Hello, My mum was downstairs and my xbox was plugged in but not powered on or anything and she heard a pop sound and saw smoke so i rushed down to figure out what had blown (we have multiple consoles and other gadgets) I then proceeded to unplug everything and try to turn everything on at a time and my Xbox refused to power on so i took it apart and had a look but i can't seem to figure out what has blown there is a imgur link for you guys to see the Mobo It was last working Friday Night, The system is/was Softmodded with a Swapped HDD Link to images http://imgur.com/a/EEiJx
Well ummm perhaps the loose screw? Picture #5, lower left is the loose screw, however I would consider the PS junk, and just get a replacement 1.0/1.1 PS. Also of course, use CAUTION!
There are two screws loose in photograph #5. One in the upper right and one in the lower left. @Syclopse was referring to the one laying in the power supply. That MAY have been a cause for the problem, if in fact it was loose the whole time. Otherwise, the PS may have just decided to croak. I presume you verified that the outlet is working correctly - might have tripped a breaker somehow. Was there any unusual smell from components in the PS?
Audible pop from distance of a few meters could only have come from high value capacitor, transformer, coil or IC on the PSU. Also to see smoke coming out of the console tells me it's not a small component that blew up. It looks like all plausible capacitors on the motherboard itself are fine. From experience, issue is likely on power supply. Again from experience, it's usually required to replace like half of all the components to repair a blown PSU. Save yourself some useless hassle amd just replace it.
A cap probably blew face down on the board and it isnt visible. Probably replace the cap or get a new power supply. It might also be the clock cap (stores the time temporarily).
Even if the big filtering capacitors near CPU and GPU were blown, the Xbox would still power ON. It would probably throw a FRAG or some other error as CPU would init correctly but the system would be powered, with the fan working and all. If the system doesn't do anything when you either press Power or Eject button and no apparent damage is found on the motherboard, I would suspect PSU first that's for sure. One thing to check would be the bottom side of the PSU's PCB. Could you post pictures of it? Be very careful when handling PSU, there are components that are still electrically charged and can deliver quite a punch if you touch them. Personnally, I handle PSUs by holding them from the power-in connector and ATX harness (rectangular plug that goes into the motherboard). Do not touch bare metal components on it!
This kind of stuff is why I never leave any console or other game electronics plugged in when not in use, I am always afraid that either they will get damaged or somehow cause a fire when I am not in the room. I can fully agree with the others in this topic about the psu being the problem. Back when I had 1.0 and 1.1 original xboxes (maybe xboxen?, still doesn't look right) (now only have 1.4 and 1.6) the power supplies were a major problem, from stuff burning up in them to the port itself burning up or even getting detached they were quite a pain suffice it to say.
I'm the same, I never leave my switches on when I'm not home. People may call me paranoid, but better safe than sorry.
Where are the blades and rotor on your heatsink fan???!!! Why is there a loose screw on the bottom left of the psu board?
Lose screw is from the Hardrive/DVD Bay when i removed it and Rotor and Blades are on my desk as they came out when removing the bay as well I'll give it a shot and yeah i know about the dangers of capacitor's but thanks for the warning anyway.
Tommo I probably have a spare 1.0 power supply if you need one. I am in the UK so postage won't be a killer. Cheers, Mark
Sometimes its just not worth it to put so much time and effort, especially when Xbox console are cheap! I hope your new console will last longer!
