Hello everyone, This is my first thread asking for help on this site. About a year or so ago I built a J-Tag from a Xenon motherboard. I used a Cygnos360 to J-Tag it as I liked the Idea of using a USB flasher more. It worked great for a few weeks but then started to red ring on me. It worked again after being off for an hour. I checked the CPU/GPU temps and they where really bad (60+C) on Free Style Dash. So I cranked the fans to 100% after ditching the X clamps and using screws and using Arctic MX-2 thermal past. The temps went down to about 40C idle. The current situation the console is in now is it will run fine for about 15-60 minuets then it will start to red ring. I turn it off and leave it off for like a day and come back to it it works for about 15-60 minuets and repeats the cycle all over again. I know how to read the error codes off the machine by holding the controller sync and the eject button and it points to RAM, sometimes. If anyone can help me figure out what is up with this console I would be most appreciative. I have been wanting to start learning how to program for the 360 but have been put off by this problem. (kinda depressed that I put all that money in to this and it stopped working) Thank you all for any information you can shed on this.
I know you want a better answer than this, but just being on a Xenon is gonna be your biggest issue, especially with it having started to red ring already.
Yeah sounds like a hardware issue. Once you get the secondary error code go to: xbox-experts.com, it is a great site and can help diagnose the problem. However in most cases the GPU fails so it is probably that, if so it will need a reflow/reballed. After you get it repaired please remove the bolt "repair" as it does more harm then good by causing board flexing.
sadly Xenon mobos are just a ticking timebomb, they are faulty by manufacturing and will fail sooner or later... get a suitable jasper or slim and RGH it , it's the same as jtag for the end user
Not if you treat the xenon well, got one that i modded back in Aug 08. Still runs fine and play over 8+ hours on it.
Thank you all for the replies. I was doing some research on the RGH and when I think about doing that I assume I could just buy any 360 I can find. Keropi, From your experience are the Jaspers reliable? I don't want to sink anymore money in to a Xenon only to have it crap out on me. I found this Jasper for a decent price. I would reball it but that goes beyond my know how. Kinda sad that my J-Tag is dieing such a horrific death. Wish I could do something to it to put it out of its misery.
I still use a launch day Xenon for my JTAG, I set fans to 100% the moment it was modded though, and had no prior RROD issues. I really wanna ditch to a RGH slim though
yeah , if you don't close it in a warm place with no ventilation a Jasper console will not die of overheating or whatever plagues the earlier revisions... you will be fine for many many years But be carefull! in order to make the RGH hack you need a dashboard up to 2.0.14719 , higher than that you need to resort to the new RGH2 hack which is somewhat on the unstable side from what I hear... haven't had any experience with RGH2 though, only what I hear... RGH on a jasper, provided you do a good job, will have you boot times only 4-5secs more than a jtag unit. Get a Jasper and mind the dashboard version, that's my advice. Live consoles are to be avoided as they are updated 99% of the time...
yep, ms patched the hack after 14719 but it came back as RGH2 that is another trickier and more time-consuming beast... jasper+rgh is an awesome combo
I got an update on this machine. I have for some reason got it working again. Sunday night I decided to tear it down to the motherboard and just run it sitting on my desk. all it was doing is sitting on my desk then the board was just laying there with the drive sitting on it and the syncs attached. I did the old fashioned re-flow thing where I placed half of one of the fans over the CPU and went to bed, 7 hours latter I woke up and rebooted the box, It has been working fine for the last 72 hours straight, I have rebooted it, updated it from the initial Dash to the current dash. It has just worked like a normal Xenon. I made sure to re-do the thermal past I must have been really stupid when I did the past the first time around, too much. I re-did it correctly with a credit card and a light layer. My temps are now idling around 50-60C. (I am forcing the fans to 100% in FSD) I am even thinking about using some spare water cooling parts I have laying around and making it something special. I also think there may have been a grounding out issue with this box. It seamed to "almost" work right away when I had it down to just the board on the desk. I also over the past 3 days have "Slowly" re-assembled it making sure that nothing was grounding it out. Around the IO ports the grounding "prongs?" where bent a little and one or tow where hang "over" the ports. I was finally able to snap the face plate back on last night/this morning. When I got the machine it had been opened already and I can tell the person before me didn't know how to properly open a 360 and a lot of the casing was broke. I'm so happy I got it all working now even though I know that I may be living on borrowed time on a Xenon. I am now having issues with FSD but I suppose I just need to sit down and read the documentation a little more carefully and quit trying to skim read it. I would like to ask a small question I it is OK and if I need to make a new thread that's OK (I don't like changing the subject of a thread). I am trying to get the hacked Xbox 1 files to work so I can play Xbox 1 games but it is not launching, I haven't setup dash launch yet and have seen that it may be that causing the issue but I am unsure. If anyone can help me with that I would be very appreciative. Mark
I have a Xenon that was MS repaired two years ago, I remember buying it hoping for at least 6 months, it's still going. I joke with my friend I bought it from, always saying Xenon's are bad and I'm like "You should have kept this one"
Well, I have a xenon jtag. Had it since jtag was around - never red ringed or anything. Dont keep fans at 100% cos the noise drives me crazy!! Its never let me down, ever! Being honest, its taken a back burner since my slim rgh and dual nand falcon (rgloader/fusion) and zephyr dev unit (sadly recently banned from pnet - boo hoo). Perhaps some xenons are more reliable than others? Have had about 4 over the last few years - only one red ringed - reflowed - sold to my mate - still going strong! M$ have even been screwed over the non red ringable slim units - they still red dot - warning or not - but perhaps more care and common sense with regard to cleaning out dust, proper ventilation etc etc - is needed to preserve xbox360 lifespan!? Anyhoo - just my opinion!
