Got schooled by a guy at a garage sale on fixing disc drives

I was at a garage sale in Spokane last month, hunting for old consoles. Found a cheap Xbox 360 with a busted disc drive. Told the guy I was just gonna swap the whole drive. He asked if I had a Torx T10 screwdriver. I said yeah, why? He showed me right there on his driveway how to just swap the drive's circuit board from the old drive to a new one. Takes five minutes. Saved me from having to mess with the DVD drive key and all that software stuff. I felt like a total noob. Been doing it the hard way for years. Now I always check the board first. Anyone else have a simple fix they learned way too late?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_hugo2mo ago

Ever try to reflow a PS3 GPU with a heat gun before learning about the thermal paste trick? I spent a whole weekend on that mess. The real fix was just cleaning and repasting it.

noah9172mo ago

Reflows can work sometimes, @the_hugo, but it's a gamble for sure.

jason_robinson1mo ago

My old Xbox 360 got a second life from a reflow back in 2010. That console ran for another two years before finally dying. Sometimes the gamble is the only play you have.