YAY… Small. Plays Divx & RMVB (format still popular in Asia). Plays MP3s and displays your Sports Illustrated JPGs. Firmware upgradable. Comes with all the cables you need (component and av), as well as interchangable power plugs so you can use overseas.

NAY… Can’t play MKV. Video output 1080i and in SD only. Can’t play HD content.

SO… Get this only if you can find it for $39 – $49. Great little package and convenient to have for a dirty weekend away.

YAY… Audio quality fairly decent, and there’s a bit of oomph with the bass boost on. There’s also an aux input so you can connect any other mp3 player using a cable like this.

Comes with a power adapter and will charge your iPod at the same time but what really excited me was the fact that it will last for 10 hours with four AA batteries! Of course on portable power your iPod won’t be charged.

NAY… Compatible with all iPods but will only work in flight mode for iPhones. Sound starts cracking if you pump the volume up too high.

SO… At $29 they are fantastic value-for-money (I wouldn’t pay more than that though). Great to use this when polishing shoes and there’s nothing to watch on TV.

I used to buy expensive earphones but always end up damaging them. Somehow I’d lose the sound to the right earphone (every time)!

YAY… Some noise isolating features. Not as uncomfortable in the ear. I use the Medium fit ear buds and it fits me ok but it’s quite stiff and might not be comfy for other ears. Sound quality decent… treble not sharp enough for my liking but the bass is reasonable tight. Comes with a hard plastic carrying case that looks like dental floss.

NAY… Can’t find ‘em for $25 anymore.

SO… If you can buy them for approx $20 get one. Sturdy enough for use while exercising and won’t break the bank.

Seems like my XBox360 repair adventures have generated a bit of interest, but alas I’m sad to report my X-Clamp fix lasted only a few months. I rarely play my XBox360 nowadays as over the past 2 years I bought a Wii and a PS3. However, the Wii’s only used when friends are over and I use the PS3 more as a media player then a gaming console!

So what’s the news with my XBox360? Well, my original error code was “0020″, but using the X-Clamp fix it went away for a few months. Then one day, the screen just froze. After restarting the XBox I got a RRoD with error code “0102″.

I’ve tried cleaning up and reapplying thermal paste, essentially repeating the X-Clamp fix multiple times, and even tried the alternative bake process, to no avail. My XBox360 would last a couple of days then hang or freeze again.

I’ve just about had it! I’m pretty sure it can be fixed, but I’m almost over it. While I’m half thinking of just selling it on eBay so someone else can give it a try, the other half of me doesn’t want to give up just yet.

In addition, recently the XBox360 has been turning itself on! At first I thought it only happened when I was changing… or maybe it was a misplaced controller… or maybe my XBox360 is hinting that it still can be saved.

But what else can I try? I have tried heat gun, Team Xecuter’s RRoD kit (which is similar to the eraser trick) and the X-Clamp but still no joy.

Team Xecuter has a new RRoD Pro Repair Kit II which essentially is an x-clamp fix and memory chip pads with additional heat sinks all-in-one. So if your XBox360 has stuffed up recently and you have not attempted a repair before, you might want to give it a go.

Background Info: I got the dreaded Three Red Rings of Death problem on my XBox360 with error code “0020″. I tried almost every fix available out there:

• Towel Trick – Worked only once, died a few days later, too risky. Don’t bother.
• Heat Gun Trick – Worked for a few weeks then died. Too much work in my opinion. Don’t bother.
• Team-Xecuter RROD Repair Kit – Didn’t work for me, but some swear by it. Worth a shot.
• X-Clamp Fix - XBox360 has been up for 6 months!

The X-Clamp Fix seems to be one of the most popular fixes that actually do work. Basically, the idea is to get rid of the clamps that hold the heat sinks to the CPU & GPU, instead replacing them with screws, washers & bolts that keep them locked in place. This leaves the motherboard with little room to warp, hence no three red rings of death.

