ud's XBOX 360 RROD article (free mods inside!)

Glad you liked it :icon_bigg Yeah, that doesn't surprise me about the fans. So much about product design get's muddled when marketing steps in. I realize some of their views are totally waranted, as in the case of people not wanting their 360 to sound like a vaccuum cleaner, but I've dealt with similar issues in my company and it can be thoroughly frustrating. The "right way" often loses out to "the sexy way."

On a product I'm working on now, the mechanical guys got to design the "sexy case" before us electronics guys were even close to finished w/ our design. As a result you've got people who know little about electronics telling you how much space you have to cram your stuff into (and ontop of that, you've got someone from upper management telling you that cost is too high, yet they still demand the same features for the device).

At that point you may have had to compromise good design practices because of limited space. And then when you've gotten it all to fit into the sexy mechanical footprint, you have to hope that the compromises you made don't effect your ability to pass the certification tests you need in order to sell in your target countries. That's why I'm thoroughly impressed with good product design, because it means that company not only has good engineers, but, most likely, good project management.
-ud

 

I bought a used launch model that RR'ed a month later. Sent it to MS via free shipping and return. The unit I got back was different (games all reverted to demo - bastards) but the unit has been solid since. This was a first wave repair. Guess it's a good one?

 

XENON XBOX360 from March 2006 working perfectly to this day.

The main problem is the design of the air duct.
It causes the airflow for the GPU heatsink to be lower than the necessary.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/H6k53LeG-7xWamhpPcS9mg?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/c-lgIoBBRtDqDRXiSgNzmQ?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-4OsdjXnNQszJSZoGAAJaA?feat=directlink

This little "hack" with a piece of thick paper or whatever solid paper you can
find will really make the airflow even on both sides of the air duct, allowing the GPU to run cooler.

One fan seem to be enough for the CPU.
After I did this, I connected both fans straight to the internal switched 12v rail.

Honestly I never tried to run it with the fans on the original speed (PWM controlled by the south bridge) but I bet just adding the piece thick paper on the air duct will help a lot with the cooling.

I am sure this box would be broken by now if it were not for this mod.
I've done this mod to another two consoles (friends) and they seem to be happy with it too.


Edit: The new GPU heatsink with heatpipe was added by me at a later time. It had the original aluminum heatsink

 

Nice, I just did the 12v Mod on my fans. I spliced and 3way'd the DVD's Power source.

Fan Percentage:
100% No DVD Drive (Non Working 360)
90% DVD Drive Connected (At Dashboard)
80-85% DVD Drive and Disk Spinning (Call of Duty 4)