Darn it: the dreaded RRoD strikes again!

[Schadenfreude]

I have an older-model 360 I got from a bud;
- It RRoD'd on him so he just gave it to me
- I took it to a kid who fixed by re-flowing, worked perfectly until recently (~1 year)
- As the title suggests, it RRoDs juuuust when I get a few games I was looking forward to (one of which I bought from fellow ATOT'er Kabob - thanks, btw!) and the wife was looking to pick up the Kinect!

Gah!

I suupose I'm going to have to go get the new Xbox + kinect bundle . . . *exaggerated SIGH*



[/needless rant]

Oh, I'd really appreciate it if some of you . . . "enthusiastic supporters" of other platforms didn't threadcrap here (or am I asking for it by saying that?); I'm looking at a particular poster, you know who you are . . . kthxbye!

 

[zerocool84]

My friend's launch 360 RRoD on many occassions. The launch 360 I was given never had it but I never played it much.

 

[RavenSEAL]

I don't even have to post in this thread....

 

[Aikouka]

What is this "re-flowing" that your friend did? Is that the whole "you overheat your xbox to make it reseat" thing that doesn't really work?

I used a $5 kit off Amazon and my 360 is still working.

 

[Schadenfreude]

What is this "re-flowing" that your friend did? Is that the whole "you overheat your xbox to make it reseat" thing that doesn't really work?

I used a $5 kit off Amazon and my 360 is still working.

Yeah that's what he did. Reading the review and I'll look into how to fix it some more; however I might go and pick up the new xbox anyways because:

- It's got wireless built-in and I hated having to move the LAN cabling everytime to hook up the 360 (it's not usually hooked up)
- I'm not too good with hardware and afraid I might mess it up; if I get the other one I might jump in and try to get it fixed; and if it does, an extra 360 won't hurt
- I got the one I had for free anyways so it's not too big of a loss.
- My wife wants to Kinect so I can buy the bundle : I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for black friday deals!

 

[purbeast0]

yea fixing an RRoD is always a temp fix.

it will come back ... tomorrow, few months, whatever ... it'll be back.

i stopped fixing em for people due to this reason.

 

[Drako]

LOL, at people that "reflow" by overheating components. You can't reflow lead free solder by overheating components, without causing internal chip damage, but people still try it.

 

[Aikouka]

- My wife wants to Kinect so I can buy the bundle : I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for black friday deals!

Just be aware that the bundles don't come with a Kinect power supply, so if you want to use it on an old 360 sometime (bring it to a friend's house or whatever), you'd have to buy an adapter. But last I heard, they weren't even available.

 

[fatpat268]

yea fixing an RRoD is always a temp fix.

it will come back ... tomorrow, few months, whatever ... it'll be back.

i stopped fixing em for people due to this reason.

Yea, I fixed a few on craigslist a year or so back. Some people came back within a week demanding a refund because their xbox didn't work anymore.

Fixing an rrod works, but that's true, it'll eventually come back. But hey, it's a relatively simple fix (and cheap), so it doesn't hurt to try it.

 

[mmntech]

yea fixing an RRoD is always a temp fix.

it will come back ... tomorrow, few months, whatever ... it'll be back.

i stopped fixing em for people due to this reason.

Same with the YLOD on the PS3s. I had three in the span of a year. Consumer electronics are not built to last these days. Blame RoHS for that. Crap solder combined with high heat components = recipe for disaster.

Reflowing is pretty straightforward. I've never done it on a 360 but I assume it's the same process as a PS3. You just need a heat gun, thermal grease, and time.

My suggestion is to get a 360 S or one of the fat "Jasper" models. They've largely solved the cooling issues with those.

 

[Malak]

Should have bought the better console instead. Plus the PS3 Move is better than Kinect.

There I crapped all over it.

 

[artemicion]

I have an older-model 360 I got from a bud;
- It RRoD'd on him so he just gave it to me
- I took it to a kid who fixed by re-flowing, worked perfectly until recently (~1 year)
- As the title suggests, it RRoDs juuuust when I get a few games I was looking forward to (one of which I bought from fellow ATOT'er Kabob - thanks, btw!) and the wife was looking to pick up the Kinect!

Gah!

I suupose I'm going to have to go get the new Xbox + kinect bundle . . . *exaggerated SIGH*



[/needless rant]

Oh, I'd really appreciate it if some of you . . . "enthusiastic supporters" of other platforms didn't threadcrap here (or am I asking for it by saying that?); I'm looking at a particular poster, you know who you are . . . kthxbye!

Since your name is Schadenfreude . . .

"HA HA"
-Nelson

 

[mmntech]

Should have bought the better console instead. Plus the PS3 Move is better than Kinect.

There I crapped all over it.

Three YLODs in one year man. :'(

 

[Schadenfreude]

Should have bought the better console instead. Plus the PS3 Move is better than Kinect.

There I crapped all over it.

