So, a few weeks ago my xbox 360 decided to kick the bucket. I plugged it in and turned it on, hoping to play some portal, but to my dismay, it powered up with a very unhappy red status light, then switched off. I’d heard about it before, quite a few times, the “red ring of death”. Unrecoverable hardware error, eh? We’ll see about that.
I always have hated sending products in for repairs. There is nothing worse then paying a lot of money for something, then having to ship it off for a week or a month waiting on the company who made it to fix it. So I pulled out my multi-meter, and began the process of voiding my warranty.
My friend was borrowing my camera at the time, so I apologize for the lack of good pictures. In any case, I started by testing the voltages coming from the power brick, into the xbox. What should have been 3x 12 volts, and 1x 5 volts, would start there, then drop to around 3x 10 volts and 1x 2 volts. Something was very broken!
I didn’t want to pay $100 for another power brick, and so I sat there thinking for a moment, then looked across the room to my pile of unused computer parts. So I grabbed my old 500 watt Ultra X-connect PSU, and looked at the xbox’s power brick.
The brick is apparent 200 watts~, so this PSU would work perfectly, and being a modular power supply, it wouldn’t look that bad as far as cable mess goes. So I pulled a MOLEX connector off an old broken power supply, and began soldering.
I made sure to solder all the connecting wires so they could be pushed into the 360’s power connector, and I also made a small connector to bridge pins 14 and 15 on the Ultra PSU, in order to turn it on.
So I hooked everything up, and turned the xbox on. It worked perfectly, and still does. So if your 360’s power brick dies, and you have a computer PSU laying around, feel free to try this and save yourself $100. I drew up a quick wiring diagram to show the connections, it’s located here.
This is the finished product on my desk:
Comments:
on Sun, Feb 24th, 2008 at 12:32 AM
I would have sent it in for repair lol, but then again I can see why you wouldn’t want too.
on Sun, Feb 24th, 2008 at 04:31 PM
um dude you do noe that the company will fix the xbox for free when it breaks down.
on Sun, Feb 24th, 2008 at 04:43 PM
Yeah he knows lol, he just doesn’t like to send things in to be fixed.
RandomHero4507 on Sun, Feb 24th, 2008 at 07:12 PM
You are a fag! Its 100$ man that is lunch money.
on Sun, Feb 24th, 2008 at 07:42 PM
I know it would have been fixed for free, but there are a few reasons I didn’t want to send it in:
1). I live in the middle of nowhere, and as such half the time my mail goes to the wrong house for some reason, so that’s a pain I didn’t want to deal with.
2). Having to be without my system for a few days while I wait for Microsoft to fix it and return it is stupid when I can fix it in 15 minutes.
and 3). I *like* tinkering with things, and I know what I’m doing, so it’s all part of the fun for me.
As for the comment about $100 being lunch money? That’s nice for you, but I eat lunch at Mcdonalds. 
I_Can_Relate on Sun, Feb 24th, 2008 at 09:55 PM
I can relate I hate sending stuff in for repair, and if I can fix it my self I rather do that.
DgtlShdw on Mon, Feb 25th, 2008 at 06:29 PM
Hilarious!
I had to perform a similar hack on my Wii. I had a good friend in town last Summer, so I threw a big party at my place. My Wii, which worked fine that very morning, was to be an integral part of the festivities, having just procured 3 additional Wiimotes. Unfortunately, when we got ready for some Wii Bowling, the damn thing wouldn’t turn on. No lights, no whirring sounds, just nothing. Naturally, I pulled out my trusty multimeter from my days of working at Radio Shack and started to debug the problem. Almost immediately, I discovered that the Wii power pack wasn’t putting out the required voltage (and it was only 5 months old, grrrr). After some quick Googling, though, I found out that the Gamecube power pack puts out the same voltage, just with a different pin configuration and molex plug. So, the repair apparatus grew to include a roll of duct tape, a friend’s pocketknife, and my butane-powered portable soldering iron. Less than ten minutes later, we had it up and running! Some pics:
http://flickr.com/photos/dgtlshdw/sets/72157600987593832/
(I’m the one in blue)
on Tue, Feb 26th, 2008 at 03:12 AM
I love those little butane powered soldering irons. I have one and I find it infinitely useful.
on Sun, Mar 09th, 2008 at 12:38 AM
Wow that’s crazy lol, i hope i don’t ever have to do the same to my 360!
on Sun, Mar 09th, 2008 at 12:40 AM
Wow that’s crazy lol, i hope i never have to do that to my 360!
on Mon, Mar 10th, 2008 at 03:17 AM
double post dork lol jk
on Sat, Jul 19th, 2008 at 04:02 PM
Insane stuff.. I would send it to the mec for sure..!
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