Yeah I have had success putting it in the freezer sometimes to save some data but in the end you really need a new drive. OR if the data on it is not backed up and you absolutely need it you can always bring it to a data recovery center
@@Neehwahs I've done the freezer thing too, but that really works for magnetic media more than anything else. If the r/w head is clicking, it's not undocking. Most HDDs have either a solenoid that picks the head up from its dock then the motor takes over, or some others just use the motor itself to move it. Either way, though, when that isn't working it's usually either the solenoid/motor failing or the control board. So happy to have solid state drives so ubiquitous now. I do not miss the days of spinning rust.
I have seen a hard drive click before and then start working after the cable was re seated. Granted, that was likely just coincidence and it wasn't clicking as bad as this one but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. It's an easy thing to try.
It can occasionally be insufficient power, but I've only seen that on some laptop drives when running them through USB adapters (plugging in an external 12V source to those adapters fixes it in those cases). And in those cases, the clicking is instant, unlike here where it only appears to be when the drive is trying to be accessed - which is a lot less common. Seems like there might be a slight bit of life in it, but it is hitting a bad area and then going into the failure state.
Cables are NEVER at fault of a clicking drive. Its an immediate indication that a drive is crashed. Being in IT, I still have PTSD from hearing that sound.
Normally I'd agree with you but I've seen it be the problem. Now, it wasn't clicking this badly and it could have been just coincidence but it still happened.
@@RomanK-x4i What is "no boot device" click, click, click... On a Friday afternoon as you were ready to head out... Followed by "the computer you just gave me has nothing in my documents" and you have to explain for the 500th time that's why you save important stuff to your personal network drive...
While I know it’s cheaper to swap the cables out in the event a cable might fail but I agree when you hear a hard drive sound like that it is definitely time to replace it.
@@Tronicsfix Get a Pi Pico and read the EEPROM to get the HDD key. Use FATXPLORER to make a new drive. If it were me, I'd upgrade to an SSD. Takes a couple more parts and a bit more work, but it's worth it to have a reliable console again.
As a long long time computer tech, from the days of IDE hard drives, I have never seen a cable replacement fix a clicky drive. As soon as you ever started to hear noises from an IDE drive, you change the drive ASAP, and try and copy it over while you can.
I once had a clicking IDE disk and swapped the controller board from another IDE drive of the same vendor, type and size. (All were HP Vectra, bought in the same batch) and it started working again without clicking. Retrieved the data and for safety matters never used it again
General rule of thumb, if you get the Clunk of Death from a mechanical hard drive its time to replace the drive as the drive has failed mechanically. Data recovery at that stage is very expensive and not worth it. Only other reason for that clicking to happen is if the drives not getting the needed power to fully cycle it up, either loose power cable or faulty PSU would be the answer for that, but its rare.
@@gzl7657tg twin platters. you cant fix them that way, the existing drive would need to be repaired or you would need to use a specialist jig to keep the platters aligned, which gets into expensive repair services
@@gzl7657tg It's always been my experience that when you hear the clunking noise, it's the error recovery on the drive kicking in. It does a re-home (more or less going back to track 0) and then back to the track with the bad data to see if it can read it any better. It'll retry a certain # of times (depending on the drive mfg and specs) before failing with a CRC or read error. What that typically means is that the data on the platters itself is at the very least incorrect (fails the CRC) or worst case it's physically damaged. In either case though, moving the platters to another drive won't help because it's the data that's bad, not the onboard controller. I mean, I guess it's possible that the controller is doing something wacky, but that clunking is almost always just the controller doing what it's supposed to, trying to read bad data multiple times before erroring out. With SATA drives you get to see that in the SMART info about retry counts, etc but for IDE, not so much.
As a dude that has built a few PC's over the last 20 years, when I heard the clicking, my only thought was the Hard Drive is shot, seeing as it's the OG HDD.
Easiest solution is to use a modchip to run an alternative BIOS that will let you 1) read the HDD key and 2) boot without the drive. As long as you can lock the replacement drive (I'd assume you'd use a different known working Xbox drive), you can format it and inject the HDD key into it. Alternatively, you could install a modern drive if you replace the IDE cable to an 80 wire and get an IDE to SATA converter. This isn't stock, so it probably wouldn't interest you. The modchip requires one wire and a pin header to be installed, but after the hard drive key is cloned and the drive is partitioned, you can remove it and be on your way.
@@HeySuperOkay I softmodded mine not even two years ago and this is accurate. Without going into much detail, the process involves injecting files onto the HDD through a save file exploit via 1 of 4 specific Xbox games (one of them being THPS4, which I got for like $10 on eBay). It's worth doing if only to backup your og HDD's unique EEPROM, which can then be transferred to another HDD when your og HDD fails, saving you the hassle of having to do a TSOP flash or modchip. AND the softmod is 100% reversible, which is great for a purist like myself. I even went as far as carefully lifting the two stickers with the screws under them so they remained intact.
That's what a headcrash sounds like. That hdd is beyond repair. Like some already commented: install a modchip - so it takes pretty much any hdd and can play japanese as well as us games.
