Post by: RobwDav on April 04, 2008, 12:30:00 PM
At any rate, I have a 360 which has the Xclamp fix as stated in the tutorial above. When using upstairs, I can play for hours, leaving on for days w/out issue. However, when I take to my basement (approx 56ยบ), it locks and upon reboot and attempt to read a disc, displays 3 reds. If I bring to console only and leave 15-20 mins before playing, will work w/out error.
The only variable I see here is temperature; I'm using artic silver on the PUs, so I hope it's not an issue of the paste drawing away in a cool environment. Has anyone experienced similar issues?
Post by: SphtKr76 on April 04, 2008, 12:42:00 PM
Post by: brandogg on April 04, 2008, 05:15:00 PM
Post by: SniperZoz on April 04, 2008, 05:17:00 PM
QUOTE(RobwDav @ Apr 4 2008, 08:30 PM) 
The only variable I see here is temperature...
... and humidity! It's a basment ... is it a humid one!?
Post by: RobwDav on April 05, 2008, 08:29:00 PM
QUOTE(SniperZoz @ Apr 4 2008, 11:17 PM) 
... and humidity! It's a basment ... is it a humid one!?
Good point! -I hadn't thought about that, but I don't believe it to be an issue. All other equipment (PS3, Wii, Xbox, projector...blah blah) works well. If anything, it's probably too dry, though I haven't measured. I really can't explain it. When it's upstairs, it's in a tighter area, but I can turn it on and immediately play for hours. I take downstairs, a freeze it almost guaranteed.
Thanks to everyone for your input,
Post by: thepwnage on April 06, 2008, 09:15:00 AM
Post by: RobwDav on April 06, 2008, 04:15:00 PM
QUOTE(thepwnage @ Apr 6 2008, 03:15 PM)
Well...try heating it up! Like...put a space heater near the box, or maybe something like block the fans...or...geez...idk...cover up the side vents, just enough so that it will warm up but not give you the 2 red lights and see if it will play for longer than normal...then maybe you can truthfully say it is the heat or lack of
Thanks for pointing out the obvious
. I've done that, -crowded a towel around (while in the basement). -works. However, we know why the towel trick works. That's not really a fix is it?
Post by: MMaster23 on April 06, 2008, 05:13:00 PM
i have an 0022 here and it has an "cold boot bug". When it's cold, it won't boot. Won't even give you an 3ROD 9 times out of 10. After trying to start it multiple times it goes and works 100% perfectly.
This one still has warranty so it's going roundticket MS.
ps... 0022 according to the error thread is an cold solder joint or messy soldering...
Post by: jimwross on April 07, 2008, 04:57:00 AM
OK.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)
I would put money down that all you need to do is re-heat your GPU. Its crucial that you do this properly to perm. fix the 3RLOD.
Pop the fans out of the back, remove the fan shroud. Keep the DVD Drive in and plugged in. Place the fan ON TOP of the DVD drive and resting on the CPU.
This will mean the GPU is covered by the DVD drive and not getting any air flow, while the CPU stays cool. Let this run for 10-15 minutes. You'll notice you won't get the 2 red lights, and that the GPU got really hot.
Let it cool down, re-assemble everything properly, and you should be good to go.
This post has been edited by jimwross: Apr 7 2008, 11:57 AM
Post by: RobwDav on April 07, 2008, 09:54:00 AM
QUOTE(jimwross @ Apr 7 2008, 10:57 AM)
LOL
OK.
I would put money down that all you need to do is re-heat your GPU. Its crucial that you do this properly to perm. fix the 3RLOD.
Pop the fans out of the back, remove the fan shroud. Keep the DVD Drive in and plugged in. Place the fan ON TOP of the DVD drive and resting on the CPU.
This will mean the GPU is covered by the DVD drive and not getting any air flow, while the CPU stays cool. Let this run for 10-15 minutes. You'll notice you won't get the 2 red lights, and that the GPU got really hot.
Let it cool down, re-assemble everything properly, and you should be good to go.
Is this legit? -Seems plausible, -I'm looking around for those w/the hidden cameras
Have you had luck w/this? -Thanks for the input!
Post by: jimwross on April 07, 2008, 11:02:00 AM
Heres a link to back up my claims:
http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/ring_...x-clamp_fix.htm
"Now for the most important part and most likely the point where the majority of people who were unsuccessful completing this fix failed.
This step requires you to overheat your GPU. Many tutorials tell you to unplug your fan and turn it on until it overheats. There is one major flaw with this approach. The thermosistor for the overheating protection of the 360 is contained within the CPU. The problem is that the CPU overheats without any airflow before the GPU is able to get sufficiently hot to "reflow" the BGA solder connection that has failed.
