Just blown power supply on my X3 chipped box

[TWesten]

Hi all, so I've just done a really dumb/bad thing and was hoping to get some advice please...

Putting a different HD into my modded box, the X3 chip wasn't booting (it sometimes doesn't sit right and has to be wiggled) and stupidly, without thinking, I tried moving the disc drive unit on top of it, while the unit was still plugged in...

One loud pop, a flash on the power board and a blown trip switch in my flat later: the Xbox is now dead... :-(

So my question is: am I screwed? Or can I swap out the power supply board for a replacement one?

I have 2 spare working Xboxes in the cupboard - so could I just replace the whole power supply board?

Or is that gonna be "way too easy"...

(I'm guessing they were a few different types of power supply boards back in the day: the attached photo is the one in my modded box...)

[TWesten]

This is the power supply board in one of my spare boxes. Looks a little different. (Have another but not opened that one yet)

Edited August 21, 2021 by TWesten

[KaosEngineer]

There are three different types of power supplies with models for two different AC input voltage levels (US 100-127VAC and UK 220-240? VAC in).  

The first one is either a v1.0 or 1.1 console with a 12x1 AT-style power connector on the motherboard.

The second uses a 10x2 ATX-style power connector.  

And there are two different PSU types that use the 10x2 connector.  Those for v1.2-1.4 consoles and those for v1.6s Xboxes.  These two types can not be interchanged.  A v1.2-1.4 PSU  can be used on another v1.2-1.4 console.  Or, the v1.6 PSU for another v1.6 console only.

[TWesten]

Ok thanks so much for the reply and info @KaosEngineer the one I need to replace is a 12x1 connector and both my "spare" boxes have 10x2 connectors, so will have to source another board, if it does indeed need replacing.

That said, I've just discovered that the plug fuse in the kettle lead is blown - so I'm going to replace the fuse and re-test the "blown" power supply again to see if, hope against hope (finger's crossed!) it's just that fuse. Would be amazing if so (maybe too optimistic, but worth a try...)

However, in researching on YouTube I've just stumbled across this whole "Powersol Aerogel" capacitor issue - something I knew nothing about! So in a weird way, perhaps it's serendipitous that this happened, since I might never have found out about it at all otherwise (and I can actually see a little bit of something around the capacitor on the motherboard...)

I think I'm going to use the fact that the Xbox is in pieces to remove the capacitor, before I put it back together and test it again with the new kettle plug fuse.

Is it worth buying a "non-rotting" replacement Powersol Aerogel capacitor, or better to just live with "no date and time" when unplugged? (Not something that bothers me all that much tbh.)

Thanks again @KaosEngineer

[TWesten]

Not going to bother replacing the capacitor I think: just remove.

Gotta dig out the soldering iron so probably won't be able to put it all back together until tomorrow. 12x1 power boards available on eBay if it still doesn't work...

Edited August 21, 2021 by TWesten

[KaosEngineer]

12 hours ago, TWesten said:

Is it worth buying a "non-rotting" replacement Powersol Aerogel capacitor, or better to just live with "no date and time" when unplugged? (Not something that bothers me all that much tbh.)

Thanks again @KaosEngineer

No need to replace the clock cap (PowerStor AeroGel super cap) on v1.0-1.4 motherboards.  If it was a 1.6, the super cap has to be present for the console to boot.  It cannot simply be removed as on the earlier revisions.

[TWesten]

Some of this thread has disappeared for some reason but hopefully @KaosEngineerand @SS_Daveyou both recall that after "solving" the above issues, I was then having a problem with my (original) X3 chip not powering up and only have one blue light lit up on the bottom: a problem that appeared to be likely connected to bad soldering on the pinheader.

Further to that, I have now tried heating up the solder on the "bad" looking pins with some flux to re-flow it; but the chip still wasn't powering up: so given how bad the soldering looked, I decided the best course of action is to remove all the solder completely and re-fit the pinheader from scratch. Easier said than done (for my abilities at least) though!

As you can see from the attached image, I've managed to remove most of the solder via braid: but in doing so I've pushed through the pins, so that now they're all virtually flush with the board. (The little wispy bits around the pins are from the cotton bud I used to clean off the flux residue btw...)

