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    Original XBOX "mods"

    So I got my old XBOX back from my buddy, as it is it has no issues. But I decided I wanted to play some of my old games, and figured "hey, why not do some maintenance to it and improve it while I'm at it?" I got this broken in 2006 (it just had a bad optical drive) it was manufactured on 7/19/04 Also...check out that 1F cap!! nichicon UC series.

    Here's what I planned on doing:
    Add heatsink to nVidia chip (MCPX X3) the heatsink pictured is 5mm tall, should clear under the optical drive. By the way, is this a defective nVidia chip?

    Replace the suspect nichicon HM (3300uF 6.3V date code 26th week 2004) It looks like they're on the VRM for the CPU, is this correct? I was hoping to use either Fujitsu bumblebees 820uF 2.5V, Sanyo SEPC 560uF 4V, or nichicon HZ 2200uF 6.3V

    Recap the power supply with good caps. Has Ltec and Taicon. My question here, I should be able to safely replace the 0.22uF 50V cap with 0.47uF 50V cap, or should I not even worry about it?

    Replace thermal paste under both heatsinks

    Clone over to faster hard drive. Stock is 10GB 5400RPM, 2MB cache. New one is 250GB 7200RPM 8MB cache.

    Does this seem realistic? Thanks for any input
    Attached Files

    #2
    Re: Original XBOX "mods"

    I think those Xboxes are too old to have the nVidia chips with the substrate defect. But is that going to be a modded Xbox? You can't actually replace the hard drive succesfully without modding the Xbox as all drives that come with the units have a security key stored in the EEPROM on the hard drive PCB which communicates with the motherboard in order to unlock it (the drive) when the system boots. This tutorial shows you how to read the EEPROM's contents but it will require a bit of work: http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Repairs/R...ox_Hdd_key.htm

    Failing that you could just keep the stock drive if it still works (though, I do know that the Seagates of those units have SMOOTH chips and those are notorious for failing, but I've never heard of one failing on an original Xbox drive, maybe because they're 5400RPM and not 7200RPM). I don't see what would be wrong with upping the capacitance on a capacitor that tiny - something like that should be used for decoupling, coupling, bypassing, timing, or EMI filtering, so a 0.47uF 50V capacitor should do fine in place of a 0.22uF 50V one.
    Last edited by Wester547; 07-14-2014, 04:28 PM.

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      #3
      Re: Original XBOX "mods"

      Gotcha, thanks for mentioning that, probably saved me some time. That does look like a lot of work. I guess I can just leave the original drive. It probably wouldn't speed it up much anyways since they have 64MB RAM and a 733MHz CPU

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        #4
        Re: Original XBOX "mods"

        is it flashed?
        if not then it needs the stock harddrive.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Original XBOX "mods"

          It's not flashed.....yet
          Edit: Yes, it's version 1.6
          Last edited by Pentium4; 07-14-2014, 05:26 PM.

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            #6
            Re: Original XBOX "mods"

            Originally posted by Pentium4 View Post
            It's not flashed.....yet
            Edit: Yes, it's version 1.6
            The 1.6 xbox can be made to work with a softmod. A new drive can be prepared with the requisite software and then locked with the key that the bios will then try to unlock it with.

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              #7
              Re: Original XBOX "mods"

              Originally posted by bluto View Post
              The 1.6 xbox can be made to work with a softmod. A new drive can be prepared with the requisite software and then locked with the key that the bios will then try to unlock it with.
              Awesome! Have you done it before?

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                screw the softmod, get a modchip for beer money.
                put EVOX M8+ bios on it for 1.6
                then it can handle any partition size and no stupid drive-locking.

                and make an ata100 type 80pin cable for it - the games will load faster.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                  Originally posted by stj View Post
                  screw the softmod, get a modchip for beer money.
                  put EVOX M8+ bios on it for 1.6
                  then it can handle any partition size and no stupid drive-locking.

                  and make an ata100 type 80pin cable for it - the games will load faster.
                  What do I have to buy to do this? Have you done this before?

                  I'm also still curious about the caps. Since the CPU runs at 1.7V, I should be able to use those 820uF 2.5V polymers? And should I just let that 0.22uF Ltec be? I measured the other caps, they were all in spec except the two 2.2uF caps were 7.6Ω ESR and 11.6Ω ESR, one of them hit spec on the nose @ 1.76uF. They've been replaced. All the Ltec LZG were perfectly in spec

                  Edit: Also, do I have to worry about this? https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8879
                  Last edited by Pentium4; 07-15-2014, 12:37 PM.

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                    #10
                    Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                    i have done everything on xbox,
                    i'm busy now - but i'll post loads of info later.
                    btw, look here:
                    http://www.eurasia.nu/wiki/index.php/XboxInfo

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                      Awesome. Thanks for the link!

