What to do? 2002 Xbox clock cap leak

[OliveJannard]

Hello!

I decided to open up my softmodded Xbox made in july 2002. It has partially stopped working around 2008 and I remember replacing the hard disk did not help it back then. I dont remember the exact symptoms it had, but I remember considering it broken so I bought another one for cheap and stored this one for 15 years.

 

So I wanted to give a try of repairing it today after learning about the clock capacitor problems, considering the fact that the console is still very clean globally and even have the OG box. When I first tried to turn it on, I had nearly no image showing on the screen, except a very dimmed and freezed green circle in the middle. I turned it back on and everything seemed fine, I was able to play a game with no problem for 5 minutes before deciding to turn it off and open it to have a look. Here is all the photos I took.

 

The clock capacitor obviously leaked, but I can't quite tell how far the acid went as the whole board seem covered in dust. I plan on cleaning the surrounds with vinegar and then with IPA, but I don't know a lot about electronics so I wonder if there was anything you would do or avoid to do in this case. Also, can the softmod mess up something or has it likely absolutely nothing to do with potential failures? I must have played the console 1 or 2 years with the softmod without problems before it broke.

 

Thank you all for your precious help!

[SS_Dave]

You need to clean the bottom of the board as well and just clean it with IPA using a tooth brush.

 There is 4 thin traces at the front that suffer from corrosion if left uncleaned.

Here is an example of the damage that can happen.

 

 

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

[OliveJannard]

45 minutes ago, SS_Dave said:

You need to clean the bottom of the board as well and just clean it with IPA using a tooth brush.

 There is 4 thin traces at the front that suffer from corrosion if left uncleaned.

Here is an example of the damage that can happen.

 

 

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

Thanks! So I'll remove the board completely and clean both sides of it with IPA as you said. Should I try to wipe the excess of IPA or is it just ok to let it evaporate, even when there's a big amount? I'll have a look at those traces and pray that cleaning will do the job.

 

For soft modding, I was asking if it could lead to problems, but thanks for telling me about it's efficiency

[OliveJannard]

This is the other side of the board and the section you mentioned is actually not corroded! The part looking weird is just gunk from the little sticker square that was there. It all came off.

Any other common place worth giving attention? I'm planning on cleaning all of the rest but I'm gonna wait until I see if it's fixed before considering replacing the thermal paste. Thanks again!

[OliveJannard]

Seems alright. Is corrosion always really dark like in the photo you posted?

[SS_Dave]

That pic is a bad case and in some cases it's only just noticeable.,  I would suggest you think about replacing the 5 capacitors next to the heatsink and the one next to the 12 pin power connector as they are starting to fail with age but in yours that's more a preventive maintenance thing.

Your board look all good.

As for changing the thermal paste I don't bother unless the heat sinks are lose or need to be removed. I have done tests with a non contact thermometer and a probe wedged in the middle of the heatsink and didn't have any difference in readings. The biggest difference comes from cleaning the dust from the heatsink, motherboard and fan, I also set the fan to 30% to 40% in the bios and that helps it run cooler.

The job of the paste is to fill the miniscule irregularity's in the heat sink and the CPU the same has a head casket on the car/truck's engine and you don't change that every 10 years just because, The same as you don't change the heatsink paste in your home or car audio amplifier, Car's ECU just because is old.

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

[MadMartigan]

15 hours ago, SS_Dave said:

As for changing the thermal paste I don't bother unless the heat sinks are lose or need to be removed. I have done tests with a non contact thermometer and a probe wedged in the middle of the heatsink and didn't have any difference in readings. The biggest difference comes from cleaning the dust from the heatsink, motherboard and fan, I also set the fan to 30% to 40% in the bios and that helps it run cooler.

The job of the paste is to fill the miniscule irregularity's in the heat sink and the CPU the same has a head casket on the car/truck's engine and you don't change that every 10 years just because, The same as you don't change the heatsink paste in your home or car audio amplifier, Car's ECU just because is old.

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

I’ve seen so much debate about this and the smaller side of “It’s not a concern” brings more valid arguments than the ones that will say it’s absolutely necessary. 

[OliveJannard]

I put everything back together after cleaning, even cleaned the disc drive eye, and now I'm having a weird problem.

 

Everything seems to work fine, but half the games won't play.

