Sep

How do you fix an Xbox 360 with the red lights of death? Do you have to replace the heat sink or what?

metroidnemesis13 asked:

I have been seriously thinking about getting an Xbox 360, but since they are so much money, I figured I could buy a broken one and fix it on my own (I’ve done this several times by myself with my Xbox, PSP, and PS2). I know that fixing the infamous red lights of death is possible because there are repair services offered…

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Comments

3 Responses to “How do you fix an Xbox 360 with the red lights of death? Do you have to replace the heat sink or what?”

Arminator Says:
September 26th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Normally the Red Light of Death is caused by heat warping the ball grid array below the main processor, so the contacts don’t touch correctly.

This is not an easy repair and definitly not possible just with a heatsink repair.

Furthermore: If you buy a defective Xbox, chances are, its a modified Xbox that has been banned from Xbox Live because of firmware modifications.
JOHN KAISER PHD Says:
September 28th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
depends

if the chips inside r nt yet burned
(happens when the 3Rl appears and u used it again and agian)

then you can still repair it

by scraping the melted glue( due to overheating)

then replacing with a better glue
Mike P Says:
October 1st, 2007 at 2:48 am
Ok, there are 4 combos of red lights you could be talking about.

1 red light = not sure, usually just unplug everything wait 10 mins and plug back in.

2 red lights = Overheating, let cool off for 30 mins to 1 hr then restart.

3 red lights = (General Hardware Failure…call 1-800-4MY-XBOX)

4 red lights = Cable loose in back, shut down and check to see if the cables are firmly connected then restart.

But it sounds like your getting the 3 lights (ring of death)
There is a towel trick where you wrap the 360 in about 4 towels for about 20 minutes (while turned on) which will strengthen the connections and turn the fans on high blowing any dust out. This worked for me, but it is only a temporary fix. It works for about 3 days- a month

Another permanent, though more complicated way, is to actually open it up and fix it. What you would do would be to open the 360 and resolder all of the loose connections with thermal paste, and replace the x shaped washers holding the motherboard to the cpu with circular shaped washers. This will prevent the motherboard from warping due to heat. (this is a major flaw in the 360s yet microsoft still doesnt fix it for some reason.) You can do this by urself or pay someone at a computer store to do it for you.

The last wway you can fix it is by paying $140 to send it in to microsoft and fix it, but i would try the first two ways first, and if they dont work you can do this and it’s still cheaper than buying a new xbox

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