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Xbox360 Forums => Xbox360 Hardware Forums => Xbox360 General / Hardware Chat => Topic started by: Rusti on November 16, 2005, 08:32:00 AM

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: Rusti on November 16, 2005, 08:32:00 AM

Not sure if its old news or not but someone has put together a step by step on how to open up a 360.

http://www.anandtech...doc.aspx?i=2610

Im pretty sure it will void the warranty, but I'm sure we will all end up opening it in the near future anyway...

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: Lamer123 on November 16, 2005, 09:17:00 AM

I wish they dabbled a little deeper into hardware protection .

Nice find though anandtech rulez .

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: Rusti on November 16, 2005, 10:37:00 AM

Hopefully my hosting holds up. Taken from the above posted site. I wanted to post more but the site is pretty much gone for now.

Removing the Outer Shell

The first step is to remove the outer plastic shell that conceals the innards of the system. To do this, you must start by removing the face plate. Take a look at the front of the Xbox 360 and insert your thumb into the door that covers the two USB ports on the right of the unit. With your other hand squeezing the upper and lower sides of the face plate, pull out the face plate with your thumb. With not much force, the face plate should pop right off.

(IMG:http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/s.gilmore/xbox360/face_removed_small.jpg)

After the face plate has been pulled off you will see a silver MS sticker covering a gap; remove this. You will also see four small clips locking the top half of the plastic shell to the bottom half. Do not attempt to wedge the clips out at this point.

With some care, gently bend outwards, the right gray ventilation shield on the right side of the unit so that you can see a bit inside. You will notice that the gray side piece attaches to both the bottom and top white chassis. Now look through the holes on top of the unit to locate the areas where the gray side pieces attaches to the white body. What you need to do is take the long but thin metal stick and push down, through the white holes (located on both the top and bottom of the Xbox 360) where the clips of the gray side pieces connect. Slowly pull out the gray pieces away from the unit while unlocking the clips and eventually the gray piece will release itself.

(IMG:http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/s.gilmore/xbox360/side_plates_small.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/s.gilmore/xbox360/harddrive_small.jpg)

To remove the left gray piece, you must first remove the hard drive unit by pressing the button located on the unit itself. Then apply the same procedure used to remove the right gray ventilation piece -- except when you reach the bottom clip of the piece, you most remove the rubber feet located directly below, to reveal a hole where you can insert the metal stick.

Once you have both side gray pieces removed, you have essentially removed the main locking mechanism that holds the top and bottom shells together. At this point, return to the front of the unit and turn the entire unit upside down. Using a flat head screw driver or wedge, gently pry up the 4 clips holding the top shell to the bottom. Once the clips are unlatched, slowly lift up the front of the bottom shell about an inch.

(IMG:http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/s.gilmore/xbox360/rear_small.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/s.gilmore/xbox360/separation_small.jpg)

The last step to removing the bottom shell cover is to insert a thin and small plastic stick into the thin rectangular holes on the rear. The reason the front of the bottom shell needs to be lifted is to prevent the rear latches from reattaching themselves. Slowly insert the stick into each rectangular opening. You should hear a click sound for each clamp you unlatch. Once complete, you may lift off the bottom shell covering.

Looking inside the unit, you will notice that there are 14 silver screws (6 of which are long) and 8 black screws. Using your start bit screw drivers, remove the silver screws using a size T12 screw driver and the black ones using a size T7. Once you have all the screws removed, flip the Xbox 360 right side up and lift up the top plastic shell. You should now be greeted with the internals of the Xbox 360.

(IMG:http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/s.gilmore/xbox360/underside_small.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/s.gilmore/xbox360/no_cover_small.jpg)

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: jhoff80 on November 16, 2005, 10:44:00 AM

So much for MS's screwless approach causing it to be difficult to mod the 360, huh?

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: ikecomp on November 16, 2005, 11:00:00 AM

nice post

I guess since so many people are raping their site when I try to load the article, not all the pictures load and the whole site is slow in general

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: dfunked on November 16, 2005, 11:15:00 AM

I'm curious as to how vendors would know if the XBox 360 has been opened? You'd think they'd try to make it impossible to remove stickers etc, but looks like it's just the same as the original - peel back sticker, glue back rubber feet.

PS. WORLD CUP 06! :D

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: bucko on November 16, 2005, 11:28:00 AM

And did they manage to put it back together ok?

