Help me Identify this Mod / Mess on an XBOX

Wooo! The XBOX 1.0 forum!
Came across an XBOX at a friends house he picked up off a friend for $15 a few years back.
I haven't powered on the system yet but did have a poke around inside.
Here's the full resolution photos for any one keen to have a peek - Clicky
Quite a good find for what was supposed to be a simple capacitor repair weekend.

Could the 9V battery have only been powering the LEDs in the controller ports...? I mean really? :grief:
What's the IDE cable got anything running off it for?
Looks like I've got a bit of a capacitor leak down the front left of the machine too.
Edit: If anyone knows what value the leaked capacitor is... that would be great! I can only see 2.5V no uF rating though...!
Any ideas on what board revision is staring me in the face here?
Any suggestions are welcome as always :encouragement:

 

leaked cap i think is the supercap that holds current to save the time and date they seem to go first pretty common but i can't remember what the value was i just removed the one in mine and cleaned up the leakage as best i could., thats one messed up xbox lol

no idea what the rest of it is for?

maybe the battery is to replace what the supercap does?

as for the wires with resistors on them, are they going to LEDs or something in the controller ports?

maybe some kind of usb mod?

lol dunno what happened to that ide cable.. hdd activity led mod?

edit again after taking a closer look yeah i think someones used the 9v to power the leds... lol weird and covered in tape like sticky tape lol, some quality splicing going on there too, personally i'd just rip it all out n start from scratch

just some guessing

 

It does look like the battery was just there to power the LEDs in the controller port sockets... I see eBay has replacements! Woo! Baby steps!
Hard drive activity mod explains the IDE cable, there was a random LED at the front.
Mostly orange and yellow LEDs... WHY! Worst colours ever. :livid:

Should clean up well then with some new controller sockets and few new caps.
Might as well replace the ones in the vicinity of leaked one for good measure.
Good guessing! I better get back to Sophia since it looks like I will not be playing Burnout this weekend... :sorrow:
Maybe next weekend! :applause:

Thanks for the spot on guess work! :tranquillity:

 

just watch all them SMD components around the leak too they may lift off the board when cleaning if they're corroded enough, luckily there's nothing really critical in that area(its almost like they forseen the leakage lol)

but why why why the 9v battery?? lol why not tap the power supply? they didnt seem to mind splicing elsewhere eg the IDE cable.

seeing Sophia up and running would be excellent, majestic beast lol (or badass she demon from hell)

 

Haha, yes I don't understand that either. Why put a 9V battery INSIDE the machine (mostly taped... not entirely!) just sitting on circuitry...
What on earth is wrong with people!

I hope the optical drive and hard drive are working well. Ah well I'll aim to get some caps for the weekend and fix it up.
Spot on about that leaking cap being the date / time keeper. Might as well have been a juicy 3.6V NiCad sitting in there! :witless:
Wish I had my screwdriver set to have a look at the underside of the mainboard. There are a lot of ants moving around across the board...

Back to Sophia! The slave driver that she is. Only a few more caps to go! :encouragement:

 

I have some controller ports if you need them

 

What a nice sub-forum! Everyone here is so nice! :biggrin-new:
If you have a pair let me know how much to wire across NOT under the subject MOD CHIP and I'll have a chance of fixing it before next weekend
Going to order some caps a bit later this evening.
Were these old, 1.2 or 1.3 revisions soft moddable? I've been out of the game THAT long I wouldn't have the slightest!

 

All version are softmod capable, but only version 1.0-1.5 are able to be TSOP'd.

The ports are $2.50 each, I should be able to send them for the $2 you sent me previously.

 

You're kidding! They are THAT cheap? Definitely put a couple in the post for me!
You still got my details? Just name the cash amount I owe and I'll wire it across!

What's the best modchip these days for playing Burnout on an XBOX?
Any chance you have some of those as well up for sale? :congratulatory:

 

Yep, I don't overcharge man.

No need for a modchip at all, you have a 1.0 so TSOP the unit and flash your BIOS of choice. You will need a game to do this, AUF is probably the best and easiest one to use.

I'll PM you the total.

 

Oh wow! That looks like a walk in the park compared with anything else.
I don't suppose you have any spare screws lying about? :friendly_wink:
Whoever did this hackery, left all the screws out... probably so they could change the 9V battery easily... Hahaha!
More than happy to send more cash if you or anyone else has any! :topsy_turvy:

 

The 9v battery was probably done because someone didn't know fuckall about soldering or basic electronics beyond connecting a battery to LEDs. Obviously not hard to wire the LEDs with a resistor to the mobo somewhere...unless you don't have a clue about what you're doing.

 

Heck better than I'm capable of! Still in design terms I'd never intentionally seek aesthetics like this.

In any case, people should know their limit. I don't have all that much respect for users who jump right into ideas beyond reason to attempt.

 

Yep, it's a mess alright. The LED mess is in the bin now, unless anyone wants it? :wink-new:
Still with a bit of luck we'll have him / her (are XBOX units typically male or female or is there a 50/50 split?) cranking some Burnout next weekend.
I think there might be some busted up PlayStations lying about too! :congratulatory:

 

Yeah I have some screws if you need them. Check my XBOX parts thread in my signature for any other parts man. I have a few.

Whole screw set is 20c

Hopefully this doesn't make the envelope too heavy otherwise postage will be more :/

 

Not only will I get those screws, I'll get an IDE cable too to replace the cut ugly one we have.
Just let me know the damage on postage and parts for the additionals and I'll send it across! :encouragement:
I wish there were more Mega Drive repairers on this side of the earth like yourself!

 

Its a 1F supercap http://export.rsdelivers.com/product/nichicon/jumt1105mpd/al-cap-radial-mem-backup-27v-1f/7153502.aspx (ignore the picture its the right cap)

The xbox can function perfectly fine without it, you can allso softmod the system using the HDD hot-swap method if you dont have a game that the exploit works on, just be sure to TSOP flash it when your done

 

I'll probably replace it for the sake of replacing it. 1F sure is a lot of juice! :congratulatory:
I haven't looked into the different methods to softmod it yet, but I can't believe it is as simple as it appears to be.
Were there Executer modchips for the XBOX at any point? I seem to remember that name for some reason.
I did have an XBOX way back in high school and played Halo through to the end on our widescreen CRT - Great memories! :victorious:
But knowing that it can be softmodded without any certain games is handy to know and will definitely help I am sure! Thanks!

 

You can softmod without games, by Hotswapping. I honestly wouldn't bother with softmodding when you can TSOP and have modchip capabilities, larger hard disk etc
There was XECUTER chips for sure, where they all started. XBOX scene was fantastic. Reminds me of the good PSP scene, people were very nice to release all such great tools.

It's not like that today sadly. XBOX360 isn't bad but a lot of people can't spell or only type in text chat. :/

 

Softmodding may not fix the fan, just enough to get this Chinese Fable working. Version is NOT region free like I've heard about early US ones.