red ring of death

[Mike_Hawk]

Keep your xbox clean. I just got RROD. i looked in the little vents and it was full of dust.

[011191]

Originally Posted by Ragnarok

My only concern is we know that the x-clamps are not very good for the long term

You, my friend, could not be more wrong.

The fans arent good for the long term (they just cover the cancer with a band-aid) The only thing a better fan will do is slow down the RROD process.

The X-Clamps arent a way to "prevent" RROD, it is a FIX, a CURE.

Read this carefully. I had RROD, i did the X-Clamp fix, no more RROD.

I am not the only one, THOUSANDS of people have done the same thing.

Now, try that with your fans. Get RROD, add a few fans...big woop, you still have RROD, but now its coooler.

I agree that cooling the xbox is VERY IMPORTANT, but doing the X-Clamp fix is VITAL.

Remember this equation
X-clamps = RROD
X-Clamps + fan = slower RROD

Simply put, the X-Clamps unevenly distribute the force on the motherboard, causing it to warp. Heat makes the motherboard warp more (in other words, it is a catalyst, it makes the RROD process that much faster)

EDIT: When you do the X-Clamp fix, while you are putting the screws in the heatsink to clamp it down on the motherboard, to put even pressure you follow a easy rule. (Torque star pattern)

Lets say your screws are

1 2

3 4

You tighten #1 using only 2 fingers(appyling almost no pressure) until your fingers slip off(this is good)
You repeat that step on screw #4, the #3 then #2.

After that, you use a bit three fingers (applying some pressure) until your figners slip off (follow same order, 1,4,3,2)

Then, you tighten a quarter of a turn each (1,4,3,2)

You repeat the last step until you feel it is tight enough. (solid tight, but not so tight as to strip the threads and the inside of the screws)

Test the Xbox, most of the times it will work. If it doesnt work, do a combination of tightening(quarter of a turn) + overheating

[Ragnarok]

Originally Posted by 011191

You, my friend, could not be more wrong.



The X-Clamps arent a way to "prevent" RROD, it is a FIX, a CURE.

I think we have a major misunderstanding here. The x-clamps's are MS's original heatsink retention( they do not last very long, not good in the long run like i said). The x-clamp fix, ie bolt's the replacement. But I think you answered my question. Thank you

I was debating weather to replace the x-clamps with bolts before it goes faulty or to wait untill it inevitably does. It seemed sensible thing to consider seeing as i was going to open it up anyway. It's much better prevent the problem than cure it. From personal soldering experience, reheating solder and letting it run or move is bad practice( which is what your effectively doing when repairing the RROD) . it's much better to remove the old solder and start over and heat up the fresh solder only once.

I see your point though, reading around it seems even if your fixing the rrod even if it's done badly replacing the x-clamps still lasts longer than overheating the GPU alone with the original x-clamps in place.

I just don't don't want to do them up too tight and have the board warp the opposite way to the way the x-clamps do by putting far too much pressure on the GPU ( which is arguably a bigger problem than the x-clamps!!!) if you catch my drift.
It happens on many PC motherboards. The x-clamps try to prevent it but just arn't good enough to do both jobs at the same time!!

[011191]

Oh, shiit man, my bad, i miss read.

I thought you had said the X-Clamp fix was a baaad idea.

it is a MUCH better idea to replace the X-Clamps as soon as you can, but when you overheat the console, your solder never enters the liquid state, it only becomes softer(so you can quickly tighten the screws, to crush a connection) It isnt the best solution ever, but it is the best one for the moment.

If you try to reflow the solder, i will wish you good luck. Because, you will need it.

When you replace the X-Clamps, you put bolts and washers, the washers' point is to replace the space between the case, the processor and the heatsink (to prevent the flexing of the motherboard) so even if you tighten REALLY hard, the additional stress will squish the washers and won't bend the motherboard (which will just RROD faster, if you did bend it)

Id recommend you do the X-Clamp fix(but do alot of research on it, until your comfortable)

Here's a link where alot of normal people did the fix. See the results yourself

The "official" X-clamp Replacement Success Thread - Scenyx Entertainment Community

[Mooyman]

The problem is the X-clamps and the heat sinks.

It dates back to the early days when Microsoft was in a rush to be the next generation system. In their design stage they ran into a problem: the DVD drive would not fit on the motherboard. So what did they do to make room? They shrunk the heat sinks.

These heat sinks are supposed to keep the GPU and CPU cool. Since Microsoft shrunk them, it no longer does this well. And since we all know how light on the R&D department Microsoft is, this problem slipped by un-noticed until millions of people started getting this problem.

So what is happening? Well as the motherboard heats up, the GPU and CPU get hot. The thermal paste hardens on the chips and the solder points become more brittle. The motherboard then flexs against the X-clamps and this creates a rattling effect.

So the CPU and GPU are more brittle and the rattling makes them come loose. Once they do, voila, the red ring of death.

Fixing it involves removing the X-clamps (as has been mentioned) and adjusting how the heat sinks sit on the CPU and GPU to allow maximum heat dissipation.

This Xbox 360 repair guide site has information on this, and other Xbox 360 problems if you need more information.

[011191]

The heatsinks themselves are just fine.

I'll admit, they are small, but they work fine. The real problem is X-Clamps.

Ill give you 2 situations.

First situation, bigger heatsinks. All that is fine and dandy, but because of heat(there will be heat) you will have thermal contraction and dilution, since the X-Clamps are weak and pliable, they will create uneven pressure, bend the motherboard and stress the solder balls until they break.

Second situation, no more X-Clamps. No bending, no stress, no problem.

Don't muddy the water by saying the heatsinks are a cause of the problem, they, like unefficient cooling(which they are part of) are simply a catalyst.