Home > Xbox 360 News > How to fix RROD (Three Red Rings of Death)

How to fix RROD (Three Red Rings of Death)

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Tools needed:

  • as5 silver thermal paste (ebay-£5 or pc shop in town, cheaper stuff-£3.50)
  • 8 M5 10MM screws (12mm  from rowlets- 80p for 10)
  • 28 5MM flat washers (10 for 35p at rowlets)
  • total cost: between £5 and £6.50

Time taken: approx 30 to 45 minuites

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Now lets remove the motherboard from the metal casing. Look at the powerswitch in the front. There are 3 Torx8 (T8) screws that you must remove. One of them is concealed by that white light diffuser. Memorize the position it is attached, so that you don’t accidently clip it on wrong, just to find out your 360 won’t turn on AFTER you reassemble it.

 

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After you remove the T8 screws, simply pull out the chip and set it aside. In some versions of the 360 there are a bunch of T8 screws that hold the motherboard from the bottom of the case. Unscew those, and your motherboard should come out of the metal casing.

Flip the motherboard over and face the culprit that has plagued your 360. Microsoft’s ingenuis Xclamps design. These Xclamps are the reason why your Xbox 360 gets the 3 red lights. My guess is that somebody got really stoned one night and decided to hold in these brackets by pressure, instead of the logical, conventional… screws. Instead of evenly distrubiting the pressure, it pushes down on the back of the cpu and gpu chips. When the 360 gets hot, the motherboard flexes. The combination of that and the xclamps pressing down on the chips causes the cheap bga solder connections underneath the chips to break. This is why the towel trick temporarily fixes this, it reflows the solder to create the connections again, but the xclamps are still there to screw it up again.

 

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Indulge yourself in prying those pieces of **** off the motherboard. I used pliers to get them off, but be VERY cautious not to damage the motherboard itself while you’re at it. You must pry off 2 out of 4 ends before they pop off.

 

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After removing the Xclamps, flip the mobo over to remove the heatsinks from the CPU(left) and the GPU(right, 2 chips; 1 big 1 small). Now stop, and lets take a moment to applaud to microsoft’s awesome thermal paste job, it looks like very few of it actually ended up on the CPU/GPU to conduct the heat released from the chips to the heatsinks. Great job microsoft.

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Use a 1/4″ socket to remove the screws from both heatsinks.

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Lets get the screws ready before we apply the thermal paste. I recommend putting 1 washer on the screw and then 2 washers between the motherboard and the heatsinks so that in case you tighten the screws a little too tight the heatsink won’t crush the chip. Now you are ready to apply the Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste.

But before that, I would suggest that you scrub off Microsoft’s thermal paste off the heatsinks AND the chips, be careful though not to actually damage the chips. Now put some AS5 on the CPU and on both chips of the GPU. Apply a reasonable amount of this stuff, don’t drown the chips in it because it might actually all get squeezed off the chips(just like it did for MS) if you apply too much pressure when screwing back the heatsinks.

 

 

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Top image is the GPU(2 chips)
Bottom is the CPU

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Now it’s time to put the heatsinks back on the CPU & GPU with the thermal paste on. Like I said before it is best to put 2 washers between the motherboard and the heatsinks.

 

 

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The tricky part is to actually screw in the screws onto the heatsinks without flipping the motherboard over. For the obvious reason of course. What I did was simply lift the motherboard up with my hand and turn the screws clockwise until they firmly held the heatsink in place. If you find that a little difficult you can slide the mobo over to the edge of the table just so you can screw them in. Don’t screw them in too tight, just enough so that it holds it in place.

 

 

 

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You should have something that resembles the picture below. Once again do not overtighten the screws, and don’t let them hang there too loosely.

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Now plug the front panel(where the On button is) back on, and also the fan. Do not put the heatpipe or the DVD rom in place yet though

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Plug the Xbox in to the power supply and the AV cable

 

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And turn it on using a remote or your controller. Most likely your 360 will still have the 3 red lights, and the reason for that is because the solder connections are still broken. Let’s fix that…

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And by let’s fix it I mean let’s let it fix itself. Turn the 360 on without the heatpipe so that it over heats and resolders the connections. If you get 2 red lights that means the screws are too loose. Correct that and let it stay on for about 10 minutes, until the fan gets to full power. I just let mine overheat until it turned itself off not to fry the CPU/GPU. After it goes off(or you turn it off) let it stand for about 10 more minutes without touching it(otherwise you’re screwed if you move it after it resoldered the connections).

