Xbox Trace Repair & Modchip - Retro Console Repair

[@BodziuM]

with that quality content this channel will be huge

[@BorderlineOCD]

A man can dream. Thank you for the vote of confidence.

[@danielclifft9371]

Just discovered your channel a couple days ago because I just got my first soldering station for college and wanted to get some practice by repairing consoles. I’ve already learned a lot by watching you and plan to cnmtinue coming back for the foreseeable future. Keep up the good work!!

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thanks man, I appreciate the sub and glad you're finding the content useful. Great that you just went for it and started tinkering. It's the only way to improve and its a fun hobby for sure.

[@baixinholacerda]

@@BorderlineOCD Hey guys what degree u guys have? i'm curious about fixing motherboards and replace components and soldering. I think I need some guidance.

[@BorderlineOCD]

300C is a good starting temp. Unleaded solder can require higher temps especially if its a large ground plane or a heat sink or something. Introducing some leaded solder works great to lower the melting point and makes removing components easier without increasing the temp too much, but sometimes I go up to 350C if it's going too slow. I don't have to resort to 400C often for desoldering but it depends how large the joint is and how good the heat transfer. If you're concerned about adding too much heat you can start low and dial up until it feel good. FYI most cheap soldering irons that don't have temp adjustment usually run between 400C to 450C. They'll do the job but those temps aren't usually needed.

[@pepijnwittopkoning4582]

You will probably never read this any more since it has been more than 3 years ago you made this video. But I wanted to see what an awsome video it is. Today I got a v1.0 xbox with exact the same symptoms as you described. I remembered that you made a video about it and I found this one. I repared the traces and voila works as a charm. I found it very hard to repair the traces. One trace i succeeded with a smal pies of wire on the trace slike you did but the other did not work so \I ended up making a wire from begin point to endpoint. But it works and it boots up!! Thanks again for this video.

[@taltechchip5827]

A Solder Bridge / jumper will only work without flux. You can stretch solder. But it has to be 10 seconds more or less old hanging on the solder tip smoking the resin away. The inner core of your solder wire contains also resin (flux) and has to vaporise first. Flux helps to flow. since it becomes more liquidity it can not easily bridge, it actually helps to unbridge :) Anyway the wire was an excellent choice. Love your channel!

[@BorderlineOCD]

When someone that knows what they’re talking about explains it, it all makes sense. Thank you, now that I think about it, I can see how I was unbridging rather than bridging with all that flux. Thanks for the feedback. Glad you’re enjoying the content 👍🏻

[@kellyliu4329]

Thanks for the engaging video! That dust scene was no joke.

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thank you madam, glad you enjoyed it.

[@RadioMartyT1B]

Thank you for not drowning the CPU and GPU die with gallons of thermal paste. So many tutorials I've seen completely overdo it. A tiny film layer of paste is all you need....you just need to fill in the microscopic pits between the heatsink and die/heat-spreader.

[@Junkyard_Dawg]

I see you were picking at that thermal compound stuck to the bottom of the heatsink. I have found that using something like Goo Gone and letting it sit for a minute works wonders on the sticky type of thermal interface material. I used some yesterday on a B450 chipset heatsink on a motherboard, and it works way better than isopropyl alcohol and scrapping. I also use cheap paint brushes (that I never painted with of course) to brush off most of the surface dust while cleaning off components. Compressed air works great like you use, or if you have a handheld Metro Datavac.

[@BorderlineOCD]

Yes, scraped away for a good long while on the GPU heat sink... And all those scratches are from a plastic spudger. That aluminium heat sink is soft! Okay, good to know. I have some Goo Gone and will give that a try next time. I fire up the air compressor in my garage for nasty jobs like this these days. I used to use a shop vac indoors but received a number of comments about ESD on one of my older videos. I want to do things the right way so I stopped using the shop vac for cleaning circuit boards.

[@GuillaumeHuetGH]

- What's your nail polish called ? - PCB green

[@BorderlineOCD]

Exactly. Love it.

[@brandon_nope]

@Conner Esteban bot

[@retromodpleb7732]

I learned how to repair trace corrosion on OG Xboxes thanks to you big guy!

[@Norrecito]

Conductive paint! You could try conductive paint next time when repairing broken traces. I suppose applying some UV mask on top will even help protecting it on the long run :) I once bought a Mega Drive cartridge that had 18(!) broken traces. I've spent a whole afternoon trying to bridge them but most of the gaps were just too big. I have eventually fixed it by using some fine wires but I have ordered a bottle of conductive paint right after that :)

[@BorderlineOCD]

Nooooo don't take away my soldering iron! 😢😭 Good suggestion though and it never occurred to me to try something like that. I just need an excuse to add something to my toolkit. 18 traces!! That's very cool, especially since it sounds like it was really far gone. There must be a goldmine of junk carts like that on eBay that could be brought back to life with some patience and commitment.

