When it comes to the XBOX, there are multiple ways you can clean and maintain the hardware in order to ensure your XBOX stays happy and functional for as long as possible. The cleaning part can sound pretty straight-forward, but there are some tips you should keep in mind and some pitfalls you should avoid!
These are steps you should repeat fairly often, perhaps once every month depending on where you store your XBOX – dust and dirt can accumulate very quickly and start causing problems if you don’t clean often enough.

Outside cleaning

Cleaning the outside of your XBOX, i.e. the case, the ports and the wiring, can have numerous benefits. Not only will you get an XBOX looking like it was newly bought, but you will also ensure the case looks good in the future. If you keep the openings to the fans clean, you will also make sure that less dust enters the inside of your XBOX meaning you’ll have to clean it less often.
When cleaning the case and the ports, you’ll want to use a moist cloth and some window-cleaning or other chemical. Avoid using too much water and too strong chemicals here – you just want to get rid of the dust and any fat or other dirt. Make sure no water enters the inside of the case as it might cause you trouble later on. Keeping the room you’re working in well-lit and subjected to sunlight is a good idea since it will speed up the drying process.

Inside cleaning

Cleaning the inside of your XBOX is a delicate process since you’re suddenly dealing with electronic parts that are easily broken by moist or bad handling. Not only is it delicate, but it is also probably the most important part of keeping your XBOX in good shape – if you do this part right you will prevent hardware malfunction, prolongue your XBOX’s life and make sure it runs cool and stable.

Opening your case will void your warranty!

Start off by disconnecting your XBOX’s cables (all of them) and unscrewing your case (read more about how to do this in our massive XBOX hardware-guide) and removing it. The reason you don’t want the XBOX plugged in when doing this is fairly obvious – if something goes wrong and the power is on you’re facing serious trouble. What you now have in front of you is the XBOX’s inner workings, and it sure looks dusty. The best way to clean it from all the dust is to use canned air (or any other compressed air). Canned air can be bought at most computer-stores and is a great tool to use whenever removing dust from something delicate. There are, however, a number of things you have to keep in mind to avoid problems:

1. Preferably don’t touch anything unless you have to. You don’t want to apply unnecessary fat and dirt, do you?
2. Do not let any water or moist whatsoever enter. If it’s not 100% dry when you turn it on again, something will break.
3. Do not directly blow air into a fan – if it spins up beyond its regular speed chances are it will break.
4. Do not blow too much air too close to the XBOX. You’re much better off blowing air from a distance than being too close and risking breaking something.

Whilst cleaning, you’ll want to keep the room you’re working in well ventilated. Keep a window open or have a fan blow fresh air around the XBOX – this way the dust you remove won’t settle back down in the XBOX but instead be sent off somewhere else.

Controller cleaning

Cleaning the XBOX controllers is something most of us need to face at least once. Perhaps you’ve spilt some liquid on the buttons or the controller simply feels slow and sticky – giving it a good rinse once in a while is a good idea!
What you want to do is to open the controller, wash the buttons and remove dust from the inner chips. Again, you want to watch out for moist entering the electronic parts as well as blowing too much air too close to the controller. The Llama, a well-known XBOX guru, has an extensive guide on how to clean your controllers, I suggest you check it out!

Maintaining the harddrive

Maintaining the harddrive does not require you to physically handle the harddrive, you should have closed and fastened the case by now. What we want to accomplish here is some slight extra performance and some extra space.
After having had an XBOX for a long time, you’re bound to have your harddrive filled with a lot of files. Some of these are files you need, some are not. What you’ll want to do is go through the files on your XBOX and delete those you don’t need. You will not be able to delete a lot, but you will surely find at least a couple of files which you can delete – the more the better!
Checking the file-system (advanced users only) (Avalaunch dashboard only)
The ultimate way of maintaining your XBOX harddrive is to check its filesystem now and then. Running a check gives you a wealth of information about the health of the drive – you can easily spot errors and prevent data-loss before it occurs. This requires you to run Avalaunch as your main XBOX dashboard – installing Avalaunch is most easily done using the Auto-Installer Deluxe package.
Inside the Avalaunch dashboard you will find a “scandisk” option – it’s an experimental feature with limited capabilities, however it is your only option in this case. No software available for the PC can handle the XBOX’s filesystem (FATX) – a very limiting factor.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article gave you some insight into how you best should clean and maintain your XBOX. Cleaning the XBOX is an art you should practice because the more you practice, the better and more efficient your cleaning will be!

