FrostyMaGee

Nice! Yeah the KotOR games really were great. I liked Republic Commando too though it was a shooter type and there’s always Star Wars Battlefront. Beyond Good and Evil,Full Spectrum Warrior, Crimson Skies, and the Evil Dead games were also fun. For sports games I’d say two of my favorites were ncaa football (especially dynasty mode) and Rugby 2006.

You probably already know these but I’ll mention them anyway. Lol. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 were great games as well. There’s also Brute Force, the Prince of Persia trilogy, and Red Dead Revolver (though GUN is probably the better of the two). These aren’t all rpg types but just a list of some fun games. Figured I wouldn’t throw a ton out there all at once. Lol

It’s possible the tray is misaligned. As to the squeaking that could be solved by proper alignment but you may also need to very lightly apply some lithium grease to the rails. Usually just cleaning everything out inside (dust, etc) from the tracks will do the trick on noise. Do you know which model drive you have?

If you just did the those I mentioned (and of course any that looked suspect) you’ll probably be fine for a while. Just thought I’d mention the full recap as an option for down the road. If you run in to issues finding the cpu caps on the board dm me your revision or a pic of the mobo and I can give you the locations and values. For the rf shielding I thought you might find this useful. Quite a few people chimed in with different methods they use (sanding, painting, replacing, etc).

Glad you were able to get everything going! There are 3-5 caps (depending on revision) near the cpu and power connector that’ll be either 1500 microfarad 6.3v or 330 microfarad 6.3v (depending on revision). These tend to be common points of failure so they’re definitely caps to replace if you haven’t already. Given the age of all the of the radial caps they could honestly all use replacing but I’d start with those even if I didn’t do any others. As to your second query it sounds like you are referring to the rf shield underneath the mobo. Is that correct?

Welcome! Since you said you enjoy rpgs I thought I’d recommend Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. It’s an rpg I really enjoyed on the original Xbox.

Wasn’t there a bios at one time (or maybe still) that had the ability to display current temps up in one of the corners of the screen whilst playing a game? Did I imagine that? Lol

As I said my personal preference is at or over 60C or 140F at anytime but especially under load. If it was popping over that I’d pull the thermal pads and either replace with the same or go with very good quality thermal paste. That’s just me though. If you’re under that and notice no performance issues then I’d leave well enough alone. Plus you could always kick up your fan speed incrementally and see how that goes. Even a 10 percent bump in speed from default can make a difference. Again, while I have my personal preference on max temps before I do stuff @HDShadow has some great advice above that you can easily heed and be good to go. Shadow and I have some times differed on whether doing thermal paste is worth it at all (once or twice maybe when the subject comes around lol) but I can say I 100 percent agree with his summation above.

I’ve never actually seen one with a refurbished sticker. I would generally disregard unless they give a detailed list of the work done to them and it includes a recap. For any I’ve ever sold I never called them refurbished and always listed a very detailed sheet of things done (including an itemized list of caps replaced including location, values, brand, etc) and photos of the work inside and out. Half the Xboxes I’ve seen of late with the claim of “refurbished” appear to have been opened up and blown out with a can of compressed air. Somehow that’s “refurbished”. Lol Btw, how did these people leave a psu screw out? They’re only two in it. LOL. It shouldn’t be missing any but I could maybe understand if one was missing from say the mobo. Maybe. The broken tabs for the heat sinks and no screws for one of the dual controller ports…unacceptable. I’d expect that in a parts box only.

For me personally I usually remove the old thermal pads and replace with a good quality paste if my idle temps are running at or over 55-60 degrees Celsius. If yours is running idle at 68.1 Fahrenheit as the picture shows you’re probably sitting really well temp wise since that’s around 20 degrees Celsius. I’d test it under load for an hour or so just to make sure you stay within decent temps. Just based on my own preference if you start running at or over 131-140 degrees Fahrenheit it would be worth applying thermal paste. Probably also be worthwhile to ensure your fan is functioning properly. Others may have different temp preferences but that’s mine.

There should be a default.xbe file in that zip. One way you can do this is to make a sub folder inside your Games folder. Inside that subfolder place the game xiso and that default.xbe file. You would then go to File Explorer and navigate to that default.xbe file. Once highlighted you press the white button (if I recall correctly) and then select “rename xbe title” or something very similar if I’ve forgotten the exact wording. Then enter your new title. After you do that (and probably a restart you should see your game show up under Games off the main menu with the new title you’ve given it. That’s the down and dirty way to do anyhow. Lol. There may be a nicer way to fix game titles but that’s the way I did it years ago.

https://github.com/Rocky5/Xbox-Softmodding-Tool/blob/master/Utilites/Xbox/Attacher%2C%20Detacher/Extras%20Disc%20Attacher.zip Here you go from Rocky5’s GitHub.

The 2Tb sata upgrade makes sooo much difference. I love having games running on it and not having to use the dvd drive. I’ve had it that way for far too many years and have been spoiled by it. Lol. Oh and that warmstor adapter has been one of the most consistent adapters I’ve used for locking/unlocking the ide hdds since my old usb adapter died a few years back. I’ve never run in to an ide hdd it didn’t work with using fatxplorer or Xboxhdm. When you get to the hdd upgrade stage you’ll need an 80 wire 40 pin ide cable to replace the stock cable, a sata to pata adapter for the hdd (startech preferred unless you have one of the dvd drives that doesn’t play well with those and then usually the green Chinese brand works. The most important feature is to have a master/slave pin designation option as you’ll need this), and obviously a sata drive. If you stay mechanical something like a WD Blue or Black works well. Avoid any of the green or power saving type hdds. If you’re not building a new drive via fatxplorer or Xboxhdm and plan on using Chimp to clone your old drive then you’ll also need a molex splitter or you can use the power from the warmstor adapter to power the sata drive during the cloning process. It’s an easy process and everyone here can make recommendations on hardware and help out with the process when you get ready to proceed. Best of luck and glad you were able to get the current stuff straightened out!

I tend to agree with your assessment, Bowl. I don’t see any reason to solder it directly to the board other than to make it difficult to undo or upgrade if you lacked the experience to do so. Yeah that about the pin header is ridiculous. I mean I’ve seen corroded pin headers on electronics before (though rarely) but everything else on the board around it was corroded as well. This was done to be difficult.

Nice work, Bowl! It’s looking really good.