XBox 360 X Clamp Fix

My xbox 360 recently tanked giving me an error different from the typical RROD (Red Ring Of Death) error. I couldn’t see any video. Audio would play fine, but, after a very breif cartoonish looking picture, the video capibility died. I searched for a few hours and found an inexpensive and fairly quick tutorial on how to do the the Xbox 360 X Clamp Fix which is said to repair the specific error I had as well as the RROD errors. The best part is that I didn’t have to pay to see videos or download a guide to know how to complete the task.

The first step is to see if your xbox is under warranty. If it is you can call microsoft and have the motherboard replaced. Microsoft has recognized the problem with the motherboards and have extended the warranty to cover many issues with the xbox. Just a reminder, when you open the case of your xbox your warranty is voided.

There are several sites that list the parts needed to repair the xbox 360 x clamp problem. I went to my local Lowes Home Improvement store and purchased all of the parts (including a torx screwdriver with changeable heads) for under $13. I purchased (10) M5-.80 pan head machine screws, (20) #10 Flat Nylon Washers. and (10) Flat metal washers. *Search the net for part numbers or to find the type of torx screws needed.* You will also need some thermal grease to replace the heatsinks on the motherboard. Arctic Sliver is known to be the best for this type of repair.

First, and the hardest part of the process, the removal of the case. The first step is just to go to youtube or do a simple google search for “how to remove xbox 360 case”. There are many different methods out there that are easy to follow.

Second, remove the CD drive eject button.

Third, remove the CD drive itself.

Fourth, unplug and remove the fan. Lift the metal slightly on top of the fan and then tilt forward for removal.

Fifth, with the torx screws removed from the x clamps on the bottom of the xbox you can carefully lift the motherboard out of the case.

Sixth, with the xclamps removed, take the heatsink off of the two (main processor and the video processor) processors.

Seventh, You will need to clean the old thermal grease off of the two processors and the heatsinks. Most people will use an alcohol pad to clean the surface. The Arctic silver grease will come with a cleaner sometimes. The common method used to realise if they are properly cleaned is that you can see yourself reflected in the processors like a mirror. Just make sure there isn’t any remaining on the parts.

Eighth, reapply the grease in the instructed fashion. Then use the nylon washers and metal washers to insulate the heatsink from touching the motherboard. This is a little tricky. It would be easier to do with another person around, but that is not required. I did mine alone.
Put the screws in from the underside of the motherboard with a metal washer and a nylon washer with the nylon washer touching the motherboard.
After the screw is through the motherboard put another nylon washer on it and then you can put another metal washer on top of that if you wish. Some people leave the last metal washer off or leave the metal washer off of the bottom side and put one on the topside of the motherboard. Then place the heatsinks on top of the screw and begin to tighten them. Do not tighten them all of the way. Just tighten enough for it to be snug. You will tighten them more after the next step.

Ninth, start putting the parts back in the case. Stop before putting the fan back in, but most will plug the CD drive back in.

Tenth, plug the xbox into the power supply. and turn on the xbox and leave it running until the red light appears on the front of the console.

Eleventh, unplug the console and tighten the screws to seal the heatsinks while they are still a little hot. Do not overtighten. they just need to be tight enough to make a good seal for the thermal grease and not allow the board to buckle around the processors.

Twelfth, let the xbox cool, put it back together, plug it up, cross your fingers, and turn it on.

This worked for me in the short term. It still might overheat. I had to repeat the process and situate the xbox to be in a cooler location or with a fan.

This was the XBox 360 Clamp Fix that I used. I hope it works well for you. If not, buy a new arcade version with the Jasper motherboard.

Another important thing is that the X Clamp fix is included within Everything4360.com and you can find an easy fix with videos for the X Clamp fix.

Access Everything4360.com right away to have an easy X Clamp Fix

How to Reset Xbox 360

Please check the following before continuing:
Make sure all the connections are plugged in correctly.
Make sure the Xbox 360 Console has power.
Make sure your TV or VCR is set to the correct Video Input. The Video Input name differs for different TVs or VCRs. For example, the input name may be Input Select, AUX, Line In, Line, In, Input, Source, or EXT. For more information, see the manual for the TV or for the VCR.

If the problem continues the try one of the following steps on How to Reset your Xbox 360.

If you get a picture without sound, follow these steps to reset your Xbox:
1. Make sure that you connect the video connectors and the audio connectors to the same input group on the back of the TV.
2. If you use digital audio, verify the following:
* Make sure that the audio receiver is turned on.
* Make sure that the audio output setting in the Xbox Dashboard corresponds to the setting on the TV.
* Make sure that you connect the console to the digital audio connector on the TV or audio receiver by using an S/PDIF optical connection or a “TosLink” cable.