[@Norrecito]

@@BorderlineOCD Exactly, although I forgot to mention one thing: all broken traces were right above the pins. You have to use some very fine wires and a thin layer of solder there otherwise you can't close the cartridge anymore :) (Unless you want to modify the shell which I would rather not do) I bet that a skilled person with a decent microscope could do this without much problems though.

[@jacobbaylis5532]

Conductive paint isn't as good as a wire, I haven't done any testing with conductive paint but my theory is that it is definitely more resistive then a wire which can definitely affect performance depending on the device and trace

[@neojudasiscariot]

In my experience the conductive pens won't really draw or adhere to damaged pads or traces. Like at all!

[@DerekWilsonProgrammer]

@@neojudasiscariot Nickel paint (its like nail polish) that will stick, and you can mask off the area, then paint it in, silver paint works too, but it's more expensive. Conductive pen is just something to play with.

[@steliosemmanouilidis5050]

I dont even know why i watched this it was just too satisfying

[@adonian]

omg, great video... I still have my BEAST... I still have all my old systems. I will NEVER give them up.

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thanks. Yep it makes a great modded build even to this day.

[@eguevaralopez]

Been watching a few of your videos - good stuff! About the CPU heatsink bracket: you're removing it "backwards". When you raise the lever, there's an arm under it which is the same length. If you press down on that arm with your hand, and then use a screw driver to gently lever the bracket, you'll have a much easier time and won't break anything again ;) Good job on the repairs!

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thanks for the tip. I'm admittedly nervous to use a screwdriver after breaking one of these clamps (earlier repair video) but I'm sure there's a technique to it that I'll eventually master!

[@eguevaralopez]

@@BorderlineOCD Yeah, I saw that, that's why I'm mentioning this :) The problem there was that you applied force outward with the screwdriver, and on the wrong side to boot, that's why it broke. You should apply force downward on the arm, and use the screwdriver to merely unhook the clamp. Hope I made sense :)

[@usdms13]

Just found your channel a few days ago. Can't stop watching. Keep up the awesome content

[@RoseVine748]

Your content is quite underrated you truly deserve more subs and views

[@BorderlineOCD]

I appreciate that!

[@joesalgado]

Man this brings memories I used modified the case, chip and hard drive. I used paint the whole case, I would put the top cover in the freezer to pop the xbox jewel so I could drilled out, put led’s ring and put a customized laser cut clear acrylic jewel.

[@BorderlineOCD]

Nice, I was a computer gamer when Xbox and even the 360 were released. I am looking forward to doing an Xbox "slim" at some point. I have a unit with a bad DVD drive that's a perfect candidate.

[@resident_chaos8744]

With V1.0 you can just flash the TSOP by bridging two point on the board no need for the chip. Makes for a much cleaner install

[@play1ng4fun20]

Or you could just softmod

[@nicoful86]

I was the one originally suggesting solder bridging cracked traces. I think you did a great job here since the gap indeed was too large. You can always use a strand from a larger wire if you want something really small 👍

[@BorderlineOCD]

Nicoful! Yes sir, you are indeed the viewer I was referring to, and thank you for the suggestion. It looks much more professional like you said it would. Good to know you would have approached it in the same way eventually (with a small wire). Love the end result and very proud of the repair. Thanks again for your critique.

[@stevenbenson9976]

@@BorderlineOCD I'll add that the reason you weren't bridging with solder is because you were using flux. The flux will draw the solder away from bridging. Try it without in the future for fun.. A real long term fix is wire though, solder isn't really supposed to be a long term connection

[@stevenbenson9976]

@@BorderlineOCD also, is recommend splitting the tsop and using the dual 512 banks instead of the modchip with the single 256

[@SerenoOunce]

The bridge method may be neater but the trace corrosion will continue. Might be more worthwhile to just run bypass wires and be done with it. Side note, instead of removing the Clock capacitor I just mounted mine remotely. Even if it leaks a bit it won't matter that way.

[@pepsico1459]

Amazing, I didn't know the xbox classic could be modified

[@michaelmcmahon8312]

Awsome job on soldering those new wires to the Super small traces

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thanks man. I'm definitely proud of the repair and feel more confident to get deeper into board level repair. Super satisfying.

[@realgroovy24]

I've got numerous OG Xboxes, one of the ones I've done a trace repair on now won't open the disc drive unless I hold both the power button and the disc button. Random shutdowns are gone now at least but I have checked they're not shorting out something else and are all in the right place.

