****I FIXED IT****
** Here's a link to the post where I fixed it
** http://rpgmmag.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=124246#p124246
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*****(New Issues Linked Post)***
**Below is original post

Well my 360 Elite won't read discs. Everything else is fine just won't read any kind of disc. It knows whether there's a disc or not but it won't pick it up and spin. Just "Unplayable disc."

I thought that issue was resolved with the Elites. Plus I don't get the red ring of death. So I tried forcing one to see if it's self diagnostics work. I unplugged the a/v cable and turned it on and it just glowed "on" with no search for controllers and no fan activity. I then (with it still on) plugged the a/v cable back in and it then booted up as though I had just turned it on.

I don't plan on taking advantage of the warranty cuz I porbly won't be returned my own system and would always have to be signed into Live to us all my DLC. Time for some home remedies! I will poke around some faqs and forums and see if there are any other documented elite issues and see what they did. If all else fails I will just buy a new laser assembly and fix it myself. Just hope I don't snap those damn case tabs openning the thing or it won't ever close again...

No microsoft/360 sucks plz.

Good luck

Usually at my workplace, we recommend sending the system off to Microsoft. However, keep in mind that if you remove the void sticker and open the system, your warranty will be completely voided and microsoft won't service it at all.

Something to keep in mind before you open it up.

I hear you but I don't think the odds are in my favor of being returned my own system. They have a policy that after so long they return you a system so that you aren't away from your games for too long and get all upset. Problem bieng, if they haven't fixed your system, they will send you someone else's they did fix and you will never see yours again, rendering your DLC useless when not signed in to live.

I think now is just not a good time what with every one and thier sister taking advantage of the extended warranty for all the first gen 360's that died. They just won't have time to get to mine before the garanteed ship-back date. Thus I won't get my own system back. That is just unnacceptable for me. I have way too much DLC to worry about. Every one of my 36 games that has available DLC has it on my HDD and is tied to my consoles serial number. Also all of my Live Arcade games... Just not worth the risk. Besides I have made repairs on the oldschool xbox for the exact same reason, the only difference being I bought that system used and broken in order to fix it (and soon mod).

Thanks for the warning tho!

...

So I searched the webs for a DVD drive for the 360 that wouldn't require flashing and found little to none. The few I did find were from stores/individuals I couldn't trust. I ended up sending it to microsoft.

Just got my system back today. Wait that's not true, I got a system back. New serial number and new console ID.

My download content does not work on this system. It only works when signed in. Well not a huge problem but very annoying. If I want to play something my gf purchased on her account, I have to sign her in as well.

But what happens if I move to a place I can't get high speed internet? That is the case with a friend of mine. He moved to the middle of nowhere and can't get highspeed internet. So he can't play his 20 XLA games or his DLC for games like crackdown and halo.

I am in the long process of deleting all 463 individual DLC items from my system and redowloading them (well only the 50 or so that were purchased, the rest were free trials, vids, et cetera). According to Microsoft Support, once thats finished, I can contact them with a list of DLC and then they can step in and exchange licensing info from my old system to my 'new' one. I doubt it will work since it didn't for my friend, but I will keep my fingers crossed.

Lame.

I sympathize dude. That is very lame indeed.

Thats why I'll never ever buy a xbox 360, the console was rushed out and this is the result.

Heh, should have got a PS3. And in this scenario, I'll even step out of my usual and say even a Wii. ^_^

My 360 is better than yours.

Don't underestimate the power of the 'jinx.'

[Necro Post]
So what happened above ended with me sending it in and getting a replacement one.

Then the new one stopped reading discs too, so I put in a new dvd drive but kept the board from the old one as it is married to my 360. That worked great for 7 months. Still does I think.

Now, while playing L4D2 last night, it froze. The system was completely unresponsive. The tray would open and close, but it would not recognize any controller input or any controllers disconnecting or trying to connect. So I turned it off and back on.

Started playing again. Froze again. Off and on.

Froze again, this time during the initial boot up, then again while playing a game.

I am now going to play games off discs with no mem units or hdd plugged in and see what happens. Hopefully I can narrow it down to a diy fix rather than buying a new system.

[/Necro Post]

I again sympathize.

I only recently sent mine in and I am prepared for it to work for awhile when I get it back and then red ring again. I'll keep sending it back until the red ring warranty runs out, but there is no way in hell they'd ever get my money again. I would never buy a new one.

Ok, now I have the three lighted RRoD. It is apparently true, according to the internets, that well over ninety percent of all three rings are due to overheating. Most of which are just loosy heatsinks on the CPU. I plan to do several mods to remedy this.

The first one will be to reapply thermal paste to the CPU and GPU heatsinks. I will also extend the flow cover to reach the edge of the GPU heatsink. Next I will add a 12v fan to the elite's extra heatsink as well as a couple 30x30x10mm heatsinks for the chips MS didn't think mattered. Right above the new fan, I will add some ventilation to the case. I lay my system horizontally, so I also plan to add two 70mm fans to the bottom, which when horizontally is the side opposite the hdd. Finally, all of this MUST be powered externally as with the newer updates, MS can detect voltage fluctuations and will likely ban me if I use internal power. Another attempt to thwart modding. The fans I add will be intake and the oem fans will still be exhaust.

