I Bought a FAULTY Original XBOX Crystal | Can I FIX It?

[@StezStixFix]

Stupid Times Table

[@infin1ty850]

Yay, I forgot it was Wednesday

[@cbleslie]

Don't give up. You'll get it!

[@stevenbenson9976]

The clock cap was probably fine but no harm in replacing it. Stez needs to check his for trace rot

[@PontiacKid2]

We're with you, it was 27 for sure :P

[@jojob6669]

If you see on capacitor the spot welding parts on side has a + and on other side a - sign

[@Fox-Tech]

I suspect that the positive side would be the one that has the plus sign pressed into the leg, where the minus sign is on the negative side.

[@StezStixFix]

Yeah, that makes sense! Didn't see that 🫣

[@MartynChadderton]

Glad you spotted that too! Thought I was imagining it 😂

[@thomasdoherty6876]

I thought it was obvious too 😂 never mind ste, we all make mistakes

[@joelgraham6820]

I spotted that as well, and remembered the reference in another video. Surprised that whatever website talked about the arrows didn't mention the + and - indentations on the legs.

[@davelukeford]

Came here to say that. 😂

[@AppNasty]

Anyone else love this channel vs other repair channels because it feels like you’re actually hanging out with him? Other channels do too much production and it just feels like you’re watching them….vs one on one hangout. So relaxing.

[@lebouffeurdemoules]

My Mate Vince

[@Boru06]

Ah its just class. He's a very likeable chap and very funny too.

[@--Zook--]

Not repair, but Dawid does tech stuff has similar humor. great channel

[@rob6890]

Exactly this. You’ve nailed what makes these so watchable.

[@andrewsmith1204]

13:29 the indentations on the welded legs are also in the shape of +/- signs. Neat!

[@JoRoBoYo]

😂

[@nokiaringtonearabic]

FYI, the HeXEn disc is a tool for modded systems. HeXEn, in this case, stands for Heimdall's Xbox Engineering disc and it allows you to do a whole ton of stuff for modded systems, such as TSOP/modchip flashing, installing another dashboard, etc etc.

[@CrashFan03]

thank you kagura

[@woovs101]

I've watched this channel grow so fast in the last year... congrats Steve, you deserve it

[@frankurmom8741]

Steve, the clock cap is only rated for 6 hours of power. So what you had just meant it was unplugged for more than 6 hours.

[@OldUKAds]

I'm no expert and couldn't do most of shit but just admit I thought shouldn't you plug it in, set it and see?

[@esraeloh8681]

Is that seriously all it lasted, that's crazy. My brothers Pokemon Blue with original battery is still somehow holding enough charge, mind you, our Gold & Silvers died, only discovered that in 2021 how much power do those timing crystals consume. And no I'm not comparing batteries to Caps, I know they are night & day in terms of total energy, just thought it might've been a couple days.

[@pw7752]

Absolutely right - my crystal green one is the same.

[@CommodoreVic20]

​@@OldUKAdsabsolutely

[@yotoprules9361]

it still should've been replaced because they're almost guaranteed to leak by now

[@FrozenSpark12]

The driver belts getting lose is a common problem on OG Xboxes. I had it on both of the consoles I worked on. I got a pack advertised as "Xbox360 driver belts" from China since I could not find any for the OG Xbox, but they worked great. The clock capacitor only keeps the time for around 6 hours. It will still ask you to set the time after that, that's why many people don't even bother to put a new one in. Don't think you need to put thermal paste around the CPU as well. That area doesn't seem to make contact with the heat sink.

[@fadetonoir6152]

Very common problem on 360s as well. Boiling them does help but I always have a pack of new ones on hand. And yeah they're interchangeable - they're all just 1" bands, if I've remembered the size right.

[@sorakat42]

Seeing you take apart an Xbox makes me feel more confident in getting into mine. I've been meaning to take care of the SUPER clock capacitor on mine before it can go BOOM!

[@StezStixFix]

It's actually nice and easy to take apart. Definitely worth dealing with that SUPERCAPACITOR before it explodes! 😁

[@DForce26]

If you have a 1.6 revision MoBo, you are good... Only the earlier revisions had bad clock capacitors.

[@electrohacker]

They dont usually go boom on 1.6 consoles

[@Ll3maFN]

unfortunately they still do, ive seen many 1.6'es that have started leaking out the legs. worth it to replace on 1.6'es now @@electrohacker

[@sorakat42]

@@DForce26 I doubt mine is a 1.6 board based on its manufacture date. So I should get it out my closet and pop it open sooner rather than later.