Initially, I went to Bunnings and every other hardware store you could think of to buy the parts (I live in Sydney Australia). My advice to you is to not bother. While everyone had the right washers, no one had the screws of the right length. The width was right, but then length was too long, so if I had got them I would’ve had to saw off part of the screw. Too much work and not worth the hassle. Also, no one had nylon washers.

Fortunately, there are heaps of sellers on eBay that sell the kit. My advice is to not bother sourcing the parts yourself (unless you live in a country that has a range like Home Depot from the US). I bought the kit from these guys. It was cheaper getting the kit from them then sourcing the parts myself. Plus everything they provided were the right length & width. They also provide instructions and have their own support forum. What more can you ask for?

There are 8 screws, 16 metal washers and 16 nylon washers in the pack.

So what’s involved? You have to take your XBox360 apart, remove the clamps and then the heat sinks. I used ArticClean to clean off the old thermal paste, and applied new Artic Silver 5 thermal paste. Full instructions can be found easily within a google search but if you want direct links and youtube videos just leave a comment and I’ll update the post.

Well, so far so good. It’s been six months and I’ve not experienced any problems with the XBox360. Remember, I still had my Team Xecuter’s heat pads in there, so I’m recommending a combination of the X-Clamp and Team Xecuter RROD kit to ensure a more permanent fix.

Then again, I’ve only use it for games now as I bought myself a PS3 (more of that to come in a later post… this time I’ll try to blog more regularly I promise)!

I did more research and the only two options left for me were the X-Clamp fix and the latest repair kit from Team-Xecuter. Team-Xecuter had a solid reputation for being innovative in coming up with solutions for modding the XBoxes, and after a very long wait the kit was finally available for sale in Australia through xecuter.com.au for $12.95. With express post shipping and a credit card surchage, the total cost was just over $20.

So what’s in the kit? I already found out earlier on that the kit was mainly 4 heat resistant stickers that you stuck over the memory chips. I’m not exactly sure what was the reasoning behind why this fix would’ve worked, but since it was from Team-Xecuter I thought I’d give it a go.

Here’s what included in the kit. 2 torx screw drivers to help you disassemble the XBox360…

And of course, the four heat resistant sticker pads.

While the torx screw drivers were pretty decent, I was very disappointed with the quality of the pads. The adhesive of the sticker pads were not very sticky, and 2 of them couldn’t even stick to the memory chips. They kept falling off when I turned the board over. I had to use a thin layer of glue to keep them in place.

Team-Xecuter does not have any installation instructions as well, and they simply link to this unofficial tutorial. The only thing they mention in their forums is to leave your XBox360 running for 20 minutes.

Did it work for me? Unfortunately, it didn’t. I still had the same error code “0020″. It may work for you if you have memory related errors, but I can’t say it with 100% certainty.

So what next? The X-Clamp fix! Stay tuned to see if I had any success…

First, some background on what exactly causes the dreaded RRoD. If you don’t mind a technical read, this pdf from Manncorp.com’s covers the cause of the problem succintly, and also details the solution to the RRoD problem.

To summarise:

• The RRoD problem is attributed to the XBox 360′s motherboard. What does that mean? Basically, it’ll work for a while but as time goes by, the heat caused by the XBox gradually expands and contracts the solder points on the motherboard. Because the solder points on the board were poorly put in place by crappy manufacturing processes, they eventually go “cold” meaning they lose connectivity, hence giving the RRoD error.
• Most XBox 360s with the RRoD problem do not require replacement parts, as the parts are of high quality. Hence, 94% of XBox 360s can be repaired (hurrah!).
• The key to fixing the XBox 360 is to reheat the board at a temperature high enough to melt the solder points, but take care not to damage the components around it.

For a YouTube video overview of the problem and some fixes, check out this video.

Based on my research on the fixes available, I’ve found three techniques, and have tried two. The first is the infamous towel trick. I was desperate enough to try it, and it was only temporary, but most people advise against it. It works for some, worked temporarily for me, but it may fry other parts on your XBox 360 and may be a fire hazard so try it only at your own risk. Great thing about this fix is that you won’t have to open your XBox.

