Hi. I finally got my first RROD on my 4-year old 360. I paid some kid $15 to fix it (not sure the method but I made sure he wasn't using the "towel trick" I read about. He said he reseated the sinks) That worked for a couple of weeks, but now I'm getting it again and am going to try to fix it myself.

My question is that most of the tutorials say to power on the xbox after applying new thermal paste and re-seating the heat sinks, and let it sit there and overheat to the 2 red lights. Additionally, some say you should keep it in that overheated state for 10 minutes, then screw in the heat sinks snugly and re-assemble.

Why do you need to let it overheat in the first place, and why let it stay in that overheated state for *any* period of time?

Thanks for any info.

Bump?

It's supposed to soften up the solder and help the joints regain good contact. It doesn't work. I tried all weekend to get a 360 working again after it had been fitted with x-clamps a few months ago. I followed the oven bake tut today and so far all is well.

I've personally have fixed over 10 xbox 360s by replacing the x-clamps with screws and washers, then using a heat gun, heated up the top of the heat sinks for about 2 minutes at about 600 degrees f. I have the heat sinks very tight when doing this and after I let them cool down i loosen the screws.

Ah, ok... softening the solder... that makes sense. I'll keep the oven bake method in my back pocket. Thanks.