As some of you may know, Xbox 360 has a flaw in it's design that causes what's known as the "Red Ring of Death" after a while. It stinks, but the issue can be remedied by taking the unit apart and re-bonding the surface of a couple of heat transfer mechanisms on the motherboard.
Knowing that many others would have the experience, I stored my unit when it "ringed out" until someone else I know got was afflicted. I didn't want to try opening my own unit first because of my tendency to break delicate equipment with my brutish clumsiness.
Finally, a friend gave me a unit I could practice on. So I watched a few videos on the youtubes, polished off my toolkit and got to it.
The first thing I learned in this experience is that there are several variations of the Xbox 360 motherboard configuration. The 2 that I opened and the 3 in the videos I watched used different hardware, had different types of connectors, and used different transfer devices. But, the fundamentals were basically the same.
You have to take off the covers and open the case of the thing. Figure out how it's all connected and take out the motherboard ( I suggest you video yourself while disassembling ). Then, take out the heat transfer pieces and clean them thoroughly. Reapply thermal paste and put it all back together... it's a job, but it's something determined people can do.
I managed to get a couple new scrapes and scratches, but I got my friend's and my units to work again.
Something tells me the skill of both fixing and playing these game systems is useful to have.
Thanks for reading.
The heat sinks in these units are terribad. I've seen a bunch more videos on modifying the system to transfer heat more efficiently. Mine lasted until yesterday. Gonna redo cleaning and pasting heat sinks and try a couple modifications as well. I do have extra fans.
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