Oh and I guess its not long now until one gets into Team Xecuter hands. I'm betting 24-48 hours until its cracked, now they can open it. If not in the first days then really the first week. I'm sure Bunnie will get one.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: sn4k13s on November 16, 2005, 11:32:00 AM

QUOTE

Hopefully my hosting holds up. Taken from the above posted site. I wanted to post more but the site is pretty much gone for now.

what is with the site? are they getting hit by everyone interested in this article or something else i wonder.

great read.
it appears that it wont be too difficult to open after all.

i wonder how many kids are crying right now because they failed at trying to be the first person to display how to open the 360, and now they are stareing at their broken/damaged console.

This post has been edited by sn4k13s: Nov 16 2005, 07:34 PM

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: crasher0255 on November 16, 2005, 11:34:00 AM

Yeah not sure doesn't look like much, but i was reading a few weeks ago that MS has put warranty stickers all over the place some hidden in hopes that if the console is open at least one will be accidently broken. As far as Team Xecuter getting their hands on one a WHILE back i believe they said they arleady had one (or at least a dev kit to toy with) But that info could be wrong correct me if anyone know's otherwise

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: crasher0255 on November 16, 2005, 11:36:00 AM

I know Team SmartXX already has a few they even posted pictures of them and ALOT of pictures of the XBOX 360 hardware

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: noob2modding on November 16, 2005, 11:02:00 AM

. ( seen in last pciture )

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: BigSteel on November 16, 2005, 11:39:00 AM

QUOTE(bucko @ Nov 16 2005, 06:59 PM)

Oh and I guess its not long now until one gets into Team Xecuter hands. I'm betting 24-48 hours until its cracked, now they can open it. If not in the first days then really the first week. I'm sure Bunnie will get one.

I don't think opening the case will be a major milestone in "cracking" the Xbox 360. I highly doubt that we will have a crack within a week. Not going to guess when, as that has been done in 1000 other topics.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: BoomDivX on November 16, 2005, 11:12:00 AM

Now, where is my black case mod? XD

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: ruli00 on November 16, 2005, 11:50:00 AM

I dont know about you all but the first thing im going to
do is to put the BRICK that plugs into the wall inside the 360.
There seems to be some room.

-ruli00

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: dbldown768 on November 16, 2005, 11:16:00 AM

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: thax on November 16, 2005, 11:52:00 AM

Lots of room for miniturization. There is a full sized drive, and when the CPU / GPU get more energy efficient you can get rid of a fan.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: Rusti on November 16, 2005, 11:54:00 AM

Here's the next bit...
(Oh and if a mod could move all my posts together at the top for easier reading that would be tops.)

Disassembling the Internals of the Xbox 360

To continue further, you will need to first remove the DVD drive. Simply hold the drive and lift up. You will notice that the Xbox 360's DVD drive uses a Serial ATA interface which keeps things very tidy compared to the original Xbox. At this point, remove both the power supply cable and Serial ATA cable from the DVD drive and then from the motherboard.

(IMG:http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/s.gilmore/xbox360/sata_small.jpg)

The fan shroud can now be removed by simply twisting the cover until it pops off. The shroud is held in place by one clamp that attaches to the actual fans. Just be careful at this point not to break the clamp.

(IMG:http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/s.gilmore/xbox360/thermal_removed-small.jpg)

Next, remove the RF unit at the front of the Xbox 360 by removing the small black torx screws using a T6 screwdriver. Then you must remove the plastic cover on the front of the RF unit by unlatching the top and bottom of the plastic cover. Once you have done this, you will reveal the third screw holding the RF unit to the chassis. Remove the last screw and pull out the RF unit. Lastly, remove the power connections for the fans. You can now lift the motherboard out of the metal chassis.

(IMG:http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/s.gilmore/xbox360/rf_small.jpg)

As a reminder, the Xbox 360 is a delicate equipment and must be treated with care at all times. Ensure that you frequently ground yourself to discharge any build up static which can severely harm your Xbox 360.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: Arakon on November 16, 2005, 11:59:00 AM

QUOTE

bwahaha.. you sure got dreams.
opening up a system hasn't jack shit to do with circumventing protections.. MS learned a lot from the modders of the xbox, I guarantee you it will be at least 6 months, more likely a year and longer until the protection is properly cracked.
You could open up the old xbox and yet it took over 6 months for anything to happen.. and that thing had bugs like hell and a very easily accessible and modifyable bios, which happened to be encrypted by a highly flawed algorythm.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: Granulated on November 16, 2005, 11:28:00 AM

Once the HDD encryption is cracked, i'm sure there will be a standard way of putting one inside the system....as for now....just room for inverters and LED's and whatnot.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: Rusti on November 16, 2005, 11:29:00 AM