[@dodgydruid]

Back in the day, I became almost a professional heatsink lapper for PC's mainly Peltier and watercooling rigs but I did get on occasion OG Xbox's and I used to get them heatsink faceplates like a mirror and trued off so the pressure point was always optimal coverage against the chip. It was and still remains for me a soothing experience lapping by hand and the final polish to turn alloys and coppers into beautiful mirrors and it does improve heat transfer. I am not sure why the Xbox heatsink's seemed bowed and warped on occasion but this of course led to overheating due to the heatsink not interfacing with the heat source.

[@BorderlineOCD]

I can imagine that being a very rewarding task. Did you do it by hand or does it generally require a power tool of some sort?

[@crf80fdarkdays]

@@BorderlineOCD by hand and feel is the best, sandpaper on glass for a flat surface.

[@jaffleyfifteen5912]

Thank you for showing how to get the grey cover off the Thomson drive. Every other video skips that part and I couldn’t get that shit off

[@phasmagaminggr9121]

Very nice every video is clean no stupid music straight to the point very nice

[@BorderlineOCD]

Glad you enjoyed it bud.

[@37Kilo2]

I love refurbishing Xboxes. Probably the easiest console to troubleshoot and fix. I have about 15 old Xboxes in my attic awaiting repairs/mods.

[@drPeidos]

It's common for Xboxs to have those power issues caused by problems on the outer circuits on the back of the motherboard that you indicated. Don't know if it's true or not, but I've read, a long time ago on a forum post, that those vias usually go corroded after several years because the motherboard as a substance used during manufacture on that zone that wasn't cleaned, and to prevent more damage that zone should be cleaned with alcohol. I've done that in my Xbox and so far I didn't get that issue. Hope this helps someone.

[@MassimoAntonioCarofano]

Thanks for your video, my xBox Classic is now fully working!

[@ripleysmith7583]

When I have to make repairs to traces, I do one of three things depending on what I have a hand, copper shim stock, cooper foil, or the one I use the most take a thin wire pound it flat with a hammer and then cut out to size, but all in all you did a beautiful job. Congrats, Looking forward to seeing your next video

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thank you sir. I think if my wire had been any thicker it wouldn’t have worked well. The 26 AWG was the thinnest I had on hand. I do like the option of using a copper strand from a thicker wire. A lot of cool comments from folks like yourself and others on how they would have done it.

[@crf80fdarkdays]

I've been thinking about this hammering thin wire to size idea, maybe coil wire of thickness of choice with the coating burned off and get it cherry and quench it to anneal, I would say you could squish it in a bench vice with the right type of "soft jaws" to try keep it uniform.

[@ripleysmith7583]

It doesn’t matter just make it flat and get all the coding off of it and then solder it in and put either fingernail polish or mask on top of it.

[@momfiethehunter504]

Very nice job on those traces. Good video, What console are you looking forward to repairing next?

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thank you! I'm not sure honestly, although I would like to work on a few Segas and Ataris at some point. Right now it's somewhat easy to add a project to the backlog because I just shop for a console I don't already own, focusing on older systems. I have bought a couple of 'untested lots' and to my surprise several systems advertised as untested didn't need any repair (NES, Wii, Wii U, Master System, Mega Drive, PS3). It nice that I have those in my collection but sort of a disappointment that they actually only needed a cleaning which sadly doesn't make for an entertaining KZbin video :P I also think I'll be doing some preventative work (like recapping the NES) and a few more mods (my fiance seemed to love the Game Boy backlight mod so I promised her a Pocket one).

[@ghostmouthzach56]

Fantastic video, I am learning so much by watching you.

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thanks and great to hear you're finding the content useful.

[@ChillingSpartan]

People can say whatever they want but I think the Xbox Classic was the best console ever. I really love the design, it doesn't look and feel cheap, the controllers are great and the games were great as well back then. It's so sad that I sold my Xbox when the 360 came out.

[@BorderlineOCD]

They are still pretty cheap to acquire, especially locally if you find them. I don't think they're quite as collectible as they will be a few years from now.

[@FerJimenezLoyo16]

Wow, what a great, simple and well explained video 👏🏼👏🏼 I learned a lot, thank you!

[@BorderlineOCD]

Glad it was helpful. I have some newer content on Xbox modding that might be a bit more current than this video, although I still use the Aladdin's and mod most of my Xboxes the same way.

[@PiMpGranny]

Use a lower temperatures when trying to bridge so the solder won't stick to the iron as much. This should let you bridge easier.

