freaking out about my 360

i' ve heard a lot of things about the 360 problems, the ring of death is my biggest concern..
guys i want your advice to keep my 360 safe, i have no guarantee at all, because nothing here about the 360 is official.

i bought a fan which is powerful enough i think and put it behind the 360 blowing the air out from the 360, will that really help??

Don' t play your 360 for like 24-48 hours straight like some people I know do, or they just leave the system on for that period of time because they have so many downloads going at once.

Putting a fan in behind will be a good idea, since most of the problems I have heard about the 3 rings of death have come due to the machine overheating.

I have had mine since launch, and have had no problems at all. I keep it downstairs where it is naturally cooler in the house, so I think that it makes a bit of a difference.

The 360 doesn' t over heat, the problems it has have nothing to do with over heating. Most of the time it' s a bad solder. Since you have no warrenty anyways you don' t have to be afraid to open up your 360 and try one of the fixes available online when your 360 chokes (and it will, they all do).

You need Eddie. Maybe he can put together a guide for you to open and resolder the boards.

Nitro, so far my 360 is ok , i' m just taking precautions , didn' t yours die as well? canadagamer thanks for making me feel better ... that' s fucking bullshit, over 50% rate of failure i think, this is a fiasco, the sad funny thing is , i was in the store today, talking about the issue and asking what i can do about it , so they suggested a fan and they say it' ll be really ok by puting the fan right behind... at the same time a person came in , bringing its 360 === same problem like everybody else... what kind of a shitty cmpany would make such amtaeurich mistake , i mean don' t they test their shit ... i want to know " the real" rate of failure , if somebody can come up with the approximate number. the guy bought a fan as well, fortunatly the problem can be repaired cost === 50$.

agent ghost, the problem is overheating which causes this soldering issue, something probably expandes by the heat which makes a poor to no contacte with some components (according to the store it' s usualy the cpu) and the motherboard... Bottom line keep your 360 cool.

any suggestion would be welcome

Wait wait wait...isnt hot air being blown out the back of the console? So Why would you put a fan their that could potentially blow the hot air (and possibly dust) back into it. Woulndt it be a smarter move to place the fan on either the top set of holes or right side? Wouldn' t that circulate the cool air much better?

Anyhow I normally dotn bother with those fans built for the 360 and other consoles but I saw a nice deal at Gamestop. A gift pack for $9.99 that included the pelican fan, a battery charger, disk cleaner, console skins and controller skins. It was so cheap since the boxes were all mis-labled as Nintendo DS Lite products. The fan works better for standing 360s but can be put on regardless of the setup. It does make the air coming out the back much cooler, tho if it helps is unknown really. But for $9.99 whats too lose?

mass x , i said it' s blowing out the air from the 360, i know there is a fan in the back but it seems they don' t push nough air out, this will helpto extract more air from the inside.
by the look of it , it doesn' t seem to do much, but even my PC fan, the on the side doesn' t seem to do much at all, however , it brings my HDD and my moherboard and cpu temp by AT LEAST 6 degrees... and 6 degrees is all i need to be safe.

I was told by a friend that the intercooler has done bad things to 360' s so I would be wary of any of the third party fans as the problem tends to be that the fan draws to much power. My friend also said that putting in a new heat sync is your best bet and is a cheap fix. But the biggest problem is the x-clamps which MS still hasn' t taken out of production. The x-clamps end up warping the motherboard when the CPU gets too hot, so my friend says the best fix is the replace the x-clamps completely(which is what we' re doing with mine because I got the red rings of death, and its also a cheap fix). The only downside is that you could potentially(if you' re an idiot) ruin your 360 cause you don' t know what you' re doing, that' s why my friend is fixing mine.

even you!

all right how many people here had or have a ring of death in this forum ??

I had one with my first 360. Tho that was my fault...but of course i didnt tell Eb Games that. The second time was a disc read error. Dunno what happened there but it couldnt recognize any DVDs of any kind no matter what i did. Started up normally but thats about it.

You need Eddie. Maybe he can put together a guide for you to open and resolder the boards.

What would you all do without me?

The 360 doesn' t over heat, the problems it has have nothing to do with over heating. Most of the time it' s a bad solder.

Actually, it overheats with great regularity, the bad solder is only one part of the puzzle. The Xbox 360' s GPU and CPU have heatsinks, of course. They' re mounted to the motherboard by these bizzare x-shaped metal clamps that sit over the GPU/CPU and hold the heatsinks in place. I don' t know how they' ve managed to ignore it so late in the game, but there' s huuuuge issues in the fundamental design of the clamp itself.

