Ladies and jellyfish, here’s another project for the workbench! I’ve got about four or five repairs happening at the moment, and now there’s a Microsoft Xbox 360 to add to the collection. This one has the infamous Red Ring of Death, although it’s not really much of a ring when only three of the four sections light up. More of a red letter C, perhaps?

The console powers on, gives us three red lights and produces absolutely no picture. Not a particularly encouraging introduction, but that’s why it was sold as faulty. It’s also missing its front faceplate, although that does make pressing the power button a little easier!

This is an HDMI-equipped Xbox 360 manufactured in 2008, and I’m using a 203-watt power supply for testing. There’s a hard drive fitted to the top as well, which was a nice little discovery. Apart from the missing faceplate, the case doesn’t look too terrible, although there appears to be something rattling around inside. That’s never a sound you want to hear from a games console!

I’ve started opening it up to see whether anyone has attempted repairs before. There’s quite a bit of dust inside, and I managed to lose a couple of plastic clips during the process. Great start! I’m hoping it hasn’t already been subjected to somebody else’s unsuccessful repair attempt, but I can’t be certain just from looking at it.

My original plan was to investigate the heatsink clamps and possibly attempt work on the solder connections beneath the main chips. I’ve ordered some repair equipment, although the first seller didn’t exactly deliver the goods. After a PayPal dispute I got my money back and placed another order from the United Kingdom.

For now, this is just the initial assessment. I haven’t recorded a secondary error code yet, so the three red lights alone aren’t enough to tell me exactly what’s gone wrong. There’s no confirmed repair to celebrate just yet.

Hopefully we’ll get this little machine back into action and playing some Burnout Revenge. That would be rather nice!

Sources