Anyone got any tips to fix red ring of death on xbox (1 red light E74) - Saxperience

Carlvtr88 · 1st June 2011, 22:51

As title. Im gonna whip it apart. warranty has gone anyway and i'm gonna fix it myself.

Some say its the GPU, some say its the motherboard warping from heat.

Whats yours experiences, Anyone fixed a one red light E74 error on the xbox ?

mlawlan69 · 1st June 2011, 23:37

wrap it in a towel and turn it on, leave it for ages until its red hot.

apparently it works !!

Manu · 2nd June 2011, 05:40

^^^ fire hazard :/

https://myservice.xbox.com/en-us/Pag...#Warranty_FAQ2

___________

Carlvtr88 · 2nd June 2011, 09:06

it works for about ten minutes mate. Plus theres an easier way than that using cotton buds to stop the fans from moving. But any way, im talking about a proper 'open it up and do it properly' job...

haz_pro · 2nd June 2011, 09:21

My mate opened it up and reapplied some new thermal paste to the CPU. Think it was quite a job though, alot to take apart! But if it's out of warranty may aswell try!

Carlvtr88 · 2nd June 2011, 10:04

ive already had it apart mate, In fact its still half open, Its piss easy mate.
I do actually do pc electronics as a job so im fine with all that business, I was just wondering what people's experiences were of what part actually caused their problem.

I gave two examples which i think is the main cause:

1: Warped motherboard due to heat which causes the solders on certain chips to loose connection ( in turn due to silly design by microsoft, using the wrong "breakable" solder)

2: Gpu unit solder moved ^^ Probably due to the same reason as above.

Apparently the only way theyve addressed the problem with the new slim xbox's is by gluing the acutal mobo to the shell, to prevent the heat warp. See how long it takes before they start failing.

I think im just going to get some new thermal compound. and re apply it to every fuckin chip in the box, including the RAM chips.

haz_pro · 2nd June 2011, 10:38

Fuck it, why not just fill it with icecubes?
Joke.. obviously hah.

Manu · 2nd June 2011, 12:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlvtr88

1: Warped motherboard due to heat which causes the solders on certain chips to loose connection ( in turn due to silly design by microsoft, using the wrong "breakable" solder)

2: Gpu unit solder moved ^^ Probably due to the same reason as above.

very true. I have seen a guy once taking 360s apart and put the borad in an oven to melt the solder again and put it back into place. A bit useless when the solder itself is shitty in the first place.

The best thing I can recommend to prevent a meltdown is to place the console vertically, and don't put it inside of a closed or even half closed piece of furniture. That bastard does run hot indeed.

haz_pro · 2nd June 2011, 12:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manu

very true. I have seen a guy once taking 360s apart and put the borad in an oven to melt the solder again and put it back into place. A bit useless when the solder itself is shitty in the first place.

The best thing I can recommend to prevent a meltdown is to place the console vertically, and don't put it inside of a closed or even half closed piece of furniture. That bastard does run hot indeed.

How does vertically help? Is there vents on the bottom ( i would look but not with mine atm.. )

Manu · 2nd June 2011, 13:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by haz_pro

How does vertically help? Is there vents on the bottom ( i would look but not with mine atm.. )

run a 360 horizontal and see how hot the bottom gets after less than 30 minutes... It's about heat dissipation. Having it vertical means less contact with your furniture, much easier to disperse heat that way. I have seen some people killing a few 360s in a row after only a few hours. Then I told them to remove the console from a damn enclosed cabinet, and stop putting a dvd player on top of it.

The 360 design is flawed from the start anyway. It's like having a desktop except crammed into a quarter of the space.

Carlvtr88 · 2nd June 2011, 23:59

ok so i.ve managed to fix it myself. Basically, a new more abrupt layer of arctic mx2 on the cpu under heat sink. Its a bastard getting those x clamps off though. Oh well, i'll see how long it lasts and yeah, i will be using it vertically from now on.....

Carlvtr88 · 3rd June 2011, 17:46

xbox died again. And then i brought it back to life. Using pennies lol. I know its not the best method but its working fine. Basically i put about 7 pennies in a stack,Wrapped them in electrical tape. Thermal pasted the hana chip and using cds on top of the hard drive.Super glued them, which means once the case is closed they are constantly applying pressure on the hana chip. Meaning the solders are always touching..... Sounds like a bodge, is a bodge but now i have a fully functional xbox. Played it for a good hour and its still working..... Just a little thing to remember make sure you use thermal paste. Its brilliant stuff.

Manu · 4th June 2011, 11:56

lol, sounds ghetto.... But fair does if you got it up and running again.

Have you tried replacing the solder completely at all before that?

Carlvtr88 · 4th June 2011, 13:25

no havent gone to that much trouble. If it goes again i'll probably just buy a new slim line one. Take out insurance for 3 years like i did on this one. But i wont make the mistake i did last time again..... This time ill wait till about 2 years is up them accidentally on purpose spill water on it and get a new one.... Can you believe it. My current xbox died 7 days after a 3 year what ever happens warrantly. I was devastated lol.