XBOX 360 red ring of death---fix? help!

[Deleted User]

hey all-- i know this is pretty off topic, but i dont have any other forums to post this--

my xbox got the red ring of death. i called microsoft and they said it will cost 150 to repair.

being a college student, i have no way to pay this. i just got a job, my first paycheck was 56$ lol.

so, i am wondering if anyone knows a fix to the red ring of death (no money required).

also, my scheme is to root the xbox and do fun things with it.

thanks to any response, sorry if this is too off topic to post here--

 

[WormDoes]

I'm going to move this to the Gaming section. It's completely off topic and too random to leave here. If I don't move it some other guide/mod that stops by the TB forum will. I own a PS3 so I'd be no help. Hopefully someone over there will be able to assist you.

Good luck

 

[ParishL31]

There are some smaller video game shops that will do repairs. You can also check Craigslist for modders, many modders are able to repair the RROD too.

 

[TxGoat]

Do a hard reset on your Thunderbolt, and when it's finished restoring, open google and google, "Xbox red ring of death".

 

[Member138406]

The towel trick has actually worked for me in the past and is the easiest one. If you feel confident you can take the whole thing apart, clean up all the thermal grease that spills everywhere cause the xbox runs so hot, put it back together and it should work.

Regardless of what you do, you should mod it, if you do things right you can still play on live and download games.

 

[GodofBore]

Buy a PS3? You can by mine, all I use for anymore is blurays anyway.

 

[mancow]

I tried to fix one for a friend and that was a mess. From what I researched at the time and deduced from actually disassembling the POS it's a horrible design that is not really reliably repairable in the long term. They used heavy gauge metal X brackets as heat sinks over two major integrated circuits. The arms of the X are bend and when bolted to the board cause the center of the X to apply pressure to the chips. It appeared to me that the problem is the X material is far too heavy and applies too much pressure. As things heat up over time the board flexes under tension causing the ball grid array solder pads under the chips to fracture. I wouldn't doubt if it causes damage to the traces in the multi layer board as well. There are supposed fixes that tell you to do all sorts of different things but in my opinion once it has been damaged to the point there is an error code showing there really isn't much that can be reliably done. Some of the fixes might work for a while but as things move around again problems will arise.

I might be totally wrong but that's my experience. I told the guy to trash it and buy a new one.

 

[bigdragons]

Do a search on youtube and it will show you how to repair it

 

[nyydynasty]

good luck with the RROD. There's numerous 'fixes' online but once you get it, you might be able to get it going for a bit but it always returns. There's no permanent fix for it unless you send it in for repair.

 

[LNMoton]

Just save up money from your job to send it in. You don't have play it that bad do you? It might take some time but it is worth it.

 

[EVOfourgee]

you might want to consider first the motherboard/chipset version of your xbox 360, if it's a Xenon, Falcon, Opus, Zephyr or Jasper. if yours is either of the first 4, you might want to just sell it, or you might want to save up in order to buy a jasper or the new slim, because the first four revisions of the 360 was notorious for it's high failure rates.

if you are still not financially capable of purchasing a new xbox, you might have the ability or skill to try and fix your 360, then try putting a watercooler/fans in it in order to prevent heating. or keep your case open, to accomodate airflow.

 

[ChadKaplowski]

it highly depends on what version of the RROD you have (different lit sectors indicate different problems)

The vast majority of them aire caused by one of the chips over heating though and there are a number of fixes you can find online like people have said. I've heard many success stories from opening it up, removing the GPU (I think it was the GPU anyway), clearing off the stock shitty thermal paste and reapplying decent thermal paste, then re-attaching a support to hold the chip in place. I have also heard that the 'towel trick' works though (which basically involves deliberately overheating your console so that the chip melts back in to place - not very wise IMO)

 

[Deleted User]

thx guys for the responses--I really have no resources to buy anything to fix it-- only working 1-2 days a week, pretty much useless haha.

truth be told, i got a slim last yr (my old xbox has been brken w red ring) so i dont NEED a knew one.

ever since i rooted my phone ive wanted to try to hack other things, xbox came to mind haha. no matter what i do, im going to have to spend money to fix it, not really feelin to haha.

if my old one was working, id try to mod the firmware on the harddrive and just have 2 xboxs. dont want to mess w this almost brand new one--

is hacking them easy? whats the chance of getting the BANHAMMER from Microsoft???

 

[jerofld]

I agree, once you get the RROD, you can apply bandaid fixes, but that thing is hosed.

The thing was, mine was a release day Xbox. It survived the launch plague, then it served almost two years on board the destroyer I was stationed on. Yes, it served. I would bring it in on my duty days (days where I couldn't leave the ship) and my coworkers and I would take turns or played against each other. Then we went on deployment and I swear that thing was on more often than not. We played Halo 2 on the flight deck with a projection screen in the port of Abu Dhabi.

It got the RROD after the deployment. I tried a more friendly heatsink with artic silver thermal compound and it would still come up once a month. Then I'd wrap it in a blanket for 15 mins. That'd fix it for a week. Then it would break every day. I got rid of it after that.

From what I remember of the mod scene from a few years ago, most of it is undetectable by MS as long as you don't do anything crazy on Xbox Live.

 

[VoidedSaint]

i have been there with xbox serving jerofld

mine did as well as my ps2 haha

in all honesty i have the new elite black 360 and i havent had any issues yet... knock on wood

it all depends on what model XBox your running, if its an older version you might want to look into upgrading to the newer version

 

[Bramsy]

thx guys for the responses--I really have no resources to buy anything to fix it-- only working 1-2 days a week, pretty much useless haha.

truth be told, i got a slim last yr (my old xbox has been brken w red ring) so i dont NEED a knew one.

ever since i rooted my phone ive wanted to try to hack other things, xbox came to mind haha. no matter what i do, im going to have to spend money to fix it, not really feelin to haha.

if my old one was working, id try to mod the firmware on the harddrive and just have 2 xboxs. dont want to mess w this almost brand new one--

is hacking them easy? whats the chance of getting the BANHAMMER from Microsoft???

warranty my friend... i believe it's 2 years.

 

[Joe Dirt]

My xbox(pre-hdmi) just got the rrod for the second time, first time was fixed under warranty. Instead of getting it fixed, i ordered a new slim with kinect from Amazon yesterday for $200 shipped its a 4gb but I plan on shoving my 20gb drive in to it.