The pins and header are still pretty stuck in there though, so I'm nervous of how best to proceed next and am seeking your advice again if you wouldn't mind... I really want to take my time and make sure I get this right.

I'm more than happy to get a new pinheader if the best way of removing the current one is to break the pins off in some way (or generally break apart the pinheader). But if there is a way to remove this one without causing damage, then so much the better.

Also the solder I currently have is way too thick for this job, so I'd be most grateful if you could advise on the best type of solder to use!

Many thanks for your continuing help,

[SS_Dave]

I would not try and remove the pin header as you could possibly cause more damage.

The solder work on the LPC port is looking better and now it just needs a little bit of solder on 1/2 of the pins.

Apply some flux paste and then hold the iron so the tip is resting on the pin and the board then apply a small amount of fresh solder to all the circled joints.

In particular the one with the black/red circle.

 

I use a 0.8mm Rosin core 60/40 leaded solder and a flux paste with my iron set to around 350c - 375c

 

Here is an example of different solder joints

The pin 9 started looking like cold joint and now it's closer to insufficient wetting.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

 

[TWesten]

Ok thanks @SS_DaveI've just ordered some of that solder.

Does it not matter that the pins are now pushed through so they're basically flush with the board? Will the mod chip not be sitting too high on the other side, beneath the disc drive?

[SS_Dave]

5 minutes ago, TWesten said:

Ok thanks @SS_DaveI've just ordered some of that solder.

Does it not matter that the pins are now pushed through so they're basically flush with the board? Will the mod chip not be sitting too high on the other side, beneath the disc drive?

They will be fine.

Do you have a multi meter?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[TWesten]

Ok great thanks @SS_Dave

Yes I do have a multimeter.

[SS_Dave]

Can you test the voltages at the LPC without the chip and with the chip on the pin header

You should get close to the readings below this is looking down with the front panel toward you.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[TWesten]

Ok will do thanks: it's going to take a few days for the solder to arrive so I won't be able to do it until next week I don't think. As soon as that arrives and I'm able to re-do the solder will test and let you know how I get on then. Cheers @SS_Dave

[TWesten]

Hi @SS_Davejust wanted to let you know I finally got the solder so had a go at it today before testing the voltages.

With my multimeter I identified 5 pins that were showing either voltage somewhat below the readings above (the 3.3V ones were showing about 2V roughly) ; or no voltage at all. These five are Lad1/Lad2/5V/3.3V and RST. (The rest of the pins seem to show consistently bang on voltage readings as per above.)

When I've got some time this week to really relax and focus I will have another attempt at these 5 pins. But being able to test them is really useful for narrowing down the ones that seem to have worked and the ones that need to be redone, so many thanks for that!

Will post here again with my progress...

[SS_Dave]

Can you test the voltages at the 20 pin power connector

You should have close to the readings below

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

[TWesten]

Thanks @SS_Dave I have a V.1.0-1.1 PSU 10 pin power connector on my supply but I managed to find that version of the sickmods.net voltage readings image.

I've just checked all the pins and they are all showing bang on the correct voltage - all except for the blue pin, which is showing approx 2.8V where according to the image it should be 3.3V

[SS_Dave]

On 9/1/2021 at 3:23 AM, TWesten said:

Hi @SS_Davejust wanted to let you know I finally got the solder so had a go at it today before testing the voltages.

With my multimeter I identified 5 pins that were showing either voltage somewhat below the readings above (the 3.3V ones were showing about 2V roughly) ; or no voltage at all. These five are Lad1/Lad2/5V/3.3V and RST. (The rest of the pins seem to show consistently bang on voltage readings as per above.)

When I've got some time this week to really relax and focus I will have another attempt at these 5 pins. But being able to test them is really useful for narrowing down the ones that seem to have worked and the ones that need to be redone, so many thanks for that!

Will post here again with my progress...

Was that reading with the chip or without the chip connected.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[TWesten]

1 hour ago, SS_Dave said:

Was that reading with the chip or without the chip connected.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

That was without the chip connected.

