Reset Glitch – Do it yourself?

There are a few things to think about if you are considering installing your own reset glitch chip.

Firstly- Do you have all the correct kit? You will need;

1.       Good quality soldering iron, flux and solder.

2.       Torx 8 and 10 screw drivers and case opening tool.

3.       The right chip and wire. COOLRUNNER. It’s the easiest to install, comes with the right wiring, is reliable and fast to glitch without complex mucking about.

4.       JTAG programming cable (or similar).

5.       Nand-x programmer (or similar).

6.       Hot Glue Gun (The solder points are small, and some of the wires are long – pays to glue some points in place to avoid damaging or stressing the solder point).

7.       The right software for programming your glitch chip (I use Xilinx Impact) and reading/ writing your nand, glitch profile and modified nand (I Use a combination of Coolshrimp's Jtag Tool and Rogero's 360 Multibuilder).   

8.       Some skill and patience.

There are no substitutes for the above. If you don’t have them either get them or pay someone else.

Second – are your soldering skills up to the task? To be honest, most of the soldering points are not too tricky, and anyone who has some practice with a soldering iron shouldn’t have too much trouble.

The two most difficult points (in my opinion) are the STBY_CLK and the CPU_RST (point FT4R2). These are small points to solder to and very close to other points- making them easy to bridge or de-solder the contact point. I generally use a “gentle tap” method on these two points. Good quality flux on the solder point, set the soldering iron to 208C (or low enough that the solder will sit on the end of the soldering tip, rather than flow, or cover the tip). Take a small blob of solder on the tip of the iron, hold the wire in place and slowly (gently) “tap” the solder into place.

Thirdly – and probably most importantly, you need either the attitude of “Well, it’s only an xbox, who cares if I screw it up” or the iron will of someone who will succeed, no matter what.

I have repaired many xbox 360’s that have either been a DIY experiment or (much worse) the work of a cut price “expert” who has really not had the skills to do the job, used the wrong equipment/wiring or just got stuck half way.