What you could have done is installing a temporarily Modchip, prepare the new HDD Drive with the Hexen Disc, read back the HDD Key from the EEPROM and lock it, then remove the Modchip and you got a Stock Xbox like nothing happened.
@@pumm3l46 sure, I can understand that, but a modded OG Xbox can also do all that an un-modded can do. The only "valid" reasons to keep ot un-modded is that the owner is purist.
@@ryutenmen I would say, with a collector's item, leave it to the owners to do any modifications like that. Usually the people who want this type of unit ARE the purists and want it to be all original, or as much as possible.
@@IAmNeomic console collectors just as stupid as car collectors or other collectors... buying something for a high price and never use it. A picture of art's meaning is to look at it. A console's purpose is to be played just as a car is meant to be driven... people are so stupid lmao
These videos help me alot , i use your videos to repair my xboxs , and i had the same issue with the ' knocking ' hard drive . I swapped out both the connector and hard drive. Boom worked again 🎉
Usually when I hear clicking like that on a hard drive with _no grinding_ sounds I suspect the connection between the hard drive assembly and its control board. Removing the control board, cleaning the contacts, bending pins and sockets so they make better contact and making sure to clean the contacts of corrosion will usually bring them back to life. Could also be some bad solder joints on the power connector and reflowing those with fresh solder will certainly help even if there aren't any visibly bad joints.
Hi Steve! I think you have to know something about this OG Xboxes. It may be helpful for the future. Firstly, OG Xbox had few revisions. On the outer case nothing changed, but internally it somethime differs a lot. They start with 1.0 rev and ends on the 1.6. Just lookup on internet, this might become handy in case swaps like this, because not every motherboard will be compatible with any power supply and case just "straight". Secondly, about the clock cap. They prone to fail. Better choice is to remove it forever and not place any other in they place. It matters only about time and date, and still it's some kind of cap, supercapacitor to be precise, so they still will hold data for not very long time. What you need to know, revision 1.6 had some kind of other circuitry, so if you remove clock cap on 1.6, they won't work. In this case mostly is better to just leave old clock cap even if it not work like it should. In this motherboards they used clock caps from other manufacturer and maybe some other paramaters, so even if they fail after years, they still likely to be physically OK and won't leak like the older ones. Getting straight to your limited one. The clicking noise is just hard drive "head". In this type of HDDs they like to fail if were dropped or shaked too much. Bad luck is this drive have it's own "key" that matches to motherboard. Without it, this motherboard is usless unless you modify it, or read the key "manually" from it and somehow write it to another hard drive. Best way to fix it was mod this motherboard with some kind of chip, or maybe TSOP Flash method. Then you can put any HDD you like without worrying about password. What's interesting, once you put new hard drive, you will be able to "lock" it with key matching to motherboard, and even read this key for future protect of some kind. So if you want to get this Xbox to much more value it's good way to simply mod it, replace the hard drive, lock the hard drive and maybe unmod it to be purely "original" like it came from factory. In this state will be worth much much more. But still it's good to see getting another Xbox to work, even if it's some kind of "frankenstein" :D Greetings from Poland, hope to see more vids like this!
Very good post. As I recall (maybe wrongly) you can replace the HDD without any other hardware mods by connecting the drive to a pc and running a program that will give you the unique ID for the drive. Then you can use that to "clone" the new HDD to match the old one's ID. (The format is proprietary to Xbox so will not be recognized automatically in windows or browsed.) I believe this is how I replaced my HDD back in the day. I never got around to removing the clock capacitor and probably should. The unit has been in cool storage (a basement) for the last decade so I'm hopeful it has not started leaking.
Came here to say most of this as well. That GPU sink has a fan, tho, so this is most likely a 1.0 motherboard. Which means TSOP would be THE way to go without dumping a bunch of extra work. Bridge the TSOP point, boot off an autoinstaller disk, unlock the drive, go ham.
@@giornikitop5373 And you'll have to unlock it on the Xbox afaik, otherwise the PC won't recognize it at all. And then you'll have to lock it again after you're done, otherwise you'll get an error code on the Xbox.
@@MyRegardsToTheDodo the pc will detect and recognize the locked hdd, but you won't be able to read/write anything. i remember a boot cd from teamassembly was able to fully lock/unlock the hdd directly, but i'm not sure if my xbox was softmodded or not.
Hey man… i’m not a diehard watcher, but i do find myself on your videos alot… as a construction worker and gamer, you were fixing power tools… ANYWAY, glad to see your looking better… hope you kick whatever illness had you looking rough
Did Microsoft abandon this practice with the 360? I recall swapping a 40gig with either a 120 or 250gig back in the day without much hassle. I think i just needed the image from the official Microsoft drive and 360xplorer for the drive map, etc. Once that was done it worked fine.
@@MrRewdtv Multiple ways to solve this. Two Options: Use an eeprom reader to read the eeprom and then build a new locked harddrive. Or throw a modchip in it like OpenXenium, build a new unlocked hard drive and avoid the eeprom reader.
