Adventures Into the 360

[Ampersand]

Hey forums! Long time no post.

I thought I may as well start to get active here, since I want to get back into portablizing, and what better way to do it than in a work log?! There isn't.

Here I'll be posting pics and info on my adventures into my 360. You may be thinking I'm retarded for opening it, but due to the fact my warranty is up, I don't have $150 to fork over to Bill, and I'm electronically gifted, I figured I may as well. And I have a reason anyways. My disk drive has failed, and I suspect due to a motor failure. I've ran playtests with the case open, and the disc just won't spin.

My goal is to fix it, of course. Everything's fine, just won't read discs. If I can't fix the motor, I'll just buy and install a whole new disc drive.

Anywho, pictures!

(Please ignore the fact that the pictures are mirrored, stupid website did that )

The case, end plates, face plate, hard disk drive, and disk drive casing.

The core 360 unit. I almost jizzed in my pants when I saw the inside of it.

The disk drive, motherboard attached. MX vs. ATV Untamed in the tray.

Bird's-eye view of the core unit.

Disk drive mobo.

Disk drive, flipped, mobo removed.

Bird's-eye view of my workspace. All pics will be taken like this from this point on, unless otherwise needed.

Enjoy!
-Ampersand

[Axaj]

Good luck on this! However, I recommended installing an extra fan while you're working on it.

[Ampersand]

Thanks Ajax!

I was in fact thinking about installing a water cooling system, however I don't know yet the pros and cons of it. I'm also thinking about slimming it down and, since I haven't seen it done yet, make the first XBOX 360 Slim

[rikitheshadow]

My goal is to fix it, of course. Everything's fine, just won't read discs. If I can't fix the motor, I'll just buy and install a whole new disc drive.

Do you plan on buying a official xbox 360 drive?
Just making sure, because they have a set of chips on there that hold firmware that make them compatible with the 360 discs. (Ignore this if you already know =P)

Would any of the official 360 drives, considering a number of different manufacturers make them, have any compatibility issues with other boards?

[ArugulaZ]

I wish you the best with this, man. I'm going through a similar situation with a Playstation 3 I bought on the cheap at eBay. The system works, the drive doesn't, and it's been a real bear trying to find a replacement. Even after I get it, I'll have to swap out some parts from the old drive to make the new one function with the system. I'm excited, but also a little worried that I'll bugger up this toy to the point where NOTHING works.

[Ampersand]

Thanks ArugulaZ.

Yeah, you need a the same make and model drive that was shipped with it, that is if you don't want to flash your firmware to make it compatible with others.