What, the Nintendo Wii?

I already have that you silly, silly man!

Since your name is Schadenfreude . . .

"HA HA"
-Nelson

touché . . ..

 

[Malak]

Three YLODs in one year man. :'(

Your bad luck. 66% failure rate at the manufacturing plant for Xbox's. Nothing I can think of in electronics history has been so bad as the 360, and all it takes is removal of a stupid useless part on the motherboard to fix it. I'm not going to argue which console is better, that's just stupid. They are both great, they both have great qualities and both do some things better than the others. But you can never argue the quality of the initial products with each other. The Xbox loses, period. You'd be the only person I know that got a YLOD, and I have a launch system. My 360 was buried a long time ago.

 

[zephyrprime]

Your bad luck. 66% failure rate at the manufacturing plant for Xbox's. Nothing I can think of in electronics history has been so bad as the 360, and all it takes is removal of a stupid useless part on the motherboard to fix it. I'm not going to argue which console is better, that's just stupid. They are both great, they both have great qualities and both do some things better than the others. But you can never argue the quality of the initial products with each other. The Xbox loses, period. You'd be the only person I know that got a YLOD, and I have a launch system. My 360 was buried a long time ago.

It's not just the initial products either. The first four versions of the xbox were bad. It wasn't until the 65nm die shrink of the gpu that they fixed the problem. The 2nd version didn't even offer any attempts at a fix for the problem. The 2nd & 3rd versions slightly alleviated the problem somewhat by reducing cpu heat output. The 4th version finally added a secondary heatsink which delayed but didn't solve the problem. So for 3.5 years the xbox had the problem and MS didn't do hardly anything about it. Pure incompetence and stupidity. Balmer is a horrible CEO.

 

[RedRooster]

Whenever that happens to me(I'm on my fourth new one due to previous ones breaking), I look at it as a chance to clean the entertainment stand in preparation for the new one I'll be buying. Get in there with the vacuum and really do it up. Then your nice new slim XBox will be happy for a while.

 

[Raduque]

I think I still have the only daily-played, launch-day Xbox360 that's still running. Wonder if it's worth anything? :hmm:

I am starting to have a problem with the drive tray not wanting to open all the time, though.

 

[zephyrprime]

Whenever that happens to me(I'm on my fourth new one due to previous ones breaking),

Well the reason they keep breaking is because from 2005-2007, repaired xboxes weren't any different than regular xboxes! MS didn't improve the design or upgrade the cooling in repaired units. I think they put a little glue on the chips to help mechanically stabilize the board. They probably just reflowed the solder and tightened the heatsink screws. Eventually, MS started adding a better gpu heatsink to refurb units.

 

[Drako]

I think I still have the only daily-played, launch-day Xbox360 that's still running. :hmm:

You are not alone, I have one too, although it does not get played much anymore since I have new Kinect Slim .

 

[thescreensavers]

^ I am pretty sure all the newer of the older xboxs just had a heatpipe connected between the GPU and CPU heatsinks.

The GPU heatsink and the way they have airflow, no wonder why its overheating.

I wonder how much that heat pipe helps.

 

[zephyrprime]

^ I am pretty sure all the newer of the older xboxs just had a heatpipe connected between the GPU and CPU heatsinks.

The GPU heatsink and the way they have airflow, no wonder why its overheating.

I wonder how much that heat pipe helps.

The falcon (4th) xboxes had a gpu heatsink with a heatpipe. The first xbox360 has a heatpipe in the cpu cooler. The cpu and gpu heatsinks were always separate.

 

[Todd33]

After my third, I just got rid of it and ebayed my game collection. Never looked back and with all the spazztic kiddie Kinect stuff, looks like I won't miss it.

I also sold my Wii.

PS3 + PC is all anyone needs.

 

[gorcorps]

It's not just the initial products either. The first four versions of the xbox were bad. It wasn't until the 65nm die shrink of the gpu that they fixed the problem. The 2nd version didn't even offer any attempts at a fix for the problem. The 2nd & 3rd versions slightly alleviated the problem somewhat by reducing cpu heat output. The 4th version finally added a secondary heatsink which delayed but didn't solve the problem. So for 3.5 years the xbox had the problem and MS didn't do hardly anything about it. Pure incompetence and stupidity. Balmer is a horrible CEO.

Didn't do anything about it? They extended the warranty a lot further out to cover known issues and paid for shipping. Better than most companies would do.

I also don't see how Balmer has anything to do with it. MS is a monster company, with many managers in each division. Balmer most likely has very little to do with the console division.

 

[zerocool84]

Didn't do anything about it? They extended the warranty a lot further out to cover known issues and paid for shipping. Better than most companies would do.

I also don't see how Balmer has anything to do with it. MS is a monster company, with many managers in each division. Balmer most likely has very little to do with the console division.

They did that long after they knew about the problem, years after. Hell, they knew about the problem on day one and did nothing about it.