 

If the game is playable it's gonna play totally fine. The other half is gonna freeze when you try to skip the introduction video of the game itself. Also, I've noticed a high pitch sound which tend to oscilliate a lot, is this the disc driver having a hard time reading? Btw all the discs are in good condition.

 

Working games: Sega GT, 2002 and JSRF, original

The Simpsons Road Rage, original

Need for speed Carbon, original

Mx Unleashed, original

Def Jam fight for NY, burned

 

 

Freezing games: Forza Motorsport, burned

Toca race driver 3, original

NHL 2K7, original

 

I could test some more but I can't see a clear pattern there.

 

 

I have a second 1.6 Xbox so I'm thinking swaping the disc drives to see if that's it. However, even if both have Philips drives, will they be interchangables considering my "broken" Xbox is a 1.0? Are all Xbox drives compatibles if I'm looking to buy another one?

 

Thank you for helping me save this console again!

[Megoosa]

The optical disc drives are exchangeable. I've swapped the drives from a 1.0 (Thomson) and 1.4 (Philips) once and they both worked fine.

[OliveJannard]

Here's an update on my observations.

 

When I first start the Xbox after letting it unplugged for a moment, it's gonna have a hard time getting started, even briefly shutting down then turning back on on it's own, then the famous green and red light will flash. It's quickly doing fine, maybe 1 minute after, until I play a game and it freezes. Then I can still open the CD tray to come back to the main menu.

 

The fact that it's acting strange especially after being left unplugged tells me it could be power supply related. Next thing I'm gonna do is take it ou and inspect it.

 

Any thoughts on that? It's a "Delta 1 row" power supply we're talking about in case there's something to know. Here's a photo  I took when I opened it.

 

[SS_Dave]

15 hours ago, OliveJannard said:

Here's an update on my observations.

 

When I first start the Xbox after letting it unplugged for a moment, it's gonna have a hard time getting started, even briefly shutting down then turning back on on it's own, then the famous green and red light will flash. It's quickly doing fine, maybe 1 minute after, until I play a game and it freezes. Then I can still open the CD tray to come back to the main menu.

 

The fact that it's acting strange especially after being left unplugged tells me it could be power supply related. Next thing I'm gonna do is take it ou and inspect it.

 

Any thoughts on that? It's a "Delta 1 row" power supply we're talking about in case there's something to know. Here's a photo  I took when I opened it.

 

 

That all looks ok but capacitors can fail with out any visual signs.

Can you test the power at the 12 pin power plug? The Red wires should have 5 volt and the Yellow should have around 12 volt (11 to 12.5)

Test while it working and in the fault mode.

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

[OliveJannard]

On 2/8/2023 at 3:48 PM, SS_Dave said:

That all looks ok but capacitors can fail with out any visual signs.

Can you test the power at the 12 pin power plug? The Red wires should have 5 volt and the Yellow should have around 12 volt (11 to 12.5)

Test while it working and in the fault mode.

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

So I actually bought a working Xbox 1.0 for only 25$ to take it's power supply instead of doing all those tests I wasn't sure I'd be comfortable with (I also don't have a multimeter yet).

 

Turns out it doesn't change anything. My Xbox still has the same symptoms. I don't know what I should be looking for next. Does replacing the thermal paste could be worth a try? Any other things I could check?

 

Thanks!

[SS_Dave]

1 hour ago, OliveJannard said:

So I actually bought a working Xbox 1.0 for only 25$ to take it's power supply instead of doing all those tests I wasn't sure I'd be comfortable with (I also don't have a multimeter yet).

 

Turns out it doesn't change anything. My Xbox still has the same symptoms. I don't know what I should be looking for next. Does replacing the thermal paste could be worth a try? Any other things I could check?

 

Thanks!

I really don't think changing the thermal paste is going to help

If it was a over temperature thing you should get a flashing orange LED

When it flashes red/green is it 50% red and 50% green?

Is the hard drive the original?

Have you swapped the DVD drives?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

[OliveJannard]

It flashes red/green 50/50. But it really doesn't always flash, it works normally most of the times (except the fact I can't play half of my games). When it's working it's a solid orange but I think it's because it's modded.

It's unclear if the hard drive is original. I have a vague memory of changing it, maybe putting the one that was in my cousin's Xbox thinking it could fix the problem. It's a 10gb Western Digital made in 2000. I'm not even sure if Xboxes had 10gb Western Digital at some point, and why would it be made in 2000? Well, if we did replace the hard drive back then, it did not fix the issue and most likely did not cause it.

