[mdosu]

Any easy and fast solutions to fix this?

Background:
My 360 was the old "Core" version with the Zepher motherboard. It was the holiday bundle back in October 2007. So I thought I was able to dodge the initial batch of consoles that overheated constantly.

So after 4 years of playing, i finally got the 2 rings overheating issue. I read a few tutorials online, and I decided there's no way I'm doing the heat glue stuff or the X Clamp stuff. (I just dont' have the time and patience to do this)

I figure I might as well try this:

1. open it up and clean the dust off
2. but if that doesn't work, should I just do it the ghetto way and just play it with an open case? A few people have resorted to that method...

what did you guys do?

[KGB7]

A can of air should be enough to get all the dust out.

If you never taken xbox 360 apart, its a bicth and a half.

You can also get this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112196

[mdosu]

have you been successful in simply clearing the dust and then everything is back to normal?

[WWONG]

2 rings > 3 rings

[KGB7]

Originally Posted by mdosu

have you been successful in simply clearing the dust and then everything is back to normal?

Nope.

[tHegeRm]

Take it to your local Asian owned game stop like place and they will fix it for you with a slight warranty.

[KGB7]

Originally Posted by tHegeRm

Take it to your local Asian owned game stop like place and they will fix it for you with a slight warranty.

Yup, us white people have no idea what we are doing.

[tHegeRm]

Originally Posted by KGB7

Yup, us white people have no idea what we are doing.

Actually most people don't have the soldering equipment needed for the repair, and saying Game Place which is a California chain will be of no help, was trying to differentiate between the chains and locally owned shops.

[dwells]

Overheating has nothing to do with the soldering - soldering is necessary when the components pop off the board due to the brittle solder, yielding one red light and an error message or the three red lights.

OP, you can try dusting it with an air duster externally, but I really recommend cracking the thing open. It'll take you maybe five minutes if you've never done it before, and all of thirty seconds if you order the tool to pop out the rear tabs. You'll also need a Torx 10 screwdriver to detach the top of the case from the metal chassis. It's all pretty simple.

That being said, if you're going to do all that, you might as well do it properly. Use a Torx 8 screwdriver as well and remove the x-clamps. Clean the CPU and GPU off with 95% or higher isopropyl alcohol. Apply an appropriate amount of replacement thermal compound (Arctic Ceramique is easy to use and non-conductive, good paste to learn with) onto the dies, then mount the heatsinks back with a replacement bolt and washer setup. It's about a thirty minute job start to finish and will drastically drop the temperatures on both the CPU and GPU while greatly reducing the chances of the three red lights occurring in the future.

It's seriously quite easy and far more of a mechanical job than an electrical job - just disassembly and reassembly, no technical skills required.

EDIT: Just saw the comment about running the system with the top off. In my experience with one of my Xenon consoles, the system actually runs hotter with the case open. I guess the air doesn't dissipate as effectively.

[KGB7]

Originally Posted by tHegeRm

Actually most people don't have the soldering equipment needed for the repair, and saying Game Place which is a California chain will be of no help, was trying to differentiate between the chains and locally owned shops.

And once again. We, the white people dont own locally owned shops and have no idea how to use a soldering equipment.

FYI. Every race has people who dont know how to do something. I have many Asian friends, and many of them dont know how to do a lot of the things that i can do.

[mdosu]

i found a guy locally on Craigslist who fixes xbox360 issues. he also does the PS3 yellow light fix too.

He's charging me $40 with a warranty. He said 2 lights is tricky vs the RROD fix is pretty straight forward.

We'll see...if he can't fix it, he said there's no charge.

[tHegeRm]

Originally Posted by KGB7

And once again. We, the white people dont own locally owned shops and have no idea how to use a soldering equipment.

Well they certainly don't in SoCal. Maybe you should move here and open one.

[Keik E92 M3]

Originally Posted by mdosu

i found a guy locally on Craigslist who fixes xbox360 issues. he also does the PS3 yellow light fix too.

He's charging me $40 with a warranty. He said 2 lights is tricky vs the RROD fix is pretty straight forward.

We'll see...if he can't fix it, he said there's no charge.

Don't believe that, I fix them as well 2 Lights is super easy. 2 lights just mean your CPU is overheating.. Either from dust backed on on your CPU heatsink or you need new compound, worse case is your just need to reflow your CPU with a heat gun.

[Toker335i]

2 red rings is actually easier to fix than 3 lol..

sometimes 2 red rings doesn't even require a reflow, just x-clamp fix with thermal paste..

3 red rings is almost always a GPU reflow.. not CPU

i've opened up hundreds of these, its really not hard, very easy to fix as well