What to do with 2 Xbox 360's?

[FPSVictor]

I have 2 Xbox 360's. Once boots up, power, fans kick on but no video (this was given to me by a buddy to do whatever I wanted with). The other is a Red Ringed 360 with a fix that lasts a while, but then craps out again. I honestly think the stock fans are toasted, not spinning up to potential as I don't feel any heat coming out the back.

What should I do with them? I considered sending one of the Xbox's out to get repaired, but does anyone here know anything about modding or JTAG'ing a new Xbox? I'd like to mess with one loaded with COD or any FPS mods locally. I can't afford to have my gamertag banned after raking in a decent gamerscore, so it'll remain off Xbox Live.

[irixith]

I'm not entirely sure what to do with the one that's not outputting video. Might be worth sending that one in for a refurb.

The RROD box, you need to do two things -- fix the RAM solder and do the x-clamp fix. (Most people only do the x-clamp and miss the RAM.) Should bring it right back to life -- and if it doesn't have the dash update of death, you should be able to JTAG it comfortably.

[Niode]

System settings -> Console Settings -> System Info. That will tell you what dashboard revision you are running. If it's higher than 2.0.7371.0 it's impossible to JTAG. Also, it's not possible to downgrade a 360's dashboard. Sorry.

To fix your RRoD, you can follow my 'guide', this worked 100% for me straight away, can't say that it will last forever, but it's lasted since I did the 'fix'. It sees light use at friends houses that want to LAN a few 360s together so that might be why it hasn't broken again yet, it's definitely had a couple of hundred hours worth of use since the fix though but of course, your mileage may vary.

TAKE YOUR TIME. Trust me. Those x-clamps are a fucking bitch, I nearly twatted a capacitor off my motherboard by being too rough with it. Just be gentle and tease it up it will eventually pop off. If you can wait for the shipping get one of those. Especially if you're going to be opening and closing a couple of 360s over and over again (if it's jtaggable). I went from taking 30 minutes to open a 360 to 5 minutes and finished using that tool. It's awesome.

[FPSVictor]

I've already done the Xclamp repair. I followed the following instructions:
http://wheresbetter.com/cars/fix-for-the-3rlod.pdf

It worked great for 2 months after the "fix" but now is consistently dying. I'll check the firmware when I fix it again, if it runs stable enough, I'll see who locally can JTAG or maybe send it off, if the price is right. I know something can be done with this. Currently have it for sale on Craigslist for $80 bucks with 2 controllers, power supply, basically everything, because I know it can be fixed.

I suppose I can order a WhisperMax fan and new case since mine seems to have cracked after the first (take apart session) I just don't want to invest another $100 if it won't run stable.

I bought a new Arcade, stuck my 120GB HD on it and i've been using that. This spare 360 would be stuffed in my bedroom, slap on the Turtle Beaches when my wife goes to bed and game.

[Niode]

I've already done the Xclamp repair. I followed the following instructions:
http://wheresbetter.com/cars/fix-for-the-3rlod.pdf

It worked great for 2 months after the "fix" but now is consistently dying. I'll check the firmware when I fix it again, if it runs stable enough, I'll see who locally can JTAG or maybe send it off, if the price is right. I know something can be done with this. Currently have it for sale on Craigslist for $80 bucks with 2 controllers, power supply, basically everything, because I know it can be fixed.

I suppose I can order a WhisperMax fan and new case since mine seems to have cracked after the first (take apart session) I just don't want to invest another $100 if it won't run stable.

I bought a new Arcade, stuck my 120GB HD on it and i've been using that. This spare 360 would be stuffed in my bedroom, slap on the Turtle Beaches when my wife goes to bed and game.

The reason why it's not working all the time is because you haven't fixed the problem. You just expanded the motherboard to make the connection. To fix it properly you need to use flux (to stop solder bridges) and heat the motherboard to the point where solder flows. The 360 has a built in fail safe to stop the chips getting too hot. The tripping point is waaaaaay below the flowing point of solder (we don't need it to melt like on a solder iron IE around 270c upwards, we just need it to start to flow which can occur at a lower temp, overheating the 360 won't hit that temp, not even close). You must use some sort of heat source capable of bringing the board up to that temperature. Hence the method I used to fix my 360. I used an infrared heatgun that my painter/decorator friend had. The only way to fix a 360 permanently is to use an infrared BGA workstation and change the solder to some high quality leaded solder. It's the cheap crap unleaded solder that causes the RRoD in the vast majority of cases, either breaking under stress, or simply bridging a connection on the video chip IE the E74 error.

[FPSVictor]

Perfect, I'll take a look at your method this afternoon and visit some buddies at a tuning shop who custom make piggyback ECU's for high performance cars. They have a hell of a soldering station there.

[Niode]

Perfect, I'll take a look at your method this afternoon and visit some buddies at a tuning shop who custom make piggyback ECU's for high performance cars. They have a hell of a soldering station there.

It's not a soldering station you need. It's a BGA workstation. BGA = Ball Grid Array and is how the CPU/GPU is attached to the motherboard. It's not possible to get to the solder joints without heating the entire surface up uniformly and carefully lifting the chip off the motherboard.

[FPSVictor]

I found a place online that should be able to accomplish what's needed by looking at his videos on YouTube.

Let me know if this is what you're referring to.

[Hobie-wan]

I found a place online that should be able to accomplish what's needed by looking at his videos on YouTube.

Let me know if this is what you're referring to.

That works. They didn't use any flux though. Flux will clean the little oxidation spots from sparks jumping across the broken gap and will help the solder bridge back together as well. Measuring the temp helps you know you actually got hot enough to melt the solder. I just got a new multimeter myself that does temps, I should see if it measures hot enough if I do a 360 with my heat gun again. I just guessed and was careful both times before.

[Niode]

I found a place online that should be able to accomplish what's needed by looking at his videos on YouTube.

Let me know if this is what you're referring to.

That works. They didn't use any flux though. Flux will clean the little oxidation spots from sparks jumping across the broken gap and will help the solder bridge back together as well. Measuring the temp helps you know you actually got hot enough to melt the solder. I just got a new multimeter myself that does temps, I should see if it measures hot enough if I do a 360 with my heat gun again. I just guessed and was careful both times before.

I'm pretty confident in the fact that I used flux to fix my 360 is the reason my 360 is still running today. I did the same thing the guy in the video did, only with an infrared heat gun and less precision. Oh and of course, some flux. If you don't have access to a infra red heat gun then you're going to be better off getting somebody else to fix it for you rather than renting one. Still, if you've got access to one, it makes fixing 360s reliably, very easy and cheap.