X-Clamp Replacement and Shroud Mod (360 RoL Fix)

Since my previous attempts to increase stability on my crashing xbox 360 (crashed every 1.5 hours) and subsequent death of my main gaming 360 (RoL - 3 lights of death) I have been reading a lot about the suspected causes of the issues widely seen on the console.

The following is a guide to the work I carried out that has so far proven to be a permanent fix for both of my dead 360’s and something I recommend all 360 owners (with no warranty) do, even before the dreaded ‘Ring of Death’. Based on the findings of RBJTech, these mods are less evasive, simple and reversible (pretty much).

The following is a list of the parts I used and tools required:

Part Description	Notes
(8) - button head M5 x 20mm screws	Ideally use M5 x 15mm. 4 of the bolts will need to be cut to 15mm
(60) - 5mm washers	These should be approximately 0.9mm thick
Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound	To replace the thermal paste used by the factory
Isopropyl Alcohol solution	Used to remove the old thermal grease. Lighter fluid can be used
Small piece of Aluminum sheet approximately 0.5mm thick	Used to cut a shim for the GPU
Insulation tape and card	Increase and separate air flow in the shroud

XCM unlock kit	Or similar - optionally make your own
T9 Torx screwdriver	Used to remove the heat sink screws
T10 Torx screwdriver	Used to remove the case screws (A T9 will also work)
Long nose pliers	To remove the X clamps
Tin snips	For cutting an Aluminum shim
5mm drill bit and drill	Expanding the heat sink mount holes

1. Strip the Console

The first step is to strip the 360 and remove the heat sinks. Try and work on a large flat surface and I advise the use of an anti static wrist band. XCM have provided a good tutorial for using there unlock kit, so I wont provide too much detail here.

Start by removing the face and top and bottom covers. Split the case and remove the bottom half.
Remove the DVD drive, cables, shroud, fans and RF unit (the front panel with 4 LED’s). The plastic cover on the RF unit will need to be removed to reveal the 3rd T9 screw.
Flip the console over. You will be able to see the 8 T9 screws that hold the heat sinks on. Remove these then remove the remaining T10 screws.
Remove the board. This is best done by lifting the front first and letting it slide out.
Turn the board over to reveal the X clamps that need replaced. To remove the clamps I used a pair of long nose pliers and carefully twisted the ends until they came free. This can take some considerable effort but must be done with extreme care. If any of the delicate surface mount components are damaged the xbox will not be easy to repair.
Remove the mount screws from the heat sinks. The clamps, mount screws and plastic spacers will not be needed again.
You can now see the exposed GPU and CPU. To clean the old thermal paste, lighter fluid can be used.

2. X-Clamp Replacement Modification

Drill the 8 heat sink holes to 5mm and remember to clean the case after. To seat the board properly in the case and to avoid bending, washers are used to match the height of the seats pressed into the case. I used 5 washers totaling to 4.5mm but I would say 4.3mm is ideal.
Insert the 8 button screws through the mount holes and hold in place with tape on the back. If you only have 4 15mm screws then use these on the GPU (left) side of the case. Put 5 washers on each of the screws.
Cut a shim measuring 25×15x0.5mm from flat Aluminum. Put fresh thermal paste on the GPU and CPU. Place the shim over the GPU and add more thermal paste.
Replace the board into the case, using the tip of a screwdriver to help align the screws into the holes. Place 2 washers on each of the GPU screws. Place 1 washer on each of the CPU screws. Turn the case onto its side, holding the GPU heat sink in place and carefully turn each screw till it beds. Slowly tighten each screw equally until the heat sink is sitting properly and on tight. Do the same with the CPU heat sink.

3. Shroud Modification

To split the air flow evenly, a piece of card 53×78mm is used. This has a section 12×22mm removed from one corner. To help remove airflow from the DVD drive, a piece of card 90×70mm is used. Hold these pieces in place with tape. A tab will need to be cut into the air flow separator to allow it to fit properly.
Replace the fans and shroud onto the console. Cut a piece of card 25×65mm to increase airflow to the CPU heat sink. As before tape into place but add another piece to hold securely to the heat sink. Replace the cables, DVD drive and RF unit.
Reassemble the case and power on the console. You may need to power cycle a few times before the unit powers as normal. Try running a game and notice that the air flow from the fans is hotter than normal. This is good and shows that the modification is working as more heat is being removed than before. If the issue remains check that the bolts are on tight and making good contact.
X-clamp replacement and shroud modification is clearly better than your mother