@@SirHeadly84 i dont know for sure about the 360 but the og xbox had the hdd married to the motherboard with a key. You can extract the key and inject into a new hdd fairly easily but you have to do some work.
@@SirHeadly84 the is no factory recovery image/procedure for OG xbox. microsoft doesnot provide anything like that, only bootable cds/softmods etc. may have the original dashboard files, but there are some differences depending on the version. 360 was designed for the hdd to be swappable.
No light strips. Those are single mounted LEDs. And those also aren't ventilation holes, the entire front plate is clipped onto the case of the Xbox. Actually a pretty interesting solution, I am pretty sure the LEDs use power from the controller ports. Nothing I'd do on a special edition console, but for a standard black Xbox I might try this aswell.
True, and what I thought as well. To be fair though, there are some special edition consoles, where there is custom firmware on the console. But if that's not the case, I never understood why people not just swap the inside with a known good one and instanly make a lot more money off of it.
I watch your videos while playing my Rog Ally X lol… it’s become a habit at night when I get home from studio.Roll a joint and turn on my rog and check your videos out..Thanx man 👍
I love this channel so much!!!! I'm brand new to the tech game, I was wondering what the best place to start is for practicing repairs? Eventually i would love to have an electronics shop!
It amazes me when a new console comes out, we jump to get the special edition in a different color. I’m guilty of it too. The white OG Xbox looks nice.
It's not just as simple as replacing the hard drive with an og xbox. They are married to the motherboard and locked. You can get around this a few ways but the easiest way which he took is to just replace the motherboard.
Still would have been easier just to replace the drive either way he's going to have to flash the drive on the replacement motherboard really excessive work I would have left the original there and just did the drive I've done it before it's not horribly hard
The click of death is usually an indicator that the drive was dropped while in operation. The head collides with the platter and scratches it, resulting in the clicking as it keeps trying to read the damages sector. There is no fix for this except to replace the drive.
Hard drive clicking is toast, you need to replace it but it also needs to be married to the motherboard, pretty easy to do lots of info online about it. Love your channel btw 😊
6:40 Just by the sound alone you can tell that the drive is bad. The read arm has gone out of alignment which is causing it to slap the inside whenever it moves back and forth to try to read the platters. I fully understand that you are trying to make content, but that drive is toast. Time to swap it and see what was done with those lights
you can repair the original hard drive by extracting the eeprom keys off of it.that way you keep the ntsc-j aspect since the board you put is probably ntsc-u
I hope the disc drive gets a refurb pass, too. Thompson DVD drives are notoriously unreliable anecdotally, but most of my working drives are Thompsons. Funny world. The drawer drive belt is probably pretty awful in it...they deform pretty bad if they are left stationary for even a year or two and their physical switch drive door sensors are also corrosion magnets for some reason. They're also over-potted frequently and should be about 1.2K (vs factory of about 1.6K) - they'll read almost everything if their laser is still good at that resistance.
It's painful to say this, but getting it working and keeping it stock so the value can stay same is gonna be harder than you think Steve, there's a few options that i might suggest, someone can correct me here if i'm wrong, first option is the easiest to reshell it, putting a working xbox in that rare shell (this is basically the last option imho if all fails since the shell makes it rare and special plus where's the fun in that?) Other options include trying to extract the HDD key that locks it without modding with eeprom reader/writer and trying to find a replacement HDD so that you can try and clone it and lock it with the same key, another option could be modding it, to unlock the bigger potential that the hdd brings with homebrew and emulation, especially since the xbox is a powerful console. P.s. you look amazing, hope your recovery is just as great!
Fun fact, contrary to popular belief, a warranty void sticky on og xboxs especially ones that work makes it more valuable due to the clock capacitors destroying consoles, even sealed in the box consoles are dying
@tronicsfix, I've had luck repairing a ticking HDD by removing the little motherboard on the HHD and scratching the connectors to make a solid contact. Sometimes the connection points get crude over time and lose connectivity.
Started laughing when you try tightening up the power cables lol. Yea thats the sound of a read write head scratching the hell outta the hard drive disks. The good news is that you could probably ez swap out for another that has much more storage space now.
Not on Xboxes. You need the password to change the hard drive. A password which is not very straightforward to obtain and transfer. If your hard disk is working you can do a softmod, but if it's like here with a dead HDD, you'll need a modchip.
As old timer PC Builder and Repair, I just knew its the time to backup and replace the harddisk when I start heard any click because the only way to fixed it is putting new head in the platter inside the harddisk and thats only a data restorer would do but not me the average pc builder ...lol.
I have a green Mt Dew model, I threw it away while moving this summer. Something said to look them up, so I did. Took it out of the trash and put it in storage
the clicking hdd mean there some severe damaged sector on the hdd platter which prior data is stored, most likely a physical damage to platter cause by drop while working or the stress in material
Actually those ATA/IDE hard rives were pretty delicate back in the day, Maxtor's were notorious for that clicking problem which we called "head bump" and that's not fixable... If i know correctly plates must be transferred to another working housing.
