How To Take Apart and Clean An XBOX 360
96Fixing an XBox 360
If you are having problems with your XBox 360, you can attempt to fix it yourself by taking it apart and trying to clean it out, and if you are not 100% sure how to do that, you can following the following guide for taking apart your XBox 360 and cleaning the disk drive/laser.
Just remember that if you screw up your XBox 360 more than it already is, you don't really have a leg to stand on in regards to your warranty, so it is advised that you call and check out your warranty options.
WARNING: THIS WILL VOID YOUR XBOX WARRANTY. If you're having problems the first thing you should do is call Microsoft at 1-800-4MY-XBOX(469-9269) and inquire about warranty options for sending your XBox in to be repaired.
Tools Needed:
- Very small flathead screwdriver or a flat point such as a kitchen knife or pushpin
- Small Phillips head screwdriver
- A torx style star head screwdriver size T10
Take Apart the XBox 360
Step 1. Disconnect ALL wires from xbox, once everything is disconnected hold power button in for 2 seconds to clear any electric charge left in the console
Step 2. Remove Hard Drive and any memory unit/cards you might have plugged into the console. You will remove the hard drive by pressing button on the hard drive and pulling straight up.
Step 3. Remove the faceplate by gripping the top and bottom near the left side of the console(the side that the disc drive is on) and pulling firmly but slowly until it pops off, then repeat this on the other end.
Step 4. Remove top and bottom gray mesh panels by prying them off with any small objects by inserting them into holes on the sides of the xbox console at the left, middle, and right points where you can see the grey tabs and pushing in to release the catches.
Step 5. Separate top and bottom of white case by inserting flat head screwdriver or knife blade into the back of the console at the points shown in the picture. You should hear a pop when each one releases; go down the line starting from left to right. You should hold the side that you're starting on and start to separate the case pieces so that they don't click back together when you pop the tabs
Step 6. Complete seperation of the case by using a fingernail to unhook the tabs on the front of the console starting on one end and working your way to the other side, there should be 4 tabs to release, after that's done the top of the case should just slide right off.
Step 7. Using your Torx T10 star screwdriver remove the 6 screws shown in the following picture, you don't need to remove any other screws even though there's a bunch on there.
Step 8. After all 6 screws are removed and SET ASIDE SO YOU DON'T LOSE THEM, flip the console over so that the remaining half of the white case is on top. Make sure that the metal part that you just unscrewed the screws from is facing down, on the table or ground, etc.
Step 9. Pull the white case straight up, it should seperate easily from the rest of the console, and set it aside.
From here you should see the "guts" of the console, you have the disc drive, cooling fan, motherboard, and a white guard to direct air flow in the console.
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Cleaning the disc drive/laser:
Step 1. The disc drive will be the big gray square on the left side of the console, there are 2 plugs plugged into the back of the drive. These plugs need to be unplugged from the drive before you remove it completely. You can grab the drive on both sides and lift directly up to give you a little room to reach behind the drive and unplug the plugs. Then it should slide right out.
Step 2. Using the small phillips head screwdriver, unscrew the 4 screws in the corners of the drive and SET THEM ASIDE SO YOU DON'T LOSE THEM
Step 3. Slowly but firmly grip the underside of the drive case and lift up, it should pop right off without any difficulty.
Step 4. Turn the drive back over and slide the top of the case off and set it aside.
Step 5. Using a q tip with a little bit of rubbing alchohol gently rub the laser eye to clean it, then flip the q tip over and gently rub the laser eye to dry it.
Step 6. The circular peice in the middle is the thing that spins the discs when they're in the drive, this can get pretty dusty, using a new q tip with rubbing alchohol clean this off as well.
Then you put it all back together!
Take Apart an Xbox 360
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Comments
Great instructions. I hope I will never have to use them.
does anyone have the schematics showing a video card in the 360?
do this realy work
I think you may have just saved a lot of people out there time and money. I wish this hub had been around before I finally gave up and trashed mine.
thanks for this post... took mine apart just to clean up the fans and board.. and i may order a black case replacement now that I know how to take everything apart.
omg!!! i thought my X-Box 360 was a goner =( but i followed these easy steps and had it up and running in 30 min. u saved me alot of money and time!! thank u!
Any other ways that you can think of to fix this issue? It will not read games. Simply says "Reading" then "Open Tray"
What type of issue do you think it could be?
Great guide. My 360 doesn't need cleaning yet, but I'm sure it will. I hope that's all it needs. The things tend to be finicky I hear.
thank you so f-ing much my xbox would never work before i bought used and
every time i put in games they wouldnt work because of the disk drive so thanks to u i opened the xbox 360 and fixed once agin thank u
Thanks but mine looks different to urs it has something added onto the Graphics thingy
my 360 would just spin up then stop i followed these instructions and its runing fine now thanks very very much please try this people.
it isnt a t-10 its a t-12 which is impossible to find and im stuck on the opening of the top piece of the case
for opening the side which you didnt achieve to do so, you need to remove the rubber nearest to the power input, there you may find a hole which would pry open the whole thing
This site is awesome. Xbox 360 would not load disk took it apart cleaned lense. Works great. I now have a happy boy again.... lol
Thank you so much ive emailed the microsoft support email, and they would give the same responce for every thing i am going to try this when I get home hopefully it will save me time and money
This definately works, my mate asked me to fix his 360 for him and a was more than impressed when i came across this. Thank very much!!