[@memonrunescape]

This is a 1.6 model which has a slightly different board layout and are MUCH less prone to the leaking clock capacitor, I modded my crystal 1.6 last year with a re-pro aladdin XT and a 1TB HDD. If anyone else wants to do this you need an 80 pin IDE for the IDE to SATA converter to work properly. I thought this was a pretty fun project and actually led me onto RGHing some xbox 360's that I rescued off of facebook marketplace.

[@AstralPhnx]

Appreciate the info! Didn't know that about the IDE cable.

[@DazGeary]

lol, that Super Cap had a plus + and a minus - constructed into the silver tab legs. For next time. luv your work. Daz xx

[@MichelF]

The sound when adding the incorrect thermal paste, hilarious! I think TronicsFix will love it 😂

[@leemajors3834]

Lol Genius and had me in stitches also

[@Sydney268]

Hahaa, you was just trolling us putting the thermal paste all around the die - loved it.

[@ada205mi]

Was expecting a wrong answer, but genuinely nearly choked as sipping a can of Pepsi Max when answered 27 to 3 x 2!!! Stupid times table!!! Best and most entertaining retro repair channel around by far, deserves all the success and more. Can't wait for next vid.

[@trancematic007]

Don't know why and how I came across your channel and never in my wildest dreams would I think anything like this would be interesting, but your skill in fixing things and presentation and humour is fantastic ,also your editing of your videos brilliant .

[@Toasty1992]

as a fellow commenter said it dose feel like hanging out but also feels like a 90s tech show, just the calm voice and suttle giggle :) and the going in blind and being a little stumped here there is brilliant, feels like learning together :) you sir have a new subscriber! (Y)

[@cuppacheese]

One thing to note… I have seen in some of your other videos as well, when you test capacitors, you do not let them test long enough. When testing capacitance on a multimeter, you have to give it some time to charge up. This goes the same for that component tester. Cheers!

[@ShALLaX]

The hint for the capacitor are the big + and - signs on the terminal welds. Also, never put thermal paste around the die, it'll just trap the heat in the thermal compound with nowhere for it to transfer.

[@EikottXD]

Yeah I hope he sees this.

[@RobSchofield]

@ 13:10 - the hint is the big "+" sign embossed on the connector tab on one side, and the "-" on the other 😊

[@techrestoread]

Nice one you away make me laugh on here you put in a fun way on restoring things :-)

[@Stu2be2]

14:10 that track time attack well good 😮 Had to buy the track ❤

[@woolfy02]

Awesome job! I remember my first OG Xbox that I had softmodded, to run games and what not. (I Transferred movies / games to it via FTP...lol) The good old days.

[@benholt5273]

If you look where the spot welds on the new clock capacitor are theres a plus and minus stamped into the metal

[@familytrieserichiltz940]

There is something wildly satisfying about watching you clean and solder. I know little to nothing about working with circuit boards but find your videos to be informative and so relaxing! Thank you!!

[@gentle285]

I love how you heated up the stickers first, and also that you tested the new battery thoroughly. Great job!

[@olivierallemeersch1966]

For the capacitor. The negative side has a rectangular recess in the middle and for the positive a cross-shaped recess 😃 Love ur vids!

[@GTXDash]

That is a great find for just 10 quid. Only a minor problem. Very clean and snazzy looking thing.

[@tonymatthews2987]

I find it very satisfying when Steve manages to fix items that seem beyond repair great channel Ste cheers

[@me0262]

That was a 1.6 console (the extra ram pads were removed), so the clock cap didn't need replacing (and it won't run without it). All you needed was to boil the band as those (as you saw) can settle into position. Great buy for 10 pounds! Next up you need to either chip it, softmod it (recommend 007 Agent Under Fire), or TSOP flash it (a little more difficult on 1.6 boxes).

[@TrimeshSZ]

You can't TSOP flash a 1.6 - on these machines the boot ROM is combined with the PIC that controls power sequencing in a custom chip called "Xyclops"- if you want custom boot code you need to add a modchip on the LPC bus, but you need to fix the traces for the LPC data lines that MS removed first.

[@dolphin7607]

Just love the video and how you present them, glad to see your improved since your first video, been catching up on your back catalogue. Thanks a bunch for the light relief, stupid or not well worth the watch.

[@new_oldstock]

You maybe already know this now, but the replacement cap that you used there has a "+" and a "-" stamped in the legs where they are spot welded to the cap itself. Love your vids, keep up the great work!

