Xbox 360 repair

[FlyBoy]

I had the 3 red lights of death happen to me last week. Did some searching and found a fix, did it on Wednesday, and have been playing fine ever since.

Basically, you open the console up, remove the spring loaded clamps attaching the heat sinks, replace them with screws, and if need be overheat the chips briefly to reflow solder to broken joints on the chip (mine needed this). MS does not seem to have fixed this problem, even in the elite units, but they do glue the chips down or something so this problem happens less often.

The problem is the clamps holding the heat sinks to the CPU and GPU put pressure on the MB as the chips heat up, breaking the solder joints which suck because they used a brittle lead free solder.

If anyone wants the PDF I used, send me a message and I will pass it along. Took about 1 hour, most of which is figuring out how to get the box open. You need 8 screws and 16 washers, listed in the document.

[R_Ethug]

Re: Xbox 360 repair

are you out of warranty then? i'm on my 4th now but its been working great (knock on wood) lol

[Vulcan]

Re: Xbox 360 repair

Microsoft bumped the warranty up to 3 years on the XBox 360 to deal with this lame issue....

[FlyBoy]

Re: Xbox 360 repair

3 years warranty? Hadn't heard that. All I could find in the documents that came with it was 90 days, and was told that at Walmart as well. I am at about 9 or 10 months, but had to cut through the warranty sticker to do this anyways.

Also the articles I read said that MS was charging $140 + shipping, but I don't know if that was warranty or not. And it wasn't fixing the problem for most people.

[R_Ethug]

Re: Xbox 360 repair

nope call MS's fix number on the 360 website.. i had mine 1.2 years then it died.. next one died in 2 days.. next in 2 weeks now my 4th is good to go.. but yea 3 years warranty and that i beleive is from when you receive the 'fixed' one too..

[Stonewall]

Re: Xbox 360 repair

MS had no choice but to use lead free, everything manufactured these days has to be lead free unless it is aviation or military. The problem lies in stupid BGA package types which the processor and GPU are. Lead free also has a higher melting point which is really tricky to reflow without destroying the part you are trying to place. All the screw trick does is clamp the part down tight for a physical bond and hopefully in the future a more permanent bond. I have heard it works well but haven't read much about long term success.
That being said yes MS did extend the warranty to 3 years but only for 3 red lights of death syndrome.