Service Offered: Original Xbox 1 modding/PCB repair/HDD upgrade service

[mikeosoft]

I used to mod xbox 1's back in the day but stopped using my xbox 1 a few years ago. I figured the scene was dead and moved on to retro gaming and arcade machines/pinballs.

About 3 months ago I started getting into coinOPS and purchasing xboxs to flash tsops for friends and family. I've gotten back into it.

 

Why is xbox 1 coming back in popularity?>> because of great emulation support for arcade hardware and console emulation. I personally decase my xbox's and remove the dvd drive, toss the mobo with a hdd on a piece of plywood and bolt it in my arcade cabinets. I flash a bios that I edit to remove the microshaft flubber screen and bootup animations, turn all the images black, and from 4 seconds of booting up I am in a frontend with 3375 games to chose from. You cannot beat this with any pc + hyperspin setup.

 

 

 

SERVICE OFFERED & RATES

If anyone needs an xbox 1 modded or hard drive expanded, cleaned, tsop flashed, xbox fixed/replaced, let me know.

If you have a broken xbox that randomly turns on and off I can fix that READ MORE HERE--> http://fillwithcoolb...ion-repair.html

If your xbox clock capacitor is dead (exploded, clock no longer holds time) the exploded cap will leak over your pcb and eat through the mobo. I can remove the cap, and clean the surface to prevent future damage.

If your harddrive is too small I can install a bigger one for you

If your harddrive is dead I can replace it with another stock hard drive or upgrade it for you

If you would like a TSOP flash I can do that too

If your dvd rom is not reading discs I can change it out with a spare

 

 

Send me just your bare xbox! NO CONTROLLERS. NO GAMES. NO POWERCORDS.

 

rates :

 

User pays shipping both ways.

 

General Flash/HardDrive modding

Tsop flash (for xbox v.1 -v5 only) $20

Aladdin modchip + install $25

xbox harddrive reformat $15

xbox harddrive replacement (you supply ide drive) $20

xbox softmod $10

 

Soldering/Repairs

Clock capacitor removal and cleaning - $20

1st Gen Xbox Trace Corrosion Repair - $30

Clock cap replacement - not offered yet can't find a good cap replacement that won't leak...

 

Complete Systems for sale

 

 

2TB xbox loaded systems SALE

 

 

Xbox systems with 2tb drives. I am going to make these for people from now on.

 

$250 shipped Continental US.

 

Xbox system only, clock cap removed, 2tb drive installed, 80wire ATA cable upgraded, UnleashX installed as default dash, Evox installed, xbmc4xbox latest stable build installed, coinops 5 R3 installed full plus addon packs, vision installed. System formatted for 2 1TB partitons F and G, each formatted 64kb sectors.

 

 

Only have plans for 4 or 5 of these systems, as I am trying to maximize current prices of 2TB wd drives at frys.

 

 

 

Controllers & Hookups for sale

 

I have a bunch of xbox controllers, cables and, av hookups for sale.

 

Out of controllers.

A/V cable is $3

Power cable is $3

Doesn't make sense to ship just these, so i assume this price means included in any order.

 

 

EXAMPLE OF STOCK 8GB HD XBOX FLASHED TSOP SETUP:

https://www.youtube....player_embedded

 

//::INFORMATION ABOUT XBOX::\\

I've been getting asked about xbox harddrive expansion, what's the max size, what type, etc...

When xbox 1 came out IDE drives (PATA) were the common drives on the market. Today they are all but gone, a thing of the past. The harddrives on the market today are SATA based, gone are the long thin 40 wire strips of ide ribbon, in favor of a faster, smaller, and better protocol. However, it's important to remember 2 things:

1. the xbox was designed to house an 3.5in 8gb ide harddrive

2. no other systems had harddrives stock from the manufacturer

 

With that said, the modding community broke out in 2002 and xbox harddrive upgrading was the focus. At the time I invested in a 40gb drive which was expensive and a huge amount of storage in my young eyes.

 

fast forward to today: IDE is gone, the biggest ide drives were 750gb, and were manufactured up to 200(5). If you find or own one of these drives I think you should retire it asap and throw it in an xbox 1. if you do not own one yet would like 1tb or even 2tb of access here's what you want to do.

 

1. go to this site and search for a drive of proper size you want; eg 2000gb = 2TB: http://xboxdrives.x-pec.com/?p=list

2. purchase up to 2TB Sata drive. Anything bigger will not see more than 2TB of space due to an LBA48 limitation.

