Xbox 360 on its last legs?

[Dos_Box]

Get a call to sort out my kids Xbox 360 the other week as apparently it was freezing several minutes after booting.

I imediatly thought it must be overheating, so got it home and plugged it in. Sure enough, once the power button was pressed the fans were screaming.

I stripped it down and found very little thermal compound left on teh CPU and GPU.

I cleaned off the chips and coolers and ordered a tube of new stuff.

Today I finished reapplying the new compound and putting the 360 back together.

When I switched it back on the fans were nice and quiet (great, it's now running at the correct temp I thought) and it booted up fine.

I could navigate the menus fine and all was well. I then loaded up a game (Doom 3) and it locked up once more.

From this point every time I rebooted it kept locking up or failing to complete the boot process.

Now, I have done a fair bot of looking around and there are more than a few peopel who suffer similar symptoms on theirs over the years and my initial suspicion this evening of the previous overheating having casued damage to something hardware wise is starting to wane.

Has anyone else had this kind of behaviour from an Xbox 360 in the past, and if so, what did you do to fix it?

The Xbox is a Mk2 original format box (with the extra cooler+pipe on the GPU heatsink). I'm just trying to eake out another couple of months from it as their mum has bought them an Xbox One S for Xmas.

[crc-ict]

Had similar with my kids 360 too. Although ours never recovered at all.

 

Again, I think the initial overheating damaged the hardware.

 

If you want to spend a little bit of cash to tide them over, basic 360s are very cheap now at places like CeX if you've got any nearby with stock?

[ITGuyNW]

That Xbox will be at deaths door. You can repeat the process of stripping the parts down, cleaning etc and you'll get another boot up but it'll happen again.

[jmak]

Get a call to sort out my kids Xbox 360 the other week as apparently it was freezing several minutes after booting.

I imediatly thought it must be overheating, so got it home and plugged it in. Sure enough, once the power button was pressed the fans were screaming.

I stripped it down and found very little thermal compound left on teh CPU and GPU.

I cleaned off the chips and coolers and ordered a tube of new stuff.

Today I finished reapplying the new compound and putting the 360 back together.

 

Has anyone else had this kind of behaviour from an Xbox 360 in the past, and if so, what did you do to fix it?

 

I did this and got the same result - I assumed it was my incompetence.

 

Solution: replace Xbox

 

It took too much of my life failing to fix it. I like fixing the things that other folk leave around.

 

I hate failure.

[3s-gtech]

Does it have an internal HDD? The heat may have damaged that, and it'd fit the sort of symptoms you're experiencing. If not, I'd say it has expired

[Dos_Box]

Had similar with my kids 360 too. Although ours never recovered at all.

 

Again, I think the initial overheating damaged the hardware.

 

If you want to spend a little bit of cash to tide them over, basic 360s are very cheap now at places like CeX if you've got any nearby with stock?

 

I have a spare slim I can lend them, but they also have several more consoles they can use in the meantime. Best to leave it until Xmas for the big reveal.

[Dos_Box]

There are also some things I can try such as a system reset and clearing caches to do yet as others with freezing 360's have reported these have worked for them.

If these don't work (or it isn't stable enough for long enough) then it's off to the recycling centre with it.

[difinity]

It's usually the electrolytic capacitors in the 360 that cause random freezing. They filter the power to the CPU.

[Rob_D]

I'm sure you guys know more about this than me, but didn't the 360 thermal paste need to have a really high gold content to stop it melting under load or something?

[Dos_Box]

It's usually the electrolytic capacitors in the 360 that cause random freezing. They filter the power to the CPU.

 

I couldn't see any bulging on them, but obviosly, this does not mean they are not on their way out.

As regards the thermal paste, I have no idea, but there was very little left on there when I stripped it down and what there was left was rock hard.

The new paste seemed to have worked as the fans have gone back to 'normal' speed.

I think I am at the 'curious tinkering' phase now. If i can fix it then fine. If not, then it was worth a try anyway. We got it used off Ebay years back and have had very good use out of it.

[LukeRowberry]

It has been years since I faced this issue but switching it on and wrapping it in a towel for 15mins worked for me. I got an extra few months out of it! I guess it's like the old logic board in the oven thing.

[Dos_Box]

It has been years since I faced this issue but switching it on and wrapping it in a towel for 15mins worked for me. I got an extra few months out of it! I guess it's like the old logic board in the oven thing.

 

I've just stopped it from overheating!!

Joking aside, I can see where you are going with that and may give it a punt if all else fails.

 

Edited to add - At no point did I ever have the RROD which the towel trick seems to be designed for.

Edited October 12, 2018 by Dos_Box

[TomHD]

Depending on the model, the overheating may have warped the main board which has an effect on a graphics chip so you will only get the issues when that chip is called on which is typically when a game starts. For how much 360s are these days, have a look on FB Marketplace for best offers, you'd be best off buying a replacement than trying to fix this one Try to get the latest S or E model

[Dos_Box]

Depending on the model, the overheating may have warped the main board which has an effect on a graphics chip so you will only get the issues when that chip is called on which is typically when a game starts. For how much 360s are these days, have a look on FB Marketplace for best offers, you'd be best off buying a replacement than trying to fix this one Try to get the latest S or E model

 

The board didn't seem warped when I had it out and I shall let you all know how I get on with it this weekend.

[TomHD]

The board didn't seem warped when I had it out and I shall let you all know how I get on with it this weekend.

 

Hey, it may not looked warped but unfortunately the center point of the warping is pretty much the center of that graphics chip I mentioned, so even the slightest warping can disconnect that chip. Look up "xbox 360 x clamp fix" for more information

 

I'd have been more than happy to send you mine as it's collecting dust but since MS removed Trials Evolution from the store and there is no way of getting it on a new 360, mine has become one of my most prized possessions!

Edited October 12, 2018 by TomHD

[Dos_Box]

Well, it looks like @TomHD was correct.

I saw a lot of graphical issues over the weekend from the boot screen to the UI (forget about playing games!), but thanks to a 'spare' 360 I had I've managed to relocate their saved games to the cloud which is the thing they were most concerned about.

This machine really is toast now.

Thanks @TomHD, it's nice to know exactly just which bit was at fault, even if it couldn't be saved.