[@GrantHarvey-tx9sl]

Hi Steve,I work on a lot of gaming consoles & the best method I found for removing hardened Microsoft thermal paste is to use a couple of sprays of THE WORKS Geocel Multi Use Cleaner.softens the paste up much better than alcohol & you can get it in 500ml aerosol form.

[@moewiggins7832]

Man, you crack me up. I only found your vids a couple of days ago, but I love watching them, you're so funny and cool (and you fix stuff).

[@doenerbude6573]

I love the xbox classic. I have been in the modding scene of the x360 and the ogxbox for quite some time now and absolutely love the nostalgia this console gives me. Very nice one you got there. Enough written, now I have to watch the video. :D Greetings from germany.

[@JoshBattin]

NGL, this beat slaps. That bassline!? Buttery!

[@christopherdecorte1599]

Great video would still replace the belt though they are super cheap. As long as the drive opens it can be charged with a tweezer thats how i charged mine.

[@timehunter9467]

I love the look of clear/translucent cases on electronics, I had the purple gameboy colour and I thought it looked awesome with the components on show.

[@Dinosword2000]

11:30 The thermal paste sound effects... I'm dying! 😂

[@TheScubapez376]

Great Vid, Fantastic Find and repair. The only thing I would of done any differently is change the Clock Battery. (You may have done it off camera) But as you had it open I would of changed it anyway especially with the clock fault. Thumbs Up, will look out for more of your vid's as it was very entertaining and fitted in with my humour. Thank You.

[@telecomsuk]

I bought a new one of these in 2002, upgraded the HD and software, then swapped all to a crystal case with crystal controllers when I could get hold of a crystal case . Still works great even in 2024.

[@Toni-bf6fy]

I’ve been watching for a long time now which gave me confidence und fixing stuff so I ordered my broken Xbox a week ago and am now just waiting on parts to fix. The only problem I have is the case which is completely busted lol

[@paulwilson1555]

If you look at the capacitor, it has a metal cut out + on one side and a - cut out in the metal on the other side, which I guess is how it has been labelled up in metal.

[@propulsar]

Great to see you back. Looking forward to following progress.

[@willrobinson7599]

This I think was prob my fav console, the amazing modding scene adding bigger HD, lights ect made this an amazing console . Still got my original clear xbox now , got 1tb sata drive in it full of emulators and xbox games

[@Okurka.]

Why SATA?

[@willrobinson7599]

@Okurka. as ages ago I got the sata adapter kit and new cable , think sata drives faster at accessing too.

[@michaelarmer256]

Morecambe resident here love lees games

[@usersnoozer846]

Lee is a good man

[@davearthur514]

If you look on the cap. where the pin is welded with 3 dots there's a minus on the negative and a plus on the positive.

[@billcarson9565]

I still got mine, with the Xecutor 3 mod installed, all fully working!

[@SUM1SLY83]

On that battery there was an indentation of a plus and negative on the frame bit that is welded on to the battery.

[@mightywiz]

The cap has a plus and minus right on the legs. It’s stamped into the leg and the spot weld are inside the pressed part.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

Depending on how long it was disconnected from the power it will still ask you to reset the time. It's a cap, not a battery.

[@PontiacKid2]

Saves the time for something like 6 hours or so. :)

[@AdBlock-User]

Reacted to that too. As far as I remember, the clock lasts around 5-10 minutes max. It was a cheap way Microsoft did it. EDIT: Taking that back. According to the MS website: "up to about three hours after losing mains power"

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

@@AdBlock-User Even if Microsoft had used a rechargable battery for that you'd have to exchange it by now, because those batteries would be mostly dead.

[@matthewwilliams5258]

Because of the way the clock circuit is made a battery would have lasted 10-20 minutes

[@AdBlock-User]

@@MyRegardsToTheDodo You don't need a rechargeable battery. The CR2032 battery in my NES game from 1993 still keeps the save file alive.

[@robertomoi2044]

This takes Me back. I remember the disc drive has to be specific to the board or u have to flash it.

[@Retro_Care]

what a steal, good find!! i still love this console, loads of modding potential as well. thanks for the upload :) i enjoyed it. many will say just leave the cap out, i have 6 xboxes and i also replaced the cap in all of them as well.

