How To Take Apart and Clean An XBOX 360

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Fixing an XBox 360

If you are having problems with your XBox 360, you can attempt to fix it yourself by taking it apart and trying to clean it out, and if you are not 100% sure how to do that, you can following the following guide for taking apart your XBox 360 and cleaning the disk drive/laser.

Just remember that if you screw up your XBox 360 more than it already is, you don't really have a leg to stand on in regards to your warranty, so it is advised that you call and check out your warranty options.

WARNING: THIS WILL VOID YOUR XBOX WARRANTY. If you're having problems the first thing you should do is call Microsoft at 1-800-4MY-XBOX(469-9269) and inquire about warranty options for sending your XBox in to be repaired.
Tools Needed:

Very small flathead screwdriver or a flat point such as a kitchen knife or pushpin
Small Phillips head screwdriver
A torx style star head screwdriver size T10

Take Apart the XBox 360

Step 1. Disconnect ALL wires from xbox, once everything is disconnected hold power button in for 2 seconds to clear any electric charge left in the console

Step 2. Remove Hard Drive and any memory unit/cards you might have plugged into the console. You will remove the hard drive by pressing button on the hard drive and pulling straight up.

Step 3. Remove the faceplate by gripping the top and bottom near the left side of the console(the side that the disc drive is on) and pulling firmly but slowly until it pops off, then repeat this on the other end.

Step 4. Remove top and bottom gray mesh panels by prying them off with any small objects by inserting them into holes on the sides of the xbox console at the left, middle, and right points where you can see the grey tabs and pushing in to release the catches.

Step 5. Separate top and bottom of white case by inserting flat head screwdriver or knife blade into the back of the console at the points shown in the picture. You should hear a pop when each one releases; go down the line starting from left to right. You should hold the side that you're starting on and start to separate the case pieces so that they don't click back together when you pop the tabs
Step 6. Complete seperation of the case by using a fingernail to unhook the tabs on the front of the console starting on one end and working your way to the other side, there should be 4 tabs to release, after that's done the top of the case should just slide right off.

Step 7. Using your Torx T10 star screwdriver remove the 6 screws shown in the following picture, you don't need to remove any other screws even though there's a bunch on there.

Step 8. After all 6 screws are removed and SET ASIDE SO YOU DON'T LOSE THEM, flip the console over so that the remaining half of the white case is on top. Make sure that the metal part that you just unscrewed the screws from is facing down, on the table or ground, etc.

Step 9. Pull the white case straight up, it should seperate easily from the rest of the console, and set it aside.

From here you should see the "guts" of the console, you have the disc drive, cooling fan, motherboard, and a white guard to direct air flow in the console.
Cleaning the disc drive/laser:

Step 1. The disc drive will be the big gray square on the left side of the console, there are 2 plugs plugged into the back of the drive. These plugs need to be unplugged from the drive before you remove it completely. You can grab the drive on both sides and lift directly up to give you a little room to reach behind the drive and unplug the plugs. Then it should slide right out.

Step 2. Using the small phillips head screwdriver, unscrew the 4 screws in the corners of the drive and SET THEM ASIDE SO YOU DON'T LOSE THEM

Step 3. Slowly but firmly grip the underside of the drive case and lift up, it should pop right off without any difficulty.

Step 4. Turn the drive back over and slide the top of the case off and set it aside.

Step 5. Using a q tip with a little bit of rubbing alchohol gently rub the laser eye to clean it, then flip the q tip over and gently rub the laser eye to dry it.

Step 6. The circular peice in the middle is the thing that spins the discs when they're in the drive, this can get pretty dusty, using a new q tip with rubbing alchohol clean this off as well.

Then you put it all back together!

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