3. purchase a xbox compatible Sata to IDE converter. something like this one is reported to work (i havent tried it myself yet it is in transit shipping to my house as we speak): https://www.dealextr...rd-57841?item=6

4. purchase a Molex to sata power adaptor: https://www.dealextr...ower-cable-9809

 

make sure to partiton with xbpartitioner as the 2 tb needs proper formatting or it will error out

 

Finally, I can do the above for you, but it won't be cheap. for example, a 2 tb wd earx drive is 130 dollars for me. to install i need to mod the xbox with a tsop flash 15, harddrive upgrade 10, I charge 10 for the sata to ide adaptor and power adaptor as well. already that's 165 and shipping on top both ways. I can do this for you but understand the costs come from the expensive drive as I feel bad sending qoutes for the above at $165. but anyless and I am paying for your upgrades which I'd love to do if I was rich, but I am broke and jobless at the moment.

 

Repairs for neo geo members & pics:

received an xbox that would randomly power off/power buttons wouldn't work. dvd eject would flip console on then off again 3 times. Also x3 chip was ruined from a shorted d0 horrible solder job by previous owner or whoever installed the modchip. I'm not a fan of the X3 as it is obsolete and serves no real purpose anymore. Just flash the TSOP no need for a stock system anymore. Wires were cobbled together and soldering job looked like it was installed by a 13 year old. Seriously spliced wires for D0 on the backside? I'm amazed the system lasted as long as it did.

 

This is someone else's install, spliced wires, cold joints, arc'd LPC points! I didn;t do this work, I need to remove and repair this mess.

 

Removed the modchip, the lpc points someone else soldered in were horrible

 

The clock capacitor had blown like I assumed! This is what a blown clock capacitor looks like, It will ruin your xbox and every single xbox 1 should have it removed before it blows. 9/10 xbox i repair have this cap leaking or blown

 

Removed, here's the cap free, now time to clean the board

 

After cleaning the board and removing the X3 dead modchip, I put together the xbox in stock state.

 

Traces were damaged, as the xbox wouldn't respond to power button presses and randomly turn on and off. I heard of this before, so I started probing with a multimeter. Found 4 bad traces on the underside of the board that was a common issue with a certain manufacturing run of xbox v.1.0 systems. The symptoms of this would be sporadic on and offs, non working power button, exactly the issues this xbox had.

 

Here's a pic of the 4 repaired tiny traces. Really tough to solder to, but not impossible:

 

Here's a pic of me soldering one of the TSOP "Write-Enable" points, which will allow me to flash the stock TSOP with a custom bios

 

 

I can do these repairs as well now.

 

System is working perfectly now, all back in action, flashed with Evo M8+ bios booting up to EVOX.

 

If anyone can find ram chips for sale please let me know.

 

WHY I ENCOURAGE TSOP FLASHING OVER SOFTMODDING WHENEVER POSSIBLE

Let's say you have a 1.0 console, you would want to TSOP flash ANY and EVERY XBOX that can do it. This is because the softmod while easy to do is just as easy to ruin a working xbox. Even once "softmodded" I've had people who have accidentally overwritten something on the C drive and caused the xbox to error out and never work. Not to mention with a softmodded xbox if your harddrive dies you need to be sure you backed up your Eprom data and more importantly your HARDDRIVE LOCK PASSWORD. Without this you are looking at a heavy brick of useless components.

 

1.) TSOP flashing the xbox takes away the need to unlock drive, the requirement to use a locked drive on the xbox (which means incase your current drives goes bonkers, i can send you ANOTHER DRIVE and you can simply plug and play) WITHOUT REQUIRING ME TO LOCK THE DRIVE AND BLINDLY RISK IT WORKING OK ONCE YOU RECEIVE IT.

2.) TSOP flashing replaces the stock bios file with a hacked bios that doesnt check for locked drive THUS can allow you to change boot patterns, locations, and remove flubber animations, change colors, logos, etc.

3.) There is no way to "ruin" a hardmod, while with softmod you can accidentally erase a file on the C drive and reboot your xbox to an error screen. While that can happen with a hardmod too, you can boot up with a slayer's disc or hexen disc from dvd drive and rebuild the harddrive without having to "remod" it.

 

I would always TSOP flash an xbox if I could.

Edited May 14, 2013 by mikeosoft

[mikeosoft]

bump

[+Yurkie]

Mike are you interest in purchasing 2 or 3 red ring XBOX consoles? If so send me a PM

[gorfcadet]

So the Xbox works fine without that cap? I was thinking about picking up a cheap xbox or two at a thrift shop just for Halo get togethers and would be interested in sending them in for you to do some clean up and cap removal.

[+wood_jl]

This sounds great!

