:42 PM
Post by: xprimex on June 08, 2007, 12:49:00 AM
Im might try this, then I might not have to sell my 360
This post has been edited by xprimex: Jun 8 2007, 07:50 AM
Post by: DrJeckyll on June 08, 2007, 04:20:00 AM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Jun 8 2007, 01:17 AM)
Good find throwingks I never read that artical but its a good example of why all around this is the best of the cheap fixes. its takes care of heat, pressure on the ram and leverage on the board. Thanks throwingks for that find!
Not the best, but still the cheapest imo.
Post by: Boomstick777z on June 08, 2007, 12:33:00 PM
Bear in mind I was happy to try this mod had no warranty, Didn't want to try the x-clamps first in case it didn't work after all the effort. I am personally gonna try x-clamp replacement 2 when rjbtech has an updated guide for it. This mod (penny trick) is for the in between and hey if it keeps working I may just leave it like this..
Thanks to kidderboots for the idea, Just changed it slightly..
Ok you will need
A roll of electrical tape
8 or 12 pennies depending on how much pressure you want to apply (I used 8)
Kit to open an xbox360
I was getting these freezing crashes, With a nice checkered pattern and crackling sound effect to go with it.
After a these crashes became more frequent eventually it would no longer boot up just red lights of death
So what to do is get your self some electrical tape and some pennies I used 8 pennies = 2 pennies for each replacement thermal pad for the ram
So cut the electrical tape long enough to wrap around the pennies. I wrapped 2 bits of tape around each twice
When you have your 4 replacement pads, Double up some tape i.e so its sticky both sides then attach them to your motherboard
When you have finished that re assemble your xbox360. Put back all of the screws including the gpu and cpu heatsink (x-clamp) screws and do them all up nice and tight
When you have fully re asembled your xbox360 try starting it up. If it doesnt work and you still have 3 red lights don't worry (yet). This is when you need to apply heat, I used towel trick for 18 mins.
And then hey presto its working again!
Post by: Boomstick777z on June 08, 2007, 02:44:00 PM
Post by: kidderboots on June 08, 2007, 04:40:00 PM
Post by: kidderboots on June 08, 2007, 04:05:00 PM
This post has been edited by kidderboots: Jun 8 2007, 11:06 PM
Post by: LiGhTfasT on June 08, 2007, 05:01:00 PM
Been fine for over 30min now
Post by: SpiderX1016 on June 08, 2007, 07:21:00 PM
Post by: kidderboots on June 08, 2007, 08:33:00 PM
Post by: spiggo89 on June 08, 2007, 08:29:00 PM
Post by: pimpmaul69 on June 08, 2007, 10:49:00 PM
Post by: kidderboots on June 09, 2007, 01:31:00 AM
The little amount of heat the pennies disepate is more then enough to correct this accurance. We are not trying to replace the motherboard here we are just fixing the flaws. This Fix works. Thanks everyone and keep fixing and posting
Halo3 Beta almost gone - if you want to add and play my Live account is DiCTheGreaT also willing to answer questions on there.
Post by: Lastrite on June 09, 2007, 02:48:00 AM
I'll give it a shot as I don't have all the materials for the x-clamp mod.
This post has been edited by Lastrite: Jun 9 2007, 09:48 AM
Post by: Major Cottenham on June 09, 2007, 03:58:00 AM
Nothing,
Currently doing the Towel thing to see if that helps. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy.gif)
This post has been edited by Major Cottenham: Jun 9 2007, 11:00 AM
Post by: Lastrite on June 09, 2007, 09:24:00 AM
This post has been edited by Lastrite: Jun 9 2007, 04:30 PM
Post by: deadparrot on June 09, 2007, 09:19:00 AM
QUOTE(Major Cottenham @ Jun 9 2007, 10:58 AM)
I used the penny fix,
Nothing,
Currently doing the Towel thing to see if that helps.
DO NOT attempt the Towel Trick. It can only damage your console.
Post by: Lastrite on June 09, 2007, 10:04:00 AM
Perhaps I tightened the screws too much?
Post by: kidderboots on June 09, 2007, 10:31:00 AM
Post by: Lastrite on June 09, 2007, 12:02:00 PM
I had to remove most of the screws to lower the tension, now the fans operate at the normal speed & during initial testing now my games work perfectly.
I believe it was probably because I used three pennies per chip whereas two would have sufficed.
So thank you kidderboots! I can confirm that this has fixed my 0020 error!
Post by: LiGhTfasT on June 09, 2007, 01:12:00 PM
Post by: Boomstick777z on June 09, 2007, 12:52:00 PM
Post by: Boomstick777z on June 09, 2007, 02:02:00 PM
Post by: kidderboots on June 09, 2007, 03:46:00 PM
Post by: snow rider221 on June 09, 2007, 07:20:00 PM
Post by: durtydawg on June 09, 2007, 08:07:00 PM
Post by: XxDUNITxX on June 09, 2007, 10:02:00 PM
The penny trick works for me, I did it last night and I have had my console on for 3 hours straight now and no problems. I used 3 pennies on each ram chip and wrapped them in electrical tape, I don't think that the pennies are really there to dissapate heat though, I think that it is more the space they provide for airflow and the pressure they put on the motherboard that does it.
For those of you getting the loud fan and the 2 red light overheating now, this happened to me too at first. You need to remove the Gpu and Cpu heatsinks, clean all of the thermal paste off of the motherboard and the heatsinks, apply arctic silver, and reassemble. And if you don't tighten those cpu and gpu screws enough you will get 3 red lights, so tighten the f'ers down. I think that the reason that it overheats after you do the penny trick is because when you remove the motherboard from the metal housing you remove the bolts that tighten the gpu and cpu down and break the current bond that it has with the factory thermal crap paste, and from then on it will overheat if you bumped the heatsinks enough.
Also if you cannot get the Gpu and Cpu screws back into the metal case, press down on the cpu and gpu from the top of the motherboard when you are tightening them from the bottom, also save those for last, I managed to get every screwI took out back in and every port on the 360 lines up.
Hope this helps some of you!
And THANK YOU for this topic, I thought that my 360 was screwed and I didn't feel like doing the x clamp.
Thanks!
Also I almost forgot to mention, my 360 had the foamy pad things already on the ram chips, so I took them off when doing the penny trick. And just a tip you can actually rip those pads apart and they are like a glue, I used them to stick my penny stacks to the Ram chips! Thanks M$!
This post has been edited by XxDUNITxX: Jun 10 2007, 05:05 AM
Post by: kidderboots on June 10, 2007, 09:53:00 PM
again this should work on almost all consoles, If you have a question on what you can alter to help after you've tried some things, let me know I'd be glade to help. No one should have to throw out a 360 anymore! Have a good week everyone! and keep postin' !
Post by: Lastrite on June 10, 2007, 09:27:00 PM
QUOTE(durtydawg @ Jun 10 2007, 03:07 AM)
Tried it no luck, same thing fast fans then fans shut off 2 blinking lights. tried going to 8 pennies again no luck same result as above with fan and all maybe to tight never tried without screws. Maybe when I get in the mood to try again I will do that.
Initially I had the exact same problem if you read my earlier posts . . . take all the screws out and turn it on, it should now work without overheating, then keep adding screws and testing it until it overheats then you can remove or lower the tension of the offending screw.
Post by: kidderboots on June 11, 2007, 12:09:00 PM
Bye Halo 3 Beta
Post by: Oakley568 on June 11, 2007, 03:41:00 PM
Post by: thavarin on June 12, 2007, 12:37:00 AM
Post by: kidderboots on June 12, 2007, 01:44:00 AM
Post by: thavarin on June 12, 2007, 04:18:00 AM
Post by: thavarin on June 13, 2007, 12:05:00 AM
Just attempted this today, used 2 pennies instead because I already have the x-clamp replacement and 3 pennies will be a little too high. I also used black electrical tape and an adhesive double side tape. Then I got the 0020 - Overheating? Something I do wrong? Seems like the memory is overheating... what else should I try?
Post by: kidderboots on June 13, 2007, 12:31:00 PM
Post by: stickboom777 on June 14, 2007, 08:12:00 PM
. Played colin mcrae dirt tonight for a couple hours no probs with it at all. Seems to be a stable fix will update again.Come on mass effect.....
Post by: PimpKillaJ on June 15, 2007, 02:33:00 PM
I tried three pennies on each chip and when I put it back together it was very loud and had only two lights flashing. After cleaning the CPU and GPU with alcohol and using dynex silver thermal compound i put all of the screws in and tested it for a minute and it worked!
The only problem is I then put the entire case back on it and I got error 0020 again. After taking the case back off I tried to get it to work with only the t8 screws, only t10 screws and no screws and it still will not work.
You can imagine my frustration. Does anybody have any suggestions that I can try?
Post by: A7X MadDog A7X on June 15, 2007, 11:43:00 PM
2.after i glue the pennies to the ram chips, do i put all the other screws on except for the black cpu and gpu screws???
This post has been edited by A7X MadDog A7X: Jun 16 2007, 06:46 AM
Post by: PimpKillaJ on June 16, 2007, 01:46:00 AM
Post by: PimpKillaJ on June 16, 2007, 01:59:00 PM
Could somebody please stop gaming long enough to throw out a suggestion. I am so jealous and getting desperate.
Post by: kidderboots on June 16, 2007, 06:35:00 PM
Post by: A7X MadDog A7X on June 16, 2007, 06:23:00 PM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Jun 17 2007, 01:35 AM)
You would increase the effectivness of the fix with pennies form the 70's etc. but it is not needed. as for the screw question make sure all the black x-clamp screws are out tighten down slowly- leave the top off and test- if this does not work - please list what your orig problem was - the things you've done before the penny fix- and the error you get now- sorry i have been doing wii mods the lkast week and this upcoming week. so I will be checkin in periodically. I'm sure its something small. BYEEE ALL
ok? can i use aluminum tape instead of electric tape??????????????????????
Post by: PimpKillaJ on June 17, 2007, 01:59:00 AM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Jun 16 2007, 08:35 PM) 
You would increase the effectivness of the fix with pennies form the 70's etc. but it is not needed. as for the screw question make sure all the black x-clamp screws are out tighten down slowly- leave the top off and test- if this does not work - please list what your orig problem was - the things you've done before the penny fix- and the error you get now- sorry i have been doing wii mods the lkast week and this upcoming week. so I will be checkin in periodically. I'm sure its something small. BYEEE ALL
Before the penny fix the only thing that I did was to replace the fans with wisper fans and to make sure all of the grounds were good and tight. As I listed previously the original error was 0020 and remains so. I believe everything else is in my previous posts. By the way, thanks for your help. It is much appreciated.
Post by: stickboom777 on June 17, 2007, 03:47:00 AM
I was getting the 0020 overheating error also with 2 red lights. I used 2 pennies for each ram chip, Wraped each stack of pennies twice around with electrical tape so all penny was covered. Then doubled up electrical tape to stick the stacks to the ram on mobo (Didnt have hot glue available), When I booted up it wouldnt work was getting 2 red lights error 0020.
So I towel tricked
the 360 for about 15 mins and its worked perfect ever since 12 days and counting before this fix my 360 was dead now it works better than ever! 
Just waiting for mass effect to be releases now....
P.s I only used 2 pennies for each stack so was able to screw every single screw back into the motherboard and did them all up tight..
Post by: Djpj on June 17, 2007, 05:33:00 AM
Post by: nettrixx on June 17, 2007, 09:37:00 AM
Recently started getting freezes, then 3 red lights... top right one not lit,,,,
It worked on and off for like 2 weeks then totally quit on me.
Couldnt resist a fix that only cost 12 cents,,,lol
So i did it ,, with 3 pennies each stack,,, used glue gun,,, and then put half the metal casing back,,, (the half the Motherboard attaches to), and voila!!! IT WORKED!!!! YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Then i put all the casing back together, leaving off all the little black screws ,, and at that point it stopped working,,, (I must have tightened the long silver screws to much).
So, then i started taking it back apart,, got the bottom half of outer case, the dark grey plastic bottom(When vertical), and the faceplate off. At this point I started messing with the tightness of the long silver screws,, and finally started working again!!! yeahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
This was about 5 days ago,,, and its been working great so far. I LOVE THIS FIX!!!! ;-).
I now keep my 360 apart, as outlined above, placed horizontally atop of my old PSP box,,, (the PSP box is placed from front to back of the 360 underneath it). I did this because I just like the idea of as much air space surrounding the 360 as possible, I also have a vitamin bottle, (just happened to be the rite size and was handy, lol), placed under the left side, (the side where the hard drive is located), to support the hard drive, since without the bottom half of the case attached,,, the hard drive is only holding on by the connector itself,,,(and that wernt kewl,,, lol).
I'm not really crazy about the idea of my 360 all apart like that ,,, but you know what,,,,, I do really dig playin gears of war stilll,,, so it will stay that way for now!!!!
Ill post further if any changes,,,
THANKX!!!!
Post by: ghettoc401 on June 18, 2007, 09:54:00 AM
Post by: OPTIMUM on June 18, 2007, 08:59:00 PM
First of all i like to thank kidderboots for coming up with this idea of penny fix. I got my 3 lights recently and was pretty much frustated as this was my second xb360. I was browing through all the fix available here and i saw this one. first it sounded like just an ordinary fix and will work in some cases not with everyone. To be honest i was scared as it was my first experience to open my 360 and play with the internals. Then i read and followed stickboom777 post with the pictures and all. so instead of using 3 pennies i used 2 pennies ( special thanks to stickboom777 as well ). first i looked for 8 pennies and did try if i can get as old as i can. so i got mix then i ask someone to get me the electrical tape almost the same size of what stickboom777 showed in the picture but the color was red. i followed the everthing step by step and was pretty careful with the internals and opening the system. well i managed to open and used 2 penny stack on each ram and used DUNIT idea to stick the stack with the existing thermal things on the rams. finally i manged to do everything according to stickboom777. but i followed kidderboots idea and i dint put the black xclam screws on. i manage to put everything back on but not fully so i can re adjust the screws to check if the system works or not. i put all the wires together and made my first attempt to start the system. but it dint work still was having 3 lights. then i thought why not remove all the screws and check then again dint work , then i put all the screws back but let them lose a little still dint work. finally i put each and every screw back and tight them good but again the sytem dint work. then i read stickboom777 post again that ' dont worry if you get 3 light as you might need to do the towel trick' so i was about to prepare the towel and do the towel trick and last time to push the power button on my system and guess what it worked. Thanks God it worked finaly but the strange thing is that why it dint work in the first place any idea ? or may when i was keep checking the system it got heated it self and when i left the hope and was planning to do the towel trick may it got cools down and it worked ( so may be the towel trick happen iteself but no towel or anything involved ) .
p.s. my room was chilled with aircon and fan at the same time and wat i was getting before the 3 ligths was same what stickboom777 got. i use my system verticaly since the day i bought and still played it almost 2-3 hours non stop after penny trick and still vertically. altought im going to exchange my system with a new one in one week time.
Now i came to the conclusion that xbox 360 is an unstable machine and whoever buys it make sure that keep changing it every 4-5 months before it dies on you.
I AGAIN THANKS TO KIDDERBOOTS FOR THE FANTASTIC AND EASY TRICK TO MAKE YOUR XBOX START WORKING AGAIN AND TO STICKBOOM777 TO COME UP WITH THE GREAT TUTORIAL FOR DUMMIES LIKE ME.
Post by: Lastrite on June 19, 2007, 05:59:00 AM
This is a machine which would crash after 2 mins of gameplay if I managed to get it to boot, so not bad going
Post by: stickboom777 on June 19, 2007, 02:15:00 PM
Thanks bro glad it worked for you and the pics/guide helped my 360 has been working for 14 days now no problems whatsoeva we all owe kidderboots for finding this great free fix!
Is anybody experiencing hotter temps than usual?
If I place my hand over the fans at the rear it is getting very hot after only a few minutes it doesn't seem to get hotter after longer but im wandering if this is normal?
It is either a good sign that a lot of heat is being dispesned out of the fans, Or its a sign that it is getting to hot becuasce of the pennies/tape would be good to hear from others who have tried this fix...
Post by: CounterBlow on June 19, 2007, 06:27:00 PM
was blinking. Any explanation? Should I try turning my 360 on again?
Post by: brandogg on June 19, 2007, 08:57:00 PM
Post by: Konquest on June 19, 2007, 11:42:00 PM
Post by: stickboom777 on June 20, 2007, 01:19:00 AM
QUOTE
great fix! The 12 pennies worked like a charm for my 360, but I had to add the black screws for the GPU and CPU for the fan to go back to normal state, with the black screws out the fan was going at full blast even after cleaning the heatsinks and using AS 5.
I had exactly the same problem the fans were running full blast with 3 pennies on each ram chip and no screws in gpu/cpu heatsinks. When i dropped down to 2 pennies for each stack I could screw all gpu/cpu screws back in teh case and the fans are at a normal state
Only thing is my 360 runs very hot if you put your hand over the fans/rear of 360 you can feel its very hot hasn't crashed or anything yet though...
Post by: kidman64 on June 20, 2007, 01:45:00 AM
Post by: Bruc3LeeRoy on June 20, 2007, 03:11:00 AM
will report outcome later =D
Post by: jesse14 on June 20, 2007, 03:16:00 AM
Post by: flashfreak on June 20, 2007, 03:49:00 AM
Post by: Bruc3LeeRoy on June 20, 2007, 04:53:00 PM
QUOTE(flashfreak @ Jun 20 2007, 10:49 AM)
kidman64 is probably right. i put my 360 completely together and wondered why it wasnt reading games, thought i damaged the laser, but it was just unplugged. grr
OMG WHO EVER CREATED THIS IS A GOD!!!! IT WORKS!!!! THANKSS
Post by: willpower101 on June 20, 2007, 06:32:00 PM
Post by: xryanmacx on June 21, 2007, 09:46:00 AM
The biggest trick for me was setting the black screws back in. Ive tried putting them in as tight as possible, then tightening just enough that they are flush with the case and finally only two twists in and every time the fan goes full blast even on the dashboard. If I remove the screws entirely the fans seem to work as they are supposed to. Im going to keep the screws out and see what happens.
Thanks to everyones help in this topic, Ive brought my 360 back from the grave.
Post by: lambo2k6 on June 21, 2007, 10:32:00 AM
you in usa can use penny... but here in europe what "eurocent" shoud use?
can anyone tell us the exact measures of a penny? expecyally the exact height and possibly in millimeters?
thanx
Post by: willpower101 on June 21, 2007, 11:41:00 AM
seems to be conflicting answers 1.55 and 1.27. at least it's a start.
Post by: Kirby64 on June 21, 2007, 06:10:00 PM
Post by: lambo2k6 on June 22, 2007, 01:41:00 AM
QUOTE(willpower101 @ Jun 21 2007, 08:17 PM)
try this http://www.google.co...amp;btnG=Search
seems to be conflicting answers 1.55 and 1.27. at least it's a start.
ambo2k6: I just measured a penny. It's 1.52mm. Just go from there
thanx guys
but.... doh!
eurocents are 1.67 mm thick
Post by: the soul poet on June 22, 2007, 05:32:00 AM
Post by: dadamus on June 22, 2007, 09:55:00 AM
First, did a wiki search for pennies manufactured with most copper. (est 1970 - 1980, contains 95% copper, 5% zinc). Cleaned it with running water and tooth brush&paste.
Second, opened x360 up, took termal pad off, cut'em to 4 pieces. took cloth backing off, set it back on memory.
Third, stacked two pennies with a bit of AS5 in between, wrapped it with aluminum tape (cut'em 1/4 inch wide 1.5 inch long)used for HVAC sealing/wrapping.
Forth, set stacked pennies on top of memory, put bottom metal casing backon, put black screws for heat sinks back in, and re connect dvdrom,power, av cable. Leave fan disconnected.
fifth, turn x360 on. 3ROD. waited about 10 minutes. turned off for 2 minutes. plug fan connector to mobo. turn it on. 2ROD.(over heat) GREAT!
Sixth, powercycle (turn off, back on) and volia! got x360 dashboard!
Left x360 with GOW running for 2 days in a garage (Avg day time temp is around 95F. temp drops to around 80F in the evening). No sigh of 3ROD. Last night, played for about an hour before turning it off. Today morning, before heading for work, I turned of x360 and everything is fine and dandy. Left it running. Will findout if I get 3ROD or not tonight.
Thanks Y'all!
Post by: zacko on June 22, 2007, 04:20:00 PM
on the chips there was a padded glue square.. so i just cut those up and used them instead of a glue gun.. i had to put some pressure on the motherboard when i was putting it back together so i thought i was gonna break it, but it didnt.. and i had to do the towel trick for 15 min to get all the stuff to melt back together after it was reassembled.. its been working for a week now and iv played hours and hours of xbox without any problems at all.. its just like new...
thanks for the fix
Post by: stickboom777 on June 23, 2007, 07:49:00 AM
Post by: kidderboots on June 24, 2007, 05:49:00 PM
LATER
P.S. if this fix worked for you email me at
[email protected]
THANKS ALL
Post by: pisicik on June 25, 2007, 03:20:00 AM
Post by: gsm on June 25, 2007, 08:48:00 AM
Post by: flashfreak on June 27, 2007, 06:05:00 AM
Started giving error 0110 with 3rlod, no reason, just did it. Tried this trick after finally getting hold of a torx t8 bit that wasnt wrecked on the end. Used 3 5c coins (australia), which are 1mm thick each. Used double sided electrical tape to stick em to the ram. After putting in all screws except the heatsinks, i had no result. So i put in the black screws and it worked! Started booting, but then would shut off. Kept doing that, then flashing the 1st and 3rd quad, meaning overheating even though they were cool. Put on the fan duct and even though the fans were at full, it was running fine. After taking out some heatsink screws 1 at a time, its working with just 2 missing. Gave it a dead rising 20 min test and its running fine.
Thought i'd post a story for people who are wondering how it works. Works well, my mate is stoked!
Post by: pimpmaul69 on June 27, 2007, 01:34:00 PM
Post by: pisicik on June 27, 2007, 04:38:00 PM
Post by: gotmoneyyall on June 28, 2007, 01:25:00 PM
i am 16 and i hate that i cant play my xbox so did some other fix that i found and i removed the arctic
silver 5 from the the gpu and cpu and i cleaned them but
i can't seem to find where to get arctic silver5 to put on
some more on the gpu and cpu. So if anybody can tell me
i would appreciate it. I mean please i need help. I was planning on
doing this fix. SO if anybody can tell me what i need to know
im sure that i can get it uo and running again with this fix.
PLEASE .Email at [email protected]Post by: gotmoneyyall on June 28, 2007, 03:44:00 PM
QUOTE(gotmoneyyall @ Jun 28 2007, 12:01 PM)
i am 16 and i hate that i cant play my xbox so did some other fix that i found and i removed the arctic
silver 5 from the the gpu and cpu and i cleaned them but
i can't seem to find where to get arctic silver5 to put on
some more on the gpu and cpu. So if anybody can tell me
i would appreciate it. I mean please i need help. I was planning on
doing this fix. SO if anybody can tell me what i need to know
im sure that i can get it uo and running again with this fix.
PLEASE .Email at [email protected]Post by: SwingDangler on June 28, 2007, 05:18:00 PM
QUOTE(Boomstick777z @ Jun 8 2007, 05:20 PM)
Dead link w/ no pics. Got another link?
Post by: stickboom777 on June 28, 2007, 10:46:00 PM
For some reason thay attached it to kidderboots post, Removed my link and banned me
nice anyways its now about half way down this page
http://forums.xbox-s...o...06431&st=30
Post by: gotmoneyyall on June 29, 2007, 10:55:00 AM
and the fans started out quiet and then they got faster
then it gave me two red lights
Post by: mikethekobra on June 29, 2007, 12:26:00 PM
by the way i used 2 pennies n left out the black screws to get it to work
Post by: kidderboots on June 29, 2007, 12:54:00 PM
Please help report back on the "turbo fan" problem. Thanks!
Post by: gotmoneyyall on June 29, 2007, 02:07:00 PM
QUOTE(mikethekobra @ Jun 29 2007, 10:26 AM)
i did this n my xbox works great...except 1 thing..its really loud...it dosent get that hot n i get no error.itsjust loud...any ideas to fix this?
by the way i used 2 pennies n left out the black screws to get it to work
where do i get Arctic silver 5
Post by: kidderboots on June 29, 2007, 08:11:00 PM
add on:I didnt specifiy the use of ANY arctic silver in this fix so i hope your doing it cause M$ left some plactic wrapped up on your cpu/gpu.
Post by: gotmoneyyall on June 30, 2007, 06:49:00 AM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Jun 29 2007, 06:11 PM)
You can get Dynex arctic silver from Best Buy thats where i get mine. Otherwise other electronic stores like radio shack etc. (or order it form newegg or tigerdirect) . I have even seen it in Walmart.. But i doubt thats a reliable place to go to get thermal grease haha. try your local Bestbuy or radio shack (or small referbished computer store) or else bit the bullet and order it on newegg. hope this helps
add on:I didnt specifiy the use of ANY arctic silver in this fix so i hope your doing it cause M$ left some plactic wrapped up on your cpu/gpu.
yea thanks
but i opened mine and looked at
the gpu and there was none on it and
it looked burned so im gonna clean it
and put some on it BUT.............
if i should leave it like this tell me
Post by: HaterSlayer on June 30, 2007, 01:29:00 PM
Post by: wunder on June 30, 2007, 02:28:00 PM
Post by: kidderboots on June 30, 2007, 06:45:00 PM
QUOTE(HaterSlayer @ Jun 30 2007, 02:29 PM)
Are you supposed to do the towel fix afterwords? Some people in here did that, but in the original thread you said nothing about that. Also, just to be clear each penny is supposed to be taped individually then tapped together or are they supposed to be taped together?
Sorry didnt see your post- no the pennies should be wrapped as one unit, penny on top of penny. some people do the towel trick before even tryin this but it is not needed just try this first and you'll see.
so wrap the pennies together
no towel trick
good luck
have fun
Post by: Thirsty Arizonian on June 30, 2007, 07:18:00 PM
Oh now it turned on and went to the startup screen then it turned off 2 lights...I turned it off and on again and it came on to the startup screen and then it turned off agian and now it wont even turn on .. oh damn..
OH thank god it came back on and went even farther this time to the game start screen but after 1 min it shut off with 2 red lights..I have a extra fan hooked up as well so i guess ill try another screw and see if that works..but its getting farther and farther so .. it seems so close but so far away ..
Post by: Thirsty Arizonian on June 30, 2007, 07:33:00 PM
Put all screws except one and now its works holy #@#$ but it works so far playing gear of war 20 min strong now .. so all so good ..
Post by: kidderboots on June 30, 2007, 11:10:00 PM
Post by: Timebomber on July 01, 2007, 12:45:00 AM
Post by: stickboom777 on July 01, 2007, 03:10:00 AM
I am however getting disc read errors lol one problem after another hoping this is becausce of the media I am using to burn my games...
Is there a firmware for hitachi that enables the discs to spin slower? this may mean less read errors...
Post by: kidderboots on July 01, 2007, 11:49:00 AM
also with the amount your playin these laser intessive games you may want to get a laser cleaner or clean the laser your self with some alcohol and swab (three olives or grey goose is not advised
i bet the laser just needs a cleanin if you use Verbatims already- let me know if this helps- PEACE
Post by: Timebomber on July 01, 2007, 02:08:00 PM
Post by: adilanis on July 01, 2007, 02:39:00 PM
I ll tell u my experience with this fix for my 360
manufacture date nov.2006 with thermal pads on all bottom ram chips
it gave 3 redlights after 6 months of only using 2 hours at night bcos of work...
some checkered board effect freezes n 3RLOD error 0110 (memory error)
i have rapped copper pennies with electrical tape n stick it to my thermal pads
n put every screws except the eight xclamp screws
strange thing ... it booted normally in my first boot
so no overheating requiredfirst played half an hour of gears it ran great so thnx kidderboot for this....
turned of the console....
then opened again after about 2 hours
started gears n after 10 mins it freezes again with white lines on my screen
i tried it approximately 5 times with different games but it freezes everytime
but i have noticed one thing i havnt had 3RLOD in all my 5-6 boots (thats ma bonus point)
so i rig up a fan blowing cold air directly to gpu n cpu heatsinks n ran gears of war
this time no freezes i have played 2 hours continously n it ran fine..
kidderboot would u suggest me anything because of fan i cant close my 360 box...
n by the way your method ROCKS
Post by: kidderboots on July 01, 2007, 03:09:00 PM
QUOTE(Timebomber @ Jul 1 2007, 03:08 PM)
Shucks...spoke too soon. The Elite just went down again. No more 3 lights of doom but now no matter what game i play, around 3 minutes in, the screen decides to go black. The X360E is on and the lights are on in the console and controller. If i let it sit by itself in the dashboard for 10 minutes or so it doesnt freeze or go to a black screen.
yeah your 360 isnt over heating- you eithe rneed to mess with the placement of the pennies again (even though it worked at one point) or mess with the screws like done in previous posts. I gaurantee its not actually over heating. mess with it alittle more and you'll get it. thanks for tryin and im glade this works for you. Get back to us when you get it perfect!
As for Timebomber this is the exact reason i invented this fix! you shoudl just mess with the pennies and screws al ittle more and your freezing will stop! same as above. You get freezing after about 10mins usually means that one of the center 2 ram chips have abad placment of pennies or not the right amount of pressure. keep trying-this will work
Get back to us! thanks
Post by: kr0nikk on July 01, 2007, 03:26:00 PM
put everything back on and it worked...
now im gonna see if it will continue to work when i put the case back on
thanks to whoever created this fix
Post by: kr0nikk on July 01, 2007, 04:04:00 PM
anyway, it was working but then when i put the casing and everything else back on, it gave me the 2 red lights which meant overheating, im gonna try to keep all the black screws off and see if that solves the problem as someone stated earlier
at least i am not seeing those stupid 3 red lights
Post by: kr0nikk on July 01, 2007, 06:44:00 PM
anyways, my 360 works fine with the pennies until i put the screws in, would i cause problems if i just put it all back together minus the screws? or just using the big' main screws?
Post by: Jtboomer2 on July 01, 2007, 08:52:00 PM
Post by: kidderboots on July 01, 2007, 09:28:00 PM
Post by: stickboom777 on July 02, 2007, 04:50:00 AM
I had the same problem untill i used just 2 pennies for each stack then i was able to screw all 8 black screws back in. Haven't had any problems since fans operate at a normal speed everythings fine...
Try using just 2 pennies and see if that works with all screws back in place hope this helps you out
Kidderboots is a legend!
Post by: Jtboomer2 on July 02, 2007, 06:54:00 AM
Thanks for the great fix and everyone's contribution to this thread. It helped me fix my 360 within 2 hours of it breaking.