- FIN -

About this entry

You’re currently reading “X-Clamp Replacement and Shroud Mod (360 RoL Fix),” an entry on ReloadSystems

Published:: 08.14.07 / 2pm

Category:: XBOX 360

ranj 09.27.07 / 8pm

i have tryed the mod for replacing the x-clamps. unfortunatly for me it didnt work. at first the heatsinks did get hot. but now when i turn on i get 4 red lights followed by the fans speeding up more than befor and finaaly shutting down, leaving 2 top red lights flashing. the gpu heat sink dosnt get that hot at all and the cpu heatsink remains cool. what is the problem now??

michael_cowan 09.28.07 / 11am

Ranj : Four flashing red lights means an AV cable error. This is usually caused by the cable not being inserted correctly. See Microsoft Knowledge Base.
As for the fans speeding up, this is usually because of overheating which would happen if you powered on before replacing the fan shroud for example. See Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Fola Alamudun 12.07.07 / 7pm

hi. I’ve been trying to stabilize the xclamp fix. Caused a lot of problems because the system would work fine, even pass week long intensive tests. But after selling them, they’d end up getting the 3 rings within a week. So i tried the shroud over the fan and that may do the trick. My fan is overly speeding up however. How do i fix that?

michael_cowan 12.10.07 / 3pm

Fola:This fix is really meant more to be used before the RoL as a preventative measure, however I have had success repairing 360’s with it. Sometimes finding the correct pressure and balance to place on the GPU can be tricky. I would consider trying the following:

1. Tighten one side of the heatsink more than the other (requires a lot of experimentation). This has had limited success though has no reasoning behind it other than perhaps some 360’s are used more upright? This needs much more investigation.
2. Use a 1mm thick shim. This places more pressure on the GPU and can help in some cases.
3. Remove a single washer from each screw above the motherboard. This also applies more pressure but must be done carefully - you risk cracking the GPU.

As for the fan speed, it is controlled by the 360 to speed up when the system is getting too hot. Slowing this down is a bad idea, in fact the opposite is desirable.

dave 12.15.07 / 10pm

i have done the x-clamp-fix but with no joy, i get the 3rol still but cannot get any other power through the system. it isnt the power brick as it works fine on my mates but i cant even get the fans running. well the run for a second then swtitch off plus the light on the brick goes from orange to green for a second then back to orange. have i done something wrong help please.

Fola 12.30.07 / 8am

Hey. So that particular box was not fixable.
I tried it with several other boxes and it works like a charm. I’m going to create a manual on fixing them. The key, i think, is the cheap crap microsoft used as the thermal compound on both sinks… that ish is dried up and couldnt conduct anything. Cleaning it out completely with alcohol (spankin clean to where u can see ur self reflecting on both the GPU and CPU), then use a better thermal compound. People recommend AS5 but that doesnt do it for me, so far i have had superior success with the silver thermal compound from bestbuy.. costs about 10 bucks and just a drop of it works wonders.
This fixes the system, but you will need to “fix” the problem further to prevent the system from over heating again. The shroud works well when combined with a better 10v fan, or cutting out the metal that sits behind the fan (u’ll need a metal cutter and you’ll need to be carefull). I hope this helps.

thanks.

T3KN1K 02.20.08 / 12am

hey just reading through and thought i should offer a tip.
after installing this mod but before you mod the shroud it would be an idea to overheat the gpu to melt the solder back to its original place … as the gpu is usually the main cause , not so much the cpu any way to do this leave the case off. remove the dvd drive, then remove the fan but leave it plugged in. replace the dvd drive and place the fan on top of the dvd drive to one of the fans is cooling the cpu (just incase you didnt no the cpu is the larger heat sink ) it kinda hard to describe without pictures but hope fully u no what i mean. Power the box on and leave it idling for about 10 minuites this should be plenty to reset all of the solder. turn the box off and wait for a while until it has cooled down, replace the fan and try it before you replace the case it should have worked perfectly … if not repeat the process. I used this and my 360 has been fine for about 4 months until the other day when it decided to play up again, so i opened it up and just re tightened the bolts , works fine again !!!

Hope this helps !!