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Now turn it back on and it should have green lights. If the AV cable isn’t plugged you will get 4 red lights, if it is plugged in to your TV, then you probably squeezed the thermal paste off the CPU and GPU while readjusting the screws. My first time repairing the 360 I had to take out the mobo from the metalcasing about a dozen times to make sure everything was done correctly, so if your first time isn’t a charm either try the above process several times to get it working.

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After you get the green lights, take it a part again(last time I promise) to tighten the heatsinks’ screws. Play around with your 360 before closing it up, make sure it works properly.

 

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AND THERE YOU GO YOUR DONE NOW YOU SHOULD NEVER AGAIN I PROMISE GET THE RED LIGHTS OR RROD!

Please as a thanks take a moment to signup to get free Xbox live gold and more from freebiejeebies.

 

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  1. Cody
    June 15th, 2009 at 11:07 | #1

    Dude nice tut worked great for me and only cost 4.00$ And you can actually see the pictures clearly. You need to make more Tutorials.

    Great Work!!

  2. admin
    June 15th, 2009 at 17:08 | #2

    Thanks…glad I could help!

  3. English
    July 5th, 2009 at 13:08 | #3

    nice tutorial, i have a problem, whan i press the power button, eject button or the controller the power light flashes green for like half a second and the light on the power brick goes red do you have any idea what i can do?. i hope u can help thanks in advance

  4. seth
    July 11th, 2009 at 18:00 | #4

    thanks!! so much man finally playing rock band and halo 3 again u the best!

  5. leigh
    July 11th, 2009 at 19:43 | #5

    thansk for the excellent guide mate tried this today and it worked first time

  6. smith
    July 11th, 2009 at 20:18 | #6

    weve also tested it with cod5, and its still going strong, hope it lasts, youve made our day ,so to people who think it doesnt work are truly wrong you just havnt done it right or its a differnt problem

  7. Dan
    July 12th, 2009 at 23:43 | #7

    Thanks alot, I had a problem with the xbox that warranty would not cover so I crack the seal and fixed it.(dust build up on laser eye and opening mechanism for tray.) Three months later RROD. Thought I was buying a new one till I found this. You saved me alot of money. Worked exactly like you said it would.

  8. Dauda
    July 16th, 2009 at 18:31 | #8

    Thank you so much!!! Got a 360 for free and thought I would give this a shot, worked a treat! Now I just need to get some games and a hard drive! Thanks again!!!

  9. perkisc
    July 18th, 2009 at 14:45 | #9

    Fantastic tutorial worked first time. Many thanks

  10. Rob
    August 3rd, 2009 at 00:11 | #10

    Hi,

    Great tutorial, I used this and cross referenced a few others. All went to plan apart from switching it back on for the first time (not fully assembled / no air tunnel). I get the Left 2 red lights flashing almost straight away, so it doesn’t give me RROD and then 2 red lights once its over heated.

    Any ideas to what I have done wrong? I’m experienced with building pc’s but this is my first time inside the 360.

    Thanks in advance
    Rob

  11. admin
    August 3rd, 2009 at 11:04 | #11

    Not too sure exactly what is wrong but I suggest you disassemble the Xbox again and use this way to get it to work. Im yet to see someone who has done it properly have RROD again.

  12. Mike
    August 4th, 2009 at 19:14 | #12

    Hi, I love this tutorial. The pictures are clear and I fixed my xbox with this method. I am currently in the process of fixing a friend’s with this method and am having one difficulty: when I attempt to overheat the xbox it gets incredibly hot, but will not register that it is overheating. I left it on for 6 minutes without the fan and the lights never switched from 3 to 2, and the heat-sinks were both very hot. what should I do?

    Rob, this is because the cpu doesn’t think you have re-installed the heat-sink. I would advise tightening the screws a little more if possible, and if that doesn’t work, try removing the metal washer between the heat sink and the motherboard.

  13. Mark Elsasser
    August 8th, 2009 at 07:28 | #13

    Hi, I tried a method similar to this and am having a problem. In his tutorial, i was told to leave the 2 red rings without fan or anything fan related in the xbox for 1 minute to overheat and solder etc. But the heat sinks never got hot, i then decided to try and leave it on longer, again did not begin to heat up. I plugged the fans back in and they start good but then go very hard and stop leaving 2 red rings and the heat sinks aren’t even warm. My screws are kind of big in the heads and i was wondering if that might be a problem, they are in pretty tight, but are sitting the mother board quite high, i even have to bend the board down and keep the cables plugged in to keep it even like it is supposed to be. Could that be the problem? If not then what else could it be?

