I decided to set my box up, after I had it packed away for a while. When I turn it on, I get a wheeping noise (dont know how to describe it otherwise) from the upper right corner of the box. As the power cable port is there, I guess its the PSU. Is my PSU broken or is that "normal" when the box hasnt been used for about half a year? I havent opened it up yet (Im slightly scared that Ill break something), but if it helps with the diagnostics, ill go ahead and try.
Wheeping noise? Like maybe a coil whine? I'd be careful especially if it's a Foxlink powersupply, those things have been known to fail and catch fire .-.
The xbox is one of the easiest consoles to open. You won't break anything removing the 6 screws and lifting the lid off to have a look. And you'll have a better idea of where exactly the noise is coming from. Maybe it's just a fan that needs a bit of a clean?
Very true, when was your xbox made? You could have a version 1.0 which has a very small fan on the gpu which is a joke and causes a lot of noise in those models. Or your original hard drive might be failing, I've heard some horrible sounds come from a xbox before caused from the hard drive.
I dont know exactly when it was made, but I remember checking the version and its not a v1. Also, the box is chipped and has a bigger harddrive inside. Besides that, is running an xbox while open the same as running a PC with the case open? I remember something about the PS2 having a part, which would shock you if touched it when the console was on, just to make sure... Edit: I also think that I shouldve posted this thread in the repair section instead of here, if a mod comes across, maybe move it?
You dont have to worry about getting shocked while the xbox is open as long as you keep your fingers away from the power supply. I've forgotten I had the power cable in once and my hand went numb from the resulting shock xD. Also i'd imagine the thread is fine where it is because its a xbox repair related question and most of the people who care about the xbox community will be more likely to see it here.
It's the power supply, the foxlink PSUs did this after a while. It will work fine, but it does get annoying.
Okay, I opened it up and had a look inside. And HEX1GON has called it right apparently, its a foxlink PSU. If the box is still safe to use then Im ok with it (as in the worst case would be the box simply not working anymore one day). Aside from that, is that white stuff supposed to be there? (Click the pic for a larger version)
its just a type of glue that they used to try to cut down on any noise, you generally see that in really cheap PC power supplies as well. My parts xbox has the same psu with that white glue everywhere. View attachment 11037
Just to make sure again, the box wont blow up, just annoy me, right? I dont want to have another PSU going down with a bang, my PC did that and it scared me enough.
No it likely wont "blow up" but a Foxlink psu is one if not the worst psu you can have in the original xbox. Like I said, theres been times they have been known to fail and catch fire.. Since its already going bad I would just exercise a bit of caution with it by unplugging it any time its not in use. Its not really a good idea to leave them plugged in 100% of the time anyways.
Wasnt that caused by bad joints on the soldering for the power jack? Just resolder it up and problem solved iirc.
Yes it is caused by bad solder points. Sometimes you can just reflow the solder joint and it is ok. But sometimes it can get so bad that soldering it will just not hold, at that point what I so it run a piece of wire from the socket itself to the next solder point on the circuit board. That will solve the problem and last a really long time.
That's exactly what's happened with my ex-gf's XBox, we were playing Outrun 2... Pshhh... boom! and smoke lol.
Hm, looks like Ill have to look around to get the PSU replaced then, wont hurt too much since I didnt use the box that much, thanks guys.
Nope, bad joints on the power jack isn't what makes this noise. After repairing mine it continued. Replacing the PSU is the easiest solution
But then you have the annoyance of the XBox not keeping track of the time and date, so you have to re-enter it manually (since XBox Live! no longer supports the original XBox). Granted manually entering the time and date isn't a major problem (thirty seconds and it's done), but you'd think the XBox would have had battery supported time keeping, like just about every other console since the original XBox/PS2/Gamecube generation, the only other exception I know of being the XBox 360 (typical Microsoft, give you social media support that almost no one wants but neglects something that's actually useful ). Does the XBox One have the same problem?
