So I took my "just slightly out of warranty" Xbox 360 that RROD'd and did the X-clamp replacement trick. It worked for about 1-2 hours of total play time before it locked up and RROD'd again. Thinking it might be a problem with the thermal paste layer or something equally dumb, I took it apart and did it again. I let it sit for 2 days before trying it a few minutes ago. I got about 10 minutes of life before it froze up again, so I rebooted it and it went to the 3 red lights.
I know that a local gaming store will fix it for $60, but they only guarantee it for 30 days. I'm just wondering if there's something else I can try to do before I just go buy a new 360 Arcade for $130.
I'm thinking of buying some Arctic silver and give it one more try. Now that I've taken it apart so many times, it really is quick to do and not very difficult to disassemble and reassemble. Here are the steps that I've done based on online tutorials to fix my 360:
1. Bought a "kit" of bolts, washers, and vinyl washers.
2. Removed the heat sinks, discarded the X-clamps
3. cleaned off the old thermal paste and polished the surfaces smooth.
4. Apply a thin layer of thermal paste and set the heat sinks back in place
5. Tighten the sinks down, but not torque them down.
6. Turn on the unit, see the RROD still, let it heat up for a few minutes.
7. Turn it off, torque down the screws all the way.
8. Put it all back together, let it sit for 2 days.
Anything else I should be doing here?