This may be kind of long, so for those who want the short version - wilgo45 fixed my graphics glitches and did some preventive maintenance, I'm very happy with the results and glad I went with him for the repair.
Now the long version...
I bought a used Xbox on eBay to play games with my son over system link. From the description of the graphical glitches in the auction, I thought a standard "x clamp mod" would fix it, so I bid on it and won it. After I received the Xbox and did more research into potential fixes, it looked like it would need more than some bolts and washers.
I looked around locally and found a few people who advertised Xbox repair services. I wasn't able to locate any reviews of their service, though. One of the places had a lot of bad reviews on eBay for their sales, so I decided against them for sure. The thought of sending the Xbox away instead of staying local made me kind of nervous, but I found this thread here for wilgo45's service. Based on his honesty when things didn't go 100% as expected, and the reviews from people who used his service, I decided to go with him for the repair and began communicating with him through the forums' messaging. Additionally. from the reviews people left, it was obvious that he was used to working on Xboxes that had been worked on previously. Some repair places that I looked up online wouldn't even touch an Xbox that had been opened. Since I bought this one used, I wasn't sure what had been done to it already, but I knew it had been opened before I bought it, and I had opened it once or twice myself.
I sent the Xbox to him through Regional Rate Priority Mail, which I had never heard of until he suggested it. This actually saved me quite a bit on shipping, so bonus points to wilgo45 for that.
When he examined the Xbox, he found that the problem wasn't as bad as first thought, and he was able to get it running glitch free. Big bonus points for honesty here. I'm sure there are some people out there who would have told me that they had done a big fix involving hours of labor and charged me an arm and a leg, and seriously, I would never have known the difference. He also suggested some options for preventive maintenance and offered some additional services. We agreed on which options I wanted done, and he finished up and sent the Xbox back right away. Heck, this Xbox will probably last longer that the one I bought brand new.
I've had it back for a couple of days now and can't believe the difference. I've gone from not being able to play more than 5 minutes of Metro 2033 to being able to play for over an hour with zero issues. I took it apart to flash the drive back to stock, do a system update, then flashed it back (but to a newer FW this time). I took a look at some the work he did while I was in there, and everything is very sharp and professional looking.
If you're reading this thread and on the fence about contacting him for a fix, I'd recommend wilgo45 without hesitation. I know I'm not a common visitor to the forums, but if my review isn't enough, there are several pages before this one. He was quick, communicated regularly during the process, and was honest about the work that needed to be done. What more could you ask for?
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Topic: Gpu Reball Service & Other Rrod Repair (Read 977 times)