The Happiest Days of My Life...
Christmas 2007, the day I had dreamt of and waited for so long, had finally arrived. It was the day that I had finally got my Xbox 360, my first and, I was hoping the only gaming console that I would ever buy. I had read so much about it before and also checked out some of the best games available for it, and immediately, just like every other 360 user I fell in love with it. I opened up the package of my “20GB Xbox 360 Pro” quickly, at the same time taking care not to damage anything out. It was perfect, stylish design, colorful and attractive controller and also I had got the Gears of War game bundled with it. So I not only had the Xbox 360, but also two of the best exclusive titles, Gears of War and also Halo 3, which I had purchased separately. I also noticed that the date of manufacture of my Xbox was June 2006, which was quite a long time back from my date of purchase.
I immediately took out the instruction manual and setup the console accordingly. I inserted the Halo 3 DVD in the DVD and was absorbed in around 5 hours of game play. I had read about the “Ring of Death” error and how it was caused mainly due to overheating, so I decided to give my Xbox a rest. The Xbox 360 was my most prized possession, so I took all the necessary steps to prevent the Ring of Death from happening: I connected the power supply to a wall outlet, placed the Xbox vertically to maximize heat loss and even suspended the power supply on a box to prevent it from getting heated up. So I was quite certain that I wouldn’t encounter the error.
When The Issues Began...
Approximately a year later, 11 months to be exact, the first glitches started occurring. I was playing Ninja Gaiden 2, decapitating ninjas, when suddenly the screen froze. I thought that the game must be loading so I decided to give it a few minutes to recover but when I realized that the game wasn’t responding I pressed the Xbox dashboard button to exit the game, but still nothing seemed to happen. Now I knew that something must be wrong for sure so I decided to eject the DVD, but to my horror, the game was still frozen. My final option was to turn off the console and turn it back on, and to some relief, it worked. I put the game back on and it worked like normal again. But from then on, the problem continued to occur and started occurring more frequently with time. I had also noticed that the graphics of some games took a while to load and the graphics of some games, like Halo 3 for instance, was drastically reduced. I realized that my Xbox 360 was suffering a slow death and that the Ring of Death, what I thought I would never have to witness, was just around the corner.
The Day It Came to an End...
On November 27th, I woke up to a new day to pick up from where I left off in GTA IV. I had got my hands on the game only a few days back and I would have to say it was one of the best single player games that would hit the Xbox, or any other console for that matter, for some time to come. I plugged in the power cable and turned on the console. I had the GTA IV game disc in my hand and was about to load the disc when I realized that something was not right. The LED lights were flashing red, and worse, 3 red lights, which spelt Death. I restarted the console hoping that it would somehow work, but again same result, 3 red lights. I reinserted the AV cable and tried again but still the same result. It was hopeless. I knew that that I had to just face it, my 360 was gone.
Desperate...
I was beginning to feel that my 360 was gone forever, as I had voided my warranty, when I installed the firmware hack. So sending it to Microsoft would mean spending another $140 and also some shipping charge. All I had was around $50, which I was saving to buy Fable 2, so I had no way of getting the $150 that I needed to fix it. Hopeless, I decided to search the internet for any reliable fixes. The first fix that I came across was the “Towel Method”, which involved wrapping your Xbox with towels and then cooking it. I read about it, and some users claimed the method to have worked for as long as two weeks after which it would revert back to the old problem. Hastily, in my desperation, on reading a few articles, I decided to try it out, little did I know at the time that the method further damages the Xbox 360.
I Tried Everything...
I found an instructional video on YouTube and attempted the fix on my Xbox. I heated it for about 15 minutes, which was specified in the video and then let it cool down. This method had a very high success rate, and to my expectations it did work. I let out a sigh of relief. It had been almost a month since I last played my Xbox. I turned it off and let it cool down for a little bit more time, so as to avoid any overheating problems. I switched it back on and to my utmost disappointment; all I saw was the 3 flashing red lights. It was like all hope and happiness was drained out of me. I was all out of options; the Towel Method was my last hope.
I searched aimlessly on the internet for more fixes but none of them looked reliable or affordable. There was one method involving a hot gun, which I had not the skill or the money to purchase it. It didn’t have a high success rate so I decided it was not worth the money or the effort. While searching for other fixes, I came across an article about the Towel Method and how it damages your Xbox to an extent beyond repair. So by now I understood that my Xbox was unfixable almost.
All in Vain...
I decided to search EBay, initially to check if I could sell it for some reasonable price, when I came across a repair kit which, as the sellers claimed, had an almost 100% success rate, and also it cost only like $25 which was well within my budget. After reading a few user articles about the kit I decided to purchase it. After about 5 days my repair kit delivered. I didn’t have too much hope, as the towel method had literally killed my Xbox. This repair involved removing the existing thermal paste and replacing it with a new one and also removing the X-clamps holding the heat sinks and replacing them with some washers and screws. After that the Xbox must be overheated until there were only two flashing lights. It had an e-book with the instructions. The instructions were somewhat difficult to follow as there were no instructional videos of any kind. I disassembled my Xbox, getting stuck at some points as the instructions weren’t clear enough, but eventually managed to take everything apart. I followed all the steps as mentioned in the e-book and then put everything back on. I didn’t have much hope that this would work, as I had attempted the Towel Trick which would have probably damaged the Xbox beyond what this kit could fix. I plugged the AV cable and power supply and took a deep breath and turned it on. This was the moment of truth. The repair was unsuccessful. It was still three red lights. I attempted the repair a couple more times, each attempt having the same outcome. Since there was no money back guarantee of any sort, it was $25 just wasted.
Persistence...
I had pretty much lost hope and I was busy with school so I temporarily forgot about it anyway. About a month back though, after all the excitement of the summer hols and boredom settling in, I turned to the 360 again, I don’t know if it’s a gift or a curse but I always had this sense of perseverance so even though I never really got it to work after numerous attempts I thought I’ll give it one more try. Investing was out of the question as I was pretty much broke and I had bad experience spending on repairing the Xbox before, so I browsed through the net for any free solutions once again, after much researching I realized all the free methods weren’t really free methods as they don’t reveal all the details without buying a product, it was then that I found this guide, which was completely risk free as they give you a full refund if it doesn’t fix your Xbox. It was the first time that I had come across an Xbox repair product with a return policy so I had nothing to lose, I was not the least convinced it would work however.
It Paid Off!
I guess they really had a reason to be that confident that they have the 100% return policy, the ebook is complete with step by step instructions, they have a ‘members area’ complete with videos to guide you every step of the way, took me around an hour and a half before it was all done, and a lot of sweat, and cold hands when I assembled it back to try it out, I had been in this spot before so I had no hope whatsoever, however I took a deep breath hoping against hope, expecting the agonizing red lights again, but they didn't appear! I took a while to settle though, because I got it to work once before, this time around though I saw Far Cry load and ready to be player with no sign of the RROD.
What Are You Waiting For?
I know you are probably not convinced now, but I’ve been where you’ve been but there’s really nothing to lose, you can go ahead and get the guide here, I’d be happy to know how great it felt when you finally fixed it, to know that I’ve helped someone else, so be sure to leave a comment below, good luck!
