Fixing an Xbox 360...
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CalcProgrammer1
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Hmm...now that's weird...there's only 3 motherboard revisions (Xenon, Zephyr, and Falcon). Xenon has no HDMI port and has a standard heatsink on the GPU, Zephyr and Falcon both have the extended heatsink and an HDMI port. Yours has no HDMI but it does have the extended heatsink? Did your friend previously send this console in for a warranty RRoD replacement/repair? I think that would be the only way because they swap the old heatsinks with the better ones when old units are fixed and shipped out. Maybe yours is one of the last Xenon boards to be built and ended up with the new heatsink...If it doesn't have the HDMI port then yours must be a Xenon (hardware revision 1, most prone to RRoD) board.
CalcProgrammer1
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Microsoft needs to rethink the whole console lol...2 fans isn't enough to cool a 3 core 3.2GHz CPU and a 500MHz Radeon-HD-equivalent GPU crammed into a case not much bigger than a laptop. The 360 has more power than a desktop computer, yet it doesn't have anywhere near the cooling it needs. It also has 90nm chips, which produce a lot of heat compared to newer processes. The Jasper board will use 65nm chips, which should significantly reduce the heat output, thus reducing chances of RRoD.
CalcProgrammer1
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I agree, the 360 seems to be doing very well despite hardware failures and RRoD. I am a Nintendo person, always have been, but when my friend gave me the broken 360 and I fixed it, I've found that it is a very good console. I went out and bought Halo 3 immediately and a few months of Live and love it (except when it crashes).
The Wii has some great games and controls, but the lack of HD and the low end graphics processor really put the games to shame. Originally I didn't think much of this, but after playing 360 on my 20" LCD monitor, there's an incredible difference. Xbox Live also rules, even though you have to pay for it, the seamless integration of chat, friends list, voice, and online game play is great.
As for the PS3... .... .....yeah...it's the PS3...no one liked it in the beginning, it was overpriced, had and still has very few games worth touching, needless features...yeah...not worth it at all.
The Wii has some great games and controls, but the lack of HD and the low end graphics processor really put the games to shame. Originally I didn't think much of this, but after playing 360 on my 20" LCD monitor, there's an incredible difference. Xbox Live also rules, even though you have to pay for it, the seamless integration of chat, friends list, voice, and online game play is great.
As for the PS3... .... .....yeah...it's the PS3...no one liked it in the beginning, it was overpriced, had and still has very few games worth touching, needless features...yeah...not worth it at all.
CalcProgrammer1
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The fan mod will improve cooling, but (in my case) not enough to stop RRoD. In some cases, it may be impossible to fix by just improving cooling, once the solder joints connecting the GPU chip to the motherboard fail, they will continue to fail in most cases. The RRoD is caused most of the time by failing connections. Microsoft used lead-free solder, which has a much higher melting point than lead-based solder, in the Xbox 360. The GPU and CPU chips are BGA (ball grid array) rather than the more common PGA (pin grid array) used in computers. This means that there are no pins sticking out of the chips. Instead, pads on the bottom of the chips each are covered with a small ball of solder. The motherboard also has a grid of pads. The chip is placed on the board, aligning the pads, and then the balls of solder are melted to secure the chip to the board. There are no pins going through the board or even to it, while most chips are anchored to the board with pins. Because of the high heat levels that the GPU chip makes while running, the solder joints between the GPU and board can form very fine cracks. If these cracks spread across the whole connection, that connection can break and cause a failure in the system. This failure will often cause the screen to lock up or disform, and then the system will detect it upon next boot and display the 3 red lights.
The X clamp fix attempts to use force to push the gap in the solder joint shut and reform the connection. Overheating the console attempts to expand the gap until it goes away and then to melt or soften the solder so that it can reform. This works, but after it cools and re-heats some more times (depending on the extent of failure, this can be many or few), the fixed joints can again come apart, as they aren't properly formed even though they are working.
Heating mods have to be very effective to truly put off the failure. Some people suggest using water cooling, which I think would work fairly well but would be very expensive. My suggestion is if you want to try a cooling mod, try the 12v fan mod, as it's very simple and it's also free. Be sure to leave enough wire (red and brown) on the plug that you can re-solder the fan back to it should you decide that the mod wasn't effective and want to quiet it back down (I accidentally pulled both wires from the connector and had to stuff new ones into the plug...I'm worried that they'll fall out because they are not secured by anything other than force). Also, if you're removing your fan mod, don't do what I did and just pull on the wire to get it to come off (I accidentally pulled off that surface mount chip shown in the picture on my guide...luckily that chip isn't necessary because the system runs fine without it, but if you solder to something more important...yeah).
The X clamp fix attempts to use force to push the gap in the solder joint shut and reform the connection. Overheating the console attempts to expand the gap until it goes away and then to melt or soften the solder so that it can reform. This works, but after it cools and re-heats some more times (depending on the extent of failure, this can be many or few), the fixed joints can again come apart, as they aren't properly formed even though they are working.
Heating mods have to be very effective to truly put off the failure. Some people suggest using water cooling, which I think would work fairly well but would be very expensive. My suggestion is if you want to try a cooling mod, try the 12v fan mod, as it's very simple and it's also free. Be sure to leave enough wire (red and brown) on the plug that you can re-solder the fan back to it should you decide that the mod wasn't effective and want to quiet it back down (I accidentally pulled both wires from the connector and had to stuff new ones into the plug...I'm worried that they'll fall out because they are not secured by anything other than force). Also, if you're removing your fan mod, don't do what I did and just pull on the wire to get it to come off (I accidentally pulled off that surface mount chip shown in the picture on my guide...luckily that chip isn't necessary because the system runs fine without it, but if you solder to something more important...yeah).
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