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Tutorial How to Fix E-74 Error and RRoD (Red Ring of Death)

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dhbh43

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You mentioned that the heat is set to 7. What does that correspond to in degrees, thanks.
 
Linktopower

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This guide works quite well, my Halo 3 edition console bit the dust like a week ago (e74 error) so I decided to try to do the repair and followed the guide which is easy to understand. With success the console was working again...

Through got an overheat after an hour of play so I went back and adjusted the tightness of the screws and all is good.
Been running for a week now with no problems :wink:

Even went out and bought a dead elite console for $10 bucks, and spent $9 for the screws and washers.
And got it working as well, I might just stock piling consoles to have some to fall back on :tongue:

Anyways, a tip from me, if you have a over heat issue or a instant 3 ring show up, just play with the tightness of the heat sinks. most of the time that's the issue.
 
EvilJtag7s

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No pennies will be wasted.
The main purpose of this tutorial is for the E-74 error, and how to fix it yourself. All of this information was gathered from the internet and also my own trial and error. I will also review the RRoD repair with some custom tweaks. I have already completed the X-Clamp fix on my machine, so some parts may be improvised. Keep in mind, there is no permanent fix, therefore you may need to do this more than once, depending how much you play, one repair should last 1 month. Once the initial repair has been made, any instances to follow can be repaired very quickly (5 minutes). I will also show how to 're-fix' E-74, in case you experience another error later on. At your own risk.


How to fix E74 & RRoD
vvSTRIDEvv

e74035.jpg


e74001.jpg


Items Needed:

  • 12 5mm flat stainless washers
  • 20 5mm plastic washers
  • 8 M5 x .8 x 16mm machine screws
  • Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste (Radio Shack)
  • Thread lock Super Glue
  • Foam furniture disc (optional)
Tools:

  • T10 and T8, T6 Torx (Auto Zone in the Allen key style, cheapest way to get all the sizes)
  • Pliers
  • Phillips screwdriver
  • 1/4 inch socket
  • Tin Snips
  • Generic Heat Gun
Tutorials for opening the case:
[ame]

Once you have your case open:


  • Remove the gold T bolts, and ring of light board to release motherboard.

  • Completely remove motherboard from chassis.

e74002.jpg



  • Next you will need to drill the original x-clamp holes on the chassis, so that your screws will fit.
e74003.jpg


  • Now superglue two plastic washers on each of the 8 holes on the inside of chassis, use the screws to hold in place till dry. Now the washers will not move. This is also a good time to glue the foam disc to the GFX (left) side of the chassis, as depicted.

  • Glue them down.
e74005.jpg



  • Hold with bolts till dry.

e74007.jpg



  • Remove bolts.

e74010.jpg


  • Now, if you ever need to do this again, you will NOT need to remove the motherboard. Since the bolts are on the outside of the chassis.

  • Now remove the original feet from the heat sinks, with the 1/4 ratchet, and throw them and the x-clamps in the trash.
e74020.jpg



  • Clean all excess paste from the sinks and the chips. You want the chips to be legible, and mirror finish. I use a q-tip with a little alcohol.

Dirty:
e74012.jpg


Clean:

e74014.jpg



  • Now that your chips are clean.

  • Next, you will need to 're-flow' the board with your heat gun, in the areas outlined in the diagram below. Start with the bottom of the motherboard, and make sure the board is sitting level. Heat gun on high for 3-4 minutes in circular motion. Watch this video for shielding and patterns.
[ame]

Once cool you can re-install your motherboard

  • Put your washers on all the bolts, and push the first four through on the CPU (right) side.

  • Put more washers on the inside on top of the motherboard.
Should look like so:

e74024.jpg



  • Add the thermal paste to the top of the CPU chip, not too much:

e74023.jpg


  • Now you will need to carefully thread the heat sink on to the screws.

  • Tighten screws hand tight, then torque one 1/4 turn.