[@AB-wi2mh]

Really fun to watch

[@IMDYT420]

Hello. Please think about investing in some 0.1mm patch wire. Make sure that the wire you are getting is enameled so that way it won't short anything if it touches anything. that will look much better than the 26awg wires and you will have a much lower chance of ripping traces possibly causing further damage. Also when tinning wires i usually dip my wire in flux and then tin it. i know its not needed but i think it helps the solder to get on the wire better. I hope this helped if no one else suggested this. Thank you.

[@u38xtvjs13]

Very nice to see such a careful restorarion. Liked a lot the tips on restoring broken traces. Did you know from experience what was wrong with the board? Thanks, as always.

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thank you! Actually, it was just the same issue as my first Xbox repair video from a couple of months ago. That one also power cycled and the power button didn’t work. Research at the time suggested inspecting the lower three traces. That one had one broken trace. This time I knew exactly where to look right away.

[@ronaldhenson3379]

Hi thank you your video helped me clean fix inspect refurbish repair restore reapply new thermal paste on the central processing unit and graphics processing unit and sanitized now it works excellent I bought a complete copy of def Jam fight for ny it cost me $50.00 Also $19.95 for the instruction booklet

[@thomasandrews9355]

I would have fixed it the same way, but using Kynar. Much thinner. Either way, you did a good job. Makes me want to go and look at a board I have (debug unit) that doesn't work...

[@BorderlineOCD]

That's cool, I've never seen a debug unit in person. Would love to come across one during one of my hauls.

[@TehShadowDeath]

KZbin has been recommending all these console mod videos and just seeing it makes me want to pick it back up. I'm about to mod my Dreamcast soon... And if it's still alive my Xbox. I didn't know about the clock capacitor so mine may already be dead. :/

[@norriszappa25]

Yours looks pretty clean inside compared to the one i worked on today. So much dust inside. it looked like someone dumped their lint trap inside the system lol

[@superspedboy0076]

@6:18 yes its cleaner but those traces are prone to fail and refail. relying on the repair instead of a replace isnt the best. rewire guarantees those traces will never be a problem again. just my 2 cents.

[@heli-man-]

For trace repair I would have used a few strands of copper wire it would have pulled into place nicely and gave the solder a path to follow try it out on an old board and see what I mean much cleaner looking .

[@aaronolsen1359]

Great content! I hope your channel continues to grow!

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thanks man, appreciate the support.

[@mahtism]

nice vidoes, discovered your channel after dusting off my old xbox! how are you using your imac as a monitor?

[@SuperLucasBros]

I'm enjoying your content so far and its persuading me to hard mod mine. What fluid do you use to peel the labels back cleanly? I don't care so much on my modified consoles but I have a nice crystal xbox that I want to cleanly attend to the clock capacitor. Thanks!

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thank you! I use 99% IPA and a sharp (new) single edge razor. Might be good to practice on one of your modded systems (even if theres a hole in the sticker) just to get the hang of it so you can attend to your crystal one.

[@RedOverlord]

You should have just tsop flash the system! You only need to solder 2 points together and flash a custom bios with the hexen engineering disc (these thomson drives wont read burned discs well though) a modchip is not needed and the onboard tsop chip has bigger space then this cheap aladdin chip which will allow you to run xecuter 2

[@twix92]

you can't flash the bios on the 1.6 xbox and hard mod is the only option.

[@InTheLabWithJayJay]

Hey. Great video! I was wondering what grease do you use for the disc drive?

[@mikisafe2905]

I like your work! Im now a member of the channel:)

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thanks and welcome.

[@wettuga2762]

That 26 AWG (0.40mm) wire seems too thick to soldier over the broken traces, wouldn't 30 AWG (0.25mm) be better? Or would it be too thin for the current running through the traces? I also have a XBOX v1.3 with broken traces waiting to be fixed and modded :)

[@BorderlineOCD]

Use thinner wire, I didn’t have any at the time.

[@Bun74]

Nice and neat! As you said ❤️👍

[@GreatHammurabi]

What did you use to get the wire to properly fuse to the board? I saw you add flux but I didn't see any solder. Do those types of wires adhere on their own with flux and heat? Also, what was the exact point of the nail polish? I'm new to all this so I want to make sure I'm doing everything right when it comes down to it. Great video!

[@BorderlineOCD]

Both the pad and the tip of the iron are pre-tinned with solder. For a small via like that, that’s all you need. It’s generally good practice to pre-tin anything else you’re soldering, like component legs. They accept solder easier and heat transfers better for good wetting. The nail polish is just a coating to prevent oxidation. Ideally you would use UV solder mask. Nail polish works well for a DIY approach.

[@EnkerVG]

this repair was a little bit more difficult for me... I hope I can see more of these videos..