T3KN1K

chris ashley 06.16.08 / 10pm

hi guys. i have repaired over 100 xbox 360’s now and the best piece of advise that i can offer is to invest in a very long good quality screwdriver to get that final turn on the heatsink screws. run the overheat on the gpu as described above for 15 minutes then leave the board without touching it for another 15 minutes to allow the solder to settle.re-assemble and enjoy many many more months of flawless gaming.

icey_idee 07.14.08 / 10am

24fa

I did not place any new thermal paste on the CPU and GPU but I have already cleaned the both of them. When I turn on my xbox, it blinks 2 red lights and my fan would work for about 5 seconds and turn off. Any thoughts on that? Do I really need to place thermal paste? Thanks

michael_cowan 07.19.08 / 12pm

icey_idee: Two red lights flashing are usually caused by overheating. This depends on which lights are flashing and you should confirm that the error is overheating before trying anything. See Microsoft Knowledge Base.
Running the console with no thermal paste could cause overheating and damage the CPU and/or GPU. I would suggest that you use a high quality thermal compound as indicated by my guide. If this fails you could experiment with the tension in the screws of the GPU, which has had good results for me.

steven 08.16.08 / 11am

hi friend, can I put in a request to use your pictures on my xclamp webpage. Please let me know

Francois 09.02.08 / 3pm

Hey Michael,

Planning on using your method - Fan shroud and X-Clamp seems to me like the best way to go.

What’s your reason for using an aluminum shim on the GPU? Shouldn’t the GPU heatsink already make a good contact with both gpu cores? The rest of the tutorial sounds great but I’d like to know why you use that shim….

Thanks!

peter 03.08.09 / 7pm

I tried all this. At first i get the rol then it goes to the two lights, and it wont do anything. The heat sync doesnt get hot at all.Also did you guys use the nylon washer as well? I used it under the mobo and on top before the metal washer

Ohmbass 05.30.09 / 3am

If you dont know what you are doing then do NOT do this mod, I work for a very large console repair company and we get so many of these “bolt mod” consoles in its beyond belief, almost as many as microsoft sealed units. it sounds daft but this mod is just as unreliable as the origional console. Doing up the bolts tighter as described above warps the motherboard, seeing as the chips on it are BGA then I’m sure you can see how bad it is, I’m not surprised your fans are not working. If your heatsinks are not getting hot then oddly enough they are not touching the GPU or CPU, I’m sorry but keep up the good work, you’re all keeping me employed.

michael_cowan 06.01.09 / 9am

Ohmbass: Thanks for the opinion, though nearly two years after writing this none of my 360’s have failed. I wonder, do you feel like sharing your experiences or methods to help other people? This is why the blog entry was put together.

Im also currious as to why you think this method will warp the board? If you read the second line of step two you will see that if done properly these steps are designed to stop bending, not cause it: “… to avoid bending, washers are used …”

It is also my opinion that the problem is not the arrangement of pins (BGA) but rather the leadless solder used which is very brittle and susceptible to snapping. When under high load and hot, a stock board is free to bend slightly which aggravates the solder until eventually it fails.

This is my explanation of what is at fault, why it fails and how I think it can be prevented. Would you like to share yours?

jamescs 06.05.09 / 7am

if you people want a real fix look into the heatgum fix. ive just done two with this method and they work fine. also if some of you are technically minded i would advise taking the box apart every month or so and givivn it a good clean and collecting the thermal paste from aroud the chips and re applying it this has always worked for me. anyways i think the x clamp mod is a load of shite, if a loose connection is causing the problem surely puttin that particular connection under strain isnt good. the heatgun method melts the soldier and it gets its connection before it sets again this way is a much more reliable fix than the xclamp fix. my first rrod was error 0102 and i fixed that just by re applying the existing thermal paste to the gpu and it worked flawlessly for 12 months before i got e74 which was fixed with the heatgun. when i took the heatsink off the thermal paste was everywhere but on the chips which caused overheating then cld soldier joint

micheal cowan how can a stock board be free to warp when it has 8 fixings in and around the centre and another 8 or so around the edges. till the day i die i say bolloks to the x clamp fukup.. thats just my opinion.. people who are selling these kits are going to come up with all sorts of shite to make you buy it. to anyone who has rrod get your error code and do some reading about it (xbox scene, llama) find out what is causing the problem and heatgum the area and best of all it dont cost a penny (unless you dont have a heatgun). good day and happy gaming.

by the way my gamertag is jamescs86 palyin cod 5 at the mo

michael_cowan 06.05.09 / 1pm

jamescs: Thanks for the opinions, though I think ’till the day i die i say bolloks to the x clamp fukup’ is a bit of a heavy commitment…

Anyway, there are 8 screws used to hold the board in place. These positions have dents in the case to support the board and are all around the outside edge which provides little support under the CPU and GPU units.