The XBOX is just like a computer, it’s built by the same parts as a computer – what differs is only a small number of things (such as the BIOS). An XBOX hard-drive is exactly like a regular PC hard-drive, in fact it’s alike enough to be put inside a PC and used. What I am going to go through in this guide, however, is how to explore the hard-drive’s contents, how to view all the files and directories on the drive. By going through what’s on the drive you will learn more about how the applications work and what an XBOX really is made up of.

This requires an XBOX with a modchip installed! However, much of the folder structure of a retail XBOX is the same as that of a modchipped XBOX.

XCommander (XBOX-HQ.com)

What in a PC is simply opening Explorer, is in an XBOX simply opening one file-manager of choice. You have a lot to choose from, I’ve outlined the most common below.

XCommander

The XCommander software is the default file-manager on many dashboard-packages. It doesn’t sport fancy graphics or intuitive buttons, but it does what it’s supposed to. The main window is split in two to enable copying between two places. The controls take some time to learn, as with most managers out there. XCommander is capable of connecting to network shares as well as other sources. Also, it can copy games from the DVD-drive to the hard-drive. I have already covered the topic of copying games to the hard-drive, however with another piece of software.

boXplorer (XBOX-HQ.com)

boXplorer

As I haven’t used this program myself, I will briefly just tell you what it’s about. It’s just like XCommander, a file-manager with the standard features. However, what boXplorer also can do is to play .xbe files (executables) and .wmv files, which together with its more intuitive interface makes it the better choice when compared with XCommander, in my opinion. The controls take some time to learn, as mentioned before, but they are mostly the same as in XCommander.

XBOX Media Center

In a previous article I briefly introduced XBOX Media Center (XBMC) and went through how to install it. Among the file-managers out there, the XBMC file-manager is my favorite. It shares the same sleek graphics as XBMC itself and has a clear and intuitive user interface.

XBMC

In this post I will outline the main reasons for getting a chipped XBOX. These are just my personal opinions and reasons, if you have any other topics to add do feel free to comment on them!

A modchip is simply a replacement for the original Microsoft BIOS used in the XBOX. The BIOS is the code that first runs when booting a computer or XBOX, and it runs a number of checks on hardware among other things. Once these tasks are completed, it proceeds to load the operating system (the dashboard). Installing a modchip is essentially replacing the BIOS with an altered version, making a lot of things possible, as we shall see below.

Hardware-related

• The ability to successfully change the hard-drive is only made possible if one is able to boot from a custom DVD
• Native HD-resolutions inside some applications are only available through using a modchip

Network-related

• Accessing Windows networks and shares is only made possible through the use of a modchip
• The process of copying files between a computer and an XBOX through FTP is only possible with a modchip
• Alternatives to XBOX Live are made available through a modchip (although the original XBOX Live still works)

Software-related

• Running unsigned code (such as backed up or copied games) is made possible through a modchip
• Using packages such as the Auto-Installer Deluxe enables the installation of a host of different tools and applications
• Running Linux on your XBOX is possible with a modchip (although it also is possible without)

The bottom-line is that there really are not disadvantages to installing and using a modchip. As chip-installations are fairly cheap today, you can very easily send your XBOX to a company and get it chipped without having to pay a lot.
The possibilities are endless with a modchip, go get your XBOX chipped now :) !

If you’re like me, aiming in first-person shooters with the XBOX controller is a pain. You and I can’t get used to maneuvering the little black piece of plastic instead of the big and friendly computer mouse. I’ve not yet fully mastered the technique, but I still want to give some basic tips on how to aim properly in XBOX games.

Although perhaps there are some really good tips and tricks out there, let me bring you the bad news – you only have two options.

1. Practice, practice, practice…
2. Purchase an XBOX USB cable

Practicing is simply a matter of practice, buy first-person-shooter games like Halo, Black, Counter-Strike and just play them a lot. First, try to aim between targets quickly. Then, try doing the same whilst strafing or walking – you will eventually get into it!
A XBOX to USB cable is the cheap way of doing it – you can simply connect your regular PC mouse to the XBOX and just fire away. I’ve found one on eBay, you can probably find more out there. It will most likely not work in most games, however, so your best bet is the former option – practice, practice and practice!

Did something suddenly break in your XBOX? Are you unable to start the XBOX or play any games anymore? Don’t panic – there might be a way of solving your problems, which is what I will discuss in this article.

