Help repairing an Xbox...

I'm so pissed...I bought my family an old Xbox off of eBay for Xmas and got a pretty good deal on it, but the person said the catch was that it would shut off after 5 or so hours because it was too hot or something. So I bought it anyway, thinking it would be an easy fix or something. Well I got it today and noticed it smells like smoke TO THE MAX. I figured the fan was just clogged with nicotine or something, so I blew it out and it seemed to work just fine, even better then my old Xbox. I played some games on it, left it on for an hour and all was well. I got home from work and cleaned it up and stuff and it was still working great, but then suddenly it does this thing where it starts up once or twice then flashes red and green and I don't know wtf it is other then the mobo might be screwed up. (The guy said it might overheat not JUST FUCKING DIE ALL OF A SUDDENOH: )

I called Xbox support and the accented guy told me it would be 80$ to fix it and it's a system error. That's crap cus I paid that much for it and I need it by Xmas. =(

The system hasn't been opened at all, it's in good cosmetic condition, and stuff like that, so I don't get it.

I was thinking about taking it apart, but then I can't send it to MS for a pricey bonafide fix...Does this sound like something I can fix? I was also thinking if it doesn't work and I can't get it fixed I could chip it or replace my old Xbox's DVD drive and stuff with it and then give it to them....which means I'd lose an Xbox, but I am getting a 360 soon so I guess I could live.

So yeah, advice on how to fix this as cheap as possible? Thanks!

 

Well the first thing I would do is take the xbox apart,look at the motherboard and the PSU.Check for anything that might be burnt,it could have alot of dust in it as well.Usually when a xbox flashes green and red its a bios problem or a hardware problem with the motherboard.Also what version is your xbox.

 

Chill. Its the soldier joints on the power board thats most likly causing the smoking and the smell. This is a very easy fix. I can try to work with you on getting it fixed but you might want to head to xbox scene. They are pros and thats where I get all my help from.

Anyway take the power board out and look at the back bottem side where the power plug connects. There are 2 large solder joints for each post of the power hookup. one is postive one is negitive. These commonly go bad on certain models and all that is needed to fix them is a large glob of soldier on each of them. This may also be why it shuts off. If those points are weak and they heat up they can move and short out. I would try that first then look for other things.

Let me know. Good Luck!

 

I'm not exactly sure, but looking at the serial number it's one that was made in China and it's way qiueter then my Xbox and loads faster, and mine was made in 2002 or 3....so I dunno. Not version 1 though. Manufactur date is 2004-03-09

 

Oh lol the smoking and smell I meant was the person smoked a lot since when I opened the box basically a nicotine genie attacked me. So it's probably a better idea to crack it open then just pay the 80$? What if I can't fix it?

 

Well it dosent sound like a system failure if you can get it to boot off and on. if it was toasted then it wouldnt turn on anymore ever again. I would still check the soldier joints on it if I was you. They could still be doing what I said, and if they are going bad and are left unchecked they could cause a fire.

The next thing to do is open it up and pull the heatsinks off the GPU and CPU (BTW: its quiter b/c the older model has a second fan in it on the GPU sink, newer models such as that just have a larger sink and no fan)

Once you pull them off check the chips then put new thrmal paste on there (artic silver ftw?)

After that clean it well and try it again. If it still does it you can rule out the PSU joints, dirt and dust, and chip overheating.

Oh and from the manufactor date I would say its a 1.1 as mine is a 1.1 and was made almost the same time.

Keep us updated!

 

CRAP SORRY FOR DOUBLE POST, ment to do a edit and typed it in the quick reply lol.




EDIT: also if you open it and cant send it back then you can sell it on ebay or the Xbox Scene forums. They are still worth a fair amount as parts machines

 

Hmmm....I guess ill have to decide if I should crack it open or bite the bullet now. Yeah basically turns on, off, on off, then flashes green and red....I wonder if I should give them my old Xbox and keep this and send it in later to have a new nicer one, combine the parts to make them a good Xbox, or mod this one and give them my old one. If it's a botched BIOS modding it would fix it right?

