Preventing RROD on 360???

A

Ashton

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I just collected a series of things I found accross the internets and wanted to know how many of them are true.

1. adding extra fans
Several of these products on the internet and even in walmart all claim to prolong the 360s life

2. use 360 for media only
From what I've seen using the 360 for DVDs, Netflix, WMC, etc and limiting gaming will reduce the load on the GPU and extend its life.

3. limit gaming time to 30 minutes with 1 hour between sessions.
This sounds more like a PSA about video game "addiction" to me, but the science supposedly is that in 30 minutes the GPU will not have time to 'cook' the mobo, and it will take it 1 hour to cool off.

4. playing original Xbox games puts less strain on the GPU
apparently since they're not as complex they dont get it as hot?

5. use wired controllers instead of wireless
I have no idea what this has to do with RROD, but somone said it will help prevent it, so I'm throwing it in.

6. keep the 360 in the vertical position so it maximizes airflow
This sounds like a no-brainer, but if you feel the airflow, the vents are on teh bottom, front, and back. it seems to me turning it horizontal would acctually be better - but then you cover up the vents on that side. So I'm waiting for other ppl to weigh in.

7. use the memory card instead of the HD
supposedly the HD, mounted on top, will produce enough heat to damage the MoBo... I suppose if you follow #2, then you can do this, but otherwise I cant immagine limiting myself to just the memory card for storage. my 20gb HD is almost full (and I'm using it conservativly) so 256mb is a joke!

8. Remove the DVD drive and set it atop the 360
This voids the warrenty by opening the box, but though I'd throw this in too. one site reccomends taking the DVD drive out of the 360 and mounting it on the top instead. (I'd go as far as to add another fan in the slot if it were me, but) supposedly most of the heat comes from the DVD drive. I'm skeptical since all those giant heatsyncs are on the chips and the DVD drive doesnt have ANY, but...



Ok, so, True, BS, or "yes but not worth the trouble for the tiny gain"?

If anyone else has any more ideas please let us know!
 
I would make sure it's not in an enclosed space, isn't played for long periods of time without any breaks, and is ventilated properly. If it was me I would open the top of the xbox and play with it open. Along side a fan you would find in Walmart.
 
Mine ran great for a year, then I put it in a DVD cabinet thing under my TV. It is a big cabinet, and it had a shelf all to itself, so I figured 'it can't get that hot'. Yea, it can. Mine died in a month. Now it's on top of a shelf next to the TV. Haven't had anymore problems in a year since MS fixed it.
 
Yeah, half of that sounds totally bogus and made up. Also if you did all that it almost defeats the point in having the console in the first place since you're not using any of its abilities/features. There's no way I would stop using my hard drive or wireless controllers (which wouldn't affect the mobo/GPUs life anyways). I've used my 360 like it should be used since Dec '06 and have had no issues whatsoever. I just keep it in an open/ventilated space and have played for 12 hour stints many times. If you're 360 has a defect that will kill it, its gonnadie anyways.
 
As long as you keep it within a well ventilated area, it should be fine. There's ways to fix a 360 if it gets RROD but it voids the warranty. If the box is less than 3 years old, return it to Microsoft. Otherwise, try fixing it yourself with a complete xClamp removal, heatgun (if you have a reflow station - even better), drill holes in the metal cage, and secure the heatsinks with bolts. The main reason the 360 RROD's is due to motherboard bend that eventually causes the contact solder to break on the CPU/GPU connections.

Other than that, run that baby into the ground and enjoy it... don't worry so much about RROD and just have fun as there are always ways to fix it or get it replaced.
 
Keep it Horizontal and vacuum dust from around it each time you clean up the room it's in. Use it normally and if it breaks send it back, if its out of warranty then xclamp it. Mine is a launch unit and it works great and I play for hours at a time but I've xclamped 4 others for people I know. All of them were clean inside but the units obviously overheated, the tim was almost all "melted" off of the cores of the gpu and cpu. Stock 360 heatsinks are only held on with tension and the tension weakens over time.
 
