Several months ago my XBox 360 got the dreaded ‘red rings of death’ but unfortunately it was outside the 3 year warranty period so I bought this kit in hopes to salvage it. First let me start of by saying that this kit DID help to fix my XBox (at least for the time being.) However I certainly wouldn’t say the process was easy. Foremost, the “official opening unlock tool” is worthless in my opinion. I used the tool exactly as described in the guide to remove the XBox casing and the tool bent and almost broke so I had to resort to a small screwdriver for the rest of the repair. The two small bottles of ‘cleaner’ and ‘purifier’ did absolutely nothing in regards to removing the old thermal paste from the XBox’s heatsinks, like they were intended to. I had to go and get Glue Be Gone which worked perfectly. And finally, I consider myself to be relatively knowledgeable in the tech field but I found the online guide (which consists of pictures and instructions, no video) to be confusing at times and it did not fully explain whole steps. For example when it came to removing the old thermal paste and applying the new paste (a crucial, if not the most important step) it was not pictured and the guide casually refers to what you’re supposed to clean off however since there was no diagram that labeled the inner parts of the XBox, I was lost. I used supplemental information the whole time from youtube and other websites when I got stuck. So all in all I think this kit is well worth the price if you are in the same predicament as I was. Just don’t expect the clearest directions or the best equipment (like I said, if you do purchase this, get some Glue Be Gone, and scrap the ‘official opening unlock tool for a very small screwdriver.)Hope this helps.
Rating: 3 / 5
EDIT: When I first got the kit the website was down and I couldn’t download the instructions so I thought it was a dud and gave it 1 star. Since then the website came back up and I have been able to fix two of my Xbox360s. I now give the kit 4 stars.
So far I ordered two of these kits (yes I was a dummy and bought another Xbox360 after the first one broke down) and both worked. I fixed my own and the other for my son so now he has an Xbox360 too. This kit is relatively simple to use if you follow the instructions which you will have to download from a website that is listed on a piece of paper with the kit. The first time it took me about two hours because I didn’t know how to open the Xbox360 up but after getting the disassembly and re-assembly process down I can do a repair in 30 – 45 mins.
A word of advice. Make sure you follow the instructions to the letter and use tape to hold the screws in place on the circuit board. If you did it the way I did, you will have to hold the circuit board face up (normal way) with the tape holding the screws in place and take the tape off carefully as you screw them back into the heat sink when you carefully place it on top of them. Otherwise the washers will come lose and go all over the place. You’ll find out what I’m talking about when you get there. Another good thing about this kit is you do NOT have to drill any holes to fix the unit.
On one of my Xboxes the power button was stuck when I put the faceplate back on. At first I kept disassembling the unit thinking I hadn’t put it back together correctly but then figured out that the plastic “springs” on the power button were warped and were pushing the button against the switch inside so that it was stuck when I put the faceplate back on. It also wouldn’t let the unit power on (even though you could take the faceplate off and push in on the switch and it would work) so I did one simple thing that fixed it. I took the faceplate off and used a hair dryer and heated the plastic springs up real good then pushed down on the button and springs until they laid flat and back in their original position. The “springs” were then flat again (before they were sort of a little curved and warped looking). I put the faceplate back on and “voila”; it fired right up! I thought I’d put this last little tidbit in in case someone else ran across the same problem.
The process was easier than I thought. The set includes everything you need to open up your xbox 360, it includes artic silver heatsink compound and cleaning acohal to wipe out the old excess heat compound.
Instuctions are not included, but they include this link to their website which has the instuctions. These are the following steps:
1) pull off your xbox 360 faceplate
2) Take off harddrive
3) stick the special unlocking tool into the the three holes, on the side of the vent and that allows you to pry the heat panels off
4) do the same thing to the bottom heat panel.( much easier, than the top )
5) Use your fingernails and pry off the front tabs ( yes, by doing this you’ll will void you warrenty )
6) Use the special unlocking tool and stick it in each individual holes. And pull the case off
7) Use the screwdrivers included with this set, to take off the screws on the metal case.
Take off the bottom case
9) You should be in the motherboard by now.
10)Take out the dvd drive and remove the cables attach to it.