Post by: np_guard on July 02, 2007, 12:41:00 PM
Post by: kidderboots on July 02, 2007, 06:45:00 PM
happy independance day
Post by: kevinlekiller on July 02, 2007, 09:25:00 PM
So I then tried the changing the x-clamp method with no success , now I tried the penny method taking off the white stuff on the ram chips and with 2 pennies with the white stuff with no success , I guess its dead
Thanks for the tutorial still , might come in handy on a future xbox
Post by: PimpKillaJ on July 03, 2007, 05:05:00 AM
http://www.talismoon...whisperfan-blue
Do yourself a favor and order your fans first
There are also unlocking kits sold online. It is not necessary but it does make it easier.
http://users.tpg.com...0FIX-Carkus.pdf
This is the real deal
http://xboxfamily.pr...read=1181503041
Excellent source of guides like error codes and how to disassemble especially the last one
http://copronymous.c...r-the-3rlod.pdf
This is the original
This is my post (# 517) that you should read before attempting.
Hell yes!! I finally brought my launch console back to life. It had been down since the end of January and I could not send it in because I had already put the tailsmoon fans in. Thank you so much for the tutorial. It worked so well I did not even have to bake it once I had the right materials. The eraser/penny fix was a waste of time and effort for me. My failures are on posts 71, 73, 77. http://forums.xbox-s...o...06431&st=60 It took me a couple attempts to get it right so I have a couple suggestions that I hope that you include into the tutorial soon. I am sure you will get fewer questions if you include:
Loose screws worked for me. I barely tightened them on my last attempt because I was planning on doing that after I heated it up. I guess I might have to one day but not while it is working!
1. From what I read in another post- High quality heat sink paste such as dynex will only vary a few degrees from artic silver so it is safe to use and more readily available for most people- Radio Shack, Best Buy, Circuit City all had it.
2. Compile a list of parts for different countries. Side note- You can print out the part list and take it to a lowes but do not trust them. Double check always. I checked online and 8 of them in the Tidewater VA area are completely out of the screws as well as the Home Depot I checked. Churchland Hardware had them though. I ended up using 1 screw under the heat sinks and 2 under the motherboard. Since I was given all metal washers I made sure that I used the smaller ones (eventually) that did not touch the circuits of the board. By the way the washers were one mm in height.
3. When it comes to replacing the heat sink paste, forget using alcohol. On my third attempt I used Goo Gone (available at super Wal-Mart where the cleaning supplies are for less than $5) and it ended up taking off the crap paste that I could never get off and it works fast. NOBODY within 30 min of me carries the Artic Silver 1or2.
4. It seems like a lot of people have had success when they used only a little thermal paste. That is the route I went when I finally fixed it. I found it much easier to use the plastic wrap method by which your finger is covered in it and you spread a SMALL- read barely covering- amount on the dies (shiny things under the heat sinks). Sorry I could not resist that because this is my first electronics repair and I did not figure it out for a while.
5. I had to get help to find a socket that would fit the legs of the heat sinks. Posting what others have used besides needle nose pliers might really help the mechanically uninclined such as myself.
6. Why not have links at the start of the tutorial to
http://xboxfamily.pr...read=1181503041
which has the links to dissemble the system or
http://www.talismoon...whisperfan-blue
which is the link to get the fans they almost positively need to have results (AND QUIET)
7. Post 42 explains his method of getting the screws into the heat sinks. It is much better than my original method of holding the four screws on the tips of my fingers! Yes people are that stupid/difficult without experience and I believe you will become inundated with repeat questions because reading all 35 pages of both yours and RBJtech's forum posts can be a chore.
8. How about keeping track of not how many people have got this to work but in what position it is in. I would REALLY like to put mine back vertical but am going to play it safe for now.
You have brought so much joy back into my life I wanted to find a way to improve yours. Thanks again.
To those of you who are suggesting this fix to friends- PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE refer them to this Post before they write something foolish that has to be read by possibly tens of thousands soon.
Lastly only plan on updating if I run into a problem.
**** Not for Noobs****
http://rbjtech.bulld..._com/XClamp.htm
This is likely your last alternative if you dont have any luck. It involves drilling your mother board and heat sinks!
**** Not for Noobs****
If none of this works for you I am sorry. There is nothing that I can do for you. All the information that I have is now in your hands. Please do not email me unless you would like to send money or something.
Post by: gotmoneyyall on July 03, 2007, 11:30:00 AM
i did the penny trick with 3 pennys and left the bottom
half of the box of {where u can see the screws} and turned it
on and and overheated with all the screws in. Waited till it turned off
which took about 15 min. And then waited .........
finally turned on and have to wait 30 seconds for any light on the
ring of light to glow any color.then it comes on and i get a error code
of 0022.
And i don't have any arctic silver on either of the chips. Cold that be the problem??
Post by: pcp on July 03, 2007, 12:59:00 PM
excellent fix! My 360 died a few months ago and this is the first time i've got a game load up without freezing in that time Used 3 pennies and left the black screws out, not sure if the fans are going too fast tho or whether i'm just not used to the noise the 360 makes anymore
, i'll try it again in a few days with 2 pennies and screws in and see what happens
Post by: A7X MadDog A7X on July 03, 2007, 03:46:00 PM
I HAD TO OVERHEAT MY CONSOLE TO BRING IT BACK TO LIFE DUE TO THE O102 ERROR....
THEN I PUT THE 3 PENNIES WRAPED IN ALUMINUM TAPE AND HOT GLUED ON TO EACH RAM CHIP...
Post by: kidderboots on July 03, 2007, 05:58:00 PM
QUOTE(gotmoneyyall @ Jul 3 2007, 01:06 PM)
ok what the hell
i did the penny trick with 3 pennys and left the bottom
half of the box of {where u can see the screws} and turned it
on and and overheated with all the screws in. Waited till it turned off
which took about 15 min. And then waited .........
finally turned on and have to wait 30 seconds for any light on the
ring of light to glow any color.then it comes on and i get a error code
of 0022.
And i don't have any arctic silver on either of the chips. Cold that be the problem??
THERE IS NO ARTIC SILVER IN MY FIX haha- i dont know what page this started on but you dont need any.
just take it slow. try the 2 pennies first- tighten it up pretty well with all the screws in and let me know what happens- if that doesnt work try 3 pennies each and tighten it up. - if this doesnt help try doing the hot towel type of fix with the pennies in there. please report back - NO ARTIC SILVER- unless you have plastci wrapped over your gpu/cpu. then you need to start all the way over
Post by: mikethekobra on July 03, 2007, 09:33:00 PM
Post by: kr0nikk on July 04, 2007, 01:16:00 AM
Post by: pr0j3ctxb0x on July 04, 2007, 02:16:00 PM
Post by: HaterSlayer on July 04, 2007, 08:20:00 PM
Post by: PimpKillaJ on July 04, 2007, 09:00:00 PM
PLEASE READ IN ENTIRETY BEFORE ATTEMPTING! And be careful!!
http://www.talismoon.com/cgi-bin/version2/engine.pl?page=product-xbox360-whisperfan-blue
Do yourself a favor and order your fans first
There are also unlocking kits sold online. It is not necessary but it does make it easier.
http://users.tpg.com.au/adsla7hl/XBOX%20360%203RLOD%20FIX-Carkus.pdf
This is the real deal
http://xboxfamily.proboards84.com/index.cgi?board=fixes&action=display&thread=1181503041
Excellent source of guides like error codes and how to disassemble especially the last one
http://copronymous.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/fix-for-the-3rlod.pdf
This is the original
This is my post (# 517) that you should read before attempting.
Hell yes!! I finally brought my launch console back to life. It had been down since the end of January and I could not send it in because I had already put the tailsmoon fans in. Thank you so much for the tutorial. It worked so well I did not even have to bake it once I had the right materials. The eraser/penny fix was a waste of time and effort for me. My failures are on posts 71, 73, 77. http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=606431&st=60 It took me a couple attempts to get it right so I have a couple suggestions that I hope that you include into the tutorial soon. I am sure you will get fewer questions if you include:
Loose screws worked for me. I barely tightened them on my last attempt because I was planning on doing that after I heated it up. I guess I might have to one day but not while it is working!
1. From what I read in another post- High quality heat sink paste such as dynex will only vary a few degrees from artic silver so it is safe to use and more readily available for most people- Radio Shack, Best Buy, Circuit City all had it.
2. Compile a list of parts for different countries. Side note- You can print out the part list and take it to a lowes but do not trust them. Double check always. I checked online and 8 of them in the Tidewater VA area are completely out of the screws as well as the Home Depot I checked. Churchland Hardware had them though. I ended up using 1 screw under the heat sinks and 2 under the motherboard. Since I was given all metal washers I made sure that I used the smaller ones (eventually) that did not touch the circuits of the board. By the way the washers were one mm in height.
3. When it comes to replacing the heat sink paste, forget using alcohol. On my third attempt I used Goo Gone (available at super Wal-Mart where the cleaning supplies are for less than $5) and it ended up taking off the crap paste that I could never get off and it works fast. NOBODY within 30 min of me carries the Artic Silver 1or2.
4. It seems like a lot of people have had success when they used only a little thermal paste. That is the route I went when I finally fixed it. I found it much easier to use the plastic wrap method by which your finger is covered in it and you spread a SMALL- read barely covering- amount on the dies (shiny things under the heat sinks). Sorry I could not resist that because this is my first electronics repair and I did not figure it out for a while.
5. I had to get help to find a socket that would fit the legs of the heat sinks. Posting what others have used besides needle nose pliers might really help the mechanically uninclined such as myself.
6. Why not have links at the start of the tutorial to
http://xboxfamily.proboards84.com/index.cgi?board=fixes&action=display&thread=1181503041
which has the links to dissemble the system or
http://www.talismoon.com/cgi-bin/version2/engine.pl?page=product-xbox360-whisperfan-blue
which is the link to get the fans they almost positively need to have results (AND QUIET)
7. Post 42 explains his method of getting the screws into the heat sinks. It is much better than my original method of holding the four screws on the tips of my fingers! Yes people are that stupid/difficult without experience and I believe you will become inundated with repeat questions because reading all 35 pages of both yours and RBJtech's forum posts can be a chore
. I put a book underneath the bottom of the motherboard when I turned the motherboard over to face up. I then added the washers and placed the heatsink on top. I then moved the book (with the motherboard on top) to the edge of a table and then slid the motherboard off the book so only 1 screw wasn't being supported by the book. This way I could focus on holding and screwing in one screw at a time. Once that screw was done I could move the motherboard in a different position to reveal another screw and so on.
8. How about keeping track of not how many people have got this to work but in what position it is in. I would REALLY like to put mine back vertical but am going to play it safe for now.
You have brought so much joy back into my life I wanted to find a way to improve yours. Thanks again.
To those of you who are suggesting this fix to friends- PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE refer them to this Post before they write something foolish that has to be read by- possibly tens of thousands soon.
Lastly only plan on updating if I run into a problem.
**** Not for Noobs****
http://rbjtech.bulldoghome.com/pages/rbjtech_bulldoghome_com/XClamp.htm
This is likely your last alternative if you dont have any luck. It involves drilling your mother board and heat sinks!
**** Not for Noobs****
If none of this works for you I am sorry. There is nothing that I can do for you. All the information that I have is now in your hands. If you appreciate this feel free to let me know though.
Post by: chickenmon on July 04, 2007, 08:56:00 PM
Only had my box 6 months got in dec 06 manufactured in oct 06. Got it brand new and have maybe 200 to 300 total hours on it probly not even that high. Anyways Ive feared this day knowing it was probly coming and it finally did GOW and boom wierd noise lines down the screen and 3 rod. Following this guide using 2 pennies electrical tape and the sticky stuff that was already on the chips as double sided gunk to hold the pennies got everything working again. For me 3 pennies was messing it up giving me 2 red lights and the fan reving really high did it all again with 2 pennies sounds normal been running gears of war for past couple hours no problems. Hope the fix last. I think alot of people are over complicating this fix in the post. The pennies are not there to act as heat sinks they are there for the purpose of applying pressure to the bga ram. All this talk of foil tape copper blocks etc is not gonna make a bit of differance. As far as the core and gpu needing artic silver maybe but mine is doing fine on the stock stuff. You can thank the enviormentalist for all these 360 failures. Its my understanding 360 is lead free meaning the tin solder to replace it doesnt have the same flexing properties causing all these failures. But if it saves just 1 child it deffinately wasnt worth it.
Post by: got_milk? on July 06, 2007, 11:31:00 AM
Maybe that's what's causing the overheating issues, people's heatsinks are falling off.
I'll try this tonight, but those black screws are staying in. The weight of the pennies should counteract the force of the X-Clamps anyway.
Post by: got_milk? on July 06, 2007, 06:17:00 PM
I did leave the black screws out after staring at everything for awhile.
However, my fans are running at max speed. I don't mind. My Xbox is running cooler and faster than ever before.
This fix seems sketchy, but it works. It's saved me time and made my Xbox worth 12 cents more than pretty much anyone else's
Post by: fracicone on July 07, 2007, 08:38:00 PM
1st of all a big THANK YOU to the fella who came up with this fix.
I just wanted to tell you my experience.
I had a Premium 360 purchased in sep 2006 but I started using it in November only; it immediately started freezing, and in just 2 months it would freeze immediately, even on the dashboard, complete with garbled video and crackling sound (no red ring or death though). I shelved it until now and decided to try this trick.
I live in Venezuela so finding pennies wasn't easy but my dad had stashed exactly 8 (fate maybe?) so I made 4 piles of 2 pennies, held together with electrical tape, folded a little piece of tape to attach them to the ram chips and it works like a charm!
I left EVERY single screw on and even tightened them quite well. I have played 1 hour of Flatout and 1 hour of Call of Duty 3, no problems so far, while, as I already said, the machine would hang after less than a minute.
Cooling fans are working as they should and I will surely report back as soon as there are other news.
BTW, I have another 360 (core) purchased in feb 2007 and it already froze on me twice while playing (no red lights, garbage on screen or crackling sounds yet) but I am out of pennies; can I use anything else made of copper; does it even HAVE to be copper? Should I apply the fix even if the 360 has only froze on me twice?
BTW, I didn't apply any towel trick or any overheating to the 360 I fixed.
Post by: stickboom777 on July 08, 2007, 09:27:00 AM
Still waiting for mass effect
bet my 360 dies on the day of release just to bug me
Post by: gotmoneyyall on July 08, 2007, 10:10:00 AM
just tried the stuff kidderbots just told me to do and i replaced with two pennies and it did the same just like it
did before with the 3 pennies.so im overheated with the towel.
im gonna wait 30 min, so hopefully it will work will comment later
but hopefully i won't have to.
ha
Post by: wunder on July 08, 2007, 03:01:00 PM
anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
Post by: kidderboots on July 08, 2007, 07:05:00 PM
Post by: fracicone on July 08, 2007, 09:45:00 PM
I mean the most common must be RAM overheating, CPU overheating and GPU overheating, right? Most of them caused by the mobo warping...
Post by: RGeffen78 on July 09, 2007, 04:13:00 PM
First off all I come from Europe; hence dimes mean nothing to me... Nevertheless I did suffer from the described problems.
I own a december 2005 360 ( one of the first 360's )
Up untill now the machine operated fine untill a week ago.
I got the errors described on page 3 of this thread ( take a look at the pictures )
The console froze with the messed-up screen and audio not long after switching on.
I did not receive any Ring-Of-Dead leds yet.
But after reading this thread I knew what had to be done.
Tonight I dismantled the 360.
I took out 8 times a 5 euro cent coin and made 4 packages of 2 coins.
I took some hotglue; applied it to the heatsink and pressed the packages down.
The box was put back together including all black screws ( thight ! ) and on boot-up I got immediatly 3 red LED's
I knew what had to be done; I loosned all of them; resulting into 2 RED Leds
next step was fasting ONLY the 4 screws of the videocard and leaving the CPU somewhat loose.
It booted; but the FAN went to 100% straight away ( NOISE !!! )
I took 2 of the 4 CPU screws out ( like on page 9 ) and gave it a go.
Green led's - all good - fan running at normal speed.
I then played PES6 for about an hour plus some arcade games; all good.
The case was put together ( gently; not putting in the 2 middle big screws ) and all is still fine.
System has run over 4 hours non-stop all good
100% fix for me
Thanks to all who contributed here!
Post by: wunder on July 09, 2007, 07:54:00 PM
Kidder, dude, you're genius!
Post by: kidderboots on July 09, 2007, 08:17:00 PM
anyway thanks for the last 2 posts for the step through of what worked for you! we need more of those for people who get stuck with similar problems. I am currently workin on a trick that would work with out having to even open the console so wish me luck ! Later gators
Post by: bradpric on July 09, 2007, 09:02:00 PM
Post by: kidderboots on July 09, 2007, 11:31:00 PM
QUOTE(bradpric @ Jul 9 2007, 10:02 PM)
Two pennies worked for me, I was getting the 2 red flashing lights and overheating. I soon realized I had not put the white fan duct on. Once I did everthing worked great. I was able to tighten all the screws very tight. I am sure Microcrap knows this is the problem, Because all of the later built boxes have th white pads installed, I think just like the eraser fix these white pads loose tension on the chips. This seems to be doing the trick Thanks to All, I can keep my kids quiet once again
you make a good point- i have talked to several people and they get over heating issues and i ask. did you remember to put the white fan duct on to guide the cool air back on? and alot of the time they dont think about it.
Thanks for bringing this up- when testing put the white fan duct on or you will get 2 lights or else it will only last for around 10secs etc.
Post by: fracicone on July 10, 2007, 02:13:00 PM
Just an anedoctal detail: a couple of the 8 pennies are used are Balboa cents (made of copper and apparently identical to the ones from the US besides of course the engraving), which is the currency in Panama, so my 360 has been fixed with US and Panamian money
Post by: Havok on July 10, 2007, 02:20:00 PM
I tried using actual heatsinks on the ram chips that were about 3 pennies high. I got all sorts of 3ROL (which I never had) and 2 lights (overheating) depending on how tight I made the screws. With the 4.5mm height I saw the case did not fit together very well.
So I whipped out 8 pennies... clamped everything down and no problems now. The fans are running faster now...
For people that get 2ROL (overheating) issues or fast running fans I suspect is due to moving the heatsinks. Thermal paste dries out over time and when you remove the black screws and lift the motherboard out (some people probably lift it by the heatsinks) you cause air gaps to form in between the GPU/GPU die and the heatsink. Depending on how much thermal paste is on there (which is random) and how much you moved the clamps.. gives the varying results. I didn't have any thermal paste so I just clamped it down tight. Removing the heatsinks, sanding them flat and adding new thermal paste (after removing the old stuff with a good solvent) will probably eliminate all Fast fans and 2ROL problems.
Post by: fracicone on July 11, 2007, 10:48:00 AM
#1: since there is over a 30% chance that current 360s will fail in the mid to long term and considering that most of us are going to open the console to flash it anyways, would it be wise to apply the 8 pennies trick as a preemptive measure on a new console?
#2: does the 8 (12, 2, 3 call it whatever you like) pennies trick fix only memory related issues or is it a fix for GPU/CPU related problems as well? Like question #1, would it make sense to make the X-Clamp+thermal paste replacement mod on a new 360 that has not failed yet?
#3: can I use copper washers if I run out of pennies?
Post by: kidderboots on July 11, 2007, 08:37:00 PM
QUOTE(fracicone @ Jul 11 2007, 11:48 AM)
OK I have 2 questions:
#1: since there is over a 30% chance that current 360s will fail in the mid to long term and considering that most of us are going to open the console to flash it anyways, would it be wise to apply the 8 pennies trick as a preemptive measure on a new console?
#2: does the 8 (12, 2, 3 call it whatever you like) pennies trick fix only memory related issues or is it a fix for GPU/CPU related problems as well? Like question #1, would it make sense to make the X-Clamp+thermal paste replacement mod on a new 360 that has not failed yet?
#3: can I use copper washers if I run out of pennies?
Do not do it on an unfailed xbox. there are %70-60 of boxes that will never need anything. (so they say) so keep it untouched. also you can use copper washers. the penny fix as dicribe in previous pages fixes over heating Ram, over heating GPU, over heating CPU and the whole combination of the 3. also keeps the whole console alot cooler. hope this helps
PEACE
Post by: wunder on July 11, 2007, 11:11:00 PM
8 hours straight of burnout
4 hours of FFXI
12 total hours...
My xbox..................
Is...........................
Still running solid, wtf? lol
This technique is simply amazing. I hope there will be no catch later down the road lol.
Post by: thavarin on July 12, 2007, 12:12:00 AM
Post by: wunder on July 12, 2007, 05:21:00 AM
QUOTE
Hey its me again from like pages earliar, but yeah I tried the method again and still failing. IS THERE ANYONE WHO HAS THE X CLAMP REPLACEMENT? and suceeded with the penny fix? I know its my memory because whenever I try the pennie I get an 3ROD and when I switch to eraser it works (temporarily then 3ROD days or hours late). Is there yet a pic tutorial, more detailed one that is? And also I'm using the black electrical tape and 8 pennies - (maybe Ill try just one later) I'm also rolling up the tape and putting it on memory so the pennies will stick, could this be the problem?
First things first. To fix the problem, you must understand the problem.
You see, the reason your xbox overheat/3rl is because of poor motherboard integrity. the xclamps on the bottom of the board causes the board to flex under heat. And with M$ slathering too much thermal compuond on(some needs to teach them how to apply TC lol) the GPU and CPU heat has a hard time transferring to the sinks. When your board flexes, vital solder points break causing loss connection between logic chips(or w/e).
The purpose behind xclamp mod was to improve the integrity between case and mobo. This helps heat transfer faster and eliminates flex. However, the procedure is a bit hard to attempt and risky.
The purpose for the penny fix is to apply a slight permanent flex to the board. Nullifing anyother flex heat might cause. This keeps the soldering in tact. So therefor the way you tighten the black screws to your GPU/CPU is vital. Also how many pennies you stack to your RAM plays an important role.
To answering your question. You have to play around with your black screws a bit. From what I read it's different for everybody. This can be very faustrating.
What I did was:
I used black electricl tape to tape 2 pennies until the copper didn't show. ( x4)
I placed them on the ram.
Instead of using glue, I simply taped them to the mobo.
Then I placed the mobo back in the casing.
Lastly, I tightend all the black screws.(Might be diff for you)
Post by: fracicone on July 12, 2007, 01:13:00 PM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Jul 11 2007, 10:37 PM)
Do not do it on an unfailed xbox. there are %70-60 of boxes that will never need anything. (so they say) so keep it untouched. also you can use copper washers. the penny fix as dicribe in previous pages fixes over heating Ram, over heating GPU, over heating CPU and the whole combination of the 3. also keeps the whole console alot cooler. hope this helps
PEACE
Thanks for the answer Kidderboots.
BTW, my 2nd X360 (not the one I pimped with teh pennies) froze twice since purchase; does waiting for a 3rd freeze and only then applying the fix (without getting the 3lod) sound like a good plan to you?
Post by: Tygrrr on July 12, 2007, 01:47:00 PM
My 360 developed the 3rlod about 3 months ago, so I performed the x-clamp replacement and got it working again. The only problem I had was that every time I tried to tidy it up and put the case back on, the 3rlod would return. So for the last 3 months I've had a "naked" 360 sitting on the living room floor. Not quite as easy on the eye as a fully clothed 360!!
Then a few weeks ago my 360 got banned from xbox live, so I decided to get a faulty 360 from ebay and repair it to get back online. Again using the x-clamp replacement method. This was only half successful, with the 360 overheating after a very short period of use.
So today I got home early from work and decided to try the 8 penny trick on my naked 360. I took it all apart, taped together some pennies with AS5 in the middle and stuck them on the underside rams. I replaced the heatsinks, turned it on and . . . GREEN lights!!
Left it for a while to overheat, turned it off and replaced everything, including the case. All or nothing!! I turned it back on, green lights again!! I played Forza 2 for 2 hours without a glitch!!
I then did the same on the overheating 360 and once again, green lights!! As I type it's been running the PGR3 demo for 30 minutes without any redlights appearing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have to open the 360's again, or at least for a month or so!!
Once again, thank you to everyone who has made this possible!!
Post by: kidderboots on July 12, 2007, 01:53:00 PM
QUOTE(wunder @ Jul 12 2007, 06:21 AM)
First things first. To fix the problem, you must understand the problem.
You see, the reason your xbox overheat/3rl is because of poor motherboard integrity. the xclamps on the bottom of the board causes the board to flex under heat. And with M$ slathering too much thermal compuond on(some needs to teach them how to apply TC lol) the GPU and CPU heat has a hard time transferring to the sinks. When your board flexes, vital solder points break causing loss connection between logic chips(or w/e).
The purpose behind xclamp mod was to improve the integrity between case and mobo. This helps heat transfer faster and eliminates flex. However, the procedure is a bit hard to attempt and risky.
The purpose for the penny fix is to apply a slight permanent flex to the board. Nullifing anyother flex heat might cause. This keeps the soldering in tact. So therefor the way you tighten the black screws to your GPU/CPU is vital. Also how many pennies you stack to your RAM plays an important role.
To answering your question. You have to play around with your black screws a bit. From what I read it's different for everybody. This can be very faustrating.
What I did was:
I used black electricl tape to tape 2 pennies until the copper didn't show. ( x4)
I placed them on the ram.
Instead of using glue, I simply taped them to the mobo.
Then I placed the mobo back in the casing.
Lastly, I tightend all the black screws.(Might be diff for you)
Great explaination thanks for helping him!
Yeah a simple 1 to many turns can cause this to error out again (depending on how $hitty your bored is. For most people it doesnt really matter as long as its snug and tight. thanks
QUOTE(fracicone @ Jul 12 2007, 02:13 PM)
Thanks for the answer Kidderboots.
BTW, my 2nd X360 (not the one I pimped with teh pennies) froze twice since purchase; does waiting for a 3rd freeze and only then applying the fix (without getting the 3lod) sound like a good plan to you?
ahh no if it has errored out 2 other times but htey are way spread out i would say no. wait till its becoming an inconvienance to you. like every 3rd time or somthing. or if it turns off after 10mins everytime something like that. otherwise your bored could be fine and it just happend to actually over heat the other 2 times. (make sure you dont keep your box in a cabinet or near a PS3 or wii and your not sticking it on top of a reciever or anything like that ...obviously) LATER
Post by: fracicone on July 12, 2007, 02:17:00 PM
BTW, I just wanted to suggest that as a general rule if you want apply this fix you should try with 2 pennies first, mainly because I have seen many cases of ppl having trouble with 3 pennies and switching to 2 pennies only, while the opposite doesn't seem to happen too often.
Post by: kidderboots on July 12, 2007, 10:24:00 PM
QUOTE(fracicone @ Jul 12 2007, 03:17 PM)
Thanks again for the input kidderboots.
BTW, I just wanted to suggest that as a general rule if you want apply this fix you should try with 2 pennies first, mainly because I have seen many cases of ppl having trouble with 3 pennies and switching to 2 pennies only, while the opposite doesn't seem to happen too often.
Ill probably go back and edit that out. But your right. I have just found better results with 3, now that it has hit the masses I think 2 would be better to start. Thanks
Post by: lambo2k6 on July 13, 2007, 01:14:00 AM
Post by: got_milk? on July 13, 2007, 07:59:00 AM
1. Disassemble Xbox 360.
2. Place 4 stacks of pennies, 2 pennies high, covered completly in electrical tape, should bare copper touch metal your motherboard will be fried, on each of the 4 RAM chips on the bottom of the motherboard. Should you have any of the foam on any of the RAM chips, take them off. Use hot glue to keep the pennies down, or the foam can be used as a tape as mentioned earlier in this post.
3. Begin reassembly. When you put the top back on, ensure all the screws on the bottom half are tightly screwed in. Place all the black screws in tightly as well. My recommendation is to not leave the black screws out, these hold the X-Clamps which in turn hold the GPU/CPU heatsinks in place. If they are left out, the motherboard can flex a lot and cause the 3RLOD yet again.
4. Test assembly. You should hear the fans quickly come to max, and then shut off with 2 red lights appearing. This is fine. If it works fine, go directly to step 7.
5. Remove one of the black screws from the right X-Clamp, assuming the Xbox is flipped so that the back faces you.
6. Test again. If there is no change, screw in the screw you just removed, and take the one out either above or below it. If there is a change, the fans should not gather as much speed so fast or the fans should return to normal. If the fans return to normal, you are done. If the fans still gather speed, then there is still unequal pressure on the motherboard. Locate the screw you just removed and also take out the one the X-Clamp seems to be "connecting". This should resolve your fan woes. If it doesn't, reinsert all screws, and try again using the left X-Clamp. You may have to adjust both before you come to a happy medium, or you may have to remove all screws, which I don't recommend.
7. Fully reassemble your Xbox. Test again, this time by plugging it into the TV. Heating the chips should not be necessary, but be careful if you need to. DO NOT USE TOWEL TRICK. If it should freeze, leave it frozen for approx. 30 minutes, and turn it off and let it cool for 45 minutes. Same applies for the 3RLOD. If it boots and you can shut off the Xbox using the controller but there's no video, let it heat again and see if that helps. If not, disassemble and follow steps 5 and 6 but testing with video each time. This scenario is very uncommon and it wouldn't surprise me if no one needs to follow it.
8. If all works, play for a couple of hours or so, and then let it cool for an hour, and play again. If all works, then you're all set!
Hopefully this guide will help those which the original penny fix did not resolve their 3RLOD issues.
Post by: Dickslide on July 13, 2007, 09:33:00 AM
Post by: kidderboots on July 13, 2007, 12:52:00 PM
But regardless im glade this trick worked for you as well. Thanks for your input!
Post by: got_milk? on July 13, 2007, 06:06:00 PM
If you leave the black screws in, the X-Clamps push up while the pennies pull down, and the pressure is balanced out = no turbocharged fans = working sensor = no long-term motherboard damage.
The rest I just rewrote to help clarify things for some people who may not understand a lot about hardware and just want to fix their 360.
My guide wasn't meant to replace yours, it was just for people who had turbocharged fan issues or your original fix didn't work.
Post by: Bruc3LeeRoy on July 14, 2007, 01:08:00 AM
The first time I did it I tighten all the black screws nicely and it worked great others didnt turn out the way had to play around with screwing and unscrewing the black screws but anyway i just wanted to say thanks man like seriously... lol
Post by: Wilhelmm on July 14, 2007, 10:49:00 AM
Post by: Dickslide on July 14, 2007, 11:08:00 AM
now its starting to freeze again.. green screens etc
whats wrong
help me out kidderboots
Post by: kidderboots on July 14, 2007, 09:20:00 PM
thanks
Post by: pcguy760 on July 15, 2007, 04:02:00 AM
BTW, I also did the heatsink mods to the ram on the topside, etc. Finally decided to close her up and call it a day er morning lol. Oh and for the record, I only paid $132.50 for the 360 Premium with 20Gb HDD complete with everything and it all worked out!! I do not think I would have been able to pay the full price so I am very happy now!
Many Thanks Kidderboots - you ARE, THE man!
Post by: lambo2k6 on July 17, 2007, 12:08:00 AM
with your trick i've just fixed my friend's 360 having the 3 rlod!!