Almost done... Hopefully the actual site will be up soon. (Amateur pics of another 360 opened)

Removing the Heatsinks from the Motherboard

Removing the heatsinks from the GPU and the CPU will require a great deal of patience as to avoid damaging the motherboard. Flip over the Xbox 360's motherboard. You will see two X clamps grasping the ends of the screws that hold the heatsinks into place. Without removing the X clamps, you cannot remove the heatsinks. MS has done a clever job in terms of securing the unit from prying eyes and removing the heatsinks from the Xbox 360 can be a trick for a lot of people.

user posted image

Take a pair of small pliers and gently pry off each corner of the clamps. After two corners have been lifted, the rest of the clamp springs loose and can easily be removed by hand. Once both X plates have been removed, you can turn the motherboard over and simply pull the heatsinks off to reveal the GPUs (two dice on the chip) and CPUs (single die, 3 cores on the chip).

user posted image

You now have a fully disassembled Xbox 360.

user posted image

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: Ufa on November 16, 2005, 12:06:00 PM

QUOTE(Arakon @ Nov 16 2005, 07:30 PM)

You could open up the old xbox and yet it took over 6 months for anything to happen.. and that thing had bugs like hell and a very easily accessible and modifyable bios, which happened to be encrypted by a highly flawed algorythm.

Well, Looking at the M$ history, i don't doubt that it will going to repeat in the new box ;)
Peace
Ufa

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: yknott on November 16, 2005, 12:08:00 PM

QUOTE(bucko @ Nov 16 2005, 06:59 PM)

Hah! In your dreams. Bunnie has specifically stated that he will not be trying to crack the new xbox. He has also given M$ some hints for security in a white paper he wrote a while back. His reasons were that the companies that make the modchips now have millions of dollars in funds to hire people to try to crack the xbox 360. No need for him to do it for free.

I give it 6 months to a year before the xbox 360 is cracked w/ a modchip. Most likely closer to a year.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: pholly on November 16, 2005, 12:20:00 PM

This may be a stupid question, but where is the ram? I don't see it on any of the pics. Is it in the motherboard somehow, or was it just not mentioned?

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: enixn on November 16, 2005, 12:38:00 PM

looks like it might be the 4 chips (4 X 128) to the left and down of the GPU, which means the 360 might not have expandable memory like the original xbox, (unless you removed some of the existing chips)

...if, you know, you wanted more than 512 mb ram....

This post has been edited by enixn: Nov 16 2005, 08:41 PM

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: Arakon on November 16, 2005, 12:41:00 PM

below and to the left of the CPU in the last pic, the small square chips (4 of them on the top side).

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: leo5111 on November 16, 2005, 12:42:00 PM

the ram is the 2 chips at the bottom of the picture and the 2 along the left side the 2 chips aboout 2 inches apart

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: Chamrock on November 16, 2005, 12:59:00 PM

If Bunny has assisted MS to create an unhackable Xbox I hope he gets beaten up. Fucking asshole if he helped MS!!!!!

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: krackheadbill on November 16, 2005, 01:29:00 PM

All I can say is he won't be hopping down the bunny trail no more....

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: mirx999 on November 16, 2005, 01:39:00 PM

nothing is "unhackable." Bunnie may have given MS some hints, but I don't think they employed him to their security team. The reasons he cracked the original so easily were:
1) He had access to a logic analyzer (which he built himself....he's a freaking genius)
2) He has a remarkable talent for analyzing integrated circuits just by looking at the dice. I don't know how he does it, but yeah.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: cONEction on November 16, 2005, 01:05:00 PM

All they have to do is to find out the secrets

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: nightmare84j28 on November 16, 2005, 01:48:00 PM

My mate sent me a zip of the pics so i uploaded it to yousendit.

Here ya go: http://s42.yousendit...G205FGHLIO9G6QX

Also if your seriously in need, i put them on my server @ home, beware, my upload sucks ass.

http://nightmare.dev...k/Xbox360 Pics/

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: darkplayer on November 16, 2005, 01:51:00 PM

I give it 2 weeks in December until we here something of new codes, chip designs, and hacks.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: shawntrip00 on November 16, 2005, 02:14:00 PM

All I can say is xbox-scene never stopps amazing me.. never.. I honestly think in all my websites I have come across this is the most useful and best find ever.. Thanks to everyone who contributes.. And as for the 360, I hope that the modding process goes well I know that it will only be a month or so till someone does it.. Good luck guys

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: santium on November 16, 2005, 02:22:00 PM

I know m$ put alot of time and money into the X360, but think about this.
How big is the community here? (By here I mean XS and other places like Team Xecuter and the like) Huge.
I was reading one of the M$ whitepapers on the 360 (Its in the XDK Whitepaper section) they were saying that it took 6 months for the first Xbox to be hacked at any level (Not things like controller mods) and since then the modding community has "grown to extravagant numbers" since then. It says that they are guessing that it will take about 3-5 months to hack this one.