[@dalanstagg3132]

This is great, I have a few (haha 7) OG Xboxs. I know I have 2 that have the same issue. Now I have something to look for. Thank you.

[@BorderlineOCD]

Nice. I have 4 at the moment. I look forward to finding some collective ones but they are too expensive when I've found them. Great and fun system to mod.

[@MrWaalkman]

Been a minute since I was in my Xbox. It's sporting an Xecuter mod chip from back in the day. The LPC header on mine wasn't through-plated. So after soldering in the header the Xbox wouldn't turn on. It took just a second to figure it out, and after fixing that I was good. Not that it matters, but I'm pretty sure that I used 30 AWG Kynar for my jumper. Interesting that you picked MechAssault to test things out, it was one of two titles that could be used for softmodding (that I remember anyway). The other being Bond 007 IIRC. I didn't know about the clock cap leaking. But I own Amigas, I know how to fix these things. Thanks for the heads up. :)

[@BorderlineOCD]

Nice that you have the Xecuter, they are very desirable nowadays. Soft-modding is the preferred option for the majority of folks on a v1.0-v1.5. I'm just more interested in hardware exploits and will probably always hard mod a system if I can do it. There are a couple of benefits to hard-modding but probably not terribly useful for most folks. BTW the clock cap is not an issue on v1.6, just FYI in case that is the variant that you own.

[@MrWaalkman]

​@@BorderlineOCD Yeah, I'm a hardware guy too. I put in the modchip and never loaded up any games. That was never the point, it was doing the hardware mod. So software mods are of no interest to me. BTW, remember the "Pogo pin" (solderless install) adapter? Famously unreliable. As for which one that I own, I doubt that it is a 1.6 since I didn't have to do all of those jumpers off of the LPC port that I saw being done here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jV66Yn-EmM-opLs But maybe that is an Aladdin thing? But I have three Xbox originals (and possibly soon to have more). And since I now have to pop the top and check the cap anyway I'll get the Rev level of the Xecuter board while I'm in there. Version 2.2 seems to be sticking in my memory for some reason. So I'm placing my bets on that version. :) Based on your video, I bought three Aladdin modchips "just for fun" which I'll plop in for the heck of it. Oh, and I liked & subbed, thanks for the great content!

[@noneed4me2n7]

I found a pristine 1.4 that hadn’t had its clock capacitor leaked and my friend borked it somehow during a recap job. He replaced with a really nice 1.1 but it still hurt. After watching this I wished I’d held onto it and had someone more capable see if it could’ve been fixed. I’m rocking 2x128mb TSOPed Chihiro setups with a 3tb (only about a 1/3 of the 3rd terabyte is usable) with most modern emulators Coinops 8 and Ninja massive with almost the whole OG Xbox library. Bought them from a guy named Masnart here on KZbin. I also scored a 1ghz trusty modded board but I haven’t done a drive for it yet. Plays some games to fast but I got it for enthusiast reasons. Got it pretty cheap only wish I could’ve scored a DreamX 1.4ghz variant.

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thats very cool. If you have love for a system you'll spend insane amounts on this sort of stuff. I'm a fan of a 3TB build and plan to do one myself. Granted space is wasted but its not an ultimate Xbox build without being able to allocate the full 2TB that the filesystem supports, and a 3TB drive is the only way to do it.

[@noneed4me2n7]

Borderline OCD who you telling every time I think I’m done someone comes out with something shiny and new that bleeds my wallet , but it’s all good. I’m going to do the fidget spinner mouse mod for paddle games; at least that will be a cheap project.

[@jeremyfortunethe1st]

There's a D0 point on the top of the MB so you don't need to run that wire over the edge to the bottom. But more than that, you have a copy of Mech Assault. And the board was already out of the case. Why didn't you just bridge the two test points and TSOP flash this instead of installing the mod chip? I personally remove the TSOP package and flash it in my programmer then just reinstall it. Instantly modded XboX! But you need a rework station for that. Also when you are trying to bridge points like the traces you repaired you will find that using flux like that is counter productive. Clean the site then heat both ends and flood the site with fresh solder. It will bridge every time.

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thanks for the comment! I'm partial to installing modchips. I missed the boat when the consoles were in their prime and I like the flexibility of having one installed now that I actually have the skills to do it myself. It's a fun and cheap soldering exercise. Its not necessarily meant to be a tutorial on the fastest way to mod your Xbox, its just how I chose to do it. I've also tinkered with a bunch of different firmwares after posting this video and flashed the chip several times - I wouldn't feel as comfortable doing that directly on the Xbox without the modchip installed. I had 1 failed firmware flash and had to hotswap the Aladdin with another unit to reflash it properly again while messing with the firmware options in HeXen. All in all great learning exercise and had a blast working on it.