[SS_Dave]

11 hours ago, TWesten said:

I've just checked all the pins and they are all showing bang on the correct voltage - all except for the blue pin, which is showing approx 2.8V where according to the image it should be 3.3V

2.8 volt on the blue is Ok as it's job it to tell the power supply to turn on and off and as you have all the other voltages is has doing it's job correctly.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

[TWesten]

Hi @SS_Dave so, the saga continues! Finally had a chance to try and re-solder the 5 pins showing lower voltage, but sadly still getting only 1 blue light on chip; no lights on the switch; chip not booting etc. same issues are before.

I have attached an image of how the soldering looks now. (Didn’t clean off the flux residue before taking it apologies; some still look a bit discoloured by the flux I think.)

All the pins not circled are reading their correct voltage.

The 5 pins that are circled are all showing 2.3V instead of 3.3V. (The circles aren’t very clear but hopefully you can just about see them!)

I’ve tried removing the solder and redoing all 5 of these pins 2-3 times now. I know my soldering is not great, but I’m also concerned that I’ve pushed the pins too far back through the board: and am unsure how to get them back without bending them (if indeed this is required.)

I tried to take the voltage with the chip in but wasn’t sure how to reach the pins on the right (when facing the front of the Xbox.) I did manage to check all the pins on the left (the row with the 2 “missing” pins; all of which were showing the same voltage as when the chip wasn’t connected.)

At a loss what to do now.

Is 2.3V too low for those 5 pins?

Could the chip be blown in some way? Something else on the circuit board?

Is my soldering still too bad?

[TWesten]

It's been a few months since I last posted in this thread @SS_Dave and @KaosEngineer so hope you're both well! I just thought I would update you on this. So after checking and rechecking everything I became somewhat convinced that the fault might be with the Xecuter chip itself - and when one came up for sale on eBay recently, I decided to buy it.

Slotting the "new" chip in and booting up (this one is a 1st Gen X3 chip with the red top) it works, both lights on chip, lights on switch working and everything!

This chip has been flashed on bank 1234 to boot to Rox then XBMC and I can get to that fine now.

My only problem now is that XBMC on this replacement chip isn't finding any of my games on my 1TB hard drive; due to the partitioning of it.

So I've got to work out all the things relating to path roots/directories etc. now; which is going to be a whole new challenge that I might well need to ask more question about in this community... :- () (I'll try not to until I'm really, really stuck again...)

But I just wanted to say thanks again for all your help here on this thread anyway. At least I'm back in action with a working X3 box again. Just need to get it to read the hard drive correctly!

[SS_Dave]

Make sure that in the X3 menu under disk tools it's set to Use Saved Partition Table = Enabled

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[TWesten]

Thanks @SS_Dave I have just done that but XBMC is still unable to find anything on the hard drive.

If I boot to X3 bios and look at Partition Table Info, I can see Par6 (F:) has 120.55GB on it and Par7 (G:) has 803.51GB on it, which sound right as my 1TB disk is basically completely full.

It's been a few years since I set this up but I checked some old backups on my PC and saw that I had installed the "Evox M8 Plus.v16" bios on my old X3 chip: using the other 1MB bank to boot the 1TB hard drive with the partitions working. (I think I recall reading somewhere this was a bios that would "recognise" a 1TB HD?)

This bios file is still on my hard drive as a bin file; but when I flash it on the alternative 1MB bank (off on off off) using the flash from drive option, it just frags.

Then when I switch back to on on off off (or even just off off off off weirdly: both seem to be the same bank?) I get the X3 bios fine and it boots to a version of XBMC (but not one that can read the partitions correctly.)

If I ftp into the drive from my PC through the X3 menu, all the drives are empty: but again I recall this was the case on my old chip. They would be empty on the X3 bios: but full on the Evox M8 bios.

[TWesten]

Ok so I've just been able to flash the first 256k bank with Evox bios, but on this chip that's now just doing the same thing: booting to a version of XBMC that can't find the partitions with all my software on.

[TWesten]

Actually amend that: it seems to have replaced the X3 bios. So I unplugged the switch and re-flashed X3. Then reconnected the switch and switched to another bank (which was fragging) to try and flash Evox there. Still fragging: but if I switch back to off off off off - I get the X3 bios fine.

Would it be worth running a tool to completely wipe all banks of the chip? X3 Erase I think it's called right?