I once had an Xbox with the Hdd acting the same way. The hdd was just about dead. The hdd is paired to the console with a key, if you mod the console you can extract the key and then put the key in a new hdd. I think if you could read the eeprom you could extract the key but at the time I only had my soft mod kit, so I needed it to boot for a few min while I got the key. I noticed the hdd worked for a few seconds before the noise became bad and the system crashed. I wrapped the hdd in ice packs to keep it cold, the colder it was the longer it would last as metal expands and contracts with temperature. It gave me enough time to get the key.
I know basic trouble shooting is a thing but the way that hard drive had such an audible click clearly tells you what the problem was. I really didn't see the need to swap out the cable for it. If you had just jumped straight to fixing/replacing the hard drive there would have been no need to swap out that cable.
I don't know if the internals of the IDE drives have the same sensor, fairly sure they do, but MFM and RLL drives could have a faulty sensor or the sensor/arm could become loose. Only the drive repair shops really are able to address most of those issues. Given enough time and a clean room I am sure you could master class that, but don't think you need the expense and time needed to get there for such an outdated repair. So I had to wonder if an IDE to SATA adapter could be used and install an SSD!!!?!? YES that is a thing and I would recommend it!
As a beginner computer tech guy, I was wondering if you could recommend any starter electronic DIY kits to practice with. Im planning on doing this as a hobby. Also, any electronic diagnostics and fix materials you could recommend e. g. books, online courses, tutorials … Thanks 🙏
I read that it's good idea to remove the click capacitor and leave it out, because they always leak and destroy the pcp layers. And also it is not required for operation.
As a few other commenters mentioned, a cable is not going to ever fix that issue. It's the read/write head not undocking properly.
Ya, second I heard the clicking I was like, yep that Drive is dead. Never good to heard clicking from an old HDD.
Yeah I have had success putting it in the freezer sometimes to save some data but in the end you really need a new drive. OR if the data on it is not backed up and you absolutely need it you can always bring it to a data recovery center
@@Neehwahs I've done the freezer thing too, but that really works for magnetic media more than anything else. If the r/w head is clicking, it's not undocking. Most HDDs have either a solenoid that picks the head up from its dock then the motor takes over, or some others just use the motor itself to move it. Either way, though, when that isn't working it's usually either the solenoid/motor failing or the control board. So happy to have solid state drives so ubiquitous now. I do not miss the days of spinning rust.
I have seen a hard drive click before and then start working after the cable was re seated. Granted, that was likely just coincidence and it wasn't clicking as bad as this one but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. It's an easy thing to try.
It can occasionally be insufficient power, but I've only seen that on some laptop drives when running them through USB adapters (plugging in an external 12V source to those adapters fixes it in those cases). And in those cases, the clicking is instant, unlike here where it only appears to be when the drive is trying to be accessed - which is a lot less common. Seems like there might be a slight bit of life in it, but it is hitting a bad area and then going into the failure state.
Man you are looking a million times better. I'm glad you're doing good or atleast looking better. Hope all is well and thanks for the videos
Cables are NEVER at fault of a clicking drive. Its an immediate indication that a drive is crashed. Being in IT, I still have PTSD from hearing that sound.
Normally I'd agree with you but I've seen it be the problem. Now, it wasn't clicking this badly and it could have been just coincidence but it still happened.
@@RomanK-x4i
What is "no boot device"
click, click, click...
On a Friday afternoon as you were ready to head out...
Followed by "the computer you just gave me has nothing in my documents" and you have to explain for the 500th time that's why you save important stuff to your personal network drive...
Wrong with NEVER, lol.
While I know it’s cheaper to swap the cables out in the event a cable might fail but I agree when you hear a hard drive sound like that it is definitely time to replace it.
@@Tronicsfix Get a Pi Pico and read the EEPROM to get the HDD key. Use FATXPLORER to make a new drive. If it were me, I'd upgrade to an SSD. Takes a couple more parts and a bit more work, but it's worth it to have a reliable console again.
As a long long time computer tech, from the days of IDE hard drives, I have never seen a cable replacement fix a clicky drive. As soon as you ever started to hear noises from an IDE drive, you change the drive ASAP, and try and copy it over while you can.
Same goes for any hard drive. My laptop hard drive had slight ticking noises and there were already 3 corrupted files
@@slyfoxkgar agreed. I’m from the same era and technical background
@zUltra3D Yep, I heard my little sister's hdd on her laptop clicking and immediately bought an ssd and cloned her hdd to it.
Yup, bad drive. No fixing that
I once had a clicking IDE disk and swapped the controller board from another IDE drive of the same vendor, type and size. (All were HP Vectra, bought in the same batch) and it started working again without clicking. Retrieved the data and for safety matters never used it again
This video got me to break out my old modded xbox, mess with the mod chip, and actually got it working! So many memories coming back
General rule of thumb, if you get the Clunk of Death from a mechanical hard drive its time to replace the drive as the drive has failed mechanically. Data recovery at that stage is very expensive and not worth it. Only other reason for that clicking to happen is if the drives not getting the needed power to fully cycle it up, either loose power cable or faulty PSU would be the answer for that, but its rare.
