Xbox 360 Eject Button

My Problem

Tray replacement

My Fix

The xbox opener tool is the end all be all when it comes to opening these things. opened quite a few of them, and it is a coin toss as to whether or not the case will disintigrate, or bite you back. the opener removes all doubt. seperated the back plates as smooth as butter.

My Advice

use the tool. seriously.

My Problem

The DVD tray was stuck open after the XBox 360 was dropped.

My Fix

I was able to remove the DVD and place the tray back successfully. The dvd games cannot be read and played and I need to take the DVD out to see if I need to replace the laser unit.

Are there any instructions available on how to use the XBox 360 Opening Tool?

My Advice

No. I used youtube for directions on how to make repairs.

My Problem

After a big lightning storm, I could not sync my wireless controllers and the ring lights would not come on. RF Board fried.

My Fix

The tools made getting to the fried RF Board really easy.

My Advice

While I was at it I ended up replacing the green lights with blue ones. I had bought a cheap RF Board with blue lights off of ebay. While I had the cover off, I vaccumed the heat sink. Word of advice there are little black pieces that go on top of the heat funnel, do not suck them up in the vacuum like I did.

My Problem

Wireless controllers would not sync with Xbox 360 and the power light would not come on.

My Fix

The repair went well except for the Spudger tip broke almost immediately- very disappointed with that. IFixit guide was extremely helpful and assisted me in successfully installing a new RF Module board on my 360.

My Advice

Don't be intimidated by changing the RF Module board in your 360 if you run into a similar problem. The IFixit guide is a very helpful resource.

My Problem

A friend gave me a RROD'd original Xbox 360.

My Fix

I read several guides and decided to use the 8-penny method (Pushing up the mobo at the RAM with make-shift stints) and then turned it back on and let it run with air-flow blocked to the GPU for ten minutes. After a couple hours, to let it cool, I turned it on and now I have an X-Box!

My Advice

The metal on the tool bends easily, and you need the key section to push down on multiple latches simultaneously. If the backside of the shell doesn't come right apart you may not be hitting the latches.

The long Torx screws that hold the bottom half of the shell on stripped easily.

Be sure the case is fully lined up before reattaching the bottom half with the screws.

My Problem

My friend's Xbox 360 Elite recently got the dreaded "Can't open tray" error. Unfortunately, he tried to manually remove the disk (incorrectly, but what can I say?), and the tray both came off-track AND managed to damage the tray motor. It was very clear that the drive was toast. He called me, asking me to repair his beloved Xbox. He would cover the consumable parts (in this case, just the DVD drive) and compensate me for my time.

My Fix

The physical deconstruction of the Xbox went astoundingly well. Once you have the trim pieces off, it was only a total of like, 10 screws before I had access to the drive's daughter board. After nearly bricking the new drive while programming it to work with the Xbox (see "My Advice"), re-assembly was a breeze. I was even able to give it a nice air-blasting with an air compressor.

My Advice

First of all, ignore the warning about the DVD drives not being swappable. The issue is that you need to replace the drive with an IDENTICAL drive (make, model, AND firmware version all have to be the same), and you need some special hardware (specific SATA PCI card, Southbridge chip, and/or USB debugging tool, plus a modified power cable). To top it all off, you need special software to dump the original DVD drive's encryption key (The drives use encryption! How about that.) and inject it into the new drive. The software and tools themselves are legal (as is what you're doing), but they can be used to do some seriously shady things.

TL;DR: Brush up on yer' seafarin' man's English, ya' landlubber.