In order to cool the CPU but not the GPU it is again important to have your fan shroud removed. Now take your fan that IS plugged in and lay it on top of your DVD drive with one of the fan's over the top of the CPU. This will keep the CPU plenty cool to prevent it from overheating while the GPU will get smokin' hot; like burn your finger hot! "
Post by: brandogg on April 07, 2008, 01:21:00 PM
Post by: RobwDav on April 08, 2008, 08:12:00 AM
Post by: RobwDav on February 04, 2020, 11:37:00 AM
If I play daily, the device works w/out fail.
However, if weeks go by w/out use; I exhibit the same symptopms:
Dashboard operation is fine
If playing a game, I lock repeatedly w/in 2-3 minutes; several reboots result in 3lrod.
-to correct this, I must do the towel trick, or leave on for an hour or so at the dashboard.
So I guess this didn't actually work....at least for me. I don't want to keep trying for fear of overheating the board.
To recap, afer disassembling to flash the rom, I began receiving the 3rlod. I completed the xclamp mod and things got better for a while, but have resorted to freezes when the machine is cool.
Ideas anyone?
Thanks in advance,
R Davis
Post by: Wilhelm_I on July 04, 2008, 03:51:00 PM
QUOTE(RobwDav @ Jul 4 2008, 08:37 PM)
Okay, I've tried this fix and testing for a couple of months. My results are:
If I play daily, the device works w/out fail.
However, if weeks go by w/out use; I exhibit the same symptopms:
Dashboard operation is fine
If playing a game, I lock repeatedly w/in 2-3 minutes; several reboots result in 3lrod.
-to correct this, I must do the towel trick, or leave on for an hour or so at the dashboard.
So I guess this didn't actually work....at least for me. I don't want to keep trying for fear of overheating the board.
To recap, afer disassembling to flash the rom, I began receiving the 3rlod. I completed the xclamp mod and things got better for a while, but have resorted to freezes when the machine is cool.
Ideas anyone?
Thanks in advance,
R Davis
At first the secondary error code might be interesting to determine if the problem is still GPU related...
Since you already did the x clamp replacement your last option will be reflowing the solder with a heatgun.
Use this tutorial to do that http://forums.xbox-s...howtopic=651407
Dont do anything before checking the error code or you wont know what you have to concentrate on.
Post by: mRBulletPr00f on July 04, 2008, 05:26:00 PM
Post by: Wilhelm_I on July 06, 2008, 08:26:00 AM
QUOTE(BlackWar @ Jul 6 2008, 03:52 PM)
This is an interesting topic, which brings up an interesting question....does the 360 require a certain amount of heat in order to operate properly in the long run?
The reason why I bring this up is because the 1st 360 I got (right before xmas last year) died towards the end of last month. Now, I know the track record of the 360's and such, but this failure should not have occurred, because a week after I got it, I noticed that it was running rather warm and bought an intercooler for it.
Now, with the intercooler I never noticed it running warm, always cool as a cucumber, but it still died (error 0020). I was able to bring it back to life and all, but I cant help think, was it running too cool? I know logically thinking, any PC, the colder the better, but considering the cold joint issues with the 360, is a certain amount of heat needed to keep the cold solder joints "soft" to allow for flexing of the board due to heat? I know that this by any means makes no sense, but this is microsoft we are talking about after all.....
This is just random when you get the ROD because of a cold solder joint the 360 might work after a restart because the solderball expanded and reconnected it.
The RODs occur though because of the bending mainboard which takes the solder balls under pressure and the fact that the chips become very hot and then cool down quickly which causes the solder balls to get cracks.
So heat can be a way to get a 360 back to work but the cooler you keep it the better is still up to date since the cooling down to room temperature will cause less damage when the temperature difference between chip temp and room temp is less...
Post by: brandogg on July 06, 2008, 08:27:00 AM
Post by: Wilhelm_I on July 06, 2008, 08:53:00 AM
QUOTE(BlackWar @ Jul 6 2008, 05:25 PM)
toweled it afterward (which in the end fixed it). You can do a search her in this forum section to read about it, it is on the 2nd or 3rd page.
Just a warning for noobs who might read that, dont use the towel trick to overheat your 360 just unplug the fans or do the llamma method if you want to overheat the GPU only...
The toweltrick might damage other components since you are not only overheating the chips, you overheat the whole machine as the air is locked in.
Post by: BlackWar on July 06, 2008, 09:25:00 AM
If ANYBODY does the towel trick, please, for the love of god (and your 360), read up on it extensively before you do this, and if you do try it, only try it in short amounts of time. Just like ANY piece of electronic equipment that requires additional cooling, they build up heat FAST, so it doesnt take long at all to "bake" em this method, and if you are not carefull, just as long to kill em.
TBH with everyone reading this, here is the pros of a towel trick....
1: everybody has a towel, so its cheap to do
2: it is very quick to do (no disassembly needed)
and the cons of such a trick.....
1: if you are not carefull, it WILL shorten the life of your 360
2: same as above, but it will flat out KILL it
3: in most cases (about 98% of em), this is ONLY A TEMP FIX TO A PROBLEM THAT CAN BE FIXED BY MORE PROPER METHODS!!!
It is up to you to weigh the odds.....