Might as well be asking for the secret to immortality. It'll RROD eventually just play until it dies and deal with it than. No sense in worrying about it.
 
1. adding extra fans
Several of these products on the internet and even in walmart all claim to prolong the 360s life
Click to expand...

Does not work, i purchased some whisper fans for a new 360, 2 years ago and did the 12v mod to them, it sounded like a jet engine, but several months later..........RROL.
 
of course the chances of RROD'ing have also been greatly reduced with the Jasper units due to not using as much juice, ie keeping the heat down.

a lot of those you list do defeat the purpose of a gaming console. 30 min sessions? eff that.

playing original XBox games... yeah, I could see that, since they aren't as graphically-intesive as the 360 games, plus no >480 content.

vertical position? Do that and you block vents. Horizontal. No vents will get blocked.
Make sure it can get plenty of airflow.

extra fans? I remember reading about some set of fans that actually made the airflow worse (although I can't remember which ones, and/or wether that issue got fixed...).

wired instead of wireless? FUD. That can't create enough heat to make a difference.

Memory card instead of HD? FUD. How long does it take a game to get saved to the HDD? 5 seconds or so? if that? maybe longer depending on the game. Those <30sec will not make a difference.

remove dvd drive? why not just remove the cover? Or better yet, just add more vent holes to the cover?
 
Wow. So much paranoia if you're willing to do all that. I agree with all the people that said just to play it like you normally would. It's a game console. You're supposed to have fun with it. Worrying about all that stuff just ruins it. As long as you're in warranty, you shouldn't have too much to worry about. Only suggestions I have is to keep it in a well ventilated place and to install your games to ease down on the drive noise.
 
Those extra fans are horrible don't even bother, from my experience they suck in air while the xbox fans blow out air. Where did you read this stuff? Aslong as you get a new Xbox from the latest batches you should be fine. I got the MW2 Xbox and the power supply brick is wayyy smaller than the older Xboxs bricks. Uses less power.
 
I had assumed my Xbox had not been under warranty because my brother bought it used a long time ago. However, it dawned on me that it is a black elite version, and those didn't come out to 2007 - so that means its still in warranty! And some have reported success in getting repairs on bought-used Xbox's.

It was at my SO's for a couple days and they said they had a RROD. Took it back to my place and it powered on fine. Would they still upgrade it?
 
Grab a NEW Jasper unit, keep it out in the open and horiztonal, have fun. Dont waste your time with any of that crap you mentioned.
 
Keep the power supply off of the floor, I have seen those returned after a system RROD'ed and it was packed full of dust and lint.
 
My 360 has RRoD'd twice this past week, but then works fine after leaving it alone for a day. I'm assuming it'll die for good soon, though. I've always taken good care of it.
 
Ashton said:
8. Remove the DVD drive and set it atop the 360
This voids the warrenty by opening the box, but though I'd throw this in too. one site reccomends taking the DVD drive out of the 360 and mounting it on the top instead. (I'd go as far as to add another fan in the slot if it were me, but) supposedly most of the heat comes from the DVD drive. I'm skeptical since all those giant heatsyncs are on the chips and the DVD drive doesnt have ANY, but...
Click to expand...
Why would you purposely void your warranty on something that's almost guaranteed to fail, thus resulting in 100% loss? (I understand the newer ones are less likely to rrod)

Just keep it in an area with good airflow.
 
Stupid list.

I think you forgot one. Leave it off all the time. It will also help prolong the system. :rolleyes:
 
Your all right, most of these were posted for lulz, though I wasnt sure about position/fans (I even put in a few of the descs that it sounded liek crap, like the 30min sessions and using wired controllers)

I think you guys are right, that all 360s are gonna RROD eventually. I do try to offset that when I can (like not confining the 360 to small places, and for a while I was doing all my media with my PS3 - till it stopped working with TVersity) I bought myin used off ebay and found out its NOT a jasper, it's a Falcon, so I was a little concerned...

