Let's Restore a 15 Year Old Xbox 360

[Music] when i'm not tinkering with projects on the raspberry pi i enjoy learning about and restoring retro technology this past november 2020 the xbox 360 turned 15 years old it's crazy that 15 years have passed already two xbox 360s were donated to the channel by a close friend and today i will be restoring one of them to its former glory this video will be about my experience with restoring this console we are starting off with a well-loved system that has been roughly cleaned with a disinfecting wipe and a data vac the goal is to restore the system to look as original as possible luckily there are only a few light scratches and some marks on the chrome a good cleaning should go a long way we'll start by removing the hard drive and faceplate [Music] uh there's nothing to see here next are the side panels [Music] and this last clip is under the rubber foot [Music] let's add a dust bunny counter for fun [Music] then we pop the clips on the front and i'm using an xbox opening tool on the back which makes the process of unclipping much easier [Music] with the clips unlatched we can remove the bottom cover [Music] don't forget to remove the eject button otherwise it could break when the top cover is removed here i'm removing six long screws that secure the top cover [Music] wow there is a lot of dust caked into that heatsink here's a quick clip of me using a data vac on this system unfortunately i forgot to hit record the first time i didn't realize there was a light breeze so all the dust that blew out of the system blew onto me i recommend unplugging the fans before blowing up the system because they do generate a voltage when they're spinning and it can damage the main board usually there are safeguards put in place to protect against this and it doesn't hurt to be safe [Music] after removing the rest of the screws the main board can be removed if your model has ram chips on the bottom side of the board carefully remove and save the thermal pads they can temporarily be stuck to a piece of plastic or wax paper for safe keeping there is an x-clamp removal tool available however i'm just using care and a flat-head screwdriver i'm placing my finger in front of the screwdriver just in case i slip my finger will help protect the board usually after two sides of the x-clamp are unclipped it can be wiggled off unfortunately i didn't put my finger in front of the screwdriver while doing this and i slipped i didn't realize it at the time but i did damage one of the bypass capacitors for the processor here i'm struggling to remove the heatsink because of the baked on thermal compound be gentle because you can crack the solder balls or even pull off the processor if you're too aggressive this might have been the worst thermal compound i've ever seen here is what the board looks like in the before state [Music] here is some corrosion around the connectors i'm using rtclean to help dissolve the thermal compound goo gone or isopropyl alcohol work well also the cleaner can seep under the chip and it is conductive so be sure to clean the board thoroughly if you try this i plan to wash the board in soapy water after this so it's not a concern [Music] so here i'm washing the board with dawn dish soap this will help remove fine dust and oils that may have accumulated on the board over the years i'm using warm water and esd safe brushes to gently remove the dirt around the components this is the first time i noticed some damage to the capacitor i thought i may have caught it with one of the brushes but when i went back and reviewed the video i noticed it was damaged when i bumped it with the x-clamp anyway make sure to rinse well and allow the board to completely dry before powering it on generally i use a high-powered blower and a hair dryer to gently heat the board this helps remove any water that may be caught under the chips next i'll use goo gone on the heat sinks and let that work while i clean the other components [Music] [Music] i used rubbing alcohol to remove the blue paint and i should have tried using baking soda first alcohol can dissolve some plastics and it did leave a small smooth spot after cleaning generally anything metal will rust so it's important to dry those items quickly after washing usually a paper towel is enough to clean the heat sinks for the processor heat sink the thermal compound was really baked into the grooves this is probably completely unnecessary but i decided to use some fine grit sandpaper and a lapping process to completely remove it the whole process should only take a few minutes so why not [Music] it's amazing how dirty the water was after i finished washing everything because our goal is a full clean and restore i decided to open the hard drive for cleaning this could be a good opportunity to replace it with an ssd if you plan on continuing to use a system hopefully it's obvious that all downloaded games and save files will be removed if you do replace the drive i'm using a cotton swab and some rubbing alcohol to clean the fans in my experience the xbox fans are sealed so they cannot be re-oiled next we'll start putting the system back together it's a good idea to use high quality thermal compound that will last i prefer icy diamond because i found it does not have push out issues like other popular compounds i actually did a video about this topic so i'll link it here i see diamond is not conductive or capacitive so i use more than i think i need because it won't hurt anything if it touches the other components for bear chip applications like this it's important the entire die is covered otherwise the chip can burn [Music] out i'm quickly testing to see if the system boots and success [Applause] keeping in mind the damage that was done earlier the system will still need to be fully tested to ensure it's stable bypass capacitors are installed for a reason i got lucky with this damaged [Music] component the cd drive was hard to open because the belt was slipping so i'm going to clean it it would be best to replace the belt but this system will not be used heavily and hopefully cleaning it will buy a few more years do not use alcohol or goo gone because they can dissolve rubbers in my experience it's best to use warm water and some mild dish soap [Music] [Music] [Music] now i'll test the cd drive and success it worked on the first try when putting the system back together don't forget to reinstall the eject button before snapping the cover shut [Music] now that the system is back together let's try another boot and reinstall the cd drive cover [Music] there that's better before the reveal here's a reminder of how the system used to look i'm really pleased with how well the system cleaned up i'm also happy i can show you a working system [Music] don't forget to like this video if you liked it and consider subscribing for more content i recently received a raspberry pi 400 so that will be making an appearance in the future thanks for watching you

Channel: Mike S

Views: 13,831

Keywords: Retro, Xbox 360 Restoration, Xbox Restore, Xbox Repair, Xbox, Xbox CD Drive Repair, Xbox 360 CD Repair, Wash Xbox, repaste xbox 360

Id: T7QaOPaPpwo

Length: 12min 26sec (746 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 02 2021