Rusty Arcade

Hello eager readers, long time no see!

I've been a very busy beaver lately with all sorts of projects, most of which require helpful articles from the internet, so I thought I better do the right thing and contribute myself.

So lately I've been thinking of undergoing an Xbox 360 case mod. I'm sure you've all seen the origional Millenium Falcon Xbox, which I think was awesome. So I decided to do it myself, however Xbox is a thing of the past, it's got to be a 360 now!

I'm in no way experienced with anything handy, and my electrical skills are average, so it's going to be a massive challenge. To top off my obvious lack of experience and skill, the Xbox I wanted to use (a 360 elite) has run out of warranty and came down with a nasty case of red rings :(

This article therefore shows you how I tackled the issue of repairing the red rings. First off, credit where it's due: this fantastic article proved invaluable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Fix-the-Red-Ring-of-Deathwithout-towels/

I followed those instructions and was up and running again straight away. I won't bore you with the details (as that article explains how it was done), I'll just tell you what went wrong and any tips I picked up while doing it.

So getting the case off was easy, I broke a few more clips then I'd of liked to but I didn't need the case when I was done so I didn't take as much care over it as I should have. Once you've got that off and you're face with removing the infamous "X-clamps" I've got a valuable tip for you. They're sharp, for some reason, so don't stick your finger underneath and tug, it will only end in tears.

So once I had those off and got the heatsinks out I cleaned off the thermal paste with some thermal paste removed (a couple of quid at Maplins). I used about 20 cotton bud thingies for this, which brings me to my next tip: get a girlfriend, there is endless electrical uses for her various beauty products.

Next tip, pay attention to the materials you need and get more then enough. I stupidly thought a screw with the thred slightly too small would be ok as they came with nuts. It was fine for one heatsink which I just put the screw all the way though and tightened the bolts on the other side, but one of the heatsinks is actually threaded itself, therefore you can't put the bolt all the way through.

So, once I frantically drove down to B+Q, carrying an Xbox heatsink in my pocket for comparison, I had all the screws and washers I needed and voila, one fixed xbox.

I plugged it in with the minial of components, literally just a board sat on some cardboard, but it started up first time. Once I put the thing back in the case (for testing purposes) I left it on for 30 mins and it was fine.

Next time I'll be talking about the Millenium falcon I got for the project and how I've ruined it with my Dremel