Revisiting the XBOX360 clamp mod.

[l_oliveira]

This is a beaten and tired subject.
Dozens of conspiracy theories and magic "voodoo" fixes exist to attempt repair on the dreaded "3RLOD" problem.

This might be just another attempt, but I'm quite satisfied with the results I achieved. So I decided to share with the folks here at NFG Games.

Firstly, the problem...

Heat! Lots of heat from poorly designed airflow/heat sink accumulate on the GPU region of the motherboard causing mechanical stress. When it fails this is what happens:

This is why the repaired consoles won't last any longer than few weeks to maybe some months at the best cases.
Most people blame the clamps for the problem but the real villain here is the heat.

In the clamp mod most people use, two metal washers are placed per hole along with a screw which is compatible with the hole on the heatsink. Once thermal compound is applied, the screws and washers are positioned so the heatsink can be tightened to the mainboard.
The pair of washers give the exact height to allow enough pressure be applied to the GPU part ensuring that good heat conduction will happen. However, the GPU and board are already damaged from excessive heat and will bend in the edges once the system is in use again. After doing the same repair in a system six times I had the idea of putting a separator to keep the GPU from bending towards the heatsink (the center pressure from the heatsink and the heat cause the bending effect) and effectively generate even pressure on the whole surface of the GPU part.

This is how the enhanced mod looks like:



The "U-PAD" thing I've been using:


This "U-PAD cut of thick paper sits on top of the GPU capacitors giving enough pressure down to keep the GPU body from bending too much and breaking the BGA balls, while not being too strong and keeping the DIE from touching the heatsink in the center of the square. This idea is similar to what a heat spreader do on chips like AMD CPUs or for example the PS3 CELL-BE.

Apart from this I also put the fans on maximum speed and do the airflow divide mod to improve the airflow for the GPU:


Suggestions ? Ideas ? Be my guest.