Xbox Instant-Overheating Issue

[psychomedic]

I have an xbox that immediately overheats after turning it on (~5 seconds).  I've been to many different sites looking for advice with this problem, but most of the responses I get are just copypasta off of the xbox support site and really have nothing to do with my problem (is the back of the xbox clear? let it cool! just send it in to microsoft, lol! etc.).  It seems like you guys actually know what you're doing though so I hope someone could give me some advice about what I should do.

From the beginning:
I was playing the magic card game demo or something one day when my xbox overheated.  So I left it there for a while and came back later.  Turned it on a again and it pretty much overheated immediately.  
The next day, I turned on my xbox and it immediately overheated again.  Was very confused and it kept doing this so I looked up some stuff and did the xclamp fix.

After the xclamp fix it worked for about 30 min playing fallout 3, but then started doing it again...
It's currently open on the floor in nothing but the metal case and I'm messing with it trying to get it to work (been broken for about 2 months now) and I really have no idea what else to do.

The secret error code is 0013 which I believe is RAM overheating although I'm not sure which chip(s) the ram is and seriously doubt that it is on long enough for anything to get that hot.
The console won't turn off with the power switch after the error code comes on.
The fans spin so fast that I'm sure if I have it wings and wheels it would be flying around the room.


I used search and found some stuff about cutting the temperature trace on the cpu, and some other things, but since it's the RAM overheat code I'm not sure that would really help.

If anyone has any thought and could help me out that would be great.  Thanks.

EDIT: I have a new box, so if anyone has anything crazy short of sprinkling iron filings all over the thing, I'd prolly be up for it.

[Gazcoigne]

you need to reflow the RAM chips with a heatgun

they are located beside and below the GPU 4 on the top and bottom of the mobo

once they are reflowed the 2RLOD will stop

[johnsmith]

I had the same issue e few days before.

Have you soldered anything to C2A7? (top of the board, close to the lan chipset)
Previous owner did a fan mod using diodes and soldered it in C2A7. It become fragile and broken with a single touch.
Took it out, console worked fine but fans never went faster even when the console become hot.
Replaced it using one from another board and voila. It's working like new.

BUT it can be indeed the ram that needs a reflow.

[shogoz]

a question i know the answer to! (or think i do). i got the two red rings from overheating after i did the heatgun. What you need to try is replace the crappy microsoft compound with silver arctic 5. make sure the inferior compound is completely cleaned off (rub it with alcohol and a cotton wool bud) and coat the three things that were covered by the compound by the arctic silver 5 or better. also, ive read that it may have something to do with the xclamps and the screws on the two vents that are xclamped not being tight enough. i know this is months later but i hope it helps somebody fix their problem. my xbox ran fine with no overheating issue after this.

[l_oliveira]

BUT it can be indeed the ram that needs a reflow.

I aways laugh when I see people saying that they reflow the RAM chips.

I never had to do such a thing. The problem is aways under the GPU or is the GPU itself.

Now for fast overheating it's aways the heatsink sitting wrong, not touching the die properly or (and instead of "or") thermal compound is badly applied.

And people saying things about RAM temperature... That's the MOST HILARIOUS thing about all this. There is NO RAM TEMPERATURE sensor. There is a MOTHERBOARD temperature sensor which ironically is right by the EJECT button (Q1G3 is the motherboard temperature sensor) quite far from the  RAM chips...

[Gazcoigne]

I aways laugh when I see people saying that they reflow the RAM chips.

I never had to do such a thing. The problem is aways under the GPU or is the GPU itself.

Now for fast overheating it's aways the heatsink sitting wrong, not touching the die properly or (and instead of "or") thermal compound is badly applied.

And people saying things about RAM temperature... That's the MOST HILARIOUS thing about all this. There is NO RAM TEMPERATURE sensor. There is a MOTHERBOARD temperature sensor which ironically is right by the EJECT button (Q1G3 is the motherboard temperature sensor) quite far from the  RAM chips...

laugh away, ive fixed two consoles with purely RAM issues, didnt touch the GPU at all. Just coz you havent seen it doesnt mean that it cant happen, thats a bit presumptious and arrogant TBH.

the two consoles ive repaired have yet to 2RROD again since i done the reflow.

ive done enough consoles to know how to apply thermal paste and the heatsinks correctly, trust me that is not the issue.

badly installed paste/heatsinks 2RROD slowly as the heat builds up.

