Solid green light, No video or audio (Possible coma console?)

[ShadyBlues]

Hey guys, just wondering if someone could confirm a suspicion of mine.

So a while ago I dug out my old OG Xbox (V1.3 I believe) and found it wasn't working, it would switch on for a couple seconds then power off again. Did some research and found that the dreaded clock cap had leaked and one of the traces on the back was broken. So I removed the motherboard with the intention of repairing it, but then life got in the way and I didn't have the time so it sat in pieces for the best part of a year before I found the time to fix it. So I managed to remove the clock cap and clean the board, then I jumped the broken trace with a wire between the test points. (All good there, no shorts that I could find)

I also changed the thermal paste on the GPU and CPU to Arctic MX4 while I was at it.

So I put it all back together again, plugged it into my old SCART tv, it turns on from the power button fine, has a solid green light, you can hear the hard drive starting up too (still has the original in it right now) but there is no audio or video output to the tv. I tried a different AV cable but got the same result, and I know the tv is good cause my Sega Saturn works fine through the SCART.

Also worth mentioning that the DVD drive (Samsung) won't open by it's self. I cleaned up the belt and greased the slides but same result. I tried it with the top of the DVD drive off so I could see and it looks like the laser moves about like it wants to open but the motor makes no attempt to spin up.

So in short I have a V1.3 Xbox that shows a solid green light, No video, No audio and the DVD drive doesn't open.

From what I've read on here so far it sounds like I may have a corrupt BIOS/coma console on my hands (though I heard V1.0 and V1.1 were more prone to that).

What do you guys think?

 

[OGXbox Admin]

8 minutes ago, ShadyBlues said:

Hey guys, just wondering if someone could confirm a suspicion of mine.

So a while ago I dug out my old OG Xbox (V1.3 I believe) and found it wasn't working, it would switch on for a couple seconds then power off again. Did some research and found that the dreaded clock cap had leaked and one of the traces on the back was broken. So I removed the motherboard with the intention of repairing it, but then life got in the way and I didn't have the time so it sat in pieces for the best part of a year before I found the time to fix it. So I managed to remove the clock cap and clean the board, then I jumped the broken trace with a wire between the test points. (All good there, no shorts that I could find)

I also changed the thermal paste on the GPU and CPU to Arctic MX4 while I was at it.

So I put it all back together again, plugged it into my old SCART tv, it turns on from the power button fine, has a solid green light, you can hear the hard drive starting up too (still has the original in it right now) but there is no audio or video output to the tv. I tried a different AV cable but got the same result, and I know the tv is good cause my Sega Saturn works fine through the SCART.

Also worth mentioning that the DVD drive (Samsung) won't open by it's self. I cleaned up the belt and greased the slides but same result. I tried it with the top of the DVD drive off so I could see and it looks like the laser moves about like it wants to open but the motor makes no attempt to spin up.

So in short I have a V1.3 Xbox that shows a solid green light, No video, No audio and the DVD drive doesn't open.

From what I've read on here so far it sounds like I may have a corrupt BIOS/coma console on my hands (though I heard V1.0 and V1.1 were more prone to that).

What do you guys think?

 

can we see some high res pics of the board? 

[ShadyBlues]

26 minutes ago, OGXbox Admin said:

can we see some high res pics of the board

Unfortunately the board is actually at a repair shop right now getting a few bulged caps replaced and a pin header for a modchip fitted. (Sad I know but my soldering skills leave a lot to be desired, I'm still not sure how i managed to jump that trace)

I do have a couple photos on my phone but they're not great quality.

 

[ShadyBlues]

1 hour ago, OGXbox Admin said:

can we see some high res pics of the board? 

Forgot the one of the back

[SS_Dave]

41 minutes ago, ShadyBlues said:

Unfortunately the board is actually at a repair shop right now getting a few bulged caps replaced and a pin header for a modchip fitted. (Sad I know but my soldering skills leave a lot to be desired

Nothing to be ashamed of by getting some one to work on your Xbox if you don't have the confidents to do the work yourself.

Your soldering skills will improve with practice, Find a old computer, car radio and the like to practice on.

