uhyea asked:


My xbox got the E74 error a couple weeks back so I took it apart, heat gunned it, put it back together (not the best idea but I avoided most of the screws for the moment, maybe the reason?) and it worked. I used the thermal heat sink compound from Radio Shack on the heatsinks above the CPU and the GPU and also used this paste to put metal washers on the RAM chips.

The problem is no longer the E74 error. After playing COD MW2 for about 3 to 4 minutes (actual gameplay), the system overheats, shuts down, and flashes the 2 red lights signaling overheating. Letting it cool down for awhile lets it boot back up. The fan runs louder than it ever has from startup, if thats any help.

Why is it doing this? Is it the paste I used? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.
Also, the Xbox doesn’t feel too hot when it shuts down.
Thanks, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t damage anything on the motherboard, i only used the heat gun for 4 minutes total and never stayed in one place and used it on the lowest setting. I know there’s nothing blocking the internal fans and the system is in a well ventilated place. Im beginning to think its the paste between the heatsinks and the gpu or cpu. Any ideas?
Ok, popped it open directly after it shut down due to overheating and the heatsinks are both very hot to the touch. Significance?
Its the Radio Shack silicon based heat sink compound. Its the white tube with the red on it. Ive messed with the screws on the heatsinks and it seems like the tighter they are, the longer it doesnt overheat. But eventually it still does. The fan started slow that time, then sped up until it shut down.
I tweaked the screws on the heatsink a bit and put new paste between the heatsinks and the gpu and cpu. it doesn’t seem to overheat anymore. But now the picture screws up, the colors shift and it gets blurry. I reboot and it is fine. Please someone offer some kind of advice this is driving me crazy. Thanks.