  • Don't forget the washer first. You should have one stainless washer at the head of the bolt against the outside of the chassis, and then the glued plastic ones, then one stainless on the board before the CPU heatsink. So, 2 loose washers per screw.


  • Now you can go ahead and put the other 4 bolts through on the GFX side (left).

  • Use the remaining 4 PLASTIC washers, and glue them CAREFULLY to the board. You only need a tiny drop.
e74025.jpg


IMPORTANT.

  • Take our snips and cut a piece of the metal heat shield off from the top of your plastic box case, it will pop right off the case top. You want a small piece that resembles the assembly of your graphics chip set.
e74.jpg


  • This piece will go over both chips and allow for more direct pressure.

e74016.jpg


  • To fit these chips.

e74019.jpg



  • Add thermal paste to chips, and put the metal piece you cut on top, then put more paste on top of the metal piece.

  • DO NOT PUT THE 2nd HEAT SINK ON YET.

  • Now you can plug your xbox in (power and AV cable), WITHOUT 2ND HEAT SINK, and turn it on. This will cause an instant 2 red light error (overheat).
e74032.jpg



  • Unplug everything, and now you can install the 2ND heat sink. Same thing, just hand tight, and then a 1/4 turn. Don't forget the washers, they should be glued down.

  • Once you have done that, plug it back in and test it out. Should work. BUT. If by any chance it gives you 3 red lights. Simply adjust the tourque of the bolts a little tighter, and try again. But at least you don't have to pull the board again..lol.
e74033.jpg


  • Now you can put the air duct, dvd drive back in, and the case back together. You should be in good working order.

e74034.jpg


Fast forward a few weeks, another E74. Easy to fix now.

  • Pull the case off.
  • Unscrew / remove the heat sink from the GFX chip set (left side).
  • Plug everything in and turn it on so you get 2 red lights.
  • Put the heat sink back on (re-paste optional).
  • Done.
I personally only put the bottom and right side (for HDD) back on the chassis, as shown in picture above. This allows for more circulation to the gfx sinks, and much easier to fix. Like I said, this will last me a month of playing everyday in all honesty. I am not stating this is a permanent fix, and as far as I know, this is the best way to fix E74.

Digg this thread w/ your Facebook login!!!


very well made post, good luck members of 7s fixng your console
 
XMonsterModsX

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Just a heads up this is a temperary fix and may make things worse when it actually fails again. Most repairers wont work on your console if you tryed to fix it using this method or any similiar methods.
 
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You should mention that this tutorial is not only a temporary fix, but is a sure way to mess up your system even more! The metal you put between the crystal and the heat sink is not helping! It's reducing the amount of heat going from the chip to the heat sink! And the tightened bolts are just going to bend the mobo and maybe make it unrepairable! But I guess it's ok for pinpointing the problematic chip, a bit of an overkill though.
P.S. Clean the thermal paste better! The crystal has to be mirror clean!
 
Bosko

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I Dont know if this is normal or not and either way im not complaining but i frequently get the rrod and all i need to do it turn off and on again and its sorted, and i have had the e-74 error before and another one quite like it and all i did was turn it off and on again and it was working perfectly fine? i dont know why this happens but im happy about it hahah
 
TheRedishFire

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I fixed it by blowing a hair dryer at max heat on the gpu for 30min it has been working for over a month now
 
CustomRGH

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should really reball you could try reflow but it will most likely come back if you have a new gpu put that on it instead of reballing when i see e74 i think dead gpu
 
Octal450

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This is absolutely totally incorrect. I am shocked that reputable site like 7S would have such things pinned. This is not how you fix these errors at all, this is a temporary fix that will fail again, and your bolt mod will warp your board further.
 
BlueSn00w

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This is absolutely totally incorrect. I am shocked that reputable site like 7S would have such things pinned. This is not how you fix these errors at all, this is a temporary fix that will fail again, and your bolt mod will warp your board further.
Look at the date of this post then think again. No one knew the effects of doing this in 09.
 
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