Teardowns I've Worked On

My Guides

Guides I've Contributed To

Completed Guides

Questions

Answers

  • Answer to: 360s powers on then off red light on psu

    From what I know of, bad MOSFETs were a problem on "fat" Xbox 360's, not the slims. The power supply turning red is a sign of a short somewhere on the motherboard. Look around for broken traces, or anything else out of the ordinary. If you want to test the MOSFETs, use a voltage meter, and place one prong on a ground point somewhere on the board (Such as the metal shielding around one of the I/O ports) and place one prong on "drain" rail of the MOSFET that you want to test. (Shown In This Picture, you can also use the metal tab on the end, if you wish) With the console powered on, start by testing the MOSFETs closest to the power connector on the motherboard, and work your way away from it, until you find the MOSFET that isn't working. A working MOSFET will read +/-3.3-24V on the volt meter. A dead one will show no voltage at all.

  • Answer to: I sit possible to upgrade from 512 MB to 1GB of ram?

    Upgrading RAM is not possible on the 4S, even with a rework station and the knowlage to use it. The phone's RAM is embedded in the A5 "System on a Chip" CPU, It is not on it's own individual chip. This makes upgrading RAM inpossible.

  • Answer to: no network

    If you're using Sprint or Verizon (Or any other CDMA Network) and bought the phone used, then there is a chance that the device has a bad ESN number. It means that the phone is "blacklisted" and the network will not allow it to connect, because it has been reported as stolen, or it's original owner had canceled the network plan without paying the cancellation fee. Here is a thread that explains the full meaning of this. If the phone doesn't have a bad ESN, then do as rab777hp said, and check your carrier settings / obtain a new SIM card.

  • Answer to: Windows 2K or XP?

    Windows 2K (Or 98 if you have it). XP needs more than 64MB of RAM (It's not impossible, but it will be ridiculously slow) I would recommend Windows 98 over 2000 if you have it, but Windows 2000 should run on 64MB of RAM.

  • Answer to: Can you make a detailed tutorial on how to install LEDs

    I've modded the LEDs on 2 controllers. If I ever do another one, I'll consider making a guide. However, since there aren't any guides on this site, here's a pretty good guide on YouTube.

  • Answer to: Screen flashing black, drive spins slow.

    The way the console is acting makes it sound like it is bricked. (The console's firmware is corrupt) Do you keep the console near a large speaker or subwoofer (The magnetism from the speakers can damage the console, and cause a "brick") It isn't possible to fix a bricked console, so I would consider buying a RROD Fix Kit and install that, because there is always the possibility that I'm wrong, and you're just experiencing a precursor to the red ring of death.

  • Answer to: Just fixed my Red Ring of Death, but only works without HDD

    That's strange. The hard drive probably isn't a problem, unless you damaged it somehow while it was removed. Look at this webpage, and scroll down half the page to where it says "SECONDARY ERROR CODES" Run the console with the hard drive connected, and use the secondary error code guide to find out what the error code for your console is, and post it. That way, I can try to figure out what's going wrong.

  • Answer to: How safe is it to reflow boards in the oven?

    I would just recommend using a heatgun. I've been reflowing Xbox 360's and PS3's for years now. The trick to it is to "Preheat" the board first by passing over the whole thing on low heat for 2 minutes, then use high heat on the GPU/CPU and keep the gun moving the whole time. You start damaging components when you keep the heatgun in the same spot for too long, so don't just keep the heatgun on the GPU chip the whole time.

  • Answer to: May 2006 MBP1,2 - currently runinng 2GB RAM, can I add more?

    According to MacTracker, your computer supports up to 2GB of RAM, and you cannot install more memory than that. If you're looking to speed it up, consider replacing the hard drive with a SSD.

  • Answer to: What compound do I use on the Ati Radeon graphics card?

    You can still use Arctic Silver on the black memory chips, just make sure that you clean all of the old thermal paste off of the chip before re-applying it.

Notes

  • Installing Xbox 360 S Heat Sink

    Uggghhhh, Microsoft is still using X-Clamps. Didn't they learn anything from the original 360?

  • iPhone 4 Teardown

    Could it really be? Just a little bit of user-serviceability?

  • iPad FCC Teardown

    Quote from Tom:

    Yup, you're right. Didn't cross-check everything. Still wonder why the FCC version gets that chip and connector populated if they didn't put a cam on theirs. It could be just a debug port for non-production versions.

    When they originally flash the firmware to the device, they have to put it in somewhere :)

  • BlackBerry Bold 9700 Teardown

    ONYX might be the codename for the processor, or the codename of the GSM-based (AT&T) version of the phone.

  • Apple A4 Teardown

    Quote from Edis0n:

    Except for the WiFi chip, all others are from 2007 (or before), so Apple had this going on for some time.

    Probably not, these chips were most likelly used in older iPods, and provide legacy support (Since AAC Encoding hasn't changed much i the past 5-7 years) and the touch drivers were most likelly for the older iPods and iPhones, with slightly different instructions.

  • PlayStation 3 Slim Teardown

    What interface does the drive use? SATA, or a proprietary connection?

  • PlayStation 3 Slim Teardown

    Quote from Threedays:

    No modchip now success. this machine will be a flop unless someone finds a means to mod it.

    There really isn't much modding that can be done, it supports ripping games to the hard drive, it can browse the internet, the only reason I can see to mod it, would be to restore playability for PS2/PS1 games.

  • iPad Wi-Fi Teardown

    Since it has it's own power supply, will it still charge when connected to a USB port on a PC(Or a Mac)?

  • Installing Power Mac G5 Processor and Cooling Unit

    This is a great teardown/guide! you should email one of the iFixit staff members and have them post it so the whole community can see it!

  • iPad FCC Teardown

    Quote from Kyle Wiens:

    Most of the photos were inverted; we're fixing them all now and will be uploading soon.

    This is great, I can't wait for the full teardown tommorow!