Maybe someone that has more experience with these can give me some advice - I have two of them, one has a secondary error code of 0020, and appears to have never been opened before. The second one has signs of rework on the GPU and the RAM, and is also RROD, but this one also has another fault, which is that the power and eject buttons don't work, and you can only power the console up using the guide button on a wired controller. Any xbox 360 experts have suggestions about what to look at first?
I'm not an expert by any means, but I believe 0020 is usually related to a short circuit a reflow or reball on the GPU is a common fix. Though it could also be CPU or RAM. Or I guess it could be something else entirely.
Ditch the one with the reflow work, more trouble than a $10 console is worth. As for the unopened box, I'd definitely have a go at pulling it apart, cleaning thoroughly and putting some quality thermal paste on in place of the sticky grey crap Microsoft used. Don't F-about with bolts or any other ghetto fix, put it back together with the stock x-clamps. I've had a few Xenons come back to life (and live on) with nothing more complicated than the above treatment. They run hot - it's a bad design and nothing can be done about that, if you're vaguely handy, put a push fan in the case above the GPU heatsink, it's amazing how much cooler Xenons (and all Phats) run with air being forced over the sinks. When I do this mod I put in a piece of metal screen material to minimise dust ingress, but you should still open it and vaccuum it out every few months. here's picture of my Zephyr, bought at a yard sale for $20, gave it the above treatment, runs cool for hours, Halo sessions, HD movies, no problems.
Well I managed to fix the one with the 0020 error code just using hot air (with a preheater) - seems stable. No guessing how long it will be stable though.
