Red Ring of Death

Il Mio Problema

My X-Box came down with the red ring of death after years of gentle usage. Not really sure what caused it to suddenly die.

La Mia Riparazione

The repair went fine but ended up taking about 4 hours to complete. The big issue was removing the x clamps, they were a lot harder to remove than I thought.

However, the repair failed. The machine still displayed the red ring after I completed the repair.

Il Mio Consiglio

The x clamps were really hard to remove and cleaning off the old thermal paste was a pain in the ass too. It was like trying to get bubblegum out of the carpet after someone had ground it in with their foot. I found out that if you get a plastic card, like those ones the NRA send you in the mail, and cut a strip off it it works good at scraping off the thermal paste without scratching the motherboard.

As for the x clamps, don't be afraid to bend them a little to get them loose.