@@gzl7657tg twin platters. you cant fix them that way, the existing drive would need to be repaired or you would need to use a specialist jig to keep the platters aligned, which gets into expensive repair services
@@gzl7657tg It's always been my experience that when you hear the clunking noise, it's the error recovery on the drive kicking in. It does a re-home (more or less going back to track 0) and then back to the track with the bad data to see if it can read it any better. It'll retry a certain # of times (depending on the drive mfg and specs) before failing with a CRC or read error.
What that typically means is that the data on the platters itself is at the very least incorrect (fails the CRC) or worst case it's physically damaged. In either case though, moving the platters to another drive won't help because it's the data that's bad, not the onboard controller. I mean, I guess it's possible that the controller is doing something wacky, but that clunking is almost always just the controller doing what it's supposed to, trying to read bad data multiple times before erroring out. With SATA drives you get to see that in the SMART info about retry counts, etc but for IDE, not so much.
That is CLASSIC failed drive sound.
I'm just happy you're looking better, I hope your health is good as well. I love your videos.
As a dude that has built a few PC's over the last 20 years, when I heard the clicking, my only thought was the Hard Drive is shot, seeing as it's the OG HDD.
That HDD clicking sound has brought back some deep seated data loss trauma
Good to see you looking very well.
Good to see you looking better!
Looking great man. Hope your feeling healthy and strong
Easiest solution is to use a modchip to run an alternative BIOS that will let you 1) read the HDD key and 2) boot without the drive. As long as you can lock the replacement drive (I'd assume you'd use a different known working Xbox drive), you can format it and inject the HDD key into it. Alternatively, you could install a modern drive if you replace the IDE cable to an 80 wire and get an IDE to SATA converter. This isn't stock, so it probably wouldn't interest you.
The modchip requires one wire and a pin header to be installed, but after the hard drive key is cloned and the drive is partitioned, you can remove it and be on your way.
@@HeySuperOkay or just do a shell swap 😂😂
@ well sure but the whole channel is focused on repairing as close as to OEM as possible.
No need to even modchip it, softmods are available and nowadays even easier than ever to do.
@@bhavzm9035 You can’t soft mod the system without a functioning hard drive.
@@HeySuperOkay I softmodded mine not even two years ago and this is accurate. Without going into much detail, the process involves injecting files onto the HDD through a save file exploit via 1 of 4 specific Xbox games (one of them being THPS4, which I got for like $10 on eBay). It's worth doing if only to backup your og HDD's unique EEPROM, which can then be transferred to another HDD when your og HDD fails, saving you the hassle of having to do a TSOP flash or modchip. AND the softmod is 100% reversible, which is great for a purist like myself. I even went as far as carefully lifting the two stickers with the screws under them so they remained intact.
Pretty cool console. I wonder how much it costs in 2004 when the seller bought it. Im also surprised that the console wasn't yellowed
It’s a bit yellowed but really not bad considering its age
Great repair! I'd love for you to update us with how much you sell it for. @@Tronicsfix
That's what a headcrash sounds like. That hdd is beyond repair. Like some already commented: install a modchip - so it takes pretty much any hdd and can play japanese as well as us games.
What you could have done is installing a temporarily Modchip, prepare the new HDD Drive with the Hexen Disc, read back the HDD Key from the EEPROM and lock it, then remove the Modchip and you got a Stock Xbox like nothing happened.
Why use an un-modded OG Xbox? What would be the use? The modded one has all the advantages.
@@ryutenmen because it's a collectible and collectors can be weird
@@pumm3l46 sure, I can understand that, but a modded OG Xbox can also do all that an un-modded can do.
The only "valid" reasons to keep ot un-modded is that the owner is purist.
@@ryutenmen I would say, with a collector's item, leave it to the owners to do any modifications like that. Usually the people who want this type of unit ARE the purists and want it to be all original, or as much as possible.
@@IAmNeomic console collectors just as stupid as car collectors or other collectors... buying something for a high price and never use it. A picture of art's meaning is to look at it. A console's purpose is to be played just as a car is meant to be driven... people are so stupid lmao
Clicking harddrives are just end of life, no matter what you change with it power cable or IDE cable :)
Wrong
@@PlastiForge It's correct about 98% of the time. If the hard drive isn't dead at that point, it's on it's way out.
Looking good my guy glad you’re bouncing back!
Maybe someone else have mentioned this, but you look way healthier! Hope you are feeling better everyday and have a great year 2025!
Your looking good Steve I wish and hope you the best on your road to recovery
Glad to see you doing well buddy! 💪
Happy to see your health getting better and better as days goes by...❤
These videos help me alot , i use your videos to repair my xboxs , and i had the same issue with the ' knocking ' hard drive . I swapped out both the connector and hard drive. Boom worked again 🎉
Usually when I hear clicking like that on a hard drive with _no grinding_ sounds I suspect the connection between the hard drive assembly and its control board. Removing the control board, cleaning the contacts, bending pins and sockets so they make better contact and making sure to clean the contacts of corrosion will usually bring them back to life. Could also be some bad solder joints on the power connector and reflowing those with fresh solder will certainly help even if there aren't any visibly bad joints.