[@watchingdanny]

Excellent video. I love my original Xbox. If I ever go to England, I will endeavor to find one of these original clear models just for the case. Great job Steve. You covered everything... dusting, capacitor, drive cleaning and lubing and thermal paste. Now you just need to mod it. 😎

[@theminicooper]

17:38 I must admit, I was expecting a "Well it seems it's still broken..." 😆

[@CinderGamingChannel]

The Crystal Classic! That beat though when ya start cleaning the disk drive!!! ✌️

[@gregorybrashear1520]

You are one of the funniest tech repair or video game guys on KZbin. First video I have watched and you got my Sub!

[@ralphj4012]

Definite value for money. Advise against connecting / disconnecting powered mains cables (although the crackle is amusing, eventually leads to pin degradation and arcing). 1 + 2 x 3 is?

[@Easy-my9gk]

Some of the best entertainment on YT, great job Stez!

[@barrysauce]

Nobody explains the whole thermal paste debacle better than you do man that was pretty funny.

[@KeyringHardhat]

My disc tray did this on my console as a kid, a firm thump to the top when pressing the open button did the trick.

[@adw147]

Love the seagull noises 🎉

[@maffil356]

I've had so many of these over the years I use to buy them DIRT cheap at carboots, the lowest was a fiver back in the day but it had a hard drive issue so wouldn't boot....Scoured the internet and found an absolute GEM and managed to backup the eeprom to write to a new bigger drive.

[@urglegurgle5807]

I liked the stress that no one had been in it before as the label is intact, before using heat to remove the label so it stays intact.

[@Heimdall3011]

At the welding point of the legs on the capacitor there is a large positive and negative on it

[@oldschooldude8370]

I wish i hadnt of sold mine. Only had to replace the psu. Ran like a champ for years as mainly a dvd player.I replaced 40 pin cable with an 80 & reapplied paste as well.

[@Rybagz]

Heatsink paste application, you should have used a Hitchcock movie scream clip. The CPU just needs about half a grain of rice worth on the die (small square raised silicon at the centre) - too much or some around the side is risky in that it can ooze out and can be conductive or capacitive. The GPU - the X method is probably best and you don't need much at all. Draw the X from a few mm in from corner to corner.

[@MauR1CEnl]

Waking up on sunday with a cup of coffee and a new video. Life is good. ☕️😊

[@flumphflumph6021]

Amazing. The Disc Drive reads Discs. I hope you know how rare that is nowadays, especially for a Crystal Xbox.

[@superamario6464]

Ah Lees Games! Got my white gamecube from there in 2013! Lovely part of the north west.

[@JohnnyRapture.]

Love this channel. I watched a lot of videos over Christmas break!

[@edwardbwmn]

Steve you never fail to put a smile on my face

[@mopsandmuscles7855]

Funny, TronicsFix just uploaded an OG Xbox repair video yesterday. What a coincidence

[@mjh17474]

You spurred me on to get mine out of the attic and yes, it had leaked everywhere! 3 hours on and we're back in business 😁

[@axelackens2157]

The welding marks shows the polarity at this capacitor + and -.

[@PontiacKid2]

I just started getting into fixing these things and it's cool seeing you posting new videos about them.

[@Dukefazon]

Reparing the OG Xbox is cool, you have a high chance of bringing it back to life! There are about 5 different major revisions to the motherboard and only 1 of them requires a clockcap installed, othervise it won't even start. The older boards can run without a clockcap, don't bother replacing it. If you see a dull spot around the clockcap, the juice has been released and you really need to remove it and clean up the mess. Sometimes the big caps around the GPU or CPU can get bulgy (resulting digital screen issues, flickering and such), replace them you should. Sometimes the clockcap is eating away thin traces alond the edge of the motherboard, the sympthom is that the power and eject button act weird, you need to jump the broken trace and you're good to go. Check the PSU terminals where you plug in the wall plug, sometimes they can crack if it's the type where the metal prongs are directly soldered to the PCB (later they used wires that ran from the plug to the PCB to remove the plugging-in action's stress from the PCB soldere joints). The last but most important issue with the OG Xbox is that the hard drives can die and you need to replace it. You need to read the hardware key with a serial reader thingy (easy to make), then you need to initialize a HDD and lock it with the proper hardware key for it to work. This is the most complicated part of a repair and you need a PC for it with the right programs but if you are more a software person, it's not that hard, there are plenty of help online. Ohh, and a +1 issue is with the optical drive, if they fail, I don't know what to do, because they are custom made for the machine, maybe you can source a laser, I don't know... But you need a drive because on the boot sequence the OS is looking for a drive, without a drive your machine won't boot. Your best bet is to put a softmod on the HDD and run games from it :/ When the drive can't open, it's usually because the belt is slipping and it needs a little more force to break the magnet's force that's keeping the disk in position (there's a puck-like thingy in the middle that's snapping to the center of the spindle when the tray is closed and the mechanism rises, there's a magnet that has the force that the belt needs to overcome). Clean the rotating parts where the belt goes around and maybe you can replace the belt itself if needed.