 

WTF?? I just hit power now after it was unplugged and it turned on like normal??? I guess it's doing this randomly? (Luckily I have an Xbox power protection cord in case it tries to explode)

So now wtf? Maybe it isn't BIOS?

Lol, played DOAU for half an hour, hit eject and it started doing the same thing. Looks like its doing this when I hit power on or off and eject, but not during game play. I guess I can overrule BIOS and it's probably overheating? If so I was thinkinh tossing a fan and some AS or something in it would fix it. Or maybe its the power solder thing.

 

trust me you need to open it.

When you do clean it and check the PSU. Then put new paste under both heat sinks. Then leave the top off of it and see how things go. If it still does it then let us know. But if I were you I wouldnt wait around. As I said you can most likly fix it yourself and if you cant its still a good parts machine.

I would say theres about a 90% chance that you can fix it on your own and if its a bios problem I have a chip and will fix it for you if you send me it.

 

Alright cool. I'll get my Torx tommorow and see what's up and tell everyone. Thanks! Seem's like it is just overheating and that I'll have to buy some paste but hey, cheaper then buying a new Xbox. At least this was just 70$ with the three games.

 

Alright, ordered some AS, an 80mm fan and then threw in a cathode for my comp hehe.

The fan I got was a regular 40 or so CFM fan, maybe I can toss it in the box or replace the stock one?

 

I think there is some kind of cutting required but im not for sure. I know its easy to replace though because everyone seems to do it. I on the other hand, find stock cooling is fine for up to 6 hours if your xbox is clean and well maintained.

Never have pushed past 6 stright hours thought BTW.

 

Lol well I doubt my mom or anyone will either, but just in case it gets left on or something...just got it in case.

 

What kind of flashing exactly? Orange and Green? Red and Green? Just Orange?

If it is Red and Green, there's not much you can do.

It'll flash Orange and Green if it doesn't detect a video cable - check the lead is good.

Other than that, it is usually a board fault, or maybe hard drive. You won't be able to replace the hard drive without a bit of MODification.

 

You'll need to cut up the hard drive caddy to get the fan to fit, but that's not that big of a deal if you have a Dremel. I didn't know I had one, so I melted mine down with my soldering iron (which was monumentaly stupid - don't do this unless you want a headache, a ruined soldering iron, and about -1,000 brain cells).

As far as the power supply - mine has a problem where it will randomly reset if I play for too long, but it always goes right back to the game. I've never bothered fixing it, but I'm not sure if it's similar or not to what you have. I'd think that if the connections were loose it would simply go back to your game.

One last thing: Unplug your Xbox and hit the power button a few times. Discharge whatever you can from that thing, since I've heard all sorts of great stories about people leaving them plugged in and shocked the hell out of themselves.

 

I cracked it open.....and there was virtually no dust or anything inside. It has no fans on the sinks. and right now i'm checking to see how warm they feel. I'm starting to think it isn't overheating but idk. basically,

after its been off or unplugged for awhile, (like where it asks for the clock stuff) it turns on and works. Sometimes it'll turn on, off then on and work. Then eventually during a game when you hit eject or power it'll revert to turn on, off, on and then blink red and green. So confusing. I just needa fix it by Xmas!

Maybe I should take a pic of stuff ont he board for people to examine?

After like 10 minutes of being on while the light flashed red and green the GPU was really damn hot, almost burning my finger! But that's wierd cus when it does the flashing problem it was cool...

 

Like I said take out the power board and flip it over and have a look at the main 2 soldier joints where the plug is and make sure they are 100% good.

Also take the sinks off and make sure theres paste on the bottem of them.

If worse comes to worse you could buy a mobo and matching HDD off xbox scene for like 60 bucks (even less if you get a chip so you can use any drive)

 

Ack, isn't it a little dangerous to unscrew that power board? That's the thing I always get freaked out at when taking apart stuff...

I got the CPU sink off (it didn't get that hot before) and it did have paste on it, damn small CPU too! But I can't get the GPU sink off! It's like glued on, how can I get that thing off? Just pull with some force?

 

You should have no problem taking out the PSU,I had to fix mine before because of the poor solder joints,very easy fix.Also try this,when you have the system on does the Nvidia chip get really hot,just put your finger on the chip and see how hot it gets.