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XBOX Classic Repair, Restore, Mod Five-Part Series


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Edit: making a five-part series for XBOX Classic repair, restoration, and modding. This disc drive video is part one. Here's the rundown for the series:

 

Part 1: Stuck Disc Drive Repair

Part 2: Power Supply Restoration & Time Capacitor Removal

Part 3: Fan Replacement

Part 4: Soft Mod

Part 5: Hard Drive Replacement And Loading Games

 

Don't forget to subscribe so you can catch the entire series and more upcoming great gaming content!

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc16nxCRvhba37wzU2eVS2Q/?sub_confirmation=1

 

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Hello everyone!

 

The disc drive on my original Microsoft XBOX was closed and would not open the tray when the eject button was pressed. Turns out, it was just a cleaning job and a rubber band from a $1.00 bag of hair bands that solved the problem.

 

Is yours stuck? The fix is right here:

 

 

 

I"ll start a thread in the next couple of days that is dedicated to my YouTube video game related content rather than individual posts. But in the meantime, enjoy the video and plase subscribe! I'm on the journey to 1,000+ subscribers and your kindness is much appreciated!

 

- Blaine

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I changed the bands and mine was back to normal.  I think you could even do it with the case still on because the band is visible with the drawer open.

 

There is a magnet inside that holds the drive closed, and as the drive band ages, it gets too weak to overpower the magnet.  This is why a smart single thump right in the middle of the drive on the case above sometimes works.  Another trick is to leave a disk in the drive.  Leaving a disk in gives you just a little bit more separation and usually allows the drive to open.

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Thank you for watching the video and for your input! I really appreciate both. I'm planning to do a five-part series about the restoration of this XBOX. Next part is reflowing the AC points on the bottom of the power supply and removing the time bomb of a capacitor that is used for date/time keeping. I'll be soft modding the XBOX anyway which will make the timekeeping cap unneeded, and it's highly prone to leakage, so out it goes.

 

Thanks!
Blaine

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I love xbox, but my drive died and I haven't used it in years :( itsit's not the typical problem of dying lasers or drive door issues. It's a problem getting down the track, and will have issues with any game towards the middle of end (depending if the media is single or double layer, yeah, same problems with DVD too) I figure the year drive is dirty or stripped, but it's an enclosed pc style drive, so access to cleaning won't happen.

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Part 2: Power Supply Restoration And Time Capacitor Removal

 

I mentioned it in the first video, but my first XBOX I owned BITD caught fire internally. Fortunately, it didn't burn down the house! With the knowledge that hindsight offers, it's now known that the A/C port on the power supply gets weak at the solder joints, which causes this problem. This is a cheap, easy fix, and I'll show you how to save your XBOX from a power disaster!

 

Also, there's a capacitor that serves as a battery for time/date keeping that is practically guaranteed to take an electrolytic dump on your XBOX motherboard. It's especially problematic for the v1.0 - v1.5 mootherboards. All you have to do is get it out of there to save your XBOX motherboard from acidic death!

 

Learn how to do these important tasks here:

 

 

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Part three is live! Get rid of the old, loud fan in the back of the XBOX and replace it with a new, modern, quiet fan from Amazon. Also, for XBOX v1.0 owners with the fan on the GPU heatsink (active cooling), learn how to refurb the fan to quiet it down and make it last for the future.

 

Don't forget to like and subscribe to catch all new, original gaming content three times weekly!

 

 

 

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Not sure. I'm putting in the Rocky5 softmod via USB-to-controller port, and I believe it allows for controlling the fan speed directly from the interface. I'm sure that would help with cooling quite a bit. The new fan is much quieter and would move a heck of a lot of air compared to the stock one.

 

I forgot to put the link for the fan in the description, but headed back to the vid to knock it out. Here's the fan I bought:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Nexus-70mm-Real-Silent-Case/dp/B003PNLRLU/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=nexus+70mm&qid=1567778617&s=gateway&sr=8-1

 

I'll be sure to address fan speed control in the video, which I think I'll have completed in the next couple of days.

 

Thanks for watching them, much appreciated!

 

- Blaine

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Part four, the softmod tutorial, is up! Without a doubt, it's the most ambitious of the four in the five-part series so far. It's a complete guide on how to softmod the XBOX Classic using a USB Drive through an inexpensive cable and some free downloads. The end result is... well.. check it out here, and don't forget to like and subscribe!

 

 

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On 9/5/2019 at 10:53 PM, Gamemoose said:

Good stuff! I want to replace my Xbox's fan but just haven't gotten around to it.

 

I'm curious about the next video. I've softmodded mine and it has Unleash X on it. The sucker runs hot and loud (thus me wanting to replace the fan with something more quiet. Is this a normal thing with soft modded Xboxes?

It could be that UnleashX has cranked the fan to the max. I use XBMC on mine and had to manually turn on the setting to set the speed based on temperature. Not sure how UnleashX works, though. It could just be that your Xbox's fan is super loud. Mine was, even after turning on temperature control. I replaced the original fan with this, which was more-or-less a perfect fit. I've had it around 15 months, and it never gives any trouble. Several Amazon reviews agree. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003PNLRLU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

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Hello again!

 

This is kind of a "Part 4.5" for this series. I'm installing an upgraded HDD, but since installing games to it is the end game, here's a video on the easiest way to do it. By using the internet, FTP/FileZilla, and Archive.org, you can load games directly to the HDD with the use of a simple Ethernet cable. A softmodded XBOX with the stock HDD can even take games this way. The HDD Ready games are condensed down to their essentials, making them fit just fine even on a stock HDD!

 

Here's what you'll need to do to make it happen. Don't forget to subscribe while you're watching! Thanks!

