Red ring of death - RMA times?

[Agent]

Guy I work with had a 360 that "fell off the back of a lorry"........unrelated to the lorry incident it developed the red ring o' death and he didn't want to RMA it.

He sent off for a supposed repair kit. It consisted of some instructions, some screws (or bolts, I forget exactly which but he had to swap the ones holding the heatsink in place with these replacements) and some paste that sounded familiarly like arctic silver....

He followed the instructions and resurrected his 360 in about 30-45 mins, it has been going strong since around xmas when he did the work.

Personally, I'd use the RMA service (as I have already done twice!), I was shocked at the speed in which they turned it around.

Its called the X-Clamp fix. I've done it on 2 machines and they are still running strong.

God knows why MS are still using the old mounting method....

[Skii]

I did the X-clamp fix to a freinds Xbox last Sunday, apparently its only worth doing if you heat-treat the motherboard so after wrapping the motherboard in foil to protect the capacitors I popped her in the oven for a few minutes and after cooling re-seated the heat sinks and threw those god-awful clamps away.

All you need is some 10 x 5 mil pan head machine screws, M5 washers and M6 Nylon washers from B+Q

Booted up first time and works like a dream now

[watforddude]

I assume all of you have baught it brand new, everyone i know who has baught a first hand xbox 360 has had problems
apart from me :] i baught mine second hand from cash coverters and its been going for about 3-4 months now running about 2-5 hours each day but then i might leave it for a couple of days, it seems to like that i even tipped the xbox over with cod4 inside and scratched the hell out of it..still works apart from it gets so hot if my socks have just come out the washing machine i use it to dry them

[Agent]

I did the X-clamp fix to a freinds Xbox last Sunday, apparently its only worth doing if you heat-treat the motherboard

Umm....what guides have you been reading?
The entire point of the X-clamp fix is not to heat the motherboard at first, it's trying to avoid it. Heating just warps the board into a position where it will work for a while.

On some boards that really play up you will have to try it (because nothing else works), but it's certainly not something you should do right away when replacing the X-clamps.

http://www.croccobiscotto.it/downloa...eplacement.pdf

[Skii]

Umm....what guides have you been reading?
The entire point of the X-clamp fix is not to heat the motherboard at first, it's trying to avoid it. Heating just warps the board into a position where it will work for a while.

On some boards that really play up you will have to try it (because nothing else works), but it's certainly not something you should do right away when replacing the X-clamps.

http://www.croccobiscotto.it/downloa...eplacement.pdf

this guide

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...ight=xbox+rrod

certainly worked for me

[finlay666]

this guide

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...ight=xbox+rrod

certainly worked for me

Ahhh, a guide from a forum where the site charged for a free overclocking guide

<insert other personal experiences here>

I will maintain they are full of poop however

Have you fiddled with it before? If not get it repaired by MS, the RROD warranty expires in December IIRC from release, and you will likely get one with an HDMI

[Blackrivergod]

In my personal experience you don't need to heat-treat the motherboard when you install the x-camp fix. You fit the screws slighty tight and then safely over-heat the CPU and GPU by turning on the console without the fan to produce two red lights. This softens the solder and you then clamp the heat sinks tight to reseat the chips. You should only heat the MB as a last resort if the x-clamp fix doesn't work and then with a heat gun not an oven - that is surely a recipe for disaster. Then keep your console as cool as possible and prey the fix lasts, I've done a few and they are still going strong. The x-clamp fix works for video problems too (blank/green screen).

[random rik]

I have had the same xbox replaced twice, once about a year ago and more recently two weeks ago and the repair process had changed it turns out now once you make a repair booking you also have contact the delivery service (UPS) and organize them to come and pick it up.

After a week of waiting for someone to come

[s1lkw0rm]

My warranty had expired when I had the RROD and microsoft wanted some crazy money to have it repaired.

Eventually took the console with me to HK, and they fixed it for less than a tenner .

Never had a problem since.

[Webbage]

I sold my 360 a while ago, and the other month he got the 3 red rings, but its his own fault for keeping it pushed up against a wall