Making an Xbox 360 Laptop Part 1

In this intructable I will show you how to make an xbox 360 laptop. I don't know how much this will cost once you add all of the prices together but I have only spent like $15.00 so far. In part 1 I will be showing you how to get all of the materials and we will attach the monitor to the xbox to make a nice display. I haven't finished yet since I have sort of been pressed for time. So lets get started!

Also you may want to check out Ben Heckendorns xbox 360 laptop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnmMNrB_y54&list=SL

Tools:
Soldering iron
Solder
Wire
Electrical tape
Duct tape
Assorted screwdrivers

Materials:
xbox 360 (Mine had the red rings)
LCD computer monitor (My dad got a broken one from work and I fixed it)
Speakers
Velcro

Now in case you don't have the money to buy a new xbox and monitor see if you can find an xbox with the red rings and a monitor that wont turn on. I fixed my monitor for about $5.00 and it works great (the problem was two bad capacitors).

You can find instructables on taking apart an xbox so I am not going to show you how to do that. But you are going to need a t10 and t8 screwdrivers. You want to take everything apart. Get down to the motherboard.

Here is a link on how to do that:

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Disassemble-a-Xbox-360/

You can find a bunch of instructables on fixing the xbox 360 red rings. Mine had 3 rings and so I did the penny fix the x clamp fix and I also reflowed it. To reflow your xbox just plug it in put the fan on the disc drive so one of the fans is hovering over the GPU and let it sit for about 15 to 20 minutes. Unplug and let it cool for about a half an hour.

Reflow xbox 360 link:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Reflow-Xbox-360/

Penny fix:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Fix-your-xbox-360-easy-No-X-Clams-or-towles-requ/

Look on the back of your monitor and there should be a couple of screws. Take them off and the back should just snap off. That was pretty easy. Now just unscrew the video card and inverter from the chassis.  Now you have to take off the cables from the LCD just make sure you mark them so you know which one goes where.

I covered the bottom of each circuit board in electrical and then duct tape and put velcro on the back of the LCD and circuit boards and they held great. I also had to mod the power plug on the inverter because it would not fit in the case I had. You may or may not have to mod the power plug depending on what kind of case. You can also make your own case using wood or plastic.

On my power cord green=ground, white=brown, and blue =black.

Now if you took the cheap way like I did you want to find out the problem with your monitor. If you find out what it is run a google search on how to fix it. Mine was dead capacitors which is a pretty easy fix just go to the store and look for the same kind of capacitor. If you can find the right mf and can't find the right voltage on your capacitors than get the closest voltage you can just make sure that it is higher that the original voltage on the capacitor. If your monitor will turn on and then turn off and then turn on again (blinks) then you have dead capacitors. If it will turn on and stay on for about 30 seconds than you probably have some cold spots on your inverter just resolder them.

Now this step is a pain in the butt!!! You have to solder the a VGA port to your xbox I used a pinout for reference but you could just follow this tutorial and mod an xbox 360 A/V cable to turn it into VGA and you can either add a switch or not, its up to you. Having the switch allows you to switch between VGA and component.

Here is the link to turn your A/V component cable into VGA (I just used the pinout to solder it directly to the motherboard):

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/14/how-to-turn-a-standard-xbox-360-video-cable-into-a-vga-cable-fo/

If you decide to solder it directly to your motherboard then you might have to some math if you look at pin 1 on the mother board the one next to it is 5 and then 9 it will say the numbers on the sides and the top and bottom row and you can just determine what the other pins are for yourself.

Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the motherboard after I soldered it.

To mount your monitor in your case you are going to have to put on your thinking cap. In my case there wasn't very much space so we had to figure out how to fit it all. I am not 100% finished mounting my monitor yet but it stays in place and it works pretty good.

You may need some kind of foam to make it fit nice and snug.

Well that's all I have for now, in the next step I will hopefully be covering mounting the xbox in the case and add the speakers. Until next time have fun with this and hopefully I will be able to finish my xbox 360 laptop soon.

Have fun and be careful!!! Electronics can be dangerous!!!