I'd suggest if you are pulling off heatsinks to look for alternate sinks. I have no idea what they look like, but they apparently suck at their job.

Oh man, if I could afford it right now, I would do this.
Case
CPU heatsink
GPU heatsink (same)

But I will likely just add some fans to the case it is in.
Speaking of fans, check out how dirty mine were!
Warning: Images are big enough to fill two monitors I'm too lazy to fix it so I will just spoiler them.


And here's where the two 30x30x10's are going


Here are the supplies I need:
40mm Fan
70mm Fan (x2)
Thermal Compound
Thermal Compound Remover (For the old stuff)

I already have the tools needed, I just need the above items and some time.

Almost took up both my monitors... I hate how large pictures are normally taken. There's absolutely no reason for it and no one is every going to NEED a picture that big.

But btw, that case is f*cking sexy man. Seriously. Lian Li has always has always made the best cases... they are expensive as hell, but they are the best, IMHO. I'm totally going to consider getting one of those.

Oh, my camera takes pictures at that resolution. Turns out that, when printed, they don't quite fill a standard sheet of paper. But for the internet, they should definately be shrunken.

Shame I didn't see this earlier before you got the RRoD

Your symptoms are definitely a cause of heat. With those fans I'm not surprised.. whoever had your system last (IE: Owned it and sent it in) was a smoker or had friends that smoked.

Which I'm guessing 90% of players who get the RRoD don't realize that just like a computer.. the Xbox and PS3 are hugely susceptible to smoking environments. I bought a power supply from a friend of mine (we actually traded up because I needed 50-75 more watts for my system to power ) and he was a heavy smoker.

He even sent the receipt with it and the purchase date was no more than 2 1/2 - 3 months (which isn't that long at all) and it was absolutely covered. After I cleaned it all up (before installing it the first time) it really did look like new. I advise a thorough cleaning with alcohol.. lots of alcohol

It'll take a bit to get through that mess.. if you want to use something more powerful on the fan itself make sure it's not something that will eat through plastic and around the wires use alcohol and nothing stronger. (My gunk was caked super hard I ended up using some around the house cleaner to get the thickest stuff off)

Sadly, even when I turned it on after hooking it in for the first time.. it smelled like smoke for atleast 3 days.. it was pretty horrific.. I just don't think he realized that it could do that

Sounds like a pretty sh*tty deal I got but it turned out to work fine (and still does for now) so I don't complain and I keep it pretty clean.

Good luck with the RRoD, man.. and I hope you get your DLC worked out.

Oh yeah, I got the DLC taken care of. There is a DLC management you can do once annually. Lets you move the rights from one system to another.

Turns out, I now know for a fact that it is overheating. There are, actually, secondary error codes that tell you what is specifically wrong with your 360. To see what yours are, turn it on, while giving you the RRoD, hold the wireless sync button, press eject. Note the flashing quadrants. Now while still holding the sync button, press eject again. Note flashing, press a third time, note, and a fourth time, note again. Finally press eject one last time and it should go back to the RRoD. Power down your system. If all four quadrants flash, that's 0, one is 1, two is 2, and three is 3. So put all four together and you get your error code. Mine is 0102 (E18). Now just google it or go to xbox-experts.com for a good guide to this.

The real problem is that the board warps a bit with the heat and causes the sinks to come loose. There's a fix for it. I am going to get this. It is better than the stock X-Clamp because it helps apply even pressure rather than a 2mm diameter point directly under the CPU and GPU. I will also be putting this heatsink on the southbridge of my 360. It is listed there for use on the original xbox but it is the same size needed for this. I will put a second one on the ANA/HANA chip which handles video output (transfers the framebuffer into all of the different signals: composite, s-video, RGB SCART, component, VGA, and HDMI.) I may also get these for the four ram chips, but two are already under the GPU heatsink, and on the elite, of the remaining two, one is directly under the copper pipe that goes to the additional GPU heatsink, so I may only be able to put one on my 360. The unused heatsinks will likely end up in my pc or in the other two 360s here.

I think I won't put the two 70mm fans on the bottom of my 360 or the 40mm on the GPU's additional heatsink, but rather just put one 80mm fan directly above it, mounted to the case. I will, of course, have to add a window to mount it in, but I think it will be for the best.

Jesus christ this is f*cking complicated.

Also, haha, yeah, he's really right about the smoking.
Man, when I was living in a house of 4 chainsmokers, three of which preferred to play video games stoned, and they went through two PS2s in the time I lived there.
We went through an XBOX, too, actually, but we never got another one.

sh*t, even with my new laptop, in my apartment which someone had affectionately nicknamed 'The Cancer Den', it aged pretty damn quickly.