mjkthirdeye

Thank you for posting this, KaosEngineer! I was able to burn this to a disc and actually got it to run and complete the test successfully. This is quite honestly the most progress I've been able to make with this system, as sad as that is. Lol. I am not quite sure how to interpret the results though. I am assuming the test is trying to check 128mb and the 76484 blocks it's unable to check are the non-existent upper 64mb, and whatever of the existing 64 that's currently in use by the system? Either way, I'm just stoked that I managed to get it to do anything besides crash. Even if it's this much, any sign of life at this point gives me a small glimmer of hope that I may yet figure this thing out.

I too considered the IDE header or even damage to traces that lead to it, especially with as much capacitor leakage as was present on the board. But after thoroughly cleaning and inspecting the board several times over for any remaining stray contaminants or corroded solder joints, I am fairly confident they are not the cause. I also considered the possibility of RAM or the MCPX being the cause. I do have some spare RAM and I had actually intended to install some on this board anyway, so I guess I could try swapping out the original to test. Really I just wish I had a definitive culprit before exhausting more time and effort on this board. I too am beginning to worry it's the MCPX, and if that's the case, it's dead in the water for me and I'd be better off saving the time and parts for another board. I certainly enjoy the process of reconditioning these systems and troubleshooting these issues. That is, until they lead me down a relative dead end like this. Lol.

Hi all. I posted this question in the X-S Discord a day or two ago and haven't made any headway in resolving the issue, so I'll post here and see if anyone may be able to help. A few days ago, I acquired a "non-working" 1.2/1.3 that had never been opened but externally was very clean. When I received it, I immediately opened it up to pull the clock capacitor and clean it up. Aside from the clock cap, the polymer caps were all leaking, as well as the caps near the CPU/GPU. I cleaned and recapped the entire board before ever attempting to power it up. After the initial cleaning and repair, I finally attempted to boot to be greeted with error 21. Since I went in blind, without any idea of what was actually wrong with the system, I just assumed the dash may have possibly been wrecked from a previous softmod/user error or something, so I opted to start by installing a fresh copy of the MS Dash files via FATXplorer. I got it back together, booted, and got error 16, which was expected. I then installed an x2.3b lite to get around the clock check, but rather than booting to the dash as it should, it just hangs at the Xbox logo splash screen. At this point I tossed in Doom 3 to see if it would load a disc, and it did begin to load the game, however it immediately froze as it was began to write the initial cache data to the HDD. I decided the HDD might just be crapping out after all, so I substituted a known good working drive from another system and this is where things get weird... The system will read the x2config.ini from the second HDD (evidenced by the fact that it can and does read, load, and apply the LED and fan settings from the INI file), but was exhibiting the same problem. It just hangs at the Xbox logo splash screen instead of loading XBMC. If I lock any of the drives and try to boot from the retail bios, I go right back to error 21 again... Just to check my sanity, I tested and confirmed all the individual drives and parts work fine in another system. Also, while performing the testing in the working system, I reformatted and "factory reset" the OEM HDD using OGXbox Installer 1.5.4 just to eliminate myself and any possibility of my wrong-doing from the equation. In the working system, MS Dash loads as it should. If I move the HDD back to the problematic system, error 21. After trying various combinations of 4 HDDs, 2 DVD drives, 3 different IDE cables, 2 power supplies, both with and without a modchip, I still cannot get beyond error 21 or the system freezing... I think it's weird that I can boot into Xblast from the chip, format, lock, unlock, and read the S.M.A.R.T data from the drives without issue. It's weird that it will read the x2config.ini from the drives, but based on the observed behavior, it seems like any other HDD I/O causes it to crap itself, and ultimately all roads have led to error 21. At any rate, I am out of ideas on what else to try and any suggestions or help are, of course, greatly appreciated.

