Temporary fixes for the RROD

[IEatFriedPikmin]

I have heard of overheating the xbox 360 by covering it with towels and leaving it running for 20 minutes. Apparently it melts some of the parts so they are soldered together or something.... I am thinking about trying that, but doesn't that void the warranty?

This guy got a little creative:
http://www.xbox360forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44676
He took the plate off of the bottom of the 360 and used an oscillating fan to blow into it...I don't really see how that would make it work, but apparently it did for him:
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1668/xbox360tempoverheatingfsp3.jpg
He says it wouldn't void the warranty either... which doesn't make sense to me considering you have to take that vent off.

Anyone want to confirm the warranty issues for me? I am sending mine in and getting a new one, but i don't want to risk voiding any warranty. I would wait... but come on... 2-4 weeks is a long time. I want to at least play a decent amount of time before I send it in.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

I have read reports of people doing the towel trick and being able to still send in there console...

i'm going to do it. i'm scared. hopefully my 360 doesn't burn up.

[woundingchaney]

LOL Towel Trick


This is not a good idea. The concept is that your system gets hot enough to expand the connectors (damn concept simply sounds bad).

You are most likely simply going to have to send it in, are you getting teh rrod all the time???

Are you the one with the bad power brick???

[IEatFriedPikmin]

they will be sending me a new one. I should be getting a box to send my old one in sometime this week. Overall it is a 2-4 week wait. I have an important calc III exam thursday... so maybe I should just focus on that and not risk burning up my xbox. But after that test, I am going to be so miserable. I'll probably have to send my 360 in the next day... and then by the time I get it back, I bet I'll have like 4 tests in the same week.


Why the heck does this have to happen to me :( I sound like a 10 year old.

[Khaos]

Well, PC parts and heat NEVER mix. If it does indeed work, rest assured there will be some side effect. Like wounding said, if you are getting your console hot enough to expand those connectors, there's a great chance that something else will stop working. I'd just send it in if I were you.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

^there is literally no risk involved. they are sending me a new one... if they are going to send me a new one, I doubt they will open it up and try fixing it...

[OG_Monkey]

^there is literally no risk involved. they are sending me a new one... if they are going to send me a new one, I doubt they will open it up and try fixing it...

thats exactly it, they DONT fix em

[NoZ]

Nope Im the one with the faulty power brick.


You can take the vents off without voiding warranty. In fact, the xbox I sent in for repair, had flourescent green custom grills on it.

The towel trick is just the same idea as the heat gun trick, they just heat all the solder joints, temp fix but itll last a week or so.

[r33hash]

is there any way to fix the rubbing problem when the disc spins too fast? or does that only happen if the 360 is moved while a disc is running?

[woundingchaney]

is there any way to fix the rubbing problem when the disc spins too fast? or does that only happen if the 360 is moved while a disc is running?

Some people are stating they have disk scratching error without moving the console and in their scenario there isnt much that can be done. Although they are a limited few comparatively, moving the console while the disk is spinning will result in a scratched disk regardless though.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

omg IT WORKED!!!!

wow... and it wasn't hard at all.

What I did:
1.Took off HDD. Unplugged component cables and ethernet cable from 360.
2. Grabbed 3 regular bath towels. Turned on my 360, and then wrapped it up in the towels.
3. Waited 25 minutes.
4. Unwrapped from towels. Stood it up and waited 15 minutes.
5. Plugged everything back in. Turned it on. It worked.

I'm sooo freakin happy!

[Rabid]

My friend who works at GameStop got the RRoD last night, but he's not even gonna fuck with it, he's resigned himself to just buying a new 360 for tomorrow/tonight (he's getting it at midnight)

[IEatFriedPikmin]

^screw that... I would call M$ and then figure out how to temporarily fix it... sure you won't be able to play for a few weeks, but I would rather do that then spend $400.

[VideoGame mania]

Sure helps if you need complete Halo 3, but MS really pisses me off for saving cash on hardware quality.

[OG_Monkey]

exactly, its so stupid and they have YET to change the design, damn, just change it already and use quality parts!