But, because I'm in europe i had to use eurocents: i used 8 coin of 2 cent and it works fine!
thank you again man
Post by: kidderboots on July 17, 2007, 02:34:00 AM
QUOTE(pcguy760 @ Jul 15 2007, 05:02 AM)
Kidderboots, I was watching this thread waaay before I even bought my 360 and then I took a chance and bought one of the bay that was sold as is untested and did I get lucky - when it came I powered it up and it started up just fine but then would not read discs... so I adjusted the optical pickup a little lower and it worked great! So I figured, while it was apart, why not apply the "kidderboots fix" hehe. Only thing is I just used 8 pennies (all from the 70s so more copper hehe) and wrapped them in some thin thermal pads (from some broken car amplifiers I had), then I used Arctic Silver 5 on the pennies, ram and thermal pads. To make a long story short, I was able to tighten all eight X-Clamp screws and its 4:58 am right now so I have been playing Overlord and Forza 2 for the past 4hr30mins or so and no problems at all!
BTW, I also did the heatsink mods to the ram on the topside, etc. Finally decided to close her up and call it a day er morning lol. Oh and for the record, I only paid $132.50 for the 360 Premium with 20Gb HDD complete with everything and it all worked out!! I do not think I would have been able to pay the full price so I am very happy now!
Many Thanks Kidderboots - you ARE, THE man!
QUOTE(lambo2k6 @ Jul 17 2007, 01:08 AM)
man you are a genius!
with your trick i've just fixed my friend's 360 having the 3 rlod!!
But, because I'm in europe i had to use eurocents: i used 8 coin of 2 cent and it works fine!
thank you again man
Thanks both you guys im glade this trick helped you out. I'm still workin on a fix with out having to open the xbox360 up. I'm gettin close. tryin some new things. everyone feel free to help out message me if your interested. and again if anyone wants to donate my paypal is [email protected]. a Little goes a long way in low cost tutorials. Thanks all!
Post by: Bruc3LeeRoy on July 17, 2007, 02:45:00 AM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Jul 17 2007, 09:34 AM)
Thanks both you guys im glade this trick helped you out. I'm still workin on a fix with out having to open the xbox360 up. I'm gettin close. tryin some new things. everyone feel free to help out message me if your interested. and again if anyone wants to donate my paypal is [email protected]. a Little goes a long way in low cost tutorials. Thanks all!
wow dude if you could make a fix without opening the xbox up that would be insane. Make sure u post it when u do figure it out!! =D
Post by: Nemesis2007 on July 17, 2007, 10:06:00 PM
worked for about three hours of gameplay no freezing, used electrical tape two pennies on each chip double taped, and old foam ms used to hold pennys down instead of glue also put artic silver 5 on cpu and gpu and re install heat sinks got red lights used towel and it works played burnout first,graw 2,rainbow 6 vegas
-nemesis-
Post by: Garnett_Buck on July 18, 2007, 01:03:00 AM
let me know sup...
Post by: stickboom777 on July 18, 2007, 10:13:00 AM
(It has been 43 days since I did the penny trick my xbox360 still running perfect, might even get to play alan wake and mass effect! Looks like a solid fix)
Post by: Surray on July 18, 2007, 12:19:00 PM
I just wanted to thank kidderboots for this fix, it works great!
A few days ago my 360 started to freeze midgame while I was playing Dead Rising.
I was pretty close to the end of the game and shortly after it started freezing, it started giving me 0110 red ring of death after it froze when I tried to restart it.
So anyway, my 360 was not totally dead, but wasnt able to play anything without freezing a few minutes into the game either.
Yesterday I read about this and used 2 eurocents in tape instead of the pennies today and tried this fix.
Left out the black screws for now, and it's working very well.
Been playing Dead Rising for about 40 minutes now without a freeze and I was able to finish it! yay!
edit --
well doh, a minute after I wrote this it crashed. lol!
after the game froze I was able to just restart the 360 without any RRoD...
I wonder what the hell the problem is.
I suppose fiddling around with the different screws only helps if you get a RRoD?
Post by: stickboom777 on July 18, 2007, 01:43:00 PM
It probably crashed after a while becausce the motherboard has heated up whilst you were playing dead rising after the fix, Becausce you left the screws out if has caused more flexing on the board and therefore caused more damage. If you are only using two coins per stack you should be able to screw all 8 black screws back in place to fix the mobo securly in one place and apply prssure to the ram chips via the pennie stacks, And also presuure to the x-clamps. Once you start playing a game if all works the board will kind of re-flex itself and be more stable than ever (This worked in my case 43 days).
When you screw all 8 screws back in place now that the board has flexed even more it may not boot first time (ring of death) If this is the case I found that towel tricking my xbox360 for about 15 mins was enough to causce enough movement inside to get it to boot again. You dont need to towel trick just turn it on and leave it sitting there with red lights untill it gets warm then re try booting. Hope you get it working mine has been totally stable now for 43 days
Respect to kidderboots!
Post by: Surray on July 18, 2007, 02:50:00 PM
I just screwed everything back together and launched it and it is running just like before.
I'm just gonna leave it running on the dead rising main menu while I go have a shower and hope that it's still running when I get back.
What's bugging me though is that the fan is louder than ever before, it's going really fast and loud!
WHat's up with that? I don't see why it should heat up so much more than it did before I did this fix.
Post by: kidderboots on July 18, 2007, 04:19:00 PM
Post by: gha8881619 on July 18, 2007, 06:40:00 PM
After going on vacation for a week, I came home to be greeted by the 3ROD upon start up, and couldn't get it to boot after multiple attempts. After fiddling around with stacks of three and then two pennies again, I have gotten my 360 up and running again. I believe I've found the happy medium in screwing the black screws back in, and am crossing my fingers that the 3ROD will not return (the fall line up of games coming out is sick!).
I just wanted to thank everyone, especially kidder and stick, for posting their methods and variations to this fix. At the time, I didn't want to fork over money to MS as I was out of warranty at the time. Thanks again everyone, this fix does work!
Post by: Forarmed on July 18, 2007, 08:52:00 PM
Post by: necx on July 19, 2007, 10:26:00 PM
I didn't actually believe it was going to work, but my 360 died and I have no warantee, and since I got the system for free I had nothing to lose. I didn't try any of the other fixes as they're outside of my comfort range of modding a system. But when I read about this fix I just had to try it... I figured if it didn't work, I'd just buy a new one and switch systems and return the busted one. But I'll be damned but this worked!
I opened up my box, took off the gooy pads that were covering the ram chips, reused bits them to hold my penny stacks in place, put everything back together and I went from the 3 red lights of death down to 2 red lights and the turbo fan... After playing around with the tightness of the black x-clamp screws (I had to remove 2 and keep the rest pretty tight) my 360 is now back up and running even better than before!
Right now I've been back up for about an hour and a half and it's still blowing cool air out the back when before it used to be hot air.
Thanks to whoever made this fix and to whoever posted the picture/guide and everyone for their feedback that finally convinced me to try this out!
Post by: pisicik on July 20, 2007, 10:52:00 AM
i used 2 pennies for each stack and didn't screw the black screw at the first time.it gave 3 red lights.then i screwed 6 screws back and it gave me 2 red lights.finally i screwed all the screws slowly and tight.the box booted but after that xbox 360 animation stuff it said there is a system error and i should call the costumer support.and one red light was flashing(or not flashing).when i restarted the system it started to work fine.i could finally see the dashboard.i'll see if it keeps working.
Post by: pcguy760 on July 21, 2007, 01:55:00 AM
Also I would like to point out that I have my 360 on top of my rack and I think it gets better cooling like this. I also have the Talismoon fans installed - Talismoon and Kidderboots what a great combo!!
So far so good kidder! BTW, Gears rocks!!
Post by: harrypotter333 on July 21, 2007, 01:47:00 PM
Post by: fracicone on July 21, 2007, 02:25:00 PM
Post by: MarutiDriver on July 21, 2007, 02:27:00 PM
Post by: OuTeR HeAvEn on July 22, 2007, 03:27:00 AM
now it works great and without the 8 black small screws under gpu and cpu.
I have to note something to eurogamers out there you can use 2 coins 1 of 2cents and the other 1cent
and if you wanna stick the coins on ram chips you can turn on the other side one little piece of tape on each pack of coins dont use glue or something like that it doesn't matter.I will not close off my machine till tommorow so see you soon for more infos.
Post by: the soul poet on July 22, 2007, 04:30:00 AM
Is using vertical definately not possible doing this?
I used 2 GB pennies per chip.
Post by: wunder on July 22, 2007, 12:24:00 PM
-knock on wood-
Post by: the soul poet on July 22, 2007, 05:33:00 PM
Infact it performs better than when it was new
Post by: skitzo509 on July 22, 2007, 09:45:00 PM
. I read a while back about the "eraser trick" on another site and was going to try it until i read this thread. I pulled it off earlier today with 2 pennies on each RAM square and used that M$ gunk they had on there to stick the pennies on!The first time i turned it back on I got 2 red lights and the fans weren't goin, so i loosened the small black screws a bit and fired it up. This time i got the 3 RLOD
. Fired it up two more times and left it on for about 5 min. When I rebooted it again it WORKED!!! I then played NCAA 08 for another 5 hours without a glitch (it used to freeze on menu screen).I always read about 360's goin after a while, but I hardly ever played mine (total of 15 hours).
Hopefully this will do the trick for time to come.
Anyways, thanks for the 8 cents fix. It worked like a charm!
Post by: Mysta on July 23, 2007, 05:18:00 PM
Post by: got_milk? on July 23, 2007, 05:21:00 PM
Post by: Mysta on July 23, 2007, 06:35:00 PM
Post by: Nemesis2007 on July 23, 2007, 08:39:00 PM
some just cant be saved
Post by: larrycharlesb on July 23, 2007, 10:02:00 PM
I used 2 pennies on each Ram chip and it is working perfectly.
Thanks so much.
Post by: OuTeR HeAvEn on July 24, 2007, 12:28:00 AM
Post by: b1rd1e on July 24, 2007, 02:16:00 AM
QUOTE(Antediluvia @ Jun 3 2007, 10:05 PM)
and there are four white sticky pads on the RAM chips
Could someone post a photo of these pads, who get his console back from M$ ?? Please?
...Or is there a thread with photos of these?
PS: In my opinion, a replacement of the XB components in a PC-case with bigger cooler´s and fan´s would just solve the problem for years & years
Post by: got_milk? on July 24, 2007, 07:10:00 AM
Post by: got_milk? on July 24, 2007, 07:32:00 AM
I took a few pics for ya so you could see what this pad looks like.
Pic 1 (the underside of the pad, the sticky side): http://img54.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pad01sh6.jpg
Pic 2 (the top of the pad, with crappy ruler I found to show width): http://img267.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pad02ih4.jpg
Pic 3 (the side of the pad, showing thickness): http://img54.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pad03oj1.jpg
Sorry if the images load up slow, ImageShack's running slow for me.
Post by: b1rd1e on July 24, 2007, 12:33:00 PM
I think these pads are only installed to get more pressure on the chips, not to transfer the heat to the metal-case or so...
It looks like a bit of felt-material
Thanks
Post by: kidderboots on July 24, 2007, 01:56:00 PM
QUOTE(b1rd1e @ Jul 24 2007, 01:33 PM)
Hm, the sticky side is stuck with the Ram Chip, i´m right?
I think these pads are only installed to get more pressure on the chips, not to transfer the heat to the metal-case or so...
It looks like a bit of felt-material
Thanks
Your exactly right...thats the problem! people will get their xboxs back from service and they 3RLOD AGAIN!! Thats why applying this fix helps in alot more ways. Thanks for the pictures of the pads. the first time i saw them i was like "oh M$ the thing ye' try" suckers.
I should put a disclaimer out to EVERYONE - if your in a cave: MICROSOFT HAS EXTENDED THEIR WARRANTY. so basically anyone under the sun can get a replaced xbox. even if you think cause the stickers voided and broken they wont...they will still fix it. i have helped a couple people wih this. you should clean it up a bit before you send it in and of course un mod it if its moded. but other than that. you can just tell them that when it went out of its original warranty you opened it cause it was erroring out.
they are suprisingly good at fixing or replacing now that they know their product i HORRIBLY FAULTY to say the least.
If they do give you any problems ask to speak to a supervisor and believe me most of the time they wont even put them on they'll say "well my supervisor says that it will be coverd" etc.
anyway this is just to help some people out there that think their out of the 1 year warranty.
Also the number is 1-800-4-myXBOX
other then that everyone keep up with this fix IT WORKS , like i said
THANKS ALL!
Post by: fracicone on July 24, 2007, 05:31:00 PM
BTW my 360 had never been repaired and the pads were there...
Post by: Bruc3LeeRoy on July 24, 2007, 08:32:00 PM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Jul 24 2007, 08:56 PM)
Your exactly right...thats the problem! people will get their xboxs back from service and they 3RLOD AGAIN!! Thats why applying this fix helps in alot more ways. Thanks for the pictures of the pads. the first time i saw them i was like "oh M$ the thing ye' try" suckers.
I should put a disclaimer out to EVERYONE - if your in a cave: MICROSOFT HAS EXTENDED THEIR WARRANTY. so basically anyone under the sun can get a replaced xbox. even if you think cause the stickers voided and broken they wont...they will still fix it. i have helped a couple people wih this. you should clean it up a bit before you send it in and of course un mod it if its moded. but other than that. you can just tell them that when it went out of its original warranty you opened it cause it was erroring out.
they are suprisingly good at fixing or replacing now that they know their product i HORRIBLY FAULTY to say the least.
If they do give you any problems ask to speak to a supervisor and believe me most of the time they wont even put them on they'll say "well my supervisor says that it will be coverd" etc.
anyway this is just to help some people out there that think their out of the 1 year warranty.
Also the number is 1-800-4-myXBOX
other then that everyone keep up with this fix IT WORKS , like i said
THANKS ALL!Ya thats true kidderbots....but microsoft has been really slow with returning the xbox's Ive seen people wait more than 4 weeks to get their system back. I also heard that they sometimes dont fix the 360's properly and people end up with the 3 red lights again after a week of having it. Not a great warranty you ask me. I would rather stick with your fix!!! Works great =D
Post by: idog on July 25, 2007, 02:19:00 AM
).Since I'm from the Netherlands, I don't have pennies, but I used 'stuivers', old 5-cent Dutch coins from the pre-euro era. They have more copper than the new eurocents (which is basically steel with a copper finish).
I first tried it with stacks of three coins on each memorychip (used AS5 to stick it). Put the board back in, put all screws in except the 8 black ones.
Turned it on, still 3RLOD. Turned it off and on, still 3RLOD.
Then put in the 8 black screws, still 3RLOD.
Then added another coin to each stack. Turned it off and on, still 3RLOD.
What I did then, might have caused it to work. With the 360 on I pressed on the dvdrom unit, thereby indirectly pressing on the heatsink of the GPU. Held it down for 30 seconds. Then turned it off and on and the 3RLOD were gone.
Now I put in the 8 black screws again. Turned it off and on and the 3RLOD were back. Pressed on the dvdrom, off and on, and no more 3RLOD. Then I mounted the case back on, taping a round disc which you can usually find at the bottom of a spindle of cdr's to the metal innercasing on case so it pressed upon the dvdrom when I put it back together.
Put it all together and it has been working since then. I does make more noise than it used to, but it's stable and since the fans are running a bit faster (but not at max) than they used to, I can live with this
.So, in a nutshell for the Dutch peeps :
- use 4 stacks of 4 old 'stuivers'
- use all the screws (including the 8 black ones)
- use some kind of plastic to apply pressure to the dvdromunit when the case is put back together.
Hope this helps
Post by: got_milk? on July 25, 2007, 08:55:00 AM
QUOTE(fracicone @ Jul 24 2007, 07:31 PM)
Those pads are ridiculous, they look like friggin' marshmallows!
BTW my 360 had never been repaired and the pads were there...
Actually, if you feel em, they DO feel like marshmellows lol. I was tempted to eat them for awhile...
Anyway, almost two weeks now and still going strong.
Post by: scivga on July 25, 2007, 12:34:00 PM
I really didn't want to try the xclamp replacement as I don't have the tools and it seemed somewhat difficult, so I attempted this.
- Used 2 pennies to a stack, made sure all stacks were even height by wrapping additional electrical tape are the smaller ones. Attached to the board with pads Microsoft had there already.
- Screwed back in ALL the screws SLOWLY and TIGHTLY (to the point of accidentally stripping one of them, be careful)
- Tested with case off and loaded Dead Rising, got into the mall but froze shortly after (better than not booting at all)
- Completely reassembled the 360, did the towel trick for 15 minutes until I got the 2 lights for overheating and let the 360 cool for 25 minutes.
- Played Dead Rising for 2 hours perfectly fine.
Fantastic fix, would recommend it to anyone with red lights that is out of warranty
Post by: djnorm112 on July 25, 2007, 02:43:00 PM
Thanks for fix kidderboots!
Post by: fracicone on July 25, 2007, 07:37:00 PM
Hey kidderboot, what do you suggest?
Anyways, I'll let you know if it freezes again.
(BTW, the system date is fine).
Post by: pcguy760 on July 25, 2007, 11:45:00 PM
Also, I used the penny fix for the ram chips that are next to the GPU under the heatsink so it made contact with the heatsink as well. Then I did the air duct divider (RBJTech has this on his site). So with all this I have had zero problems so far! You guys should try it in addition to kiddiboots method!
Post by: TheSchonk on July 26, 2007, 12:32:00 AM
Post by: zuhaib_s on July 26, 2007, 06:44:00 AM
Post by: Nemesis2007 on July 26, 2007, 07:32:00 AM
QUOTE(zuhaib_s @ Jul 26 2007, 08:44 AM)
i first did the x-replacement mod but just with the scrws no washers nothing, it dodnt work out i got strange errors. anyways i just did the 3 penny fix and my 360 remains pretty kewl no red lights, BUT THERE IS ONE MAJOR ISSUE i havent been able to actually run the 360 becoz when i turn it on the green lights go around the circle like they normally do but there is no audio and no video. also the 360 dont recognise the controllers. i m out of ideas dunno whats wrong
i dunno i'm suffering from the same problem except mine just lags on middle green light and does not spin then goes straight to 3 red lights
Post by: zuhaib_s on July 26, 2007, 09:35:00 AM
HHMMM a bit weird, to check if everything inside is fine i put nba2k7 disc in, it spin for like 2 secs and it seems the 360 just halted, plugged out the controllerno change in green light display so obviously was stuck,. so shut down and restart again, 360 kept hovering at middle green light with no other activity. dunno whats going on. i hope i didnt break anything. and oh it did somehow start one time b4 fir like a sec b4 freezing
Post by: PersianGuy on July 26, 2007, 05:28:00 PM
Post by: kidderboots on July 26, 2007, 05:37:00 PM
QUOTE(zuhaib_s @ Jul 26 2007, 07:44 AM)
i first did the x-replacement mod but just with the scrws no washers nothing, it dodnt work out i got strange errors. anyways i just did the 3 penny fix and my 360 remains pretty kewl no red lights, BUT THERE IS ONE MAJOR ISSUE i havent been able to actually run the 360 becoz when i turn it on the green lights go around the circle like they normally do but there is no audio and no video. also the 360 dont recognise the controllers. i m out of ideas dunno whats wrong
QUOTE(Nemesis2007 @ Jul 26 2007, 08:32 AM)
i dunno i'm suffering from the same problem except mine just lags on middle green light and does not spin then goes straight to 3 red lights
QUOTE(zuhaib_s @ Jul 26 2007, 10:35 AM)
hmm seems kinda like my problem but i have got rid of red lights completely just that no sound or video. i was actually hovering on just the middle light for a wahile but it seems to be working now, it detects my controllers, everythnig seems fine but no audio, video.
HHMMM a bit weird, to check if everything inside is fine i put nba2k7 disc in, it spin for like 2 secs and it seems the 360 just halted, plugged out the controllerno change in green light display so obviously was stuck,. so shut down and restart again, 360 kept hovering at middle green light with no other activity. dunno whats going on. i hope i didnt break anything. and oh it did somehow start one time b4 fir like a sec b4 freezing
For these posts
Post by: scivga on July 27, 2007, 10:08:00 AM
Many thanks kidderboots
Post by: got_milk? on July 27, 2007, 12:08:00 PM
I'm leaving it to run for awhile on 3RLOD, maybe my solder connection in the first place wasn't good.
Post by: shniper9 on July 28, 2007, 01:57:00 PM
Post by: ImxVaDeR on July 28, 2007, 03:33:00 PM
QUOTE(shniper9 @ Jul 28 2007, 03:57 PM)
Hey. I am trying this fix as It's impossible to find the parts to do lawdawg's method in my small town. I just had one question before I start. Do I remove the marshmallowy pads that are on the RAM chips, or do i glue the pennies to them? I'm assuming I remove them, but I just wanted to make sure. Thx!
Yeah I had that same question...
Post by: scivga on July 28, 2007, 05:20:00 PM
Good luck.
Post by: hacktek on July 29, 2007, 04:42:00 AM
Post by: scivga on July 29, 2007, 09:27:00 AM
QUOTE(hacktek @ Jul 29 2007, 06:42 AM)
My 360 lost video completely a couple of days ago. I removed the heatsinks and put arctic silver on the chips. After i did that nothing happened so i disconnected the fans and let the console overheat for a couple of minutes and lo and behold, video came back when i turned it on. Problem is that 10 minutes into the game i started losing video again. Think this fix might help me? I tried to find the parts to remove the x-clamps but i didn't. I do have a question i did not see answered in the 16 pages of the thread: do i actually need copper cents? They are not really working as a heatsink and they would be wrapped in electrical tape anyway so what is the actual point of them being copper in this case?
Thats pretty much the same situation I had with my 360 and this fix works great, I have been playing my 360 a ton since I did it. As for coins I used coins from 1998-2003 (all I had on hand) and from what I've been told they don't have nearly as much copper as older ones, so I wouldn't worry too much. The point of the coins is more to apply pressure to the RAM I believe.
Hope that helps
Post by: hacktek on July 29, 2007, 01:10:00 PM
QUOTE(scivga @ Jul 29 2007, 04:27 PM)
Thats pretty much the same situation I had with my 360 and this fix works great, I have been playing my 360 a ton since I did it. As for coins I used coins from 1998-2003 (all I had on hand) and from what I've been told they don't have nearly as much copper as older ones, so I wouldn't worry too much. The point of the coins is more to apply pressure to the RAM I believe.
Hope that helps
Thanks man, i'll try it out later and report back. All i have to do is find some spare pennies from some of my trips to the us lol
Post by: hacktek on July 29, 2007, 03:05:00 PM
QUOTE(hacktek @ Jul 29 2007, 08:46 PM)
Thanks man, i'll try it out later and report back. All i have to do is find some spare pennies from some of my trips to the us lol
Hmm i tried to use 2 pennies and glue them to the sticky pad the rams have and the mobo would not fit in the metal casing. I could not screw the xclamps back and the dvd drive button, sync button and the RF daughterboard connector would not show up in their respective holes on the casing (obviously the xbox would never close like this). Any ideas? Do i ditch the sticky ram pads and put 2/3 coin stacks there? Thx!
Post by: shniper9 on July 29, 2007, 03:56:00 PM
Post by: scivga on July 29, 2007, 05:35:00 PM
QUOTE(hacktek @ Jul 29 2007, 05:41 PM)
Hmm i tried to use 2 pennies and glue them to the sticky pad the rams have and the mobo would not fit in the metal casing. I could not screw the xclamps back and the dvd drive button, sync button and the RF daughterboard connector would not show up in their respective holes on the casing (obviously the xbox would never close like this). Any ideas? Do i ditch the sticky ram pads and put 2/3 coin stacks there? Thx!
When I used 2 penny stacks I attached them directly to the sticky pads (no glue) and buttons/ports were slightly higher than their respective holes, then I screwed down the board tightly and they lined up fine, if they're that high then I would recommend removing the sticky pads and gluing the stacks to the ram itself.
Post by: hacktek on July 29, 2007, 06:19:00 PM
QUOTE(scivga @ Jul 30 2007, 01:11 AM)
When I used 2 penny stacks I attached them directly to the sticky pads (no glue) and buttons/ports were slightly higher than their respective holes, then I screwed down the board tightly and they lined up fine, if they're that high then I would recommend removing the sticky pads and gluing the stacks to the ram itself.
I'll try that and report back. Thx!
Post by: fracicone on July 29, 2007, 11:27:00 PM
Post by: LegendaryGamer on July 30, 2007, 01:22:00 AM
You have a great ideal here and I too want to say great work! I have posted some cool things but no results like this. Im one of the members here that mod a iceberq 4 to the Xbox 360 GPU for cooling. Right now Im at the stage of putting my xbox 360 motherboard into a Mirco Atx desktop case. My question is what would be a good base to lay my motherboard onto to do this trick in a desktop case? I've been looking a some aluminum plates on ebay. I want to be able to do the penny trick in my case transfer. Sofar I hear 2 pennies is the trick. Three is too high to tighten done. I stuck my friends pennies on using electrical tape. I though exposed the copper that touches the ram to also help transfer some heat off the ram at the bottom. So one trick I see is that this trick is sandwiching the the ram so it wouldn't come loose when the solder losen. Smart guy I see! Anyway great job.
LegendaryGamer
Post by: MrBlack1985 on July 30, 2007, 10:56:00 AM
this morning it froze on guitar hero, but rebooted and it was fine, I think that the thermal paste on the gpu just needs some time to set.
Good luck and thanks to everybody on the scene.
Post by: javisaman on July 30, 2007, 12:14:00 PM
Post by: gregkel on July 30, 2007, 01:21:00 PM
I didn't do the artic silver (sp?), I didn't see the thermal pads at all, so stacks of 2 pennies wrapped of course sit directly on chips. Anyone experienced with a suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Post by: vism on July 30, 2007, 10:14:00 PM
Is it a problem if I put the console vertically? Maybe someone answered this already.
Post by: hacktek on July 31, 2007, 04:06:00 AM
Post by: ryan83 on July 31, 2007, 08:46:00 AM
i have never opened a 360 before so here goes .
wish me luck and ill report back what happens with some pics!
cya
ryan
greetz to kidderboots
Post by: ryan83 on July 31, 2007, 05:49:00 PM
well about 20-25 minutes after i first posted my 360 was repaired and ive been playing dead rising ever since ,
how long will it last - i dont know or care but im delighted this worked first time i booted after penny fix.
the air coming out the back is cool and it runs like the first day i got it.
i used 2 penny stacks and the only problem i have now is the NOISE ,the fans are running @ max speeds,
any one know how to reduce the fans speed.
Post by: Don/\/\ega on July 31, 2007, 08:56:00 PM
but here is what i did, so far 24hrs problem free!
ended up usin 3 pennys, i also have the pads and have never sent the console anywhere for repairs. but anyway threw them out. glued the stacks straight to the ram (stacks of 3). but when i reassembled the console i ONLY used the four long screws that go through the rom drive. also put cpu/gpu screws in also, just enought so they stay in. but it ended up that the 2 center screws towards the rear of the console w/ it sitting flat(horizontal) one being in the cpu clamp and other in gpu clamp i tightened the shii out of em.........
but my fan speeds are also MAX, other than that all is going great, playin as we speak!
THNX!!! kidderboots and all!!!
Post by: wunder on August 01, 2007, 12:38:00 AM
I'm gonna see if switching to thermal tape would make a difference.
Post by: ryan83 on August 01, 2007, 03:01:00 AM
Post by: Don/\/\ega on August 01, 2007, 06:40:00 AM
Post by: sinister slipknot on August 01, 2007, 07:06:00 AM
Cheers!
Post by: Don/\/\ega on August 02, 2007, 02:54:00 PM
...still runnin strong, weird though. fans seemed to have i guess "fixed" themselves. run normal on dashboard now, n seem to run just little bit faster than normal during game play. but i see this as a good thing.
Post by: ryan83 on August 02, 2007, 03:05:00 PM
QUOTE(Don/\/\ega @ Aug 2 2007, 09:54 PM)
UPDATE...
...still runnin strong, weird though. fans seemed to have i guess "fixed" themselves. run normal on dashboard now, n seem to run just little bit faster than normal. but i see this as a good thing.
Exact same here
when i play a DVD it is really silent and when im in a game or Dash it is not noisy any more.
My 360 didnt have a fan shroud though , so i made one myself from some thick brown paper and tape.
i also put two cooling fins on the 2 ram chips under the DVD drive and also a small heatsink on the chip next to the GPU. (parts taken from an old pentium 3 mobo and nvidia gfx card lol)
i hope it lasts forever but i dont know
Post by: MrBlack1985 on August 02, 2007, 03:53:00 PM
Post by: hacktek on August 02, 2007, 04:36:00 PM
Post by: ImxVaDeR on August 02, 2007, 06:26:00 PM
Prior to the fix, my Xbox went through many problems since May '07 such as no video, but working audio, black screen with snowy white dots and just a week ago, I recieved the three red lights code 0102.
I got home, took apart the 360. I wrapped electric tape on 4 stacks of 2 pennies and my Xbox 360 didnt have the foam thingy on the Ram chips (I guess because its a launch Xbox) so I taped the stacks directly to the chips. At first I tightly screwed all the black gpu and cpu heatsink screws in. At that point I recieved the three red lights. Then I loosened the screws. Still 3RL. Then I slowly took away screws one by one. At some point I took away too many screws and my fans went beserk and the overheating lights (2RL) came on. Finally I screwed in the 4 innermost screws, two on right side of the left X clamp and two on the left side of the right X Clamp. It worked!! No more yellow discoloration, no more checkered graphical glitches, no more freezing. Pure video!
Major thanks to kidderbots for creating such an awesome tutorial. I played Forza Motorpsport 2 for a half-hour no problems. I truly hope this fix is permanent. Also, the 4 black screws were the only screws that I screwed in. All the torx 10 silver screws are not screwed in atm.
Post by: hacktek on August 02, 2007, 06:55:00 PM
QUOTE(ImxVaDeR @ Aug 3 2007, 01:26 AM)
Chalk up another success! I went to Lowes and bought a 8-in-1 Torx screwdriver set, and a roll of electrical tape. All together came out to $7.25.
Prior to the fix, my Xbox went through many problems since May '07 such as no video, but working audio, black screen with snowy white dots and just a week ago, I recieved the three red lights code 0102.
I got home, took apart the 360. I wrapped electric tape on 4 stacks of 2 pennies and my Xbox 360 didnt have the foam thingy on the Ram chips (I guess because its a launch Xbox) so I taped the stacks directly to the chips. At first I tightly screwed all the black gpu and cpu heatsink screws in. At that point I recieved the three red lights. Then I loosened the screws. Still 3RL. Then I slowly took away screws one by one. At some point I took away too many screws and my fans went beserk and the overheating lights (2RL) came on. Finally I screwed in the 4 innermost screws, two on right side of the left X clamp and two on the left side of the right X Clamp. It worked!! No more yellow discoloration, no more checkered graphical glitches, no more freezing. Pure video!
Major thanks to kidderbots for creating such an awesome tutorial. I played Forza Motorpsport 2 for a half-hour no problems. I truly hope this fix is permanent. Also, the 4 black screws were the only screws that I screwed in. All the torx 10 silver screws are not screwed in atm.
I advice you to screw the silver screws too since the way you have it the mobo will have nothing holding it back, making it susceptible to flexing. By the way, how did you fix your console's no video problem? Mine is doing the same thing, it randomly blacks out on me and sometimes it's a pain in the ass to get it to display anything again.
