How to Repair your Xbox 360 when it has the Red Ring of Death (RROD)

How to Repair your Xbox 360 when it has the Red Ring of Death (RROD)

A step-by-step guide to repairing your xbox 360 when it has the Ring of Death.

Using the Xecuter RROD Kit Pro has been known to fix the following faults:

• Red Ring of Death; 3 red lights – 98% effective.
• Sound but no picture; no red lights – So far 95% effective in store.
• E74; Error 74 – Only 20% effective. Usually caused by HANA chip.

To repair your xbox 360 with the red ring of death (RROD), you will need an

You will also need:

There are enough tutorials out there on opening the xbox 360, so i will skip that part.

Remove the Thermal Pads

Once you have taken your motherboard out, turn it upside down.
If your motherboard has these pads, you will need to remove them.(picture below)

Remove the X-clamps

Next you will need to remove the X clamps.
Use your small flat screwdriver to lever them off as pictured below.
Be careful not to slip and scratch the motherboard.

Once you have removed two sides, the other two will come off by wiggling the X-clamp.

Remove the Second Heatsinks.

Repeat the process for the second X-clamp.
Lift the motherboard up and the two heatsinks should fall off.
If not, pull the heatsinks off.

Your heatsinks should look like those pictured below.
Newer versions also have an extra metal part.
You can see the old goo (thermal paste) on heatsinks.
This needs to be completely removed without scratching the heatsink surface.

Remove the Goo (Thermal Paste)

You want to use a cleaning cloth that is non-abrasive.
We use micro-fibre cloth.
If you are planning on doing a few of these, you can buy cheap micro-fibre by the meter at a fabric store.
You will also need Contact Cleaner!
Isopropyl Alcohol will work, but contact cleaner works so much better.
It is a good idea to avoid skin contact with the thermal paste.
Some thermal pastes are reportedly carcinogenic.(not good for you!)

Once the thermal paste is completely removed from the heat sinks, you will need to repeat the process on the cpu and gpu.

Remove the Heat sink Bolts

Both heat sinks have four bolts that need to be removed.
If you have an electric screwdriver, use this without any attachments. (as shown below)
If not, use a shifter or pliers as a last resort.

Open your Xecuter RROD Kit Pro

The RROD Kit Pro contains all of the parts you need to fix most Red Ring of Death errors.
You may have already opened your RROD Pro Kit to use the Tools for opening the Xbox 360.

Your RROD Kit Pro should contain:

Apply Thermal Paste

You should apply the thermal paste to the top of the gpu or cpu now.
Don’t apply to both at once.
It is harder to work with and will be messier.
Apply the thermal paste as a blob.
There is no need to spread it out.
The pressure from the heatsink will do this.

Insert the Four Heatsink Bolts

Insert Four Heatsink bolts, so you can attach the heatsink.
This is most easily done with the motherboard sideways, so you have access to both sides of the board.

Add the Washers

You need to add the Washers to the bolts on the top side of the Motherboard.
Add the nylon washer first, then the metal washer.

Attach the Heatsink

Now you can attach the heatsink.
You will need to turn each of the bolts to catch the thread on the heatsink.
If you don’t, when you tighten one bolt, you will lose the washers from the other bolts.
You should tighten 2 bolts diagonally, but not completely tight.
Just until you start to feel resistance.
Then tighten the other 2 bolts.
Once this is done, you can fully tighten all four screws.

Repeat with Second Heatsink

Pretty obvious.
Same as you just did, but with the other heatsink.
The bottom of the motherboard will look like this when you are finished.

Stick on Thermal Pads

The thermal pads need to go on the ram chips.
Peel away the paper backing from the thermal pads and stick them to the ram chips.
Once all four of these are in place, you can reassemble your xbox 360.

The Towel Trick

Once your xbox is together again, it may work straight away.
If not, you need to wrap it in towels or unplug the fans.
Either or both of these will overheat the xbox 360.
Once two red lights are showing on your xbox 360, you can switch it off.
Give it a few minutes to cool down and then turn it on normally, with fans plugged in and no towel wrapped around it.
Your xbox 360 should be working now.