Capacitor blown twice on Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive

[SurrealMustard]

I know these weren't exactly hot sellers, but I've recently come into possession of a couple Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. For those of you not familiar, they're basically the Toshiba 3.5" drive sitting in an enclosure with a small cooling fan, USB hub, and 256MB memory card onboard.

To accommodate for the various different goodies, there is a small board behind the main logic board that (I'm guessing) acts as a power adapter of sorts, (even though the unit uses an external 12V power supply) probably for the 5V USB. Anyway, the drive was only barely working when I first got it, so, suspecting a lens, I opened the unit up and was surprised to see a burst capacitor on that little power board. Upon closer inspection, I was able to locate a suitable replacement and promptly installed that. After plugging it in, there was a loud pop and a puff of smoke, and it was indeed that pesky capacitor again. And no, I didn't install it backward (unless the shading on the board is reversed).

I'm all out of 16V 1500micro capacitors now, so I was wondering if anybody had any tips before calling it quits on this thing (or investing in more capacitors). I possess a multimeter and an inexpensive capacitor/ESR tester, but not a whole ton of experience. Any ideas?

[budm]

Re: Capacitor blown twice on Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive

Since the cap is not installed backward, did you you verify that the input Voltage is not higher than 12V?
Is the original cap low ESR type?

[eccerr0r]

Re: Capacitor blown twice on Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive

Chemicon KZG?! :o

BTW, double check that you didn't install it backwards. There's another electrolytic on the board and negative is apparently in the un-silk printed section, but the KZG negative is in the silk print... Then again it could be just because it's a misprint, but very suspicious.

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Also caps usually don't explode quickly unless overvolted by a significant margin of its design (not printed voltage ) or reversed...

[petehall347]

Re: Capacitor blown twice on Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive

if subjected to ac current it might well blow up . backwards dc is most often case . or if a coupling cap in audio is presented with lots of dc from blown amp circuit .

[budm]

Re: Capacitor blown twice on Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive

Chemicon KZG?! :o

BTW, double check that you didn't install it backwards. There's another electrolytic on the board and negative is apparently in the un-silk printed section, but the KZG negative is in the silk print... Then again it could be just because it's a misprint, but very suspicious.

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Also caps usually don't explode quickly unless overvolted by a significant margin of its design (not printed voltage ) or reversed...

I think you right about the polarity after looking at other lytics caps on that board, white silk is for positive, he can easily verify by tracing out the connections to the DC jack. There is also a test pad label 12VA right next to the cap.

[R_J]

Re: Capacitor blown twice on Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive

I would agree, the caps in backwards.

[goontron]

Re: Capacitor blown twice on Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive

I wouldn't be surprised if something that has a Microsoft label is sdrawkcab ssa....

[SurrealMustard]

Backward printing!

Chemicon KZG?! :o

It was the last capacitor of that value in the bag.

BTW, double check that you didn't install it backwards. There's another electrolytic on the board and negative is apparently in the un-silk printed section, but the KZG negative is in the silk print... Then again it could be just because it's a misprint, but very suspicious.

---

Also caps usually don't explode quickly unless overvolted by a significant margin of its design (not printed voltage ) or reversed...

I think you right about the polarity after looking at other lytics caps on that board, white silk is for positive, he can easily verify by tracing out the connections to the DC jack. There is also a test pad label 12VA right next to the cap.

I would agree, the caps in backwards.

I wouldn't be surprised if something that has a Microsoft label is sdrawkcab ssa....

Ah, good call on the backwards printing. I should've paid attention to the way that the first one was in there, but the pattern of the other capacitors following the "backward" printing should've been a clue too.
Looks like I'll have to source and install another replacement.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Capacitor blown twice on Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive

I hate the "white"/"silk"/"Filled" section indicating polarity, same with square/circle pads. I've been hearing there's a "convention" with them but NO, I don't trust any of them, I only trust "+" and "-" and tracing back to a known potential...

Same with capacitor markings, though usually the line drawing is to "-" but it bugs me when it doesn't actually mark "+" or "-" on the bar...

[SurrealMustard]

Fixed the issue, but not the underlying problem

Well, I finally got a capacitor installed correctly in this thing - that's the good news; the bad news is that even after all this headache and effort, the machine still doesn't work quite right. It powers on and displays core functionality, but the light blinks all the time and certain things don't work right, including its built-in memory card and the ability to play HD DVD discs on my console.

Comparing it with my working Xbox 360 HD DVD Drive, the light should stay on solid when interfaced with the Xbox 360 and its 256MB memory module should show up in the dashboard. It's puzzling because the rest of the USB hub works fine, the cooling fan runs, and the drive even reads discs; there's just something the matter with how it's interfacing with the console.