 

 

For those of us who missed out (entirely) on the Xbox mod scene, can you provide a demo video of what the Aladdin mod chip does? One reason I avoided the scene was that after the PS One mod chip scene, there came out too many mod chips for the PS2/Xbox and a novice doesn't know one from the other. Is the Aladdin the one that survived, after all the smoke had cleared? I might be interested in this stuff, but I'd sure like to see some Xbox's in action with the mods!

[RodLightning]

Did anyone ever come up with a way to replace the capacitor with something less volatile, like a rechargable battery? I have a couple of Xbox1s and am now worried about these time bombs!

[Rex Dart]

A capacitor is the less-volatile solution.

[mikeosoft]

First I am sorry for not replying sooner, I am busy repairing these leaky caps. I swear every xbox i have received so far has had damage from these caps leaking. Even the ones that seem fine show the beginnings of leaks. I advise every single person with an xbox, regardless of version 1.0-1.6 please get this take care of by someone. If you are handy open up your xbox and remove the cap and clean the board, i guarantee you will find 9/10 times there is some sort of leak. Google "xbox clock cap" and there should be some forum posts on the net with this issue and removal pics.

 

If you cannot do this, or don't feel comfortable, just send your xbox to someone who can. I have also seen even with my xbox's the power button issue arise from old cap leakage. The signs are sporadic on/off and sometimes the xbox won't respond to the power button. The most common sign is when you plug in the xbox to the wall, the system just starts itself up.

 

If you have these symptoms you now know the most probable cause. If you need more help just pm me.

 

@wood_jl:

I have been doing more flashed TSOP's now that there really is no need to keep a "stock" xbox anymore. I could install an alladin advance (256k) modchip, but what's the point? Flashing the TSOP will allow you to freely flash up to 1mb bios if you desire. The stock ms dash runs fine from a TSOP'd xbox you just need to load it up with a few clicks from the evox dashboard. I setup my xbox's with the ability to change dash's between EVOX, XMBC, UNLEASHX, and Stock MS dash. Honestly, I myself am an EVOX guy but unleashX is really nice.

 

@everyone/anyone listening

To people who have been pm'ing me i'm sorry I just started offering this service and am still adjusting to a routine. I share my basement workspace with my dad who repairs pinballs and music instruments, so he is very easily annoyed and angered by the smallest things, like a screw left behind or a tool not where he expects it. I have lived for the past 5 years on my own, and so going back to "his routine" is also something I am juggling with at the moment. Not that there's anything wrong with that, his methods produce top notch output, it's just a lot more on the plate.

 

Not to worry though, I am recieving xbox's every few days and sending them back out usually 2 days later at the most. The slowest part of my work is usually FTP'ing and software setup. I cannot speed up harddrive write speeds and ftp limitations.

 

Anyways, in the future I would like to spend more time on atariage and become a better contributing member here, not just utilize the marketplace section. I will try harder I promise.

 

To all of you I have met here, thanks for being awesome and more importantly a welcoming community. That's nice for a change.

 

P.S

If anyone has a source for unused 16mb samsung ram modules i need four of them and i will attempt an xbox ram upgrade to 128. I don't own an SMD hot air station, but I have a steady hand and can solder difficult and small things. Before I offer this as a service I want to attempt it myself.

[mikeosoft]

bump

[mikeosoft]

BUMP, I think I found a source for xbox consoles, and i just need an extra source for IDE HARDDRIVES of size EQUAL TO OR BIGGER THAN 80GB

[Grig]

Not that there's anything wrong with that ... I just flashbacked to Seinfeld.

 

ANYWAY - good luck with your service and with working with your pop. I've done some stuff with my dad (whom I love dearly) but I can relate to the frustration - my dad gets upset when a tool is not put back JUST right. It's funny, because in contrast my father in law leaves brand new tools outside in the rain and says "oh well, we'll just buy another one".

[mikeosoft]

This sounds great!

 

 

For those of us who missed out (entirely) on the Xbox mod scene, can you provide a demo video of what the Aladdin mod chip does? One reason I avoided the scene was that after the PS One mod chip scene, there came out too many mod chips for the PS2/Xbox and a novice doesn't know one from the other. Is the Aladdin the one that survived, after all the smoke had cleared? I might be interested in this stuff, but I'd sure like to see some Xbox's in action with the mods!

 

just uploaded an example of a tsop flashed xbox setup with unleashX and xbmc. Coinops 4 will follow.

 

https://www.youtube....player_embedded

 

this is the setup (minus coinops) i've been doing for others so far. I think it is the best setup because you can switch dashboards, edit anything you want, and the layout is nice and simple to use.

Edited July 2, 2012 by mikeosoft

[UberArcade]

I just got my modded xbox back and it is an awesome setup! It now has a 80gb drive and coinops4 on there. It is a really nice UI for running emulators. Mikeosoft did a great job. Fast turn around, and he doesn't charge much. Highly recommended!

