I ordered a tube of decent heat sink compound (Arctic Silver 5) and a pre-packaged kit of screws and washers to replace the factory supplied heat sink mountings.
Using the guide that came with the fixings, I first dismantled the console. It's pretty well built and it takes quite some time to dismantle carefully without damaging anything. Eventually I was left with just the main PCB with the existing CPU and GPU heat sinks removed.
Removing the old heat sink compound took some time. I didn't get a perfectly clean surface but was good enough.
Now it was time to rebuild.
After applying a tiny amount of Arctic Silver 5 and spreading thinly across the die, I re-affixed the heat sinks. Using the replacement fixing screws from the repair kit it's possible to fix the heat sinks down quite tightly. I tightened up the screws evenly until they just went tight so I didn't crack the die or warp the PCB.
The next step is to partially rebuild the unit, including DVD drive, but leave off the fans and air duct. I placed the fans above the larger heatsink only and powered on.
3 red lights again.... I left the unit powered on for exactly 20 mins and powered off. I was waiting for the 2 lights to come on indicating an overheat condition, but that never happened on my unit. The GPU heatsink was VERY hot to the touch.
I switched off and left it to cool down for about 30 mins whilst I was busy with something else. I then powered the unit back on and green lights!!! All working fine. Since then I've had several hour+ gaming sessions and it hasn't missed a beat.
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