If you get sound without a picture or bad picture, follow these steps to reset your Xbox:

1. Verify the following:
* Make sure that your TV is set to the same video broadcast system as your Xbox 360 console (PAL or NTSC). For example, if your Xbox 360 console is an NTSC console, make sure that your TV supports NTSC.
* If your Xbox 360 console is a PAL console, set your PAL settings to PAL 60.
* If your TV has a type of picture compensation enabled, disable it. Examples of picture compensation include the following:
Dynamic contrast
Automatic compensation
Contrast detection
Light detector
These features may have different names depending on the make and the model of your TV.
2. Turn off your Xbox 360 Console if its not already off.
3. Turn on your Xbox 360 Console.
*Note: If you are using an Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, turn on the console by using the Xbox Guide button on the controller. Wait for the guide light to indicate that the controller has linked to the console.
*Note: Make sure that you use the player one controller when you do this. The player one controller is indicated by the upper-left quadrant light on the console.
2. As the console starts up, hold the right trigger, and then press and hold the Y button as the console starts. If you see a picture on the display after you try this step, you can continue to use the 640×480 resolution, or you can try to use a higher resolution setting. If you still cannot see a picture, continue to the next steps.
3. Disconnect the VGA High Definition cable from the display, and then remove the console power cord from the power outlet.
4. Wait five seconds or so.
5. Reconnect the console power cord to the power outlet, and then turn on the console.
6. Reconnect the VGA High Definition cable to the display. If you can see a picture on the display after you try this step, you can continue to use the 640×480 resolution, or you can try to use a higher resolution setting.

How to Repair Xbox 360

How to repair xbox 360. There are many valid options for repairing your xbox 360, ranging from using xbox 360 repair manuals, to using youtube videos that show you in detail on how to repair your xbox 360.

Here are some of the ways in which you can get started on repairing for your xbox 360 and making the best out of your xbox 360.

1. The infamous towel trick

This trick is meant for as a quick fix for your xbox 360 as it temporarily fixes the xbox 360 for up to 3 to 4 weeks. Although a large number of bloggers and xbox 360 owners have verified that the towel trick does work, it is not recommended as it makes your xbox 360 last less throughout the months to come.

Prolonged use of the xbox 360 towel trick does make the trick last less each time, as each time, the components as weakened by the overheating. You can check out the towel trick.

2. Using repair guides and videos on youtube

This is a also a good way to fix your xbox 360 as there are plentiful “how to repair xbox 360″ videos that show directions on how to fix your xbox 360. However, most of these videos are very complicated and they require someone with quite an amount of technical skill in order to understand and repair the xbox 360.

Another problem with most of the videos on youtube is that they were not done in a professional manner and do not show in detail or in a easy step by step on how to fix the xbox 360.

If you are a technical newbie to all of this, I do heartily recommend not using the youtube videos because of the damage that it may cause to your xbox 360 if some of these youtube home-made videos are technical to understand.

3. Using repair guides that provide support and help

There are repair guides which provide one of the best solution, as they show you “how to repair xbox 360″ in detail, step by step, all the ways in which you can get a solution for your xbox 360 3 red lights. Most of these services or repair guides promises to make the repair as easy and newbie oriented as possible.

Most of these support guides provide you with 24/7 helpdesk support for getting your xbox 360 fixed. You can use these support lines at anytime to request for help on your xbox 360.

4. Local Repair Shops

Local repair shops around your vincity normally charge around near to $100 for a repair of your xbox 360 and may take up to 4 to 5 days. This service is good, provided that you do not mind the fee as compared to repairing your xbox 360 within 2 hours and for under $40.

There is a likelyhood that local shops also provide some form of warranty, such as giving you up to 1 week or so if in case the xbox 360 does break down again.

5. Sending to Microsoft for warranty repair

This costs one of the most, up $140 in repair costs and taking 4 to 8 weeks for your xbox 360 to complete fixing. This method is highly not recommended, as it is too costly and time consuming and not worth it to be doing so.

In conclusion

Which method is the best? If you compare all the methods, the easiest, fastest and most cost effective method of doing so (without harming your xbox 360) is to use a repair guide, such as the Xbox 360 Red Lights Fix Pro Gamer Edition (which specializes in giving a good fix on your xbox 360 three red lights) or using a service such Everything4360.com which gives a broad and wide range of services.

Xbox 360 Three Red Lights Fix In Spanish

This xbox 360 fix differs from the one that is promoted more often throughout this blog as it offers a spanish version of the xbox 360 fix.

