Quick update for everyone... I had a few 2 red lights error and a few 3 red lights error today. I rebooted a few times and managed to use the xbox. Later in the afternoon, the 3 red lights came back permanently.. So I opened up the box again (this time it was easier with experience), and had a look at the chips. There was some hidden thermal paste that I couldn't get at beneath the ICs yesterday and they had ooze out and shorted again... So I cleaned again with desolvent and alcohol... Put it back together and it work!!!! yay!!!

Not too sure how many times I have to redo this until all the thermal paste comes out.

but wouldn't it be risky to not put new thermal paste?

will be great if can u show us some photo hehehe.. ..

Had another 3 red lights episode and removed the heat sink and cleaned just the GPU chip... Just a little bit more remnant thermal paste to clean up beneath the IC. Put it back together and all OK for now... So it's 3 times now that I had to give my xbox 360 the kiss of life!!!

The thermal paste is basically to assist the transfer of heat between the chips and heat sink. However if there is good contact between the two, you should be OK. I don't think you will encounter any major problem without the thermal paste. The xbox is pretty good at switching into 2 red lights mode (over heating) whenever it gets too hot. I found that if you don't have the heat sink on or if it is not touching fully with the chip, it will go into overheated mode almost immediately. The thermal paste probably gives you maybe another 20-30% more heat transfer efficiency.

However if you use too much or low quality thermal paste, you will encounter the 3 red lights which is a worse problem to have... So for now, I am perservering without thermal paste..

IMHO better apply thermal paste, just for safety precautions

yeah bro...why not provide us with some pics n tutorial like video ..that would be very helpful indeed for us here ....btw to u coz managed to revive ur xbox 3 times oledi....did u use articlean to clean d thermal paste?

That is about 5% failure rate! Which is high.

to whom it may concern: saw some 'ayam' brand 1600w heatgun selling at Tesco PG last night for rm49.90. i assume other Tescos should hv it too.

There are other tutorials out there on how to open the xbox. The only thing different that I do is removing the heat sinks and removing and cleaning the thermal paste with a plastic knife and using cotton buds dipped with desolvent and alcohol. Not very exciting video/photo ops. Anyway I will take some photos next time I open the xbox.

I do not have articlean, so I use a desolvent called De-Solv-It bought from Ace hardware store. The only thing that I worry is that it might be corrosive. Hopefully the alcohol that I use afterwards will remove the desolvent. Better to use articlean if you can get it. Also use toothpicks to get at between the IC's legs

Be mindful that the 3 red lights problems does notnecesarily mean it is isolated to the processor/GPU chip only. There is a video tutorial at Xbox-Scene exemplifying a case where the culprit is not only the baked-off thermal paste at these 2 main chips, but also because the video RAM chips are overheating due to being in confined and cramped space in the vicinity of the heatsink. In another case, the solders around the IC circuits have been done poorly, resulting in broken contacts around the circuitry.

Hence why in the video tutorial, it is recommended to heat the area around the video RAM chips and surrrounding by the heat gun, to slowly melt the solders , improving contacts back again.

I hang out in other forum/boards as well, and their defects are more severe than simple baked-off thermal paste. And every single one of those brave souls there also agree that thermal paste is absolutely necessary, not only to provide thermal contact but because of the limited clearance between components within the immediate area. IIANM, direct contact between the heatsink and the processor, might results in a few video RAM chips being stifled of air cooling because the heatsink is in the way.

Just sharing what the others are experiencing in other forums.

Hikaru is living in Penang?
I might get the cap ayam heatgun to prevent any mishap happens!!

yep, Penang XB360 gamer here.

not to prevent the mishap with hot air gun but to revive the dead.

or maybe to repel the dead? lol, sorry, i was just being Dead Rising deprived.

This post has been edited by hikaru_x: Aug 23 2006, 03:45 PM

i might do some "ujikaji" thinking of using pc watercooler ...hmmm.. ..2 reasons (i think so) why its happened..stupid brick or gpu/cpu too hot..

This post has been edited by windows_sux: Aug 23 2006, 03:52 PM

oi. ko betul2 ada collect fund utk wii ka? hahahha. dah 300 tuh. Agaknya la kan, berapa harga bendalah tuh?

hahah tengah kumpul...hopefully tak mahal...budget around RM800-900?

Update: i just bought 360 console from darkchaser yesterday...(just wanna see if i can fix this thing- tak berani nak buat on my own 360 lol) as u all know his console is having lord of the ring saga (3 red lights) ..then i do everything that i read in internet (not open the case yet coz i waiting for my friend this weekend to open it - aku tak berani nak bukak) then somehow i gatal tangan i press and hold the sync button (u know that small white button), while holding that button i also press the eject button..then it will blinking/flashing red faster (4 red now) then i said WTF...i off then on it back its works lol...i turn off and unplug and replug and turn on it still working...now already 30 mins..aku nak cuba on for 1 hr then tidur coz already 4.20am today kerja hahaha ..so will give u guys some news tomorrow/today lol...either it will work or not...sleep tight guys..

This post has been edited by windows_sux: Aug 24 2006, 04:25 AM

still working windows_sux ?

If it works return the console back to me Don't repair so easily la, at least work for it so I don't feel bad selling to you

But seriously, play around with the console more.....so you can be our repairman in case anyone else's 360 dies