Eat it, Microsoft!

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... and with good reason. Yesterday was a bizarre day. I got money, which wasn't expected but always good. I was able to buy groceries and eat for a little while longer, which is always nice because you never know when you're going to run out of food when you're unemployed. I was playing Smackdown vs Raw 2010 on my Xbox 360. I rented it from Blockbuster on the weekend and since, I had played it quite consistently. It's a fun game and I was really enjoying it. But then, the unexpected happened...

Now, I shouldn't say it was unexpected. I was thoroughly expecting it in the back of my mind, but as it hadn't happened yet I thought just maybe my Xbox was one of the less than 35% of Xbox Pro's to ship from the manufacturing line without a defect. As it turned out, no such luck. As I hit the A button to continue on with my game. Nothing happened. Eventually the screen went to black, I couldn't power it down with my remote as per usual. I turned off the box, and when I turned it back on that heart stopping moment many 360 owners have felt. Those three red lights started to blink, the red ring of death had finally come to my Xbox.

Panic set in, but Natasha was certain of one thing "I can fix this..." we began to look up videos online of do it yourself repair. Many heralding their own 'do it yourself kits' which would repair the defect, provided you bought their kit to follow their instruction.

The defect, X-clamps which held the heat sinks over the CPU and GPU in place. The clamps design cause the motherboard to bend in ways that are problematic over time, and thus, cause those red lights to appear on your box. The repair is simple, take out the x-clamps and secure your heat sinks with screws and washers. Easy enough.

Day one was a pain, we spent the day looking for anything to do the job, be damned if we were to order somebodies kit online when we could just procure the needed pieces ourselves. We needed screws, we couldn't find the exact kind that we needed so we looked for something that was close. We lucked out, the screws we found were in fact a perfect fit for the heat sinks. There was one problem however, the washers we had were too big, so when we re-installed the heat sinks the heat sink over the GPU was not parallel with the chip. When the box started up, it sounded like a miniature hot rod engine was roaring up. Instead of three red lights coming to the light ring, only two lit. Which signaled to us that the box was overheating. We were winning, but we weren't victorious yet. It was a long day by this point, much of it had been spent procuring resources it was time to give up for the day.

I have to say here, that I don't deserve any of the credit. Natasha was the driving force of this effort. Though I have small knowledge of computers and their working parts. This knowledge is completely eclipsed by Natasha's computer knowledge and her know how is the only reason I'm telling this story. I had pretty much given up on my Xbox but Natasha's perseverance and utter refusal to give in was the only reason I'm even telling this story.

This morning, she was driven, last night she had formulated a plan and she was certain she could get my 360 functioning again. We set out to find nylon washers as opposed to metal ones. Home Hardware was a dead end of sorts. We couldn't find nylon washers but we did find fiber washers, which ended up being what we wanted to use to begin with so we doubly lucked out there. By this point, disassembly and reassembly of the xbox was like second nature to us. We'd taken it apart a few times already so it was quite easy by this point. We spent the majority of our efforts this morning cleaning off the CPU, GPU and heat sinks of the old thermal paste that had effectively caked itself on, before applying new thermal paste.

We re-attached the heat sinks and put it back together and tested it out. Same result, what the hell? Natasha then decided to tell me that we should use two washers instead of the three that we had used. So we opened up the box, yet again, and made the modifications, applied a new layer of thermal paste and closed it back up again. As I plugged in the Xbox I was doubtful, our efforts to this point had been void of reward and overall very stressful on both Natasha and myself. As I powered up the 360, the unexpected had happened.

The four power lights blinked green, and the familiar pattern of the lights rolling around the power button had begun. The Xbox successfully booted up, no red lights of failure. Only smooth, excellent running Xbox. Needless to say, I was elated, and still am. I feel happy to say that I repaired my box for only about 20-30 dollars. To date, I have given no money to Microsoft for my purchase. (aside from any royalties they may receive from game purchases anyway...) I bought my Xbox used. I didn't send it in for repairs, we did it ourselves and we got it done. My xbox works. I feel vindicated. Eat it, Microsoft!