By David Gewirtz
I love my Xbox, but it doesn't love me. I actually own two of them, an HDMI-equipped Xbox Elite, and one of the original white Xbox models with a 20GB hard drive.
Sadly, after about four years of steady service, the white Xbox died. Three rings were red and it wouldn't start. Since the machine was out of warranty, we decided to open the thing up and see if we could fix it ourselves.
YouTube to the rescue. We found a number of (profane) YouTube videos that take you through the process of fixing the machine. There's the Penny Trick, the Towel Trick, and the Q-Tip Trick.
Sadly, for us, none of these tricks worked* and we still have a dead Xbox. But if you have a broken machine, some of these techniques might work for you.
*Our Xbox might not have passed these tests because it was plugged straight into the wall without a surge protector. Do we know better than that? Yes, yes we do.
Opening the Xbox 360
The first step you'll need to do is open the Xbox 360. Here's a fun little video that can help.
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The Penny Trick
Now that you've got the Xbox opened, here's how to do the Penny Trick. It didn't work for us, but it might for you.
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The Towel Trick
Once you've done the Penny Trick, you may need to reset the error code by forcing a different error code. Have we mentioned that if you try these things and destroy your Xbox, it's not our fault. You should know better than to follow instructions in a random YouTube video.
Anyway, also keep an eye on your machine while doing this. You don't want it to burst into flames.
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