So, the 360 gets turned on, and within about 1 minute of booting up, the CPU heatsink is moderately uncomfortable to the touch, and by 3 minutes it' s white hot. After playing my 360 I can feel the heat OUTSIDE of the plexiglass window.(and I' ve mounted a spare heatsing on the thing) Needless to say, this is bad, and while there' s a little vent that leads from the processor to the fan, a lot of the heat is still retained by the chips and the board proper (I' ve seen the RAM chips hit 116*f before ).

Back to the X-clamps, they usually don' t have enough pressure on the four points to have any adverse effects on the machine, however when heated the clamps pull on the motherboard warping it, and partially disconnecting the GPU and CPU.

The 360 gets the " OMG, CAN' T FIND MAH BRAINZ!!!" error, and congratulations. One Red Ring of Death.

What can you do to fix it? Resoldering the boards the conventional way is incredibly difficult, and requires some seriously job-specific equipment, stuff even I dont have. However, you do have some alternatives. The first is fairly straightforward, although I can almost assure that it' s temporary, ranging from a couple hours to a couple weeks.

THE WHITE-TRASH HILLBILLY TOWEL METHOD

Move your 360 near a power outlet, preferably somewhere without any heat-sensitive stuff nearby. Plug in your video-cable and power-brick, wrap multiple towels around the 360, making sure there' s no part for heat to escape. Power that puppy up and go have a pint.

No seriously, you may as well just go do something interesting for 3 or 4 hours, as it' s a bit of an interesting game. You can' t leave it on for less than 2 hours, or the thing will die within minutes, but you certainly don' t want it on for 6 to 8, as you' ll fry all the working components with the heat. It' s kind of like using a seedy walk-in-clinic defibrilator. You want to kick start stuff without frying everything else, and there' s no medically accurate way of telling how far to go. Just use your judgement & you should be fine.

After you' ve let it roast, turn off the 360 carefully and don' t touch it for about 20 minutes. There' s no evidence to prove that stuff will shift if you mess with a half-melted 360, but why chance it right? After 20 minutes take off the towels and let it sit overnight, or at least until every part on the box is room temperature, check especially near the center of the case on the left side, as that' s where the CPU & GPU' s heat comes through hottest. (As a small side, don' t get anxious and pop it in the fridge. Bad bad idea.)

So let it cool, reconnect everything, and power it up. I' ll be incredibly suprised if you don' t boot to dashboard, if only for a small amount of time.

THE X-CLAMP MOD
Unless somebody posts after me saying they' d like me to post a tutorial for it, I won' t bother, as this one requires a trip to Home-Depot, and a little bit more technical finesse. But for all intents and purposes, all you' re doing is replacing the X-Clamps with more conventional PC components. At first, the process looks terrifying, as you' re drilling 8 holes in your motherboard, although you' re only widening prior holes that are completely grounded, with no components for a half an inch on each side. But it' s really not that bad if you can follow directions well.
My 360 has recieved this treatment, with fairly good results. (AKA, it works now!!!)

KEEPING YOUR 360 UNBRICKED

Buy an aftermarket fan that isn' t Nyko brand. The Nyko' s kill stuff.
Keep it ventilated
One of the simplest (although warranty-voiding) mods is to buy a Talismoon replacement fan for the inside of your 360. If you can unplug 1 power plug (looks just like a PC plug) you can install one, and they flow much better and quieter. Oh, and did I mention, they shine pretty colors out the back of your 360' s grille!

So, out of curiosity, who has more than one 360 just sitting around because of the RROD?

Edit:

I was told by a friend that the intercooler has done bad things to 360' s so I would be wary of any of the third party fans as the problem tends to be that the fan draws to much power. My friend also said that putting in a new heat sync is your best bet and is a cheap fix. But the biggest problem is the x-clamps which MS still hasn' t taken out of production. The x-clamps end up warping the motherboard when the CPU gets too hot, so my friend says the best fix is the replace the x-clamps completely(which is what we' re doing with mine because I got the red rings of death, and its also a cheap fix). The only downside is that you could potentially(if you' re an idiot) ruin your 360 cause you don' t know what you' re doing, that' s why my friend is fixing mine.

NJ... is that you buddy?

Edit 2: Dude, Waaaazaaaaap!!!! You have no excuse not to have a net presence now that you' ve got a line in the new place.

(I would be the " friend" he' s talking about)

No Xbox 360 has ever died purely of over heating when used correctly. That was my point, obviously heat is related to the problems but people talk as if the chips are being turned to charcoal then the 360 dies. There' s never anything wrong with the chips themselves. The 360 operates within intended temperatures.

If the chips were being fried we wouldn' t be able to fix dead 360' s at all.

