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Bad At Soldering. Is This Mb Ruined?


roflandstuff
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We all have to start somewhere.  I would probably put this on the shelf since it "can" be fixed, but probably just a hair out of your current skill set.
The three biggest things that improved my soldering was getting magnifying glasses, practice and watching some soldering videos on youtube ~ recommend Voultar's videos; but there are others.  The right wire (30awg kynar), flux (lots of flux) and a decent soldering iron (I did not say expensive) go a very long ways.
I would also recommend getting a practice board; easy enough to pick up something from a thrift store for cheap to practice soldering on.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I did something similar yesterday when attempting the TSOP mod on my 1.4 board. I have a cheap soldering iron, no magnifying glass (those pads are real tiny), and little experience. I pulled one of the pads off the board. Decided to stop there and put everything back together to make sure everything still worked (it does). I would like to attempt it again, but I also don't want to spend too much money on decent equipment if I don't plan on using it very often.

How would you fix something like this, though?

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7 hours ago, QuazyPat said:

I did something similar yesterday when attempting the TSOP mod on my 1.4 board. I have a cheap soldering iron, no magnifying glass (those pads are real tiny), and little experience. I pulled one of the pads off the board. Decided to stop there and put everything back together to make sure everything still worked (it does). I would like to attempt it again, but I also don't want to spend too much money on decent equipment if I don't plan on using it very often.

How would you fix something like this, though?

If you read the post before your post you will see how to fix it or pay some one to fix it for you and while there fixing it get the links soldered on the board to flash the TSOP.

You can use conductive paint to link the 2 points if you have problems soldering.

 

IMG_20200119_133211.thumb.jpg.c1e0c676bb98cad3a018995a3a01138f.jpg

 

Cheers

SS Dave

 

Those that can Hard-Mod. Those that can't Soft-Mod.

 

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Oh, the pen is interesting. I completely forgot that was an option. $25 seems steep, but maybe.


I did look through the post and it seems to cover repairing a trace, which makes sense given the OP. On my board, I removed one of the two pads you have to join together (R7D1, I think?). Traces seems fine, still. Would that guide still apply, or is there a different repair method?

 

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40 minutes ago, QuazyPat said:

Oh, the pen is interesting. I completely forgot that was an option. $25 seems steep, but maybe.


I did look through the post and it seems to cover repairing a trace, which makes sense given the OP. On my board, I removed one of the two pads you have to join together (R7D1, I think?). Traces seems fine, still. Would that guide still apply, or is there a different repair method?

 

Post a pic and I will let you know.

Cheers

SS Dave

 

Those that can Hard-Mod. Those that can't Soft-Mod.

 

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Thing to remember is that these boards can be multi-layer, so if you remove a component, and it goes all the way through, you could damage the tracks in the middle of the board if you're not careful.

Fixing a damaged track issue is usually simple because the track connects to something else. Use a multimeter to confirm where it goes, or scrape off enough green from a track to get to copper and solder onto that.

If it's just a pad, see if it comes out on the other side with a multimeter, 

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13 hours ago, SS_Dave said:

Post a pic and I will let you know.

Cheers

SS Dave

 

Those that can Hard-Mod. Those that can't Soft-Mod.

 

R7D10 is dirty for some reason. I didn't really mess around over there so I guess it was already like that. I did buy this system used many years ago, and the board is kinda dirty in general. R7D1 is what I messed up.

20200121_200443.jpg

20200121_200318.jpg

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Hi QuazyPat

I have see a lot more damage that I have had to fix than that.

I would say the iron is to hot and you held the heat to long on it.

Flip the board and run a link like in this pick and link the R7D10 on the top and it should be all good.

I would use wire-wrap wire and follow the instructions in the previous post.

 

IMG_20200122_135545.thumb.jpg.9e4442e0a240c5eec7c0f83d7b95e937.jpg

 

If you board looks different send a pic of the bottom

Let me know how you get on.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

 

Those that can Hard-Mod. Those that can't Soft-Mod.

 

 

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41 minutes ago, SS_Dave said:

Hi QuazyPat

I have see a lot more damage that I have had to fix than that.

I would say the iron is to hot and you held the heat to long on it.

Flip the board and run a link like in this pick and link the R7D10 on the top and it should be all good.

I would use wire-wrap wire and follow the instructions in the previous post.

 

IMG_20200122_135545.thumb.jpg.9e4442e0a240c5eec7c0f83d7b95e937.jpg

 

If you board looks different send a pic of the bottom

Let me know how you get on.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

 

Those that can Hard-Mod. Those that can't Soft-Mod.

 

 

Thanks, Dave! Appreciate the reply and glad to know that it can still be salvaged. I'll have to think about it. I just have a cheap iron right now, $30 from Micro Center, no temperature control or anything. Not sure if I want to invest a bit of money into better quality equipment if I only rarely use it.

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Sure a better quality iron would help BUT the biggest thing is practice. Plug the iron in for long enough for it to melt solder then unplug it and do 1 joint by applying solder to the spot on the board 1st then if need be plug the iron back in for a minute then tin the wire by holding the wire on the iron and applying solder to it then you may need to reheat. the iron for a little bit the hold the wire on the board and the place the tip of the iron on it for a second. You should have now completed you 1st connection. Now you repeat for the other end.

As for linking the 2 pads a single strand of wire that has been tinned as above then lay it across the 2 pads and apply heat like above you can then trim the excess wire off.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

 

Those that can Hard-Mod. Those that can't Soft-Mod.

 

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Hello van0014

 

50 meg seems high and I don't have a version 1.6 out of the case at the moment to measure it, I would try the mother board 1st without the mod chip and see it is booting OK,

If it is running OK then plug the chip on the broad and you should be good to go.

What mod chip are you fitting?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

 

Those that can Hard-Mod. Those that can't Soft-Mod.

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Thanks for all your help. I'm finally softmodded. The locked drive was the original, which now has no key. I'll need to format it if the master password is known, or dump the data on it's board to recover the key.

Error 21 in my case was corrupt softmod files. xboxHDM fixed it. I probably pulled the power cord on the drive at the wrong time

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A locked drive has a unique key that's generated using the MB serial number and the hard drive serial number.
You can Null the drive and main board and that will make the key 32 zero's  that way you know the key number but the drive will re-lock each time the power is removed or you can read the HDD key from the EEprom.

I always unlock the drive as soon as the locking is not needed then that way there is no need for the key.

The only time I use  locked drive is to boot the MS bios in order to load a game save hack to reflash the TSOP.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

 

Those that can Hard-Mod. Those that can't Soft-Mod.

 

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With a v1.6, I don't have the luxury of the TSOP chip. I'm thinking I need it locked, until fitting the modchip.

The strangest thing I discovered, the actual drive security key was longer than 32 bits. The key that gets zeroed in eeprom is used to generate a slightly longer key that the drive is unlocked with. I wanted to unlock my stock drive, but don't have the eeprom key for it. Now I just lock a replacement drive, and can manually lock/unlock with xboxHDM

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Yes for the soft mod to work the drive needs to be locked.


A TSOP flashed /Mod-chip Xbox will work with a locked or unlocked but I unlock them just in case of main board failure then you can easily put the HDD in a different hard modded Xbox or put it a PC and use it in that.

The HDD key can be shorter as I have seen “XBOXSCENE” or “TEAMASSEMBLY” used as well.

Some HDD's have master passwords that may work as well

WESTERN DIGITAL -> “WDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWD”

SEAGATE -> “Seagate” +25 spaces

 

Cheers

SS Dave

 

Those that can Hard-Mod. Those that can't Soft-Mod.

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