Especially useful for spanish speaking people, this fix offers to fix your xbox 360 with spanish speaking video. If you are not spanish speaking, I highly recommend using the Xbox 360 Red Lights Fix Pro Gamer Edition instead.

The good part about this fix is that it offers videos (although not high definition) and also step by step instructions on how to disassemble your xbox 360 and do removal of the cooling agent on the heatsinks of the xbox 360 cpu.

Another good part about this guide is that it offers to give you a book that teaches you on how to become a video game tester. Although I didn’t apply the steps on this bonus guide on becoming a video game tester, it wouldn’t hurt to get this if you wanted to become one as for a career.

Another guide that this offers is on how to make money from home. I would warn you also to be skeptical on this guide, because it may or may not work after all.

After all, this product is good, especially if you are spanish speaking and would like to have videos in spanish on how to fix your xbox 360 three red lights problem. Here are all the four bonuses that are offered:-

• Getting xbox 360 games for free
• Becoming a video game tester
• 1/50 chance to win an xbox360 game of your choice
• Making money from home

which are useful to check them out here Xbox 360 Red Lights Fix In Spanish .

I do recommend that if don’t need these bonuses, to go for the bonuses that is within the Xbox 360 Red Light Fix Pro Gamer Edition, which is to upgrade your xbox 360 to high definition, a sweet deal that can be directly applied to your xbox 360 for it to show high definition.

5 Tips On Xbox 360 Maintenance And How Tos

Here are some tips and tricks on maintaining your xbox 360:-

1. Clean using a soft cloth

Clean the xbox 360 out by using a soft cloth that is slightly dipped in a bit of water. That would ease out the dirt and grime that is settling on it that you have.

2. Cleaning out the air ventilation holes

The vents at the xbox 360 are pretty important for keeping gaming machine cool and to prevent overheating and any of the red light signals from appearing on it. Some cotton buds may be necessary to clean out the vents on the xbox 360 to ensure that there is sufficient cooling on the machine.

3. Cleaning the disc tray

And also, don’t forget the disc tray! This is one overlooked aspect of cleaning, which can cause stuttering on it if there is dust on the lens or dust that gets on the disc. Ejecting the disk drive and cleaning it with the soft cloth does apply to be the same to make the tray clean for using discs.

4. Changing the positioning of the xbox 360

Change the position of the xbox 360 often. Whilst you can place the xbox 360 two ways, either standing up or lying down, the vents on the side of the casing whilst lying down horizontally affects the machine to be overheated as it blocks one of the vents on the side of the xbox 360. Change it often to a standing position of the xbox 360 as it gives the machine more air to ventilate and keeps it cool, preventing any of the xbox 360 red light problems.

5. Keeping the xbox 360 powered off and cool enough

Another very important tip, keep the xbox 360 switched off as much as possible. That is because most of the xbox 360 red light problems come from heating issues that normally plague the xbox. Ranging from the most common three red lights to the other problems such as one, two or even four red lights. Check out all of these problems on What is Xbox 360 Red Lights?

5 Important Reasons Why Not To Send Your Xbox 360 to Microsoft

Here are 5 important reasons why not to send your Xbox 360 to Microsoft.

1. The repairs are not guaranteed by Microsoft

The repairs that are done by Microsoft are not guaranteed and there is a high chance that the xbox 360 would still be broken right after the repairs are done on the system. Get a permanent fix for your xbox 360 that you will want to use for your system.

2. The costs to send your xbox 360 is very high

The costs that it takes for you to send your xbox 360 to Microsoft is over $140, much more than a typical xbox 360 three red lights fix, which is around $30 to $40. The local store that you can use to fix your xbox 360 will cost around near to $100 and typically around the $70 to $80 range. Get your xbox 360 fix that costs just $30 to save on xbox 360 repairs.

3. Sending Your Xbox 360 to Microsoft Takes Very Long

The time that is required for you to repair your xbox 360 can range from 2 weeks onwards if you choose to send your xbox 360 to Microsoft. This is considered to be a very long time as compared to the 2 hours of time that is simply required to repair your xbox 360 if you were to use the xbox 360 red light fix pro gamer edition. Get an xbox 360 fix that uses less than 2 hours to repair your xbox 360.

4. You can use the same fix for other xbox 360

When you purchase any of the guides for xbox 360 three red lights fix, the repair guide can be applied to any of the xbox 360 that you have that has the same problems. Heck, you can probably even charge other people for using the fix that you have done on their xbox 360 also. Get a xbox 360 fix that you can use to fix other xbox 360 also.