11)Take out the wind tunnel
12)Unplug the fan and take it out.
13)Unscrew the screw near the power button and pull the power button board off
14)pry the two x-clamps that’s on the bottom of the board off
15)Take off both the gpu and the cpu heatsinks off.
16)Get some paper towels(that’s not included with this set) and dab some cleaning achohal onto it.
17)Use the paper towel, dabbed with cleaning achohal and wipe off the remaining heat sink, on both the gpu, cpu and don’t forget the bottom of the heatsinks
18)Have the screws included with this set ready
19)put the plastic washer through the screw and put the metal on top of both. Do this to each crew 8x
20)Once you put every screw, plastic and metal washers through each other, then, put them through the holes of where the x clamps once was.
21)Apply a little thermal compund onto both the gpus and the cpus and use a old credit card to spread a light layer onto the gpus and cpus
22)Put the heatsinks back on
23)do not tighten the screws back on all the way
24)Plug the av cable and the power brick back in, put the motherboard back in the metal casing and put in the power board.
25)Turn on the console, green lights should appear, wait for 5 minutes and let the console overheat to two red rings.
26)Take the power board out and take out the mother board(DO NOT TOUCH THE HEATSINKS, THEY ARE VERY HOT)
27)Unplug all cables
28)Tighten the screws in tightly.
29)Put the console back together and it should work
As you can see, the fix is very simple(you’ll get what I mean). Sorry for any unclear citings or directions, it’s very hard to make a fix tutorial without pictures. I recommend that you don’t follow my directions and go to youtube or the website, because I just wanted to give a overview on how to do it. Good luck and happy gaming:)
Had an RROD xbox from a friend which was given to me to practice with and found this repair kit here for a resonable price. I read a bunch of tutorials for RROD fix and when I read the one provided by this purchase I found it a bit off that it was totally different than the other tutorials. Finally decided to work on the Xbox when I got the kit, got a bit scared when I was doing the baking part as the fan went up in speed bit by bit. But even the fix did what the tutorial said and I tighten the bolts one last time and now the xbox is alive.
If anyone wants a D.I.Y repair I would say 3RedLightFix kit.
Rating: 5 / 5
Recently my 360 Red Ringed on me and, having already opened it up to fix the DVD drive, I decided to go out and by myself one of the new Jasper Chip sets, so that I’d have a reliable 360. But, for about $12 and an hour or two fiddling with it, I thought it would be worth a shot to see if I could get it working again.
Having already had to open my 360 before, I can remember how much of a pain it was. The tool that this kit comes with made opening it up laughably easy. You will want to be careful with it, though. The pointed end can break if you’re pushing down against a very solid surface, so make sure that you’ve chosen the correct hole with the clip behind it. With the two, and then five, punches on it, this tool made the hardest part of opening it with only a screwdriver (Had to have taken me at least an hour without this tool…) into something that only took half a minute, and maybe an extra pair of hands.
From there, the process of disassembling was just as easy. Just make sure you have ample table space to lay out all the parts.
The guide for this was a good help, overall. There was only one part where we needed to consult other material, and all that was needed was a better picture. Not too bad, but it was a pretty important step because if we had messed it up, it is possible to damage the motherboard. (The guide stresses this, that is why we looked up other material. Just to make sure we understood correctly.)
I would have liked some more pictures and descriptions of how to lay out the thermal paste, but I must have done that part right. My brother is playing Mercenaries 2, as we speak.
This kit here doesn’t come with the premium Arctic Silver (Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5 Grams) (If you want that, this kit does: Xbox 360 XCLAMP Repair Kit – 3 Red Light X-Clamp Fix w/ 3.5g Arctic Silver 5 & Opening Unlock Toolkit), but that didn’t seem to be an issue. The Star thermal paste seems to have done the job and comes with more than enough.
The only reason I am giving this 4 stars instead of 5 is that I feel the guide was pretty good, but could have been just a little bit better. If you have a Red Ringed 360, give this a shot. All you have to lose is $12 and a couple hours of work. Make sure you have an extra set of hands and read over the guide once before you start working.