What you need to know before proceeding is what actually is broken in your XBOX. This is not the time for guessing-games, you must have in some way made sure what’s broken and what is working. An XBOX is pretty stable as it is, so if something has gone wrong I suggest checking the DVD-ROM first of all – as it’s one of the more sensitive parts. One way of testing the DVD-ROM would perhaps be to take it out of the box and put it in a computer – on which you could run tests and diagnose if it was malfunctioning.

So, now that you’ve figured out what’s broken, let me bring you the cold facts. The only parts you can replace are the power supply, the motherboard, the DVD-drive, the daughter board, the hard drive and the controller. Although it doesn’t sound like much, it covers pretty much everything inside an XBOX, thus you will most likely be able to replace what’s broken!

Now, to actually find these things you need to either buy a new XBOX and exchange the parts, or find someone who sells them. I would personally recommend The Llama. He has a major supply and hosts some really helpful guides on how to get the parts installed.

Hopefully you’ve now been able to order replacement parts to get your XBOX up and running again. I wish you all the good luck!

Is your movie-collection starting to fill up the hard-drive? Or do you just want more space? This guide is designed for those of you who don’t want to send your XBOX away and pay money for a hard-drive exchange – when you can do it very easily yourself :) ! This requires an XBOX with a modchip installed!

The basic steps to a successful hard-drive exchange are to open the XBOX, take the old hard-drive out, put the new one in, close the XBOX again and finally format the new hard-drive. To open the box, you will need a set of Torx screwdrivers (size 10, 15 and 20) – so make sure you have those close-at-hand before beginning. Usage of an anti-static cable is not necessary but highly recommended – you don’t want to kill your XBOX in such a pointless way, now do you ;) ? Also, make sure there is no DVD or CD inside the DVD-drive!

The XBOX only supports 3.5″ hard-drives with the IDE interface and with less than 300GB’s of storage. The speed of the drive (RPM) does not matter, although I recommend using running at 7200RPM – simply because it’s faster ;) . Also, choose a drive which runs fairly cool and silent as the XBOX case doesn’t give better isolation than a regular PC case. Before you plug the power out of your XBOX, make sure you are able to do all the steps required within 4-5 hours. If the XBOX is without power for more than that time, its internal clock will lose power and you won’t be able to boot off a DVD until you’ve reinserted the old hard-drive and started the XBOX once. Believe me, I learnt this the hard way :( !

This requires an XBOX with a modchip installed!

The images in this article are all taken from Piratbyrån’s great article about the same subject (in Swedish).

Opening the case

Turn your XBOX upside down and locate the six screws you need to unscrew. Two of them will be under the two warranty stickers whilst the four others are under the rubber pads. The screws are under the outermost parts of the rubber pads, and usually you will not need to remove the whole pad to reach them.
After unscrewing all screws, turn the XBOX back on its feet and carefully lift the case straight upwards. What you now see in front of you is the big grey DVD-drive and the white original hard-drive. The big flat grey cable is the IDE-cable, that which connects both drives to the motherboard. Gently pull this cable out of the hard-drive without twisting it too much. The white plug with the black, yellow, red and white cables is the hard-drive’s source of power. This is usually pretty difficult to pull out, and if you’re unsuccessful with it proceed to the next step.

Take the hard-drive out

See the black plastic “frame” that is encapsulating the hard-drive? You need to unfasten this and remove it from the motherboard before taking out the hard-drive. Look at the picture to the right, these are where the screws are located – you know what to do! After unscrewing, make sure the hard-drive’s power-cord is not tucked into the black frame and slowly lift the frame straight upwards, making sure nothing is being forcefully bent or pulled. Unscrew the screws on the side of the frame (four of them in total) which hold the hard-drive in place and take the drive out. If you haven’t disconnected the power-cord, now is a good time to do so.

Put the new hard-drive in and close the case

Fasten your new hard-drive in the black frame and make sure the IDE- and power-cords are correctly and fully inserted. When you’ve put the black frame back, you don’t really need to screw it to the motherboard unless you often dance with or otherwise shake your XBOX a lot :D . Put the case back on, fasten the screws and plug your XBOX in. What you now have is an XBOX with a lot of storage but without any operating system to run off. The following guide will cover preparing your hard-drive using Auto-Installer Deluxe, if you wish to use anything else it is your free choice!