Xbox 360 clamp mod..
Discussion
You may remember i cut a hole in the side of my old 360 and added some fans and stuff, but it still died
later on.I then went out and purchased a new one (needed my Forza fix!) as there was little point trying to send
that one back
I then read about how the heatsink clamps could be a big part of the problem due to the pressure
they put apon the mobo (motherboard), hence the solder can crack and hence my old 360 only works
for a few days here and there when i cooked it in the oven (solder reflow and all that..)
People replace the clamps and bolt the heatsinks on instead.
Anyway, decided to see how long i can get out of a machine with the x-clamps replaced and an extra hole and fan
in the side.I decided to keep the new console i got a while back totaly standard so purchased another 360 last night
to mess about with.I am then going to use my old case on it which has the fan installed.
I got a few bits together and set about voiding yet another warranty..
Opened up the case (with a simple tool i got off of ebay - sooo much easier!), removed the mobo and pulled
off the heatsinks and the dreaded clamps.You also need to remove the old screws from the heatsinks which fix them to the mobo and keep them raised so they sit on the GPU and CPU at the correct level (small silver things in the pic)
Using the bolts, washers and nuts you then drill the case to make the holes bigger, poke them through and tighten..
Once that is done you try and line them up with the mobo holes and put the motherboard back into place..
Then i cleaned off the original thermal paste and once again added some arctic silver compound and replaced the
heatsinks...
The GPU heatsink needs to have some bits of fin removed and i also made the holes a wee bit bigger.Did most of this
with some pliars, a dremel and a drill..
Heatsinks replaced, spring washers etc all in place, all tightened up and some heatsinks added to the memory modules
(small blue heatsinks)
Ask me in a year if the machine still works and i will tell you if it was worth messing about
Of course, i could have just accepted that if the machine died i could send it off and get a new
one back, but where's the fun in that right?
later on.I then went out and purchased a new one (needed my Forza fix!) as there was little point trying to send
that one back
I then read about how the heatsink clamps could be a big part of the problem due to the pressure
they put apon the mobo (motherboard), hence the solder can crack and hence my old 360 only works
for a few days here and there when i cooked it in the oven (solder reflow and all that..)
People replace the clamps and bolt the heatsinks on instead.
Anyway, decided to see how long i can get out of a machine with the x-clamps replaced and an extra hole and fan
in the side.I decided to keep the new console i got a while back totaly standard so purchased another 360 last night
to mess about with.I am then going to use my old case on it which has the fan installed.
I got a few bits together and set about voiding yet another warranty..
Opened up the case (with a simple tool i got off of ebay - sooo much easier!), removed the mobo and pulled
off the heatsinks and the dreaded clamps.You also need to remove the old screws from the heatsinks which fix them to the mobo and keep them raised so they sit on the GPU and CPU at the correct level (small silver things in the pic)
Using the bolts, washers and nuts you then drill the case to make the holes bigger, poke them through and tighten..
Once that is done you try and line them up with the mobo holes and put the motherboard back into place..
Then i cleaned off the original thermal paste and once again added some arctic silver compound and replaced the
heatsinks...
The GPU heatsink needs to have some bits of fin removed and i also made the holes a wee bit bigger.Did most of this
with some pliars, a dremel and a drill..
Heatsinks replaced, spring washers etc all in place, all tightened up and some heatsinks added to the memory modules
(small blue heatsinks)
Ask me in a year if the machine still works and i will tell you if it was worth messing about
Of course, i could have just accepted that if the machine died i could send it off and get a new
one back, but where's the fun in that right?
Edited by Digby on Wednesday 11th July 13:45
Mate your fixing the wrong problem.
The issue is there isnt enough space around the GPU heatsink to adaquatly cool it.
The GPU sits on 200 little balls of solder, if one of those heat cycles dires out and cracks its RROD.
MS's fix is to attach a 3rd heatsink to the GPU's heatsink via a heat pipe.
The issue is there isnt enough space around the GPU heatsink to adaquatly cool it.
The GPU sits on 200 little balls of solder, if one of those heat cycles dires out and cracks its RROD.
MS's fix is to attach a 3rd heatsink to the GPU's heatsink via a heat pipe.
RobDickinson said:
Mate your fixing the wrong problem.
The issue is there isnt enough space around the GPU heatsink to adaquatly cool it.
The GPU sits on 200 little balls of solder, if one of those heat cycles dires out and cracks its RROD.
MS's fix is to attach a 3rd heatsink to the GPU's heatsink via a heat pipe.
My old xbox was very cool, in fact it spent quite a bit of it's life outside of the case!The issue is there isnt enough space around the GPU heatsink to adaquatly cool it.
The GPU sits on 200 little balls of solder, if one of those heat cycles dires out and cracks its RROD.
MS's fix is to attach a 3rd heatsink to the GPU's heatsink via a heat pipe.
I assumed back then that the consoles died from heat, but it was obvious that wasn't the only factor as mine died too.
What appears to be happening is what you suggest above coupled with the x-clamp problem.If you don't have the clamps warping the board as it gets hot, your solder balls would probably be ok.
You are correct that MS are adding an extra heatsink to some consoles, but they also glooped epoxy around the
GPU and CPU in the later consoles in an attempt to stop the the connections popping as the board warps it would seem.
Maybe adding in a cheap heatsink and epoxy is cheaper than changing the current clamp/heatsink setup on the motherboard?
I'm not sure if you got all that info from the Edge magazine or similar, but you only have to go and hunt around the various
fan sites and technical types of forums (filled with people who know more than i ever will about electronics etc) and many
will agree that removing the clamps is the way forward.Many dead machines have been fixed too by doing what i did above.