The second technique, called the “X-Clamp Fix”, is to remove the motherboard, but replace the clamps that hold the heat sink in place with bolts & washers. In fact, you can buy a kit at x-clamp-fix.com, although you could probably pick up similar parts from a hardware store.

I have not tried the X-Clamp fix myself. But using this may work if it squeezes the solder point tighter so they are better connected to each other around the CPU & GPU, where the problem resides.

The last fix I actually did use was the “heat gun” fix. You take your XBox360 apart, remove the motheboard from the case, remove the heat sinks from the CPU & GPU, then use a heat gun to melt the solder points. When it cools, the solder points should be reset in place.

Surprisingly, I actually did own a heat gun. It looks like a hair dryer, but mine was an el-cheapo no-name model that I got 2 years ago for less than A$20. It has only 2 settings, 300 or 600 degrees celsius. I used the lower setting. This was the first time I used it.

I also had to go to Dick Smith to buy a Torx screw driver set for A$17.99. You need the T8 & T10 screw drivers to take the XBox360 apart.

Embarrassingly, I purchased the 3 Red Light Fix Guide before undertaking more research and didn’t like the idea of using the heat gun. That’s why I did more research. I soon discovered that all the information available in the guide was already on the internet. Furthermore, the videos they featured on their password-protected site were freely available on YouTube!

I wanted to ask for a refund since the content wasn’t that exclusive after all, but decided to give it a go anyway since I already had the heat gun, my XBox was stuffed and I liked the idea of owning a Torx driver set. The biggest hassle was actually taking the XBox360 apart (got a nasty cut on my fingers from doing it). I also removed the old thermal paste and applied new Artic Silver thermal paste to the CPU & GPU.

After I had heat-gunned the board and put everything back together, my “0020″ RRoD problem went away! It’s been one week already and things have been ok. Hence, the instructions in the guide really did help, so I’ve decided not to ask for a refund nor to post the direct links to the videos on YouTube (although they are not hard to find yourself).

There’s another guide availabe that claims to have other fixes using household items. I suspect they recommend putting erasers on the memory chips to squeeze them tighter together or would recommend the X-Clamp fix, although I’m not sure. Very curious to find out, but won’t pay for the guide.

As always, if you want to try this, do it at your own risk.

I was one of the first in Australia to get an XBox360 when it just launched. I pre-ordered my unit at Electronics Boutique and went for the launch night and everything.

Anyway, apart from Top Spin 2, I didn’t really play much XBox. I used it mostly to watch dvds. A few months ago when people were complaining about the 3 rings of death I was a bit concerned since my unit was the very first version but things were working fine for me.

Two nights ago, I had a power outage at home and when I tried to boot up the XBox I had the dreaded 3 rings of death! Initially it looked like all 4 rings were flashing but upon closer inspection I realised it was 3.

Having stored my XBox360 packaging box somewhere I can’t remember, I had my receipt in there and couldn’t be bothered looking for it. I searched in Google instead, to see what information I could dig up.

Found this post on xbox-scene.com that had information about the different rings and how to get specific error codes of the problem. My error code was “0020″ which stood for “Unknown Hardware Failure” which meant it could have been anything. Microsoft recommends you send the console in if you get this error.

But I found this video on geeksaresexy.net that basically shows you that by wrapping your XBox360 in towels, leaving it on for 20 minutes and letting it overheat, it fixes the problem! While I was of little faith I gave it a go.

IT WORKED! My XBox360 is back up and running. Apparently this is a temporary fix and the problem may resurface but I’ve left the XBox going for a couple of hours and so far so good. One thing I didn’t do was remove the hard drive, which really is a good idea in case it overheats. The video also instructs you to remove the video cable, but I’d leave it on as I found the XBox360 powers itselfs off after a while if it doesn’t detect the video cable.

Finally, I found this site that claims that for US$23 you can download videos and instructions on how to repair any problem on the XBox360. As I mentioned earlier I have little faith but has anyone purchased or seen this and is the info worth paying for?

