Xbox 360 Journey to completion

Gothch1ck

Daemon Poster
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Some wise ol' dudes once said "Life is about the journey, not the destination."
Power to ya ol' dudes.

I have decided to purchase a X360 from E-bay, and give lots of pictures details and "the life" of this system as I go with it.

What I know of this system and it's seller:
{Previously Used} system that contains all the following parts

Console (of course)
20GB detachable hard drive
wireless controller
battery holder
xbox live headset
high-definition av cables
power supply/power cord
instruction manuals
original box

The Seller had notice that this console had been used, and has the dreaded RROD.

Seller's name is "sold_broken" with an impressive feedback (but possibly bot generated) 24,020 votes, with a 10,000-24,999 Super star Rating. (high stars, good feedback...) only 204 'negative' ratings in the last Year, so decent stuff for all his sales. 99.0 % Positive Feed back score.

I know that new, prices are about this around here:
Wireless controller - $40
Headset - $20

and everything else varies so right there is $60 I knew I would be spending (kinda need a controller to play lol)

It has been paid for, via my roomies credit card (he made the deal) and will be shipped.. whenever it ships. When it gets here I will update this, with pictures of the packing and such, and the 'birth of a dead system".

That's right. Fill your heads with images of X360 Still Births.



Small Oddities- the system is listed as retail value (original that is) of 399.99 Suggesting it is a Elite system, however the included HDD is only a 20GB, showing that it is NOT and elite system (they have the huge HDDs) Possibly an oversight, a ploy to make something seem more valuable (as some sellers do, and is legal) a copy/paste error- or on the upper silver lining side, a 360 Elite could be on it's way to my door. Time will tell.


-to come-
-Packing Pictures
-Unpacking the system
-Inspecting the system
-Checking seals
-Parts to fix the RROD
-Fixing the RROD
-Final Outcome (good, or bad)


This adventure.=

To Be Continued.......
 
Awesome. I just came across another possible fix that I think you may want to have a look at:

Xboxexperts.com Xbox 360 Repair/Modding - Team HYBRID's Ultimate X-Clamp Fix (RELEASED!)

It is a twist on the X-clamp replacement mod that involves reusing the X-clamps with a foam block to apply even pressure, filing down some pieces to improve the flexing of the board, and some other stuff. I have already drilled the holes on my old box too big but I think I may try some of the things mentioned.

How much did it come to overall? That's a pretty good package even for a broken system. I hope everything goes well during the repair. The mod is pretty easy to do but sometimes getting it just right (so that the error doesn't come back) is really tough. Also, do not do the towel trick!!!!! Although it may sound cool to throw your 360 under a pile of soft, warm towels (or bed sheets/etc, I stuffed my whole console under the covers and put pillows on top of my bed trying to trap the heat in), in the end it does more damage than it helps and I think that may be why my console is harder to get working.
 
Yea I read up on the "bake your 360" method and I thought to myself "what about all the OTHER sensitive equipment in there....?" so yea.. not for me. lol. I have a heat gun if I really have to use it, it hits 1,600 degrees F, I am sure that is PLENTY to melt anything Lol.

In the other thread I posted the price, was bout 130 with shipping. So not horrible I think, and could be an elite RROD, which.. would be godly cheap.

I needa find some cheap TORX since all the drivers I find are like $3 then $12 shipping or minimum of $25 orders from sites.. kinda lame. and the T8 seems hard to find.
 
If it's an Elite that'd be really awesome! Hmm...

1600 deg F = 871 deg C ...serious?!?

Using said heat gun you'd probably melt your 360 into a nice puddle of used-to-be electronics. The solder used on the 360 was said to melt at around 210 C and that a possible problem was that Microsoft figured heating over 200C would damage components and went for a colder soldering, leaving failed or weak connections. If you use that monster heat gun (I'm having a hard time believing 1600 degrees, that's HOT!) I'd be extremely careful.

As for Torx, I picked up a set at Lowes for $5 or so, it was a Kobalt screwdriver with interchangeable Torx heads, had T8, T10, and some other sizes that I've used for other things).
 
it's from my dad's job, it's and industrial heat gun used to help with all kinds of stuff, He works at Bayer, like the aspirin, on all the mechanical junk (I guess I get my tinkering from him.. I love machines... lol)

It has options for lower settings, but it'll puddle 1/2in ABS plastic in about 2 minutes. I have used the lowest setting to soften plastics to bend them and such, and if your 13inches away from anything on the lowest setting it just feels "sweltering hot" - doesn't even burn the flesh (as my daddy showed me when he let me use it for the first time) but does feel uncomfortably hot on skin at 13inches on lowest.

I was thinking of going shopping tonight, but right now only Wal-Mart is open around here, and I don't know if they have Torx stuff.

