Tutorial: Fix E74 / No Video Errors Options

[Rustmonkey]

I used the heatgun in the same way as you but I warmed it up with the first setting and switched then to the second(500°C)
Well when the solder melted the capacitor is kind of swimming in the solder and as you are moving the heatgun around the whole time it kind of vibrates and slowly moves a bit because of the airflow.
You can compare it to a ripple of water when you blow at it...
You gotta stop then because otherwise it might move too far and then you will have to put it back in place...
it really takes a while so be patient and keep watching the bigger capacitors...
I guess I overdid it though because the color of the solder changed so be careful.
When I get my next E74 I will record a video...
The area depends as well putting pressure on the ana-chip fixed my first 360 so I concentrated on the ana-chip which fixed it.
This one was different though nothing brought it back to life so I heatgunned the area from the whole anachip over to the GPU from both sides.
After that it worked finally

That's essentially what I did - I heated the ANA chip and both side of the GPU, using circular motions about an inch or two off the board. I used alot higher setting than you guys did however - my heat gun goes anywhere from 300 - 1350C - I switched mine to the 1200 setting and only hit my board with it for about 1 minute total time between both sides of the GPU and the ANA chip - make sure to KEEP THE GUN moving or else stuff will fry - I never waited to 'see' the solder melt, I just assumed it would and that 1 minute at that high of a setting would be more than enough.

My settings may have been overkill, but you want solder to only be heated for a small amount of time or the discoloration will occur, so I pretty much just guaranteed that I could bring it up to melting temp very quickly.

...again, just my two cents.

Good luck everyone!

[brandogg]

1350C?! That's insane! That kind of heat would destroy just about anything in it's path. Anyway, make sure you cover all the capacitors, eject/sync buttons, fan header, etc, with several layers of aluminum foil.

[Rustmonkey]

1350C?! That's insane! That kind of heat would destroy just about anything in it's path. Anyway, make sure you cover all the capacitors, eject/sync buttons, fan header, etc, with several layers of aluminum foil.

Yeah that sounds outrageous doesn't it? I was in a hurry typing yesterday - I meant 1350F (which I believe is something like 732C or somethin like that). If it was 1350C the gun would more than likely melt in my hand and cause me to spontaneously combust So the 1200F setting is about 648C.

Sorry for the typo

This post has been edited by Rustmonkey: Apr 13 2008, 05:31 PM

[wllazer17]

I told my brother how to do this over the phone to fix his xbox.

It already had the xclamp mod that I did to it... So took off the heatsink of the gpu and tin foiled around everything except the blue area in jimwross' picture below:



He had an old heat gun that only had low or high setting so I told him use low.

He heated in circular motions around the blue but focused most of the time on the red square, all for a total of 3 mins. Hooked it back up after an hour and it works! Did not need to heat the top.

Thanks everyone I think this is the best fix for E74 errors!!! Hairdryer on ana chip is only temp fix

If I did it I would have taken pictures but I only told how to do it over the phone so I don't have any, sorry.

This post has been edited by wllazer17: Apr 13 2008, 08:28 PM

[ghettoc401]

Does anyone know if this will work for error codes like 0020? In theory it should work since blasting the bottom of the board with the heat gun would reball the solder, but has anyone used this tutorial for any other general 3RLOD error codes?

[jimwross]

I told my brother how to do this over the phone to fix his xbox.

It already had the xclamp mod that I did to it... So took off the heatsink of the gpu and tin foiled around everything except the blue area in jimwross' picture below:



He had an old heat gun that only had low or high setting so I told him use low.

He heated in circular motions around the blue but focused most of the time on the red square, all for a total of 3 mins. Hooked it back up after an hour and it works! Did not need to heat the top.

Thanks everyone I think this is the best fix for E74 errors!!! Hairdryer on ana chip is only temp fix

If I did it I would have taken pictures but I only told how to do it over the phone so I don't have any, sorry.

Great man, I'm glad to hear it worked out for you! It is so frusterating that theres no other information out there on how to fix this problem :-)

[brandogg]

The heat gun permanently (Okay it's been about 3 months so far) fixed my 0020, 0102, E74 (occasional) and "no video" errors.

[ghettoc401]

The heat gun permanently (Okay it's been about 3 months so far) fixed my 0020...

I have that error code and I cant seem to get rid of it with the x-clamp or the penny fix. How did you go about using your heat gun on your 0020 360?

[jimwross]

I have that error code and I cant seem to get rid of it with the x-clamp or the penny fix. How did you go about using your heat gun on your 0020 360?

Use the same process outlined above.

[xolejh]

Hello everybody. A few days ago I was playing and everything looked...not fuzzy, but choppy...not sure how to describe it. A day after that I got the E74 error, and my next few tries turning it on kept turning up the E74 error. Then, something else happened, it would start up like normal, but with a blank screen. After about 30 seconds, the fan would get louder, and louder, and louder, until the xbox over heated and the fan shut off(which doesn't make sense really...that should be when the fan gets louder) and then the only thing to do was turn it off and google the problem. Would this possibly fix that? or should I get a new AV cable or something? SHould I try the RROD fix?(already done it once before a few months ago actually)

[ghettoc401]

Use the same process outlined above.