The 8 smaller screws hold in place the nipples that the X clamps attach to. They are too short to support the board and only provide something for the clamp springs to press against. This is why you can lift either heatsink above the chip die’s without unscrewing anything.

The heat gun trick does seem to help a lot of people out and I recommend it in conjunction with the X clamp fix (similar to the suggestion by T3KN1K). What I think you will find though is that the problem with reoccur around three months down the line and require further treatment.

Please remember that these are the step I carried out to fix my 360’s and I’m posting in the hopes of helping others. I personally make no money from this and my procedure notes requires no kits or special parts.

jamescs 06.05.09 / 4pm

i wasnt saying you were lying to sell the x clamp but a lot of people say the the x clamp fixes rrod when infact rrod is caused by many different things although a lot of problems are caused by the shite thermal paste causing it to get hot. ive fixed quite a few boxs over the years (just for friends) and they have always worked for a considerable amount of time and not once have i used the x clamp fix eg errors 0102,0020,0103,1022,e74. all im sayin is that if its broken soldier causing problems surely re melting the soldier back into place with the heatgun is the best method. most forums reccomend doing the heatgun before x clamp replacement. personaly i think its more of a preventitive measure than a cure. next time you get a rrod to fix try replacing the thermal paste and replacing the original xclamps and leaving it to flash rrod for 30 mins then reset as i have had results from doing this.

2378

im in the process of trying to fix a nasty board at the mo. it wont power up but the little green power light flashes for a second and thats it. any ideas what could be causing it. i do this to try and help ppl aswell as i dont like the idea of people paying(ms) for fixes which are quite easy and cheap to do. i love these kind forums as they helped me to get my head round it when i first saw them 3 red lights.

Anonymous 06.10.09 / 9pm

i got the 3 rl ande if i just clean off old therm comp thn repace it my xbox should work again right?

michael_cowan 06.11.09 / 9am

Anonymous: I seriously doubt it. Let me just clarify - this blog entry is a record of the steps I took to sucessfully fix Xbox 360’s. In an attempt to help others who may also have the same sucess, I released these steps. It is also here to allow others to contribute so that the process can be streamlined and improved. I can personally vouch for the steps outlined in my post but cannot recommend steps suggest by others unless I specifically say otherwise.
i.e. I do not believe that if you ‘just clean off old therm comp thn repace it’ will do anything at all. As I have stated over and over I would follow my steps, possibly in conjunction with the so called heat gun trick but not in place of it. The clamp replacement in my opinion is essential to a long lasting (more than 3 months) fix.

Alv 12.31.09 / 4am

So i have read a lot of these guides, and i like the idea of the heat gun and the improvement to the cooling.But i don’t have a heat gun can i just do the overheat trick (puting the fan over the cpu heatsink only and turn on the console for 20-40mins so they gpu melts the balls solder), why i have to dismantle of the heatsink and install the x-clam fix.(besides puting fresh thermal paste)

michael_cowan 12.31.09 / 12pm

Alv: I would not recommend purposely overheating any performance chip, in particular a GPU.

As I said in my last comment I have had some success with the heat gun trick in conjunction with the x clamp replacement.

The reason I believe the x clamp replacement steps work has been discussed throughout the post:

“Im also currious as to why you think this method will warp the board? If you read the second line of step two you will see that if done properly these steps are designed to stop bending, not cause it: “… to avoid bending, washers are used …”

skcatch 01.03.10 / 4am

I was wondering if anyone has or knows where I can get a detailed description on how to do the heat gun trick? I have tried it with two motherboards and failed. Before I try the heat gun, I always do the x-clamp mod first. Most of the time this works, but when it doesn’t I try to use the heat gun trick and it never works. Thanks in advance and I think this is a great forum.

michael_cowan 01.03.10 / 12pm

skcatch: You can search for tutorials easily.