The gun is also awesome for mild melting plastic cases, to use a soft glove and smooth out cuts, breaks (you can "weld" them back together) and give it a nice shiny gloss look again.


and that 'ultimate x clamp fix' was running through my head.. I didn't know someone made it already but I was lookin in the "what causes the RROD" and noticed the height changes where the motherboard is lain in, this struck me as odd and as I did more research on it found out that this "uneven mounting" was partially the reason for the stress and failure... which was leading me to washers- which is where nylon based (or silicon as I was thinking) washers to prevent shorting hit- which is were I actually found the other site you linked, before you linked it to me ^.^

I don't know which version I'll use just yet, I guess first I'll wait for the 360 and buy the Torx, and a Tri wing for another project.
 
Lol, that's pretty intense! I don't know if I'd trust that kind of heat gun around my 360, though if you keep it far away it would probably help. If you can get it around 250 Celsius (above the melting point of the lead-free Xbox solder) and then quickly go across the board with it (from a distance, get closer if you feel that it isn't getting hot). With that kind of heat you'll have to be really careful though. I used a reflow gun (a soldering tool that is pretty much a really hot air gun with a slow airflow, can turn white paper black in less than a second) on my old console and I think I was too cautious, my second try I got kinda worried when my GPU die looked like it started to burn (glowing orange spot) but turns out that was just thermal paste that I didn't get all the way off that burned, cleaned right off).

Though I can think of many uses where I would love to weld plastic or smooth out scratches, I should try my cheap heatgun (kinda like one step up from a hair dryer, just a craft heatgun) on plastic sometime.
 
Just start at a distance and keep checkin flexibility (wear leather or heat resistant gloves just in case of melting, and use a scrap piece) and you can test out, even some of the high powered hair dryers can be used to re-form some plastics used in electronics.

If distance isn't getting warm enough, get a little closer, with my old hair dryer I get to near touching the plastic but I can heat it up enough to flex 1/8in, but it takes some time.

I just realized your not that far away, Missouri here. lol
 
Alright- Updatey!

So the fellow (or chick?) from ebay had "shipping problems" due to a "high number of sales" last weekend and my shipment should be sent out "soon" Well.. s/he's got today and 24hours before I file a complaint with Ebay on his bum and get my money back.

On the brighter side of things, I got some extremely bright coloured Craft Foam for my work (this way I'll know it's MY work, also I plan to sign it with a symbol for proof instances - more to come on this) along with a Torx screw driver with a ton of bits, T^4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15 - all for $7.00 from Home Depot. (Brand name is "Husky" name is 8-in-1 Torx Screwdriver set)

Ordered my screws and washers online, since when I finally did find them in shops, they only had like 16 washers and no one had 16mm screws, only 12mm and I need 42 washers for ONE xbox360 fix. Ordered 100 Screws and 500 Washers- which with a 4pack of washers from Home Depot will be enough to fix 12 Xbox360's Total cost on that... $22.00 amazon was a PAIN.

Camera is on the fritz or I'd get pictures of my supplies for you, that will come later I promise! and the work!

I couldn't find 4mm craft foam anywhere so I had to go with 2mm and double it, using a very very thin layer of glue (probably super or stick, not sure which will hold up to heat more) to hold em together.

Also got a new roll of electrical tape, and 300 Q-Tips (for Xbox360 fixing and typical use) oh and I needa swing by Best Buy and get some thermal paste, prolly $12.00 but beats the shipping prices, and today I get 91% Rubbing Alcohol, as 99% seems outlawed here.


Electrical Tape 2pack roll $1.08 (.71in x 50feet each) Dollar General
300 Pack Q-Tips $1.08 Dollar General
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound $8.99 (3.5) NewEgg (includes shipping)
Craft Foam 2mm (x2) $1.70 Hobby Lobby (specific colour Bright Orange, size 17.5in x 12in)
TORX driver (includes T8/T10) $6.44 Home Depot (also includes other bits for nearly everything. T4,5,6,7,8,9,10,15)
CleanSafe Dust Removal $5.34 Wal-Mart (Can O' Air, bonus size 20% more!)
Screws/Washers for 1 Xbox360 $1.86 (out of bulk bought, including shipping)
Super Glue 4 pack $1.08 Wal-Mart
--------------------------------------------------------------
So total price for fixing 1 system so far is $26.72
But I can fix 12 with how much I got.

Since I wouldn't need to rebuy a TORX driver and the can of air can last a while with the Q-Tips and such were talking $3.03 to fix.
 
That's a lot of stuff! When I fixed mine all I got was:
8 screws (Lowes)
16 nylon washers (Lowes)
32 metal washers (Lowes)
Arctic Silver 5 (RadioShack)
Torx Driver (Lowes)

I didn't use any Q-tips or compressed air (I usually use a vaccuum to clean heatsinks and stuff) though I did use Goo Gone to get rid of the old paste.
 
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