You are console master bro! Keep it going your great work! Its very fun to watch! Best wishes!
Glad to see you doing well!
Awesome video! Thank you. And you look great! Happy to see!
Looking Good Sir!! Keep on Fixing!!
Hi Steve! I think you have to know something about this OG Xboxes. It may be helpful for the future.
Firstly, OG Xbox had few revisions. On the outer case nothing changed, but internally it somethime differs a lot. They start with 1.0 rev and ends on the 1.6. Just lookup on internet, this might become handy in case swaps like this, because not every motherboard will be compatible with any power supply and case just "straight".
Secondly, about the clock cap. They prone to fail. Better choice is to remove it forever and not place any other in they place. It matters only about time and date, and still it's some kind of cap, supercapacitor to be precise, so they still will hold data for not very long time. What you need to know, revision 1.6 had some kind of other circuitry, so if you remove clock cap on 1.6, they won't work. In this case mostly is better to just leave old clock cap even if it not work like it should. In this motherboards they used clock caps from other manufacturer and maybe some other paramaters, so even if they fail after years, they still likely to be physically OK and won't leak like the older ones.
Getting straight to your limited one. The clicking noise is just hard drive "head". In this type of HDDs they like to fail if were dropped or shaked too much. Bad luck is this drive have it's own "key" that matches to motherboard. Without it, this motherboard is usless unless you modify it, or read the key "manually" from it and somehow write it to another hard drive.
Best way to fix it was mod this motherboard with some kind of chip, or maybe TSOP Flash method. Then you can put any HDD you like without worrying about password. What's interesting, once you put new hard drive, you will be able to "lock" it with key matching to motherboard, and even read this key for future protect of some kind. So if you want to get this Xbox to much more value it's good way to simply mod it, replace the hard drive, lock the hard drive and maybe unmod it to be purely "original" like it came from factory. In this state will be worth much much more.
But still it's good to see getting another Xbox to work, even if it's some kind of "frankenstein" :D
Greetings from Poland, hope to see more vids like this!
Very good post. As I recall (maybe wrongly) you can replace the HDD without any other hardware mods by connecting the drive to a pc and running a program that will give you the unique ID for the drive. Then you can use that to "clone" the new HDD to match the old one's ID. (The format is proprietary to Xbox so will not be recognized automatically in windows or browsed.) I believe this is how I replaced my HDD back in the day. I never got around to removing the clock capacitor and probably should. The unit has been in cool storage (a basement) for the last decade so I'm hopeful it has not started leaking.
Came here to say most of this as well. That GPU sink has a fan, tho, so this is most likely a 1.0 motherboard. Which means TSOP would be THE way to go without dumping a bunch of extra work. Bridge the TSOP point, boot off an autoinstaller disk, unlock the drive, go ham.
@@truevulgarian for that to work, the old hdd must be operational, which in this case it's not, head clicking/stuck.
@@giornikitop5373 And you'll have to unlock it on the Xbox afaik, otherwise the PC won't recognize it at all. And then you'll have to lock it again after you're done, otherwise you'll get an error code on the Xbox.
@@MyRegardsToTheDodo the pc will detect and recognize the locked hdd, but you won't be able to read/write anything. i remember a boot cd from teamassembly was able to fully lock/unlock the hdd directly, but i'm not sure if my xbox was softmodded or not.
Damn. You paid $700 for a broken console. That's gangster. Liked and subscribed. Good luck with your channel brother!
Is good to see you a lot better and healthy, happy New year and prosperity, as usual great video repairs 🎉
Great you did a deep dive into the system. As soon as i heaed the click of death, i pointed to yhe drive. Great to see you doing so much better!!@
Nice to see you back with some hair! Happy New Year!
Hey man… i’m not a diehard watcher, but i do find myself on your videos alot… as a construction worker and gamer, you were fixing power tools… ANYWAY, glad to see your looking better… hope you kick whatever illness had you looking rough
You look so healthy and happy!!! You deserve it. Happy to see you doing so well.
Se te quitó o no se te quitó la falla ! It' always a pleasure to see you Steve ! ❤ great job giving a second chance to this olds consoles
Glad to see you're ok!
Love the videos! ive been watching about a year now and Repaired my first phone watchine one of them!
not sure if I understand: why did you swap the motherboard if the HDD was broken?
Did Microsoft abandon this practice with the 360? I recall swapping a 40gig with either a 120 or 250gig back in the day without much hassle. I think i just needed the image from the official Microsoft drive and 360xplorer for the drive map, etc. Once that was done it worked fine.
@@MrRewdtv Multiple ways to solve this. Two Options: Use an eeprom reader to read the eeprom and then build a new locked harddrive. Or throw a modchip in it like OpenXenium, build a new unlocked hard drive and avoid the eeprom reader.
@@SirHeadly84 i dont know for sure about the 360 but the og xbox had the hdd married to the motherboard with a key. You can extract the key and inject into a new hdd fairly easily but you have to do some work.
