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Heatgunning your Xbox 360 "Blu Tack" Method

Edited Version by Braveheart43 – Original tutorial By Gnagus – 

So you’ve got RROD or your Box is freezing or you’ve lost your picturealtogether – You’ve tried the X-clamp fix! You have altered thetightness of your heat-sink bolts till you’re blue in the face! Andsomeone has mentioned the words Heat & Gun – you’ve started topanic! I don’t blame you! I know I did!You don’t want to completely trash your favourite toy! Nor did I! So after much research and worry I gave it a try!Here’s the result – This is actually a rehashed version of a tutorial byGnagus who also credited Wilhelm_I & Zoneout. I have borrowed hisPhotos and some from other sources as well – I do NOT in any wayclaim any credit for this Tutorial – I have merely tidied it up and takenout any Americanisms.

To do this, you'll need- To disassemble you Xbox fully (including removing heat-sinks):- A heat gun (preferably variable temp! Mine is 50°C-600°C)- Some Oven Bags (you know, the ones you can cook a chicken in!) i.e.they won’t melt- Some thick aluminium kitchen foil (turkey stuff is great)- Some Blu tack! – It doesn’t go very far so buy 2 or 3 packs (it’s only aquid or so!)

Fig. 1 - Our hero of the day: Yes Blu Tack!

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The Blu tack is great stuff – not only is it easy to mould, but it’s also agreat insulator!- It will be used to "seal off" the portion of the board we want to heatup, to prevent hot air from reaching the fragile components

- Acts as an insulation layer for the capacitors- Since it's sticky, it provides a good way to fasten the oven bags andkitchen foil to the board.

STEP 1: Protect the capacitors and other fragile components using theBlu tack.Since we want to ensure that the capacitors don't blow up because of excessive heat, apply a generous quantity of Blu Tack to all the

components that are near where you'll be heat gunning.Take extra care to seal off the base of the capacitors, so that no aircan come through.The Blu Tack is sticky, but it's also quite hard when cold - be carefulnot to bend or break caps when you apply it, and don't worry; it’s pretty easy to remove afterwards.

Fig. 2 - Protect the capacitors with Blu Tack.

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STEP 2: Seal off the rest of the motherboard using small amounts of Blu Tack.Roll out the Blu Tack into “snakes!” to completely isolate theportion of the board we'll be heating from the rest.

Fig. 3 - Make small "snakes"!

Apply them to the board to seal off the area you are going to heat gun!(See figure 4 below)

Fig. 4 - Apply "snakes" following the red line to seal off the board.

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 STEP 3: Apply Oven bags.In the photo below the guy used thick plastic sheeting doubled over – Iuse oven bags, as they are bags they are essentially double layers!

Push the bags/sheets into the Blu Tack to get them to stick and sealoff the area!

Fig. 5 - Board is sealed using oven bags/plastic sheet and Blu Tack.

STEP 4: Apply Kitchen FoilFinally, we'll apply some aluminium foil. Again push the foil into theBlu Tack to stick it in place! This resists heat very well, and, combinedwith the Oven bags and Blu Tack, will ensure that our precious caps donot explode! And plastic connectors don’t m 

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Fig. 6 - Bring on the HEAT!

STEP 5: Gun it!!You are now ready to apply the heat gun method to your board. Place

the board on a flat surface, like a table. MAKE SURE THAT your surfaceis STABLE!Once the board is hot, the solders will be quite soft and easy to wreck;Surface MUST not move - otherwise you'll probably irreversibly damageyour Xbox.

Start your heat gun on LOW (on my gun that was 80-120ºC) and heat upyour board for about 1 minute, applying circular movements to heat upevenly and

Slowly. I set the heat gun about 6 inches from the board.After that, set your heat gun to HIGH (my gun: 600º C) and keep onmaking fast, circles for another 4 minutes (DO NOT STOP MOVING THEGUN). After that, turn the gun back to low, and gradually lower theboard's temperature by applying less and less heat. Keep on heatingthe board for 1-2 minutes while progressively raising the heat gun fromthe board to do so.

NOTE: Not all heat guns are the same - you might need to adjustand/or experiment depending on the power of your gun.You're done! Don't touch anything! Don't touch the table! Don't let kittyor your kids approach the table! Let the setup cool down for 45minutes.

Once you let it cool – Turn the board over and Heat gun the reverseusing the same sort of timings as before – Concentrate below the areathat you worked on above i.e. below GPU CPU and RAM and Scalarchips

ONCE AGAIN – DO NOT TOUCH OR MOVE THE BOARD – LET IT COOL!

STEP 6: The AftermathRemove the aluminium foil, and carefully remove the Blu Tack fromthe board. It's not that sticky so you should not have any troubleremoving it; just be careful not to damage the capacitors while doingso.Before reassembling the whole kit, try it to see if it turns on! :Minimally, you need to:

Put back some decent thermal compound,

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Re-assemble the heat-sinks (Apply your X-Clamp fix of choice!)Put the fan and plastic shroud back in (plug in the fan!)Put the Wireless / on-off switch back onPlug in the DVD-ROM wires

Plug in the powerHope for the best!

Enjoy! Feel free to copy this tutorial, and feel free to contact me inthe http:// 360mods.net forums

Credits:Wilhelm_I, Zoneout & Gnagus