Back in the days when I first became involved with electronics the transistor had just made its appearance in Bell Labs and the vacuum tube still reigned king. Things have changed, today the IC (Integrated Chip) has replaced the discrete transistor and diode in most applications and SMT (Surface Mount Technology) has replaced many discrete components like capacitors and resistors but, with a little practical experience, the proper tools, and the right reference materials once can still repair anything.
Actually, repairing today’s high tech products like computers, game boxes, etc is much easier than repairing radios and televisions were when I first started tinkering with them back in the 1950s. When I took my first formal course in radio and TV repair at the age of fourteen, one had to troubleshoot the circuit down to the component level and then replace the defective component. Today it’s much simpler. Take computer repair for example, if the problem is traced to the power supply, you simply replace the power supply if the problem is more than a blown fuse. No one even thinks about opening up the power supply to find the discrete component causing the problem.
With computers, if the problem is traced to a specific adapter board, you simply replace the plug in adapter board. Granted there are die hard tinkerers that will repair the board but professionals simply replace the board because its more economical and less time consuming. It also takes less knowledge of how the individual circuits actually work and a handful of tools ans test equipment replaces a whole shop full of test equipment.
Back in the day when I opened my first radio and television repair shop, the PF Reporter and Sam’s Photo-facts were our key sources of detailed repair information. Sam’s Folder contained detailed service information for almost every radio and television set on the market-detailed schematic diagrams that included wave forms, voltage readings, resistance reading, frequencies, etc; detailed parts lists; parts location photos; etc-and some of those folders were a good 3/4” to 1” thick. It didn’t take long before we has several he file cabinets full of them. Today we can have all the information we need for a whole series of appliances in a single manual. In fact most devices, like X Box-360 does most of the troubleshooting for us if we know how to use their built in service readouts. Today the big things is knowing how to obtain the trouble codes and then knowing how to interpret those codes. With the X Box-360 knowing how to obtain the trouble codes and then knowing how to interpret them is, as a rule, 75 percent of what’s involved in repairing them.
According to a news release from Microsoft, there were over 10 million X BOX-360 game boxes in home by the beginning of 2007, today? Your guess is as good as mine. Everyone I know has at least one, most have several. Everyone that I know has encountered the “Red Ring of Death” on more than one occasion. Knowing how to repair them will not only save you money but you can earn a decent second income by repairing them for other people. Once the X Box-360 is out of warranty, Microsoft charges an average of $150 for factory service when most repairs can be made for a fraction of that. I’m not going to attempt to explain how to make the repairs in this factoid because I would end up writing an e-book instead of a factoid. The X Box-360 is prepared to provide you with about forty different trouble codes and I could spend at least three or four pages (750 to a 1000 words) on each of them. Instead I’m going to leave that up to the service manual you need to purchase. Everyone, even the pros have these service manuals. They’re not that expensive, you will still have saved money on the first repair.These manuals not only show you how to make the repair, they explain the why of the problem and they give you a list of the tools and materials that you will need to make the repairs.
Conclusion
My whole purpose for writing this factoid is to assure you that if you are mechanically inclined and have moderate diy skills, you can repair game boxes like the X Box-360. More than likely, if you have done any diy electrical repairs, you already have most of the tools that you will need. Just one word of caution, buy the manual and read it. There are many sites on the internet offering free tutorials on X Box-360 repair but beware of them because many of them offer you advice that will end up causing permanent damage to your game system.