 

I did not swap the DVD drives as I did not think it would make any difference, but it's the next thing I'm gonna try. Could the DVD drive really cause issues when launching the console without any game inside?

[SS_Dave]

 

38 minutes ago, OliveJannard said:

I did not swap the DVD drives as I did not think it would make any difference, but it's the next thing I'm gonna try. Could the DVD drive really cause issues when launching the console without any game inside?

Yes.

And with the version 1.0 you don't normally get error codes you get flashing LED codes.

I have had issues with some HDD's that caused random problems.

It had poor connections from the HDD PCB and the contacts on the drive for the read/write heads and after cleaning the tarnish off the board where it connect the the main body of the hard drive it's working like new and that was over 2 years ago.

The location circled is what I mean,

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

[OliveJannard]

I tried swaping the disc drives and it didn't help.

 

Does cleaning those parts of the HDD can mess up something? I don't think I'm equiped to do a backup

[SS_Dave]

1 hour ago, OliveJannard said:

Does cleaning those parts of the HDD can mess up something? I don't think I'm equipped to do a backup

Having a look at the HDD PCB is no harder that removing/refitting the Xbox mother board from the case/shell.

 

This is a random original Seagate HDD

Undo the 4 torx screws (Red circles )

Be extra careful of the contacts in the yellow boxes as they can easily be bent ( and that would make the drive unusable ) if you are cleaning with a Qtip or Cloth ( I used a relay contact cleaner strip) but you might be best to not touch then.

Clean the pads ( Red boxes ) on the PCB using a Qtip and ISO . The contacts should be either silver or gold coloured.

This board is untouched and I would not bother cleaning it but if it looked like the board in my previous post then it needs cleaning.

 

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

 

 

[OliveJannard]

19 minutes ago, SS_Dave said:

Having a look at the HDD PCB is no harder that removing/refitting the Xbox mother board from the case/shell.

 

This is a random original Seagate HDD

Undo the 4 torx screws (Red circles )

Be extra careful of the contacts in the yellow boxes as they can easily be bent ( and that would make the drive unusable ) if you are cleaning with a Qtip or Cloth ( I used a relay contact cleaner strip) but you might be best to not touch then.

Clean the pads ( Red boxes ) on the PCB using a Qtip and ISO . The contacts should be either silver or gold coloured.

This board is untouched and I would not bother cleaning it but if it looked like the board in my previous post then it needs cleaning.

 

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

 

 

Seems ok to me, I would not risk touching it. Here's a picture.

 

Did Microsoft use 10gb Western Digital HDD at some point for their Xboxes, and don't you think it's odd that it was made in 2000? I really can't remember if this one is original. The info I find online mostly say they used 8gb Western Digital, the 10gb ones were from Seagate.

[Bowlsnapper]

7 hours ago, SS_Dave said:

Having a look at the HDD PCB is no harder that removing/refitting the Xbox mother board from the case/shell.

 

This is a random original Seagate HDD

Undo the 4 torx screws (Red circles )

Be extra careful of the contacts in the yellow boxes as they can easily be bent ( and that would make the drive unusable ) if you are cleaning with a Qtip or Cloth ( I used a relay contact cleaner strip) but you might be best to not touch then.

Clean the pads ( Red boxes ) on the PCB using a Qtip and ISO . The contacts should be either silver or gold coloured.

This board is untouched and I would not bother cleaning it but if it looked like the board in my previous post then it needs cleaning.

 

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

 

 

So THAT'S how the PCB is hooked up to the internals. I always wondered that. I kinda assumed the PCB was fused to the casing or something.

[SS_Dave]

11 hours ago, OliveJannard said:

Seems ok to me, I would not risk touching it. Here's a picture.

 

Did Microsoft use 10gb Western Digital HDD at some point for their Xboxes, and don't you think it's odd that it was made in 2000? I really can't remember if this one is original. The info I find online mostly say they used 8gb Western Digital, the 10gb ones were from Seagate.

 

That look's pretty clean and as it around 20 years old it's time to replace it.

As far as I know M$ used 8gb WD and the 10gb where Seagate.

The one I posted the other day is dated around  2004 Oct 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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