They know that this community has alot of brilliant people in it. Never underestimate the man who is determined to do something. In this case, the men determined.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: ruli00 on November 16, 2005, 02:22:00 PM

How bout some pics of the backside of the mobo.

-ruli00

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: kris5487 on November 16, 2005, 02:31:00 PM

QUOTE(Chamrock @ Nov 16 2005, 08:30 PM)

If Bunny has assisted MS to create an unhackable Xbox I hope he gets beaten up. Fucking asshole if he helped MS!!!!!

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: nightmare84j28 on November 16, 2005, 02:43:00 PM

Do what i did, host it on yousendit.com

Upload it a few times in .zip and post all the urls here. They go down after like 25 downloads.

Side note: Im removing my link now.. Killing bandwidth lol.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: darkplayer on November 16, 2005, 03:04:00 PM

QUOTE(santium @ Nov 16 2005, 01:29 PM)

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: xionanx on November 16, 2005, 03:32:00 PM

Personally I'm not seeing as much reason to mod the XBOX 360 as there was to mod the XBOX. At this point in time with everything the 360 can do, about the ONLY "real" reason to mod one would be to play copied games.

Yes, there will be "legitimate" uses by a minority of people.. but in all honesty can you say that 2% of the people who own modded XBOX's use them for "running linux" or "research purposes".. No.. its probably more like 0.1%.

Lets face it, you use it for XBMC and Copied Games.. The 360 gives you a media center, so what do you have left.. Copied Games!! I personally will find it hard to believe anyone can keep up this charade of not supporting pirated software when it comes to XBOX 360.

EDIT: WTF XBOX SCENE!! So its against your fucking rules to post links to "Free stuff sites" yet low and behold the text links being placed in MY FUCKING POST to benefit someone else BY YOU GUYS!! That is just fucking low!!

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: Trevante on November 16, 2005, 03:48:00 PM

QUOTE(xionanx @ Nov 16 2005, 04:39 PM)

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: xionanx on November 16, 2005, 03:57:00 PM

QUOTE(Trevante @ Nov 16 2005, 11:55 PM)

Will the 360's media center let you do everything that XBMC can? I highly doubt it. The chances of being able to transfer files to the system using a simple method (ftp basically) are slim, and the chances that it will play all kinds of media like XBMC does is even thinner.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: cavernimports on November 16, 2005, 04:00:00 PM

can someone please verify the model number of the Rom drive in the 360 and is 100% pc compatible as some rumors have stated but not proven?

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: xionanx on November 16, 2005, 04:09:00 PM

QUOTE(cavernimports @ Nov 17 2005, 12:07 AM)

can someone please verify the model number of the Rom drive in the 360 and is 100% pc compatible as some rumors have stated but not proven?

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: kris5487 on November 16, 2005, 04:46:00 PM

QUOTE(xionanx @ Nov 17 2005, 12:04 AM)

You know, adds I could care less about. What pissess me off is Hypocrisy! How many people have been banned from XBOX-Scene for placing referal links in thier posts? But now, everytime ANYONE types "XBOX 360" a referal link is placed in thier post, that benefits who? Unless XBOX-Scene plans on selling the FREE XBOX 360 they get for the referals to help pay for the site, then I'm not seeing any "revenue" being produced from such a link.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: cONEction on November 16, 2005, 05:37:00 PM

QUOTE(mirx999 @ Nov 16 2005, 09:31 PM)

i have a feeling you don't know how a xbox modchip works.

Title: How To: Opening Up An Xbox 360
Post by: DaBiscuit on November 17, 2005, 05:41:00 PM

I really never cared for case mods on the original X-Box, but when and if the X360 gets hacked, the first thing I plan to do after installing a chip is to replace that fugly case. It must go! I'd rather run the MoBo bare naked on an antistatic mat than see that thing staring back at me.

xboxscene.org forums

Xbox360 Forums => Xbox360 Hardware Forums => Xbox360 General / Hardware Chat => Topic started by: Rusti on November 16, 2005, 08:32:00 AM