[Autoxman]

Goodaye Milciosoft, I offer a similar service out of Sydney Australia but my problem is I cannot offer this service to our US members on our Xbox Classic site- http://www.xbmc4xbox.org.uk/forum/

We had over 2900 active members and lost our server and this is the site's new location and in the process of rebuilding it from scratch so don't be put off by our small member numbers at present, as they find us, they are rejoining. My question is, could you post on our site advertising your offerings for our US members?. There are a lot of members that would love there Xbox 1s professionally modded by somebody with your skills. Most members have softmodded Xboxes only because they cannot solder. I only do TSOPs or modchips as you do and this is what most of our members are actually after, ( To remove the flubber). Everyone hates the MS flubber. We also have many members wanting HDD upgrades and while we try to walk the member through the process of upgrading to 1 and 2Tb Hard drives, it is unfortunately beyond some of our members abilities and that is where you would be a handy asset on that side of the ocean. Please consider this offer and make my life much easier and some cash for yourself. We are a Xbox 1 only forum and deal with Xbox 1 only. I have just "lucked" onto your forum and read your post and joined your forum to make this offer to you. Anyway, I hope you do take up this offer and you can pick up some buisness.

Regards Steve or Xman on the other forum.

Edited July 7, 2012 by Autoxman

[mikeosoft]

@autoxman

 

I'd love to, i hope i am not stepping on anyone else's turf. I just made an account there "mikeosoft" if you can pm me on there and tell me where i should put my post, i don't see a marketplace yet.

 

I use a photobucket account to host images and last month the bandwidth usage was over the limit so all my pics got taken down, so i did some investigating and found some other xbox repair people were linking my photos above to their blogs, and one dude even used my photo for his signature to link to his Buy sell repair thread. I went on the forum (it obv wasn't yours--no worries) and said if he wants to use my photo that's fine if he asked me it'd be nice as I would say yes, but i'd ask him to upload a copy of the picture to a different photo server to not leach my bandwidth. Since he didn't do that, but did re-host the picture ( i am assuming after it went down due to bandwidth over-usage) at the same time I also asked since he was based in the UK and couldn't do USA xbox's if it'd be ok if I offered service for states based people. He said he isn't a "leech" and he wouldn't recommend me as someone else is already on there for usa repairs. No prob I said and figured i'd be best to stay on neo-geo and here only.

 

But I'd like to branch out to your site if that's cool with everyone. And since It didn't go over well on that other site, not even a sorry or a thanks, I figured I didn't want to create issues as everyone is struggling these days to get by I know first hand being jobless and trying to get by. I offered to help in the future with any modding issues or to lend a hand if the time should come, but got no response...

 

So i'd gladly offer services on your site if that's cool with you and the dudes there. Appreciate you letting me know.

Edited July 7, 2012 by mikeosoft

[gorfcadet]

pm'ed! Just need to know where to send my xbox and 80gb drive.

[mikeosoft]

'bump

Edited July 25, 2012 by mikeosoft

[gorfcadet]

Bump for an awesome service and great AA'er! Very happy!

pmed you a couple of questions.

 

Thanks again!

[venom4728a]

I am looking to use your services to mod my xbox here in a few weeks, I do have a mod chip and drive.

 

[mikeosoft]

I am looking to use your services to mod my xbox here in a few weeks, I do have a mod chip and drive.

 

OK shot you a pm

[mikeosoft]

relocating to Los Angeles on the 20th of this month, so if anyone wants an xbox modded by me before september now's the time.

[mikeosoft]

I just picked up a second xbox, checks out clean. I am modding it tonight. I'm going to try and snatch up a bunch of IDE drives in an effort to offer some better size hdd premodded xbox setups with full coinops and more.

 

Please this week if you want an xbox 1 modded before september by me please contact me this week as I am moving to Los Angeles August 22.

 

I will then operate from Sherman Oaks, CA. I need the sun.

[mikeosoft]

Just got two 160gig pata drives today. So I can put together 2 of the following, it'd have to be this week otherwise I am away until September:

 

A modded xbox tsop flashed clock cap removed, 160 gig harddrive, coinops lite, unleashX setup with xbmc. No controllers, power cord, or av cable. asking $115 plus shipping

[Machine]

Just got my Xbox from Mike and it looks great. ANyone got an easy to use cheat sheet on how to access the menus and go from games back to menus, etc.

 

Thanks and it looks great!

[PONG-BOY 1]

you might be able to find some of those electronic hard drives at an electronic salvage yard--I know that I have seen many hard drives (from the last 20 years) while looking through their stuff--just check your local one--