My Xbox 360 Build Thread - Help needed!

[aj23]

Alright well I bought my second brand new xbox 360 yesterday to make into an xbox 360 laptop. I easily disassembled the thing today, but for some reason, I can't get the desoldering down. At first I made many attempts and noticed nothing happened, then found out there was something wrong with my iron tip (brand new iron bought from ebay too....). I then used an older iron, that was 35w, this one worked for sure as it was melthing solder wire easily, but while trying to desolder the front USB ports, I could not get the solder off. A very small amount came off. Anyone know why or have any tips at all for this?

I'll get some pics of it up, once I actually make some progress.

[grossaffe]

do you have a desoldering iron?

[aj23]

do you have a desoldering iron?

No, I was told to use a 30w soldering iron along with braid or a pump, but if that is not what I should be doing, what do you recommend?

BTW, I have a solder sucker pump and a desoldering braid.

[mmoshkowich]

this is a lot easier
<a href="http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... 062731">45 Watt Desoldering Iron</a>[/url]

[aj23]

If I lived in the US, I could get that. But we no longer have radioshack in canada, they have changed it to the source, which I don't believe has that product.

[mmoshkowich]

Here's one from The Source.CA <a href="http://www.thesource.ca/estore/Product. ... esoldering Iron</a>[/url]

[aj23]

Thank you very much! Out of about 10+ stores, only one had it and it's about 15km from here, but I'll get someone to take me there. Have you used it before on an xbox 360 motherboard? I don't want to get it and find out it doesn't work good.

[mmoshkowich]

no not on an xbox 360 and not this brand but I have used the 45 watt desoldering Iron from radioshack on my SNES mini project it its great.

[aj23]

Alright, so hopefully this should work the same. I don't want to use it and then find out it damages my board, so I'll make sure to test it out on something else first. It's probably very similar to yours from radioshack anyways.

[aj23]

I got the iron from the source and it's pretty good. I'm still a noob at soldering/desoldering (this was my first time ever), so I'm not good at it yet. To use the iron, you hold down the bulb, put the iron down, and then let the bulb go to pull up the solder?

[Aguiluz]

Do you have any electronics experience at all?

Just asking, this is no easy task.

[aj23]

It depends what type of electronics experience you are talking about. I have quite a bit of knowledge with computers, but this is something different. I am a quick learner though, and I am hoping to go through this project and know just as much about the xbox 360 internals as I do about computers.

[xmarcusphenixx]

I'm building one myself as we speak and I'm a newb but quick learner. I would recomend just leaving the ports on the board and extending wires from that. Like the ring of like plug, i just extended it with ribbon cable from one end of the connector to the other. works fine. Though it may now be as nice as ben hecks, it makes it easier for your first project, then when you make another improve.

[xmarcusphenixx]

ring of light *

[aj23]

How do you guys desolder the last little bit left when you're taking things off the motherboard? I'm stuck with the hard drive connector, there are little bits of solder which I cannot get off, and it's one thing that I cannot pry off or apply force to, or else I will damage it.