Cheap Xbox 360 Repairs

scottishblondie

The hard part is having the right equipment and technical know-how - to dump the firmware you need to have a compatibile SATA chipset and you have to know what you're doing. For some models of DVD drives you also have to do a little bit of soldering in order to dump the DVD key and to flash it to a new drive. If you can't get the right model of drive then you also might have to spoof.

OP, if you are confident in technical matters then it is easy. Join a forum like xbox-scene or the llama and read up on it. There is plenty of info available. It's also possible that the drive does not need replaced but it's motor might need a little attention or the position of the laser has gone astray (too close to the disc), or most likely that the magnet which hold the disk in place when it's spinning is no longer grabbing it correctly because it is stuck/damaged.

However, if you are not confident then look about for a local repairer with a more reasonable charge.

Hammyman

scottishblondie wrote: »

The hard part is having the right equipment and technical know-how - to dump the firmware you need to have a compatibile SATA chipset and you have to know what you're doing. For some models of DVD drives you also have to do a little bit of soldering in order to dump the DVD key and to flash it to a new drive. If you can't get the right model of drive then you also might have to spoof.

Thankyou. I get the impression that custardy has just read something on a website and hasn't actually ever tried to do it themselves.

scottishblondie

Hammyman wrote: »

Thankyou. I get the impression that custardy has just read something on a website and hasn't actually ever tried to do it themselves.

Indeed! If it was truly that simple for anyone to do then no-one would ever pay me to do it - or have to bring me their botched jobs to fix when they realised they'd mucked up.

hubert_cumberdale

when it made the noise you didnt happen to move the xbox did you

i moved mine when i first got it and it ate my brand new project gothem game

Hammyman

Hubert has a good point. It takes surprisingly little movement for this to occur.

hubert_cumberdale

im pretty sure this can happen from the slightest knock ie plugging in a memory car or fiddling around with something next to it

rodenal

I'd say it was a relatively easy repair depending on the drive (which is fairly easy to identify) I replaced mine about a year ago and had no real trouble. No more difficult than say building and setting up your own pc or basic networking. If you're confident with the likes of that it shouldn't be a problem.

It takes a little bit of research and the cloning can be tricky but ultimately straight forward if you read up and understand what you are doing and why.

When mine was going it would occasionaly not read then work again for a few weeks / months but it will get worse then eventually give up.

custardy

Hammyman wrote: »

Thankyou. I get the impression that custardy has just read something on a website and hasn't actually ever tried to do it themselves.

thats right. The fact i used to make a living from xbox repairs and modifications has no bearing.
yup i read on a website once that if i wrap the 360 in tinfoil gives it built in wifi...............