I hit a low point in my life the other month. My Xbox Series X, which was just over a year old, has died. It shut off while I was playing the Iron Banner in Destiny 2 (Funny enough, I have not tried playing the Iron Banner since D1. Maybe this was a sign to never play it again). At first I thought it was just from overheating, but after a few hours of letting it cool off nothing was fixed.

I still remember when I was younger and my Xbox 360 got the red ring of death (more than once!!!) and I was devastated. It took many weeks for Microsoft to send it back. Luckily, I have the internet and iFixit to help me this time!

The first thing I needed to figure out was what the problem was. Best case, I need to replace an easily removable piece. Worst case, a tiny piece needs to be replaced on the motherboard. I have experience with Solding and replacing surface level parts from fixing my DS, but this is a different level of skill. The Xbox motherboard has two layers and I don’t have a heat gun or something similar to help focus on a single point.

After using an iFixit guide and this youtube video, I took apart my Xbox and removed the power supply. Using my multimeter I was able to confirm 0 volts were coming through the power supply. This is good! A replacement power supply is around $70 and is a lot cheaper than buying a new Xbox. A few days after ordering a new power supply, it arrived. I used my multimeter on it and received 12 volts!

After putting the Xbox back together using the new part it turned on with no issues.

Long live Right to Repair!