Xbox 360 XCLAMP Repair Kit - 3 Red Light X-Clamp Fix w/ Official Opening Unlock Tool

One of my Xbox 360s kicked the bucket with the three red rings of death two weeks ago. With this kit, a screwdriver, some tape and a soft cloth I fixed the console in about two hours. It's run fine for about six hours now, including downloading a dashboard update and installing a game.A word of warning: you will be opening up your 360 and disassembling EVERYTHING, including taking anything off the motherboard that isn't soldered down. This, obviously, will void any warranty you have. If you are extremely nervous about playing with electrical components (at one point you will actually power on the system while it's disassembled to intentionally overheat the CPU and GPU chips) you might not want to give this a go; with patience and care, though, this process is actually pretty straightforward.While I'm on the topic of warranties, before you even consider buying this kit, register your console on the Xbox website and make sure you can't get it repaired for free. Standard warranties are one year, but the warranty against the RROD is three years. You'll usually have to go through the "Request a Repair" link to find out if you can get it fixed for free. If not, Microsoft will tell you it will cost about $100 to fix the console, and this is when you would want to consider this kit.Essentially, you are using the eight screws and 32 washers to replace the x-clamps that are supposed to hold the heat sinks down (they do a bad job of it, hence the RROD). The instructions do not come with the kit itself, but a link to online directions (one set on how to take apart the 360, another on the actual fix). Though sometimes poorly written ("heat sync," bad sentence structure at points, and the like), the directions are straightforward. Read through them once or twice before you sit down to do the actual repair, and keep them handy as you follow the steps.The unlock tool included is somewhat flimsy, and will bend if you apply too much pressure, which unfortunately you have to do to actually unlock the console. The tool actually failed to open one part of my 360, and I ended up breaking a small tab to get the case apart (thankfully, the case still closes securely, and the break is on the back and hidden inside the case).Despite these shortcomings, I spent less than $10 on this kit and ended up not having to pay $90+ to have someone else fix my console. If you take your time, this kit is well worth the investment.*Update 12/23/2010: Over one month post-fix, and no problems to report!*Update 6/30/2011: About three months post-fix it RROD'ed again during a particularly graphics-intense part of Final Fantasy XIII. Opening up the 360, I saw that the cheap thermal paste that came with the kit was the culprit for this failure. I went to Staples and got a tube of good thermal paste for about $6, and re-did the fix, substituting the good thermal paste for the cheap paste, and so far no more hiccups.*Update 9/13/2011: Scrapped the 360 today for parts. It RROD'ed during the latest dashboard update, and nothing I do can get it working again. From talking with other people, the average lifespan for this fix is 6 weeks-3 months. So, weigh the cost of a new 'Box against the hassle of cracking it open every 8 weeks and *maybe* fixing it to determine if this is worth it for you.I should also not this wa not my primary console, and it saw action maybe once every 10 days for a few hours at a time.

My oldest 360 after being repaired by Microsoft twice for RROD died again outside of the warranty period with another RROD. I had heard about repairing them yourself but all the links on Google seemed like a scam. I stumbled on this kit on Amazon and figured for $10, I might give it a shot. I have Amazon Prime which is nice this kit can be shipped using it. Instead of the standard 2 day delivery, it showed up at my door, unexpectedly, in one -- thanks Amazon! I got a little yellow pouch at my doorstep with all the tools necessary inside -- except for a phillips head and flathead screwdriver. The XBOX unlocking tool included is very handy. There is a slip of paper that instructs you to download the PDF instructions off a website. The instructions are nothing fancy and the production value is cheap but they are good enough to get you through the project.The entire process took me about 2 hours to complete while watching TV and taking little breaks. It was a fairly simple task which surprised me. The most difficult parts for me were removing the X clamps and screwing the heat sinks back on. I was concerned that the force required to torque the X clamps off would either crack the motherboard or cause the flathead to gouge it. I finally figured out that holding the motherboard vertical made it easy to hold in the screw and washer combination to secure the heat sinks to the CPU and GPU. The most time consuming process was cleaning the old thermal compound off the heat sinks and chips. It looked burnt and had exploded across the chips. Fortunately, I had purchased bulk Q-Tips from Amazon in the past. The two supplied with the kit were not enough for the mess in my Xbox 360. The cleaner and purifier supplied with the kit cleaned well.The moment of truth came as I put the motherboard back into the metal case with the DVD-ROM hanging on the side and turned on the Xbox 360. GREEN LIGHTS!!! I was shocked. So I did what the instructions said, leave it on till they turn from green to two red lights then fired off my stopwatch for exactly two minutes then shut it down. After I turned it off, let it cool off a bit, I tightened up all the screws and put the unit completely back together.Once I had cleaned up the mess I made from the repair, I put my repaired Xbox to the test and played Call of Duty: Black Ops for two hours. No issues what-so-ever. I will see how long the repair lasts. If it happens again, I know what to do and have the tools to do it -- I will just need to buy some thermal paste. I highly recommend this product if you find yourself with the blinking three red lights. It does the job and the instructions are clear. A lot cheaper than paying Microsoft to fix their design flaw.UPDATE (June 23, 2011): The fix is still working which has surprised me greatly.UPDATE (December 2011): I finally got another "Red Ring of Death". I purchased some Arctic Silver and re-did the XCLAMP repair using the instructions from this kit with the original parts supplied and I was able to revive my XBOX 360 once again. I also took the opportunity to add a Talismoon Whisper Fan to help quiet the XBOX as well. It does make a difference and if you are doing the repair it is a perfect time to swap out the fan. One tip, tape the screws down when doing the repair.