No. The kv and cpu key are unique to your console.

never flash the console until you can be sure you have a valid dump. since your dumping f***s up each time, chances are also high that the flashing f***s up. so most likely, even if you have a valid xbr with valid kv/config and all, when you flash it back, it becomes corrupted.
try flashing just the exploit file with xell (1.28 MB), see if that boots (flash it several times until it does work).

1/4W is more than enough, it's not like any kind of high wattage is running through these.
I suggest going for the crystal instead of the resonator.. they're just more accurate and can save you a headache later on. Resonators always have the caps built in.
For the caps, get ceramic, no need for anything better. Voltage doesn't matter, as the most that runs through them is 5V, and ceramic caps have no voltage rating anyways.

Have you also set the bridges on the 360 connector for vga? otherwise it's outputting YUV, while VGA is RGB. Also, I'm not sure the console actually outputs sync on green.

I've had an unusually high failure rate with maxtor and early hitachis myself.. WD is the only brand where I never had a failed drive so far, even one of my first 80 GB IDE HDDs is still working to this day. Seagate I got 2 160 gig drives that are developing bad sectors now, but otherwise no problems so far (didn't go with any larger HDD than 750 GB so far though).

the pot has 2 pins standing out on one side, you measure on those.

With a live profile and using xbox live, load any 5 or 6 games that need an update from live, update, play and turn off. at the end, if you go back to the first, it will ask to download the update again. Unless they changed it in 8xxx, but I don't think so.. otherwise people would end up with a completely overloaded cache folder after a few years.

Same. Had a 750GB HDD formatted as an internal drive and it booted immediately.

It'll work, but if you already burnt off the two somewhat large original spots, you'll probably kill the trace as well.

The very same happened on xbox 1 already. To put it bluntly: People much prefer to use an existing, complete devkit with full hardware access over using a legal, but incomplete or buggy dev enviroment that is lacking essential hardware access (or takes months to achieve it).
That isn't really a good solution, but it's the easiest one, and people tend to go the way of the least resistance.

try reflashing. it may be a corrupted byte in just the right spot causing that.
also, I recall someone else having a similar issue before, try searching the forums to see if they found something out.

memory is encrypted, so I doubt it'll be that easy.

First, shoot your friend. Second, get some desoldering wick, alcohol and clean up that mess. until you got that cleaned so you can actually see what is f***ed up, turning it off and on will at best fry the system for good.

Which part of "no crap" and "this is an update collection thread" is beyond your mental capability?

Who says they are the same? They may very well be pulled to gnd when powered off. That would show as a connection on a multimeter, but they'd still be totally different lines when powered up. You use random different points and then wonder if it doesn't work?

Hell no.

Don't apply any kind of pressure to the chip while reflowing or cooling. otherwise you just end up with more cracked solder balls when they cool down and pull together.

ceramic caps have no polarized sides, so no.

There's no way to give posting rights to specific threads. And honestly, if I want micromanagment, I'll play The Sims or something.

You only need one ground point, since the grounds are all connected anyways.

It's normal. The console will erase updates after a while, only 4 are cached at any time, all others erased.