Xbox red ring of death

[hk144]

hello all,

i just dusted off my old white xbox elite from 2007, and i started to play it but soon after i got the red ring of death. what is the most reliable permanent solution to the problem?

btw i did try the towel trick, but the red ring of death returned the next day.

any help is appreciated.

 

[cl-scott]

I'd say the most reliable method would be to send the unit in to Microsoft. They have a flat $100 repair rate for OOW units. What they do, by and large, is just swap your unit out for another one of a similar vintage. You also get a 90 day warranty on the replacement unit, and usually a 1 month Xbox Live card, so it's actually quite the bargain for $100. You can find the details at the URL below.

http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-360/repair/repair-process

 

[hk144]

yeah, sorry i didnt write in but since my xbox is so old, im not sure the warranty on it still applies. i got it in 2007 so i think its too late now 🙁

 

[jay_nar2012]

It is most likely overheating, you can take it apart and clear out the dust or you can mod the case so that the CPU and GPU get more cooler.

You can also try the X clamp mod.

 

[cl-scott]

yeah, sorry i didnt write in but since my xbox is so old, im not sure the warranty on it still applies. i got it in 2007 so i think its too late now 🙁

Right, it's free if it's in warranty, $100 if it's out of warranty (OOW). $115 if you want to set up the repair over the phone.

Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all have what basically amounts to no questions asked OOW "repair" programs for their consoles. By and large, they just swap the unit out with one that has been repaired. As long as there's no evidence that you've done anything to the unit that would have voided the warranty, you're good, and it's generally on par with all other repair methods price wise, and certainly cheaper than buying a new unit.

 

[peterson99]

I had the same problem back in the day, and I used the X-clamp mod. After that it worked for about another year and a half, then died permanently. In otherwords I would highly recommend paying the $100 for a Microsoft repair (if you can).

Then again the new xbox does come out soon :/

 

[tydalwave]

I had this issue on a 2007 model that sat for a LONG while (from 2007-2011). What ended up being the cause was the TIM (thermal pase) pretty much dried out. I took the XBOX apart via a Youtube video, and just replaced the thermal paste with some AS5 (Artic Silver 5) I had. Final product was a cool running XBOX. Note: watch the dissasemble video all the way through first, then replay as you take apart. I jumped the gun and messed up a few things, and ended up breaking a few plastic parts. Good Luck!

 

[tydalwave]

Another interesting note: I know a repair guy here in Germany that said the reason for the older models getting the RRoD, was that it was the low quality solder they used on the motherboard. So he was saying, 'some' of the units, ( which ended up being a TON of them) ended up not holding up and having 'breaks' in the solder. Microsoft didn't realize this till it was way past release of the product (they didn't realize the solder they purchased sucked at longevity). Anywho, just insteresting stuff. 😀

 

[jay_nar2012]

Because the board and other components are affected by heat, when the CPU and GPU are in use they produce a lot of heat, that heat warped the boards which in turn caused the solder connections to separate, the solder also had a low melting point which proved a problem, they then used some glue or something along those lines to hold the CPU and GPU in place when the board warped from heat, as the GPU and CPU dies shrinked, there was less heat generated and less power was consumed, more efficient chipsets were put in to reduce power and heat output.

The cooling design microsoft used wasn't very good, they could of fitted more intake fans to help with airflow and they could of put the extra bit of GPU heatsink near the fans.

 

[casualcolors]

Best solution that isn't egregiously overpriced for what you're actually working with? Throwing it in the trash and just playing games on the computer you posted from, if at all possible.

 

[hk144]

thanks for the feedback guys. i think ill go with the x clamp mod since i dont have enough money to get it repaired. even if it works for only another year thats fine with me, since the new xbox should be coming soon. just for clarification, the only reason i even have an xbox is because of halo. every other game i play i do play on my PC.

 

[peterson99]

There is no guarantee that it will last a year, or even a month

but with that said, here's what I found. once you've applied the x-clamp mod, and reapplied the thermal paste, I believe there is a step where u let it run a few secs without the fan to heat the paste and evenly distribute it (I did this years ago).

Now if the spacing between the heat sinks and cpu is not right, it will give red rings untill after the heating of the paste, then work fine for about a month or so

If done properly, it will turn on (green lights) before heating the paste. I've found that when this happens, it means that it should work for a good while

goodluck!

 

[sscultima]

what i used to do a long time ago was block off the fan to the GPU since the cpu would be the one to ragulate to shut off the xbox if it gets too hot. then press down hard after waiting about 30minutes of leaving the system on.

now i dont use any xclamp "fix" since it just actually makes it worse if done wrong. i use the same clamps it comes with and i evenly heat the board then focus a bit more heat on the GPU in most cases using a 600C heatgun. (dont critisize my methods 😛)

I have been doing this for a long time now, 3 years to be exact, and have very minimal returns on xbox and PS3.

you can also, if you get the system running again, mod the fan and solder it to a 12v point on the board to make it run faster, you can also mod a small fan to the CPU heatsink, this is good if the gpu heatsink is the one with the branch off copper pipe.

 

[peterson99]

^ How long on average would your Xbox run after using your technique?
lol not criticizing, just curious

-Even if you got the spacing wrong with the x-clamp mod and it didn't work right you can still try the fix again (it won't be broken, unless you did something extreme to the board, or overheated the CPU, GPU chips)

 

[sscultima]

the issue that was most common with the xlamp replacement was too much or too little tightness as well as warping of the board itself (especially if tightened too much), I just think it is flawed repair, even with washers, you would have to measure the washers to get the proper size of washer. the issue was the crap solder they used, which got better over the years.

normally on average (that i could even count because if they dont come back i dont know if it died again or is still working) i would say average though is 2 years, i do get some people contacting me after that time to work on it again.

best method is of course a reflow with high end ball solder, but this requires a rework machine, unless you are crazy skilled at doing it by hand haha.

i have worked on id say close to a thousand consoles and this has been my method of choice. (yes a thousand, i have a stack of receipts of all the consoles i have worked on, some have multiple consoles on receipts)

 

[bethskye93]

http://4c706wmhvhtvs5grc324ut0ob1.hop.***/

How to fix your red light ring of death on your xbox. This REALLY works. Although you do have to pay for this, it is worth it!

 

[chocostain]

Ring of Death really means death for your unit. This is the saddest part for Xbox owners. They should address this first before even thinking of upgrading to Xbox 720.

 

[jay_nar2012]

That isn't always true, normally 3/4 lights means near or certain death for your console, 1/2 lights means something like the video/audio cable is disconnected or there is a power fault somewhere, or it has overheating problem.

The problem got less frequent in 2007/2008 due to improvements made by Microsoft, when Microsoft used the Falcon and Jasper chipsets, a low number of Xboxs got the RROD, then when the slim came out, the RROD was gone, there is the red light on the slim that indicates a fault but chance of getting a red light is very low.

 

[sscultima]

i really liked the latest motherboards in the original xbox 360's manufactured in 2010 they were so low on heat they reverted the gpu heatsink back to the original but left the cpu heatsink same as teh 2nd gen heatsinks they were using.

i have one that i keep just for that reason, i used to own a slim but sold it after the first one i got didnt even work out of the box and the second was crazy hot

been repairing these things for years, i have repaired so many more xbox 360s than any other game system out, including laser replacements as well as red ring. that is why i keep a second system laying around incase my main blows up, haha. don't think me rich or anything they are normally secondary consoles i get off people as payment or that i have repaired.