Gutting an Xbox (how to open it)

*DISCLAIMER*: You do realize that opening your Xbox is going to void the warranty right? You can try the hairdryer trick to get off the stickers, but I think the modchip stuck to the inside of the cas

@xbox

Published in 

xbox

 · 6 years ago

Gathering Tools:

First thing you need to do before opening your xbox, is to make sure you have all the necessary tools to do so.

You will need…
- A torx screwdriver (T10)
- A torx screwdriver (T20)
- A Phillips “star bit” screwdriver (only required to open the DVD case)

These are my weapons of choice. Left to Right: Torx T10 screwdriver, Phillips bit, T20 bit, Black and Decker power screwdriver.

*Note* You don’t need to rush out and buy the power screwdriver. It’s just what I found lying around. Any T10, T20, and Phillips will do, whether it’s a bit or a driver.

Finding the Screws:

Now that you have the proper tools (hopefully, otherwise you won’t be getting very far), we can look for the mysteriously hidden screws!
Now you have to make a decision…if you could not care less about any warranty you may or may not have on your Xbox, you can just punch right through the stickers to get to the screws. Otherwise you are going to have to heat them up with a hairdryer and peel them off.
There are also 4 screws hidden underneath the rubber pads, which can be pried off with a standard screwdriver (heating them would help too).
I personally just punched through the stickers and ripped off the footpads because a)it has no warranty on it and b)it sits on carpet, so the footpads won’t be any use.

Here you can see the two stickers that hide the screws, and the four screw holes where the footpads used to be. You will need to use the T10 for this job.

These are the buggers you’re looking for.

This shows the approximate shape of the notch the bit goes into.

Now you can remove the top of the case (just pull it off), but be careful of where you leave it! People may develop a habit of stepping on it and spewing out every cuss under the sun, like my wonderful father for example.

Removing the HDD and DVD Drive:

Once you’ve got the top of the Xbox off, you will be confronted with something that resembles this (hardware may look different, but no need to worry):

In order to remove the guts of the Xbox, you’re going to have to unplug some cables, and remove some screws.
I’ve taken the liberty of highlighting the cables in blue, and the screws in red.

Once the screws have been removed and the cables have been unplugged, it’s time to take out the HDD and DVD. The HDD must be removed first, because its tray overlaps the tray of the DVD Drive. (They are held together by a screw).

When the hard drive, and DVD drive have been, removed…you will be looking at your mother board, which should look something like in the picture below (courtesy of X-S):

The blue area on the far right of the motherboard is the area where your modchip is going to be soldered / attached to. They are called LPC points. If you have an early manufactured Xbox, these points are most likely going to be filled with solder. New Xboxes have empty LPC points. The red shaded area is approximately where the “d0” point is located. More on this later.

This is most likely as far as you are going to need to go. In some cases though, you will want to actually remove the motherboard. To do this, unscrew all the screws on the mobo, unplug any cables on it (fan, power source, controller ports), and work it out.