[r33hash]

hm. well it makes me and my girlfriend very hestitant to purchase a game, if there is a chance that my 360 might scratch it without cause of doing so.

I guess I'll just give them a call.

[NoZ]

Its just certain 360s that scratch discs without having moved the 360. Unless you move it while its on, then it wont scratch the disc.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

mine does it over time as well... its not instantaneous. Guitar Hero 2 got scratched the fastest... about 3 months of playing and the 360 wouldn't read it. Hopefully my new one won't have that issue.

[nwo504]

i tried all of the "fixes" and they all work for a few weeks before craping out again. i just got my 360 back from being repaired from xbox-pros.com.

[frosty]

Its just certain 360s that scratch discs without having moved the 360. Unless you move it while its on, then it wont scratch the disc.

um... unless you have one of those "certain" 360s. From the sound of it, quite a few people do.

As for the towel tricks and such, please be careful, as it would suck for them to pull some "OMG j00 voided teh warrantiez!" crap from all that.

Come on MS. Get it together. I honestly feel like they would have had a real chance at taking the crown this gen, however the people they are pissing off with their faulty hardware... that's going to come back to haunt them. Look how long it took Sony to live down the PS2 DRE's, and that wasn't even a problem that ruined the system or it's games (in the sense that it could easily be repaired in most cases). I know that if I had spent $400 on a system and then a few more hundred on games, only to have the system destroy both itself and the games I bought for it, I'd never buy a MS product again.

This is something that MS should have nipped in the bud the second they started hearing about it. I know design changes require changes to be made to assembly lines and cost a lot of money, but I doubt it will top the $1.5 billion they are losing replacing dead units as well as the money they lose from the lack of consumer confidence in their product, which will undoubtedly cost many times more than that in the long run. Fixing the problem would have been (and still will be) a VERY worthy investment.

Odd that we seem to have had a complete turn around this gen.

PS2 excellent software, terrible hardware
Xbox, so-so software, excellent hardware

PS3 excellent hardware (I haven't turned off my PS3 in 2 months, no bullshit) so-so software (at least until next year)
Xbox 360 excellent software, absolutely fucking horrible hardware

[F089/H]

just be a rich lazy slob like me and go out and buy another 360 for emergencies....Matta fact, My(our) sponsors paid for that console...but For the last week I have finally been able play on my Elite for the first time in 2 months because I just sent it in for the 4th time in August...The fucking thing would play about one round of Gears or Uno, and it would just DIE.I couldn't believe it. but it seems to be fine, for now.

[the poe collector]

Put it in the freezer for a few hours.

[Hisham]

I hate Microsoft. They haven't really handled this RRoD problem that well.

Warrenty extentions are good, but there is only so much that is going to do. I'm still waiting on the new chips. Those can hopefully cut this problem down.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

^uhm... its all they can do now.

What they should have done in the first place is make a quality console. But that's too late, so what else can they really do?

[Hisham]

Well, they could have addressed the problem when it first sparked, not so late down the road. Because if I remember correctly, they didn't extend the warrenty till like 4-6 months after this problem became widespread. And on top of that, they don't even send out new 360's, just refurbished ones that have more of a chance of getting the RRoD.

What I want is them to get out the new chips faster so then I can go to EB and use my 1 year warrenty and get a new system with the new chips.

That being said, I really have no other complaints with the console.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

^the way it works if you get a RRoD is you send it in. They repair it, and send it back to you. If you get it a 2nd time, they will send you a new 360.... or at least that is what they told me, and that's what I have read. It is simply implausible for them to give out a new console to every customer who gets the RRoD the 2nd time.

I thought the newer 360s were starting to show up... i don't know though. They should get that console out as fast as they can.

[speed stick]

I tried that towel trick on my 360 a bunch of times before I sent it away. It never worked for me. So now I am still waiting for a new 360 to arrive. Yup, Halo 3 just sits there and does nothing.

[IEatFriedPikmin]

Mine broke again.

Decided to send it in while it was broken instead of trying the towel trick again.

[speed stick]

^Haha, thats a good idea to make sure its not working before you send it off. Nothing would be worse that if it decided to work when Microsoft receives it.