The solution? Put a piece of corrugated cardboard over the motherboard, where the screwdriver blade would rip through. But if the blade of said pointy object were to slip, it could take out a bunch of tiny parts as it scrapes across your motherboard. I used a small flathead screwdriver, and pried two or three of the X-Clamp's legs from the posts attached to the heatsinks. Now you gotta remove the heatsinks from the processors. Put the DVD drive, screws, plastic case and other parts someplace where they can't get harmed. Set the motherboard on a clean surface, like a newspaper. You need to remove everything from the metal case (if you can't get the fans out, that's fine). I'll point you to the tutorial I read, because opening the 360 is an Instructable in itself. Right, first thing we gotta do is open this sucka up. Anything else like tape and steel scrubbers should be kicking around in your house. Tool-wise, you'll need: A drill or drillpress to widen screwholes in the metal case (with a 3/16 drill bit) A torx 9 and torx 6 screwdriver to remove screws from the 360's case A 1/4 inch wrench or socket to remove the X-Clamp posts from the heatsinks A phillips-head screwdriver for those machine screws (or flathead if that's what you got) And a tiny flathead screwdriver to pry off the X-Clamps. I suggest picking up a tube of Arctic Silver 5. And while you are working with the heatsinks, you may want to apply new and better thermal paste to them. But if you feel you must have them, I will not stop you from purchasing them. Nylon washers aren't necessary there are no traces or components to be touched around the screw holes. These will be used to keep the motherboard firmly in one position. The 1/2' fits just fine with room to breathe.

The shorter screws will be used for the GPU, and 15MM is the most you can get into it. To secure your heatsinks tightly to the motherboard (and the metal case in the process) you will need: = 4 5x20MM Panhead Machine Screws (keep length between 20 and 40 MM) 4 5x15MM Panhead Machine Screw (must be no longer than 15MM!) 44 #10 Washers = And for your English measurements (thanks to ajmontag for providing these): *********************** 4 3/16' x 1' Panhead Machine Screws 4 3/16' x 1/2' Panhead Machine Screws 44 #10 Washers *********************** These 5x20MM (3/16'x1') screws will be used to secure the CPU heatsink. So, if your warranty is void, or you're about to join the dark side of gaming, read on! I would hate to see someone give up the pinnacle of gaming due to a simple flaw over a Blu-Ray player with gaming functionality. So, unless you hate your Xbox something fierce, don't do this.ДЄnd of course, if you're on your 4th Red Ringed Xbox 360, and are considering buying a PS3. It can cause chips to fail, capacitors to dry out, release the magic smoke, and possibly spark a fire. While it may be the quick and easy approach, it also overheats every other component in the 360, which is never good. What it does is overheat the inside of the console by blocking fan intakes, temporarily doing something to make the 360 run for a brief period of hours to days. If you plan on actually reviving the 360 don't use the towel trick. While Microsoft has dropped the ball on product quality in an effort to get the 360 out before other consoles, they picked up the proverbial dirt-covered ball by extending all warranties to 3 years.

Before you even think of unplugging your 360 let's work in a bit of intelligent forethought.ДЇor starters, why would you need to repair the console yourself? If you have a working warranty I highly suggest you send the console to Microsoft for repairs, as a repair will void your warranty.

Red light center xbox 360