-PS, I' m on my 2nd 360 and this one will be replace next year. It has annoying problems and I know it' s going to die eventually. I want one of the newer 360' s on the 65nm fab with the newest DVD drives. I' ll try some of the fixes on my current model only after I buy my third 360 just to be on the safe side. My current 360 still plays games fine and with the fall line up I don' t want to destroy my white box before the revised 360' s become available.

you want your 360 to die, it will never happen agent, it will just get worse but still work. Good news I guess!

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

The intercooler fan thingy people put on the back is a joke, it doesn' t do anything good.

I' ve never had any problems with my 360, perhaps I' m lucky, perhaps I' m just that 1337.

I always have my 360 standing vertical, with some space around it, this enables the air to circulate so it doesn' t overheat. I also make sure it is in a spot where it won' t get knocked over. When I let my brother use it I lay it down horizontally on a little plastic box, so it isn' t directly on the carpet and has room for airflow.

And as has been said, your xbox 360 will not break from overheating, pretty much all computers and such are built so that if they begin to reach a dangerous temperature they will shut down to prevent damage.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

Mine' s been fine since launch. I' m of the opinion that if it hasn' t died within the first few months, then it' ll be ok...

guys i want your advice to keep my 360 safe, i have no guarantee at all, because nothing here about the 360 is official.

You' re fucked

all right how many people here had or have a ring of death in this forum ??

1st time it just stopped. No red rings, but it had the same symptoms

2nd time I did get the red rings( And i took care of my 2nd one like it was my child)

And now my 360 isnt reading Oblivion, so im sending it in, just in case it decides to not read any other games, so maybe 3rd times the charm!

Still on my first with no overheating related red light problems. The 360 is upright on the top of a unit next to the TV so has plenty of space to breathe.

Considering the extra heat chucked out by LCDs over CRTs into the area where a 360 is likely to be placed, would that make much difference to the environment the console is sitting in?

Nope.

Is it better to have your 360 vertical or horizontal? Or does it make a difference?

I' ve found that an Xbox 360 is more likely to read a damaged disk when it' s upright (I' ve got a secondhand copy of Halo 2 that only registers when in the upright position), and it keeps it slightly cooler as there' s not that pocket of heat developing under the 360 with nowhere do disappate but back into the case.

There' s never anything wrong with the chips themselves. The 360 operates within intended temperatures.

I' ve never heard of a massive CPU or GPU failure, but I' ve seen both RAM chips brick themselves with a lengthy game session.

now i' m really starting to freak out, why soemtimes textures in gears of wars pop up like in halo 2, specialy in one area or may be just because it happends after one hour of gaming, i first noticed this in an ingame scene, then in the game, sometimes the textures don' t load fast, showing first the low res then it goes up to the high quality , the low res shows for one second... is this normal?? i know it was in halo 2 but how about gears of war ?

eddie check your kikizo inbox

I' ve never heard of a massive CPU or GPU failure, but I' ve seen both RAM chips brick themselves with a lengthy game session.

Permanently?

I know when the PS3 over heats it just shuts off but it doesn' t die. If the 360 wasn' t built with a cheap ghetto motherboard and was built by people who understand how to use a soldering gun, the 360 wouldn' t have any issues at high temps. Even if you watercool your 360, it' s still going to be ***ed eventually. I' m just hoping that once they go to 65nm fab and streemline the hardware that it won' t be a piece of shit.

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane

now i' m really starting to freak out, why soemtimes textures in gears of wars pop up like in halo 2, specialy in one area or may be just because it happends after one hour of gaming, i first noticed this in an ingame scene, then in the game, sometimes the textures don' t load fast, showing first the low res then it goes up to the high quality , the low res shows for one second... is this normal?? i know it was in halo 2 but how about gears of war ?

Yes that' s normal. It even does it sometimes in Vegas. For Gears though, Epic wanted the loading times to be as short as possible and so the geometry is loaded before the textures have started streaming properly. It' s not a big deal but it can be slightly off putting.

It could have been avoided by having longer loading times. Fortunately it doesn' t affect the game and everything usually loaded within 4 seconds maximum.

Are you connected to Live? If not, how will you receive game updates to fix bugs and stuff?

Are you connected to Live? If not, how will you receive game updates to fix bugs and stuff?

no i' m not i don' t wanna get my console to get banned until i figure out which is the firmware that will secure me from baning, nothing is 100% tough but if if i connecte with this firmware, there is a high probability i' ll be kicked out... but that' s a big concern you brought here , damn so now the 360 is like Pc , releasing updates after the game is released ... is there any patch released for gears of war?

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane

Are you connected to Live? If not, how will you receive game updates to fix bugs and stuff?

no i' m not i don' t wanna get my console to get banned until i figure out which is the firmware that will secure me from baning, nothing is 100% tough but if if i connecte with this firmware, there is a high probability i' ll be kicked out... but that' s a big concern you brought here , damn so now the 360 is like Pc , releasing updates after the game is released ... is there any patch released for gears of war?

