[XBOX] Repair Time! 2 Defective Systems Have Arrived!!

Hi gamers and collectors!

Welcome back to yet another addition or I should say additions to my XBOX collection. Here I have two XBOX systems, these were listed as defective or blatant not working. So I started having conversation with the seller talking about which version systems they are. So without opening the systems I asked the seller to tell me what colour the screws were. I got a reply a day later telling me "One black, one silver", this was perfect! The systems descriptions had "powers up" that's all I needed. The Power Girl XBOX I was working on, the power supply's transformer stopped working, so without spending $40 more for a new power supply, I thought it was just better to wait and find another 1.6 to replace it.

v1.6 - v1.?

I started to take apart each system while at the seller's house and he was awesome, I wasn't rushed or anything and started to have good conversations while I was inspecting the systems. Anyway, back to the systems, I opened up the silver screw one first (straight away it's a 1.6... Well USUALLY) and yep I was right a 1.6. I removed the HDD, then the DVD-ROM drive, which happened to be a Samsung (I hate Samsung drives). Oh, what's inside here? A Duo X3!! Well I just wanted the power supply but shit, wasn't expecting a chip, that's a bonus! Sadly it's not a Xecuter 3, I want an Xecuter 3 so badly. Anyhow when I got home I powered up the 1.6 and there was the Duo X3 logo but the system frags at error 16. This is just a clock error and the system couldn't find the MSDash to set the time. No biggie, since the Duo X3 allows to boot from DVD first I could by pass this and install UnleashX to fix the problem.

Now to take a look at this other system. This one is in extremely rough shape, which looks like something heavy and rough has landed on it and dragged along. The jewel has cracks in it too. When I opened the system there was a lot of dust, and twigs, yeah twigs. So as usual, removed the HDD and DVD-ROM... Yet ANOTHER Samsung Drive. I  couldn't get the drive out while I was there because it has shielding around the bezel, never had experience with this so I just left it as is and used my phone's flash light to look under it for a modchip, but nothing there. When I got home I powered her up and she spins up 3 times and frags. Usually this has got to do with bad traces or bad modchip install, but I need to inspect the board more closely for any bad traces.

I'll have updates for the Power Girl XBOX tomorrow, but all day I've been working on these two systems to get working again. With only the 1.6 being repaired I'm left with two dead systems still, my other 1.6 board and my v1.something system. The 1.6 needs a new power supply which I might just buy one day to sell it again. I'm so so tired from all this today, but I had a lot of fun doing it. Back at the DVD-ROM drives tomorrow though :)

All-in-all I paid $20 for both of them, which is pretty good considering a replacement DVD-ROM drive are $20-$30, and replacement lasers are $10-$15. The cases are bad which I might consider chucking out apart from the 1.6 as I could paint that one up. I now have a spare 1.0-1.1 power supply, controller ports, heat sinks you name it. Apart from the board, really not sure why it doesn't start up.

That's all for me, more games and systems to come during the week. See you there.

[XBOX] Defective v1.0 System has Arrived!!

Hi gamers and collectors,

Welcome back to yet another addition to my XBOX collection, and here I have v1.0 system. Without any explaining this is the very first retail model of the XBOX system, most likely was bought at launch. Very early MFG date dated 2002. The MFG date didn't exactly jump out at me at the time of inspecting the system, I usually look for a modchip when the system is opened. I can't open the system up in store so the only way I can tell it's an early version is by the screws and power it on. From experience the black torx screws usually mean the XBOX is either v1.0 or v.1.1. I've never come across XBOX versions 1.2 > 1.5, they could have black torx screws as well but I'm unaware of that.

While inspecting the system one of the staff put in a few games and the XBOX couldn't read it, the normal error "XBOX could not read the disc. Disc may be dirty or damaged. Eject to continue." After a few more tries it just wouldn't read the disc. I looked at the price on the sticker and saw $40, that's rather expensive for the system even for the condition of it (we'll get to that later). So I started to haggle for it, I asked what is the most lowest price they could do. After a few minutes the staff member came back to me and offered $15. I had to think about this quite a bit, after many thoughts I just couldn't leave the system there, after all it does come with a controller S that works great along with the regular cables and a spare breakaway (they go for $6 alone). So the price was sounding better so I walked out with it at $15.

When I got home I quickly opened it up and this is the exciting part! Why wouldn't the system read any media? Removed both caddies, removed all the cables and took out the DVD drive from the caddie. At this stage I thought of 3 reasons why it wouldn't read media.

1. DVD Drive is a Thompson drive. Known to be very poor quality.
2. Dirty laser head/mech.
3. Laser wasn't getting enough volts.

All 3 reasons were false, in fact the problem was the huge dent in the case. What ever the object that was dropped on the system was quite heavy it reached the DVD Drive. The top of the DVD drive has soft metal, and they are not meant to withstand any shock, so it was deformed. I took the drive apart and bent it back into shape. It's working fantastically.

Other than it's brush with death the system is great. Some stickers have been removed under it (for some reason). The previous owner really didn't take care of the system at all, oh and has horrible tastes in music. Well this was a great pickup regardless as it's a great feeling to get a system working again and I pretty much got it for free, seeing a Controller S can go for $10-$15 alone.

You can see the video of the system here

More games to come during the week, see you there!

1.1 XBOX Repaired. 1.6 XBOX nearly had another life.

Hi gamers!

Today my friend An!NE and I planned to fix the XBOX today, that had the confused dashboard problem. After configuring the PC BIOS and unlocking the error 21 HDD we finally repaired the C partition. With the trusty XBOXHDM this problem was short lived. The process was interesting and took us a good 3 hours to complete, we didn't run into any problems during the process. Luckily the settings for UnleashX are saved into a different partition, so everything that was there before this error occurred was still there.

Luckily the floating point between the XBOX and PC didn't decide to jump out today, it's a step from the hotswapping art I happened to forget which could of killed the XBOX and the PC all together. What a close one.

I also have another XBOX that's running "Christmas Lights" this term comes from the colour of the front LED that flashes upon an error which happen to be Green and Red. It's got "ERROR 06" which means the BIOS cannot lock and unlock the HDD upon booting. We managed to get the drive locked again by using XBOXHDM. With an old blurry picture we managed to get the HDD Key however.. since it's now paired to the PC motherboard it's impossible to pair it with the XBOX retail BIOS. The only way to fix this error is with a Modchip, and luckily this is the XBOX I'm planning to hardmod (Modchip). Reason for this is that the Modchips have their own BIOS and which ignores the state of the HDD whether it's locked or unlocked thus letting users put any large capacity HDD and running games from that.

Interesting day and couldn't of worked out better without An!NE. Thanks pal!