Post by: Don/\/\ega on August 02, 2007, 06:58:00 PM
QUOTE(hacktek @ Aug 2 2007, 08:36 PM)
Your fans are going berserk because the heatsink is not making good contact with the thermal compound on the chip, making the chip warm up more. The fans try to compensate the increased amount of heat by spinning faster. This can be confirmed easily by just turning on the console, if you put your hand on the fan outtake you will notice that hot air starts coming out almost immediately after the console is switched on. Another way to confirm this is to not use the black heatsink screws at all. The fans will go berserk when the console is turned on and will most likely give 2 red lights (overheat) instantly or during the boot up animation, all because of bad contact of the heatsink with the chip.
actually theres is next to no heat comin out. the console itself is not even getting warm. as always did in "retail" state.
Post by: hacktek on August 02, 2007, 07:02:00 PM
QUOTE(Don/\/\ega @ Aug 3 2007, 01:58 AM)
actually theres is next to no heat comin out. the console itself is not even getting warm. as always did in "retail" state.
Wow that's pretty weird then
Post by: ImxVaDeR on August 02, 2007, 07:07:00 PM
QUOTE(hacktek @ Aug 2 2007, 08:55 PM)
I advice you to screw the silver screws too since the way you have it the mobo will have nothing holding it back, making it susceptible to flexing. By the way, how did you fix your console's no video problem? Mine is doing the same thing, it randomly blacks out on me and sometimes it's a pain in the ass to get it to display anything again.
I know your right, but I am soooooo afraid to open it back up, I am afraid that as soon as I open it, i'll get the red lights again. But I will do it. Wish me luck.
Post by: lilclm64 on August 02, 2007, 07:10:00 PM
thanks alot for posting this trick lord knows i dont have the money for a new one yet.
thankkkkk yooouuu!!!!!
Post by: kidderboots on August 02, 2007, 07:11:00 PM
Post by: pr0j3ctxb0x on August 02, 2007, 07:16:00 PM
Post by: Don/\/\ega on August 02, 2007, 07:24:00 PM
QUOTE(hacktek @ Aug 2 2007, 11:02 PM)
Wow that's pretty weird then
...was what i thought myself!...lol, but the brick is workin again!
Post by: hacktek on August 03, 2007, 11:11:00 PM
QUOTE(ImxVaDeR @ Aug 3 2007, 02:07 AM)
I know your right, but I am soooooo afraid to open it back up, I am afraid that as soon as I open it, i'll get the red lights again. But I will do it. Wish me luck.
Good luck man. Going back to my original post, how did you fix your no video problems?
Post by: SuGamer on August 04, 2007, 03:34:00 PM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Aug 2 2007, 09:11 PM)
wow been gone again doing Wii mods and its good to come back and see all the great work everyones done. Good to hear all the success. I believe i have the fix with out opening your 360 up ready but need to test it for the next couple weeks before i release it. but stay tuned ALL. Thanks
You sir are DA MAN!
I followed your instructions and did a couple of my own mods and now my 360 is not only running perfect, but also running cooler!
In addition to the "3 penny mod" I also applied new arctic silver termal compound on both the CPU and GPU, AND I glued a penny each to the memory that in on the top of the board next to the GPU. Now the pennies come in contact with the memory and the heatsink. I also put all the screws back in except the 2 black ones on the side of the GPU's heatsink because the pennies didn't allow those short screws to reach. Other than that, the machine is running awesome.
I have a Pelican stand with the fan in the bottom, but seeing how the 360 is designed I think the fan is almost useless. Eh, I guess it's better than nothing.
Post by: PersianGuy on August 04, 2007, 06:03:00 PM
QUOTE
I glued a penny each to the memory that in on the top of the board next to the GPU
Did you use any type of adhesive thermal compound or just use normal adhesive?
I want to stick the passive heatsinks on the Southbridge and Ram1&2. Can I use general purposes adhesives?
Post by: ryan83 on August 04, 2007, 06:55:00 PM
QUOTE(PersianGuy @ Aug 5 2007, 01:03 AM)
Did you use any type of adhesive thermal compound or just use normal adhesive?
I want to stick the passive heatsinks on the Southbridge and Ram1&2. Can I use general purposes adhesives?
i used normal electrical tape doubled over ,lol it works
it is less risky than adhesives!!
Post by: hacktek on August 05, 2007, 01:49:00 AM
QUOTE(ryan83 @ Aug 5 2007, 01:55 AM)
i used normal electrical tape doubled over ,lol it works
it is less risky than adhesives!!
I don't think the heatsinks are gonna do anything if you used tape to attach them...
Post by: stickboom777 on August 05, 2007, 04:30:00 AM
Dont be afraid to try it, It does work.
Post by: ryan83 on August 05, 2007, 06:48:00 AM
QUOTE(hacktek @ Aug 5 2007, 08:49 AM)
I don't think the heatsinks are gonna do anything if you used tape to attach them...
well all i can say is my xbox was broke ,
now it works , the fans are normal and it is coller than ever before ,
if it maintains its current state i dont see why this isnt a permanent fix for me!
now im off to play dead rising
p.s when i did the pennies on the bottom of the mobo and put the cooling fins on the northbridge and 2 ram chips under DVD drive the 360 booted first time - i didnt need to do towel tricks or anything.
i screwed the black screws tight and all others including the long screws for the dvd not so tight so the board doesnt flex .
Post by: blade1212 on August 05, 2007, 11:54:00 AM
I did the 12 penny trick with insulating tape today, powered on first time and guess what.... 3 red lights.... however i left it powered on for 10 minutes, tried a reboot and whoooo......... it has been running solid for 3 hours and playing everything that I throw at it..
Amazing.... really amazing. Thanks to the original poster !!!
Post by: sinister slipknot on August 05, 2007, 03:57:00 PM
QUOTE(ryan83 @ Aug 5 2007, 01:55 AM)
i used normal electrical tape doubled over ,lol it works
it is less risky than adhesives!!
I used blu-tac
i figured that it didnt need to be glued, just held in place until the screws were put in.Am i the only one who's done this AND the X-Clamp replacement? If so i'll let you all know how it gets on (so far 5 days with not one glitch, and the heat coming out the back is about the same to what it was before.)
Post by: BobBrkersMyHero on August 05, 2007, 08:50:00 PM
QUOTE(sinister slipknot @ Aug 5 2007, 05:57 PM)
I used blu-tac
i figured that it didnt need to be glued, just held in place until the screws were put in.Am i the only one who's done this AND the X-Clamp replacement? If so i'll let you all know how it gets on (so far 5 days with not one glitch, and the heat coming out the back is about the same to what it was before.)
I've done the X-clamp with no luck and just found this thread for the first time...
So i'm going to do this now and I'll report back!
Post by: BobBrkersMyHero on August 05, 2007, 09:28:00 PM
I'm a sad boy...
Post by: kidderboots on August 06, 2007, 11:53:00 AM
QUOTE(BobBrkersMyHero @ Aug 5 2007, 10:28 PM) 
Still doesn't work, error 0110
I'm a sad boy...
I have found that recieving that error means you do need to warm up your board while the pennies are in there. I wouldnt try the hot towel method but any trick similar to it. i am not gonna suggest what but find one you want to try and heat your board up while the pennies are in there. then let it sit for a couple minutes. please report back with your results. Thanks
Post by: adilanis on August 06, 2007, 02:38:00 PM
i ll explain my stroy
i have fixed my 3ROD console with error 0110 with your fix
after sticking the pennies i put all the screws including those xclamps screws
my console was running fine for 1 month
but now i am getting freezes again n then red lights
but after red lights i turned it of then again i turned it on again it boots with green light but after 2 or 5 mins it freezes again then again 3 ROD n so on.....
what would u suggest to do now ?
plz reply me
Post by: SuGamer on August 06, 2007, 03:55:00 PM
QUOTE(adilanis @ Aug 6 2007, 04:38 PM)
Hey kidderboot thnx for that awesome fix
i ll explain my stroy
i have fixed my 3ROD console with error 0110 with your fix
after sticking the pennies i put all the screws including those xclamps screws
my console was running fine for 1 month
but now i am getting freezes again n then red lights (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
but after red lights i turned it of then again i turned it on again it boots with green light but after 2 or 5 mins it freezes again then again 3 ROD n so on.....
what would u suggest to do now ?
plz reply me
Did you also take off the heat sinks and clean off the CPU, GPU, and heatsinks and add some termal compound like Artic silver? Worked for me. And I've also done that with a few PC's and they are still running years later.
Post by: wunder on August 07, 2007, 01:13:00 AM
However, it isn't totally fucked. I can play games for a long time, but only randomly.
My advide to you is... Do not strip your screws....
Post by: sinister slipknot on August 07, 2007, 09:15:00 AM
Post by: wunder on August 07, 2007, 08:18:00 PM
QUOTE
The 2 lights means its overheating, make sure the heaksinks make proper contact with the GPU/CPU dies.
Ya... That's what the black screws are for, hence why they have to be tight.
My problem is.. They are stripped. I'm gonna have to buy a rotary tool to turn them into flat heads lol.
t
Post by: hacktek on August 07, 2007, 09:20:00 PM
QUOTE(wunder @ Aug 8 2007, 03:18 AM)
Ya... That's what the black screws are for, hence why they have to be tight.
My problem is.. They are stripped. I'm gonna have to buy a rotary tool to turn them into flat heads lol.
t
Or you might be able to find some torx 8 screws of the same length
Post by: sinister slipknot on August 08, 2007, 06:47:00 AM
QUOTE(wunder @ Aug 8 2007, 03:18 AM)
Ya... That's what the black screws are for, hence why they have to be tight.
My problem is.. They are stripped. I'm gonna have to buy a rotary tool to turn them into flat heads lol.
t
Thats NOT what the black screws do, the black screws anchor the heatsinks to the case to stop movements among other things. The Xclamps or the replacement (if youve done the replacement method) bolts is what puts pressure onto the dies from the heatsinks.
Post by: joeyddr on August 08, 2007, 06:57:00 AM
Post by: Meadsy4742 on August 08, 2007, 08:27:00 AM
Post by: hacktek on August 08, 2007, 08:34:00 AM
QUOTE(Meadsy4742 @ Aug 8 2007, 03:27 PM)
I can't seem to find a 'Hot Glue Gun' anywhere, is there any alternative to using hot glue? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)
Double sided tape on top of the sticky pad?
Post by: Meadsy4742 on August 08, 2007, 08:37:00 AM
Post by: hacktek on August 08, 2007, 08:42:00 AM
Post by: kidderboots on August 08, 2007, 11:34:00 AM
Post by: Nemesis2007 on August 08, 2007, 12:10:00 PM
This post has been edited by Nemesis2007: Aug 8 2007, 07:12 PM
Post by: darkmike57 on August 11, 2007, 11:21:00 PM
QUOTE(fracicone @ Aug 11 2007, 11:07 PM)
Hey ppl (and especially kidderboots), I was wondering: since the 360 obviously produces more heat when playing games compared to the heat generated @ the dashboard, wouldn't it be a good idea to leave the machine on @ the dashboard for a few minutes after an extended play session just to let it cool down a bit?
Think about it, let's say you just played a game for 5 hours straight, the fans are blowing a lot of heat and all of a sudden you turn off the 360; the chips are still hot, how do you cool them down if you turn off the machine?
This is something tha PA (professiona audio) ppl do a lot; after a concert they leave the amps running without sound for a while to give the cooling fans the chance to dissipate some heat, so when they turn the system off it's quite cooler. Could it help in this case?
RBJTech wired up an "aftercooler" which cooled the 360 while off. But i dont think having it sit at the dashboard would cool it off enough since it would still be running
Post by: ascalon on August 12, 2007, 12:39:00 PM
). The thing is, it would also cause the outlet to stop functioning so that you'd have to reset it. More than not being cooled properly, it seems as if some flawed part of its design took over so that it couldn't control the amount of power flow and heat being produced. Perhaps something similar is going on with the 360? Or perhaps it's just inadequit cooling...
Post by: xCAUSALITYx on August 14, 2007, 07:22:00 AM
Post by: Meadsy4742 on August 14, 2007, 07:26:00 AM
Post by: xCAUSALITYx on August 14, 2007, 07:39:00 AM
QUOTE(Meadsy4742 @ Aug 14 2007, 03:02 PM)
Okay, well I've just finished the 3 Penny Method, tried to turn it on before I screwed everything back on, no luck, still had the 3 RLOD, so I screwed everything back to where it should be, and now I start the XBOX, boots up to the dashboard, and it sounds like what I can only describe as a jet taking off, the fans just go crazy, and then it cuts the power and shows 2 RLOD (Left bottom and top). I'm not sure what to do now, so I'm just leaving the console to just cool right down for a few hours. Any help towards this would be brilliant
Hi,
Did you put all the heatsink screws back in, if so follow my post on the previous page....anyway try what I put in the post.
Cheers
Post by: Meadsy4742 on August 14, 2007, 08:24:00 AM
QUOTE(xCAUSALITYx @ Aug 14 2007, 03:15 PM)
Hi,
Did you put all the heatsink screws back in, if so follow my post on the previous page....anyway try what I put in the post.
Cheers
Ahh, I followed what 'kidderboots' had posted, but I shall find a bit of spare time somewhere to open up again and get the screws sorted
! Thanks CAUSALITY
Post by: Bruc3LeeRoy on August 15, 2007, 06:21:00 PM
QUOTE(Meadsy4742 @ Aug 14 2007, 03:02 PM)
Okay, well I've just finished the 3 Penny Method, tried to turn it on before I screwed everything back on, no luck, still had the 3 RLOD, so I screwed everything back to where it should be, and now I start the XBOX, boots up to the dashboard, and it sounds like what I can only describe as a jet taking off, the fans just go crazy, and then it cuts the power and shows 2 RLOD (Left bottom and top). I'm not sure what to do now, so I'm just leaving the console to just cool right down for a few hours. Any help towards this would be brilliant
I would say loosen some of the black screws one by one turning the xbox on after each one you loosen to lower the speeds of the fans... find out if that works.
Post by: Meadsy4742 on August 17, 2007, 05:43:00 AM
Post by: ryan83 on August 17, 2007, 06:42:00 AM
myself and a couple of others in here had turbo fans for about 1-2 days.
mysteriously the 360 seems to fix itself so bide your time and im sure it will quieten down,
now when im on the 360 in dashboard its really quiet.
when im playing a DVD movie its still really quiet (infact it seems the fans slow down more than in dash)
and when im playing a game the only noticable noise is from the drive - which isnt that loud anyway.
BTW- i fixed mine on AUG 1st and i play on it heavily , still working fine
Post by: born2expire on August 18, 2007, 04:43:00 PM
i played with the screws in the xclamps, worked best for me with 0 of 8 in.
great fix and alot less work then the xclamp replacement.
Post by: Hawker77 on August 18, 2007, 11:05:00 PM
Anyhow, have any of you run into this... where you're games play fine, the dashboard looks fine, yet if you watch a video from your hard drive (I have a 20GB one), it all looks fine for about 5 minutes, but then artifacts start appearing and the colors get all whacked? I then exit the video, go back to the dashboard and about 15 seconds later, it's all cleared up again. What the heck does that mean? Bad HD?
Thanks much!
(Since the 3 penny / 12 cent mod it's been almost two hours now and it's still running strong except for what I mentioned above)
Post by: Hawker77 on August 19, 2007, 12:03:00 AM
I forgot to add that it does play DVD movies perfectly. So I guess it's not a video encoder issue. Strange though how simply running video off the HD would cause the screen colors to become all whacky. Would love to know if other's are experiencing this.
Post by: Dickslide on August 19, 2007, 03:57:00 AM
So now im stuck any tips guys pleeze really need it
Post by: mbavenger on August 19, 2007, 06:29:00 AM
I just wanted to say thank you, and everyone else as well!!
I have learned a lot from everyone in this forum. My story: I'm in the navy stationed in Diego Garcia, very small island about 1k miles south of India. My 360 died in the end of June, needless to say I didnt have any replacement options here. I was stuck, MS said I had to wait until I get back to the states to have it repaired. I found this forum and read about your fix and all the success people were having with it. I bought 4 rol 360's off ebay and applied your fix. Worked like a champ on all of them. I have been waiting to post figuring that they would break in a couple of days, its been over a month and still going strong. My kids thank you too, now they have their own working 360 too. Again many thanks!!!!!
Post by: SplitFire on August 19, 2007, 03:50:00 PM
Only thing I had a hard time with was keeping it from overheating. Ended up having to put all the black screws in but one. Haven't played much on it yet, but it stayed on for over an hour and went through about 15 min of COD2.
Post by: wunder on August 19, 2007, 05:35:00 PM
QUOTE
guys I raped one of the black srews I just cant get it loose
So now im stuck any tips guys pleeze really need it
So now im stuck any tips guys pleeze really need it
What you might wanna do is get a rotary tool, and a small rotary saw bit and turn that screw into a flathead. Learned that trick from a good friend of mine, he goes by the name Legendarygamer. Very nifty trick, I'm able to super tighten my black screws now
Post by: GEIxCARNAGE on August 20, 2007, 10:45:00 PM
Post by: Bruc3LeeRoy on August 20, 2007, 11:22:00 PM
QUOTE(GEIxCARNAGE @ Aug 21 2007, 06:21 AM)
Wait im confused. Do the pennys fo on the top of the mobo...under the GPU or on the bottom of the mobo?
The pennys go underneath the bottom of the mobo where the 4 black chips are just place them on their
Post by: FinnHits on August 21, 2007, 10:21:00 AM
etcSO CHECK YOUR CABLE; IT IS EASY TO SWITCH IT TO WRONG POSITION WHEN YOU PULL IT IN AND OUT...
Post by: neosparq on August 21, 2007, 10:58:00 AM
- I glued down the pennies and reassembled the system, securely tightening all screws
- first boot after the pennies, 3 lights
- I re-read the guide I was using, and it said to NOT put the 8 black X-Clamp screws back on
- I disassembled again and removed the black screws
- Upon booting the 2nd time, I got 1 and 3 red lights (which indicates overheating)
- I assumed that the overheating was from the missing screws, so I replaced the screws again, but this time left them fairly loose
- I booted again, and got the XBOX Dashboard. The fan sounds like a jet engine (probably because it's still running a bit hot) but at least I'm up and running. Played about 20 mins of Blue Dragon, and will leave it on all night to see if it holds up.
Afterwards, I intent to tighten the black screws a bit more to see if I can reduce the fan speed but keep things 3-ring free.
Thanks to all who posted their suggestions.
SparQy.
Post by: Hawker77 on August 21, 2007, 12:54:00 PM
Hope that helps.
Post by: Tortuga2112 on August 21, 2007, 12:55:00 PM
if your fans are spinning faster than usual and you didn't do a fan mod to make it do that , then I'm pretty sure its the same screws you're talking about.
I had one that was doing the same thing and I tightened the black screws on the bottom of the board and that fixed it. its also telling you that there's not good contact between the chip and the heatsink.
The one that was doing that was on the cpu chip, I tightened up the screws and the problem went away.
I wouldn't wait too long to tighten 'em up. surely your box is running hotter at the moment.
Post by: rounz on August 21, 2007, 01:21:00 PM
I got the 3RLOD 2 days ago, before that my system was freezing while playing backups, I thought it was bad burns or something. Over the next couple days it got worst. Until the point where it would not boot at all. I would turn it on and it went straight to the 3RLOD. I almost cried:(
I went to the forums and saw the XClamp replaement tutorial, I bought all the stuff for it and was going to attempt it. Thank god I came across this thread first. I figured it would be worth trying this fix first because I would not have to do much surgery on my 360 to try this one.
My error code was 0102..
I taped 2 pennys to each ram chip, put the motherboard back in the case and did not put the 8 black x clamp srews in. I turned it on and it went straight to the 3RLOD again.
I figured that I should unplug the fan and let it run for about 5 or 10 minuted to really get her hot. After which I screwed all the black screws back in and made them very tight.
Turned the 360 back on and it fired up first shot. Played an hour straight of BioShock no problem at all!!!
I am forever in your debt for figuring out this fix. Its so simple of a fix its beautiful!!
Thanks again from a relieved 360 owner!!!
Post by: jm01dc on August 21, 2007, 05:43:00 PM
Post by: gregkel on August 22, 2007, 09:35:00 PM
Video probs initially, progressing to 3rlod.
No faith in sending back to MS.
Decided to fix myself.
8 cent trick, 3rlod persisted. got it to go to dash once, before it locked and went to 3 or 2 rlod.
Decided to up to 12 cent trick, replaced thermal paste w arcticsilver and talismoon fan all at once.
3rlod on startup. towel trick, SUCCESS!
except for turbofan.
Scared I may have bent the xclips a small amount when trying to replace (a very minor amount)
Used only a finger smear of arctic (ass suggested earlier) to cover the chips.
I think the screws are only in a very small amount. 1 screw not even in place. should I continue to tighten screws until turbo fan goes away? I think fans are somewhat loose at present. Thanks in advance.
Also, Thanks for the 12 cent fix. worked wonders. Frigging original factory paste was everywhere.
Post by: SphtKr76 on August 25, 2007, 09:26:00 AM
Got it on ebay for $48, seal was already broken.
Tried the 8 penny fix last night, left out the 8 black x clamp screws, got the 3 RRoD on the first boot up.
Gave her the towel for about 5 minutes, let is sit for a while, then tried to boot it up. It tried to boot, got the Xbox logo for about 1 second, then got the 2 flashing lights of overheating.
I then installed the 8 black screws to medium tightness, booted it up and got one flashing light with code E79. Next I tried tightening the black screws all the way, then boothed her up and she actually worked!! I am playing PGR 3 on it right now, then fans are definitely running faster than they should. I think I will take her back apart and give her some Arctic Silver, see if that helps.
PS Anybody know if AS3 is ok? Its all I have, and it works great on my PC....
Post by: SphtKr76 on August 25, 2007, 12:01:00 PM
I pulled the HDD off my Elite and plugged it in, signed into XBL to get the updates (this thing had zero updates), set it yo 1080p and played some Gears. It lasted about 15 minutes before the screen went black. i tried it again, this time it went 10 minutes and froze, no lights though.
I took it apart again, pulled the X clamps and put some AS3 on it(noticed one of the penny stacks had fallen off the RAM chip, re-glued it), put it back together and played some gears at 720p for about an hour, seems to be working great now.
The fans seems to be running at full speed when gaming, and about 60% or so when watching a movie at 480p (component cables)
How do I get those fans to slow down, its waaay too loud?!
Post by: SphtKr76 on August 25, 2007, 07:14:00 PM
All in all this was a very fun and rewarding little project, I figure I will be into it around $150 with the cost of the console, a PSU, a 20 gig HDD and a VGA cable. This will make for a very nice console to take on trips and to LAN's.
So in short, a big thanks to Kidderboots for the fix, another satisfied customer
Post by: jm01dc on August 26, 2007, 09:37:00 AM
I used 3 pennies, 1 overlapping strip of electrical tape which can stand temps up to 170 F so it should be fine. However, some of the pennies are still exposed on the sides, so I might take it apart and re do that.
Anyways, first my dvd drive is stuck and I'm thinking wtf is going on here... so I figure out that the top of the drive had pushed down from me pushing on it, so I pryed it with a flathead and that problem was fixed. Then I get everything back together... and I get instant 3 RLOD. I towel trick it, again, still 3 RLOD, not even 2. I'm thinking GRRR, so I try to remove the black screws, and what do you know, the xbox is so hot that the torx bit I have gets stripped, cool! The error code was 0020 (unknown error). So I go back to hardware store today, get free replacement. Come back home, start removing the black screws, removed 2, still 3RLOD come on instantly, no green lights at all. So I remove all the black screws from one side, I'm not sure if it was cpu or the ram chips. I turn it on, green lights!!!!!!!!
Testing it now with madden 08, gonna play a full game. Fans are also running at normal speed right now.
If this works long term, I'm gonna shat my pants. I thought there was no hope, and the green lights appeared! Seems to be a legit fix....you just gotta mess around with those black screws, tahts the biggest part.
Post by: JanusX88 on August 26, 2007, 03:49:00 PM
april got 0102, then did the bracket replacement that doesn't require drilling, worked for 2.5 months perfectly. Then 0102 3 rings after a few game crashes. I then opened it up again, replaced the x-clamps EXACTLY they way the 360 originally was, and tried the 12 cent fix, but used 8 pennies and cut in half the sticky pads that were already on. I also the same day applied a fresh coating of AS on both gpu and cpu. After attempts, i screwed in the 4 black screws over the gpu and none over the cpu, and i got VERY QUIET fan speeds, and a perfect xbox360 for another 3 weeks / 30 hours of play. worked even better than the bracket replacement. Then it began to do the same thing, graphic hicups, then crashes. so i took it apart, then i placed 2 more screws over the far side of the cpu from the gpu like this : : _ : It worked for another 2-3 days, and now once again, it crashed 0102. What do you guys suggest?
Post by: jm01dc on August 27, 2007, 08:09:00 AM
Update on mine.. I played 2 games last night, over an hour each and there are no problems so far. Hopefully this lasts weeks upon months on end.
Post by: Dudemeister3 on August 31, 2007, 03:37:00 AM
Notes:
Previously tried the towel trick before this.
Did this with 3 pennies wrapped in double sided tape.(not electric)
No screws were on when done with the 3 pennies.
Worked for two days.
Attempted to boot up gears of war after playing demos all day long and got a white vertical stripe freeze. I've tried repositioning the pennies, rewrapping the pennies, putting all screws in, messing with heatsink screws and all the above with the 2 penny setup.
Any advice? Thanks a lot.
Post by: ConfusedMan on August 31, 2007, 05:02:00 AM
Ram Heatsinks
Would it be better or worse than the pennys, and would it accomplish the same thing?
Post by: ryan83 on August 31, 2007, 07:49:00 AM
QUOTE(ConfusedMan @ Aug 31 2007, 12:38 PM)
Hi, I was just wondering whether these would be ok.
Ram Heatsinks
Would it be better or worse than the pennys, and would it accomplish the same thing?
just use pennies,
this method was devised so u dont need to spend money.
Post by: ConfusedMan on August 31, 2007, 08:38:00 AM
QUOTE(ryan83 @ Aug 31 2007, 03:25 PM)
just use pennies,
this method was devised so u dont need to spend money.
Well, I dont have a heat gun so ill have to get one and I don't have insulation tape too. £4.99 isn't that much.
So, was that a yes or no?
Post by: ryan83 on September 01, 2007, 04:53:00 PM
QUOTE(ConfusedMan @ Aug 31 2007, 04:14 PM)
Well, I dont have a heat gun so ill have to get one and I don't have insulation tape too. £4.99 isn't that much.
So, was that a yes or no?
why would you want a heatgun?
one is not required.
use two british penny stacks ,
Post by: somacast on September 02, 2007, 04:44:00 PM
this is my feedback for this fix , its my friends 360 and has the 3 lights , so we tried towel trick , it came back 2 life for a momnet and back 2 the lights ...
so i decided to try this method since its easier than the xclamp method , so i used 3 coins , sticked them to each other using a glue similar to that used for fixing carpets (urgent glue) , no tape at all , removed the funny things on the rams below , and also sticked the 3 coins sets to each of the 4 rams using the same glue, fixed the heat sinks , the crazy xclamps , and started it with all 8 heatsinks screws fixed but not tightened , it worked for about 3 minutes , and thsshshsshshshs , gpu failed , ok now tightened the screwes then on , fans gets crazy and 2 lights in about 3 seconds .... so losen them again and removed all of them completly , now start , worked for about 5 minutes and failed , no 3 lights or 2 , just frozen screen , then i noticed that the front usb port is a littttle lifted so , i tried pushing it down , well it worked for 20 minutes and failed , so i used only one screw on the gpu heat sink , and tried it without pushing the usb down this time , worked , ........ for more than 2 hours , tried GOW , Forza 2 , viva piniata ........ i hope it stays like this
now the big challenge is keeping it in same position while closing it back , and also after putting the hard drive........
i will close it back later and c .........
so the good about this fix is that the 3 lights really disappeared ......
Post by: dcfcforever on September 04, 2007, 09:58:00 AM
if the Xclamp method has already been done is it worth doing this as well?
mine has just started freezing and RLOD again so was wondering if they can be used together?
Post by: somacast on September 04, 2007, 01:09:00 PM
QUOTE(dcfcforever @ Sep 4 2007, 05:34 PM)
I have a question
if the Xclamp method has already been done is it worth doing this as well?
mine has just started freezing and RLOD again so was wondering if they can be used together?
actually this is a very good idea , but remeber that the tension of the bolts has to be less now ,
so try them together , since this method alone gets rid to some percent of the 3 RLOD , but unluckily the freezing does occur frequently after half an hour of playing .........
Post by: reptilexcq2 on September 08, 2007, 05:54:00 PM
Post by: fracicone on September 08, 2007, 08:46:00 PM
QUOTE(reptilexcq2 @ Sep 8 2007, 08:30 PM)
I done this trick before....it works only temporary. You may be able to play it all day without problem but a day or 2 later playing intensely, you get the problem back....it's not a permanent fix. If you want to fix it permanently, go with the Xclamp method. I did and it works great!
Check your facts man; you should have said that in YOUR personal experience (specify how many 360s you have penny tricked) blablabla, because in MY personal experience the 360 I fixed over 2 months ago runs just fine, and many more posters confirm this. Maybe you did something wrong or your 360 was broken beyond repair but you shouldn't talk trash about this method without proper knowledge.
No hard feelings I hope.
Post by: bchmo on September 08, 2007, 11:38:00 PM
Post by: fracicone on September 09, 2007, 04:55:00 PM
QUOTE(bchmo @ Sep 9 2007, 02:14 AM)
I'm really glad I found this little fix. My 360 started freezing earlier this week and today it finally gave me the 3 red lights. Of course it had to happen only weeks before Halo 3 comes out. However, I tried this fix and it's been working well for a few hours now. I used 3 pennies for each ram module but I still got the 3ROD if I didn't use the screws. It took me around half an hour to get it in working order. My only gripe is that now the fan goes on full blast whenever I play a game. It's louder than my computer and a little annoying but I guess it's fine since the 360 will be cooler too. I tried tweaking the screws a little to get the fan back to normal but I'd always get the 3ROD. Anyway, thanks for the guide kidderboots.
Experiment a little more dude; the "turbo fan" is a consequence of the heatsinks not making complete contact with the CPU and GPU, henceforth they don't cool the chips well enough so the fans spin faster (and louder). It shouldn't happen if you do everything by the book, or that's the idea I've got from reading this thread.
Post by: javisaman on September 09, 2007, 05:25:00 PM
Post by: danipukok on September 09, 2007, 07:39:00 PM
Post by: pr0j3ctxb0x on September 09, 2007, 07:47:00 PM
QUOTE(HaterSlayer @ Jun 30 2007, 02:29 PM)
Are you supposed to do the towel fix afterwords? Some people in here did that, but in the original thread you said nothing about that. Also, just to be clear each penny is supposed to be taped individually then tapped together or are they supposed to be taped together?
My console overheated the first time i turned it on after the 3 penny fix. Then i rebooted and it has worked ever since. So just try it then if nothing else try the towel thing. If it fails atleast u didnt actually remove/mod anything. Stack 3 pennys then wrap tape around all 3 not each penny individually.
