I dont know exactly what's going on, but I assume it's... shorting out or something. I opened it up to look inside and it makes sparks right where the power goes in. If I jam the cord in really hard and hold it at certain angles, the Xbox will still start, otherwise nothing happens.

Is there some easy way to fix this, other than trying to duct tape the cord at some strange angle?

Edit: I dont know if it's relevant, but I'm using the replacement cable Microsoft sent me. It isn't the big beefy kind, just looks like the old one.

Take out your PSU and check the soldering thats holding the plug in. They are probably toast. Clean the solder, put some flux on and melt and add some more solder so there isn't a weak, or no, connection.

This happened to me before, and resoldering it to the board worked. My xbox runs fine now, with no fireworks.

Did you do this to the bottom of the board? I have a friend that has the same problem. I ordered him a new power supply, but would like to salvage this one.

Could you post a pic?

Depending on how bad it's burnt up back there it may need more done to it than cleaning and resoldering. When PC boards burn like that they start to conduct instead of insulate. The more it burns the more it conducts and so the cycle goes until it catches fire or burns itself open.

Definetly remove it from the XBOX and have a look at the AC joints, get a pic if you can and post it in here for some pointers on what you'll need to do to repair it. If it's too bad or you're not familiar with the repair involved you'll be better off replacing it.

Hey I took some pictures of my power source. I hope someone can help me figure out what to do here.

Top Bottom and In pics are here...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74599226@N00/tags/repair/

But I think that this one might be the only one that matters.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=387008416&size=m

(if that doesn't work maybe http://farm1.static.flickr.com/181/387008416_3cbbe56204.jpg will?)

pic arent that clear but from what i can see it looks similar to THIS.

That does look a lot like it. On one side there is just nothing left, and the other has a mound of solder around it looks like it's been fine. I was fiddling with it and noticed I could scrape away some of the black stuff. So yeah that looks like it's going to be my solution.

Thanks CJLee89, RDC, and GuitarZan01.

Clean it and solder it and it is a definite and easy cure.