Admittedly, I am not well equipped enough in either category to do BGA work just yet. It would be wasted on me. I do really appreciate the offer, though. As much as I would like to have been able to save that board, since it was from my very first Xbox bought back in 2003, I've already given up, robbed the board of useful components, and replaced it. Oh well. Thank you anyway!

Hey guys, I've got a 1.2 that I spent the weekend revitalizing with all new fresh capacitors and upgrading the RAM to 128mb. Everything went well. I had Xblast reading all 128mb, and everything was working a treat. That is until I went to pull it apart for final disassembly to clean the case and everything up before putting all back together for the last time. I first removed the SATA/IDE adapter from the HDD, leaving the molex connector in place and holding it by the cables and moved the HDD tray out of the way. It was then, that I somehow managed to let the SATA/IDE adapter dangle enough for it to brush the PSU right along side the big 470uF 250v capacitor without realizing it. And in my excited haste, I had not yet disconnected the power cord from the Xbox... As soon as I saw the bright flash and pop that was the SATA adapter getting completely obliterated, my heart immediately sank. The adapter, of course, is thoroughly destroyed. The logic IC and one of the voltage regulators quite literally exploded. At that point, I knew I'd be extremely lucky if it was the only casualty. On the Xbox itself, it blew the T3.15A on the PSU. I had some spare 3 amp glass slow-blow fuses, so I rigged one up until I get the proper cylindrical fuse to replace it later this week. Surprisingly enough, the PSU still works fine, albeit with a slight discolored battle scar on side of the big capacitor... However the motherboard is a different story. It now 3 boot/FRAGs both with or without the X2.3b lite I've had installed for years present. Thinking I had fried it, not feeling too optimistic about fixing it, I harvested the newly installed RAM, and original RAM but subsequently reinstalled the original, after changing my mind on giving up so quickly. Anyway, I've tried all the troubleshooting methods I could with what tools I have at my disposal, which is not much. All the PSU voltages are good. I've swapped PSUs with another, just in case. One observation I made is that the MCPX X3 gets really hot very quickly, so I'm sort of thinking it's shorted and therefore also toast, and that's what's causing it to FRAG. In any case, I figured, maybe I'd share my story for your entertainment, and maybe even see if any of you had any suggestions on what else I might try to test before I go on the hunt for a replacement board and continue scavenging useful parts from this one.

Hello everybody. I am just returning to the original xbox ecosystem after quite a long hiatus. I originally joined and frequented Xbox-scene (with the same username I've chosen here) back in 03/04 and eventually fell off somewhere in the early days of the Xbox 360 and sometime before the site disappeared. Recently, I've been seeing a lot of videos on Youtube about people sort of bringing these old systems back into the spotlight, and decided it was time to pull mine out of storage and show them some long overdue love. I started with a v1.2 that I soon TSOP flashed with the Splinter Cell buffer overrun exploit, but soon caught the itch, promptly installed an Xecuter 2.3b lite and began diving in to all of the cool case mods including the clear LED backlit case jewels, a DVD drive window cut and LCD installs that were so popular at the time. After a while I reverted back to plain cases and less flashiness, and fast forward to today, I still have two v1.2s, one in an original case still rocking the X2.3b lite, and another TSOP flashed, in a green Halo style case. I really wish I still had all of my old pictures from those days of the mods I performed. I would love to look over them once again, and re-examine how well or poor of a job I had done as a young tool-inexperienced teenager lmao. So many memories of good days gone by. As for what's next, I've ordered a couple capacitor kits to refit both boards, as I'd like to keep them around another 20 years if possible. I also ordered a set of ram chips to do the 128mb RAM upgrade I always wanted to do back then, but was nowhere near handy enough with soldering, nor had the proper tools to do it. From there, we'll see. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't keen to get back into case modding, bringing with me a couple more decades worth well-needed know-how. Anyway, it's nice to be back. I don't have near as much free time these days, to stay eyes glued to the forums as I did back then, but I hope to stick around and maybe try to relive the magic once more!