  14. admin
    August 8th, 2009 at 20:31 | #14

    You hit the nail on the coffin that is the problem. get yourself smaller screws so the motherboard sits more’snug’ in the xbox and this also should make the heatsinks get hot. Or just use my method =)

  15. jay
    August 10th, 2009 at 03:33 | #15

    How long did it take for your xbox 360 to automatically shutoff? I had the 3 red lights and turned it off after about 10-15 mins of the fan fully being on and then I left it alone for 15 mins but I still had the 3 red lights. I’m going to try and leave it longer until it shuts off on its own but it seems like its working for everyone else.

    @mark: You can also remove 1 of the 2 washers between the heatsink and the motherboard, it will give you better contact with the heatsink. see if that gives you the 3 red lights

  16. Mark Elsasser
    August 10th, 2009 at 04:37 | #16

    Thanks very much! Also, i am trying to use Arctic Silver Ceramique instead of AS5. Will that make a difference?

  17. Reinhardt
    August 14th, 2009 at 08:25 | #17

    See, this guide is great, but ive been haveing trouble getting my hands on thermal grease, so i tryed to put thermal plastic(cocking) and that had the same effect(nothing). insted of 3 lights, there was 2.. is there anything you can use besides the grease that will do the job? because this stuff ive used, kinda stuck on the chip, not really greased on it… kinda like a peely glue.

    Any ideas…

  18. SettelingShadow
    August 14th, 2009 at 21:08 | #18

    Hey I have tried this. The problem that I am having is that the heatsinks will not get hot at all. The fans won’t spin nothing. I just have the RROD. I have used the screws like instructed. Any advice?

  19. Reinhardt
    August 14th, 2009 at 23:13 | #19

    ok, well i found some.. but now i got another probelm. ive read the other post’s btw…

    I turn on my xbox at set 16, and it right away goes to 2 red rings, but its not hot at all… and my fan goes on for like 5 secounds then shots off… ? help…please

  20. SettelingShadow
    August 15th, 2009 at 01:08 | #20

    Should the fans work when you do this correctly or after u let it overheat?

  21. TrojanBoii
    August 16th, 2009 at 08:20 | #21

    I swear to god man if this works for me ill bow before you! My 360 got the RRoD 3 weeks ago and ive literally dived into the net looking for good easy ways to fix this @#@!ing problem. I bought this 360 3 years ago its the 360 Pro 20GB and it fails now and i have a Nintendo 64 lying in a box somewhere that ive had for ten years. It just pisses me off!

  22. admin
    August 17th, 2009 at 10:58 | #22

    I havent used anything else before but you definately cant use a glue that will be peeling. Heres a link to some AS Paste http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202847867&listingid=46390045

  23. admin
    August 17th, 2009 at 11:00 | #23

    An above post from Jay gave a good way to sort this out

    ‘You can also remove 1 of the 2 washers between the heatsink and the motherboard, it will give you better contact with the heatsink. see if that gives you the 3 red lights’

    Hope that helps

  24. admin
    August 17th, 2009 at 11:05 | #24

    You need to tighten the screws they are too lose and are not able to conduct the heat aswell to make the connections happen.

  25. admin
    August 17th, 2009 at 11:08 | #25

    You want to not put in the heat pipe as of yet because that will draw the heat away. Turn it on without the heatpipe in and the should work

  26. sean mitchell
    September 4th, 2009 at 00:51 | #26

    Thanks so much for this awesome straight forward tutorial. My 360 gave me RROD today and i found this, went to the hardware store and picked up the screws and an hour later my 360 is up and running again!

  27. Russell
    September 27th, 2009 at 15:33 | #27

    Brilliant guide mate – easy to follow, and works a treat. VERY happy with this, thanks a million!

  28. Dean
    October 17th, 2009 at 12:41 | #28

    Just wanted to say thank you,after reading your instructions i still got the 3 RROD but as i read the comments i found the solutions i removed one washer from both heatsinks and redid the process and its worked for an hour continueously. Thank you again my son is very appreciative.

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