I have not got round to writing a tutorial for this yet because I didn’t deem it necessary. If its requested enough Ill put one together.

To get you started here is a run down of the steps that work for me:

1. Remove the motherboard completely, turn the metal case upside down and place the board upside onto it (this keeps the board off the deck when using the heat gun).

2. Use the heat gun on a cooler setting (or further away) in a circular motion around the board to warm it up. Do this to both sides of the board.

3. Crank up the heat and continue circular motions around the back of the GPU and CPU areas. Keep moving and keep the distance from the board to around 4″. Do this for about 2 mins.

4. Leave to cool for at least 2 mins.

5. Flip the board over. Cover as much of the plastic, capacitors and other sensitive electronics (other than the GPU and CPU) as possible with tin foil.

6. Repeat steps 3 and 4.

Warren 02.19.10 / 4am

Actually the four lights, followed by the fans speeding up and then shut down is the RAM chips.(4 chips located around the GPU) I do a reflow, but the penny fix may work for a time also. The penny trick presses the RAM back to the board on the underside.(or do both) Be careful if using the heatgun on the RAM. Hope this helps

Joel 03.13.10 / 3pm

You need to get the DVD Drive off the GPU so it doesn’t overheat. You can buy 20 inch DVD Drive Power Cables so you can mount the DVD Drive on top of the case. Go to Google and type in Airflow Cables

p4rma 05.18.10 / 9pm

Hi, thanks for the guide. My xbox doesnt have the 3 red lights anymore and can get on the dash board, but now the dvd drive cant read any dvds :’( anyone know a fix?

Pranesh 11.09.10 / 4am

To reflow the GPU solder, do the X-Clamp fix. Pull the fan shroud out of the box. Put the DVD back in. Set one half of the plugged in fan on top of the DVD and put the other so it blows down on the CPU. I usually block the secondary GPU heatsink with paper if it has one. Run the box for about 45 minutes. This will melt the solder on the GPU. I’ve done it successfully several times. Even if you still have three red lights after the x-clamp fix, this will fix it.

There are a lot of other X-Clamp fixes out there that use 2mm spacers on the top of the board. This keeps the heatsink from really bearing down on the chip. I am on the fence as to which is better. Some of them use nylon washers. You have to be careful not to crank down so hard you crack them. If you use flattened 3/16″ 1mm lockwashers at the board interface so as not to short the traces with metal washers, you can tighten as hard as you want and you really can’t get too much pressure assuming 2mm of washers. It looks like you are claiming the CPU is at about 1.5mm and the GPU is at 2 mm, and you are shimming the GPU up another half and then compressing both back by a half mm, but there’s obvious risk of overtightening in that case. Interesting. I will have to take more measurements. I am intrigued now as to which is better. Also, I didn’t realize the height of the CPU die was different than that of the GPU.

2570

I’d like to see the photos of the shroud fix, but when I try to click them to zoom them up, I get sent to a list of blogs.

michael_cowan 11.09.10 / 2pm

@Pranesh There is a risk of overtightening but the alternative is undertightening. I measured the heights very accurately but the problem is that there are no washers that are manufactured to the same tollerances - so bedding has to be done by ‘feel’. Also its worth noting that I rarely add a shim - its something I tried on a hunch that worked on a stubborn box that I thought worth mentioning (Really I need to update this post - comments like yours help keep the information up to date, so thanks).

Your method for reflow does seem popular. Personally I think its safer to use the heat gun but this may well not do as good a job. Perhaps a good idea would be to try the gun first and if it fails overheating?

The photos script is now back online.

Pranesh 11.10.10 / 2am

I think you may see a renewed interest in it. I just reworked a box that had a manufacture date of November 13, 2007. But MS said it was out of warranty because it was shipped out as a replacement for another box that was bought in 2006. The 2007 box just failed about a week ago. So as these older boxes drop out of the three year warranty, some people may be looking to fix them again–even legitimate unhacked ones, though of course the bulk of them have probabaly already failed. If you own one of these older boxes, it’s a RROD waiting to happen. I’d advise to X-Clamp fix any box with a manufacture date before 2008…period. It’s going to fail. It’s just a matter of when. You need to change the heatsink compound anyway. I’ve yet to see one that didn’t have heatsink compound that looked like hardened paste. It’s actually very difficult to get it completely off. If it’s made before mid-2008, I’d check and see what chips are in it.

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