Xbox 360 red ring of death problems (finally) solved?
By Jacob Schulman 
posted March 1st 2009 6:31PM
posted March 1st 2009 6:31PM
[Via Yahoo! Games]
posted March 1st 2009 6:31PM
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Engadget, this was on Yahoo this morning.
Get on top of things. (:
I know right. Engadget should be reporting on things a full 30 minutes before they happen.
i kno i saw this on yahoo and said why didnt engadget have this first but its whatever cuz they never actually said why it is caused so fuck it
This was on other websites days ago.
actually this was on other sites (like qj.net) about a week/week and half ago. but this is a news site, and this is news, and it's on here. so i don't see where engadget went wrong.
but yeah, they never said what they actually fixed so i'm calling f*** you until i see proof.
r.i.p my elite.
How is this news? RRODs have been fixed since the 65nm switchover.
@ anus (nice name btw)
Well if you put 2 and 2 together, youll quickly realise that the word 'news' involves development coverage on NEW stories.
Thats why they dont call them 'olds'.
@yam spam...your logic is out of this world!
At least they got around to reporting it, do you people honestly need to know the moment the smallest bit of news occurs in the tech world?
Its called sunshine and fresh air....
@nerdtalker
Switching to 65nm only alleviated the problem, it certainly did nothing to conclusively fix it. The cause of the RROD is that the motherboard warps and flexes due to overheating and the GPU and/or CPU eventually become unseated. That's why most RROD warranty returns are repaired rather than replaced - because the RROD doesn't actually "fry" anything on your Xbox, it just requires the GPU to be re-secured. Switching to 65nm only reduces overheating but it doesn't change the basic design of the motherboard which does not secure the GPU sufficiently. Unless you call their pathetic attempt at gluing the corners of the GPU and CPU a "solution". I suppose it does address the proximal cause of RROD's, but it is about as much a "solution" as buying new clothes is a solution for being overweight.
By the way, I just had my second RROD (on a first-gen X360), so at the very least they had a couple years worth of warranty repairs that weren't sufficient to prevent RROD's completely. I didn't have my first RROD until a little over a year ago so there is a good chunk of 360 owners who had their consoles repaired like mine. This problem is hardly over.
They didnt report it cause AOL and Yahoo dont play nice.
@danotoriousb
[Its called sunshine and fresh air....]
worst. rpg. ever.
Great, although this should have been solved long ago, from the beginning even, perhaps they were desperate to release it early?
Of course they were; and it worked. The 360 built momentum and Microsoft is now an established player in the console market. Anything can happen after you release one machine, but to follow it up with a second, more successful machine makes you an established part of the industry.
@KarlW: Of course, you could always fumble on the third console like Sony did with the PS3. Then the earlier successes don't mean very much.
I fixed my Xbox 360 freezing issues with this...
They wanted market share over Sony.
@ Omar
id love to c a Microsoft console sell at the price of the ps3 and still be outselling (based on first year sales) another console.
Dammit Microsoft, what CAUSES these? Heat? Vibration? Solar flares?
free radicals...you know, rogue electrons
@Mike You might want to retake Chemistry class. Free radicals are just the opposite – ions (atoms with some number of electrons stripped off).
Everybody knows it´s them damn Gremlins! :D
It was either a Zionist conspiracy, or Al-Quaeda. Take your pick.
After fixing it twice, I finally realized that it's the cooling sealant on the CPU. The console produces too much heat, and it melts/burns away. After it was gone, the CPU would just burn up.
Trolls. Trolls like flashpoint and ieye.
Yay, so everyone go out and buy new units, so yo won't have to worry about red-ringing any more!
Next thing to worry about is outdated graphics with all that new PS3 violence coming out.
@ IPriest
I am assuming that you keep having wet dreams that this would happen on the PS3? I feel for you and wish that your wishes come out before the next century.
lol, I have an original 360 (with the hitachi drive no less) and the first thing I did before even playing 1 hour on the unit was to take it apart (totally voiding the warranty of course) and mod the heatsink mount. I also replaced the crappy thermal grease with MX-2. Figured it made more sense to start out keeping motherboard strain and heat low than to wait for the thing to inevitably bend and kill contact with the processor.
It still hasn't RROD'ed on me so I guess it worked. But then again I don't game as much as the hardcore.
Still, it's already more reliable than my Dreamcast was (faulty lid sensor), so that's something.
This survey is pretty sad though:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175137
I love the repeat failures, lol.
So they fixed again, for the last time?
I thought they fixed this 5 chipsets ago...
I heard RRoD is now a system exclusive.
I think what they're saying here is they finally figured out how to repair the original console designs once and for all.
Is this version 3 of the 360? Then I'd believe it was really fixed.
Or, maybe they didn't fix it but named it something different in a focus group and made a commercial about it. And then made a different really expensive commercial that didn't have anything to do with the 360.
Mine died this morning :/
lol you should post that on fmylife.com!
Great job guys! It only took 3.5 years to figure out what the problem was...
ya beat me to it.
I think its could be to do with heat and the IC's (cpu&gpu) and maybe lead-free solder
As the IC's are BGA they will react to heat in a different way to the PCB material they are mounted to
as they heat up at different rates they cause dry joints on the BGA, this is most likely a process issue with the way they were first built.
that's why the use the mods that pull the chip closer to the the board by putting pressure on it...
well that's what I think anyway!
Just got my Xbox Elite back from RROD Repair like a week ago, the unit was only about 1 year old. So no the problem is not solved because most of the units out there could still fail. As far as I know only the new lower voltage Jasper units potentially have this issue fixed.
Mine died ten minutes ago
Fitting avatar.
And my second console died a couple days ago. The coffin is set to arrive on tuesday.
I have a 360 elite. It got the red ring of death. Sent it in. Got a replacement and it freezes all the time. The customer service is horrible and makes you wait around for 3 weeks without an xbox. I'm never buying a microsoft gaming system again. Well more like never buying a microsoft product again. Unless I want an overpriced paper weight and then I might purchase a zune.
I've still got my original Xbox 360, bought on launch day, and fortunately it hasn't RRoD'd yet. However, does anyone know what MS's policy would be on repairs for such an old Xbox just in case something did happen? I recall hearing that MS extended the warranty of all Xboxes to 3 years, but as I understand it, that would mean my warranty still ran out last November. So I guess what I'm wondering is, will MS be covering repairs for what sounds like a known defect even if it's now out of warranty, or if the worst does happen, would I need to plan on paying for repairs or just buying a new Xbox?
i think they charge you £60 if your xbox is out of warenty.
There are repair kits on ebay. I'm getting my xbox back this week from MS but I'm thinking about buying a kit to have on hand just in case it happens again.
I didn't like being without my xbox for 3 weeks.
you should call and say it RRoD now. send it in and they will do the heatsink fix either way. you can avoid the eventual RRoD this way. I did this with my launch 360 (over 3 years old now) that started to freeze about 4 months ago and it is still going strong now without the freezing.
I bought mine February 2006, and i haven't had any serious problems but I suspect that it's on its last legs. Would FNG's method work for me?
Not in a million years are they going to repair you console for free.
Your XBOX has lasted over three years. That's the end of the line free support for anything but motor vehicles.
my launch day 360 died last month, and it was out of warranty, but microsoft repaired and sent me a refurbished one for free.