Why does it happen ?

It’s down to basic physics – there are two metals involved one copper the other aluminium, when they heat up they expand and move. The graphics or GPU gets very hot the more graphically involved the game is – it’s been said that ‘gears of war’ is a 360 killer …it’s because the graphics are so good.

Notice the 'legs' of the chip are underneath and inaccessable when fitted

Once the chip or GPU has heated and cooled a few hundred times it starts to break the solder contacts connecting itself to the motherboard – instant 3 red lights ! If it’s the CPU or processor (same thing happens) it’s 1 red light or E74. Now most people will think ‘OK I’ll just re-solder it or re-flow it?’. Unless you’ve got £2.5K worth of equipment (your average bedroom technician won’t!) and around an hour to remove the GPU (reball it) and presuming the tiny pads are OK (they tend to break off) and then hot air re-flow (with the correct jig) and then rebuild it ……… you may just be in with a chance of  repair.

You can see the process done correctly in the following video….

Beware of false promises

There are many places around that offer a ‘fix’, this usually involves heating it with a heatgun and clamping it with an ‘x-clamp’, all this does is force the broken solder joints together, this is not reliable at all as it’s not soldered together mearly touching. Have a look at the warranty period they offer, it’s usually no longer than 60 days,that’s how long the average x-clamp lasts! Buyer beware!

The Important Bit

The old xbox 360 seal

Microsoft have a warranty for this fault and also for E74 faults.

This means that if your warranty seal is intact  then you are entitled to a free repair – this will be a new motherboard – the only real 100% guaranteed  repair. The machine will be collected by courier and returned a couple of weeks later.If the seal is broken or your machine has been banned from Microsoft Live , you will find the console is returned back within a week to 10 days without being repaired with a letter explaining why.

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The new XBOX 360 seal

Seal Broken ?

If your seal is broken whether it’s in warranty or not .. then a repair is possible – this involves reflowing the chips that are causing the machine to malfunction.

Further reading

For more information visit our XBOX 360 repair page and please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

If your Playstation 3 experiences a flashing yellow light, or the lights going from green to yellow, then blinks red, then we can fix it for you. This is usually a problem with the motherboard, it’s the PlayStation’s equivalent of the XBox 360 3 red light fault  - the GPU develops ‘cold’ solder joints underneath , which we can fix for much less than Sony charges (£140) and also won’t lose all your gamesaves or downloads .

Ps3 Yellow Light of Death

Cost of work is £65

• Yellow light problem, resulting in PS3 not working
• Labour to eliminate yellow light problem.
• Soak testing to ensure a reliable fix
• 90 day warranty on parts and labour.
• Machine is completely stripped -reflowed – cleaned internally to ensure good cooling
• Artic silver heatsink on CPU/GPU

Please note that you will find that some repair shops offer an express service for this repair. In our experience these provide the least reliable fixes that do not last long. We use the best reflow techniques and the most rigorous testing process to ensure that the repair is of the highest quality and most reliability.

As with XBox and PS3 there is no 100% success rate – occasionally the board has suffered ‘ circuit pads/tracks lifting ‘ – this problem is not repairable and the motherboard would be rendered useless. Again – cooling is the key to a long life .. always ensure a good airflow .. hoover out the vents every month or so .. if you’re using it for extended gaming , give the machine a break every now and then – press and hold the eject button while switching it on (not 60G) .. this runs the fans full until it’s cooled down.

VIN units will need to be either with the car or at least have a copy of the VIN or Chassis number of the vehicle it’s going into.

Cost of VIN unit decode  is £25

Vauxhall CD30 decode is £25 – this is for either reading code ( if it’s going back to original vehicle) or for putting into ‘delivery mode’ – this will then require main dealer or advanced diagnostic garage to ‘pair’ unit to car …… main dealers can’t put unit into ‘delivery mode’.

for a full list of units  supported   -  click here

Vauxhall CD30 - this popular unit is not only coded , it's also tech2 'married' to the car using diagnostic tools.

XBox 360 Modifications

We can modify your drive to allow machine to play back-ups or discs from other regions.

Now supporting all models – 360 elite and also NEW Xbox 360 Slim Lite-on firmware mod which requires replacement PCB from £120

iXtreme firmware upgrades

Firmwares available at the moment are;

• Lite-On drive     iXtreme LT+V3.0
• Benq  iXtreme   iXtreme LT +V3.0
• Hitachi    iXtreme 1.51
• Toshiba    iXtreme LT +V3.0
• Samsung   iXtreme LT +V3.0

Cost of service is £50 - we guarantee not to brick your console.

If we’ve modded your console before and it needs an upgrade to play a new wave of security – we discount the charge to £30.

Fan / Cooling modifications

Most problems with 360′s are down to too much heat in too small a box.

Upgraded heatsink for GPU - found in later machines and Elite consoles

We keep upgraded heatsinks and also small internal add on fans to keep your machine cool  . Also possible is an increase in fan speed to allow airflow to be greater – it should be noted that this mod causes more noise and isn’t suitable for the average gamer – the fans can be a bit noisy ! .

Upgraded fan mods are fitted using Artic silver 5 heat-sink compound to ensure the best possible heat transfer.

Mods from £25 +

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