How to fix Error E74!

How to fix the dreaded E74

By ForrrestMaster

Ok, lets have some background of what causes this first. It is caused by the HANA (scaler) chip loosening from the Motherboard. People get a quick fix by towel tricking it, but it still has room to seperate from the board. Now how would we fix this? This is how I did it, been fixed for about 2 weeks now.

List of tools
Open 360
10-12 pennies
superglue
some way to take up space, I used old burned cd's
3-4 towels


First you have this screen...

It sucks, and I hate it.

Ok, so your going to have to take apart your 360. There are a bunch of tutorials, I dont really think I need to get into how to do it. But once you take everything off you have this...


That black chip is the HANA chip. That is the cause of all the problems. Take about 10 pennies,and super glue them into a stack.



Then place the stack on the chip and then put the fan cover back on. It shouldnt fit as good, the side with the pennies under it should be higher than the other side, that is what we want.

Then put your drive back on too.

Now here is were we are gonna start to add pressure. Put a few Cd's or whatever you can to have that stack the highest point on the mobo.


I used 7 Cd-r's. Then be careful to put the case back on, so taht the discs or the pennies move from their position, I put the top on first, then applied pressure with my hands to keep it in place as I put on the bottom.

Now, you can try to turn on your box and see if its gone, probably not. And if it is, it will come back most likely. We are not finished.

Now towel trick it, and when it shuts off, leave it in the towels for another 10-20 mins. Its what I did. Then when that is over, you should boot up just fine. No errors or anything

[Nubble]

Holy cow, can your pictures get any bigger lol

Its my camera It always does that.

[Crackmatt]

Why are you such a genius?

I'm trying this today, basically all you are doing is pushing that scaler chip down right?

EDIT: OMFG IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thank you GREATLY.

[JoeMal]

Great tut man...don't need it myself (KNOCK ON WOOD LOL) but I've seen a lot of people posting recently about E74 and I think this is a great addition to the site

Nice work

[JaxJags]

Thanks. Mine old 360 just got E74.

[dschu012]

Will it cause problems if you move your console around a bit after this or does the towel part make chip stay down on the board better? Could you remove the CD-R's and Pennies afterwards?

My Elite recently got E74 I am very tempted to try this on it.

The pennies and CD R's are what keep the pressure on the chip. And it shouldnt become loose since the case will be closed but it has for me once.

Thanks scar for the extra pictures.

Quote: Originally Posted by Crackmatt

Why are you such a genius?

EDIT: OMFG IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thank you GREATLY.

Glad it worked for you

[Fox08731]

Thanks Forrrest I just fixed my friend's 360 by doing this

Glad it worked for you too

[V Mr UnKnOwN V]

its worked for me too...just hope it lasts

i was on tha verge of buying a new console aswell

thats a really nice add......thanks forrest

NO problem man. Glad it worked for you too

[SiK GambleR]

amazing tutorial man. I have seen this on youtube and **** but it was never explained. every1 is just like DO T3H PENNY TRIX

Just using the pennies never worked for me. So I had to apply the extra pressure.

[rondz]

Hey what's up, I just bought a refurbished Xbox 360 on 11/28/08 and it has recently been doing a lot of the E 74 error and I've done the towel trick alone twice and both times it has fixed my problem but has only lasted a few hours. I am new to Xbox 360's and have done some research about troubleshooting these type of complications the system experiences and this particular thread seems to be a reasonable fix that I think I can attempt without messing up any of the electronics (I hope). By the way, my Xbox 360 has ran out of warranty at Microsoft and GameStop. So I have nothing to lose when attempting to fix this. I just completed the penny stack and decided to use electrical tape + rhino glue to keep the pennies together and electric tape to keep the cd's together instead. I believe that I disassembled and assembled everything as instructed and hope this works out. Right now I'm currently at the "baking" stage of the towel trick. I'll let you know how it goes.

Does this fix actually fix the problem longer than the towel trick alone? If so, how long am I looking at before it totally gives up on me? Or am I due for another Xbox 360 already?

Any help or suggestions would be great, I'm kinda on a budget here so that's why I don't want to buy another Xbox 360, but if I have to...bah! I just wanna play Street Fighter IV on Tuesday!!!!!

Alright so I just finished "baking" it in the towels. I turned on my Xbox 360 and it works!!! Wow, this is a GOLD MINE as of right now, I just really hope that it lasts longer than the regular towel trick, I mean it totally makes sense that we're using the pennies as a heat conductor + using them to push the HANA chip closer to the motherboard for a better connection. I'll let you know how long it lasts before another E 74 error, I hope not anytime soon! But I mean if you already know how long it will last before it E 74 errors again since you're the mastermind of this, please let me know, or anyone else who has done this already. I'd also like to know if it can mess up the Xbox 360.

[RaiderNation23]

what does the towel trick do at the end so it would work??

Reheats everything and softens joints.

[RaiderNation23]

Thank you dude
Its finally working

[rondz]

Alright, just gonna update you all with my experience. It only lasted me 1 day. After going on Netflix and playing some games for a couple of hours, it kept showing lines on the bottom right corner of my screen and when I'd play a game, the whole game or the whole Netflix video would have lines going down it.

Quote: Originally Posted by rondz

Alright, just gonna update you all with my experience. It only lasted me 1 day. After going on Netflix and playing some games for a couple of hours, it kept showing lines on the bottom right corner of my screen and when I'd play a game, the whole game or the whole Netflix video would have lines going down it.

Try more pennies. That is what happened when it didnt work for me the first time.