[@jeremyfortunethe1st]

@@BorderlineOCD absolutely nothing wrong with that. I still have a drawer full of different mod chips from back when they were first released. I've been modding consoles since the PS1 days so I do things as efficient and cost effective as possible now days. It's cool to see so many people using these old beasts to get into electronics so have fun with it and do you!

[@Hounddoggy33]

New subscriber. Great repairs! Keep up the good work! Cheers!

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thanks for the sub!

[@EXITMUSIC2011]

You can flash EvoX hard moded over Microsoft's one without any mod chip on v1.0 Xbox's. I used thermally conductive paint.

[@johnyoungblood3612]

Awesome videos! What kind of grease do you use to lubricate your disc drives? Been trying to do some research but finding conflicting answers.

[@BorderlineOCD]

Permatex White Lithium Grease. Any lithium grease will do the job just fine.

[@johnyoungblood3612]

@@BorderlineOCD thanks for the reply. Starting my repair journey on an OG Halo Edition Xbox!

[@BorderlineOCD]

Very nice. Still hoping to find one of those on the cheap some day. Good luck restoring it.

[@CecilTheDarkKnight234]

Thank you so much for this video, I have OG xbox just sitting up my closet that needs some work done, this has more or less helped me out.

[@BorderlineOCD]

I’m glad to hear it

[@tahasama3157]

You're doing great man keep up the good work :)

[@BorderlineOCD]

Much appreciated, thank you.

[@nietjoost]

Good quality video, i will like every video man for you. I like those kind of video's

[@BorderlineOCD]

Glad you like them, and appreciate you liking the videos. Every interaction from you guys helps the channel grow.

[@lolzman2539]

Thats freakin cool, im gonna try this tomorrow

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Also replace the DC REGULATOR with a more modern TRACO regulator which runs much cooler.

[@coryrabbit]

"I'm gonna play for about half an hour to make sure there are no issues" Who are you trying to convince? Mech Assault is awesome!

[@MD_Builds]

For those tiny traces, You really should use a single strand of fine copper wire, or coil wire. The leads your using are way too large, and they could easily rip up the traces when being handled.

[@at-cj2iy]

You unlucky bastard you got the 1.0 board

[@thewoodbarionshow2223]

Great vid, and nice work 👍

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thank you, appreciate the comment.

[@migue647]

Excellent. Have you ever repaired an internal Playstation1 dar power supply? I ordered one online but it takes 20 days to arrive and I no longer want to wait v:

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thank you. I have not worked on that in particular, but have you checked the obvious signs like a bad fuse or a bulging/leaking capacitor?

[@the415giant]

I’m new at this, was wondering do I have to scratch off the contacts in order to check continuity because I used my meter and I get nothing. What are you using to scratch off the traces?

[@BorderlineOCD]

Yeah you need to. There is a coating that will prevent direct contact with the copper traces and vias. A fiberglass pen is best but in this older video I just used a pointy scrape tool. It will work just be gentle and check progress so you don’t take it to far. A tiny bit of exposed copper is all you need.

[@the415giant]

@@BorderlineOCD I ordered the xedusa hdmi yesterday so I thought I’d dust off my hard modded Xbox and get it warmed up, well it began to turn off by itself and when I tried to power it back on it would load for a minute then turn off again, I knew it was a bad trace cuz when I removed the clock capacitor I saw the damage but it wasn’t giving me any problems back then. After I watched your video I tested out the traces with my meter again and the only faulty one was the first one on the edge of the board, all the other ones had continuity, I lucked out, so I stayed up late getting my soldering tools ready and ran one wire, easy actually, cleaned up the points, assembled everything back, and I even tested it while my wife was asleep, amazingly it didn’t power on after I connected the power cord, it always did before, then the moment of truth arrived, I pushed the power button and boom! It works! No issues so far, can’t wait till morning after breakfast of course to give it a whirl, thanks for the video. 👍🏼❤️

[@fatbelly2438]

you can pick these up at bootsales over here in n.ireland for only a £5 or less

[@BorderlineOCD]

I occasionally come across the odd person that sells it that cheap and just wants it gone, but more often than not I have to pay a bit more than that for them. Still makes a great modded build in 2020 especially for the cost.

[@davidbrown1573]

Epoxy overnight on large pits before soldering, then apply any bonding or pad; if necessary, it will help in bridging with just solder. Also, if that's a THOMSON optical drive, throw that shit away.

[@BorderlineOCD]

I read they have a bad reputation but haven't had any problems with the Thompson drives so far.

[@AstarOfDavid]

Why did you not replace the leaky capacitor? The space is just empty on the board and the clock still works without it?