Post by: ryan83 on September 16, 2007, 01:40:00 PM
Was running fine , no turbo fan and no freezing whatsoever,
but the otherday when i turned it on it was 3 red lights, but i turned it off and on again and it worked.
its like this every day now (intermittent 3rlod), but it doesnt bother me as i know it eventually works..
I think its because the plug isnt directly into the wall Socket,(it shares an extension) Because when i unplug my pc,Tv and digital box , then power up my 360 it works.
i am going to get some new AS5 paste though as i think it probably needs it.
Post by: joeyddr on September 18, 2007, 08:36:00 AM
Post by: haqtiq on September 20, 2007, 09:19:00 PM
playing backed up and original games flawlessly, for MUCH longer than anytime before..
Man, if you were here i'd have you either really drunk or really high, depending on your pref, thanks so much for this. I basically just scored a $97.12 xbox 360
Post by: hamza002 on September 24, 2007, 09:16:00 PM
Post by: Ogrt48 on September 25, 2007, 02:54:00 AM
QUOTE(BENNYDEE @ Sep 24 2007, 11:04 PM)
Hello,
This is a noob question but I really did read for hours now and cant tell how far the box needs to be disassembled. I have seen a few tutorials but they are all different levels of disassembly... If someone doesnt mind can you let me know how far I have to go to get to these 4 chips to put the pennys on, or if there is a link avail. My XBOX has been down for a while now but I am going to try this eventhough I really know nothing about the internal workings of an XBOX.. Maybe I shouldnt be but I am running out of options.
Thanks in advance for any replys.
Completely taken apart. The chips are on the bottom of the motherboard which is under everything on the bottom half of the case.
Post by: BENNYDEE on September 25, 2007, 05:16:00 PM
WELL YET ANOTHER HAPPY CUSTOMER!!! , Let me tell anyone out there who is thinking about doing this... DO IT, take your time and read and dig in. It took me about an hour and I have never seen the inside of an XBOX before, I used 8 pennies , 2 on each with black electrical tape and a glue gun. Put it back together minus the 8 black X Screws and BOOM working now for about an hour no problems.
Thank You Kidderboots and to eveyone elso who has contributed to this thread all the replys were very helpful.
GAME ON
BENNY
Post by: alucard_xs on September 26, 2007, 02:13:00 AM
Thanks dudes, keep the good work
Post by: martin.ca on September 26, 2007, 06:54:00 AM
Can I use 2 CAD pennies each stack and use the tape Microsoft provided? Or I should just tape the penny stack to RAM without it?
And lastly, is this a permanent fix?
Post by: alucard_xs on September 26, 2007, 07:10:00 AM
and no it's not a permanent fix.
Post by: wunder on September 26, 2007, 02:38:00 PM
Post by: blame canada on September 26, 2007, 02:40:00 PM
Also, no, it's not a permanent fix, but compared to other fixes (towel trick, heat-gun method, etc.) it will seem like a permanent fix.
@ alucard, try replacing the x-clamps. The same xbox above ^ wouldn't work with just replaced x-clamps or just the penny trick. But the second I put the 8 pennies in there it booted up and been working since.
Post by: blame canada on September 26, 2007, 06:19:00 PM
Post by: blame canada on September 27, 2007, 12:51:00 PM
Just pay the couple bux for a roll of electrical tape (if that).
Post by: TPG2k on September 27, 2007, 10:14:00 PM
I have one question, it's been so long since my 360 (Nov 2005 Build date) has worked properly that I can't remember if this is normal or not. The Whisper fan spins normal at the dashboard, during game play when the system heats up the fans spin speed increases dramatically and it's definitely loud enough to know it's working hard. It's not running 100% as prior to tightening down the heat syncs it was always running at 100% and man that was loud! Now As soon as I go back to the dashboard it's goes back to spinning normal again and I can hardly hear it.
It's spins loud enough during game play that if the TV volume is not loud enough it could be annoying however as previously mentioned I can no longer remember is this is just how the 360 is suppose to behave.
Comments please...
Post by: motoman9213 on September 27, 2007, 10:31:00 PM
this is what I did 2 pennies wrapped in electrical tape 3-4 total layers(2 each side), I used the thinnest possible layer of those sticky pads already in there for glue, I also already did the x-clamp replacement so I tried with the screws tight and lose but made almost no difference. doing the towel trick also will not help since it goes straight into 2 red lights and generates no heat. it seems to me that two pennies combined together with the thickness of the ram is too much for my console as it makes all the connectors raise a considerable amount to the point where I have to really tighten those tiny screws to get them to go down so I can plug everything in. So I'm thinking maybe one penny will suffice. so I'm gonna go try that out now and post how it goes also if anybody else thinks of something else I could of done wrong please tell me.
Post by: motoman9213 on September 28, 2007, 02:38:00 PM
Post by: RRain on September 29, 2007, 08:32:00 AM
Even if you don't have RROD this is a good idea just to help keep your system cool.
Post by: motoman9213 on September 29, 2007, 09:46:00 AM
Post by: Frezz on September 29, 2007, 01:52:00 PM
Post by: sinister slipknot on September 30, 2007, 03:48:00 AM
QUOTE(RRain @ Sep 29 2007, 04:08 PM)
This fix didn't solve the problem. But I am gonna try the x-clamp again. However I must say that this did keep my xbox a hell of a lot cooler. Thanks
Even if you don't have RROD this is a good idea just to help keep your system cool.
No its not, the strain on the mobo is unneccessary, i'd suggest using this fix as a last resort. If your xbox is fine and you want to take precautions to potentially stop it breaking there are plenty of other methods that are way better.
Post by: blame canada on September 30, 2007, 05:40:00 AM
No, it won't help your system keep cool (in fact it does the exact opposite for the ram chips...), however, combined with the x-clamp method (not RBJ's, but lawdogs. RBJ's pretty much already has the penny fix in it because it bolts right to the metal chassis and the nuts act like the pennies in a way) would help prevent your motherboard from flexing and probably save or delay your 360 from RLOD'ing.
Post by: klezfire on October 02, 2007, 05:39:00 AM
QUOTE(abadfish66 @ Jun 4 2007, 09:27 PM)
If were looking to dissapate heat, will we be looking for a better transfer to the pennies other than hot glue, maybe articsilver adhesive. Just brainstorming
Yes, however instead of using hot glue, use some thermal paste. Like Arctic Silver 5, this will transfer heat to the penny's thus make your 360 last longer.
Post by: OPTIMUM on October 03, 2007, 08:50:00 PM
I HOPE THAT IT WILL HELP YOU TO MAKE YOUR 360 ALIVE AND MAKE IT GOOD FOR LONG RUN.
P.S I AM NOT USING ANY OTHER MOD JUST THE PENNY TRICK. NO X CLAMP OR NOTHING. ITS THE MOST EASIEST AND IT WORK SO WAT ELSE YOU WANT .
Post by: Yankee427 on October 05, 2007, 11:10:00 AM
Very nice work kidderboots and others for your testing and suggestions. This seems like an easy enough fix. Will give this a try if I find one on ebay that looks promising and report back to here.
Post by: zalaabar on October 05, 2007, 05:55:00 PM
Post by: punktilend on October 05, 2007, 06:56:00 PM
Post by: jansen126 on October 13, 2007, 06:51:00 AM
but my fan is very loud now..how do i fix this?
Post by: XxDUNITxX on October 13, 2007, 07:20:00 PM
Post by: misterbeetz on October 16, 2007, 08:02:00 PM
Using two pennies per stack with electrical tape, and no black screws worked for like a week or so but its rod'ing on me again. Fiddling with the black screws seemed to only cause the box to boot straight into a half-ring overheat error.
Now I tried three penny stacks and no black screws. Using this it boots fine but only after a five minute bake with fans unplugged. If I let it go cold again then it boots back into a r.o.d. Fiddling with the black screws now also cause it boot into a half ring overheat error.
Are there any black-screw patterns that seem more successful than others? Any advice or ideas would be much appreciated.
- misterbeetz
Post by: Yankee427 on October 19, 2007, 06:43:00 PM
Kidderboots, you are my new hero. Thanks for this fix. It worked great for me. I bought a 3rrod xbox off ebay for about 100 bucks. I put in the two penny stacks and first I put in all the silver screws and no black screws and got the 3 rings still. Then I got the 2 rings for overheating. After that I put in all the black screws, I still got the 3 rings.
Then I turned it on and let it on for about 20-30 minutes to heat it up enough. Then I turned off and back on and got all green lights and was good to go. It has been a day now and still working great.
Post by: booker on October 23, 2007, 09:36:00 AM
My console died last summer, i was tring different things, but the X clamp replacement gave me good results... Every once per month i had to re do the whole thing, or re tight the screws to keep it working. Until a few days back the system started giving me the 3RL again.
So i tried this method yesterday. i used 2 coins instead of 3, the first boot, 3 RL, 0102 code.
I overheat the system for 2 min, and then i restarted, this time it worked perfectly for exaclty 5hs and is still working
BUT to be honest i have 0 hopes. Why?
because i had to overheat the system. I do know that if i overheat the system i´m able to play for a few days... maybe more with unmoded system.
last time i remember i overheat the system and i was able to play for almost a month without doing any kind of mod. no x clamp, no pennys, nothing.
I Don´t think the system is working because i did this, i think it is working because i overheat and is a matter of time that the system died on me again.
So, if you had to overheat the system...don´t be too happy yet.
I did it, because i don´t have nothing too loose, maybe with the pennys the solders won´t get loose again because the preasure of the pennys... but i really really doubt it.
PS, sorry for my english
Post by: stickboom777 on October 24, 2007, 01:36:00 PM
.I think the reason heating the console works after you have placed in the pennys and screwed in all the screws etc, Is to apply heat to the motherboard allowing it to re flex itself it seems to loosen it all up again and sort of kickstart the console back to life once it is working again (after the penny fix) use your 360 for a few hours. When you turn it off and allow it to go cold the motherboard will not be able to re flex to its original place (faulty state) becausce of the pennys forcing against the ram hence why it will keep working.
My 360 runs quiet and never had a single crash or disc read error since using this fix.
The way I managed to keep the fans quiet was to only use 2 pennys for each stack and firmly screw in ALL screws including the black ones. Before with the black screws out the fans were extremely loud and fast.
Kidderboots youre a legend my 360 still going strong..
Post by: Garol_LoneWolf on October 24, 2007, 02:47:00 PM
Post by: booker on October 24, 2007, 04:21:00 PM
QUOTE(stickboom777 @ Oct 24 2007, 09:12 PM)
I did this mod on Jun 5th 2007 its now 24th October 2007 and my 360 is still running perfect! you can see the pics I took when i did the mod my screen name has changed since then
.I think the reason heating the console works after you have placed in the pennys and screwed in all the screws etc, Is to apply heat to the motherboard allowing it to re flex itself it seems to loosen it all up again and sort of kickstart the console back to life once it is working again (after the penny fix) use your 360 for a few hours. When you turn it off and allow it to go cold the motherboard will not be able to re flex to its original place (faulty state) becausce of the pennys forcing against the ram hence why it will keep working.
My 360 runs quiet and never had a single crash or disc read error since using this fix.
The way I managed to keep the fans quiet was to only use 2 pennys for each stack and firmly screw in ALL screws including the black ones. Before with the black screws out the fans were extremely loud and fast.
Kidderboots youre a legend my 360 still going strong..
i think this mod works for all those who didn´t have to overheat the system.
If you were force to overheat the system to make the 360 works, this is just a temporary solution and it will only work for a couple days or weeks. And at the end, the system is working because you overheated, and not because the mod.
Example, take any 360 with 3RL, and do the overheating process without changing anything, i´m certain the system will work after that so it is clearly the system is running again because the overheat and not the Pennys. (like the towel tricik people used to talk about)
Don´t get me wrong i would love to be wrong.... but this already happened before. The same thing happen to me with the X clamps. They worked because i had to overheat the thing, and like they say, if you have to overheat the system, the system is not fixed. It will crash after a couple of days/weeks.
Post by: booker on October 25, 2007, 08:37:00 AM
QUOTE(misterbeetz @ Oct 25 2007, 12:34 AM)
Crap, i'm afraid you might be right. This will probably be the last night I try to revive my box. I think the only solution is to get a new one at this point.
- misterbeetz
Yeah same here
I´m tired of this.enough is enough
Post by: Relix on February 03, 2020, 05:53:00 PM
I opened the system up, and for it to work I unplugged the fan and let it overheat, then it would work. Any of you guys think that if I do this penny fix it could work without further problems? Or is it screwed beyond repair?
Post by: **AMH - LP** on February 03, 2020, 06:47:00 PM
Also, you should try adding some more fans in there. On my setup I have two small 12V fans: 1 on my CPU heat sink, and the other near it blowing towards the GPU (air goes through that small opening under the DVD drive).
If you haven't already, I would upgrade to some better thermal paste. Either Arctic Silver 5 or some Spectra Cool Polysynthetic paste (I found pretty much no difference in temperature between the 2, I tested them both and ended up just using the Spectra Cool).
You could also add some thermal pads or heat sinks to your RAM chips on top the motherboard and also to the secondary GPU and Southbridge chips.
Post by: booker on October 25, 2007, 07:36:00 PM
QUOTE(Relix @ Oct 26 2007, 01:53 AM)
I did the Lawdawg's method on my 360. Worked fine till now.
I opened the system up, and for it to work I unplugged the fan and let it overheat, then it would work. Any of you guys think that if I do this penny fix it could work without further problems? Or is it screwed beyond repair?
I´m really really out of hopes and still i tried this mod.. because it is really really easy to do.. so give it a try.
My system is working fince since sunday, but i´m 99% certain it is because i overheated, and not because the pennys.. but i could be wrong... i would love to
Post by: Relix on February 03, 2020, 07:16:00 PM
Post by: synerx on February 03, 2020, 08:39:00 PM
I have to give serious props to x-s and all active users. I thought I was going to have to go get a new unit for sure. Besides, I probably wouldn't have ever even modded my original Xbox if it weren't for the information I found in these forums.
Thanks!
Post by: skaiwalker on February 04, 2020, 12:21:00 AM
You have Red Light console? Immediately apply this method.
Post by: stickboom777 on October 26, 2007, 01:10:00 PM
QUOTE(booker @ Oct 24 2007, 11:57 PM)
i think this mod works for all those who didn´t have to overheat the system.
If you were force to overheat the system to make the 360 works, this is just a temporary solution and it will only work for a couple days or weeks. And at the end, the system is working because you overheated, and not because the mod.
Example, take any 360 with 3RL, and do the overheating process without changing anything, i´m certain the system will work after that so it is clearly the system is running again because the overheat and not the Pennys. (like the towel tricik people used to talk about)
Don´t get me wrong i would love to be wrong.... but this already happened before. The same thing happen to me with the X clamps. They worked because i had to overheat the thing, and like they say, if you have to overheat the system, the system is not fixed. It will crash after a couple of days/weeks.
I had to heat my 360 after doing the 2 penny trick (i.e total of 8 pennies with all screws put back in) and my 360 has worked fine ever since. It seems to be a case of getting your console back to life with heat, Then applying enough pressure to the motehrboard via pennies and screws tension to keep the motherboard in its working position. My 360 was dead untill this mod and has worked flawlessly ever since.
Dont give up hope on your dead 360 yet keep trying the mod.. Unless you have warranty, In that case just send it back...
Post by: booker on October 27, 2007, 01:01:00 AM
QUOTE(stickboom777 @ Oct 26 2007, 08:46 PM)
I had to heat my 360 after doing the 2 penny trick (i.e total of 8 pennies with all screws put back in) and my 360 has worked fine ever since. It seems to be a case of getting your console back to life with heat, Then applying enough pressure to the motehrboard via pennies and screws tension to keep the motherboard in its working position. My 360 was dead untill this mod and has worked flawlessly ever since.
Dont give up hope on your dead 360 yet keep trying the mod.. Unless you have warranty, In that case just send it back...
For how long did you have you xbox360 working fine after doing the mod? How much do you use the system?
thanks
Post by: stickboom777 on October 27, 2007, 12:16:00 PM
See the pics I put up when I did my mod on first few pages of these postsI did the mod then and its worked fine ever since, I dont play my 360 every day when a new game comes out I tend to have a good session on it. Last game was half life 2 episode 2 oh and bioshock. played both of them games to death, And my 360 is fine runs quiet etc no crashes. I can leave it on overnight etc with no worries totally stable.
The only reason you need to heat the console it seems is to get it back to a working state. Probably the poorly soldered ram chips and stressed mothebroard need the heat to loosen em up. When you apply the pennies to the ram chips your forcing them into place and the motherboard with it. So it cant go back to its non working state once its cooled down again.
Its seems to be a gamble on how many screws to put back in and how many pennies. I used only 2 pennies for each stack and put every screw back in and tightened them as hard as I could.
Post by: Relix on October 27, 2007, 07:00:00 PM
Post by: motorhead_nsb on October 28, 2007, 05:17:00 PM
Post by: booker on October 28, 2007, 06:16:00 PM
I give up.
already tried x clamp, pennys and overheating... nothing seems to work on the long run... they are just temp. fixes por me
anyways... thanks for the information and the support.
now is time to save money for the next 360 !
Post by: ImpactPlayer on October 29, 2007, 10:06:00 PM
I opened up the 360, and one of the erasers had somehow fallen off. I imagine this might have been the cause of the problem, but decided to go ahead and use the penny fix since it seems like a better solution than the eraser fix.
I put the stacks on the ram chips, and then left the black screws out and started the 360 up. It started up but then turned off and showed 2 red lights. Tried putting all the screws in - still the 3 red lights. Then I randomly tried 3 screws in and it worked like a charm. Instantly booted up and has been going strong for 4-5 hours now.
One issue is that the fans are running super loud now though. It doesn't really bother me but is this a problem in the long-run for the 360? And is there a way to alleviate the problem? I used 3 pennies, so maybe I should use only 2?
Regardless, thanks for the great fix, kidderboots!
Post by: shah87 on October 30, 2007, 06:09:00 AM
but the fan...wow!! pretty loud even though im using the whisper fan!!
Post by: Techno79 on October 30, 2007, 05:08:00 PM
I might try screwing in some of the black screws again like 'ImpactPlayer' to see if that fixes the problem. Any further help would be greatly appreciated.
Post by: Techno79 on October 30, 2007, 05:40:00 PM
Just to add some more light on things, 2 of the black screws couldn't be screwed in as they didn't catch on to what they should screw into. The other 6 screws were fine. The 2 screws that don't screw in are on the same heatsink on the same side (i.e. they are not diagonal).
Someone please help (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
Post by: fafafooey on October 30, 2007, 09:23:00 PM
I've read about the new FALCON 360's with the smaller cpu. Have you seen anyone reporting failures with this revision yet? Even if you haven't, do you think the FALCON 360's will still be prone to the red ring of death?
Does anyone recommend an extended warranty, especially if I have to open up the case to get to the DVD drive for you-know-what?
Thanks for your help in advance!
Post by: shah87 on October 31, 2007, 07:52:00 AM
any idea how to slow down those fans? because even during the dashboard the fan noise is very loud..
Post by: troublemaker400 on October 31, 2007, 03:29:00 PM
Post by: southernloyalty on October 31, 2007, 04:21:00 PM
Post by: scienide on November 01, 2007, 02:53:00 AM
QUOTE(southernloyalty @ Nov 1 2007, 12:21 AM)
Hey people. I read and browsed through all 30 pgs. Im convinced this is a good fix for the 3rod. but i have the no video but sound issue. There have been other people who have asked this but nobody has really answered them. so does anybody know if this fix works for the no video problem. So i can know whether to get electrical tape or the stuff for the xclamp fix. Please respond!!
Hello,
A friend of mine has the same thing. I looked at his motherboard but this has nothing to do with the 3 red lights. The video encoder chip seems fried (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) ..
nothing much to fix about that ....
with kind regards
Marco
Post by: scienide on November 01, 2007, 03:53:00 AM
The 1 2 and 5 cent euro coins are made of steel with coper on the outside.
5 cent is 1,41 mm thick
2 cent is 1,36 mm
1 cent is 1,32 mm thick
Post by: scienide on November 01, 2007, 10:48:00 AM
It actually works quite good atm, and i didnt really have problems aligning the usb ports to the holes as i used only 2 coins.
I tried this fix first because it is the least effort
My only concern is heat generation in the ram chips... Anyone know if this can occur and if this can damage your xbox ? Further more i dont think this can do any extra damage to your xbox if applied correctly.
An xbox that gave me red light 99% of the time or else froze after 1 or 2 minutes is know running correctly for 15 minutes.
Will see how long it last before resorting to other methods...
Thank u very much
Post by: southernloyalty on November 01, 2007, 11:14:00 AM
QUOTE(scienide @ Nov 1 2007, 04:53 AM)
Hello,
A friend of mine has the same thing. I looked at his motherboard but this has nothing to do with the 3 red lights. The video encoder chip seems fried (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) ..
nothing much to fix about that ....
with kind regards
Marco
Hey, how do you know if the video encoder chip is fried. and if mine isn't do u think this fix could still work. Actually i think im jus gonna give it a shot. not sure when but please post back as soon as u can and anyone else out there
Post by: alucard_xs on November 01, 2007, 12:16:00 PM
Post by: scienide on November 01, 2007, 12:17:00 PM
U could try some fixes. If the video encoder chip is fried the xbox is good for spare parts anyway.
As this fix focusses on the ram, i dont know if this will do any good. Maybe a variation on this fix, applying pressure on the video encoder chip.
My friends xbox even boots games, we can hear the sound of the game even but no video what so ever. The 360 seems to boot like normal and doesnt give any errors what so ever.
I remember a topic of someone who sent his xbox to a repair centre getting this exact same answer, video encoder broken... I also know that there are some fixes holding a button on the xbox controller (if i remember correctly its the Y button) which should reset the video settings to default, but this didnt do any good for my friends xbox.
I would say do a search for the problem to find those topics and decide what is best for your xbox.
Post by: southernloyalty on November 01, 2007, 12:48:00 PM
oh yeah, ill post my results for those of you with the no video but sound problem.
This post has been edited by southernloyalty: Nov 1 2007, 07:51 PM
Post by: Vatamin R on November 01, 2007, 07:59:00 PM
Post by: GomerPyle on November 10, 2007, 10:55:00 PM
Sorry Batman and Holy Crap Robin Your feelings are going to be hurt when it does happen again. The Yellow Tinge and weird colors will come back and then you will get only audio with no video!!!!!
Buy a new xbox as they fixed the problems with the new added heatsinks!
Post by: VanydotK on November 11, 2007, 02:57:00 PM
QUOTE(GomerPyle @ Nov 11 2007, 06:55 AM)
Buy a new xbox as they fixed the problems with the new added heatsinks!
The new added headsink does not fix the problem, people are still getting the 3RROL
Post by: whiplash willy on November 12, 2007, 10:37:00 PM
This post has been edited by whiplash willy: Nov 13 2007, 06:40 AM
Post by: southernloyalty on November 12, 2007, 11:12:00 PM
QUOTE(GomerPyle @ Nov 11 2007, 01:55 AM)
Dont want to bust anyones bubbles but this is not a permanent fix its only Temporary. There is a 100 percent chance the problem will return. I have tested and done this to about 5 xboxes and the longest each one of them have worked was 6 months at the most!!!!
Sorry Batman and Holy Crap Robin Your feelings are going to be hurt when it does happen again. The Yellow Tinge and weird colors will come back and then you will get only audio with no video!!!!!
Buy a new xbox as they fixed the problems with the new added heatsinks!
Well u are bustin bubbles. but anyway mr. robin man. as long as this fix last me a good few months im coo, and if not ill jus do the xclamp. or buy some used ones off ebay and fix those, i got other backup plans as well, im always thinkin of other solutions. Its jus righ now its workin and i cant afford to buy another righ now. christmas is comin up u know, but anyway, how does that batman song go. the jingle bells one. batman lost a wheel.......whatever
Post by: ///M on November 15, 2007, 12:45:00 AM
Post by: fracicone on November 16, 2007, 07:48:00 PM
QUOTE(GomerPyle @ Nov 11 2007, 01:55 AM)
... I have tested and done this to about 5 xboxes and the longest each one of them have worked was 6 months at the most!!!!...
When you posted this the fix as posted by kidderboots was a little over 5 months old, so how did you test those xboxes for over 6 months? I (respectfully) call bullshit on you.
Post by: VanydotK on November 16, 2007, 08:15:00 PM
QUOTE(fracicone @ Nov 17 2007, 03:48 AM)
When you posted this the fix as posted by kidderboots was a little over 5 months old, so how did you test those xboxes for over 6 months? I (respectfully) call bullshit on you.
pwn't
Post by: Cobb2003 on November 17, 2007, 09:43:00 AM
QUOTE(southernloyalty @ Nov 13 2007, 08:12 AM)
but anyway, how does that batman song go. the jingle bells one. batman lost a wheel.......whatever
"jingle bells batman smells robin flew away...the batmobile lost and wheel and joker got away hey!"
yeah im sure anyfix is better than no fix.
Post by: southernloyalty on November 17, 2007, 08:15:00 PM
p.s. xbox still goin strong
This post has been edited by southernloyalty: Nov 18 2007, 04:20 AM
Post by: HoBoz on November 20, 2007, 08:46:00 AM
I have flashed several hatachi and benq drives and have not had any problems. The other day a friend of mine that I had flashed his hatachi 46 awhile back, started getting the 3RROD and wanted me to have a look at it. I told him I would but did not think that anything was possible. I started reading up on the matter and came across this thread and read all the post in this thread and said to myself wtf.
His Xbox 360 was made back in 2005 and he said go for it cause it could not hurt it now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
So here is what I did.
I use the 3 pennies per stack wrapped in elect. tape and followed the directions on the first post to the letter. But still got the 3RROD. So I put back in some of the black screws (did not help) it only made the fans louder. So I tried different combinations of put black screw in, tightening some or all the black screws, nothing helped. I then took out all the black screws and tried the towel trick along with the penny trick. I put the 360 back together fully(except the black screws) and wrapped the 360 in 3 thick towels and turned it on and left it running for about 5 minutes and I noticed that the red lights went from 3 to the 2 red lights indicating that it was overheating. I left it on for another few minutes( about 2 mins) turned it off leaving it wrapped in the towels for another 10 mins. I then unwrapped the towels and put in front of a fan on low speed and left it to cool down. I left it for 1 hour and then plugged in the A\V cable and Pwr cable, hit the on button and to my amazement it came to life with only green lights. I turned it off and on several times just to see if I would get the RROD or not. I then turned it on and loaded a backup disk, it read it fine along with originals. I then left it on and running for 3 hours and it is still working fine.
I know that this is classified as a temp fix, but with older 360 that are no longer under warranty this is something to consider doing to maybe get it back to playing condition. I will see how long this little fix lasts and report back the results.
Thanks to all so posted here and to kidderboots for starting the topic.
Post by: ferr4rl on November 21, 2007, 12:29:00 PM
I started unscrewing certain screws in the back and discovered that when I unscrewed one of the gold screws that holds in the power adapter plug in (the gold screw NOT next to the corner (there are two screws holding in the power adapter plug in)), that the fan calmed down and no more overheating. Hope this helps anyone with this problem. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
QUOTE(fracicone @ Nov 16 2007, 09:48 PM)
When you posted this the fix as posted by kidderboots was a little over 5 months old, so how did you test those xboxes for over 6 months? I (respectfully) call bullshit on you.
Nice.
Post by: Ogrt48 on November 21, 2007, 12:54:00 PM
Post by: whiplash willy on November 21, 2007, 01:30:00 PM
Post by: SadisticYouth on November 24, 2007, 05:14:00 AM
ALSO I never used any thermal paste or anything like it on the ram/cpu/gpu. I also used standard electrical tape instead of hot glue. This is my theory.....If your having lines down your screen and weird noises then it has to be the ram chips not the GPU because the wouldn't be any sound errors. Just a Though... I have had the system playing ASSASSINS CREED for 5 hours now and not one problem.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU
XBOX_SCENE rules the scene.............PS this is the only site that I have ever even bothered to post on..
Post by: fracicone on November 24, 2007, 01:28:00 PM
QUOTE(SadisticYouth @ Nov 24 2007, 08:14 AM)
... The I read about baking the board in the oven, and to tell the truth I see the logic but the abuse your board goes through is not worth it...
Baking the 360? Now THAT is one trick I'd never heard of (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Post by: squidney2k1 on November 25, 2007, 12:50:00 AM
When I turn on my console, it boots up but I'm having the "turbo fans" and after 5-6 minutes at the Dashboard - or 30 seconds of gaming - it turns off with the 2 Red Lights (error 0020). Another thing is that the coloring is all off. It appears that there is no yellow, and everything appears bluish (and the 360 Splash screen has a slight greenish tint instead of the clear white, which I'm guessing is caused by the lack of the yellow coloring). I have tested this on 2 TV's and the result is the same.
I've tried everything I can think of...messing around with the screws, leaving all of them out, leaving them all in, tightening the hell outta them, leaving the case open. Only other option that I can think of is heating the mobo (heat gun/blow dryer...not the Towel Trick!)...I just don't get it. Supposedly this is from uneven contact with the heatsink or whatever, but why the bad coloring? Anyone else have this issue?
Post by: ferr4rl on November 25, 2007, 01:06:00 AM
Have you tried removing all the gold screws too? or were you only referring to the black screws.
Post by: squidney2k1 on November 25, 2007, 01:30:00 AM
Post by: squidney2k1 on November 25, 2007, 01:47:00 AM
Still getting the Turbo Fans and the 2 Red Lights (0020) fairly fast, so I will continue to tinker with all of the screws to find a sweet spot. Man, you really do have to just patiently mess with the screws/pressure until it works, I've been at it for over 30 minutes.
I'll try heating up the center of the mobo (mainly GPU area) with a high-heat blow dryer for a few minutes to help loosen the board (will see if that works before using my Heat Gun since that's much hotter).
Post by: SimianEtza on November 25, 2007, 10:46:00 AM
Now I packed stacks with 2 five euro cents, I'll report back if it works.
Post by: SimianEtza on November 25, 2007, 11:30:00 AM
Got something I could try?
Thanks.
Post by: southernloyalty on November 25, 2007, 02:45:00 PM
My video went away again. So now i put 12 pennies instead of 8, with all black screws in. I figure the GPU needed even more support. so now i got it to boot up for now, no 2 red lights yet and i got my video back, but fans are runnin high. but it works never the less. lets get em batman.
Post by: SimianEtza on November 25, 2007, 03:13:00 PM
Here's what I did.
At first, I used 12 five euro cents (stacks of 3). Didn't seem to work, I either got the 3RLOD or the overheating with the 2 blinking lights. No matter what I tried..
So I tried stacks of 2. Didn't seem to work, I couldn't get the 3RLOD to go away.
I searched through every page of this topic at least 3 times, and it seemed that the towel trick would get it to work.
I'm not too keen with the toweltrick, so I tried something different. I put all the screws in, including the 8 small ones. Screwed them in fairly tight, but not to the point I couldn't go any further. Then I unplugged the fan, and put everything in. (PSU, AV, DVD Drive). I turned it on, and of course> 3RLOD. When it changed to 2 blinking lights, meaning it overheated, I turned it off. Let it cool down for about 5 mins, and turned it back on.
