Found an original xbox at goodwill

[xenomorpher]

I have three that still have the capacitor and have been unplugged for years. Does it matter or not that they've been unplugged? I'm not super knowledgeable with electronic components and the reason I ask is if I need to remove them today or if it can wait until the end of the month. Two of the systems are at my parents' house but the one at my place is modchipped and I can do that after work. The other two have old softmods and I read they need to be updated to prevent a boot loop. I've been so out of the loop in the XBOX scene, and I really need to start reading up.

 

 

Edit

 

Ehhh, I just did some reading and it looks like I'll have to do them all at once. Doesn't matter if they're unplugged or not, they're ticking time bombs and I don't want any of them to die.

Edited January 14, 2019 by xenomorpher

[Osgeld]

doesnt matter if they poop they poop

[xenomorpher]

I just got done pulling the clock capacitors and I'm very glad I did. They were leaking only slightly where you couldn't see the damage until you pulled them. Luckily they're gone before they could do any more damage and my systems are fine.

[+boxpressed]

I spent an afternoon a couple of years ago learning how to mod the Xbox to run Coinops 8. Doing this made the Xbox one of my favorite consoles.

 

 

This is the video that I referenced (there's a 2018 version too, I believe):

 

[xenomorpher]

I spent an afternoon a couple of years ago learning how to mod the Xbox to run Coinops 8. Doing this made the Xbox one of my favorite consoles.

 

https://youtu.be/qhvPHf9ZKEk

 

This is the video that I referenced (there's a 2018 version too, I believe):

 

https://youtu.be/DJOEen1-234

For the longest time it was my most played system after I modded it, even when I had the 360 and PS3. The excellent homebrew ports of Doom, Quake, and Shadow Warrior is what hooked me. Plus playing against real people online, including my friend in the same room on a PC, with Quake 3 blew my mind. When I wasn't playing games, I was watching stuff through XBMC. I installed a 250GB hard drive on my one system with a modchip years ago. I never bothered formatting it the right way to use more than 137GB. I'll have to back up all my stuff sometime and do it. It's still a great and wonderful system today, and I should use mine more often. Edited January 15, 2019 by xenomorpher

[+GoldenWheels]

I will say my xbox with coin ops emulates several of my arcade favs better than my raspberry pi or MAME. I love it.

[4300]

So my Xbox has a manufacture date of 2/25/2005. According to what I've read, this is the most recent revision and doesn't have the faulty clock capacitor. Yet, it still won't save the time/date. Any ideas?

[DragonGrafx-16]

So my Xbox has a manufacture date of 2/25/2005. According to what I've read, this is the most recent revision and doesn't have the faulty clock capacitor. Yet, it still won't save the time/date. Any ideas?

I don't know but mine is a late 2005 Xbox and so it doesn't have the capacitor problem at least then...

[Osgeld]

my 05 wont keep time either (hasnt in quite a while) but yes the last models do not have the cap of death ... course you can only soft mod them and you cant up the ram but neither is a deal breaker, a reflash just has the convenience of using any hard drive instead of models that enable bios lock and ram... in 2019 the difference tween 64 and 128 has mostly been hashed out with better software unless you really want to run linux on the thing

[DragonGrafx-16]

I really have no interest in running emulators on my Xbox anyway. My computer is better for that.

[derFunkenstein]

The locked hard drive thing has always been fairly important to me, but I had a soft-modded v1.0 for the longest time because I was afraid of the soldering iron. I'm still afraid of it but I overcame it enough to TSOP flash it.

 

If the hard drive dies and you don't have another drive that's been mated to the machine, you're basically out of luck unless you get a modchip. Whether you go the modchip route or the TSOP (on older revisions), modding the Xbox is insanely useful even if you don't plan on using any mod features for the simple fact that you can get it up and running again that way.

[Greg2600]

So my Xbox has a manufacture date of 2/25/2005. According to what I've read, this is the most recent revision and doesn't have the faulty clock capacitor. Yet, it still won't save the time/date. Any ideas?

 

In North America, you'll basically find three versions. The original 1.0, the middle years 1.2-1.4, and then the 1.6. Supposedly the 1.6 either doesn't use that cap, or is not as much of an issue. The MB was greatly redesigned, in fact the bottom half of the case is slightly different in terms of screw positioning and whatnot. The one downside for the 1.6 is that the changed the video chip, and several SEGA games will not run in 480p mode. For me this wasn't an issue as my system is setup on an SD CRT for which 480p won't work anyway. So yes, I'm playing my OG XBox in 480i mode!

[0078265317]

So is mine a 1.0? How to tell?

[Greg2600]

So is mine a 1.0? How to tell?

 

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=367210&seqNum=2

 

Try that, I think the serial number works the best.

[0078265317]

 

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=367210&seqNum=2

 

Try that, I think the serial number works the best.

 

Where is serial number? I don't see it.

[Starscream]

my 05 wont keep time either (hasnt in quite a while) but yes the last models do not have the cap of death ... course you can only soft mod them and you cant up the ram but neither is a deal breaker, a reflash just has the convenience of using any hard drive instead of models that enable bios lock and ram... in 2019 the difference tween 64 and 128 has mostly been hashed out with better software unless you really want to run linux on the thing

Unless I am not understanding how you worded things, I just want to point out that modchips work fine in 1.6 Xboxes. You do have to be prepared it may go into to a "coma", but even that is totally repairable.

[Greg2600]

 

Where is serial number? I don't see it.

 

It's on the bottom of the Xbox, on the label, no?

 

Table 3.3 Serial Number Check

Serial Number

Revision

LNNNNNN 20WFF

1.0

LNNNNNN 21WFF

1.0

LNNNNNN 23WFF

1.0, 1.1

LNNNNNN 24WFF

1.1

LNNNNNN 25WFF

1.1

LNNNNNN 30WFF

1.2

LNNNNNN 31WFF

1.3

LNNNNNN 32WFF

1.3

LNNNNNN 33WFF

1.4, 1.5

LNNNNNN 42WFF

1.6

[0078265317]

Yes but mine is 12 chatecters long no spaces. Usually it's 7 space 5.

[Greg2600]

Try this video...

 

https://youtu.be/Vxs2o3u22K4?t=86

[0078265317]

I have seen that video before. It's the same thing. Maybe it's a rare version. Or so me were just different.

[Starscream]

I have seen that video before. It's the same thing. Maybe it's a rare version. Or so me were just different.

Whats the manufacture date?

[0078265317]

Whats the manufacture date?

 

http://mvvg.blogspot.com/2019/01/xbox-original-from-goodwill.html?m=1

 

5th pic

[Starscream]

Version 1.0 even though it looks like it was fixed by MS at some point. But anyways you have 2 fans, so it's a 1.0

 

You can see original label under your label which was usually done when it was sent in for service, that is why your serial number is different.

Edited January 20, 2019 by Starscream

[derFunkenstein]

Agreed, Starscream has it right.

 

One of the things you can do to this Xbox to kind of pimp it out is go on eBay and get a model 1.2 GPU heatsink. It's got much bigger fins and no fan, so that will reduce a point of failure. Prior to doing that with my Xbox, the GPU fan was the loudest part of the system, by far. I found that out the hard way, though. Replacing the rear fan didn't have as much impact as I expected it to, because the rear fan wasn't my biggest problem. Overall I'm still glad I did it, but in retrospect it wasn't 100% necessary.

[0078265317]

So I got the breakaway cable in the mail today. All is good now so thanks for all the help.

 

Except the S controller I got is not working. My duke works fine so it's not the cable or port. Any ideas what could need fixing? Cable looks in good shape.

Edited January 24, 2019 by 0078265317