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                        Originally posted by Pentium4 View Post
                        I'm also still curious about the caps. Since the CPU runs at 1.7V, I should be able to use those 820uF 2.5V polymers? And should I just let that 0.22uF Ltec be? I measured the other caps, they were all in spec except the two 2.2uF caps were 7.6Ω ESR and 11.6Ω ESR, one of them hit spec on the nose @ 1.76uF. They've been replaced. All the Ltec LZG were perfectly in spec.
                        The bad LTECs were TK series I take it? Those tend to fail a lot more than I'd like as well as the TH series. BUT, the heatsinks (most of the time small and finless, and thin at that) in the Xbox power supplies do tend to run too hot to touch, and the original Xbox power supplies aren't that efficient, so I wouldn't be taken aback if that had something to do with it. That being said, given the shroud that the original hard drive chassis creates for the CPU heatsink and power supply, the system fan definitely ventilates the power supply. If you hold your hands to the vents on the power supply side of the unit you can feel airflow in that direction. But I haven't really heard of any output capacitor failures in the original Xbox supplies, even with bad capacitors. Even the Teapo SCs and SEKs in the Foxlink units always seem to do fine (and those units have significantly less overspec'd rectifiers on the secondary than the Delta ones, especially given the fact that these are +5V heavy supplies and game consoles), so I'd guess the LTEC LZGs/Taicon PWs/VXs and Teapo SCs/SEKs don't run that warm at all. It's probably a good idea to replace all the LTEC TK.

                        Edit: Also, do I have to worry about this? https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8879
                        No. That only applies to Xbox versions 1.0-1.5. When the "super capacitor" fails in those versions it is always guaranteed to leak from the bung and corrode the board traces, possibly smoking the board if used in that condition. 1.6 uses a different version of the capacitor in question and I haven't heard of a failure on version 1.6. HOWEVER, 1.6 does require the capacitor for operation unlike versions 1.0-1.5, so I'd keep wary of its failure anyway.
                        Last edited by Wester547; 07-15-2014, 01:42 PM.

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                          #13
                          Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                          Thanks for the reply. They were actually Ltec ST. But yes, I've seen many, many failed Ltec TK. They must not properly seal them, they seem to dry out quickly even in Delta ATX PSU's they seem to be failed most of the time

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                            Recapped the PSU and motherboard. nichicon HM were out of spec. Anyone know why the orange and red wires read 5V? I guess I just assumed orange would be 3.3V



                            Attached Files

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                              ^ That power supply is DPSN-96DP-1, which doesn't have a +3.3V rail. It has a +5V rail rated for 13.6A, a +12V rail rated for 0.8A, and a +5VSB rail rated for 3.6A. Interesting that the bad Nichicon HMs went out of spec without bulging (unless they weren't out of spec that much, or the fact that they were overfilled is why they were out of spec if you mean severely increased capacitance), I'm so used to seeing the suspect HMs/HNs from that period bulging and spilling their electrolyte, but they're obviously bad either way.

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                                #16
                                Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                                Gotcha. So if the PSU is only rated for 0.8A on the 12V, how can it function when the HDD has a 12V rating of 0.22A, the DVD drive has a max draw of 2A on the 12V, plus the fan which is rated at 0.24A

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                                  #17
                                  Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                                  Originally posted by Pentium4 View Post
                                  Gotcha. So if the PSU is only rated for 0.8A on the 12V, how can it function when the HDD has a 12V rating of 0.22A, the DVD drive has a max draw of 2A on the 12V, plus the fan which is rated at 0.24A
                                  IIRC, that's the standard minimum load rating for a lot of PSUs.
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                                    #18
                                    Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                                    0.8A is just a rating (minimum, typical, or maximum). Those numbers I mentioned were just the ratings found for that unit. Inside you may find a very overspec'd rectifier knowing Delta (probably a TO-220 10A/200V ultrafast) and the toroid may easily be capable of more. Also, those current draw numbers you see on the label of those devices, I believe, represent the maximum current draw in the worst case scenario. They aren't guaranteed to draw that much except in the worst case scenario, at their full load. Many datasheets for DC fans for an example list "typical" and "maximum" input currents, and the difference can be as high as 0.2A between those thresholds.
                                    Last edited by Wester547; 07-17-2014, 04:14 PM.

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                                      #19
                                      Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                                      i forgot this post - sorry!

                                      good stuff you can do:

                                      fit an 80mm fan.
                                      lots of work, but lots of airfflow for not much noise.

                                      fit a mod-chip - esential t use a custom bios.
                                      custom bios lets you use custom partition tables, custom led colours and set the boot priorit between different dashboards.
                                      also it includes the reset by controller function.

                                      80way ata66 cable - pretty easy to do.

                                      putting a heatsink on the main chip under the dvd is a good idea.

                                      i'm including a bios editor so you can see the options to play with.
                                      Attached Files

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                                        #20
                                        Re: Original XBOX "mods"

                                        btw, you maybe want to remove the cpu/gpu heatsinks,
                                        clean the usually pink chewing-gum off with white-spirit and then use arctic-silver.

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