5. Get additional free guides to upgrade your xbox 360

When you send your xbox 360 over to Microsoft, repairs are done on the xbox 360, however, there are no additional freebies or guides that you can use for your xbox 360.  Get additional upgrade guides for your xbox 360 now.

What Is Xbox 360 Red Lights?

The xbox 360 red lights problem that is common amongst xbox 360 consoles is a common problem which renders the xbox unusable. Amongst all the errors that the xbox 360 has, the most prominent one is the three red rings of death or more commonly known as (RROD).

Red rings of death (RROD) has a high occurance rate within xbox 360 consoles of 16.4% (or 1 within 6 consoles that you purchase) and that there is a high chance that your console may have such a hardware failure or core digital failure.

An example of such a failure can be seen by the following picture, illustrating a picture of how the three red rings of failure looks like on the console:-

There are also other errors, and below is a summary of each of the errors that show up on the xbox 360 and their error codes:-

1 red light

E 74, E 79, E 71 is shown on screen and a solution to fix it is by ensuring that your A/V connections on your xbox 360 is secured. Another possible cause to the error is that there is a power surge or outage on your system.

2 red lights

The xbox 360 is overheating and it is best to switch off the xbox 360 and let it cool off for a few hours.  Another option would be to let the xbox 360 have sufficient ventilation by lifting off the bottom of the xbox 360 from the ground.

3 red lights

This is the most common error code and is caused by the poor soldering that is done on the xbox 360 one of the most common ways by which to solve this problem is to open up the xbox 360 to scrap off the solder for resoldering the system. A more comprehensive microsoft articles touches on this three red lights problems more specifically at xbox 360 red lights. And if you want to solve this problem of three red lights on your xbox 360, check out this xbox 360 three red lights fix for your xbox.

4 red lights

This error is similar to the 1 red light error with the exception that error codes are not shown on screen. The A/V connections have to be secured on your xbox 360 in this case. This error may also occur if there are power surges or very brief power outages whilst the console is running and the solution would be to unplug and plug back the power supply of the console.

In conclusion

What xbox 360 problems do you have on your system? Most of the problems on your xbox 360 can be solved by using guides or software for your system and do check out the service over at Everything4360.com for making the best and fixing your xbox 360.

There is also an alternative service at Xbox 360 Red Lights Fix Pro Gamer Edition which is specialized at solving the xbox 360 three red lights problem for your xbox 360. An additional upgrade is also offered by the fix and it gives you an additional free upgrade to your xbox 360 to support high definition, valuable and not offered by anyone or any other repair guides out on the internet.

Xbox 360 Towel Trick And If It Works

The towel trick of the xbox 360 involves putting your xbox 360 into three towels and wrapping the xbox in whilst it is powered on for about 20 to 30 minutes or so.

Does it work? Yes, definitely it does. But this fix is not for the long term because for such a complicated system as the xbox 360 that costs well over $200 that can be fixed by wrapping it into a few towels?

It actually doesn’t work well for it as by doing so, several parts within the xbox 360 will melt and depending on your luck the xbox 360 may be more severely damaged then before.

What the towel trick does is to melt away the lubricant that is between the heatsink and processor, and causes both components to mend together closer instead of leaving a gap prior to that. This way, the processor is not overheated and the heatsink can absorb the heat, leaving it working much better without the three rings of death.

Many other bloggers have also reported that the towel tricks does not work for them or that it is a temporary fix, lasting only 2 to 3 weeks, and have also discouraged use of the fix, because it may void the warranty of the xbox 360.

Here is a video that is shown on youtube on the towel trick:-

The video is quite informative (and hilarious ) and as you can see from the video, a fire extinguisher is recommended as the xbox 360 may catch on fire due to overheating of the internal components that are within the xbox 360.

Another caveat is that as you do the towel trick fix more, the life of the fix shortens considerably. If you do the fix the first time, you may prolong the life of the xbox 360 by 2 weeks or so. The later stages that when you use the towel fix, the life shortens considerably down to 4 or 5 days or so. Use with caution, as it also shortens the duration of many other components withinXbox the xbox 360.

My take? Not worth it. That is because given that you may void your xbox 360 warranty and also that it may not give you the neccessary permanent fix that you need to have a leisurely gaming experience for more than 6 months down the road.

If you want to get a permanent solid fix for your xbox 360, the best fix would be to use the Xbox 360 Red Light Fix Pro Gamer Edition.

Get Xbox 360 Red Light Fix Pro Gamer Edition For A Permanent Fix For Your Xbox In Just Under 2 Hours