As to where I got them, everywhere from ligitimate gamer forums (Gamepro, VGgaming) to Y! Answers, to just random posts on forums or random pages that got tagged with "360 RROD"
 
lol this thread just shows the total lack of understanding about the RROD.....there is no way to prevent it as it is a manufacturering issue....why do you think MS had to redesign the system and add an extra metal layer to the chip to deal with it?
 
Or best way is to buy it and just let it sit there and never turn it on.

Seriously, the best thing to do is not worry about it. Just hope that if it happens it's still under warranty. I'd hate to wait an hour between 30 minute sessions.
 
Exactly it's the only way manufacturers make money through the hardware.. if it break you gotta buy another or send it back if there's still warranty... and most people can't since there's a huge community of modded systems.
 
BLUEVOODOO said:
Exactly it's the only way manufacturers make money through the hardware.. if it break you gotta buy another or send it back if there's still warranty... and most people can't since there's a huge community of modded systems.
Click to expand...

LOL. They decided it was cheaper for them to replace the units that failed in order to beat Sony to market and gain marketshare, thats why they released it. Not to make money on hardware. If a system is going to RROD, the chances are high enough that it will happen with in the 3 years, where the cost is on MS, and alot of the time MS replaces it for free even after the warranty. The huge community of modded systems is small compared to the whole community. Release faulty hardware to make more money...yeah...good one.
 
butterfliesrpretty said:
I think the key question is what exactly is happening when the 360's rrod?
Click to expand...

Too much heat causing the boards to sag is causing solder joints to be pulled apart. I remember reading it was vRam solder joints, others have said GPU/CPU. This is why x-clamps can help if im not mistaken, although it seems that even this didnt make them immune.
 
When I fixed my 1st gen unit's RROD a while ago I found the major cause of it to be extremely improperly applied thermal paste. I kid you not, they basically used a teaspoon worth of the shitty white thermal paste that turns into bubblegum when it dries on the GPU and CPU. After cleaning all that junk off and applying AS5, the xclamp fix, added a GPU heatsink shroud and the penny fix the exhaust fans were running quiet and pumping out cool air like a jasper unit. Altho that still doesn't fix the brittle lead-free solder that causes most of these problems.
 
PsySabreW said:
When I fixed my 1st gen unit's RROD a while ago I found the major cause of it to be extremely improperly applied thermal paste. I kid you not, they basically used a teaspoon worth of the shitty white thermal paste that turns into bubblegum when it dries on the GPU and CPU. After cleaning all that junk off and applying AS5, the xclamp fix, added a GPU heatsink shroud and the penny fix the exhaust fans were running quiet and pumping out cool air like a jasper unit. Altho that still doesn't fix the brittle lead-free solder that causes most of these problems.
Click to expand...

In a sense yes, i do remember reading though that the high temps cause the (likely shitty, as you say) thermal paste to boil away or degrade or something to that effect...either way...the paste was rendered useless over time.
 
the problem is that the xbox 360 and even the ps3's (ylod) are markted as childrens toys and as such have restrictions put on how much lead they can use. the lack of lead in the solder used to connect the gpu/cpu to the motherboard makes the solder brittle and much more prone to cracking or seperating when heated or cooled as the variance in temperature can be just as harmful as just high heat itself. if your room is sitting at 70 degrees ambient and you fire up your 360 with stock cooling it can easily get up to 120 degrees (measured with temp gun so proably even higher than that on the older models) this is a recipe for disaster as evidenced by their extra ordinarily high failure rates. To say you can prevent a rrod situation with 100% certainty is absurd, but if you lower the temperature variance from when its powered off compared to being under full load I can assure you the chances of having a rrod occur will be greatly reduced.