RAM BGA problems 2RROD as soon as you boot it up with fans at maximum speed straight away.

[miragui]

A defective temp sensor could also be a problem.

[l_oliveira]

These consoles are highly likely to have started working again just because you took their boards out of the metal cage.

It's impossible to take a board out of the metal cage without bending it a bit.

And again, the RAM chips do not get hot enough to have soldering problems due to heating.

I'm not saying it does not happen. I'm saying it's not related to the *main* cause of the 3ROD or 2ROD at all. Consoles with bad soldering on the RAM chips actually made out of the factory with the RAM chips poorly soldered. And that was one of the causes of early system failures back in 2005.

That's one of the reasons why people keep talking about RAM reflow currently.

Reflowing RAM is just you wasting your time which could be used on something more effective (like reballing the real culprit, the GPU.)...


Regarding a defective temperature sensor, you can change the SMC_Config to some impossible temperature like 999C to prevent the system from shutting down and then go to some application like xexmenu to discover which temperature sensor is reading wrong values.

xexmenu has the motherboard sensor labeled properly ("MB:") by the way.

[Gazcoigne]

These consoles are highly likely to have started working again just because you took their boards out of the metal cage.

funny they 2RROD'd when inside the chassis and also when completely stripped, and only booted if there was pressure on the RAM chips.

when the RAM chips were reflowed the consoles booted again, and have done so to this day (friends consoles that only i mod/fix)

I acknowledge the fact that removing the mobo is enough to cause RROD, but this was not the case for these two particular boxes.

the RAM chips were defo badly soldered to the board, and had to be reflowed to work correctly.

[l_oliveira]

funny they 2RROD'd when inside the chassis and also when completely stripped, and only booted if there was pressure on the RAM chips.

When you press the board anywhere you change the form of the board and for example causes the GPU chip die to touch the heatsink better.
Or for example on some cases the thermal element of the GPU (GPU has two) for either the GPU core or EDRAM has it's ball cracked and the heat signal is not reaching the HANA/ANA chip, making the SouthBridge have an wrong reading in return.

when the RAM chips were reflowed the consoles booted again, and have done so to this day (friends consoles that only i mod/fix)

That's not scientific as to "reflow" you have to dismantle the heatsink assembly and the act of dismantling and reassembling more than often cures overheat issues.

I acknowledge the fact that removing the mobo is enough to cause RROD, but this was not the case for these two particular boxes.

Again, that is not scientific as there's too many variables for you to get misleaded by ...

the RAM chips were defo badly soldered to the board, and had to be reflowed to work correctly.

Poor/faulty contact in the RAM data or address lines will give you 0102  (E18)
Short circuit in the RAM data or address lines will give you 0110  (E24)

While these faults MIGHT happen under the RAM chips, their area, size and the fact that they do not heat enough to cause damage to their own solder makes it extremely unlikely for them to be the cause of the problem.

I suppose I know what I am talking about ...





13GUPs, 3 CPUs all screwed up, taken out from boards that had them replaced with good chips

The CPUs in particular were replaced to revive boards which were ruined by lost DVD KEY and had updated bootloaders. The donors were either JTAG'd or JTAG'able so it was obviously worth the effort.

[ddxcb]

BUT it can be indeed the ram that needs a reflow.

I aways laugh when I see people saying that they reflow the RAM chips.

I never had to do such a thing. The problem is aways under the GPU or is the GPU itself.

Now for fast overheating it's aways the heatsink sitting wrong, not touching the die properly or (and instead of "or") thermal compound is badly applied.

And people saying things about RAM temperature... That's the MOST HILARIOUS thing about all this. There is NO RAM TEMPERATURE sensor. There is a MOTHERBOARD temperature sensor which ironically is right by the EJECT button (Q1G3 is the motherboard temperature sensor) quite far from the  RAM chips...

so thats why i got a motherboard that is error by ram overheating/cold solder joint.

[bidomo]

I suppose I know what I am talking about ...





13GUPs, 3 CPUs all screwed up, taken out from boards that had them replaced with good chips

The CPUs in particular were replaced to revive boards which were ruined by lost DVD KEY and had updated bootloaders. The donors were either JTAG'd or JTAG'able so it was obviously worth the effort.

I can say, I respect the both of you for your expertise, but I have to add, oliveira is right in this one...