XBOX 360 - Three Red Lights of Death Repair Manual

XBOX 360 Three Red Lights of
Death Repair Manual
Contents
1. Reasons why this works
2. Getting prepared
3. Opening the case
4. Removing the motherboard
5. Removing and preparing the heat sinks
6. Fixing the heat sinks
7. Check point 1!
8. Check point 2!
9. Other tips and tricks
Reasons why this works.

When Microsoft designed the 360, they chose a slightly unusual way of mounting the
heat sinks to the processors. When the console is running, there is a tremendous
amount of heat build up inside the case. This causes the motherboard to flex against the
X-Clamp support plastic (see picture 1) which in turn can cause the soldered joints on
the processors to come away from the motherboard itself. This results in the Red Lights
of Death.
Due to the inefficient design of the heat sink clamping method, this is a very large
problem. Although Microsoft havent (as of yet) come up with a decent design fix. On the
latest Elite versions of the console they have used epoxy resin to glue the corners of
the processors down to stop the flexing that causes this error (see picture 2). Whether
their fix will stand the test of time remains to be seen.
What the modification contained in this manual achieves is to alleviate board flexing and
apply uniform pressure to the processors. This uniform pressure is enough to remake
the faulty joints resulting in a working console. Also, because the pressure on the
processors is uniform the heat sinks do a much better job of dissipating the heat build
up.
Getting prepared
To perform this modification, you require some tools and some specific screws and
washers. If you have purchased this document as part of the repair kit, you will have
everything you need to perform this modification.
Item
T8 Torx Screwdriver
T10 Torx Screwdriver
5mm Flat washers (B&Q avf-064968)
5mm x0.8x10 machine screws (B&Q avf-069918)
Arctic Silver Thermal Compound
Thin Terminal Screwdriver
Wooden Skewer or similar (must be THIN)
Qty Req
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Cost Each
3.00
3.00
1.30
1.30
4.50
1.00
0.50
Total
6.00
9.00
10.30
11.60
16.10
17.10
17.60
Prices are for guidance only. Your mileage may vary you can purchase sets of Torx
screwdrivers for about 10.00. Do not substitute the screws/washers with a different
brand or size. The size of these is crucial for the modification to work as intended.
Opening the case
Firstly, remove the front face plate from your Xbox: Take a look at the front of the Xbox
360 and insert your thumb into the door that covers the two USB ports on the right of the
unit. With your other hand squeezing the upper and lower sides of the face plate, pull out
the face plate with your thumb. With not much effort, the face plate should come away
from the unit with ease. I wouldnt force it however if it doesnt want to come off easily it
will be catching on something. You dont want a trashed console case after all your
efforts.
After the face plate has been pulled off you will see a silver Microsoft sticker covering
both halve of the case; remove this goodbye warranty! There are four clips locking the
top half of the case to the bottom half. Do not attempt to wedge the clips out at this point,
we need to remove both grey plastic endplates first.
With care, gently bend outwards, the right grey ventilation shield on the right side of the
unit so that you can see a bit inside. You will notice that the grey side piece attaches to
both the bottom and top white chassis. Look through the holes on top of the unit to
locate the areas where the grey side pieces attaches to the white housing. What you
need to do is take the thin skewer and push down, through the white holes (located on
both the top and bottom of the Xbox 360) where the clips of the grey side pieces
connect. Slowly pull out the grey pieces away from the unit while unlocking the clips and
eventually it will release itself. You will find that once the first couple of clips are released
the rest come away quite easily. You dont have to use a wooden skewer for this. If you
have a metal rod (or the inside of a BIC type pen) this will work too.
Removal of the left side piece is identical to the first except you need to remove the hard
drive (if you have one) before it will release. Also, one of the holes (where youre going
to put the skewer is covered by the Xboxs rubber foot. Remove the foot to reveal a hole
so you can release the clasp holding the side piece to the unit. Once both side pieces
are removed, we can open the white body of the case as follows:
1. There are 6 retention slots on the rear of the unit and 4 clips on the front of
the unit
2. Unlatch the four front clips first using the terminal driver.
3. Once all 4 are undone, gently lift up the front of the case about an inch
4. Locate the six slots on the rear of the unit
5. Using the terminal driver, push gently but firmly inwards on each slot in turn
6. If done successfully, you will hear a click each time.
7. Once all 6 are unclicked, we can lever up the rear of the case and remove
this half completely.
8. Flip the unit over and you will see 14 silver screws and 8 black screws.
Remove these using the T10 Torx driver and the T8 Torx driver respectively.
9. Once all the screws are removed, turn the Xbox over and you can lift off the
top part of the case.
10. To remove the DVD drive, simply lift upwards. Disconnect the power cable
and the Sata cable from the drive (or the motherboard doesnt matter)
11. The white fan shroud which leads to the GPU and CPU can be removed
again by lifting upwards. There is a retention hook at the rear but this should
just pop out when you lift the shroud.
12. At the front of the unit you will see a daughter PCB where the power button
would normally be. Unclip the white bezel and using the T8 Torx screwdriver,
remove the three retaining screws.
13. Unplug the daughter PCB We can now remove the motherboard from the
case. It should just lift right out. At this stage take extra care as the mother
board is very delicate.
14.
Removing and Preparing the Heat Sinks