when I get a new 360 to flash for someone first thing I do is replace the x-clamps preemptively and recommend that the owner allow me to do a 12v fan mod switch. Its loud as hell but it keeps the temp variation to a minimum when gaming and can be turned back to 5v when watching media or whatnot. I also do a ducting mod where I tape off the white plastic fan shoroud to the tops of the cpu and gpu heatsinks to force the airflow to go over the sinks properly and not be sucked in around the edges of the shroud itself as tends to happen based on their poor design. some of these measures admitedly are a bit extreme, but being as the consoles I deal with have their warranty voided from th start I prefer being safe to being sorry. To date I have yet to hear back from someone I have done this for having a rrod or other failure aside from dvd drive problems (motor, laser and things like that).
 
TheGamerZ said:
My 360 has RRoD'd twice this past week, but then works fine after leaving it alone for a day. I'm assuming it'll die for good soon, though. I've always taken good care of it.
Click to expand...

if its failed twice already its just a matter of time until its a premanent problem. Even when x-clamping to fix a rrod its still only buying time at that point. once the rrod hits the damage has been done. It sounds like in all likelyhood you have a couple small breaks or sperations in the solder joints and the problem will only get worse over time. If you still have a warranty covering your console now would be the time to contact microsoft to get the wheels rolling towards a replacement.
 
Doesn't the old saying go:

"There are only two certainties in life: Death and the RROD."
 
nissanztt90 said:
Grab a NEW Jasper unit, keep it out in the open and horiztonal, have fun. Dont waste your time with any of that crap you mentioned.
Click to expand...

This. All of those other ideas are crazy. Limiting gaming on a gaming console -- hah! Just keep your xbox out of an enclosed space and it will last you a very long time regardless of how many marathon mw2 sessions you partake in.
 
its such a shame that microsoft totally dropped the ball on the hardware because there are some legitimately good games I'd like to play but im not a fan of making a 200$ gamble on whether itll last me
 
Never had a problem, probably because I redid the contacts with arctic silver 5 when I got mine
 
cthulhuiscool said:
its such a shame that microsoft totally dropped the ball on the hardware because there are some legitimately good games I'd like to play but im not a fan of making a 200$ gamble on whether itll last me
Click to expand...

They dropped the ball on the old hardware. The new Jasper units should last you a long time. They run much cooler and quieter. If you install your games to the hard drive the thing is practically silent. With the price of consoles now and a three year warranty you should just jump on one if you want to play those games.
 
the RROD plague was due to an engineering gap with the solder points. MS decided to cheap out by cutting corners so the units are simply faulty by design.

There have been a few revisions (google is your friend for this) that corrected the RROD issue.
 
PsySabreW said:
When I fixed my 1st gen unit's RROD a while ago I found the major cause of it to be extremely improperly applied thermal paste. I kid you not, they basically used a teaspoon worth of the shitty white thermal paste that turns into bubblegum when it dries on the GPU and CPU. After cleaning all that junk off and applying AS5, the xclamp fix, added a GPU heatsink shroud and the penny fix the exhaust fans were running quiet and pumping out cool air like a jasper unit. Altho that still doesn't fix the brittle lead-free solder that causes most of these problems.
Click to expand...
+1
Mine started freezing after 2 years. Reapplied some fresh compound and worked perfect since , runs much quieter too.
 
2. use 360 for media only
From what I've seen using the 360 for DVDs, Netflix, WMC, etc and limiting gaming will reduce the load on the GPU and extend its life.

This second point is funny, if using it for media, then it has not fulfilled its destiny.
 
boxterduke said:
2. use 360 for media only
From what I've seen using the 360 for DVDs, Netflix, WMC, etc and limiting gaming will reduce the load on the GPU and extend its life.

This second point is funny, if using it for media, then it has not fulfilled its destiny.
Click to expand...

There are acctually a lot of people that bought the 360 as a Media Center Extender + Netflix box + USB playback. Though if I were going purely for media I'd look at the PS3 since it does all that AND BluRay...
 
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