 

Hopefully it will spring to life with a modchip fitted.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

[ShadyBlues]

On 10/12/2021 at 9:43 PM, SS_Dave said:

Your soldering skills will improve with practice, Find a old computer, car radio and the like to practice on.

Right enough mate, i've probably got an old radio kicking about somewhere I can practice on.

On 10/12/2021 at 9:43 PM, SS_Dave said:

Hopefully it will spring to life with a modchip fitted

Here's hoping! I'll post an update in here when i get it all back together and tested again.

Cheers guys!

[Lina_Inverse_]

Try run the DVD drive open, it's fairly simple. Just 4 screws on the bottom, then the top should pry right off, at least with the bottom off as well. From there you might be able to see if the motor attempts to spin when you attempt to eject or if something is blocking the way. 

Last option is to softmod without a disc drive. From there you can upgrade your hard drive and then FTP games over that you can download. This video provides a good explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbSb7BFRQNo

I could also ship a modified LG GDR-8163B that works with the Xbox and an old 80 or 120GB hard drive.

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by Lina_Inverse_

[ShadyBlues]

Hey guys, been a long time i know but as usual work and life in general got in the way of my little repair project.

Anyway just to update on my xbox situation, after getting the capacitors and pin header professionally soldered on i went ahead and fitted an aladdin xt plus2 modchip to it, soldering the D0 points on the chip and board together with a wire and connected the BT pad to the chip ground.

Put it all back together again and i can confirm that all the problems i listed above are solved, video and audio have returned, loads to the dashboard with all my original savegames intact. The disc drive opens and works perfectly again (sometimes needs a tap on top of it to latch it open but that was pretty normal for it)

So all in all the console is revived. Next move for me is probably going to be updating the dashboard and hard drive after backing up my saves to a pendrive, so if there are any recommendations for what hard drive to use i'm all ears.

Cheers to everyone who responded and gave advise with this.

[SS_Dave]

Good to here that's it' up and running again.

6 hours ago, ShadyBlues said:

The disc drive opens and works perfectly again (sometimes needs a tap on top of it to latch it open but that was pretty normal for it)

The belt needs replacing and while you have it open I would clean the laser lens with isopropyl on a Qtip.

 

6 hours ago, ShadyBlues said:

so if there are any recommendations for what hard drive to use i'm all ears.

I have a liking for the WD black as they are built like a brick sh!thouse.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

 

 

[ShadyBlues]

It would seem I spoke a bit too soon, not long after I posted that update it started doing some weird stuff again. F-ing karma or something.

So now it seems that if I power it on from the power button, I get all the same problems as before, turns on but won't boot up and the disc drive doesn't open. But if I power it on from the eject button (not always a single press, sometimes I have to mash it) the flubber animation plays and it boots up, disc drive opens again. It's bizarre, sometimes it boots from the power button, but more often than not it just turns on but doesn't boot and I have to use the eject. 

I'd like to stress that once it does boot there are no issues in operation at all, I played it for over an hour today after I noticed this issue and it never missed a beat, no random shut downs or anything like that, the problem is purely in getting it to boot.

The only thing I can think of is it being a dodgy connection or solder joint, I was never quite happy with the D0 joint on the motherboard side of things but it seemed sturdy enough. So i'll be taking it apart to have a look at it tomorrow.

Any thoughts?

3 hours ago, SS_Dave said:

I have a liking for the WD black as they are built like a brick sh!thouse.

Yeah I was actually looking at either a WD blue or some kind of seagate originally. Would you say the black is better than the blue for this job? They seem pretty decent, was looking at this one earlier today.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-TB-Performance-Hard-Drive/dp/B00FJRS6FU

Cheers once again lads

[SS_Dave]

On 12/10/2021 at 11:49 AM, ShadyBlues said:

 

Yeah I was actually looking at either a WD blue or some kind of seagate originally. Would you say the black is better than the blue for this job? They seem pretty decent, was looking at this one earlier today.

 

The WD blue is OK.

On 12/10/2021 at 11:49 AM, ShadyBlues said:

The only thing I can think of is it being a dodgy connection or solder joint, I was never quite happy with the D0 joint on the motherboard side of things but it seemed sturdy enough. So i'll be taking it apart to have a look at it tomorrow.

Sound a bit like it might be a bad solder joint or the HDD is corrupted/failing.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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