Several months ago my XBox 360 got the dreaded ‘red rings of death’ but unfortunately it was outside the 3 year warranty period so I bought this kit in hopes to salvage it. First let me start of by saying that this kit DID help to fix my XBox (at least for the time being.) However I certainly wouldn’t say the process was easy. Foremost, the “official opening unlock tool” is worthless in my opinion. I used the tool exactly as described in the guide to remove the XBox casing and the tool bent and almost broke so I had to resort to a small screwdriver for the rest of the repair. The two small bottles of ‘cleaner’ and ‘purifier’ did absolutely nothing in regards to removing the old thermal paste from the XBox’s heatsinks, like they were intended to. I had to go and get Glue Be Gone which worked perfectly. And finally, I consider myself to be relatively knowledgeable in the tech field but I found the online guide (which consists of pictures and instructions, no video) to be confusing at times and it did not fully explain whole steps. For example when it came to removing the old thermal paste and applying the new paste (a crucial, if not the most important step) it was not pictured and the guide casually refers to what you’re supposed to clean off however since there was no diagram that labeled the inner parts of the XBox, I was lost. I used supplemental information the whole time from youtube and other websites when I got stuck. So all in all I think this kit is well worth the price if you are in the same predicament as I was. Just don’t expect the clearest directions or the best equipment (like I said, if you do purchase this, get some Glue Be Gone, and scrap the ‘official opening unlock tool for a very small screwdriver.)Hope this helps.
Rating: 3 / 5
EDIT: When I first got the kit the website was down and I couldn’t download the instructions so I thought it was a dud and gave it 1 star. Since then the website came back up and I have been able to fix two of my Xbox360s. I now give the kit 4 stars.
So far I ordered two of these kits (yes I was a dummy and bought another Xbox360 after the first one broke down) and both worked. I fixed my own and the other for my son so now he has an Xbox360 too. This kit is relatively simple to use if you follow the instructions which you will have to download from a website that is listed on a piece of paper with the kit. The first time it took me about two hours because I didn’t know how to open the Xbox360 up but after getting the disassembly and re-assembly process down I can do a repair in 30 – 45 mins.
A word of advice. Make sure you follow the instructions to the letter and use tape to hold the screws in place on the circuit board. If you did it the way I did, you will have to hold the circuit board face up (normal way) with the tape holding the screws in place and take the tape off carefully as you screw them back into the heat sink when you carefully place it on top of them. Otherwise the washers will come lose and go all over the place. You’ll find out what I’m talking about when you get there. Another good thing about this kit is you do NOT have to drill any holes to fix the unit.
On one of my Xboxes the power button was stuck when I put the faceplate back on. At first I kept disassembling the unit thinking I hadn’t put it back together correctly but then figured out that the plastic “springs” on the power button were warped and were pushing the button against the switch inside so that it was stuck when I put the faceplate back on. It also wouldn’t let the unit power on (even though you could take the faceplate off and push in on the switch and it would work) so I did one simple thing that fixed it. I took the faceplate off and used a hair dryer and heated the plastic springs up real good then pushed down on the button and springs until they laid flat and back in their original position. The “springs” were then flat again (before they were sort of a little curved and warped looking). I put the faceplate back on and “voila”; it fired right up! I thought I’d put this last little tidbit in in case someone else ran across the same problem.
Rating: 1 / 5
The process was easier than I thought. The set includes everything you need to open up your xbox 360, it includes artic silver heatsink compound and cleaning acohal to wipe out the old excess heat compound.
Instuctions are not included, but they include this link to their website which has the instuctions. These are the following steps:
1) pull off your xbox 360 faceplate
Take off the bottom case
2) Take off harddrive
3) stick the special unlocking tool into the the three holes, on the side of the vent and that allows you to pry the heat panels off
4) do the same thing to the bottom heat panel.( much easier, than the top )
5) Use your fingernails and pry off the front tabs ( yes, by doing this you’ll will void you warrenty )
6) Use the special unlocking tool and stick it in each individual holes. And pull the case off
7) Use the screwdrivers included with this set, to take off the screws on the metal case.
9) You should be in the motherboard by now.
10)Take out the dvd drive and remove the cables attach to it.
