360 Repair Guide

8/20/2019 360 Repair Guide

1/113

XBOX 360 REPAIR GUIDE

Hi,

My name is Luke and I have put together this guide to help you fix your Xbox as cheap as possible. I have

fixed many Xbox consoles including the elite version which Microsoft claimed they have fixed. I have

tried to keep it simple for you. I charge people £40 for doing this to their Xbox. My record is under an

hour. This should take you longer if you’re doing it right.

This large guide will walk you through taking apart the unit and fixing the ROD issue.

Parts Needed

Electrical Tape

Bubble Wrap

Silver Foil/Kitchen Foil

Unusable Credit Card or SimilarArctic Silver 5 Heatsink Compound

8 x 12mm M5 screws/bolts

50 x 1mm M5 metal washers

Drill + Drill bit for M5 Screws to Fit in

Heatgun (Paint stripper)

Angle Grinder or Dremil Multi Tool – Something to file off some metal legs/standoffs

One of either Nail Polish Remover or Meth Spirits or Alcohol or Isopropyl

Scissors

Sandpaper (any type)

Q tips/Ear Buds (approx 20-30)

Pin of some kind.

Torx T8 driver

Torx T10 driver

How to get the Secondary error code

The E-code only shows up if you get 1 red light, otherwise there is no video output and you cant see

it(for 2, 3 and 4 red lights)...(in rare cases it doesn't even show up if you get 1 red light, proceed with the

secondary error code then)

The specific type of hardware failure can be determined by a "hidden" error code

* Turn the Xbox 360 on, and wait till the 3 red lights are flashing.

* Press and hold the sync up button (the small white one), while holding that button press the eject

button.


2/113

* The LED's will now blink the first number in the code (as described below).

* Release the eject button and press it again.

* The LED's will now blink the second number of the code.


* The LED's will now blink the third number of the code.


* The LED's will now blink the forth number of the code.


* The LED's will go back to the 3 red flashing lights.

You should be able to determine the difference between the 3 flashing lights and the error code lights

by the rate in which they flash.

Here is how you interpret the LED's to get the code number:

* All four lights flashing - 0

* One light flashing - 1

* Two Lights flashing - 2

* Three lights flashing - 3

You will for example get an error code like 0102 if you get 4 lights after the first click, 1 after the second,

4 after the third and 2 after the fourth click of the eject button...

How to take apart the Xbox


3/113

At first remove the faceplate, pull it towards you and carefully remove.


4/113

2) After that you have to remove the grey covers on top and bottom.

Each of them has 6 clips which you do first have to loosen with the help of a thin screwdriver, a

toothpick or something similar that fits through the holes.

Once a clip is loose you pull the cover up a bit to prevent it from snapping back in...

Some clips are pretty annoying just move the cover around a bit until they finally get loose as well...


5/113


6/113


7/113


8/113


9/113


10/113


11/113


12/113


13/113

3) Then you will have to loosen the clips on the back of the 360 be the ventilation holes, hold the 360

like shown on the picture.

Then stick a pin in each hole like shown on the pictures and slightly pull out to prevent the loose clip to

snap back in and sorry for the roughness of this Xbox as it is a crappy demo one.


14/113


15/113


16/113

4) Once you are done with that, loosen the remaining clips at the front, then lift the upper part of the

case up.


17/113


18/113


19/113


20/113


21/113


22/113

Only the ones circled in blue unscrew as indicated above.


23/113

All unscrewed (red and blue)

6) Remove the Eject-button and then lift the white case.


24/113


25/113

That’s what it should look like (at least similar to this, there are a lot of different versions...)


26/113

7) Then unplug either only the SATA (shown below) cable [blue](if you want to flash your drive) or

unplug both if you are disassembling it completely

Then carefully remove the DVD-drive by removing it upwards.


27/113


28/113

8) Afterwards, remove the fan-shroud by pulling it up; there is a clip that fastens it in the fan.


