Xbox 360 RROD

[tz101]

Found a complete 360 setup at GW over the weekend priced at $30. It was half off day, so I could have snagged it for $15.

First thing I did was haul it back to the TV aisle and hook it up for a test. No game to try, but I could at least see if it powered on and gave me the bootup screen. Unfortunately, it had blinking red ring of death disease.

Is there a fix, or is it basically toast. If the fix is reasonable, I may go back and pick it up.

[Guntz]

Yes it can be fixed, takes some decent skill though. It's easy to screw up. Google is your friend...

[MEGADRIVE Jeroi]

I love Guntz, he makes people to fade from forums

[GohanX]

Honestly? You can pick up working 360's for not much more than that these days. It may be as simple as taking it apart, cleaning the useless thermal paste and applying some arctic silver. Then again, it might not be, and you'll have to spend more cash to get it working than you would have spend on a known working unit.

That being said, for $15 I'd probably pick it up just for parts if the exterior was in good shape.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

If you do pick it up you can always try calling Microsoft and see if they will fix it for you. If you throw a fit about it they might ignore it being out of warrantly (assuming it is out of warranty), and fix it for free.

[Guntz]

I love Guntz, he makes people to fade from forums

What?

[EclecticGroove]

The RROD is "fixable" but the main problem is that you may or may not have fixed it before it did permanent damage to components.
For that cheap it might be worth it, but cracking it open, doing the work (with any parts you needed to get) only to find out it's still dead afterwards would be a bit of a pain to say the least.

[AD2101]

Found a complete 360 setup at GW over the weekend priced at $30. It was half off day, so I could have snagged it for $15.

First thing I did was haul it back to the TV aisle and hook it up for a test. No game to try, but I could at least see if it powered on and gave me the bootup screen. Unfortunately, it had blinking red ring of death disease.

Is there a fix, or is it basically toast. If the fix is reasonable, I may go back and pick it up.

I may catch some flack for this, but get yourself one of these and watch/buy the $9 worth of parts from this and call it a day (Don't forget the thermal paste). I've gotten a year of heavy duty use out of my RROD'd Xenon 360 after applying this fix and she's still going strong, and there's no air conditioning in the house where the 360 is at either. Obviously your mileage may vary but I think proper maintenance and ventilation when you get these things up and running again is just as crucial to any fix as the fix itself. I've also fixed a few more of these for friends using this method, with only one that has failed in the past year.

If you can find someone on craigslist in your area that can do an affordable reball, that's your best bet, but I've really found that the x-clamp fix isn't the shitty fix that some make it out to be.

[gamevet]

I once thought I had the RROD caused by the heat-sink failure and shipped off my Elite a couple of years ago. I got another 360 and still ended up with a RROD. I found out there was nothing wrong with the 360 I'd sent in and that it was a bad power supply. You can check to see if this is the case with the 360 you're looking at, by watching the color of the power supply light, as you power it on. I believe it will turn green with the normal RROD, but will stay amber, if the power supply is bad.

[Lastcallhall]

Does the RROD come on as soon as you power the console on? If so, there's a 4 digit sub code you need to get to find out what the problem is. To do this, you have to hold in the sync button as the RROD is flashing, and as you hold it in, press the DVD eject button 4 times - this will give you the sub code. 4 lights stands for 0, all other light combos are what they are (e.g., 1 light = 1, 2 lights = 2, and 3 lights = 3). Once you have this, you can look up the sub code online. I have a site favorited at home; I'll post it when I'm out from class.

All that said, you probably want to hit it with a heat gun to reflow the solder, and perform the x-clamp fix. I have about 5-6 systems on hand that I fixed using these methods. So far, I've stress tested them each for 3 hours or so, and none of them give me a RROD. You just have to be patient; they can be moody bitches when it comes to fixing them.

Good luck.


LINK: http://xbox-experts.com/errorcode/E02/0002/

[AD2101]

I thought that whenever the console shows 3 red rings you could find the hidden error codes, it's not dependent on whether or not the console immediately shows red rings. Here is the site I use to look up secondary error codes, and honestly I think the whole thing is a little useless. Microsoft never officially stated what, if anything, these codes actually mean, and outside of a few codes (0102), I don't think they are really accurate to a point where I feel confident in their validity.

One thing I will suggest is that you do this on the cheap. 360 Slims can be had for less than $200, and these old systems are built so poorly I'd be hesitant to really put much money into one, especially if you don't need to and if you're not very confident you can get the thing to turn back on. Like Lastcallhall said, heat guns are preferred but I usually do mine without, as I feel less confident using the heat gun than I am with other methods. Also, take off the faceplate and see if the warranty seal is still intact. If it isn't, there is a good chance someone already x-clamped it, or ruined it in the process and donated it. That's your worst case scenario there.