Yes, mostly for multiplayer though. They fixed the ridiculous grenade sticking distance and released a few new maps among some other fixes.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

and was built by people who understand how to use a soldering gun

no need to bring the Indonesian people getting payed $.40 an hour into this

I' ve never heard of a massive CPU or GPU failure, but I' ve seen both RAM chips brick themselves with a lengthy game session.

Permanently?

I know when the PS3 over heats it just shuts off but it doesn' t die. If the 360 wasn' t built with a cheap ghetto motherboard and was built by people who understand how to use a soldering gun, the 360 wouldn' t have any issues at high temps. Even if you watercool your 360, it' s still going to be ***ed eventually. I' m just hoping that once they go to 65nm fab and streemline the hardware that it won' t be a piece of shit.

Yup, deader than Elvis. Anything past 116 & you' re sure to do permanent damage to the guts.

The PS3 is shutting down because it realises that it' s baking itself & it needs to shut off to cool down before the components get thrashed. There' s a similar warning on the 360, but by the time you get this one (it' s two red lights on opposite quadrants I think) you' re 90% of the way to a RROD anyway, so it' s fairly redundant.

Oh yeah, and don' t blame the unskilled Indonesian workers, you can thank the idiots that designed it at Microsoft. If I remember correctly the majority of the soldering is done by machine. The component assembly is where the Indonesians come in, & I' ve never had a component come loose on the 360 before.

http://www.dailytech.com/New+Xbox+360+Cooling+Hardware+Found+in+Europe/article7667.htm

New cooling found in Europe.

Could MS be making an effort?

It is suspected that when the console internals heat up, the connection between the BGA part and the motherboard may disconnect when the PCB warps.

Gives me a smarmy feeling inside that does.

I' m wondering if it' ll be enough without 65nm implementation, but I' m glad they' re at least making a push.

Well its about damn time they did something!

Well heat dosent explain broken 360' s out of the box, or just turned on and the like..

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

Unless they' re selling refurbs as new, no.



It' s not probable, but would it suprise you? Those are most likely units that had faulty manufacturing from the factory. The ratio of out-of-box RRODs to 1-2 hours of gametime RRODs is actually quite miniscule anyway. Duffman is the only guy I know of who it' s occurred to. At least the only guy who I know got one brand new.

" I' m wondering if it' ll be enough without 65nm implementation, but I' m glad they' re at least making a push."

Well the fact that the 65nm fab will promote a cooler 360 probably won' t make a difference in itself. However MS is likely to revise the motherboard layout in order to maximize cost savings, for example using less capacitors since the 360 will use less power. I' m hoping that at the same time they do all of this they replace the cheap motherboard with something that doesn' t melt.

Well the fact that the 65nm fab will promote a cooler 360 won' t make a difference in itself. However MS is likely to revise the motherboard layout in order to maximize cost savings, for example using less capacitors since the 360 will use less power.

Should have elaborated. I meant the whole 65nm switchover. They should put in some faster, quieter 12v fan. Anyway, theoretically, wouldn' t 65nm chips produce less heat because of the fact that there' s less surface area to dissapate heat from. Yeah, they' re still going to be hot as blazes, but it should be better shouldn' t it?

Oh yeah they' ll be much cooler, especially since they won' t be overclocked (being a console). But the 360 is still built with piss poor parts. Always replacing the 360' s must be costing ms money so I have a hard time imagining that they wouldn' t fix the problems. They must have been waiting for the 65nm fab change, I imagine it' s more economical for them to wait instead of redesigning the 360 more times than they need.

As for the noise they already started putting newer DVD drives in (again) that should help.

I' d be very surprised if the new models aren' t much more reliable and less noisy. What I' m really hoping for is a new case design. The 360 is fugly, I' m sick of looking at it. Maybe I should make my own case.

As for the noise they already started putting newer DVD drives in (again) that should help.

Actually, im not sure why or how, but i was in gamestop the other day and i walked by the ps3 on display and it sounded louder than the 360.

Actually, im not sure why or how, but i was in gamestop the other day and i walked by the ps3 on display and it sounded louder than the 360.

may be because you have masterchief as an avatar ?

may be because you have masterchief as an avatar ?

wtf does that have anything to do with a ps3 that was loud as fuck?

I went to gamestop yesterday to get my little brother a birthday present and the guy tried to get me to pre-order Halo 3. I said I' d just walk into wal-mart and midnight and get one like I did with Halo 2.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

gamestop people are like door to door salesmen, they wont take no for an answer. Here recently iv just been telling them that i dont have any new consoles and im just looking for n64 games lol