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very informative!  I tried transferring files last night after not touching my 'box for what seems like forever. I had to tweak my Filezilla settings to eventually just have one connection for uploading, even though I set the Xbox for five connections. I kept getting "too many users" error messages. 

 

My dash also got hosed somehow, not loading when the system came up. I was in a late night (for me) panic. Thankfully after some grousing I got my thoughts calm and dug out my mod stuff. I was able to restore the dashboard with the Mechassault hack and all was good. Whew! 

 

My Xbox is now sitting proudly in the living room. I really forgot how fun the games are on this system.

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11 hours ago, Gamemoose said:

Very informative!  I tried transferring files last night after not touching my 'box for what seems like forever. I had to tweak my Filezilla settings to eventually just have one connection for uploading, even though I set the Xbox for five connections. I kept getting "too many users" error messages. 

 

My dash also got hosed somehow, not loading when the system came up. I was in a late night (for me) panic. Thankfully after some grousing I got my thoughts calm and dug out my mod stuff. I was able to restore the dashboard with the Mechassault hack and all was good. Whew! 

 

My Xbox is now sitting proudly in the living room. I really forgot how fun the games are on this system.

 

Great! So glad you have your XBOX back in business. They really are a lot of fun.

 

Coming up, I'm hardmodding a v1.6b XBOX I picked up recently. It's bone stock at the moment. Also looking to complete some cool case mods with it. More on that soon. Also going to TSOP the XBOX in the videos. I'll be posting videos as these mods / upgrades are implemented. Should be a lot of fun for us all and some great upgrades to enjoy.

 

Thanks!
Blaine

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Where can one get a replacement power supply board for a v1.0 X-Box??  As my old one blew up back in 2015 when playing a game.  It made a loud sound like a gunshot and on inspection the center of the board was blackend, cracked and blown out.  I removed it and threw it out as it was beyond repair.  Everything else inside seemed to be undamaged -- DVD & HD tested to work -- no visual damage on the motherboard and daughter cards.

 

Are there any newer high quality ones available?

 

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Ouch! That same thing happened to my first Xbox BITD. Came home to smell the burning in the air and a dead Xbox. It seems most have burned up due to bad solder joints at the plug where the A/C cord plugs in at the back, mostly from the years of plugging and unplugging. They can be reflowed (see video above) but not once it's already burned.

 

Ok, so to get a replacement:

 

As I understand it, v1.0 and v1.1 Xbox PS are interchangeable due to having the same number of connection pins on them. V1.2 too v1.5 are interchangeable and have different pin counts than the v1.0 and v1.1. Finally, v1.6 and v1.6b are interchangeable only with each other because they are 5v rather than the 3.3v of the others.

 

v1.0 - v1.5: 3.3v

v1.6 - v1.6b: 5v

 

So, you should be able to harvest a working PS from a v1.0 or v1.1 Xbox and get yours back up on its feet.

 

Finally, I'm not aware of a 3rd party PS replacement. Hopefully they will come out one day.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Blaine

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I just replaced my fan today. I was under the supervision of my safety manager, my 3 year old son, who was showing me what not to do with screwdrivers (juggle them about). Thankfully he nor my X-Box were hurt.

 

I have a 1.6 box, so no worry of leaky batteries. Your instructions worked like a charm: the fan popped out easily. I got the same model fan you had in the video from eBay and that went in just as easy. I forgot about the zip ties but luckily had two thin black ones in my tool pouch. Whew! 

 

I put it all back together and have my manager testing it with Bubble Bobble on Coin-Ops. That thing is now whisper quiet and actually seems to run cooler. Thanks again!

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On 10/5/2019 at 3:15 PM, Gamemoose said:

I just replaced my fan today. I was under the supervision of my safety manager, my 3 year old son, who was showing me what not to do with screwdrivers (juggle them about). Thankfully he nor my X-Box were hurt.

 

I have a 1.6 box, so no worry of leaky batteries. Your instructions worked like a charm: the fan popped out easily. I got the same model fan you had in the video from eBay and that went in just as easy. I forgot about the zip ties but luckily had two thin black ones in my tool pouch. Whew! 

 

I put it all back together and have my manager testing it with Bubble Bobble on Coin-Ops. That thing is now whisper quiet and actually seems to run cooler. Thanks again!

 

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with your XBOX and your son! I showed your post to my wife and she was also very proud of what you had to say. Glad the video was of help! That's my goal - to help out our fellow gamers.

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What started as a five-part series continues to grow! Just TSOP flashed the XBOX v1.0 and everything went wonderfully well. I put together a video to share my experience and to share techniques for getting it done to your own XBOX v1.0 or v1.1 with the Hynix, Hyundai, or ST TSOP chip. Enjoy, and please share any inputs you have - I always appreciate them!

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

After a TSOP flash of the OG Xbox, you can install a HDD from scratch of up to 2TB. It really opens up a world of content to be able to have it right there on the internal drive. Makes things run so much smoother also, especially in terms of loading from the HDD instead of the optical drive.

 

Here's a complete guide I put together to help you install a new HDD. The guide is focused on using a modern SATA drive instead of an older IDE drive, which should provide much larger storage options, performance, and cost than a legacy IDE drive (performance still bottlenecked at the IDE port on the mobo though :) ). Enjoy, and please share any inputs you have. I make the videos for you so your take on them matters a lot.

 

Thanks!

Blaine

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's a tutorial vid on how to replace the thermal compound under the CPU & GPU heatsinks. That stuff gets old and loses its effectiveness, resulting in rising temps and possible chip burnout. It's pretty easy to replace it, and the same principles may apply to other consoles as well. Enjoy!

 

 

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