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The role of quick temperature change in recurring RROD?
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Staff Member
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16. May 2010 @ 23:46 |
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Hi Guys,
I thought I'd post something in here. I have 3 Xbox 360 consoles that have failed. Two were my own (2005 and 2006 models). The 2005 model first RROD'd in December 2008, conveniently after my warranty was up by a few weeks, and then the second one went in November 2009, I didn't have warranty for that, I had opened it.
The third one is one I bought from a friend for ?30 (has a TS drive, why not), but I don't know when it failed.
Anyway, I always found it interesting that both of them failed around the same time of year, and I frequently used both. BTW, the first one had typical RROD (three red lights, no video) and the second one had E74.
Anyway, on to the point of the post. I had observed that whenever I repaired either console using any method, it would always fail again after a week or so. Usually I would be playing it for hours one night, then I'd turn it off, and the next day it would fail about 10 minutes after I turned it on.
So that had me thinking that maybe the reason for the recurring problem was quick changes in temperature. So the latest repair i did on the 2005 model was to make sure of two things, there was no stress on the board, everything was evenly bolted in and the heatsinks were evenly screwed down (no X clamps). I also did a modified fan shroud to force air coming into the chassis to travel through the heatsinks to get out, and cut the mesh at the back of the chassis for better airflow. I also lay the console flat, not stood up.
Additionally, I had a rule. If I wanted to play it, I turn it on, leave it for about 10-15 mins before I boot a game (when I can feel warm airflow coming from the back of the console), and after I was finished, instead of just turning it off, I would exit to the dashboard and let it sit there for about 10-20 minutes based on how long I had it on, and how hot the air coming from the back was (if it was very hot, which it is usually thanks to the arctic silver and the modified shroud, i'd let it sit on dash longer) and turn it off when the air was just warm and not hot. The reasoning behind it is that I wanted the extra heat on the GPU from performing at full throttle to be passed to the heatsink and mostly exhausted before I turned it off.
So the result? 8 weeks up until tonight. Tonight, I wanted to play 2010 Fifa World Cup, and being a total idiot I ignored my own rule. I booted, put disc in right away and went straight into a game. In my second game (about 8-10 mins after turning on), it froze up. I knew immediately what to expect. I rebooted, played again for 2 more games, then tried to load a different game and it froze. It took me then about 20 minutes to get the damn thing to start flashing the 3 red lights, it would freeze at different stages every time i booted.
Anyway, I find it a bit more than a coincidence that the extra 6-7 weeks ive gotten came to an end after I decided to get impatient and basically force the already damaged xbox to go from off to full swing immediately instead of my usual 10-15 mins warm up time first. I wonder if anyone else here has noticed the same thing? Both my own consoles died in very cold winters, which makes me think that the rapid change in temperature is a problem.
As for now, I have the xbox still on, flashing the three red lights it took me bloody ages to even get to finally show up. In about an hour or two, I'll reboot and I'm actually pretty sure it will boot more or less just fine when left sitting for a while. I went out of my way to make sure that stresses on the board were eliminated and that heat transferred to the heatsinks and out the back of the console as well as it can. I also have some pads on the memory chips on the underside of the board that often help to resurrect a dead 360 without having to re-open it every time.
Anyway, enough blabbering, anybody else have a similar experience??
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