11)Take out the wind tunnel
12)Unplug the fan and take it out.
13)Unscrew the screw near the power button and pull the power button board off
14)pry the two x-clamps that’s on the bottom of the board off
15)Take off both the gpu and the cpu heatsinks off.
16)Get some paper towels(that’s not included with this set) and dab some cleaning achohal onto it.
17)Use the paper towel, dabbed with cleaning achohal and wipe off the remaining heat sink, on both the gpu, cpu and don’t forget the bottom of the heatsinks
18)Have the screws included with this set ready
19)put the plastic washer through the screw and put the metal on top of both. Do this to each crew 8x
20)Once you put every screw, plastic and metal washers through each other, then, put them through the holes of where the x clamps once was.
21)Apply a little thermal compund onto both the gpus and the cpus and use a old credit card to spread a light layer onto the gpus and cpus
22)Put the heatsinks back on
23)do not tighten the screws back on all the way
24)Plug the av cable and the power brick back in, put the motherboard back in the metal casing and put in the power board.
25)Turn on the console, green lights should appear, wait for 5 minutes and let the console overheat to two red rings.
26)Take the power board out and take out the mother board(DO NOT TOUCH THE HEATSINKS, THEY ARE VERY HOT)
27)Unplug all cables
28)Tighten the screws in tightly.
29)Put the console back together and it should work
As you can see, the fix is very simple(you’ll get what I mean). Sorry for any unclear citings or directions, it’s very hard to make a fix tutorial without pictures. I recommend that you don’t follow my directions and go to youtube or the website, because I just wanted to give a overview on how to do it. Good luck and happy gaming:)
Rating: 5 / 5
Had an RROD xbox from a friend which was given to me to practice with and found this repair kit here for a resonable price. I read a bunch of tutorials for RROD fix and when I read the one provided by this purchase I found it a bit off that it was totally different than the other tutorials. Finally decided to work on the Xbox when I got the kit, got a bit scared when I was doing the baking part as the fan went up in speed bit by bit. But even the fix did what the tutorial said and I tighten the bolts one last time and now the xbox is alive.
If anyone wants a D.I.Y repair I would say 3RedLightFix kit.
Rating: 5 / 5
Recently my 360 Red Ringed on me and, having already opened it up to fix the DVD drive, I decided to go out and by myself one of the new Jasper Chip sets, so that I’d have a reliable 360. But, for about $12 and an hour or two fiddling with it, I thought it would be worth a shot to see if I could get it working again.
Having already had to open my 360 before, I can remember how much of a pain it was. The tool that this kit comes with made opening it up laughably easy. You will want to be careful with it, though. The pointed end can break if you’re pushing down against a very solid surface, so make sure that you’ve chosen the correct hole with the clip behind it. With the two, and then five, punches on it, this tool made the hardest part of opening it with only a screwdriver (Had to have taken me at least an hour without this tool…) into something that only took half a minute, and maybe an extra pair of hands.
From there, the process of disassembling was just as easy. Just make sure you have ample table space to lay out all the parts.
The guide for this was a good help, overall. There was only one part where we needed to consult other material, and all that was needed was a better picture. Not too bad, but it was a pretty important step because if we had messed it up, it is possible to damage the motherboard. (The guide stresses this, that is why we looked up other material. Just to make sure we understood correctly.)
I would have liked some more pictures and descriptions of how to lay out the thermal paste, but I must have done that part right. My brother is playing Mercenaries 2, as we speak.
This kit here doesn’t come with the premium Arctic Silver (Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5 Grams) (If you want that, this kit does: Xbox 360 XCLAMP Repair Kit – 3 Red Light X-Clamp Fix w/ 3.5g Arctic Silver 5 & Opening Unlock Toolkit), but that didn’t seem to be an issue. The Star thermal paste seems to have done the job and comes with more than enough.
The only reason I am giving this 4 stars instead of 5 is that I feel the guide was pretty good, but could have been just a little bit better. If you have a Red Ringed 360, give this a shot. All you have to lose is $12 and a couple hours of work. Make sure you have an extra set of hands and read over the guide once before you start working.
Good luck!
Rating: 4 / 5