@@SirHeadly84 the 360 had hdds that were swappable by design, on the og xbox hdds weren’t designed to be removed
@@SirHeadly84 the is no factory recovery image/procedure for OG xbox. microsoft doesnot provide anything like that, only bootable cds/softmods etc. may have the original dashboard files, but there are some differences depending on the version. 360 was designed for the hdd to be swappable.
Is always good to see you healthy, Steve. Greetings from Argentina.
Aren't the light strips covering up the ventilation holes?
No light strips. Those are single mounted LEDs. And those also aren't ventilation holes, the entire front plate is clipped onto the case of the Xbox. Actually a pretty interesting solution, I am pretty sure the LEDs use power from the controller ports. Nothing I'd do on a special edition console, but for a standard black Xbox I might try this aswell.
You are 100% right to sell the original HDD and Motherboard with it. The HDD is shot, but the board is 100% fine.
With your soldering skill, you could make an EEPROM Backup easely with an Arduino.
I suck at soldering and i did it for a friend.
To be honest, with these kinds of rare shells you could just swap the guts with a cheap xbox
But what's the fun in that!?
@@UGetNoMaidens True enough!
True, and what I thought as well. To be fair though, there are some special edition consoles, where there is custom firmware on the console. But if that's not the case, I never understood why people not just swap the inside with a known good one and instanly make a lot more money off of it.
@@donhonk probably makes more money from the TH-cam video so is worth actually doing in this case ?
But how is that affecting the resale value? Is that relying solely on the shell?
I'm glad you're feeling better, thank you very much for the content, best wishes for 2025.
I watch your videos while playing my Rog Ally X lol… it’s become a habit at night when I get home from studio.Roll a joint and turn on my rog and check your videos out..Thanx man 👍
Your health looks a lot better man! I hope everything is going good for you!
Glad to see you healthy again. God bless you. You have an awesome channel and have great content.
I love this channel so much!!!! I'm brand new to the tech game, I was wondering what the best place to start is for practicing repairs? Eventually i would love to have an electronics shop!
Nice work, Steve! Always a pleasure.
Nice work ? he didn't even repair it. He swapped boards.
Kinda sad the OG motherboard didn't stay in there, but its cool you're going to sell it alongside the xbox itself, those white consoles look so good.
It amazes me when a new console comes out, we jump to get the special edition in a different color. I’m guilty of it too. The white OG Xbox looks nice.
Why replace the motherboard? It was just a failed WD hard drive….
Agreed I am watching this and I don't get this replacement.
It's not just as simple as replacing the hard drive with an og xbox. They are married to the motherboard and locked. You can get around this a few ways but the easiest way which he took is to just replace the motherboard.
Still would have been easier just to replace the drive either way he's going to have to flash the drive on the replacement motherboard really excessive work I would have left the original there and just did the drive I've done it before it's not horribly hard
Because no one gonna buy it in the USA when it’s region locked to Japan, like he said if someone from Japan wants to buy it and convert it back
Fantastic video dawg 🤘
The click of death is usually an indicator that the drive was dropped while in operation. The head collides with the platter and scratches it, resulting in the clicking as it keeps trying to read the damages sector. There is no fix for this except to replace the drive.
I wonder what a drive "thinks" when it sees those sectors
Dear, TronixFix thank you for videos! Be good! And greetings from Ural Russia! ❤
I have that same one. Works perfectly too.
Worth a watch, what a legend he loaded up OG halo combat evolve. ❤
Good repair ❤🎉
it's really like a PC inside, pretty cool console!
Hard drive clicking is toast, you need to replace it but it also needs to be married to the motherboard, pretty easy to do lots of info online about it. Love your channel btw 😊
Glad to see your doing well
I love Tonic Fix I hope he keeps posting more content, I would not know how to ever fix any of my past PlayStations much love from California 909 I E
Dang thing sounds like a OG Grandfather Clock lol. great video!
happy new year and merry christmas :))
I remember these consoles! The light would go orange until a display out was connected. It’s odd because no console does that these days.
Nice to see you healthy again Steve:D !!
Thanks for another great vid!
6:40 Just by the sound alone you can tell that the drive is bad. The read arm has gone out of alignment which is causing it to slap the inside whenever it moves back and forth to try to read the platters. I fully understand that you are trying to make content, but that drive is toast. Time to swap it and see what was done with those lights
I had that awesome clicking experience once. Thank god I was running daily backups.
Gotta say that white og xbox is damn clean!
You missed one thing.. I really wanted to see the modification work with the LED's. You literally forgot about that as soon as you opened the console.
Same. If it’s been modded by a previous owner these mods should have also been inspected and removed if going for stock.
I think the 'preliminary' boot is done from a ROM, and then the OS is booted from the HDD, which is why you can see the logo.
You can make mod chip to repair and use first mainboard. Then you install new hdd. Second motherboad in bad condition and corroded.
