Success!!! (56k warning) - Overclock.net

FearSC549 · 08-12-08

After receiving my Xbox 360 mobo on Sunday, I bought from Pepsi, a fellow OCN member, who said it had RROD and couldn't fix it since he think he did the x clamp fix wrong, I found out there was 3 SMD capacitors(tiny ass caps) that were knocked off, thermal paste smeared all over the core's component, aka, a dead board.

I was thinking of what the hell can I do with that 360 mobo. I thought of soldering caps back on to the board, but...I tried before with a MP3 player, I failed. So, I was like...crap, I wasted $35.

So I went to Pep, he said it was in good condition and nothing was broken, might be shipping damage, so I decide to think about soldering caps back on. 2 missing caps right next to each other under the CPU, the other, at GPU, all 3 same size cap, but both are different kind.

1st try, didn't even try except look for caps, failed(I found big ones), 2nd try, got same size caps, but different color, didn't know if it will work pulled them off after realizing wrong caps might kill CPU&GPU, failed. 3rd try, I FOUND THE RIGHT CAPS FROM MY BROKEN MOBOS(I love them, they're like a capacitor/resistor shop), soldered them on, too much solder, knocked them off, failed. 4th try, everything seems fine, still too much solder I think, and this time I tried turning it on...it gave me 1 flashing light? ***? So I looked that up, and later realized 2 LED light on the 360 is broken, now, diagnostics is going to be harder, failed. 5th try, Z****, I got the caps on and it seems fine, not touching other joint/solder/caps.

Put heatsink on, with x clamp fix, what the hell, still same error, can't tell if its RROD or something. I was like, screw it, I'm done with this bulls*** mobo. I'm going to talk to Pepsi. But then, I noticed I wasted all those time for nothing, why not use the rest of the time trying to get a 360? So, I took off heatsink, scraped off the thermal paste splattered on the caps/resistors, took me 35minutes, put everything together, and turned it on, Z**** Z****, THERE WAZ TEH GREEN LIGHTZ FROM TEH CIRCLEZ!!!, WHAT THE F***, red lights after? Bulls****. Then I noticed the GPU heatsink might be too tight, it was touching the capacitors on the mobo, so I loosened it, turned it on, SUCCESS!!!!!!!!! IT WORKS!!!!!!

So....1/2 of a working 360 for $35 and working on it for 2 frustrating days? WORTH IT! So, what I mean by half, is that it's missing the HDD, case, and a power brick. Lets see...20GB HDD..$40, power brick $35, case...? Who needs a case these days? At least it got a chassis. No case=good airflow. So...$75+35=$110, WHAT A DEAL FOR A 360!(too bad no warranty).

Pics below, the Halo 3 edition controller was my own.

2 LED lights are broken, that's why it seems like no controller is connected.

Again with the LEDs

$110 360 in action

Damn camera phone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT: Guess what? I looked at my Elite's PSU and then I was like...$40???....why don't I just use a PC's power supply? Wouldn't that be cheaper??? So, I looked up the 360's PSU's pin layout, then I figured out how it works out, so instead of spending $40 for a 360 PSU, I spent $5! SUCCESS! IT WORKS!!! A generic PSU can power a 360! It was kinda like a chance of suicide because if I hook something wrong, a fried 360 and PSU...but I guess I'm lucky. I ran the 360 for 1 hour idle, and 2 hours playing Halo 3 without a problem. Awesome! So it's more like $35 mobo+$5 PSU+$40 HDD= $80!!! Pics below with a better camera.

There's the 3 12V wires(yellow), 3 ground wires(black), and 1 5V wire(red)

360 hooked up with a PC PSU

Turned on, it works!

Halo 3 in action!

Yes, I duct taped the 360 chassis so I won't get fingerprints all over it, if you want to know more about PC PSU working with a 360, PM or IM me.