Everything looked good at startup, but then it gave me the 2 lights of overheating after 2 seconds. Turned it off and on again. Now it gave me the same 2 overheating lights, but it lasted a wee bit longer. (Like 4 seconds).
So I was like fuck it, let's try it again. And yes, the third time it actually booted to the dash.
However, the fans were running at MAX. Which really bothered me.
I did some reading again and I discovered that the reason the fans were running so fast is because the chip wasn't making good enough contact with the heatsink.
I tightened the black screws of the GPU on the back as good as I could, and it worked! The fans were running a liiiittle bit faster than normal, but hardly noticable.
So yeah, thanks kidderboots! You the man.
Post by: squidney2k1 on November 25, 2007, 11:29:00 PM
I ended up having to heat the board afterall. I suppose that when you do this 2-Penny Stack Fix, you disturb the contact between the GPU and the heatsink - this can result in the continuance of the 3 Red Lights, but more often than not, it leads to the 2 Red Lights (0020 - Overheating) and "Turbo Fans." The solution can, and should, be found by adjusting the black screws in as many combinations of tension and inclusion as possible.
If this does not work, you will probably have to heat the motherboard to allow it to bend back into shape, which is what ended up doing after the console woul overheat with 2 Red Lights after a few minutes. DO NOT USE THE TOWEL TRICK. You do not need to heat the entire console, and the towel trick can and most likely will damage other components:
1) Remove the Air Scoop and DVD drive.
2) Get a high-heat Hair Dryer.
3) Set it to Low (still warm air), and heat the area near the center of the motherboard, in a slow circular motion 3-4" away. Concentrate around the GPU heatsink (tall piece) and make sure you're constantly moving and coming in at angles to heat the bottom. Avoid other components. Do this for 2-3 minutes.
4) Set the hair dryer to High, and repeat the process for another 60-90 seconds.
5) Flip the console over and heat the back of the metal casing, in the same circular manner, concentrating around the Black Screws. Do this on High for 1 minute.
6) Let your console cool (careful, the metal can get very hot).
7) After a few minutes, re-tighten all of the screws (if needed).
8a) Let it cool for about 8-10 minutes total, replace scoop and DVD drive, and then boot it up. If all goes well, the Turbo Fans should be gone, and give it a good 5 minute Gaming Test to confirm. Reassemble and enjoy.
8b) If still doesn't work, heat it again on High for another 1-2 minutes and repeat. One my friend's console, we had to heat it only once, but on mine I had to do it twice..I imagine if you have a Heat Gun, it should work after the first time since it's more suited for the task than a simple hair dryer.
It appears that although the screws can be an issue, the primary solution is to apply heat to bend the board back.
My 360 works great now. Ran the NBA 2K8 Demo right after for a good 10 minutes, no strange colors, no freezing, no Turbo Fans, no red lights at all. Then popped in Mass Effect and played for about 4 hours straight with no issues either. My Xbox 360 has officially been resurrected!! Now I can put all of my custom LEDs and wires back in and enjoy. (That'll teach me to build custom cases and void warranties).
This post has been edited by squidney2k1: Nov 26 2007, 07:32 AM
Post by: kidderboots on November 26, 2007, 04:15:00 PM
also!!
IF YOU HA?VENT OPEND YOU 360 YET and its 3rrod SEND IT TO MICROSOFT- 1 800 4 myxbox
EVEN IF YOU THINK ITS OUT OF WARRANTY!! THEY WARRANT EVERYTHING!!! they fucked their product up so they extended even passed 2 years its basically life- then they send you the new style!
even if you opened it as long as that sticker is there and close to looking un tamperd with tey will do it
OK happy holidays!!!
Post by: thedethklok on November 26, 2007, 04:38:00 PM
I tried the x clamp that worked until cod 4 caused freezing and killed it.
Post by: kidderboots on November 26, 2007, 05:07:00 PM
also!!
IF YOU HA?VENT OPEND YOU 360 YET and its 3rrod SEND IT TO MICROSOFT- 1 800 4 myxbox
EVEN IF YOU THINK ITS OUT OF WARRANTY!! THEY WARRANT EVERYTHING!!! they fucked their product up so they extended even passed 2 years its basically life- then they send you the new style!
even if you opened it as long as that sticker is there and close to looking un tamperd with tey will do it
OK happy holidays!!!
Post by: thedethklok on November 26, 2007, 06:23:00 PM
tried this fix w/ 3 pennies on each ram and reheated the board and no luck, any other suggestions anyone?
Post by: torne on November 27, 2007, 05:06:00 AM
I don't even want to think about why this works, or the chance of it lasting. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Post by: XxDUNITxX on November 27, 2007, 08:45:00 AM
QUOTE(XxDUNITxX @ Jun 10 2007, 05:02 AM)
First off, anyone who has ever thought of doing the towel trick needs to burn every towel they own before they burn the house down. It is dangerous and will harm other things.
The penny trick works for me, I did it last night and I have had my console on for 3 hours straight now and no problems. I used 3 pennies on each ram chip and wrapped them in electrical tape, I don't think that the pennies are really there to dissapate heat though, I think that it is more the space they provide for airflow and the pressure they put on the motherboard that does it.
For those of you getting the loud fan and the 2 red light overheating now, this happened to me too at first. You need to remove the Gpu and Cpu heatsinks, clean all of the thermal paste off of the motherboard and the heatsinks, apply arctic silver, and reassemble. And if you don't tighten those cpu and gpu screws enough you will get 3 red lights, so tighten the f'ers down. I think that the reason that it overheats after you do the penny trick is because when you remove the motherboard from the metal housing you remove the bolts that tighten the gpu and cpu down and break the current bond that it has with the factory thermal crap paste, and from then on it will overheat if you bumped the heatsinks enough.
Also if you cannot get the Gpu and Cpu screws back into the metal case, press down on the cpu and gpu from the top of the motherboard when you are tightening them from the bottom, also save those for last, I managed to get every screwI took out back in and every port on the 360 lines up.
Hope this helps some of you!
And THANK YOU for this topic, I thought that my 360 was screwed and I didn't feel like doing the x clamp.
Thanks!
Also I almost forgot to mention, my 360 had the foamy pad things already on the ram chips, so I took them off when doing the penny trick. And just a tip you can actually rip those pads apart and they are like a glue, I used them to stick my penny stacks to the Ram chips! Thanks M$!
Hey I see allot of people are having the overheating 2 red light problem right off the bat and having to mess around allot to fix it, if you put Arctic Silver 5 on the gpu and cpu when you have the console open it will get rid of that, you are right that the reason is, or at least i think it is, that when you open it up you break the original connection between the motherboard and the gpu and cpu.
Post by: thedethklok on November 27, 2007, 09:33:00 AM
QUOTE(torne @ Nov 27 2007, 01:06 PM)
Worked for me after trying 2, and then 3 pennies under each, with some fiddling - half the xclamp screws refitted, to varying tightnesses.
I don't even want to think about why this works, or the chance of it lasting. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
I tried 2 pennies then 3, didnt work, i also did lawdawgs method so i have the M5 screws holding down the heatsinks so theres no x clamps to fiddle around with. again i have a 0021 error not the common 0102 error.
Post by: SimianEtza on November 27, 2007, 02:55:00 PM
I officially love you now, kidderboots. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pop.gif)
Post by: kidderboots on December 06, 2007, 03:44:00 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asTDsKLVexA...feature=related
Post by: absami on December 06, 2007, 10:12:00 AM
Post by: kidderboots on December 06, 2007, 02:14:00 PM
sure, the point of that doesnt make sense to me but yeah. its also going to be WAY harder to line up where your ram is. I suggest not tryin to reinvent the wheel here just place the pennies on the ram.
Post by: dblue on December 06, 2007, 06:35:00 PM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Jun 2 2007, 09:27 PM)
I have come across many different ways to fix this nagging 3 red lights of death and of course it seems that many different pieces of failing hardware cause this. I have, on the other hand, created a way to fix this issue with one simple fix. REMEMBER: opening your 360 and doing this fix will void your warranty always make sure your 360 is out of warranty before trying.
Things you'll need:
12 pennies
Electrical tape
Hot glue gun
First you open your 360 up (see tutorial on how to)
Take out the mother board
Flip the motherboard upside down
Locate the 4 Ram chip that are black and around the GPU
Take 3 pennies, stack them on top of each other so it looks 3 pennies thick
With the electrical tap wrap the pennies so no copper is showing (make 4 seperate stacks of pennies)
On each ram chip use a very small amount of hot glue to stick the stack of wrapped pennies to the ram
now when you flip the motherboard upside down the pennies should sick to the ram
When putting the screws back in do not screw the black screws that hold the CPU and GPU- leave them off
Screw all the other screws on slow and tight and observe the inputs so that they match up with the holes in the metal casing (example USB ports, AV, Power etc)
You will notice the front USB ports seem to be just barely showing through the casing holes, thats fine
Make sure the fans are reconnected etc and test before putting back together
The reason this works as apposed to alot of other methods is because it kills mulitple birds with one stone
over heating-> there is now some space under the board so the board doesnt get as hot
bad Ram connection->obvisouly the ram is getting pressured back on to the motherboard
GPU/CPU issues-> with the released unneeded tension off the x clamps they dont seems to come unsolderd
I have waiting 11months to post this fix anywhere till i have tested it for a long period of time. I have done about 40 with this method and only on one did it fail to help.
Please post with reponses on how this worked for you, thanks
99.9%? will this fix a error code is 0003 - no power to gpu?
Post by: shipyard05 on December 06, 2007, 06:45:00 PM
Post by: absami on December 07, 2007, 11:33:00 AM
Post by: LeekIt on December 08, 2007, 04:59:00 AM
QUOTE(shipyard05 @ Dec 7 2007, 11:45 AM)
hello im new this board and I know very little about this.I followed all of your instructions and reassembled everything now my light ring doesnt work at all...please help me when you get a chance
You probably didn't connect it properly. That's the only thing I can think of.
Post by: LeekIt on December 08, 2007, 05:21:00 AM
So I had my 12 pennies and electric tape, let's get to it! Instead of using a glue gun I did like dude did in the video on you tube and used that sticky shit that was on there already. The entire thing was way to much so I just took a piece off and it worked good enough. Three pennies was raising the mother board up quite a bit but I said fuck it, let's just screw these screws in. I left out the black screws and got the three lights. Put in the black screws loosely and still got it. Finally I screwed em in tight and got the two lights (over heating). After some adjustment it would start up then shut down and start blinking the two lights again. After tweaking and testing all sorts of variations it still wasnt working but I managed to get it to stay on for maybe 40-90 seconds before it shut off. When that happened a few times I took a blow dryer to the heat sinks like dude said (sorry bro, forgot ur username! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)) then let it cool down. After it cooled down I started it up and maybe 20 minutes into a game it got hot again. Fuck... So, I tried again. Second time I played games, watched a movie and listened to some music all day and no problems yet. I'm gonna take a nap and get in some more gaming later tonight. Hopefully this will last!
So yea, just registered and posting to say thanks for this (and all the other) great fixes you guys have provided and everyone who posted up their experiences and tweaks. I'm truly surprised it worked because I thought my 'box was the most fucked up of the already fucked up 360s. I tried the towel trick a ways back and it never worked more than 1 or 2 minutes. To everyone having problems with this just try tweaking it until you get it right. So far so good for me. Let's pray it stays this way!
ps. it is pretty loud but I remember saying it was loud when I first got it. So now I can't remember if it's supposed to be this loud or if it's overly loud. Either way, the bitch works so I'm a happy camper! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Post by: eagle9009 on December 08, 2007, 12:37:00 PM
Another question is ok to do both the x-clamp method and the penny mothed?? Or should i do one or the other
Thx
This post has been edited by eagle9009: Dec 8 2007, 08:39 PM
Post by: LeekIt on December 08, 2007, 04:42:00 PM
QUOTE(eagle9009 @ Dec 9 2007, 05:37 AM)
Hey just wondering if someone could post pictures to help out the newbies like me???
Another question is ok to do both the x-clamp method and the penny mothed?? Or should i do one or the other
Thx
Yea, Boomstick put up some pics on page 3 and there's a video on youtube of a guy doing the mod. Kidderbots (the father of this technique -- thanks man!!) put the link to the video on this page. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asTDsKLVexA...feature=related
I think they only use two pennies but I used three. I also tightened all the screws as tight as they could be (even the black ones) so be prepared to test out different variations.
peace!
Post by: akenny on December 08, 2007, 08:18:00 PM
Post by: Techno79 on December 09, 2007, 06:54:00 AM
I don't have any loud fans or any red lights. Is my 360 screwed?
Post by: akenny on December 09, 2007, 09:36:00 AM
This post has been edited by akenny: Dec 9 2007, 05:42 PM
Post by: djsoto on December 20, 2007, 04:00:00 PM
QUOTE(javisaman @ Dec 19 2007, 09:53 AM)
You can try to remove the heatsinks, place the xbox motherboard (with pennies) on a completely flat surface (wood surface preferrably), reapply the thermal paste with an old school razor blade (so that it completely covers the GPU and CPU, but as thin as possible), put the heatsinks back but finger tighten the screws (just to keep the heatsinks in place), power up
Hope that helps
Hey Guys, Need an advise on what product to use to clean all of the thermal paste off of the motherboard and the heatsinks to apply arctic silver. I just bought some Artic Silver from RADIO SHACK $10.00 but they dont have any material to clean/remove all thermal paste that was hold possible from heat.
I had a 3 light flash... Once i applied this techique, then I got a 2 red light flashiing "overheading code: 0011
-NOw the onlything i can think of is claining the heatsink and apply artic silver. I just need to know what product can be used to clean chip...
"Alcohol?, Rubbing alcohol? Nail Polisher Remover? Tequila? or what?????
Thanks
This post has been edited by djsoto: Dec 21 2007, 12:06 AM
Post by: Drjones on December 22, 2007, 03:41:00 PM
Post by: lamborman on December 22, 2007, 06:13:00 PM
Anything I should know before attempting it?
Post by: mattzane227 on December 23, 2007, 02:07:00 AM
Post by: shah87 on December 23, 2007, 07:29:00 AM
Post by: l0wki on December 23, 2007, 07:52:00 AM
What if I already did the XCLAMP method? My 360 now has the 3RLOD after doing the xclamp method...
What would I need to do differently in order to apply this penny fix? Wouldn't this make the penny fix a little easier to do since I already did the Xclamp method or would it make it harder?
I also learned from this topic that I can just try overheating the 360 again (with the fans removed) and that should be another fix...... but I might as well try the penny fix...
Any help/details would be nice.. I'm excited to give this a try.
Post by: l0wki on December 23, 2007, 11:27:00 PM
My Memory Unit ports seem to be unaligned with the casing... is this OK? Am I supposed to loosen up the screws to prevent the freezing or did I do it right?
I haven't overheated the system... should I go ahead and do this? (with the fan off)
Any information would be great... thanks
Post by: Techno79 on December 26, 2007, 07:18:00 PM
Post by: madmatt30 on January 03, 2008, 02:13:00 AM
Still no issues with the fans or graphical errors & it gets hammered for upto 6 hours a day!!!
Been banned though,but thats another story (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)
Post by: Grilleds on January 06, 2008, 03:20:00 AM
Post by: millio007 on January 06, 2008, 03:41:00 PM
This post has been edited by millio007: Jan 6 2008, 11:43 PM
Post by: fracicone on January 06, 2008, 10:39:00 PM
THANKS KIDDERBOOTS!!!!
Post by: Almog6k on January 07, 2008, 03:47:00 PM
I did it. And my XBOX is WORKING!!!!!
No freezing no nothing!
Yes!!!!
Thanks!!!
Post by: l0wki on January 08, 2008, 09:04:00 AM
I did this penny fix and it seemed to be working but freezes every 15 minutes or so... The thing is, I usually play without the case (meaning I don't put ANY screws on (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) ) ... is this why my 360 has been freezing? I still have the screws but can't test it right now because I let a friend use my T8 kit...
I'm assuming since I already did the xclamp method, the black screws problem does not apply to me...
Will the other screws (such as the long silver ones and the normal sized ones on the edges) be able to apply enough pressure to the pennies?
I guess it should work if I screw everything and actually play with a case now, right? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)
This post has been edited by l0wki: Jan 8 2008, 05:05 PM
Post by: mickey797 on January 08, 2008, 01:16:00 PM
Ave,
Read all 36 pages, believe it or not!
I was going to perform X-Clamp (lawdawg's method) tonight, but instead I'll be trying this later tonight. I'll post results tomorrow.
Two Questions:
a) Do you have to remove the GPU & CPU Heatsinks in order to do this? Or can you leave them On?
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) I plan on using the marshmellow pads - I understand you can remove the sticker at the bottom and stick the pennies on them - Do I need to remove the pads altogether from the board at all or not?
Thanks!
Post by: Bannedfromlive on January 09, 2008, 05:56:00 AM
QUOTE(mickey797 @ Jan 8 2008, 10:16 PM)
Two Questions:
a) Do you have to remove the GPU & CPU Heatsinks in order to do this? Or can you leave them On?
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) I plan on using the marshmellow pads - I understand you can remove the sticker at the bottom and stick the pennies on them - Do I need to remove the pads altogether from the board at all or not?
Thanks!
I left both heatsinks attached to the board when I did this fix I actually used them to grab hold of to pull the mobo out of the cage. Hope this helps
If your going to leave on the marsh pads try just using 1 penny as it might be to big a stack otherwise. i just used 3 stacks of 2 pennies and it worked perfect and all ports usb etc lined up correctly with the case and cage.
This post has been edited by Bannedfromlive: Jan 9 2008, 02:00 PM
Post by: mickey797 on January 09, 2008, 06:26:00 AM
Alright, I performed the Twelve Cent Fix last night.
The Good News: 3RRoD are Gone!!!
The Bad News: I can't seem to get rid of the 2 Flashing Red Lights (Overheating) + Turbo Fans
Here's what I did:
After opening the case and all, I used 2 Pennies instead of 3 in each stack - so 8 Pennies, rolled them up in Electric Tape. Used the Marshmellow Pads that were already on my board (My board has never been repaired or sent in or anything - this is retail). Removed the Sticker Off the Marshmellows and stuck my Penny Stack on top of it.
I put the motherboard back in the case, screwed up all the screws pretty tight (The USB Ports & Connectors were all in place - nothing seemed out of place) - Except the 8 Black Screws - I did screw them, but not all the way - just Half Way through.
Fired it up and instantly I had the 3RRoD - for like 10 Seconds! Thats' it! They immediately switched to 2 Flashing Red Lights. I let it sit like that for 20 minutes. Then turned it off. When I turned it back on - NO MORE 3RROD!! It booted up just fine. However, the fans slowly increased to TURBO Strength and within 5 minutes, it shut down, giving me 2 Flashing Red Lights.
I tried a few different wait times and all but nothing seems to get rid of the 2 Flashing Red Lights.
Finally, I took apart everything again (Except the pennies), and removed the Heat Sinks. Cleaned up the thermal crap M$ had on them, and applied fresh Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste. Hooked everything back up.
Now when I turned it on, It boots up fine, but I immediately get Turbo Fans, and it stayed on booted up for at least 20 Minutes before it shut down to the 2 Flashing Red Lights.
That's where I had to end the night.
Now here's my Questions:
i) Do I still need to HEAT the Motherboard, or am I past that stage? In other words, could the 2 Flashing Red lights problem be because I haven't heated the motherboard enough? If yes, What do I have to do to heat the Motherboard?
ii) Is there any specific amount of time that I need to keep the console On or Off before attempting anything? Like a wait time or "Setting" time of some kind?
iii) The Arctic Silver 5 - it was like 10.30 at night when I finished applying it - I didn't really wait after that, I turned the machine on and that's when it stayed on for 20 minutes but turned off after that. Do you think I need to let the AS5 Set overnight (like it did last night) - I didn't check the status this morning - Do you think it might be working now? (I had to go to work)
iv) What else am I missing? Could it be the screws (tightening) causing 2 Flashing Red Lights? Or is this now purely an overheating issue?
Kinderboot; Boomstick; Anyone - need help right now!!
Kinderboot - You're a legend! You got rid of the 3RRoD for 8 Pennies man, I don't think any other adjectives are needed.
Thanks guys - but please help me out!
PS: No X-Clamp or any other mods done previously - this is the Only mod. I don't care about the Fans or how loud they get, just don't want the 2 Flashing Red Lights to shut down the console!
This post has been edited by mickey797: Jan 9 2008, 02:38 PM
Post by: shah87 on January 09, 2008, 10:29:00 AM
Post by: mickey797 on January 09, 2008, 10:57:00 AM
What are you guys doing to get rid of the 2 Flashing Red Lights + Turbo Fans (Overheating) ??
This method is showing more success stories then X-Clamp methods - and it did get rid of the 3RROD for me as well - but what about the Overheating - I can't seem to get rid of that!
Post by: DeathsGuard on January 09, 2008, 03:27:00 PM
Post by: mickey797 on January 09, 2008, 04:37:00 PM
QUOTE(DeathsGuard @ Jan 9 2008, 11:27 PM)
someone said it has something to do with the black screws
I've removed the 8 black screws completely now, and also added Cardboard for the Fan Shroud Mod as suggested in RBJTech's page. It's running, and the fans are definitely not going Full Turbo Blast - but they are still pretty loud and fast. It's been running for 20 minutes now without the 2 Flashing Red lights - I'll report back what happens.
Post by: shah87 on January 09, 2008, 06:16:00 PM
QUOTE(mickey797 @ Jan 10 2008, 07:37 AM)
I've removed the 8 black screws completely now, and also added Cardboard for the Fan Shroud Mod as suggested in RBJTech's page. It's running, and the fans are definitely not going Full Turbo Blast - but they are still pretty loud and fast. It's been running for 20 minutes now without the 2 Flashing Red lights - I'll report back what happens.
what i do is that is to tweak the screw until the turbo fan is gone...its pretty hard though until you have the right setting
Post by: mickey797 on January 10, 2008, 06:31:00 AM
Good News!!
3RROD: Gone!
2 Flashing Red Lights: Gone!
Turbo Fans: Kinda Gone - Loud, Fast, but not Turbo by any means!
Here's what I did:
When I got back home and turned it on, Fans were full blast Turbo - I thought they'd explode, however, I never got the 2 Flashing Red Lights - I had the console on for about 30 minutes - Even played on it for a little bit - It never shut off with the 2 Red Lights! But I decided to turn it off.
I took it apart and I did two things ...
- I took off all the 8 Black Screws for the GPU/CPU Heatsink, as suggested by Kidderboot, author of the 3 Penny Fix!
- I used Index Cards and did the fan shroud mod as detailed by RBJTech, to divide & seal airflow from the heatsinks.
I hooked everything back up and the Console ran for 3 & a half straight hours without any interruption, lights, shutting off or any problems at all. In fact I noticed Fans would go up & down, not stay Loud during the whole time. I don't know what out of the two things I did (Screws / Shroud Mod) fixed the problem, but I didn't have to do anything else - didn't need to redo thermal paste or replace X-Clamps! This is a sole 3 Penny Fix!!
At this point I have to consider it fixed! I'm not getting my hopes up too high, but if something did happen, I still have methods to perform, i.e., redo thermal paste, x-clamp replacement! But for now it seems to be working and working fine!
Kidderboot - You're a Legend! Thanks Man! You need to be on a Wall Of Fame or something!
I'll keep you guys updated with what's going on.
Post by: georgc on January 10, 2008, 04:54:00 PM
Post by: Xx Pothicus xX on January 11, 2008, 01:14:00 AM
Anyways, I did the 8 penny trick as I had the marshmellows on the board already. It didn't work right away. Forst time I got the rrod. After a few tweaks I got he overheat lights 2 red lights. I had to adjust the black screws for a loooong time before I got it right. Put it all together and it still works. Fans run fast but not turbo. They go up and down in speed, often. It ran for about an hour before I turned it off. (wife had to watch the news. only one TV). Gonna try it in 10 mins after being off for an hour. (crossing fingers)...
I think I forgot to put the 6 long screws back in... Doh!
Thanks Kinderboot and StickBoom777 for the pics.
I'll keep y'all posted
Post by: marunio on January 11, 2008, 07:32:00 AM
I does work !!!
Called M$ to see if I can "squueze in" a warranty repair - no go - they said it's been modified (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
Started looking around for options and bumped into this thread.
Used 4x3pennies in black electrical tape.
No black screws - no go.
Put in black screws - bingo!!!
Kidderboots - I appreciate your sharing this with others.
m
Post by: wunder on January 12, 2008, 12:30:00 AM
Post by: shah87 on January 12, 2008, 09:45:00 AM
does this mean that by using a 3 penny fix, u'll get E74 error in the future??
oh by the way,i did used a baking trick while doing this penny method, are there any harm on doing this??
Post by: ghettoc401 on January 12, 2008, 02:21:00 PM
- I took off the X-Clamps and I cleaned the thermal compound that was there and I put some Arctic Silver 5 compound on there.
- I took 2 pennies and wrapped them up with electrical tape and placed them on the 4 ram chips under the motherboard.
- After that, I turned on the system (with X-clamps on) without the fans connected, and I let it get 2 red lights. I let it sit like that for 10 minutes.
- When 10 minutes passed, i turned off the console and then I tightened the 8 black screws to the X-clamps and voila, the xbox came back to life!
I did the fix like 3 hours ago and I've been playing Assassins Creed and Gears of War since then. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)
This post has been edited by ghettoc401: Jan 12 2008, 10:24 PM
Post by: Wateva on January 12, 2008, 10:31:00 PM
QUOTE(shah87 @ Jan 12 2008, 01:45 PM)
fixed someone 360 using 3 penny fix but then after few minutes of gaming for a while, E74 error comes up, this is the first time that i encounter because i've never encountered this problem on other console except mine though
does this mean that by using a 3 penny fix, u'll get E74 error in the future??
oh by the way,i did used a baking trick while doing this penny method, are there any harm on doing this??
Post by: MichaelSchleining on January 13, 2008, 12:19:00 AM
I seem to be having exactly the opposite problems...
I used three pennies and tightened the black screws tight. I tried baking it and am waiting now for a cool down, I even tried tightening the black screws while baking.
Every time I turn it back on I get the RROD again...
Question is, will the "tweaking" of the black screws eliminate the RROD?
Also, even with 3 pennies the fans are quiet?!?
This post has been edited by MichaelSchleining: Jan 13 2008, 08:21 AM
Post by: ghettoc401 on January 13, 2008, 09:19:00 AM
QUOTE(MichaelSchleining @ Jan 13 2008, 01:19 AM)
I used three pennies and tightened the black screws tight. I tried baking it and am waiting now for a cool down, I even tried tightening the black screws while baking.
You have to bake the 360 without the black screws first. After baking it, then you screw in the black screws.
Post by: brandogg on January 13, 2008, 09:27:00 AM
Post by: fenster89411 on January 14, 2008, 04:09:00 PM
ended up with 2 real tight, 2 pretty tight and 4 quite loose - now is that a first in here?
no baking.
just 2 pennies..no overheating lights.
just went from 3rod to power on.
now its powering on constant but yet still to try to work it...
hope this helps and thanks Kidderboots...
your a god amongst men! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Post by: shah87 on January 15, 2008, 07:40:00 PM
first i thought i screwed up the baking session because it wasnt 2 red light yet when i stop doing it...
ok so E74, i opened up the case, remove the black screw and i got 3 red ring, do the baking session, put black screw back and it works, without doing anything to the ANA/HANA chip, probably just the gpu problem
tested for 1 day, it works, then the next day, artifacts comes out and E74 error appeared...
now what i have to do?? i dont have the necessary hardware available to do the x-clamp...
Post by: GamestationOH on January 15, 2008, 07:58:00 PM
Lets protest in front of Microsoft for making such a poorly engineered piece of crap and then putting it on the store shelves and "acting" as if they are clueless why it doesn't work anymore?????
Post by: gordita37 on January 16, 2008, 06:22:00 PM
Post by: DeathsGuard on January 17, 2008, 07:26:00 PM
i used 2 pennies with the marshmellow pad.
and while screwing in the board i notice that i have to push down the other side because the pennies are causing the board to lift when screwing one side down.
This post has been edited by DeathsGuard: Jan 18 2008, 03:27 AM
Post by: DeathsGuard on January 17, 2008, 08:03:00 PM
baked it for 2 minutes, now im at the dashboard. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Post by: lufc1970 on January 18, 2008, 02:29:00 PM
The first 360 just will not fly at all but,the second came back to life after a few mins of heating up and then pushing down on the heatsinks for a minute.
Gonna put it through its paces with a blast on Forza 2 see how long it lives for.
Im well happy,,thank you sooo much for posting this fix (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Sorry forgot to add 2 pennys on each ram chip and all screws put back in place
This post has been edited by lufc1970: Jan 18 2008, 10:32 PM
Post by: sammydad1 on January 20, 2008, 10:56:00 PM
Thought I had my box fixed last week after doing the XClamp....it worked for a while but then gave 3ROD again.... Finally got it back apart again and found this thread...
Modified the original method by using double sticky sided foam tape (3M type VHB) then I tried the 3 pennys, but it was too thick for my case....tried two pennys..still too thick...ended up using one penny per stuck to the double sided foam rectangles I had cut from the tape.
When I put the motherboard back in to test, Kept getting 3ROD...but the pennys were definitely working to prevent flex in that area.....
For me, what it seems is that until I tightened down all the edge screws, It was not gonna stop 3ROD. HOWEVER...once I tightened down all the short edge screws...it fired up !!!!
I had also done the fan shroud mods per the other threads and cut the chassis open over the vent fans per other thread....and then I set the shroud in place....and am currently running "Fight Night - Round 3" in auto mode to keep it running....
SO far it has been running steady for about 30 minutes with no freezes or 3ROD....granted the case is still apart for the most part, but the Drive is set in place so if it was gonna 3ROD / overheat, I would think it have done so already so I am hoping to be optimistic....It never got this far since I started this process after this box was given to me in its broken condition.
Wanted to add my thanks to everybody who has been contributing to these threads !!!! You all are what the internet is all about !!
SD1
Post by: CopyLifted on January 21, 2008, 03:09:00 AM
I replaced the thermal paste with AS5 and used 1 penny per chip as 2 was too much. It had the "marshmellow" pads.
I can't say what actually fixed it. Could have been just replacing the thermal paste, could have been the pennies. But I know I feel better with doing both.
It's been running great now for 2 days.
Post by: DeVip on January 22, 2008, 07:53:00 PM
QUOTE(MichaelSchleining @ Jan 13 2008, 07:19 AM)
I've read most of the 37 pages of replies here and I'm still not finding the answer I need.
I seem to be having exactly the opposite problems...
I used three pennies and tightened the black screws tight. I tried baking it and am waiting now for a cool down, I even tried tightening the black screws while baking.
Every time I turn it back on I get the RROD again...
Question is, will the "tweaking" of the black screws eliminate the RROD?
Also, even with 3 pennies the fans are quiet?!?