Good to see you are looking better! Prayers and good wishes from the UK.
you can repair the original hard drive by extracting the eeprom keys off of it.that way you keep the ntsc-j aspect since the board you put is probably ntsc-u
I hope the disc drive gets a refurb pass, too. Thompson DVD drives are notoriously unreliable anecdotally, but most of my working drives are Thompsons. Funny world. The drawer drive belt is probably pretty awful in it...they deform pretty bad if they are left stationary for even a year or two and their physical switch drive door sensors are also corrosion magnets for some reason. They're also over-potted frequently and should be about 1.2K (vs factory of about 1.6K) - they'll read almost everything if their laser is still good at that resistance.
It's painful to say this, but getting it working and keeping it stock so the value can stay same is gonna be harder than you think Steve, there's a few options that i might suggest, someone can correct me here if i'm wrong, first option is the easiest to reshell it, putting a working xbox in that rare shell (this is basically the last option imho if all fails since the shell makes it rare and special plus where's the fun in that?) Other options include trying to extract the HDD key that locks it without modding with eeprom reader/writer and trying to find a replacement HDD so that you can try and clone it and lock it with the same key, another option could be modding it, to unlock the bigger potential that the hdd brings with homebrew and emulation, especially since the xbox is a powerful console.
P.s. you look amazing, hope your recovery is just as great!
Fun fact, contrary to popular belief, a warranty void sticky on og xboxs especially ones that work makes it more valuable due to the clock capacitors destroying consoles, even sealed in the box consoles are dying
Lookin good dude!
A modded xbox is more than fine, its the best thing ever
When I worked for Dell during the 00s, we called that clicking the railroad tracks. Once we heard that it was an automatic replacement of the hdd.
@tronicsfix, I've had luck repairing a ticking HDD by removing the little motherboard on the HHD and scratching the connectors to make a solid contact. Sometimes the connection points get crude over time and lose connectivity.
Started laughing when you try tightening up the power cables lol. Yea thats the sound of a read write head scratching the hell outta the hard drive disks. The good news is that you could probably ez swap out for another that has much more storage space now.
Not on Xboxes. You need the password to change the hard drive. A password which is not very straightforward to obtain and transfer. If your hard disk is working you can do a softmod, but if it's like here with a dead HDD, you'll need a modchip.
Nice fix, cool console
As old timer PC Builder and Repair, I just knew its the time to backup and replace the harddisk when I start heard any click because the only way to fixed it is putting new head in the platter inside the harddisk and thats only a data restorer would do but not me the average pc builder ...lol.
I have a green Mt Dew model, I threw it away while moving this summer. Something said to look them up, so I did. Took it out of the trash and put it in storage
Why would you ever throw away a limited edition Xbox! Especially one that's worth 500+ bucks lol.
@JoshLineberry I had no clue, it had been sitting in my basement for 10+ years collecting dust, and I was moving
the clicking hdd mean there some severe damaged sector on the hdd platter which prior data is stored, most likely a physical damage to platter cause by drop while working or the stress in material
That limited edition looks so good!
Looking good fix!
Actually those ATA/IDE hard rives were pretty delicate back in the day, Maxtor's were notorious for that clicking problem which we called "head bump" and that's not fixable... If i know correctly plates must be transferred to another working housing.
I once had an Xbox with the Hdd acting the same way. The hdd was just about dead. The hdd is paired to the console with a key, if you mod the console you can extract the key and then put the key in a new hdd. I think if you could read the eeprom you could extract the key but at the time I only had my soft mod kit, so I needed it to boot for a few min while I got the key. I noticed the hdd worked for a few seconds before the noise became bad and the system crashed. I wrapped the hdd in ice packs to keep it cold, the colder it was the longer it would last as metal expands and contracts with temperature. It gave me enough time to get the key.
I know basic trouble shooting is a thing but the way that hard drive had such an audible click clearly tells you what the problem was. I really didn't see the need to swap out the cable for it. If you had just jumped straight to fixing/replacing the hard drive there would have been no need to swap out that cable.
I don't know if the internals of the IDE drives have the same sensor, fairly sure they do, but MFM and RLL drives could have a faulty sensor or the sensor/arm could become loose. Only the drive repair shops really are able to address most of those issues. Given enough time and a clean room I am sure you could master class that, but don't think you need the expense and time needed to get there for such an outdated repair.
So I had to wonder if an IDE to SATA adapter could be used and install an SSD!!!?!? YES that is a thing and I would recommend it!
As a beginner computer tech guy, I was wondering if you could recommend any starter electronic DIY kits to practice with. Im planning on doing this as a hobby. Also, any electronic diagnostics and fix materials you could recommend e. g. books, online courses, tutorials … Thanks 🙏
I still have the original Xbox hd that I removed when I upgraded to 120gb hd, it still works well for an old machine.
I read that it's good idea to remove the click capacitor and leave it out, because they always leak and destroy the pcp layers. And also it is not required for operation.
You should make a video on how to repair the 8.4 Uconnect stereo. That thing has been a nightmare for many car / truck owners!!
I don’t understand all the hate on this one. Why not try spare parts you already have? Still another saved console.