UPDATE (16 Dec 2007):
My XBox360 died again with the same 3 rings of death problem, error code “0020″. I gave the towel trick one more go and the XBox360 worked for one more day before dying with the same problem. I’ve given up on the towel trick! Did some research on the net and the next thing I’m going to try when I have the time is to apply Artic Silver Thermal paste and maybe use the heat gun trick to “cook” things back in place.

What do you do in situations like this? You could yell and give the repairer a hard time, and chances are he’ll bump you to the bottom of the list. He said he will come and repair the rear pro on-site this Thursday, so before I expose the repair shop on the internet for their poor service, let’s see how it’ll go. Apparently the picture tube is stuffed, and all he has to do is replace it. Why it would take this long to have the part ordered in is anyone’s guess.

But back to my recent Samsung LA32M61B LCD tv purchase. I bought an XBox 360 when it was launched in Australia. Since the rear pro was stuffed, I wasn’t able to play it properly and lost interest. I only played the XBox for 3 hours after I had it for 4 weeks.

Then I saw some games being demo-ed on an LCD screen and I knew I had to get one. The Panasonic is HDTV ready, but wasn’t able to display the games at 1080i, only 480p. Plus, since the rear pro was stuffed, and not wishing to use it to play video games anymore (apparently it’s not good for the tv) I decided to get an LCD screen.

I did my research for 2 weeks and it wasn’t easy making a decision. There are loads of options out there, and some have features that others don’t have. I narrowed the list down to a Sony Bravia KLVS26A10 and the Samsung LA32M61B. Why the Bravia “S” Series? The better “V” Series was far too expensive.

A 26 inch screen was big enough, but the Samsung was a new model and didn’t come in any size smaller than a 32 inch. It had HDMI, 5000:1 contrast ratio, 8ms response time, was HDTV ready and came with a 3 year manufacturer warranty. Basically, more future proof compared to the Sony, and boy did it look pretty sharp too!

Went to a couple of shops but eventually bought it at Bing Lees Moore Park for $2100, and that included a 5 year extended warranty. I didn’t have to pay with cash to get that price, so ended up earning a couple of Visa rewards points at the same time.

For your reference, best price I got for the Sony was at Retravision World Square. For just slightly less than $1600, they offered the tv with a 5 year extended warranty. As you can tell, I’m big on extended warranties.

Playing games on a non HD screen doesn’t do the XBox 360 any justice. You really need a high definition tv, else it’ll just be like playing the old XBox.

For those who are interested, TomTom doesn’t make their Australian maps available for purchase. The TomTom software sold here comes with US and EU maps only.

TomTom does work with my Navman PiN 300, which is actually a rebadged Mitac Mio 168. I found it used to crash whenever I left the software running, then powered the Navman off and on again. I had to do a hard reset on the pda to get things working again. There’s a 5.21 update that’s supposed to fix that. After installing it, it helped the problem slightly. The software still crashes, but doesn’t bring the whole PocketPc down with it.

So how does TomTom compare to Navman? The Navman software I’m using is Smartst v3.0, not the latest and greatest. TomTom’s cool because you can customise alot of things, including map colors and celebrity voices. However, my friend complained that it lags often, frequently giving directions a few seconds too late. SmartSt updates quicker, maps are a bit clearer, but it’s so B-O-R-I-N-G compared to the TomTom.

All in all, I’d say SmartSt’s better in terms of usability, and at least it doesn’t crash often on the Navman. TomTom’s way cooler and good for impressing your friends. TomTom also works with a wide array of hardware. Other people I know have got it working with cheapish Bluetooth and Irda (infra-red) units bought from eBay. What better way to add value to your PocketPc?

If you’re in the market for a GPS, should you get a PocketPC based unit or a standalone one? I have no experience with the standalone units, but I believe they should work better. However, if you buy a pda unit like the Navman PiN, and you live in Australia, you can also claim the unit as a tax deduction, so it’s worth considering.