I did this fix a month ago - well, that and a combination of the X clamp fix. I just took everything apart, cleaned the heatsinks and both processors so they were nice and shiny (use a non-abrasive cleaner). I then Applied Arctic 5 silver because heat is an issue and Arctic 5 can take about 4 degrees off both processors once it's at it's 200hr burn-in optimal stage. Heat is what makes the board warp in the first place, so it makes sense to get the heat down. After I applied the gel, I stuck a penny over each of those stupid little gel pads M$ had stuck over the ram. Once I had that all done, I placed 4 metal washers between each x-clamp and the board (a total of 8 metal washers). I then tightened the black screws as tightly as I could (very tight). Plugged back in the fan and turned it on. I still got the 3 red lights. No problem. I removed the fan connection and turned the unit back on. After 2.30 mins my 3 red lights turned to 2 overheat lights. I turned the 360 off and went away for half an hour. When I came back, I re-attached the fan and turned it on. It worked. I then reassembled the rest of the unit and just over 1mnth later and over 100+ hrs of gaming and everything is sound. The fan runs as good as it ever did and discs come out even cooler than before. At the moment, I'm content.
Still, this fix is no more permanent than buying a new 360 straight off the shelf. The 360 is broken by design. The GPU and CPU should never been on the same board and certainly not so close together. The only way to properly fix the 360 is to completely redesign the board layout. That would be an admission of incompetence at this stage (even though M$ are incompetent). There's no use doing a fix like this and then playing for 5hrs straight at a time. If marathon sessions can break a new 360 they can break one that's been fixed using any of these methods. For the past month I've been pacing my playtime. I still play the same amount but break it up. I'll do between 2 - 2-and-a-half hrs at a time (averaging somewhere in between). I then allow the console to rest from between 1hr to 1 and-a-half hrs. After that, I go on again for another 2hr+ blast.
Well, that's my story. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
This post has been edited by DeVip: Jan 23 2008, 03:54 AM
Post by: liquidmc420 on January 24, 2008, 08:26:00 PM
Post by: liquidmc420 on January 24, 2008, 09:54:00 PM
Post by: Ztealth on January 25, 2008, 12:36:00 AM
here is my problem everyone,
I have used the eraser and pennies trick and both times, i get 2 red lights and turbo fans.
i tried to reduce to 2 pennies per ram, it boots fine, but the fans get super loud and the system turns off and shows 2 red lights. Sometimes it shows 3 red lights and not boot. I have tried to put all eight screws on or all of them off...still same results...need some help, this is getting really frustrating....
Post by: Zoneout on January 25, 2008, 09:40:00 AM
As I'm in Australia and we don't have pennys here.
Post by: Wheezy13 on January 26, 2008, 04:17:00 PM
QUOTE(Ztealth @ Jan 25 2008, 03:36 AM)
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
here is my problem everyone,
I have used the eraser and pennies trick and both times, i get 2 red lights and turbo fans.
i tried to reduce to 2 pennies per ram, it boots fine, but the fans get super loud and the system turns off and shows 2 red lights. Sometimes it shows 3 red lights and not boot. I have tried to put all eight screws on or all of them off...still same results...need some help, this is getting really frustrating....
Same here, I did the X-Clamp mod and that worked for a week of on/off gaming, so now I took it all apart, did 2 pennies per ram. Now when it starts up, the fans go full-speed for 2 or 3 seconds, and I get the 2 red lights for overheating.
Any ideas? All of the screws are done up quite tightly already.
Post by: Wheezy13 on January 27, 2008, 12:29:00 AM
I loosened the screws from the X-Clamp replacement and that finally allowed the 360 to boot up without the fans going insane, so I baked the chips until I got the overheated lights, and the next time I booted it loaded up fine. My problem now, is that as soon as I put a game in the drive, it fades to black, and right as it's about to load the initial content from the disc, it freezes.
Of course, after it freezes, it results in the 3 red lights, and I'm still stuck in the same position. I have done the X-Clamp replacement, and now I have two pennies under each RAM chip. Anything else I can do? It's annoying that it partially works but then shuts down when a game loads... argh.
Post by: brandogg on January 27, 2008, 12:35:00 AM
Post by: liq456 on January 27, 2008, 07:56:00 AM
Post by: liquidmc420 on January 27, 2008, 08:39:00 AM
QUOTE(brandogg @ Jan 27 2008, 02:35 AM)
Yeah, try a real fix instead of putting pennies under your RAM chips. Make sure you get your error code when it throws the 3 red lights, so you know what you need to do from there. It could possibly be a DVD-ROM issue, if it crashes when trying to load a game (and only during this time).
What do you mean by "real fix"?? I was having many problems until I used the penny fix. Since then I have not had 1 problem! So I would say that the penny trick is a "real" fix. Worked for me!
Post by: gatorayde on January 27, 2008, 08:42:00 AM
(IMG:http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a74/Soad179/mobo.jpg)
Also, to completely fix the 3RLOD, I would keep the black screws out (the ones that screw into the x-clamps) and if it still 3RLOD's after putting the pennies in, then somehow block airflow to just the gpu (the cpu has the thermostat in it). I turn my 360 off, shove a pencil through the grate in the back on the gpu fan side to jam up the gpu fan. This way the 360 thinks it is cool, but the gpu is actually getting hot enough to melt the solder under the chip.
Just my 3 cents (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)
Post by: Wheezy13 on January 27, 2008, 11:18:00 AM
QUOTE(liq456 @ Jan 27 2008, 10:56 AM)
Wheezy13 try 3 pennies, i did 2 pennies at first but it didn't work went to 3 and its been working perfect for 2 months now.
Yeah I might, but wouldn't that really warp the board, especially when all other board screws are tightened up?
QUOTE(gatorayde @ Jan 27 2008, 11:42 AM)
Instead of putting the pennies under the ram chips, thus keeping the thermal pads on the ram chips, I take two stacks of 3 pennies (not 2, or 4, or 9 lol) and put them here:
(IMG:http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a74/Soad179/mobo.jpg)
Also, to completely fix the 3RLOD, I would keep the black screws out (the ones that screw into the x-clamps) and if it still 3RLOD's after putting the pennies in, then somehow block airflow to just the gpu (the cpu has the thermostat in it). I turn my 360 off, shove a pencil through the grate in the back on the gpu fan side to jam up the gpu fan. This way the 360 thinks it is cool, but the gpu is actually getting hot enough to melt the solder under the chip.
Just my 3 cents (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)
My 360 doesn't have thermal pads, I guess because it's a launch 360. As for taking out the black screws, I don't have them anymore since I've done the X-Clamp replacement, and it would probably get fairly messy if I took out those screws. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
As far as blocking airflow to just the GPU... How long would you let it sit there without any airflow? I don't want to destroy the chip or anything, but I guess it needs to "re-solder" itself. Wouldn't it more or less be the same thing if I just let the chips heat up with no fans plugged in?
Post by: sammydad1 on January 27, 2008, 02:06:00 PM
Can't speak for the rest, but when I was trying to overheat my motherboard at the end of the XClamp reaplcement, the power supply itself would shut down after a certain amount of time after the Overheat lights came on so it was trying to prevent frying the chips on its own... I presume this is a design thing to prevent the power supply from overheating as well ??
I think the whole point of the various "fixes" for the 3ROD lights is to intentionally Warp the motherboard in the opposite direction from the force that is developed from all the various case screws and XClamp screws pressing down on to the motherboard. In doing so, it helps to prevent the solder joints, which may still be broken physically, from actually separating and thus yielding the various 3ROD errors.
Whether the solder actually gets reflowed from the overheating techniques would probably require one of those super duper microscopes.....the important thing is to maintain the physical connections by force when the "chemical connections (solder) get broken by cheap mobo warping (put your description here...) under pressure.
My box continues to run...I even got one of the HDTV composite cable off ebay, and once I figured out that you had to slide the little switch on the thing to enable HD mode....the picture looks even better, and so far all the extended game play has been excellent.
Again..kudos and Hi 5's to everybody who has helped on these threads.... you SURELY saved me TONS of headaches and sorrow !!! Thank you AGAIN !!
SD1
Post by: Wheezy13 on January 27, 2008, 02:28:00 PM
- let 360 overheat
- 360 loads up dash, no problems
- 360 loads up Burnout Paradise, freezes after roughly 3/4 minutes of gameplay
- reboot 360, freezes once it gets to main dash screen
- reboot 360, freezes once the intro video with large 360 logo plays (before dashboard)
- reboot 360, 3 red lights
So I really have no idea what else I can do... I can keep playing around with the screws but I can't figure out why it keeps freezing, as the temperatures are basically stable each time I reboot and use it again.
Would it really make a difference if I added a third penny to each stack, or should I add another two penny stacks where gatorayde added his? I don't really feel like taking it apart again to get the motherboard out this weekend (it's a pain lining up the X-Clamp replacement screws, getting the washers on, then putting the heatsinks on, etc.), but if adding one penny to each stack would make that much of a difference... I guess I'd have to do that next. I just don't want the board to really warp if I add a third penny to each stack.
Post by: brandogg on January 27, 2008, 02:43:00 PM
Post by: Wheezy13 on January 28, 2008, 09:45:00 AM
As of now, my 360 boots up fairly normally and I was able to play about 10 minutes of Burnout Paradise last night with no problems, but the fans have gone quite weird. When the 360 starts up, the fans are at their normal low speed for being in the dashboard, but after sitting in the dashboard for 1-2 minutes, the fan speed gradually increases until it's basically at it's highest speed. So in short, it's at the speed that it would normally reach with a game in the drive, only it's idling at the dashboard, doing nothing.
In any case, it does run cooler since the fans are always at full blast, but I was wondering if anyone knows why it might be doing this? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/uhh.gif)
Post by: brandogg on January 28, 2008, 03:30:00 PM
Post by: Wheezy13 on January 28, 2008, 04:05:00 PM
QUOTE(brandogg @ Jan 28 2008, 05:30 PM)
Then it's probably getting too hot. You may have too much thermal paste on the chips - the fans should never really start spinning fast at the dashboard, unless you just reset your system after playing for at least a couple minutes, and even then they only speed up for a few seconds.
Hmm, I don't think I have too much paster (I put AS5 on it when I first opened up everything). I know this because when it intermittently worked before, the fans would run at their usual levels for the dashboard and at a higher rate for games. Basically the best way I can describe it; it's like when you have a game in and the fans are spinning really quickly, but as soon as you hit the eject button, the fans slow down to a slower pace... Except when I hit the eject button, the fan speed doesn't change -- it stays at the "game level" speed all the time.
If anything at all, it's actually helping my 360 run cooler all the time, I'm just curious why tinkering around with the X-Clamp screws would change the fan rate and make my 360 run again... oh well. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
Post by: DeathsGuard on January 28, 2008, 06:22:00 PM
I opened it up again, took off the fan/air duct and then it booted up. I put the airduct back on and 3rrod. I did this twice, now i can't get it to boot up. I used 2 pennies and the marshmellow pads...I seem to have stripped the black screws though, so i cant take out the board.
any help? would it be worth it to get the black screws out and replace the stacks of 2 with stacks of 3.
Post by: brandogg on January 28, 2008, 11:28:00 PM
Post by: Gatecra5h on February 11, 2008, 06:47:00 PM
I've just used the penny trick, used 2 pennies and the pads. It was giving me the 3 red lights so i wrapped it in a towel and left it for 15 minutes with the fan unplugged (major heat lol), this still never worked but after tweaking the black screws for 2 minutes it worked and has been working constantly for 2 days now (about 4 hours each day).
Thanks for the fix, i hope it stays fixed (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Post by: Xx Pothicus xX on February 14, 2008, 12:56:00 PM
Did the 8 penny fix Jan. 11/08. Post #550
It still works! The fans run fast, even on dashboard but not when I view movies. Goes silent. Didn't put in the 6 long screws, still.
Halo 3 had a colour glitch 3 days ago. The screen went partially green and other colours all wonky. Did reboot and worked fine. Then 2 days ago, Lego Star Wars: Complete Saga froze up a couple times but hasn't done that since then.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a side note: Just recently, my 360 won't read my backup dvd/r movies only originals play. (Now my kids will pobably wreck all the discs. My daughter likes to "skate" on the dvd's! Hardwood floors. LOL.)
Peace!
Post by: jayceonblaze on February 15, 2008, 07:50:00 PM
Post by: DMagic1 on February 15, 2008, 09:31:00 PM
I used 12 pennies with electrical tape wrapped once and then another piece going across each pair of pennies to hold them to the board. I didnt leave the little pads on. At first I just got RROD immediately on start, but then I loosened the bolts a good bit and system booted. After a minute or two playing a game it froze and followed with RROD on next boot. I tighted boots just a little more and system booted. I played for about 20 minutes without a freeze.
Each of the times after the RROD I didnt have to overheat the unit to get it to boot.
I would say with the x-clamp modded unit you may need 12 pennies and have your bolts slightly looser than before.
Hopefully this fix keeps it fixed. Another 360 I fixed with just the x-clamp mod has worked much longer and is still working.
This post has been edited by DMagic1: Feb 16 2008, 05:34 AM
Post by: XxDUNITxX on February 15, 2008, 09:20:00 PM
QUOTE(XxDUNITxX @ Jun 10 2007, 05:02 AM)
First off, anyone who has ever thought of doing the towel trick needs to burn every towel they own before they burn the house down. It is dangerous and will harm other things.
The penny trick works for me, I did it last night and I have had my console on for 3 hours straight now and no problems. I used 3 pennies on each ram chip and wrapped them in electrical tape, I don't think that the pennies are really there to dissapate heat though, I think that it is more the space they provide for airflow and the pressure they put on the motherboard that does it.
For those of you getting the loud fan and the 2 red light overheating now, this happened to me too at first. You need to remove the Gpu and Cpu heatsinks, clean all of the thermal paste off of the motherboard and the heatsinks, apply arctic silver, and reassemble. And if you don't tighten those cpu and gpu screws enough you will get 3 red lights, so tighten the f'ers down. I think that the reason that it overheats after you do the penny trick is because when you remove the motherboard from the metal housing you remove the bolts that tighten the gpu and cpu down and break the current bond that it has with the factory thermal crap paste, and from then on it will overheat if you bumped the heatsinks enough.
Also if you cannot get the Gpu and Cpu screws back into the metal case, press down on the cpu and gpu from the top of the motherboard when you are tightening them from the bottom, also save those for last, I managed to get every screwI took out back in and every port on the 360 lines up.
Hope this helps some of you!
And THANK YOU for this topic, I thought that my 360 was screwed and I didn't feel like doing the x clamp.
Thanks!
Also I almost forgot to mention, my 360 had the foamy pad things already on the ram chips, so I took them off when doing the penny trick. And just a tip you can actually rip those pads apart and they are like a glue, I used them to stick my penny stacks to the Ram chips! Thanks M$!
That was me on June 10th, 2007 and my 360 is still working perfect!!! I have never had to xclamp it either. Since doing the penny fix I have not had any overheats, freezing or rrod. I should note though that this was done on a 360 that the seal was intact, I have bought 360s that had rrod and had been opened and had the penny trick not work.
Post by: xboxSlayer on February 17, 2008, 01:10:00 PM
It would seem that this method does work if you do it right. This was the first time I ever took a 360 apart and I was having trouble getting the pennies to stick to the board. The hot glue wouldn't stick for me and the electrical tape wouldn't hold. Finally took a long strip of tape and put it across the board to hold the pennies in place and that was when I started having some success. I didn't read the whole thread at first and didn't know people were using the marshmellow pad to help the pennies stick. If I had done that the first time I may have had more success. Anyway, I picked this one up cheap at a pawn shop just to see if I could fix it. I already have a 360 that has been running perfectly for a year and a half. I'll do an update if I manage to get this one working.
Post by: iFixThenSell on February 17, 2008, 10:47:00 PM
TWICE
tried it on two consoles both with error 0020.
No luck =/
They had the x-clamp thing done on them befo.
Could that be why it wont fix it?
Post by: tigger9878 on February 20, 2008, 02:55:00 AM
Post by: shah87 on February 20, 2008, 02:39:00 AM
QUOTE(shah87 @ Oct 30 2007, 08:09 PM)
hey man...got it fixed using the 3 penny fix...though i have to screw in all screw including the black screw to make it work!!
but the fan...wow!! pretty loud even though im using the whisper fan!!
lasted for only 3 months, now my 360 has got this freezing problem in which after rebooting it, i will get RRoD...
cant do anything more about it right now, all the method i could think of couldnt stop the freezing issue...
well its time to do the x-clamp replacement and replacing the thermal compound, hope it works that way
Post by: cattivo on February 22, 2008, 08:48:00 AM
I have already used x-clamp fix but no use
did this with only 1 penny (3 the screws wouldn't reach the motherboard , 2 it doesn't feels right )
so I made sure that this penny made presure on the ram
and I attach it to the ram with the sticky pad that was already there
and now it worked
will give it more tests when I install 12v fans (I notices the heatsinks gets hot the fan really don't cool anything)
just to say something the main idea of this fix is to put presure on the ram and to isolate the heat so any number of pennies would work if it does make presure on the ram ^^
Post by: kidderboots on February 25, 2008, 03:11:00 PM
LAter
Post by: ryan83 on February 26, 2008, 06:41:00 AM
I think i did this back in AUG 1st 2007 (if you look back through topic)
still running solid, no problems whatsoever.
So nearly 7 months gone !!!
all the best
Post by: ArchEnemy6 on February 29, 2008, 01:21:00 AM
QUOTE(iFixThenSell @ Feb 18 2008, 02:47 AM)
i guess i fell into that .01% failure rate
TWICE
tried it on two consoles both with error 0020.
No luck =/
They had the x-clamp thing done on them befo.
Could that be why it wont fix it?
I think it might be the 0020 error. My Xbox 360 has this error and I've been tinkering with the pennies and screws for about 5 hours now and nothing has worked. All I've been able to do was make the fans spin really fast when I put the black screws back in. I don't know if anyone else with 0020 has been sucessfull but I have seen a few other threads with people complaining that they can't get anything to work with the 0020 error.
Post by: Reaper527 on March 03, 2008, 11:27:00 AM
QUOTE(iFixThenSell @ Feb 18 2008, 12:47 AM)
i guess i fell into that .01% failure rate
TWICE
tried it on two consoles both with error 0020.
No luck =/
They had the x-clamp thing done on them befo.
Could that be why it wont fix it?
i think you mean .1% , as 99.9% + .01% = 99.91%
also, the 0020 you referenced seems to be an unknown error code at the moment.
http://forums.xbox-s...howtopic=484726
QUOTE
0020 (Not yet known, possibly overheating)
i'm not sure xclamp or penny fix would help this.
Post by: BUGGINS on March 04, 2008, 09:58:00 AM
I put the case back on and now leave it horizontal (previously was vertical), i played it all day, even did a dashboard update incase the dashboard software had become corrupted when i got 3rlod the first couple of times.
All is well with the box now, i'll let you all know when it blows up again!
Thanks again
Post by: SonicPower on March 04, 2008, 12:02:00 PM
QUOTE(Wheezy13 @ Jan 28 2008, 05:05 PM)
Hmm, I don't think I have too much paster (I put AS5 on it when I first opened up everything). I know this because when it intermittently worked before, the fans would run at their usual levels for the dashboard and at a higher rate for games. Basically the best way I can describe it; it's like when you have a game in and the fans are spinning really quickly, but as soon as you hit the eject button, the fans slow down to a slower pace... Except when I hit the eject button, the fan speed doesn't change -- it stays at the "game level" speed all the time.
If anything at all, it's actually helping my 360 run cooler all the time, I'm just curious why tinkering around with the X-Clamp screws would change the fan rate and make my 360 run again... oh well.
Your 360 is going to break at some point permanently.
That is what happened to one of my Xboxes.
Post by: acsutton on March 05, 2008, 09:31:00 PM
Oh yeah, my fans sound like an afterburner kicked on. Everything is lifted up a hair and its even kinda hard to open my disc drive. Perhaps the relieved pressure on the top of the case has allowed the fan to run at its intended speed. Anyways, if the fan gets loud I am certain my stereo can get even louder. Ha ha.
Post by: Masarin on March 08, 2008, 10:48:00 AM
Post by: SonicPower on March 08, 2008, 12:45:00 PM
QUOTE(acsutton @ Mar 5 2008, 11:07 PM)
Did the penny trick, and I must say that it has worked. I am the skeptic, and most certainly didn't believe I could fix my $400. chinese built p.o.s. with twelve cents. At first it didn't work, but like one of the successes I wrapped it in a towel and let it run for about twenty minutes. Restarted and it booted up no problem. Played burnout for about an hour and a half and so far so good. Hopefully this will be a long term fix. I cringed at the prospects of loosing such a large investment. Thank you so much for this information and for everyone on the scene who gives a helping hand to others.
Oh yeah, my fans sound like an afterburner kicked on. Everything is lifted up a hair and its even kinda hard to open my disc drive. Perhaps the relieved pressure on the top of the case has allowed the fan to run at its intended speed. Anyways, if the fan gets loud I am certain my stereo can get even louder. Ha ha.
Way to warp your board. Prepare to buy yourself an Arcade soon.
Post by: Menotti on March 08, 2008, 06:15:00 PM
It took some faith in the board to screw it in and allow that bit of flex, but 3 pennies seems to be the ideal amount. Don't worry if the stuff doesn't line up right away, when you screw it in, just do it evenly and carefully and you're golden.
A resounding THANKS!
Post by: Menotti on March 10, 2008, 11:28:00 PM
QUOTE(Menotti @ Mar 8 2008, 09:51 PM)
I got my first ring of death the other day on my early generation 360. The penny fixed WORKED LIKE A CHARM!
It took some faith in the board to screw it in and allow that bit of flex, but 3 pennies seems to be the ideal amount. Don't worry if the stuff doesn't line up right away, when you screw it in, just do it evenly and carefully and you're golden.
A resounding THANKS!
Damn, it freezes after 10 minutes of play
Any suggestions?
Post by: ArchEnemy6 on March 29, 2008, 02:06:00 PM
Post by: sreten on April 06, 2008, 11:27:00 AM
Post by: thepwnage on April 06, 2008, 11:31:00 AM
QUOTE(sreten @ Apr 6 2008, 02:03 PM)
after taking apart the heatsinks from the 360 and cleaned the old thermal paste off, do i have to put new thermal paste on for the fans not to be running like crazy?
YES. Get some artic silver 5.
Post by: sreten on April 08, 2008, 06:51:00 PM
looks like da AS5 was needed for it to stop overheating
and pennies rele did unbend da gpu
thanks a lot!!!
this form rele helped
Post by: smerdyak on April 09, 2008, 09:37:00 PM
Post by: sreten on April 10, 2008, 07:18:00 PM
as long it's high quality and pretty good. I bout some thermal paste for 14$ at tiger direct
and it worked perfectly and no overheating.
Post by: SonicPower on April 16, 2008, 12:58:00 AM
QUOTE(smerdyak @ Apr 9 2008, 11:13 PM)
my box did not have the 3rod. instead it output no video, but there was sound. after several weeks of searching the internet for the appropriate fix, i settled on the twelve cent fix. i am only moderately tech savvy, so some of the other mods seemed rather out of my skill set. dis-assembling the console was easy, there are videos on youtube that show how. my box seemed to have been put together sometime in early 2005, as indicated by date stamps on components. the ram chips on my console had some thermal padding on them, suggesting that microsoft is aware of their design flaw. i used those sticky pads to secure the pennies instead of hot glue, and thus used only two pennies wrapped in electrical tape (due to the thickness of the sticky pad). upon reassembly i had video, but only briefly. then the console went into fault, displaying two red lights (top and bottom left). this indicated the gpu was overheating. so i went to office depot and bought some thermal compound. i opened the box for a second time, accessed the gpu and cleaned off the old thermal compound. or, rather i scraped it off as best i could with a precision screwdriver. i did not use any solvent, nor did i remove all the old thermal paste, but i did get a majority of it. i then applied a liberal coating of the new stuff, following the instructions on the packaging. re-reassembly, and another test. now i'm back to where i started. audio, no video. F*#%!!! but i try one more thing. the old towel trick. apparently the thermal compound needed to be heated to be activated or something b/c after about ten minutes the console reset and when i started it, viola - picture. i kept expecting it to last for only several minutes before fragging out, but i rocked assassin's creed for like three hours without a problem. thank god for the internet, and microsoft can eat a fat turd. they wanted $140 to fix this prob., & i did it for $10. hope it continues to work.
Uh... you do realize 3ROL repairs from MS are free, right?
Funny how you say MS should eat turd when you are using their product? lol.
Post by: Wilhelm_I on April 16, 2008, 06:35:00 AM
QUOTE(SonicPower @ Apr 16 2008, 09:34 AM)
Uh... you do realize 3ROL repairs from MS are free, right?
Funny how you say MS should eat turd when you are using their product? lol.
You should first read his post before flaming.
He never got the ring of death, thats why M$ wanted to charge him 140$ for the repair.
Post by: kidderboots on April 20, 2008, 07:23:00 PM
QUOTE(SonicPower @ Apr 16 2008, 11:26 AM)
Well, there's always lying on the telephone.
Back on topic, so I tried mine with 2 pennies.
I already did the X-Clamp fix (lawdawgs), but the 3ROL came back. Tried reseating it about 20 times. No use.
So now the box turns on for 2 minutes then freezes. New thermal paste (MX-2) and did other cooling mods.
Should I try with 3? I feel like the board is already warped enough with 2, and the screws might break with 3 underneath.
Yes do 3 pennies. just follow the tutorial and see if it works, you wont warp your board, i have done hundreds of these.
Post by: dark_court_jester on April 22, 2008, 02:01:00 PM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Apr 20 2008, 06:59 PM)
Yes do 3 pennies. just follow the tutorial and see if it works, you wont warp your board, i have done hundreds of these.
Oh no! 100's of these fixes... that's like a couple dollars in pennies! I could've used that to buy a supersized whopper meal at Burger King yo!
Ok, enough of my witless penny joke banter. In all seriousness, I tried this fix myself 2 nights ago with success. One issue though is I had to put the 8 black screws back in which contradicts your tutorial. I didn't have to tighten them up much, just snugged them down a little and voila it works. Tested with playing mindless bouncy action(DoA Xtreme 2) for about an hour then swapped out for Eternal Sonata for roughly 2 hours followed by Halo 3 for about an hour. Since I've had it running for roughly 4 hours without RRoD'ing again then I say damn good job and great cheap fix. Thank you.
Post by: ReturnOfSanta on April 22, 2008, 08:27:00 PM
I'm beyond frustrated at this point...any ideas?
Post by: spikyod on April 24, 2008, 01:02:00 AM
Post by: zarape2 on April 25, 2008, 02:12:00 AM
QUOTE(SonicPower @ Apr 16 2008, 06:26 PM)
Well, there's always lying on the telephone.
Back on topic, so I tried mine with 2 pennies.
I already did the X-Clamp fix (lawdawgs), but the 3ROL came back. Tried reseating it about 20 times. No use.
So now the box turns on for 2 minutes then freezes. New thermal paste (MX-2) and did other cooling mods.
Should I try with 3? I feel like the board is already warped enough with 2, and the screws might break with 3 underneath.
i think u need to overheat, to make it work... that's what i do...regards
Post by: bad89 on April 25, 2008, 04:21:00 AM
i've done this cents fix (thanks for that) and now the 3 rod are vanished...the problem is another. when i turn on my x360 the screen stay black and on the left side of the screen there are some little green square...
in this moment my x360 is disassembled...what i have to do??
help me please...
thank you all....
ps: sorry for my english
Post by: bad89 on April 25, 2008, 05:11:00 AM
but...what if i try the x-clamps mod??
Post by: zarape2 on April 25, 2008, 09:06:00 AM
QUOTE(bad89 @ Apr 25 2008, 11:57 AM)
hi i'm italian, i have a problem
i've done this cents fix (thanks for that) and now the 3 rod are vanished...the problem is another. when i turn on my x360 the screen stay black and on the left side of the screen there are some little green square...
in this moment my x360 is disassembled...what i have to do??
help me please...
thank you all....
ps: sorry for my english
overheat the 360 for a 10 minutes or so. that would help
try to release the screws, maybe to tight. how many pennys do u used?
x-clamp fix h**p://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/ring_of_light_x-clamp_fix.htm
Post by: bad89 on April 25, 2008, 10:49:00 AM
sorry for my unknowing
Post by: bad89 on April 25, 2008, 01:11:00 PM
what can i do?? help please (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
Post by: zarape2 on April 25, 2008, 05:04:00 PM
QUOTE(bad89 @ Apr 25 2008, 06:25 PM)
how can i overheat 360??
sorry for my unknowing
check the link i just post, u can find how there....
read carefully, u need to start the xbox with the fan on top of cpu, cause theres the temperature sensor and the red lights are because the cpu get hot before the gpu
Post by: bad89 on April 26, 2008, 12:50:00 PM
but i've the problem of the black screen...any ideas?
Post by: zarape2 on April 27, 2008, 06:29:00 PM
QUOTE(bad89 @ Apr 26 2008, 08:26 PM)
i've also done the x-clamps fix now the lights are ever green and it's ok.
but i've the problem of the black screen...any ideas?
do u have sound?
how many pennys do u used?
maybe the screws are to tight....try release them a little
or search on google something like "xbox 360 black screen"
take a look on this h**p://support.microsoft.com/kb/916158
good luck!
Post by: born2expire on April 27, 2008, 07:28:00 PM
That was until i started playing a certain game from Rockstar, and never failing, every 5 mins the console would freeze and the sound would continue for a few seconds, so i decided to take another look inside and see if i can fix this. Ive tried everything, 2 pennies a stack, 4 pennies a stack, 2 stacks of 4 pennies in between the x-clamps, rethermaling, heat shroud mod, ect, no luck on any of them. I haven't tried the X-clamp replacement because that is a fair bit of work and i've never seen the RRoD on mine, just checkerboxing (why i did the pennies in the first place). Is it worth my time to try the X-Clamp replacement?
Since i started to play with it, when powered on the video locks within the first 5 seconds (locks during the initial MS green logo screen) and the green lights go around the ring as usual then they all blink as they should, then i get no lights, the video has locked long before the lights do their thing, but i've never seen a no lights error code. I'm pretty sure that the GPU is overheating, and I went back to 3 pennies a stack and all 8 black screws in, no difference (no difference any screw configuration i tired). I tired "cooking" the GPU by pulling the shroud and resting the fans on the CPU heatsink for 30 mins and all that has done is make the freeze happed as soon as any 3D is displayed, could i have fired my GPU, I would appreciate any suggestions? Should I just smash my xbox and mail it back to MS, lol.
edit - i belive i was getting no lights being displayed because i didn't have a gamepad plugged in, with a gamepad plugged in I get the normal 1 green light on the console and the same green light on the gamepad.
This post has been edited by born2expire: Apr 28 2008, 02:35 AM
Post by: sreten on April 27, 2008, 11:00:00 PM
how do i fix it i wanna play GTA 4 and its comin out soon
Post by: 19Ripper75 on April 28, 2008, 01:34:00 AM
This post has been edited by 19Ripper75: Apr 28 2008, 08:34 AM
Post by: RYU81 on April 28, 2008, 09:02:00 AM
Post by: dadamus on May 14, 2008, 03:47:00 PM
I did my first 8 cents fix back in June '07. 11 months later, it's still going strong. Over a period of time, I fixed (ebay bought, friends, brother in law, sons friend, sons friends dad/uncle/ and cousin, neighbors, neighbors daughters boyfriend, and coworkers) well over a dozen Broken Xbox 360 with no reported ill effects.(2RROD, 3RROD, and turbo fan) I've noticed; however, quite a few posts are related to 2RROD (over heat) after doing pennies fix.
