The 3 Penny Fix (the Twelve Cent Fix), General 3 red lights of death fix (works %99.9 of the time) Options

[kidderboots]

I have come across many different ways to fix this nagging 3 red lights of death and of course it seems that many different pieces of failing hardware cause this. I have, on the other hand, created a way to fix this issue with one simple fix. REMEMBER: opening your 360 and doing this fix will void your warranty always make sure your 360 is out of warranty before trying.
Things you'll need:
12 pennies
Electrical tape
Hot glue gun

First you open your 360 up (see tutorial on how to)
Take out the mother board
Flip the motherboard upside down
Locate the 4 Ram chip that are black and around the GPU
Take 3 pennies, stack them on top of each other so it looks 3 pennies thick
With the electrical tap wrap the pennies so no copper is showing (make 4 seperate stacks of pennies)
On each ram chip use a very small amount of hot glue to stick the stack of wrapped pennies to the ram
now when you flip the motherboard upside down the pennies should sick to the ram
When putting the screws back in do not screw the black screws that hold the CPU and GPU- leave them off
Screw all the other screws on slow and tight and observe the inputs so that they match up with the holes in the metal casing (example USB ports, AV, Power etc)
You will notice the front USB ports seem to be just barely showing through the casing holes, thats fine
Make sure the fans are reconnected etc and test before putting back together

The reason this works as apposed to alot of other methods is because it kills mulitple birds with one stone
over heating-> there is now some space under the board so the board doesnt get as hot
bad Ram connection->obvisouly the ram is getting pressured back on to the motherboard
GPU/CPU issues-> with the released unneeded tension off the x clamps they dont seems to come unsolderd

I have waiting 11months to post this fix anywhere till i have tested it for a long period of time. I have done about 40 with this method and only on one did it fail to help.
Please post with reponses on how this worked for you, thanks

[gummyworm31]

It sounds like a very short term fix (if it really works) It's pretty much the same thing as the eraser mod, right?

[kidderboots]

Very similar except the 3 pennies give the perfect hight and is alot more sterdy. also the heat off the pennies is obsorbed and keep it the optimal tempeture- not temperary fix like the earser/rubber fix (5months etc) havent seen a failure afterwards. try and and let me know what you think man

This post has been edited by kidderboots: Jun 3 2007, 01:58 AM

[chemicalthunder]

How many mm high are the pennies? (we don't have pennies in Australia. i did the eraser mod last night and it fixed the problem. I'm just worried that its not a permenant fix. (rubber mod)
Maybe if I added some cooling fan at the back it might be okay.

[slamdunkfunkk]

Make sure the fans are reconnected etc and test before putting back together

Bit OT but I don't think I did this bit when I did my first (not yet tested) X-Clamp fix. Bugger.

Slam

[kidderboots]

a penny is about 1.5 mm thick so the end result should be 4.5mm thick and use copper equivelant. VERY important to reconnect the fans and also very important to tighten slowly and to leave the black screws out of the two x-clamps on the back. like i said before this sounds like a temp fix but non have failed even after 11 months of playing (gears of war, dead rising etc)

[Antediluvia]

Innnteresting... I'm going to try this on my motherboard. About this "rubber/eraser mod" I've been reading about; do Xbox 360's come from the factory with anything on the RAM chips? Because I'm working on my Xbox 360 that has already taken a trip to the Microsoft repair factory, and there are four white sticky pads on the RAM chips

Thanks for the tip

[kidderboots]

Well thats a good indication that microsoft knows where the flaw is....and so do I/We now. Thanks for the heads up

[DrJeckyll]

I think putting some copper blocks under it will do the same but better. It conducts heat better. Or some VGA ramsinks. Anything else is just a workaround as the heat stays trapped and is not diverted from the board.

Out of curiousity. Has anyone tried placing erasers/pennies or anything else next to the ramsinks instead on of the ram?

[kidderboots]

I agree copper blocks would work great but a couple things. 1. who has copper blocks 2. the 3 pennies are the ideal size 3. next to the ram would defeat the purpuse of the pressure needed to be applied to the faulty ram. and like stated earlier even microsoft has found the fault in the board and places something to apply the pressure. they, how ever, do not account for the heat problem so thats why the copper seems to be more effective. try and and see what you think.

[abadfish66]

Sounds like a great idea to me, just one question, you mention to wrap the pennies so no copper is showing, where/how does the heat dissapate? Would it not be better to leave both ends of the pennies open, therefore creating a good heat transfer? Great find by the way.....

Also, is these latest finds starting to rule out the gpu and cpu as being the problem with the red lights?

[wyldstallions]

I done the eraser fix + which didn't work for me until I put extra pressure on the gpu heatsink, (Now using another rubber below the dvd drive to that) which has worked ok for a few days now.

So far no problems of overheating, even with extended game sessions, (also using an intercooler) but the insulation effect of the rubber does slightly concern me that it may cause the unit to fail long term.

I was thinking of wrapping the ram eraser in alu foil to help transfer heat out to the case.

[DrJeckyll]

Maybe worth looking at when the x-clamp replacement does not work.

[kidderboots]

that extra pressur eon the gpu is not needed when you do this fix (3 penny) you release the pressure by undoing the screws and apply the pressure on the actual failure the ram- its was thought that the heat sink was the cause of the majority of problems when in fact %99 of the time its the ram chips- trust me apply the pressure with a hard substance (not rubber) like the pennies to the ram halpes in mulitple areas on your board. by doing whats stated above with rubber in multiple areas and putting rubber under the dvd drive is doing the same as this fix- but your just adding work thats not needed. when you put rubber under the drive your applying pressure (from the top) to the ram...but in turn yoiur also pushing on your dvd drive in a spot that should be pushed inturn could mess up your drive. anyway yeah you could take the electric tape off but i have seen that one wrap of tape does the trick. thanks for posting guys- let me know the results

[abadfish66]

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, the reason this works is by keeping pressure on the chips, and not so much for heat transfer to the case.

If were looking to dissapate heat, will we be looking for a better transfer to the pennies other than hot glue, maybe articsilver adhesive. Just brainstorming