Beating the Big Freeze (XBOX 360 maitenence)

[Monk]

http://www.koolance.com/water-coolin...product_id=329

Microsoft needs to hire some guys with laptop experience to design their next-gen console. Good job on your part, hopefully it solves your heat problems (and some other random part doesn't fail....)

Oh dear lord, What is that horrible abomination of science?! And.. look at the price on that. Does that come with an xbox or is that solely for the water cooler? If it's the later then someone is making a killing out there.

Im disgusted. Both by how they designed this, and your lack of a static free work envrionment.

As an IT student, surely you would have taken precautions.

Wouldn't that have taught you, shorting out the mobo.

I may be slightly knowledgeable but I am also horribly lazy. It took me a year and a half just to open it up. Kidding of course.

It was about halfway through when i realized I hadn't really taken much in the way of precautions, and by that time I had no choice but to move ahead. My professor would have a thing or two to say about that...

Alright, so lets say I've been having this problem with my 360. Are there any possible solutions beyond tearing it apart or buying a new one? It's becoming almost impossible to use it for any length of time.

There's a lot of crazy remedies around the net including (among other things) wrapping your xbox up in a damp towel to absorb the heat or just buying a fan to latch onto the back. Many of the crazy "quick fixes" like the towel fix won't help, and will probably make things even worse while the fan may or may not help at all.

Before ripping this thing open I installed an intercooler TS which i bought for pretty cheap off of amazon.

It's a unit that latches onto the back to adds 3 more fans. It increases air flow significantly but the main problem is this thing is loud. Worse yet it still didn't solve my freeze problem so i was forced to look elsewhere. If your warranty is still intact you can send it in the Microsoft to repair, but they seem rather fickle about that part of their customer service. I had heard they'd work on it for free and all it would cost me is the time, but after investigating this i learned they wanted a hefty sum for labor. Considering my options I just did it myself.

[Tratorix]

There's a lot of crazy remedies around the net including (among other things) wrapping your xbox up in a damp towel to absorb the heat or just buying a fan to latch onto the back. Many of the crazy "quick fixes" like the towel fix won't help, and will probably make things even worse while the fan may or may not help at all.

Before ripping this thing open I installed an intercooler TS which i bought for pretty cheap off of amazon.

It's a unit that latches onto the back to adds 3 more fans. It increases air flow significantly but the main problem is this thing is loud. Worse yet it still didn't solve my freeze problem so i was forced to look elsewhere. If your warranty is still intact you can send it in the Microsoft to repair, but they seem rather fickle about that part of their customer service. I had heard they'd work on it for free and all it would cost me is the time, but after investigating this i learned they wanted a hefty sum for labor. Considering my options I just did it myself.

Well, I'm not sure how my freeze problem could be heat related, since it usually shows up after five minutes. Looks like I might just have to send it into microsoft and pay like $100 to have them fix it. Why is the one game console I'm interested in owning so unreliable?

[Monk]

Well, I'm not sure how my freeze problem could be heat related, since it usually shows up after five minutes. Looks like I might just have to send it into microsoft and pay like $100 to have them fix it. Why is the one game console I'm interested in owning so unreliable?

You'd be surprised as to how quick the Xbox can overheat. Without fans installed (even the onboard ones) I forced it to overheat in under 40 seconds flat (yeah i timed it) and got 2 red lights. Do any of the LEDs on the front of the box turn red or do they stay green?



For those wondering my xbox works wonderfully now even after the hell i put it through. So far so good as they say.

[Tratorix]

All green, the screen just freezes and everything becomes unresponsive until I just shut it off.

[Monk]

All green, the screen just freezes and everything becomes unresponsive until I just shut it off.

Sounds really similar to the problem I was having only much worse since it happens far more frequently, from your description. I may have been where you are now had I not taken any action as it was happening after about 1-2 hours of use. From what I understand since the heatsinks aren't held close enough to the chips, the CPU/GPU are allowed to get far hotter than they should and start to vibrate which causes the freeze. Get them hotter and you'll get the Red Ring of Death (3 red LEDs) which means they've lost connection with the motherboard.

If you're not into tearing apart next-gen consoles I'd check the documentation that came with your xbox, see if your warranty is still good. Then give Microsoft a call and see if they'll fix it/how much it'll cost you and go from there.

[Tratorix]

Sounds really similar to the problem I was having only much worse since it happens far more frequently, from your description. I may have been where you are now had I not taken any action as it was happening after about 1-2 hours of use. From what I understand since the heatsinks aren't held close enough to the chips, the CPU/GPU are allowed to get far hotter than they should and start to vibrate which causes the freeze. Get them hotter and you'll get the Red Ring of Death (3 red LEDs) which means they've lost connection with the motherboard.

If you're not into tearing apart next-gen consoles I'd check the documentation that came with your xbox, see if your warranty is still good. Then give Microsoft a call and see if they'll fix it/how much it'll cost you and go from there.

My warrant has expired. But the RRoD is covered by an extended warranty on all consoles, for three years after purchase I believe. And you say if I leave it running, it might red ring. Interesting.

[Monk]

My warrant has expired. But the RRoD is covered by an extended warranty on all consoles, for three years after purchase I believe. And you say if I leave it running, it might red ring. Interesting.

Indeed, and the same fix that I applied can actually be used to fix a Red Ring'd system without changing a thing. I didn't try because I was too concentrated on fixing the darned thing, but it might be possible to push it into a RRoD.

[crazy conspiracy] It's all connected don'cha see!?! [/crazy conspiracy]

[drone]

Oh dear lord, What is that horrible abomination of science?! And.. look at the price on that. Does that come with an xbox or is that solely for the water cooler? If it's the later then someone is making a killing out there.

Just the cooler blocks/clamps for the CPU and GPU, tubing, thermal grease, coolant, and pump/radiator assembly. Dates back to right after the XBox 360 release, someone was annoyed by the fan noise as well as obvious heat issues and decided to go aquatic. Expensive, but efficient and quiet.

Hopefully, MS learns the lesson and doesn't skimp on the heat dissipation methodology with their next generation. They were selling for a loss already, the repair/replacement costs for the RRoD and other assorted issues must have really killed them.