Score - fully working Xbox 360 for £12 (about $20)

[slaveofconvention]

I bought a dead xbox off of ebay for £10 the other day - listing specifically said something like "Been fixed 4 times - won't stay on for more than about 10 mins"

I actually bought it for the case, figuring I can mod THIS case, then transfer my xbox into it - so I don't have to be without the xbox while doing the modding - so as a donor of sorts.

I opened it up and stripped it down - there was a MASSIVE amount of TIM all over and around both the CPU and GPU and there are 4 chips around the GPU on the underside which I know need to be cooled which had no cooling on them at all.

I thought - I wonder.... maybe the 4 repairs it's already had were all done utterly incompetently....

So I went to it - dremmel attack on some old heatsinks I had lying around - MUCH more sensible application of TIM, and good clean out etc. Re-seated both heatsinks on the CPU and GPU using brand new x-clamp replacement kit (£2) - and it's been working 100% for about 2 1/2 hours now and the fan isn't changing pitch at all so I'm assuming it isn't getting hot. An hour of Dirt and 90mins of Gears of War 2 later, and it's still just fine n dandy

:banana: Got me an xbox for £12 and it works like a dream :D

[blueonblack]

Wow! Now those are the stories we like to hear. :D

[slaveofconvention]

Oh I should mention that I DID take a dremel to the metal case to give the modified ram heatsinks room to fit - so been double modded heh.

And I already loaned it to a mate who has a dodgy elite - just ordered the parts I think I'll need to get that one working too... crossed fingers n stuff... If nothing else - he reckons his son will be on it for about 4 hours solid tonight as he's in withdrawl from his being fubar so it'll be a really good test for the "unfixable" one I think I just fixed....

[OvRiDe]

You know.. this isn't the first time I have heard this same story. A friend of mine started buying 360's for the same reason you did. Four of them in all. Each time he bought a dead one, he said they were covered in TIM. Three of them, he cleaned them up, cleaned and reseated the heatsinks, and they work fine now. The 4th one he did similar to you, where he refitted a different heatsink and added an extra fan to the case and it seems to be holding up as well now.

So my question is.. were these factory repairs or somebody's home remedy?

[slaveofconvention]

In my case, I think both... The xbox has the uprated CPU and GPU heatsinks that MS fit as part of their RROD repair service. It had also had an x-clamp removal (badly) done which must have been after the MS repair because if before, MS would have refused to touch the machine. The seller on ebay was actually a shop which does used games and console repairs lol - I can only assume they aren't that good at what they claim to do, or the second alternative. I'm not as good as I think I am and it'll fall over n die shortly lol

[crenn]

They got any more? I might want one ;)

[slaveofconvention]

I'm tempted to call em up and ask them to let me know anytime they can't fix one *grin* but think that'd be a little cheeky :p

[slaveofconvention]

Hmmmmn ok....

I just got this email...


Dear slaveofconvention,



You are the winning buyer for the XBOX 360 CONSOLE PLAYS GAMES GRAND THEFT
FAULTY 027. Thank you for your business.

Your payment for this item hasn't been received yet. If you haven't sent
payment, please follow the instructions below.

Item title: XBOX 360 CONSOLE PLAYS GAMES GRAND THEFT FAULTY 027
Web Address: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140343565799
Item number: 140343565799


I replied reminding them that I collected and paid cash - but I managed to resist the temptation to tell them I've already fixed it :smoker:

EDIT: Just called the guy I loaned it to, and he said his son has played about 6 hours on it since I loaned it to him and it's still working fine - yay for me lol

Oh and I took this pic and totally forgot about it lol - THIS is how much TIM was on the GPU - and the CPU was just as bad....

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/forums/xboxgpu.jpg

[progbuddy]

Hmmmmn ok....

I just got this email...



I replied reminding them that I collected and paid cash - but I managed to resist the temptation to tell them I've already fixed it :smoker:

EDIT: Just called the guy I loaned it to, and he said his son has played about 6 hours on it since I loaned it to him and it's still working fine - yay for me lol

Oh and I took this pic and totally forgot about it lol - THIS is how much TIM was on the GPU - and the CPU was just as bad....

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/forums/xboxgpu.jpg

Wow, that's nasty. I've seen a lot of work done sloppily like that.

[x88x]

Hmmm, this makes me want to start combing ebay for dead 360's...kinda like I got the urge to do the same thing for LCDs a little while back...stupid start-up capital...

Sweet deal on that though; hurray for incompetents :P

[slaveofconvention]

I bought 5 x-clamp repair kits from this local guy and he says "one of his mates" is making money on brand new elites - he puts all the bits on ebay seperately - console - hdmi cable - power brick - av cable - hd - controller - headset - and gets more than the brand new boxed console costs. Best thing about it is that he puts all the stuff up on a 5 day auction, waits to get paid, THEN goes and buys the console so there IS no start-up involved.... The sceptic in me thought "If it's that easy, why is it your mate, not you?" but hey, idn - might be do-able - I figure it's probably worth a shot - worst case scenario you'll lose a few bucks/pounds at most and it's not the most expensive lesson in the world....

So I just checked...

Assuming these sell....

Console only - 99.99 (used - couldn't find brand new one oddly enough)
Power Cable - 7.38
Power brick - 13.39
Controller - 20.99
AV lead - 6.99
HDMI Cable - 9.48
Lan Cable - 3.69
Hard disk - 54.98
Headset - 9.64
PGR4 & Sega Tennis - 15.99

Total= 242.52

Price from Argos (UK high street retailer who are usually pretty reasonable) - 194.77

So there's £50 in there... ok so you lose a chunk to paypal and ebay fees but most people also make a little on postage so it DOES sound practical - not sure it'd be worth the hassle as I don't see you getting much more than about £20-30 out of it overall, and if any item didn't sell, it'd pretty much kill the profit but yeah.....

[crenn]

If you see another dirt cheap PAL 360, can you let me know? ;) I need a good XBox 360.

[Omega]

turn around and sell it for a good profit.

edit\\

i do the same kind of thing sometimes, though

buy used/"broken" things, fix them, and then turn around and sell them for more.

it's a nice and easy way to make a few extra bucks.

[slaveofconvention]

Actually, when I get it back from my mate, I'm going to give it to my son - my xbox is on the main TV in the living room - we use it mainly for streaming video from the server and as a media centre extender for the MCPC upstairs in the bedroom. This way when he comes to stay (weekly thing) there's no argument about TV/Xbox etc. He has his own xbox at home and I recently gave him a 20gb hard disk for it - so he'll be able to bring that back n forth for his saves/profile

[slaveofconvention]

I got it back from my mate... with an E74 error and a single red light - dammit - spoke too soon - that's what I get for being cocky lol

I am gonna have another go tho - if it works for that long, I think it'll be salvagable - if not - well the DVD drive happens to be the one I need for my other xbox so it won't all be for nothing :p

[crenn]

E74, overheating pretty much.