[@brbZoning]

13:20 isn't that a - stamped into the metal then when you flip it it's a + stamped in the metal... no?

[@ninaevans4501]

Lovin' the humour, and the 1980's style in repair soundtracks. But, let's face it, STUPID at the end of the day Steve. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️👍👍👍👍👍

[@Gamersoft1124Pro]

I have dumped the firmware out of the 2 Samsung Original Xbox DVD drive Revisions, the PLCC32 flash named SST on the bottom right corner of the main DVD-ROM drive pcb at 5:28 Minute

[@enchantededition6879]

I would have started with the side eject slot through the side grill to start with. Manual ejection baby 👌 That capacitor literally has plus and Minus on it as well as arrows 🤣👍

[@stephencooper3067]

Couple of years ago i got a crystal Xbox from Sore Thumb Games in York with the exact same issue. My unit had the same amount of dirt on the dis tray rails as yours had. Cleaned that out and its been working fine ever since, still with same rubber bands too. Really surprised thats all it was for mine

[@essexlad8151]

That was one sexy clean looking xbox! Must of been kept in a box/bag all this time and really looked after when it was working.

[@Aesop531]

It was a pleasure. Great, entertaining, education!

[@mastergx1]

Just a quick FYI, when it comes to boiling belts - i've found the putting the belt in pre-boiled water on the hob and then full blast for 10 mins works better than just plopping it in boiled water.

[@Wii1235]

This makes me more confident to open up my own XBOX to fix the disc drive and replace the SUPERCAPACITOR!

[@Effect2o]

Yet again another AWESOME video!! Thank you. You sure do make this repair stuff look fun!!

[@steo.c]

Nice bargain, this looks so clean. I recently got a v1.4 console sold as working. When I opened it up, the clock cap had leaked all over it. It was so corroded that one of the legs came clean out of the cap when I was removing it. The amount of dust inside the console was unbelievable, you would almost think it was a dust bag from a hoover before I cleaned it.

[@happenstance7530]

I had problems with the disc drive in those too. With mine it seemed like the magnet on the disc spindle was too strong and if there was no disc in the drive the magnet would not release from the spindle to let the tray slide out. I just kept a disc in it all the time and that seemed to work.

[@Barry101er]

I remember when "see-through", electronics was a thing for a bit; I had a monitor ( interestingly named "Formac")for my Power Macintosh G3 tower (Blue and White)

[@enragedbacon470]

you can also see on the new capacitor that the metal tabs on each side also have a + and - stamped in the metal

[@williamsmith169]

Loved the video, as always. Quiche is pronounced KEESH, fyi. The joke from Red Dwarf was that Rimmer's tshirt "Give Quiche a Chance" (which sounds like "Give KEESH a chance") is a play on "Give Peace a Chance"..

[@decisionsdecisions8906]

By far one of the best consoles for design in my opinion I need to get one again for the original games, I remember getting it one Christmas and playing forza

[@sw11500]

I almost got myself a crystal when i collected a few consoles but i had some weird nostalgia for the black. Not sure i regret it but man id love to find a crystal too

[@Anonymouthful]

Informative and entertaining, what more could one ask from a concole refurbishing video. Subbed.

[@TootEmCarMan]

Back in the good 'ol days I had an Xbox. Used to go to a friends house and play networked games. I modified my Xbox by replacing the 40 way data cable with an 80 way one. I didn't tell my friends what I had done and after a while they noticed that my Xbox was loading games much faster than their Xboxes. If you can find an 80 way cable it might be a bit of fun for you to try out. :)

[@wisher21uk]

Great find that, in such good condition too well done Steve great fix 😊

[@bigdaddy51200]

The crackle when power is plugged in is a bad solder joint on the plug. That is very common issue with the OG Xbox. Take out power board and reflow connection , if not it is a fire hazard.

[@haactgaming9687]

It’s beautiful! And you know the door tap trick! Lol!

[@dmdays2390]

You have a voice of an angel when spreading circuit heat paste 😇

[@DzeiEidz]

I think Tronixfix should come visit the comment section :D

[@RodgertheNegotiator]

Such a nice console. I would love the halo green, Halo orange, or this crystal one.