Wrapping dead consoles in towels and heating them up as i did offers only a temp fix.Once the clamps are back on, your solder balls and the mobo take the strain and before long they simply part company once again.
There is a reason that dead xbox 360's can currently make over or near £100 on ebay.And that is because people in the know will get them working again better than they were when new for about £6 in parts - no extra heatsinks required!
I'm in the middle of doing a X clamp mod on my console
My last fix didn't work at all
So currently replacing the x-clamps. Just waiting to find the dremel and drill bit at work
Also will be doing a mod to remove the back of the cage by the fans and altering the shroud to rediredt the air flow better.
Where did you get the heat sinks for the memory modules?
My last fix didn't work at all
So currently replacing the x-clamps. Just waiting to find the dremel and drill bit at work
Also will be doing a mod to remove the back of the cage by the fans and altering the shroud to rediredt the air flow better.
Where did you get the heat sinks for the memory modules?
Digby said:
RobDickinson said:
There is a reason that dead xbox 360's can currently make over or near £100 on ebay.And that is because people in the know will get them working again better than they were when new for about £6 in parts - no extra heatsinks required!
Surely you'd just be better off buying them up and using the extended warranty that they now offer to send them back, get a repaired one through and ebay that afterwards...Steve Evil said:
Digby said:
RobDickinson said:
There is a reason that dead xbox 360's can currently make over or near £100 on ebay.And that is because people in the know will get them working again better than they were when new for about £6 in parts - no extra heatsinks required!
Surely you'd just be better off buying them up and using the extended warranty that they now offer to send them back, get a repaired one through and ebay that afterwards...I've just done the x-clamp mod to my old box, had rrod (error 0020) and replaced the xclamps with simple screws, same pitch and diameter as the old xclamp stays which just unscrewed from the clamps.
My 0020 error was caused by the rear-right of the GPU lifting slightly from board warpage, so an extra bit of turn on that corner and it fired straight back up again... bit of a pisser tho since I've already bought a new xbox, but hey ho - no biggie!
My 0020 error was caused by the rear-right of the GPU lifting slightly from board warpage, so an extra bit of turn on that corner and it fired straight back up again... bit of a pisser tho since I've already bought a new xbox, but hey ho - no biggie!
I've tried this now and no joy. Looks like back to drawing board, will try and reflow the chip before mounting the heatsink on tomorrow.
I have got error code 0102 which is 'GPU Error, this is usually caused by a cold solder joint between the GPU and the mainboard.'
So will re heat tommorrow!!
I have got error code 0102 which is 'GPU Error, this is usually caused by a cold solder joint between the GPU and the mainboard.'
So will re heat tommorrow!!
I have re-heated but now getting a Over heating diaply - 2 red lights. Upto now have been using some thermal paste from maplins going to get some artic silver paste at lunch.
But here are things so far.
XBOX motherboard with GPU heatsink removed.
XBOX in pieces and spreadout
This is the back of the case cut to enable more air to escape from the GPU heatsink. The amount of extra air that comes out of the GPU fan now is huge!!
This is the fan cowling with a divider and extended to cover the GPU heatsink
This is the case with M5 bolts used as the X-clamp mod, with the motherboard in place these will screw into the heatsink.
I can't see the point in modding the CPU side as currently that works
Tim.
But here are things so far.
XBOX motherboard with GPU heatsink removed.
XBOX in pieces and spreadout
This is the back of the case cut to enable more air to escape from the GPU heatsink. The amount of extra air that comes out of the GPU fan now is huge!!
This is the fan cowling with a divider and extended to cover the GPU heatsink
This is the case with M5 bolts used as the X-clamp mod, with the motherboard in place these will screw into the heatsink.
I can't see the point in modding the CPU side as currently that works
Tim.
Edited by tim2100 on Friday 13th July 11:56
Another update
After getting some Coolermaster Thermal compound have put the xbox back together
Here it is running Forza quite comfortably Heat is transfering through to both the CPU & GPU using the cards on the fan cowling it creates quite a draft over the GPU heatsink.
However on when pressing down on the CPU the fans then slow down, this is indicating that the conductivity could be better so will wait for it to cool down and do the same case mod to the CPU side.
If anybody is thinking of doing this mod the use 15mm M5 machine bolts on the GPU as this will mean you will not need to modify the heatsink at all as the bolts screw into it comfortably. The CPU side doesn't matter on bolt length (within reason)
Tim.
After getting some Coolermaster Thermal compound have put the xbox back together
Here it is running Forza quite comfortably Heat is transfering through to both the CPU & GPU using the cards on the fan cowling it creates quite a draft over the GPU heatsink.
However on when pressing down on the CPU the fans then slow down, this is indicating that the conductivity could be better so will wait for it to cool down and do the same case mod to the CPU side.
If anybody is thinking of doing this mod the use 15mm M5 machine bolts on the GPU as this will mean you will not need to modify the heatsink at all as the bolts screw into it comfortably. The CPU side doesn't matter on bolt length (within reason)
Tim.
Seems to be working so far!!
Put the machine back together and brought it home. Had the console on for a couple of hours, fans kept nice and quiet, plenty of hot air out the back.
Had about 1 hour or so on Forza with no problems!! Apart from Console crashing when trying to get into nightly PH race for some reason, was able to get into others fine, So I think that that was an unrelated problem!!
Put the machine back together and brought it home. Had the console on for a couple of hours, fans kept nice and quiet, plenty of hot air out the back.
Had about 1 hour or so on Forza with no problems!! Apart from Console crashing when trying to get into nightly PH race for some reason, was able to get into others fine, So I think that that was an unrelated problem!!
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