[@BorderlineOCD]

The system works fine without it and keeps time as long as its plugged in the wall (even if turned off). Once unplugged it will lose system time. I do replace it on my restoration of stock Xboxes (I do it just for the sake of completeness, most people don't replace it). I don't usually bother on modded builds though because a modded dashboard will update the system time on power-up when connected to ethernet, so whether you have a clock cap or not the system will always have the correct time when turned on even if it was unplugged. Also just FYI on stock Xboxes the clock cap can usually only hold the system time for a few hours when unplugged. It was not designed to hold system time like a normal clock battery.

[@AstarOfDavid]

@@BorderlineOCD Oh hey! Thanks for replying to an older video!

[@davidgosalveziii1503]

Would you be able to fix my Xbox with Aladdin chip installed already?? It gets stuck on the start screen :(

[@anthonyaviles8665]

hi i have noticed that the 1.6v xboxs are starting to leak their clock capacitors also have 3 that leaked

[@jamesdavies686]

You should get a little flux pen, just a small dab needed for through hole and soldering pads.

[@BorderlineOCD]

A couple of folks have suggested that on past videos. I guess they've tried the flux pen and like it. Given how expensive quality flux is I'll probably wait until the syringe runs out. I always felt a syringe would be ideal to precisely deposit the desired amount but willing to give other products a try. Any particular advantages you like about the pen?

[@jamesdavies686]

@@BorderlineOCD www.amazon.com/Kester83-1000-0951-Soldering-Flux-Low-Solids-No-Clean/dp/B004X4KOWS

[@haruruben]

GREEN NAIL POLISH? is it for Halloween?

[@michaelmcmahon8312]

I just had a question regarding the modding, did you have to tsop and softmod the console before installing the Aladdin xt modchip or was it not necessary to tsop and soft mod on a v1.0 xbox?

[@BorderlineOCD]

Nope, virgin Xbox. Just the modchip install. It’s compatible with all versions but on a v1.6 there’s more soldering work needed to rebuild the LCP port.

[@OGXDev13]

Can you show how to do a d0 trace repair can’t find anything on the net

[@CurrentGenGamesWithNick]

i hit trace on my 360 with screwdrive where x clamps pop out is you can see the cut on top is 360 done lol ?

[@hughmc1133]

How exactly do you remove the factory stickers may I ask?

[@smithincanton]

All versions of the Xbox save for the 1.6 and 1.6c have cap issues

[@hussainali-bq3gu]

Use old headphones wires very thin and looks clean

[@BorderlineOCD]

I've heard of folks using insulated wire from transformers or old power supplies for really thin quality copper wire. Either that or I should get some 0.1mm wire or kynar for patchwork.

[@jens_reset]

You tested that on an iMac?

[@HackerJack42]

I'm a little surprised you could solder what you did with that tip. The "B2" tip doesn't have the best geometry for fine work. Get yourself a "BC2" and a "KU" tip...they will make your life a lot easier.

[@BorderlineOCD]

I was actually considering the "I" tip for my next purchase, but haven't bought it yet. Assuming you like the KU for drag on ICs? What do you use the BC2 tip for?

[@HackerJack42]

@@BorderlineOCD The KU tip is for more than just drag soldering. It's great for applying heat to a wide area, but it also has a very fine point. The BC2 tip is similar to what you have now, but it has an angled flat cut into the tip. You can load solder on the flat area and get better contact with the joint. The BC2 is a great all-purpose tip. As for extremely fine tips, I would pick the ILS over the I tip. The ILS tip is longer and thinner. I wish they offered the J02 geometry for the TS100. It has the "I" geometry, but the tip is bent to the side so you can get into tighter spots.

[@BorderlineOCD]

Much appreciate, thanks for the thoughtful response. I might just cough up the price of the variety pack so I can familiarize myself with the other tips. It wasn't too bad working on this console with the B2 tip, but on the Game Boy Pocket Bivert mod video (the Pocket-specific smaller Bivert chip) I decided I needed a finer tip because it was a little tough.

[@MichaelM28]

Why didn't you just TSOP flash?

[@LeeColton1776]

Is there anyone that repairs these? Mine won’t turn on and the only thing I can think of that did it in was power surges we had in town.

[@injeraenjoyer4570]

The og Xbox is already a retro console? 😳

[@ehabelsherif5890]

Goooooood man

[@Gamemaster-hz6ih]

Which adapter do you take for showing your screen on your iMac?

[@BorderlineOCD]

I have a link in the description. It's composite and s-video only but satisfies my retro console needs.