What a great guide... very usefull!
my x box does what shelle belle' s does says reading then says open tray.what could that be?
grat piece of article i really wanted to clean my xbox360 thx
I dont have and my xbox is showing red ring also. And many people complained when they sent theirs in. I'll most likely try this. Hope it works.
First off i cant get the 2nd grate off and i cant get the t10 =(
thanks man ones again on that video on how to take unpart of a xbox 360 instructions i really need it the info man, but keep doing what your doing your changing my life. but not just mine pretty much every body that watches your videos but good lookin for me and the homies.
i need the screw driver to open the blasted thing still there impossible to find
They arent impossible to find, they sell them at any hardware store. They arent expensive either.
Thank you for the great guide. Works great.
The reason your having problems with the top screen is because there is another latch to pop under the rubber foot
I am definetly will try this after i contact microsoft and see if they can do anything.
would cleaning the laser help the play dvd error go away so i can play a game? it says it to every game i play.... i have to pop it open then close ah shit load of times... now its getting so bad that it wont even read the discs anymore...
very good post my 360 kept reading then say open tray I took it apart and did the cleaning put it back 2gether but still nothing but I found the problem b4 you put the top back on the drive hook it back to the box and turn on power insert a disk and you will see it won't spin while it is still trying to load spin the disk and it should start spinning it worked for me good luck all
THANK YOU SO F'N MUCH, I SOLD MY XBOX GOT 180 DOLLARS, TOOK MY COUSINS OLD BROKEN XBOX AND I F'N FIXED THE SH*T UP
*EVERYONE SHOULD USE THIS TUTORIAL*
im having trouble with step 5, i popped them all, but the side that only has 2 tabs wont budge, iv tried like 4 times... any1 know wat the problem is?
is there a way to clean off the eye without taking it apart
To the kid who asked for help with step 5. You push the tabs up. It's easier if you try to seperate it gently with ur hand while popping the tabs. Also, it is easier if you start on the side with 5 tabs.
And sorry but you have to take it apart to clean the lens. Disc cleaners normally make it worse too. It really isn't that hard though if you can find the right tools.
If you have hacked it, and was able to login to consol, you can just format it, using mkfs commands, first unmount the partition you want to format, check the mounted partitions using fdisk -l or mount command.
My friend just got an xbox from someone, they said it doesnt work. he turned it on, it plays dvds, plays music cds, but not xbox games, so we are going to try this out, seems easy enough, i will let you know the results (tonight is fight night and tomorrow is football night, so maybe monday!)
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It worked 100%!!!! I'm sure you knew already it would. This is also probably something you should do maybe once or twice a year (not clean the laser, but open up the xbox, and carefully clean the dust out). I'm also going to look into that custom coooler that was in the video over top the GPU.
THANK YOU A MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SWEET! I DON'T OWN 1 YET BUT IN THE PAST IV'E HAD TO TAKE APART A PLAYSTATION. IT'S REALLY COOL FOR YOU TO HAVE WORKED SO HARD ON YOUR PAGE TO HELP OTHERS. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. CHECK OUT MY STORY IF YOU LIKE. HAVE AN AWESOME DAY! :-)
When I turn my 360 on I can hear the games but I can not see them i tied everything i know somebody help me please
Thanks a lot man i thought i needed a new hard drive for sure!! this worked great!! and for people out there that this is not working for try cleaning the guide bars and everything else in the hard drive make sure there is no dust at all inspect all the wires and make sure there are no wires that are broken or disconnected
For those who have problems finding or simply dont have the small screw divers for the back. U can simply use the tip of a clicker pen head. ( Make sure u dont have to use again ) but extend all the way out when u use. Also for Black-n-mild u may want to check ur video cable. Check the tip of the cable on the thin copper cover. If it has a crack or totally disconnected, that may be ur problem. My copper tip simply came off and got stuck in the tv inlet. Also for those trying to get the Gray mesh off the sides, and u have that one corner that its hard to get, you can fiddle with it alil with OUT yanking it, and u should be able to pop it off. (Just watch what ur doing and u dont break it, i got it off but i did think i was going to break it) All in all this is a great page, even though i got stuck not having a torx bit :/ Tools i used was a Clicking Pen, and a Flat Head.
Thanks man this video realy helped alot my 360 would just say open tray so i took it apart and cleaned it works like a charm now THANK SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!
These instructions helped me fix my son's xbox 360. When putting in a disc it would say it was unreadable and wouldn't run the game. I thought the DVD-ROM was toast. I figured why not try cleaning the lens before starting to replace parts. That's all it needed and now it works fine. Once you learn the tricks (following the instructions) to disassemble it then the rest is easy.
hey does this fix the Ring of Death? mine keeps freezing. I have it all the way taken apart except for the last side. I need the T12 screwdriver. Just wondering in advance. Figure i might as well try and clean out the dust and see what happens
hey does this fix the Ring of Death? mine keeps freezing. I have it all the way taken apart except for the last side. I need the T12 screwdriver. Just wondering in advance. Figure i might as well try and clean out the dust and see what happens
agvulpes says:
14 months ago
I'm not an X boxer myself but my son is, so I will pass along the info .