Xbox 360 repair. What have I learned so far?
There are many "tricks" that temporarily fix the problem and these are rubbish.
I had one Xbox 360 Elite that the tray was jammed shut. I opened the case by removing the front cover which just pops off. Then I poked the resistance generating tabs on the back of the case to release the case from itself. Then I stuck my screw driver underneath the front retaining clips to release the front top half from the lower bottom half.
After watching many youtube videos I found out the "drive belt" becomes weakened after awhile and wears out. And to restrengthen the drive belt you take a cup of hot water throw the belt in for 10 seconds then immediately put in cold water. I then dried it off and put it back on the little gears inside the disc drive. Low and behold it "fixed" the disc drive and I was able to play game and dvd on it. Looking back I decided I wanted to fix it properly and not have the same worn out belt go bad again. So I bought a lot of 25 belts so I can start replacing them .
The next task was another Xbox 360 with a stuck closed tray. I opened up the case and after watching some youtube videos what I did was spray some WD40 type cleaning on the back of the motor that spins the disc. Apparently the drive gets crud or whatever built up and then it won't spin the disc. I kept getting an open try error when I tried to put in the disc. It was because that little motor wasn't spinning fast enough.
I found out that even though people are thinking they can use a heat gun which looks like a hair dryer, they heat up the board to reflow the solder which is the problem with these consoles in the first place.. The GPU and CPU are getting over heated because of cheap thermal compound and the x-clamps wear out and don't keep the heat sinks tight against the board which stops the air lock from forming so the heat properly dissipates.
I found out that in order to properly re-flow the solder I need a re-flow station. The re-flow station has an soldering iron and a re-flow tool. Essentially the re-flow gun looks like a butane light it pushes hot air through directly as a temperature you set on the station. From what I am understanding you are supposed to aim the little end on just the chip to re-flow the solder. I still don't know how many degrees to set it at, and I don't know how long I should keep it hovering over the chips.
From what I have been seeing the most common problems with the Xbox 360 is the stuck disc tray, the disc not reading, the chips over heating, the laser not in the right starting position, the tray not staying closed, the "icu or whatever it is called" doesn't register that the tray is closed so it doesn't stay shut,
I learned that to program a wireless controller to a console, there is a little white button on the Xbox 360 that you hold down and then the green light spins around the power button. then you turn on your controller and hold down its white little button on top until it shows from spinning lights to one green light. Learning that was pretty cool.
Right now basically I need special tools for light so I can see while keeping my hands free. I need to have a good camera to take high quality pictures of the parts I am looking at. It is my intention to learn about the functions of the Xbox 360 down to the technical level so I fully understand the parameters of what it takes for this thing to work, I started this not really thinking about the time involved, I can't help but feel a little impatient. I do not have the money at this time to buy the jewelry magnification scope, the re-flow station and a special lamp to illuminate my work. I also want a mat to lay my work pieces on.
I learned that there are like 3-5 different watt power bricks. 150W 175W 203Watt for the different systems. Physically they are rather basic with minimal parts, the parts on a technical level are quite complex. I would like to sell one so I have more money to buy more systems however I am not satisfied with the quality of operation I am seeing. While I have two at this time that play games and DVDs I am not yet convinced.
It is pretty cool I had been opening the stuck shut trays by forcing the little gear that is barely visible and every time it has worked. However I have discovered a better way now, and that is to push down on a tab on the top side of the tray and then it easily slides out.
No comments:
Post a Comment