29/113


30/113


31/113


32/113


33/113


34/113


35/113


36/113


37/113

10) Now unclip the little white faceplate and remember the arrows are facing up for when you put it

back on later, unscrew the ROL board and unplug it out as well as shown below.


38/113


39/113


40/113


41/113


42/113

11) If you unscrewed all screws (red and blue), you can now remove motherboard out of the case.

Do it like shown on the pictures that is the easiest way.


43/113


44/113

12) Last but not least, unplug the last cables(SATA and power for the DVD).


45/113

Preparing the case

This "luke almighty fix” addresses many design flaws that still plague the Xbox 360 and keep giving

people the "red rings of death". For one thing we wanted the motherboard to rest on a perfectly flat

surface, which is impossible without a little case modification. Another issue was to advance themethods of applying even pressure to the CPU and GPU from both above and below the motherboard.

Yet another goal was to find some way to stabilize or reinforce the motherboard to finally stop any

flexing from occurring. As a bit of an unexpected bonus, this fix also helps your system run much cooler

as the whole metal chassis acts like a giant heatsink.

First you must do a little prep work before putting the motherboard back in. The two rounded screw


46/113

standoffs are a bit higher than the outer lip that the motherboard rests on. The outer lip is 3mm tall, so

each of these standoffs need to be 3mm as well, or else the motherboard will be flexing no matter what

x-clamp replacement method you choose. Please Note... this mostly pertains to units built before 2007.

We have found some 2007 metal chassis that Microsoft updated, as well as most Elite units seem to

have the fixed chassis as well (There are different versions of the metal chassis, so please check yours

yourself before you go sanding things down.

Sanding the stand-offs

You can stack 3 flat metal washers next to the standoffs to see they are taller than 3mm.


47/113

Now stack 4 washers on the inner area of the metal chassis near the x-forms in the middle rectangle

area, and 3 washers on the outer part to see how they are nearly level. Actual difference is estimated to

be .75mm.

So for everything to sit perfectly flat, you need 3mm tall standoffs and 3.75mm between metal chassis

and the motherboard where the screws are.


48/113

Next you will need to sand down those 2 taller standoffs until they are level with 3 flat washers.


49/113

You can sand it by hand, but might want to use something like a small piece of plexiglass or something

else flat to help sand it to a nice flat surface.


50/113

if you have some sort of sanding tool that can sand flat surfaces this can save some time.


51/113


52/113

This is what the two stand-offs should look like when you are done..


53/113


54/113

Then recheck the height and it should be exactly 3mm which is the height of a stack of 3 washers. It is a

good idea to check the thickness of your own washers as some cheap ones are not deburred properly

and can give the incorrect thickness. Also nylon washers are not really recommended as they can

become brittle over time and also do not stand up to the pressure as well as steel washers.

Drilling the screw holes:


55/113

Now get a metal drill bit with a diameter of 5mm. You can also use a "unibit" step drill bit that can drill

through metal and deburr the holes at the same time.


56/113

And drill the holes and be careful to not apply too much pressure so you don't deform the chassis when

drilling.


57/113

After drilling it should look like that...


58/113

If you take a look on the inside of the metal case you will find stuff that looks like that if a common bit

was used.


59/113

Take the sandpaper again and sand all the chippings away until it is perfectly flat like on this picture.


60/113

Now you are done with the preparation of the case. Congrats


61/113

Turn around the case and insert the 8 screws/bolts whatever you have. If the panhead screws were

used, please add one spring washer to each between the chassis and the screw. This is so the x-form

part of the chassis does not get in the way. The spring washers are not needed with the tapered flat

headed screws.


62/113

Should look like that.


63/113

Then take the tape,


64/113

and fasten the screws with it like that.


65/113

Turn the case around and add 4 x 1mm washers on each bolt/screw – total amount used in this process

should be 32 washers.