Well, here are my 2 cents over 8/12 cents fix.
Please, I dont want to get into a debate of why and how my way works. All credits should go to kidderboots. Thanks to him, we have a lot simpler way to fix 3RROD. If you need someone/something to blame, blame MS for not doing their homework and forcing all us to be a beta tester.
Who knows? I may well have been lucky. Well, I just want to share what Ive done.
1. When I do my work, I dont do usual "Remove existing T-paste and apply AR5, then reassemble x-clamp". Many, including me, do concur that it should be a standard practice. But after doing so many favor, I just dont want to go through it.
2. I use pennies with most copper content. (Pennies made between 1965-1980)
3. I do apply very small amount of AR5 to fill a gap/spaces when I sandwich two pennies.(Between two pennies)
4. I dont wrap pennies with electric tape. My theory is if memory overheating does contribute to 3RROD, last thing I wanted to do is further limit the heat dissipation by using non heat conductive/transfer material. I used HVAC aluminum tape(Tape used to seal A/C ducks) and cut to proper size(two stacked pennies height) to wrap around sandwiched pennies. Many will argue that Im at a risk of frying circuit board since theres a chance of pennies slip and making contact(s) with components. Thermal pads should keep pennies from moving around. Also, when owner do take care of their high dollar investment by not dropping, shaking, tripping, and kicking. In other word, use common sense, it shouldnt be a problem.
3. I do recycle thermal pad on RAM. I trim/cut to 4 equal pieces and remove cloth lining so it can stick to RAM and metal casing. I use two cut pieces (one for RAM contact and the other one to contact metal casing). Purpose of it is to fill gap/space to increase friction and add a benefit of using metal casing as a heat sink.
4. I do use all 8 black screws when I re-assemble. I just dont TIGHTEN them up.
5. Few consoles that I worked on had to go through over heating (2RROD) process to give a jump start. I dont use towel. I use screw drivers to prevent fans from spinning.
Once again, I thank kidderboots for his contribution. (And you should, too.)
Post by: jaym0 on May 22, 2008, 01:11:00 AM
-2 Pennies each stack
-all 8 x-clamp screws tightened.
-used existing thermal pad instead of glue for the four chips
This still resulted in the RROD.
After using the towel method to overheat & shut down the x360 for about 15-20 mins,
and then letting the x360 cool down...
The x360 has new life.
Much thanks to kidderboots for figuring this out.
Post by: kanna on June 07, 2008, 02:18:00 PM
Post by: PriesT83 on June 08, 2008, 05:31:00 AM
Didnt have 3LOD prob, but console would freeze at bootup logo, sometimes get to the dashboard. Now I turn the console on but get nothing not even lights showing an error just the power light. Power button works ok, Eject works ok, and can turn box on by pressing eject aswell as with controller, but wont show light for controller plugged in and doesnt play the startup lights "animation" on the box.
I tried to penny trick with both 8 and 12 pennies and with the black screws in tight, loose and completly out.
Doesnt look good does it?!
Post by: karlgent on June 11, 2008, 03:27:00 PM
Used 8 pennies and attached with sticky tape.
When black screws were put back in the fan went into overdrive and the 2 red rings appeared, and if the screws were removed/half inserted then the 3 rrod came back.
Going to try adding another penny to each RAM chip and making sure it's secure.
Anyone got any other suggestions?
Cheers
Post by: karlgent on June 11, 2008, 03:51:00 PM
I left it on the 3rrod for a couple of mins with the fan going haywire and turned it off.
When I turned it back on it was working but the fan is loud as fuck now. I dont know if this is just because I haven't put the case back on?
Does anyone know if putting the case back on will affect the console and if the reason for the louudness is the missing outer case?
Post by: junior2k8 on June 18, 2008, 06:11:00 PM
Post by: junior2k8 on June 18, 2008, 07:04:00 PM
Post by: junior2k8 on June 20, 2008, 11:30:00 PM
Post by: oscartrez on June 25, 2008, 12:01:00 AM
QUOTE(junior2k8 @ Jun 20 2008, 10:30 PM)
Well i'm Happy to say that the method i used in my previous post, did fix a 0102 error and 0020 now both boxes are fixed...keep in mind if u see that your still getting the 3 red lights just tinker with the screws, loosen the screws on cpu and tighten the ones on gpu slightly
my xbox turns on for about 5 seconds then it turns off and gets only 2 lights. what do I do?
Post by: fracicone on August 13, 2008, 03:34:00 PM
At first I noticed some weird corruption, my kids were playing Rayman Raving Rabbids and the characters had some weird dots all over them, not the whole screen only Rayman and the Rabbids.
I booted Soul Calibur IV and noticed some vertical stripes all over the screen.
I rebooted and... BAM one red light flashing (lower right) and error code 74 displayed, with secondary code 1022.
I tried removing the AV cable and reseating it but no luck.
Should I open the 360 and see if the pennies somehow moved or what?
I read somewhere that 74 has been fixed with Xclamp replacement and applying heat gun. Any news on that? I already penny tricked the 360 so I don't think I need to do the Xclamp trick. Maybe I can apply heat and re do the pennies trick?
Please help!!!
Post by: TheBestXboxModder on August 13, 2008, 04:07:00 PM
QUOTE(fracicone @ Aug 13 2008, 06:10 PM)
Hi there. I was soooo happy, my penny tricked 360 had been working like a charm for 1 year 1 month and 6 days (since July 7th 2007) BUT... today all of a sudden all hell broke loose.
At first I noticed some weird corruption, my kids were playing Rayman Raving Rabbids and the characters had some weird dots all over them, not the whole screen only Rayman and the Rabbids.
I booted Soul Calibur IV and noticed some vertical stripes all over the screen.
I rebooted and... BAM one red light flashing (lower right) and error code 74 displayed, with secondary code 1022.
I tried removing the AV cable and reseating it but no luck.
Should I open the 360 and see if the pennies somehow moved or what?
I read somewhere that 74 has been fixed with Xclamp replacement and applying heat gun. Any news on that? I already penny tricked the 360 so I don't think I need to do the Xclamp trick. Maybe I can apply heat and re do the pennies trick?
Please help!!!
I say, remove the pennies, and do the X clamp replacement.
Post by: goohman on August 28, 2008, 11:55:00 PM
I think i need to put the black screws back on though my fans go crazy when its turned off then i get overheating error
BIT IT STILL WORKED THANKS SOOOO MUCH!!!!!
EDIT:
Pluged in the HD and the 360 rebooted with weird vertical lines and messed up sound..... I took out hd and let it cool off, and I think its that over heating problem. Could someone confirm this for me If you would?
Post by: akenny on September 16, 2008, 09:30:00 PM
right , my cousins 360 got the rrod, so i tryed this
ok when i done it, and plug it in the green lights come up (no red lights anymore) but there is NO VIDEO and NO SOUND! at all :s , can somebody help me? also when i tryed putting in the case with the cover back on etc, i get 2 red lights,
any help please?
thanks
Akenny
Post by: Wilhelm_I on September 19, 2008, 08:26:00 AM
QUOTE(dizzy1963 @ Sep 19 2008, 04:49 PM)
My sons box went 2 red lights so tried this but 5 mins later 2 red lights again so tried the xclamp but still 2
red lights
and was getting error 0013 which is the ram.So used Wilhiems tutorial to reflow the cpu/gpu and ram chips then applied the replacement xclamp but didn't have 1mm washers for the ram chips under the heatsink so used 4 layers of double sided thermal thermal tape (0.33mm each layer), then using more double sided thermal tape stuck 2 uk pennys together (4 times) then stuck each pair to the ram chips underneath the board, drilled the case so the new bolts for the xclamp were clear of the case and screwed the motherboard back in.
Ran the box for about an hour and felt the metal case and it was hot where the pennys are so know they are conducting heat away from the ram chips
, it's only been two days but the son did play for 6 hours last night and all games were running smothly (he mainly plays cod4).So no one fix but a combination of 3 fixes to fix the 2 red lights (error 0013) here.
0013 is in 99.9% of the cases not an overheating issue but a cold solder joint like 0110...
It can almost always only be fixed with the heatgun, to use this fix in addition with any fix is never a good idea because the flexing will cause it to break soon again.
Since this is only for people who are looking for a temporary fix you can still try to fix it with this one you might be succesful if it is one of the bottom RAM bricks...
If you want a permanent fix heatgunning + x-clamp replacement is the best choice...
Post by: akenny on September 21, 2008, 07:09:00 AM
Post by: Wilhelm_I on October 11, 2008, 01:00:00 PM
QUOTE(azurik15 @ Oct 11 2008, 03:29 PM)
Can i use these ramsinks inestead pennies.They are 5mm thick.
Will be too thick the flexing would crack the mobo for sure when you screw it down
Post by: XXpMuneyXX on October 12, 2008, 03:19:00 PM
Post by: manflora on November 13, 2008, 05:00:00 PM
Post by: slag5 on November 18, 2008, 11:58:00 PM
Post by: fritz69 on November 20, 2008, 10:31:00 PM
I drilled the holes out bought the bigger screws etc same old story.
That lasted a little while about 3 months but with minimal use.
After the nxe update i starting using it more the xbox 360 would freeze i would restart it a few minutes later it would freeze again.
This happened a few times until yes the rrod WTF.
So i came back to this thread that i remembered from a long time ago redid my xclamp fix did the 8 pennies turned on the xbox and the rrod was back so i let it run about 30 min restarted it sat for about 30 min to cool
then it booted up just fine.
Thanks for tut
Post by: Millerboy3 on December 03, 2008, 11:17:00 AM
Post by: Kingcobra831 on December 07, 2008, 08:50:00 PM
Post by: flashfreak on December 11, 2008, 01:14:00 AM
About 2 weeks ago, i was sick of the noise is was making, so i took a chance and took the coins out.
Thing worked fine, until yesterday...
Turned it on and got the 3 red lights again. I took it apart with difficulty (my T8 screws or screwdriver bit is stuffed) and have put the coins back, but it didnt work straight away.
Now the thing overheats within seconds, goes off giving me code 0011 (overheating), but if i do manage to get the 3 rings out of it before that, it gives me 0020, GPU failure (the same kinda problem that these coins fix).
So right now im stuffed. Have 2 screws in the heatsinks which i cant get out cos the screws or driver bit are wrecked. So i cant check it or even get it apart again. Its gonna be a tough one.
Thinking of trying the re-heating with a heat gun fix. Im sick of this...
Any ideas anyone? Especially about the darn screws
Post by: Nightwing1977 on December 11, 2008, 11:34:00 AM
Thanks
Post by: stein08 on December 13, 2008, 05:43:00 AM
)Bought a refurbished console in July...November 30th, whilst drumming in GH World Tour, it froze...and my heart sank. I knew right away that when I powered down and then on, it would red-ring. And lo and behold, it did.
I was thinking, "man, not even five months and already it crapped out on me, whatta piece o' shit!"
Was going to try the X-Clamp replacement and applying Arctic Silver 5, but when I looked at the motherboard I noticed that Microshit (I guess, or whichever company did the repair) already removed the X-Clamps, glued sticky pads onto the RAM undersides and also bolted the heat sinks to the mobo in such a way that no matter how much pressure I exerted on the Phillips screws, the fuckers wouldn't even budge slightly (I'm not a very technical person but I suspect these screws were tempered in some way.) So basically, I was shit out of luck!
Then I came across this method and decided to just go for it. Took the sticky pads off, made four stacks of three pennies, wrapped in electrical tape, and affixed to the RAM undersides. Used the Torx screws to attach the mobo to the chassis, crossed my fingers and plugged the video and AC cables in. And to my amazement, green-ring of life! Been drumming in World Tour for a couple of days now and so far, no issues. I did install the game to the hard-drive and decided to leave the DVD drive outside the Xbox chassis (don't know if this makes a difference, but I figured since the drive is on top of the heat-sink, maybe the added surface area would dissipate heat better...) Anyway, so far so good, so thanks kidderboots.
Post by: bigwilluk on December 17, 2008, 07:40:00 AM
Post by: Kingcobra831 on December 20, 2008, 09:51:00 PM
QUOTE(Kingcobra831 @ Dec 7 2008, 08:26 PM)
Last night I tried this method and it worked, the only differenced is that I used 2 pennies instead of 3. and also I will like to add is that if you put back the black screws on the metal case the ones that hold the X-claps and your Xbox gives you the two flashing lights (over heating) loosen them (black screws) up slightly, I also notice that when I loosen the black screws the fans quite down. I will post again when my XBOX FAILS. 12/07/2008 Day 1
Before I forget the Error Code was 0102. 12/20/08 Day 13, I play 1 to 3 hours a day it still working
Today I fix my friends Xbox 360 using this method with Error Code 0020
I'll post back when my XBOX FAIL or another fix with different Error Code
thanks
Post by: Keale on December 21, 2008, 10:30:00 AM
I tried the penny trick last night, using 12 then 8.. no joy... I was getting error code 0020, when I put the case back on and tightened things I got code 0102... not sure... I even then as a last resort before I trashed the thing and bought a brand new system did the towel trick.. something I said I would never do because it's plain stupid. Well, I did it.
Nothing.
I give up.
Post by: Kingcobra831 on December 21, 2008, 10:01:00 PM
QUOTE(Keale @ Dec 21 2008, 10:06 AM)
My 360 crapped the bed after just 2 weeks of purchase. It was refurbished. I tried the x-clamp with no success so many times I know the inside of the 360 like the back of my hand, it's been dismantled on my kitchen table for about a month now... every night when I get home from work I will give it another shot.. tightening the bolts, trying new methods.. pretty much everything except heatgunning.. which I'm not sure about.
I tried the penny trick last night, using 12 then 8.. no joy... I was getting error code 0020, when I put the case back on and tightened things I got code 0102... not sure... I even then as a last resort before I trashed the thing and bought a brand new system did the towel trick.. something I said I would never do because it's plain stupid. Well, I did it.
Nothing.
I give up.
I know you might of done this but I let my xbox 360 get hot for about 20 minutes and then let it cool down for another 30 minutes.
http://www.llamma.co...x-clamp_fix.htm
try step 28
Post by: dd0628 on January 02, 2009, 10:12:00 PM
) and tried with 3 pennies no luck . Tried 2 pennies ! Thanks for the fix. I can't believe it worked!!!
Post by: JenJennings on January 27, 2009, 10:18:00 PM
I got a RROD 360 off craigslist for 100 bucks with some games. I then did the X-clamp removal and my 360 worked for almost a month and a half .
I then again got the RROD and I then took it all apart and cleaned it off and just put it all back together and it worked for another month and a half.
I got the RROD again today so I took it all apart, put the 12 pennies on and tried to over heat it. Within 4 minutes of the fan being plugged in and on top of the cd/heat sync it had went from 3 red rings to Two red rings. Now anytime I turn it on it just has the 2 red rings. Also the fan is insanely LOUD. I dont have any black screws on my xbox because I removed the x-clamps. So I let it cool for a half hour to see what happens next.
so I just placed the the fan into place, the fan shroud, and the disk drive back into place, turned on the unit. It lights up green, and within 2 minutes it turns to the 2 red rings.
I'd LOVE any suggestions, Im dying to play Left 4 Dead!!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
This post has been edited by JenJennings: Jan 28 2009, 06:22 AM
Post by: fracicone on March 17, 2009, 04:05:00 PM
It started with freezing without any crackling noises or screen corruption.
Then it decided it was time to give me the RRoD.
Secondary error code is 0102.
Could the 3 (or 2) pennies fix it?
Post by: fracicone on March 17, 2009, 06:22:00 PM
I tried the 360 without assemblying the bottom part of the case, the rest is all assembled, turned it on, I hear the fans a bit louder now, went to dashboard, started playing rock band 2 and after a couple of minutes the screen went black and the leftmost 2 led started flashing red, which I understand is overheating.
Secondary error code is 0012, GPU overheating.
Should I fiddle with the black screws?
Post by: fracicone on March 17, 2009, 08:17:00 PM
I've messed around with the 8 black screws and now the fans' loudness seems normal
and the 360 has been working for over 2 hours without problems.
I cross my fingers and hope this one holds for a few months until I can afford a Jasper
Post by: i_need_help on April 09, 2009, 06:48:00 AM
SO i tried the penny thing. with three canadian pennies it wouldn't fit in the case. but with two it did.
i turned it on ( after i baked it for 5 min) and it worked, until i put in cod 5.
should i try with 3 pennies(tight fit) or get the guy to fix it for another 4 days of playing time?
Post by: Geiz on May 04, 2009, 06:09:00 PM
The way i did it is pretty much the same as kidderboots did it but with a different kind of tape and adhesive: just your basic stuff you can get from the most basic shops in Holland, even the supermarkets.
Coins:
4 stacks of two 5 eurocent coins.
Adhesive:
Tesa powerstrips... the ones u use to stick posters n stuff to your walls.
I cut them up to fit the RAM chips, one powerstrip was enough for the 4 chips.
The Tesa powerstrips are quite common in dutch stores anyway and my guess is around europe as well...
My xbox is a bit older so i didnt have the thermal pads on the RAM Chips, if you do have those you can obviously use them as the others have described.
Tape:
Just your plain ducttape, i still had the cheapest homebrand at home...
Rip of a bit of tape, stick the coins in the middle, fold the tape over the two coins, i only did this once and cut off the remaining bits of unused tape.
Next just push the stacks onto the powerstrips that are already in place on the RAM chips.
When i reassembled the xbox i tightened all the silver screws really tight, same for the black screws.
This reduced my 3rlod to a normal boot followed by the overheating/turbo fan problem (2 blinking red lights).
Supposedly this is caused by to much pressure on the mainboard/heatsensor, so loosening some of the black screws is the way to go.
In my case the solution was removing 3 of the black screws on the leftside X-clamp (CPU) on the bottom of the xbox (assuming you flip the xbox over sideways). This was a bit of a trial and error thing as i started removing the top left black screw and tried to boot. I still had the overheating problem so i removed the bottom left screw. Then it booted normally 50% of the time... almost there... so i removed the bottom right screw as well. Now my xbox is working like a charm on normal sound levels!
Keep in mind you might have to loosen different screws, but from what i have read in this thread most people had to loosen some of the black screws on the CPU x-clamp to get it to work again.
Remember: no need for Toweltricks or other overheating tricks... just play with the CPU x-clamp screws and dont give up! once you have the overheating/turbofan error you are nearly there!
I already streamed a movie to my xbox and played a game, so my uptime isnt that awesome yet, but to have it working again after almost throwing it away and buying a new one is amazing!
Thanks Kidderboots and all the others for giving feedback and making it eazier for people like me!
This post has been edited by Geiz: May 5 2009, 01:14 AM
Post by: praowolf on June 17, 2009, 10:45:00 AM
I did find on the FAQ for MS repair, that they will accept consoles that are under the warranty period, EVEN if they've been opened!! Check the FAQ, it will make it clear. Says if you're under the date period but your xbox is out of warranty and can still be fixed free of charge if it is the 3 rrod and only the 3rrod.
I did all the fixes couldn't do it, so I bit the bullet called MS and said what can I do?? It's not my xbox it's one I got from a repo, when people don't pick up their stuff it's a beautiful thing. =) Until you get 3 rrod =(
Sad part is I traded alllll my PS2 games for new controllers, A/V Power cables, games, etc etc, even got a 3 month live card, but no working xbox, so I used that to my advantage too. "Come on guys? I'm ready to go all I need is the xbox, new gamer here!!" Maybe MS will like the fact that I went from Sony to them, frankly I just want a working console and I dont have money to buy a PS3 considering I got the xbox 360 for free.......
But anyways!! Try calling MS if you are at your wits end, and still within the time limit on the 3 year extended warranty. My plan is to get a working xbox 360, and keep that bitch cool as all hell!!! At least if it does break, I'll know EXACTLY how to fix it!!
Post by: Fusin94 on July 08, 2009, 05:27:00 PM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Jun 4 2007, 04:00 PM)
ArticSilver wont keep the pennies in place but that would be great. there is silver tape (not sure of the name) that is used in laptops that would work great. but anyway this tutorial is made so its a permanent fix and with stuff everyone shoudl have. would could start sayin stuff like why dont we just resolder the chips on better but only 7 of use would end up be able to do it you know. so everyone should have 12 pennies (if you dont email me and i'll send you them haha)and everyone should have electrical tape and a hopefully a glue gun. i tried taping the pennies to the case but didnt work as well as the hot glue. anyway keep brainstorming , but with everyday items and make sure you test first!! thanks guys
instead of using hot glue can you use silicon heat sink compound?
P.S im not sure if someone ask this question yet
Post by: scorpionrecords on July 09, 2009, 09:28:00 AM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Jun 3 2007, 01:57 PM)
a penny is about 1.5 mm thick so the end result should be 4.5mm thick and use copper equivelant. VERY important to reconnect the fans and also very important to tighten slowly and to leave the black screws out of the two x-clamps on the back. like i said before this sounds like a temp fix but non have failed even after 11 months of playing (gears of war, dead rising etc)
what is the minimum? is it 3.0 mm...?
Post by: scorpionrecords on July 10, 2009, 08:12:00 AM
the 1 penny fix?...
Post by: kensleyk on July 13, 2009, 07:35:00 AM
Kinderboots, excellent quick fix...took me about 20 mins from start to finish to get a working 360.
Below is just my way of fixing the 3 red lights error then using yours to really get it fixed, and hopefully once and for all.
Used two methods and the first one didnt really help but was a try...and the second (Kinderboots penny trick) worked
The first was to re-apply the thermal grease to the GPU and CPU as that seemed to be the common fault.
During this fix i done the RBJTECH FAN Shroud fix/mod... http://www.rbjtech.n...ing/cooling.htm
This allows better airflow over the components heatsinks.
After the mod and grease application, i have read that on initial startup, you will receive the same error , but you will need to wait for the thermal grease to bond, etc. So 5 mins later i switched of and waited for 2 mins...started up again and it worked pefect.....but not for long.
two days later fault appeared again. and didnt allow me to get past the startup screen.
I read the Kiderboots penny fix.... http://forums.xbox-s...howtopic=606431
which shed more light on the issue.
In South Africa we dont have pennies so i used 5 cent pieces which are about 1.5 mm thick.
My 2006-11 model unit has the thermal memory pads x 4 which are stuck on the memory chips underneath the board. they are supposed to apply pressure from below the board to hold up the chips which seem to de-solder themselves when hot and over time.....
By sticking the coins (1 each) on the pads directly and then closing up the box...which needed a slight bit of pressure as the screws are slighly shorter to screw in, i was able to fit all screws back in.
the GPU and CPU screws where screwed in but not tightly...just enough to hold the heatsinks firmly...and screw each one in a cross pattern so that they get the same pressure from each corner evenly.
Once all put together, i booted up, waited a few minutes for the chips to resolder themselves back...5 mins..then swithced off for about 2-3 mins and back on again.....It worked perfectly...
Got about 16 hours of game and movie time off the Xbox360 without any issues this weekend. this was done without any issues and errors.
Hope this helps in the fix.
cheers
Post by: bryan9599 on July 14, 2009, 02:18:00 PM
So I put in fight night round 4 in this morning. Froze on me once then I tried to play again. Got a graphical error and then the bullshit rings of death. Plus when I turned the system on I wouldn't get the dashboard and the fan never seemed to pick up speed. So I tried the penny method. Being honest here.....didn't think it would work. I used two pennies for each and tightened the black screws. Put everything back together and holy crap it works. The problem I having now is that the fan is louder then ever and racing. Did I do something wrong or is that normal with this fix?
Post by: bryan9599 on July 14, 2009, 02:44:00 PM
Post by: scorpionrecords on July 14, 2009, 02:44:00 PM
QUOTE(abadfish66 @ Jun 4 2007, 02:51 PM)
So, if I'm understanding this correctly, the reason this works is by keeping pressure on the chips, and not so much for heat transfer to the case.
If were looking to dissapate heat, will we be looking for a better transfer to the pennies other than hot glue, maybe articsilver adhesive. Just brainstorming
I think Liquid Tape is better... They sell em at the home depot, I put some on... and it seems to work good like electric tape EXCEPT that Liquid Tape holds it.
Post by: pela020 on July 23, 2009, 12:43:00 PM
Post by: Locohead on August 01, 2009, 04:37:00 AM
Post by: darklord88 on August 16, 2009, 02:53:00 PM
as far as i know and can see...it does look fixed, but i do not have it plugged into a tv, but since ive turned it on at my desc, its booted up fine, no loud fan and with the hdd nd mem cards both in it, so i'll go ahead and try this, and hopefuly play for more then 15 minutes! haha
this is a very creative and CHEAP mod to do, and by reading has had many good results.
for those saying "this is a temp mod" ... well...what does microsoft do? send you new or fixed model...and in a couple months to a year it dies again? that also sounds like a temporary solution if you ask me...
thankyou for this great idea!
Post by: kidderboots on August 18, 2009, 12:57:00 PM
Glade to see this is still working for people. BUT....
AS I suggested before please please please just call 1-800-4-my-xbox as they are ALL covered if you get an error. OR just got to xboxlive.com sign in and print out the return label. no matter what error you get just report it as 3 rings.
They dont even look at them when they get to the warehouse- they have way to many to look at to care.
I have sent them in preopened, after the penny fix, even moded. Just put it back together as new looking as possible.
This is the best fix and costs you NOTHING except for the box (THEY pay for shipping)
If you have messed up ur xbox so badly its unrecognizable then do this fix as its still the main cause for console failure. othewise...
SEND IT IN! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Thanks guys!
Here's the latest artical on how bad this is http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/17/game-inf...t-failure-rate/
This post has been edited by kidderboots: Aug 18 2009, 08:00 PM
Post by: darklord88 on August 19, 2009, 02:25:00 AM
QUOTE(kidderboots @ Aug 18 2009, 07:57 PM)
Hey all!
Glade to see this is still working for people. BUT....
AS I suggested before please please please just call 1-800-4-my-xbox as they are ALL covered if you get an error. OR just got to xboxlive.com sign in and print out the return label. no matter what error you get just report it as 3 rings.
They dont even look at them when they get to the warehouse- they have way to many to look at to care.
I have sent them in preopened, after the penny fix, even moded. Just put it back together as new looking as possible.
This is the best fix and costs you NOTHING except for the box (THEY pay for shipping)
If you have messed up ur xbox so badly its unrecognizable then do this fix as its still the main cause for console failure. othewise...
SEND IT IN!
Thanks guys!
Here's the latest artical on how bad this is http://www.joystiq.c...t-failure-rate/
hmm, two-three days later it died again
wondering...did you have your stickers on it still? i have mine removed and same as on my drive, i took them off, so i guess i'm pretty much doomed hey? haha also painted black lol
well i'll tinker with the pennies again, i got the 0110 error again
would you recommend using a heatgun like ive read? to heat up the chips? is that another temp fix or does it usually last a big longer? maybe use the heat gun then the pennies?thanks again
Post by: suleman2004 on September 10, 2009, 11:38:00 PM
QUOTE(darklord88 @ Aug 19 2009, 09:25 AM)
hmm, two-three days later it died again
wondering...did you have your stickers on it still? i have mine removed and same as on my drive, i took them off, so i guess i'm pretty much doomed hey? haha also painted black lol
well i'll tinker with the pennies again, i got the 0110 error again
would you recommend using a heatgun like ive read? to heat up the chips? is that another temp fix or does it usually last a big longer? maybe use the heat gun then the pennies?thanks again
i tried that as well..tried 2/3 penny but i have the .llamma fix on it..with m5 screws. Everytime i add pennys the board is all messed up..like from the left its raised up and gives me error 0020.
I am wondering if someone who had done a.llamma fix and penny fix could help me plz?
Post by: Geiz on October 01, 2009, 01:39:00 PM
Kidderboots is right though, if you have a RRoD console try MS first, this is always the best option.
I only resorted to the penny fix cuz my console is banned so MS wouldnt fix it anymore. Also it was the cheapest and eaziest fix out there.
If any of you guys need help i'll try and see what i can do.
The most important thing is to fidget with the black screws to prevent the fans from spinning to fast and preventing the red rings... it can be a long battle but as this thread shows it can be done!
Post by: wheezy2009 on October 07, 2009, 07:35:00 PM
QUOTE(darklord88 @ Aug 16 2009, 04:53 PM)
hello all! id just like to comment here, since i was desperate for a 0110 fix (ram) and i tried this and was having a bit of issues, first i got the common fan speeding up and 2 red lights vs 3, tinkered with the screws and got an assortment of different errors/red light combos,but in my experiance i HAVE to have all the black screws in, even if turned VERY lightly, soon as one comes out, it says power supply error, so i'm assuming its something to do with all of them being in.
as far as i know and can see...it does look fixed, but i do not have it plugged into a tv, but since ive turned it on at my desc, its booted up fine, no loud fan and with the hdd nd mem cards both in it, so i'll go ahead and try this, and hopefuly play for more then 15 minutes! haha
this is a very creative and CHEAP mod to do, and by reading has had many good results.
for those saying "this is a temp mod" ... well...what does microsoft do? send you new or fixed model...and in a couple months to a year it dies again? that also sounds like a temporary solution if you ask me...
thankyou for this great idea!
I sent mine back after I kept getting the 3rrod after the penny fix(which lasted about 3 weeks).It was still under the warranty for the rrod ...they sent it back saying they could not fix it because it had been opened..So apparently,they are checking them.At least they did mine...bought a new one,but will still continue to try and fix the old one...
Post by: iwanttheagrocrag on November 06, 2009, 12:15:00 PM
Post by: suzieangel on April 23, 2010, 01:28:00 PM
Son's Xbox 360 died a death last week. My other half and i had tried taking it apart and cleaning the CPU and GPU and reapply silver thermal paste and although we had it working a couple of times, within 20 mins it would switch off. Then the graphic on the screen began to have lines across it... we were about to try again when we found a post showing how to get the error code and find out exactly what was wrong.
Got the RAM error code of E20 (0110). Thought that was it and there was no hope.
Then i came across this trick on a google search. Can't believe this has thread has been running nearly 3 yrs..lol
Decided to give it ago and OMG it works.!!!!!! my son's Xbox is now worth 12p more than before and so far he has been playing for 30 mins no problem...which isn't long but is a record since the 3RROD last week.
So to KIDDERBOOTS ...
You have helped put a smile back on my sons face..
i will update over time with how long it lasts..THANK YOU SO MUCH..
Post by: [email protected] on April 28, 2010, 05:07:00 PM
Edit: 3 pennies on each not 4.. Noticed that i wrote that after i posted lol
Post by: megaboy621 on May 25, 2010, 06:56:00 PM
Post by: h4ck0ry on May 25, 2010, 07:55:00 PM
It will temporarily by adding more stress to the motherboard, however this added stress will come back to bite you in the ass later!
You are only making the problem worse. Send it into a professional, or do a proper fix yourself.
Post by: megaboy621 on May 27, 2010, 02:45:00 PM
Post by: megaboy621 on May 27, 2010, 03:14:00 PM
Post by: entermymatrix03 on January 24, 2011, 10:54:00 AM