Xbox 360 Xclamp [Archive]

Llama Juice

February 16th, 2009, 12:03 PM

=sw=warlord

February 16th, 2009, 12:36 PM

Has anyone done this mod?

My 360 RRoD'd, I did the towel trick and it started working again... I haven't touched it since that night though. (Before it RRoD'd it would lock up no matter what after about a minute or two of gameplay.)

The warrenty is void, and I was just wondering if anyone else has done the Xclamp mod, and if it worked out well for them...
If it still has the security seal still, get it fixed by microsoft if not...then uyes the xclamp will be your best bet.
I fixed an xbox i intentionaly brought faulty off ebay, tightened the bolts cleaned it all up and fixed the air duct and just sold it off, got £10 profit though...

randreach454

February 16th, 2009, 03:23 PM

yea i used to do it all the time, works most of the time.
My advice is to be as careful as possible, and if problems still exist after say minutes of gaming, grab some thin cardboard and create a better air duct so that your GPU gets some air from the fans rather then it all going to the CPU.

Also, Microsoft's taken plenty of consoles from me where i voided the warranty, they don't check. You should have seen some of the shenanigans i sent them.

jcap

February 16th, 2009, 03:51 PM

Also, Microsoft's taken plenty of consoles from me where i voided the warranty, they don't check. You should have seen some of the shenanigans i sent them.
Really? That's pretty interesting. You mind going on about what condition the consoles were in? I'm curious to what extent they don't check.

I've never dealt with a console where the warranty was void, but I thought they probably never checked the sticker. They deal with thousands of consoles. It's easier and more cost effective to just scrap the old ones and send you a refurbished unit. They probably just scan your serial number so they know they received it, and then they ship you a new one, without actually bothering to look at the actual problem with it.

randreach454

February 16th, 2009, 10:47 PM

pretty much Ive sent consoles in where it didnt have a Microsoft sticker, and then I fucked up taking the silver microsoft sticker off another console just to be safe, so i stuck it on, and you could tell it was fucked so i was like hell, lets take a sharpie to the back of the sticker and see if it looks any better :-p obviously not. I fried my bro's 360 doing a x-clamp gone wrong, console was banned from live too, so i just swapped the cases and the serial sticker inside on the metal casing, got away with that.

Mr Buckshot

February 16th, 2009, 11:02 PM

My 2006 360 is still at MS for repairs (or actually, to be REPLACED with a refurbished unit)...I'm now using a brand new Arcade system (only $200 CDN even with exchange rate) with the Jasper mobo (65nm GPU and 65nm CPU) and my old hard drive. I didn't want to try the XClamp trick because while I may know how to assemble a computer, I'm not the most skilled electronics serviceman and so I was afraid to FUBAR my old 360 by trying out the XClamp and also voiding the warranty.

You can try out the XClamp trick if you feel you're sure you can follow the procedure without any screwips. But otherwise, send in the 360, or save up cash and grab a new Arcade and reuse your old hard drive (check Lot numbers on the box to make sure you get a Jasper mobo). The new mobo genuinely appears to be producing a lot less heat (heck its power brick has a lower wattage than before) and the optical drive isn't so noisy either.

Pyong Kawaguchi

February 17th, 2009, 07:24 PM

My friends has recently RRod'd so he's going to order the xclamp parts, and I'll fix it for him.

randreach454

February 17th, 2009, 11:05 PM

dont order parts for an xclamp fix, just go to lowes and get the right washers and bolts along with some thermal paste at either bestbuy or new egg or something.

Also, I've been reading on some private forums that the new 360's are now getting E74 errors a lot, which seems to be due to the ANA or HANA chip on the av port.

PlasbianX

February 18th, 2009, 05:58 PM

Sever

February 18th, 2009, 06:09 PM

Also, I've been reading on some private forums that the new 360's are now getting E74 errors a lot, which seems to be due to the ANA or HANA chip on the av port.I'm on that list. I've got the shipping package arriving in a couple of days - hopefully it'll be back before Halo Wars comes out. Does anybody have any idea how long the repairs for this problem usually take?

Pyong Kawaguchi

February 18th, 2009, 07:04 PM

From what I've heard, its about 3 weeks.

randreach454

February 18th, 2009, 10:48 PM

Yea usually takes me 2-3 weeks, good luck!

Con

February 20th, 2009, 01:59 AM

how the heck does this towel trick thing work? I don't understand how having the 360 cook itself for 10 minutes fixes the rrod :\

BobtheGreatII

February 20th, 2009, 02:06 AM

how the heck does this towel trick thing work? I don't understand how having the 360 cook itself for 10 minutes fixes the rrod :\

Gotta sign a contract with the devil first. :mysterysolved:

Llama Juice

February 20th, 2009, 08:02 AM

how the heck does this towel trick thing work? I don't understand how having the 360 cook itself for 10 minutes fixes the rrod :\

It doesn't "fix" anything.

It..

The RRoD is like a check engine light. There's something wrong with your system, but it still works.

When you cook your 360 it forgets that it's broken, and the RRoD (check engine light) is reset.

Syuusuke

February 20th, 2009, 09:54 AM

That's the kinda bad though...isn't it? It's like telling the 360, "Hey there's a problem, but let me put this towel over this so you can ignore it, yea, there we go, feel it?"

So LlamaJooce, are you waiting on the parts?

randreach454

February 20th, 2009, 01:53 PM

yea the towel trick will only make things worse down the line. What it does is your overheating the 360 purposely in hope to respread the thermal paste on the gpu, but what really happens is all that thermal paste is practially all off on the side of the gpu, doing nothing but making a short term fix.

MetKiller Joe

February 20th, 2009, 02:43 PM

The towel trick is an attempt at re-soldering the GPU contacts. It tries to heat them up, and then you pray that the solder will align again. Microsoft used cheap solder.

Llama Juice

February 20th, 2009, 04:21 PM

So LlamaJooce, are you waiting on the parts?

Yessir.

In the mean time I'm trying to repair my DDR pads.... *sigh*

=sw=warlord

February 22nd, 2009, 09:17 AM

The towel trick is an attempt at re-soldering the GPU contacts. It tries to heat them up, and then you pray that the solder will align again. Microsoft used cheap solder.
Last i remember unleaded solder actualy costs more than leaded solder.
Costs £8 for a large reel of leaded solder at maplins in the town not far from me but costs something like £14 for unleaded.
Leaded solder is more flexible than unleaded thus more reliable but also melts at a lower temperature than unleaded.
So in truth wrapping a towel arround the Xbox will do more damage than good it could even over heat the capacitors causing them to rupture.
And yes, i learned about this at college.

Llama Juice

February 25th, 2009, 02:22 PM

Well... I did it...

The Xbox is working again... but.. I'm not sure if it's "fixed" or if it's just playing nice for now.

I played GTA IV for like an hour last night, and L4D for about another hour today... no problems. *shrug*

I hope it's fixed lol.

Syuusuke

February 25th, 2009, 04:12 PM

Just wait a week.

randreach454

February 26th, 2009, 05:01 PM

its trial and error a lot of time with the bolts, not tightened enough or over tightened. Sounds like you got it just about right if its working, I would definitely stress test it for longer then an hour though. Good luck! Every one I've fixed still works to this day, so hopefully yours will.

Llama Juice

February 26th, 2009, 07:58 PM

I ran it for six hours today without any problems.

and Syuusuke I know the whole "towel trick = 1 week fix" thing and that's why I said I'm not all that confident in it lol.

I HOPE it's fixed... but I'm not banking on it.