[@notmyrealname1526]

Careful with v1.0 and 1.1, their power supplies use unleaded solder that evaporates over time and will short your console at some point. That's why Microsoft sent out power cords with built-in breaker, so the busted PSU wouldn't set your house on fire. Luckily it can be fixed by simply replacing the EU compliant solder with proper stuff.

[@BorderlineOCD]

I wondered why some units have those AFCI style plugs. None of the 1.0s I've bought so far have those.

[@notmyrealname1526]

@@BorderlineOCD You had to request them through Microsoft support after a series of consoles bursting into flames made it into the news. MS blamed "faulty power cords" rather flawed power supplies, probably because cords that prevent fires are a lot cheaper than fixing/replacing tens of millions of power supplies. As I said, replace the solder in the power supply. Otherwise it's a matter of time until the console fries itself.

[@JoseMedina-hs9st]

You actually do not need a mod chip the xbox you could actually use a soft mod By using splinter cell And by using USB Flash drive

[@thomasandrews9355]

Modchip?! You could have just TSOPed it. I have a few modchips myself but only for 1.6s

[@kohlmannn]

I wondered a similar thing. I have both a v1.0 and v1.1 and I did not use a chip for either console. Is there an advantage to using the chip versus just doing a TSOP?

[@BorderlineOCD]

Maybe a couple of advantages for tinkering but probably not for the average person. I like chipping my consoles so I'm partial to installing a chip. It's a fun soldering exercise and it's quickly reversible (remove the chip from LPC and its back to stock). It can be useful for hot-swapping a bad flash on another chip so it's good to have a chipped console ready to go. I've only encountered this once and it was fairly painless to revive the second chip. I'm also considering doing a "slim" Xbox in future (remove DVD and trim down case). I'd feel more comfortable flashing a no-DVD bios to the chip while experimenting.

[@niamaru2]

hey I know I am a bit late to this one but Great video :)

[@BorderlineOCD]

Thanks glad you enjoyed it.

[@derekw.7255]

Did you replace the rubber band in the cd rom drive?

[@BorderlineOCD]

Not on the Thompson drive no. I was only able to find drive belts for the Samsung and Philips drives but not Thompson.

[@ronaldhenson3379]

Totally I have a 1.0 original microsoft xbox and I removed the clock capacitor

[@michaelmcmahon8312]

By any chance have you had or know why an Xbox same model as yours when powered on with Aladdin chip installed powers on 3 times then stays on with red and green flashing lights and how to fix this problem

[@BorderlineOCD]

I believe that’s called triple FRAGing (flashing red and green). Turns on, off, on, off, on, FRAG. Bad solder joint most likely, unless you were updating the firmware and it failed? Bios isn’t loading. If there’s no modchip then harder to track down. If you remove modchip and stock bios loads can help confirm Aladdin chip is either not properly installed or bios is corrupt.

[@michaelmcmahon8312]

@@BorderlineOCD well I took the chip off and it still powers on 3 times and flashes green and red light so what does this mean something serious is wrong with my console

[@BorderlineOCD]

I wish I knew I don’t have enough experience with FRAGing other than a finicky modchip. Just confirming it happened all of a sudden i.e. NOT during a bios flash? Its going to be a pain in the butt to track down but if you have it open already maybe you can eliminate the obvious like damage around the clock cap area, check continuity on traces that appear compromised in any way?

[@michaelmcmahon8312]

@@BorderlineOCD thank you for all the help you could give me much appreciated and will take everthing in consideration and go over the console very slowly over everything on the board and take take from there. Thank you again for all the help😃

[@gavinowen4776]

Is there anything like this for xbox 360 and PlayStation 1

[@BorderlineOCD]

For sure. You can JTAG/RGH an Xbox 360 although the process is more involved (requires a NAND programmer to dump the NAND and some experimentation with timings to get a stable boot). For the PS1 you can load games from SD using the PSIO or by installing an ODE like the XStation or Terraonion MODE.

[@gavinowen4776]

@@BorderlineOCD thanks 😊

[@gavinowen4776]

@@BorderlineOCD if it come to it can you make a video on both projects please

[@Wayno220]

what solid core wire was that on the Aladdin xt?

[@BorderlineOCD]

It's a bridge to activate the modchip permanently (i.e. always on).

[@Wayno220]

@@BorderlineOCD no, what wire? Awg? Kanar wire?

[@BorderlineOCD]

26 awg solid core wire. You could use anything though, kynar, magnet wire, an old component leg will also do the trick.

[@JoseMedina-hs9st]

Those are the worst DVD drives for the xbox in the future you Should swap that DVD drive and put a philips drive or a Samsung drive Those or Thompson The Thomson drive was use from 2001 to 2002 And then from 2003 to 2005 they used philips and Samsung