The fixing method used by Microsoft leaves a little to be desired, mainly because of the
undue pressure it puts right beneath a small centre point on each processor. Were
going to reaffix the heat sinks using a more traditional method that will give more
uniform support. First weve got to get the X-Clamps off.
1. On the underside of the motherboard PCB you will see two silver x-shaped
clamps. Using the terminal driver, pry off each corner of the clamp.
2. Its somewhat easier here to do two corners along the same side first. That
way we can just wiggle the other two fixing points loose.
3. Once both clamps are removed, flip the board over and youll be able to
gently lift up and remove the two heat sinks. The low-profile aluminium one is
the GPU heat sink.
4. Using a suitable spanner or pair of pliers, remove the four fixing bolts from
each of the heat sinks. We dont need these anymore, but if you ever intend
to put your unit back to how it started, hang on to them.
5. We need to clean any residue of thermal compound from both the underside
of the heat sinks and the top of both processors. Firstly, get rid of any excess
using a plastic scraper (you should have one that came with your thermal
compound). Be careful when cleaning the processors!
6. Once the excess is gone, use Isopropyl alcohol with a lint free cloth to bring
the underside of each heat sink up to scratch. There should be no evidence
of ever having thermal compound on them.
7. On the processors, again use Isopropyl alcohol to remove the residue. Only a
little is needed and with a little bit of effort you can get the tops of them to a
mirror finish. We want them as clean as possible.
8. Apply a little thermal compound to either the top of the processor or
underside of the heat sinks in accordance with the manufacturers
instructions.
9. Re-fix the heat sinks in accordance with the diagram below.
10. When tightening the screws, do top left, then bottom right, then top right
followed by bottom left. At this stage do not over tighten the screws. Just use
a finger and thumb on the screwdriver and stop when you cant easily turn it
further.
11. Once all four screws on each heat sink are done up as per step 9, tighten
each screw one more quarter turn.
Check Point 1!
At this stage, reassemble everything back into the case but dont screw anything down.
Reattach the RF daughterboard to the front of the motherboard and plug in the video
and power cables. Press the power button.
You will almost certainly NOT get 3 red lights now as we have fixed the compromised
joints on the processors. If you get all green, youre good to go and reassemble
everything back into the housing. Make sure all screws are done up tight (you dont need
the 8 small black Torx screws that used to hold the heat sinks now) and dont forget to
clip the Ring of Light cover plastic back in place.
Check Point 2!
Once everythings back together fire the console up again to check youve still got all
green and away you go.
Other tips and tricks
If at any of the two stages above, you didnt get green lights, there are a few other things
you can try before sending the console off to us. We are not responsible for any further
damage done to the console with any of these methods, including the main fix.
1. When reaffixing the heat sinks, only use one washer on the underside of the
motherboard. This forces the clamps down harder onto the processors. This can
also be achieved by using a shim or similar between the heat sink and processor.
2. Double-check that your heat sink screws are tight. Dont be afraid to tighten them
up with quite some force, but dont break the processors either. If you follow the
tightening tips earlier in this document they should be tight enough however.
3. Just before check point 1, before the heat sink screws are fully tightened, you
can attempt to reflow the GBAs under the processors by running the console
without the fans attached (and without the cover attached too) - Turn the console
on and you will get three red lights. After a few seconds the processors will begin
to overheat because of the complete lack of cooling and the 3 red lights will
become 2 red lights (overheating). Leave it in this state for 60 seconds then turn
the console off and tighten the fixing screws on the heat sinks.

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XBOX 360 Three Red Lights of

Death Repair Manual

Reasons why this works.

Opening the case

Removing and Preparing the Heat Sinks

Other tips and tricks

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