Thanks bro

[rickr7772]

Great info jimwross. I am glad you decided to share this with us. Nice picutres and tut.

[Wilhelm_I]

Hello everybody. A few days ago I was playing and everything looked...not fuzzy, but choppy...not sure how to describe it. A day after that I got the E74 error, and my next few tries turning it on kept turning up the E74 error. Then, something else happened, it would start up like normal, but with a blank screen. After about 30 seconds, the fan would get louder, and louder, and louder, until the xbox over heated and the fan shut off(which doesn't make sense really...that should be when the fan gets louder) and then the only thing to do was turn it off and google the problem. Would this possibly fix that? or should I get a new AV cable or something? SHould I try the RROD fix?(already done it once before a few months ago actually)

The chips dont have good contact with the chip dies, this can be cause by too many/few washers and too much/not enough thermal compound(size of a rice grain is perfect)
as the fans get louder it will for sure be the cpu heatsink as the cpu regulated the fanspeed.
If this doesnt fix the overheating issue you will have to do the same procedure for the GPU heatsink.
The E74 is a pretty weird error it might happen that you keep turning your 360 on and off and after like ten tries it boots up but the screen is covered by artifacts and the colors change until the screen is nearly black...
It can be caused by a faulty av-cable according to the faq but if you can see the E74 error message on the screen your av-cable will be fine.
So it will either be a pin of the scaler chip that has lost contact or a broken trace between the gpu and the ana-chip.
Just follow this tutorial it will fix it but make sure that you remove the gpu heatsink and the termal compound before doing that and that you isolate the capacitors in the area as they will blow at this high temperature.

[Boobers]

I still can't seem to get this right..

Basically I am looking at two choices now...

Take a totally fracked up MB and use the Heat Gun on it until it melts or catches fire or whatever. This will show me exactly how much heat the MB can take. I know that paper burns at 451f (thanx to Ray Bradbury.. )

Another, less destructive option, is to pick up a Infrared Thermometer and get the chips/MB up to the required temp.. If I go this option, what would the desired temp be?? I also see reasonably priced Infrared Thermometers that measure up to 1000f. Would that be sufficient??

Thanx

B

[jimwross]

Hello everybody. A few days ago I was playing and everything looked...not fuzzy, but choppy...not sure how to describe it. A day after that I got the E74 error, and my next few tries turning it on kept turning up the E74 error. Then, something else happened, it would start up like normal, but with a blank screen. After about 30 seconds, the fan would get louder, and louder, and louder, until the xbox over heated and the fan shut off(which doesn't make sense really...that should be when the fan gets louder) and then the only thing to do was turn it off and google the problem. Would this possibly fix that? or should I get a new AV cable or something? SHould I try the RROD fix?(already done it once before a few months ago actually)

If you have replaced the X-Clamps try loosening the screws. The way I always trouble shoot this problem is the following:

1) Take the motherboard out of the metal case
2) Hook up the DVD drive and the RF / Power button board
3) Turn it on

If it doesnt give you the 2 Red Lights / Fans speeding up and turning off, then you know has something to do with loosening / tightening / mis-allignment of your x-clamp fix.

SO when you re-assemble the box, try putting the board back in to the metal case and leaving out the two middle LONG screws that attach the top plastic piece. For whatever reason this seems to help if you get a stubborn 360 that keeps doing the 2 red light thing.

Hope this helps.

I still can't seem to get this right..

Basically I am looking at two choices now...

Take a totally fracked up MB and use the Heat Gun on it until it melts or catches fire or whatever. This will show me exactly how much heat the MB can take. I know that paper burns at 451f (thanx to Ray Bradbury.. )

Another, less destructive option, is to pick up a Infrared Thermometer and get the chips/MB up to the required temp.. If I go this option, what would the desired temp be?? I also see reasonably priced Infrared Thermometers that measure up to 1000f. Would that be sufficient??

Thanx

B

Hey.

You will start to notice slight colorization on the solder points (goldish color), thats how I tell when its good to go. The board can take quite a bit as long as you don't get it close to the stuff that can melt / be destoryed (capacitors and plastic pieces), you really don't have to be over-cautious with it.

The chips dont have good contact with the chip dies, this can be cause by too many/few washers and too much/not enough thermal compound(size of a rice grain is perfect)
as the fans get louder it will for sure be the cpu heatsink as the cpu regulated the fanspeed.
If this doesnt fix the overheating issue you will have to do the same procedure for the GPU heatsink.
The E74 is a pretty weird error it might happen that you keep turning your 360 on and off and after like ten tries it boots up but the screen is covered by artifacts and the colors change until the screen is nearly black...
It can be caused by a faulty av-cable according to the faq but if you can see the E74 error message on the screen your av-cable will be fine.
So it will either be a pin of the scaler chip that has lost contact or a broken trace between the gpu and the ana-chip.
Just follow this tutorial it will fix it but make sure that you remove the gpu heatsink and the termal compound before doing that and that you isolate the capacitors in the area as they will blow at this high temperature.

Agreed. I wish i could edit my original post and change the heatsink thing around.

Oh well