[Gothch1ck]

Alright Time for some pictures! yay!


Even though I bid on an item with the description "Three Blinking Red Lights around power" (aka RROD) I instead was shipped a 1 blinking light, E74 error.

I popped her open for the first time anyway. (this console had never been opened before, no signs of opening anywhere, heck nearly new condition minus a few smudges that I think will come off with Rubbing Alch.)

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Desription.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture010.jpg
Oh no! where is my controller!?
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture012.jpg
There it is! yay! Hiding like a ninja under the headset.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture013.jpg
The Seal....
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture015.jpg
Oh noez it's not the right Error! >.<
YouTube - E74 error
(Thanks to my Roomie Kissker for helping me bid, buy, and upload using his accounts....)


Popping her open (tee-hee yet again)
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture024.jpg
Bye Bye Seal~
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture026.jpg
These prongs in the back gave me heck... and I half broke one.. oh well.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture031.jpg
Tada!!
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture036.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture037.jpg
Up Close - not as dusty as I thought.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture038.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture039.jpg


WHAT THE HECK ARE THOSE?!
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...Picture044.jpg

Yea... stopped tonight to do some cleaning and to figure out what those pads are... they scared me... little buggers.

And YES - I wore gloves for the whole thing. Non Conductive Latex Free gloves. So I wouldn't finger print, leave oils, or shock it.

[CalcProgrammer1]

THOSE?! are mini heatsinks, they absorb the heat from the RAM. As for gloves...who cares, I ripped mine open without gloves on carpet and in a dusty basement...worked fine. Your E-74 error is probably being caused by this:



The HANA (or ANA on non-HDMI boxes) is often responsible for E-74 errors.

[Gothch1ck]

So uh.. how do I fix it? check for broken solder and overheat method?

[CalcProgrammer1]

Try running a heat gun over it, from the looks of it the HANA is also a ball grid array (BGA) chip, meaning the connections are underneath the chip and more likely to break than on the old ANA, which was a normal surface mount chip that had pins surrounding the outside. I've also seen tricks involving the "penny trick", which basically applies force to the HANA chip. For starters, I'd just take a stack of pennies and set it on top of the HANA, press down on it with some force (obviously not so much you'll break it, but push on it), and while doing so turn on the 360. You don't need the DVD drive plugged in as long as you're not connected to the Internet. If all goes well you'll see green lights and a 360 logo. If that works, try using a heatgun on it.

[Gothch1ck]

Ok ill try the now named "Penny Pressure" trick on ol' Hana but right now I am using some Nail Polish remover to get the stupid gunky thick almost solidified and horribly placed thermal paste that was stock, then using 91% rubbing alcohol to make sure no crud is leftover on it.. and it's taking much longer on the GPU then CPU, CPU is all mirror finish pretty but the GPU is gunky still.


What a HORRIBLE job of application on paste, 2/3 the paste on the GPU wasn't even ON the chip!

[CalcProgrammer1]

Yeah, the stock stuff is awful. I used Goo Gone, seemed to take that crud off pretty easily, just that and a paper towel. The hardest part is around all those little surface mount components on the chips, hard to clean around them, plus the edges of the dies are sharp and rip up paper towels.

[Gothch1ck]

So my thermal grease was supposed to be shipped today, but it was ... something I forget the word- to USPS at 8:27AM .... so I have no freaking clue when I will get it... why didn't UPS just drop it off at my bloody door.....

so right now I have half my system "worked on" I believe the parts are sanded down to the right height, although its really hard for me to tell.... screws on, flat xclamps, foam pad... just no thermal or attached pieces of credit cards and no heatsink on them....

so... how bad a move is it to try Penny Pressure without heat sinks/thermal grease on the chips? (not prolonged of course...)

[CalcProgrammer1]

Well, at most without the thermal paste (but with the heatsinks on tightly) you'll get enough time to watch the Xbox logo spin around and show "Xbox 360" on the screen. Then it'll go away and you'll have two flashing lights (overheating). I'd say if you put the heatsinks on you could press down on the HANA and see if you get picture, but if it does the 1 red light/E74 make sure to turn it off immediately.

Also, not sure if you know or not but don't be afraid to touch the board while it's running. Although many a YouTube user has spoken out against it, the 360 motherboard uses only 5 and 12 volts, neither of which are high enough to go through skin and thus touching the board will NOT shock, hurt, or kill you. The main issues are heat (I'd think it is very possible to burn yourself touching the heatsinks, they get HOT when running, especially with limited cooling) and sharp edges (the metal case can be sharp, especially after you drill holes in it).

I'd go for it, just seeing a picture show up on the screen is satisfying, even if it does only last 5 seconds.

[Gothch1ck]

Well it's spitting icey heck storm outside and the USPS (standard mail now) supposedly has my package of a external enclosure for a 2.5" harddrive and my thermal paste.... so I plan to bundle up and brave the walk to the mailbox soon... and then every 30minutes...

didn't turn it on yet.. figure I'll distract myself with some cleanup and junk.... but might when that's done- now that its FREEZING in here, it won't overheat so bad. (literally it is 52 F in here, with heat on.)

[CalcProgrammer1]

I've decided that I'll try the hybrid X-clamp mod today (go back to school tomorrow ), it sounds better than the standard one and I'm not sure how much longer the regular fix will work. Hard part is going to be finding all the parts, but I think I have everything.