Preparing the mainboard

At first you have to disassemble your mainboard like described in this tutorial

After that you should have nothing but the plain mainboard which will look similar to the one on the

picture(there are many different versions)


66/113

Now turn the mainboard to the back side, you should see two big clamps that look like 2 big X, these are

the so called X-Clamps.


67/113

These X-Clamps are used to mount the heatsinks on the mainboard, unfortunately they are flexing the

mainboard meanwhile.

Because the flexing the solder balls are under extreme stress which causes them to crack while cooling

down after turning the 360 off.

Sooner or later this results in a cold solder joint or even a bridged solder joint(short) under one of the

chips which can cause the ROD...

Now take the screwdriver and place it in the hole of the X-Clamp that takes the bolt under pressure and

carefully lift the first leg of the X-Clamp up(be careful or you might scratch the mainboard!).


68/113


69/113

After removing the heatsinks it should look like that.


70/113


71/113

Now use a wrench to unscrew the old bolts since you will replace them with the machine screws later.


72/113

Then you gently scrape off most of the old thermal compound with the phone/creditcard(dont use a

knife it will scratch the heatsink).


73/113


74/113


75/113

You wont be able to scrape everything off with the phone/credit card so get some alcohol and clean the

heatsink from the rest(if something really doesnt get off you can also use some extremely fine sand

paper).


76/113


77/113

Do the same for the CPU heatsink until both look like that:


78/113

Now cut a piece out of your phone/credit card and remove as much thermal compound as you can from

the chip dies.


79/113


80/113

After that remove the rest with alcohol and Q-tips until you can mirror yourself in the chip dies


81/113


82/113

Once you have cleaned it to a mirror finish

Fixing the Rod

Reflowing the GPU and CPU with Ram

Be aware, using a heatgun is extremely risky being so close to the motherboard. As it will definitely start

smoking straight away if you don’t isolate it properly, most people will have noticed that already.

Reflowing - The following chapters describes the process for fixing and further prevention of

“microcracks” on the solder balls which join the GPU and the CPU to the mainboard.


83/113

This is the bubble wrap I used. Any bubble wrap will do really.


84/113

Cut out a hole for the CPU and GPU.


85/113

So that it looks like that


86/113

Fix the bubble wrap with electrical tape ensuring you close everything so that no air can come through...


87/113

Same procedure for the other side, cut and fix with tape


88/113

Use some electrical tape to fix the rest on the backside; don’t put any foil over the holes of the screwsthough because it will melt.


89/113

Cover everything with aluminum foil making sure that there are no holes again and secure down withelectrical tape.

!!READ ALL THIS SECTION BEFORE RELOW!!

Get your heatgun and use it on the lowest setting to warm it through for 1 minute from a distance of

approximately 20 cm. The electrical tape will start to show where you missed as it is warming up. Keep a

close eye on the tape; if you notice a gap/hole just pad it down with a flathead screwdriver or something

flat so it doesn’t melt your skin from a distance whilst warming up the board from a distance. Now

move in as close to the chips as possible without touching the chips with the gun. Never keep it at the

same spot, move it over the whole area in circles. Heatgun it for around 3 minutes up close and

personal. Don’t forget to keep an eye on that tape. You will get a little bit of smoke coming from the

board (don’t worry the smoke is generated from the bubble wrap melting a little bit)

This is now fixing the ‘microcracks’ in the solder balls which join the chips to the board. Also make sure

that you never move the board or accidently hit the table while you are ‘reflowing’ it because this might

mess it up completely and cause the balls to move out of place


90/113

Let it cool down for at least 45 minutes and after that carefully remove the aluminum foil and the rest of

the isolation. You will see that the plastic melted but the most important components are still covered

(like the big caps). If you still got time, turn the mainboard around and heatgun it from the other side as

well (that’s what I always do) but the first time should have been enough already. On the backside you

won’t have to isolate anything as there isn’t anything that melts at low temps just watch out for the

plastic parts (you shouldn’t be anywhere near them while heatgunning though because it is not the area

that you want to reflow...)

You could put it back together if you wanted to back to stock/factory defaults without the ‘X-clamp fix’

and it will work but, I recommend you do the ‘X-camp fix’ to prevent the “microcracks” happening again


91/113


92/113

This is a little example of what happens if you dont isolate it properly...On the right side I only used aluminium foil, the big caps that the arrays point at melted at the bottom

and the top is burned and raised a bit. If I wouldnt have stopped when they started smoking I bet they

would have blown up

Now you are done, congrats on that!

Apply thermal compound of the size of a rice grain on each die(half a rice grain for the small die)

If you also want to cool the RAM next to the GPU heatsink apply some thermal compound and install a

metal washer(1mm thick) on each.


93/113


94/113


95/113

Now get the credit card and cut out 7 strips.


96/113

Then fasten them with glue or thermal compound on the sides of the chips like this, make sure they are

not touching any resistors on the chips (little tiny chips). You will still have to cut the strips to the

perfect length.


97/113


98/113

When you are done take the perfectly clean GPU heatsink and press it onto the GPU and the CPU.


99/113

Take the heatsink off again and check if there is residue of thermal compound and make sure that it is a

square for each chip die, at least the center ones. If it isn't take the credit card pieces for this one of and

fasten them on a strip of electric tape like that.


100/113

Then sand it down quite a bit and when you think it is thin enough stop and retry if you get a good

imprint of thermal compound.

This step is very important because this is how you can check if the heatsink is taking the center chip die

properly under pressure if there is not a complete square it doesn't make contact which is fatal for the

fix.

In 90% of the cases you have to sand the credit card stripes down, at least for the GPU...

When you are done, it should take the outer part of the chip under the same equal pressure like the

center die, be very accurate, this step is very important for the long term success of the fix.


101/113

This is a good imprint of thermal compound!


102/113

After that apply thermal compound on the RAM and stick a washer on each.

Now you have to go on with the case again...

Installing the mainboard


103/113

Now take the mainboard and carefully insert it into the case. Do it very slowly and once it is in the case

keep it in horizontal position, watching out for the screws...


104/113

This is what it is supposed to look like when you are done, once the screws fit you might still have to

move the mainboard around slightly so that the 2 plastic pins fit properly(one is under the memory

ports the other under the USB ports).


105/113

When it sits properly add two additional metal washers (1mm) for each screw, in total 16(8x2 washers)


106/113

Then stand up on its side, watch out that you don't overdo it or the washers will fall off...


107/113

Then screw the screws in a bit one by one, only like two turns for each until all 4 are in...


108/113

Screw them in with your fingers only at first, as you don't want to tighten it up completely yet. You only

want the heatsink to be fast enough so that it doesn't fall off while screwing the other heatsink in, DONT

USE THE SCREWDRIVER YET!!!


109/113

Then put it back in vertical stand, double check that all washers are still in place and put the heatsink on.


110/113

Now tighten the screws again with your fingers only, just like before and screw the mainboard to the

chassie first with the other screws you took out when taking apart the xbox. Red ones (obvioussly

forgetting the middle bit) below


111/113


112/113

Then tighten all screw/bolts up to the maximum with a screwdriver. When it is snug, loosen each screw

by half a turn again as this is necessary because you might still get the error. So if you've tightened the

screws and still have the ROD, loosen the screws slightly until it goes away. If it is too tight it often still

shows the certain hardware error...


113/113

Put your xbox back together and that's it if you did everything right. Your xbox should now be fixed. Ifyou should still have issues try different adjusting the tightness for the screws, as always you must find

the perfect screw setup since every xbox differs slightly.

If this still doesn't fix it you might have to heatgun the unit. Also make sure that you have checked that

your secondary error code can be fixed with the x clamp fix as this can save you a lot of time

Documents

360 Repair Guide