@@karilawler Noooooo. The modchip way is way better (and safer!) than softmodding, specially if you want to replace the hdd. Check OpenXenium, or any of the other modchips!
@@karilawler soft mod is probably good enough, but worth considering installing a modchip. There's some really useful benefits over the softmod, only reason to do softmod is if you are on tight budget or don't know how to solder.
@@karilawler Think about hardmodding. Project Stellar is a new-ish modchip for the OG xbox consoles which has a novel approach, allows lots of interesting stuff (such as removing the size limitations for HDD/SSD) and comes with some modularity which makes flashing and updating a breeze. There are also mods for HDMI output and more, the scene around old consoles has been pretty alive in the past years. Worth looking into :)
You know, man, there's something about the pixelated poetry of Halo 1 & 2 and Fable that just hits different. Those games didn't just entertain--they transported me. They pulled into a universe where the line between hero and antihero blurred like a cheap scotch on a Monday night. Halo's vast cosmos and Fable's whimsical lands--they weren't just backdrops, they were characters in their own right. I soaked up every bit of lore, every twist in the storyline like it was the last cigarette in a rainstorm. Master Chief, Cortana, the heroes and villains--they had arcs, they had depth. They were more than pixels; they were practically breathing. And those moral choices in Fable, man. They forced you to stare into the abyss of your own soul and decide what kind of player, what kind of person, you wanted to be. Good, evil, or somewhere in between. If I could distill just a fraction of that world-building, that character depth, and those gut-wrenching choices into my writing, I might just have something worth reading.
There was one floor. The auto save was F*d . There was no fail safe on the saves. What I mean by this is if you were about to die and it auto saved it would endlessly loop rather than push you back to the previous save.
I didn't know this was a thing. Thanks for the heads-up. Another no-nonsense video of yours. No waffle, just straight into the important stuff. Hats off to you for also continuing to avoid doing the usual "Don't forget to click like and subscribe" many TH-camrs come out with. If people like your stuff they'll like and subscribe without a nudge.
Very interesting video Kari I thought perhaps you might be installing a cap at a slightly higher voltage so it wouldn't leak and still provide dc smoothing on the clock circuit.
Subscribed, you make desoldering look so easy. I was worried about attempting this with my Xbox, but I'm going to give it ago thanks to your video. I can't believe you got the original Xbox for a tenner.
Cutting is definitely the recommended way for surface mounted caps of only having a (1) soldering iron. Better safe than sorry. Of course having the right tool for the job is always safer still.
@@ffviifakeremake9997 It can actually be easier to desolder and recap it with the wiggle or twist method, and there's less chance of damaging the board with excess heat since there's no component attached to the legs to leech away heat. If you want more information on the twist method I suggest taking a look at one of the many recapping videos Adrian Black has done on his channels, Adrian's Basement and Adrian's Basement II.
I am just exploring everything surrounding capacitors on retro consoles, I just recapped a PSOne in fact. seeing your video now is leading me to write on my project list doing this exact work on my xbox that I got second hand a few months ago. It works, I haven't opened it yet to assess it's state, hopefully when I do there hasn't been any initial damage. Great video Kari! looking forward to more projects on your xbox!
Remove the clock cap and replace the thermal paste. It's a good idea to go ahead and buy a SATA to IDE adapter (Startech is the best for OG Xbox) and replace the hard drive. You can softmod your Xbox and use CHIMP to clone the drive over to the new one. Sadly, OG Xbox hard drives are one of the biggest problems. At their current age, they will likely die very soon if they are still working, as the life of most HDDs are 10 years or so. If you are able to softmod and clone the drive, it will ensure it can run for quite some time. You CAN use a solid state SSD as well if you want to have less moving parts and may keep the Xbox running even longer.
Did my two a couple of months ago along with redoing the thermal paste and softmodding them. I also changed the ide hdd for a sata one. Great vid as always , look forward to the next one
I loved the full size Xbox controllers, obviously they are too big for children and a lot of adults too, but if you have big hands or long fingers it's the best controller ever made.
Same here. They only downsized when they started shipping to the Asian markets and sadly never went back. The Duke was that size because the original controller it is modelled on is the Microsoft sidewinder
Thanks Kari. I was about to open up my old Xbox as it's turning on but then turning off again after a while. So this video is already helpful and while I look for the error I'll also remove that capacitor.
Thanks for sharing! Just a hint - if you have issues removing a through-hole component, you can add fresh solder and then take the desoldering gun. That usually works like a charm 🙂
Great video, Kari! You are one of us, a kid of the 80's (according to your great T-shirts). The only difference is, that you will experience many more decades than us old grumpies...:)
Great video! I never had an OG Xbox but my friend did. Four of us would get together every Friday night and play Fusion Frenzy. I loved that game, its one of the best party games of all time. Cheers!
The OG XBOX is basically a PC I should know I owned three of them in my life and I love them! Unreal Championship.Timesplitters 2 Halo obviously and Blinx the timesweeper just to name a few! Great channel btw keep up the good work 👍
Thanks for this video Kari, Ive just gotten a v1.6 crystal version and want to make sure the same doesn't happen to mine. You have some setup there, will need to go on the hunt myself now to find someone with equipment here in Ireland to ensure the same is done without killing the xbox or myself. Ive subbed. Cheers again!
From what I’ve read, the 1.6 clock cap is from a better vendor so much more reliable and less prone to leak. However if you do replace it, you have to replace it on this version , otherwise the machine gets put into an infinite clock loop. Hope that helps 👍
@@karilawler Helps alot yano! Nice one! I gave it a solid clean when i bought it before softmodding. Just checking it this morning It looks in good nick for now but I will keep an eye on it.
Awesome video! I loved my first Xbox... It died for another reason so I don't have to worry about the clock capacitor lol. I remember them talking about that they couldn't find a manufacturer to make their controllers with the features that they wanted. They contacted alot of Japanese companies that made controllers but they all told Microsoft, "No!". So they sort of had to figure it out on their own and that big duke was the result. It's more of a bad prototype that they had to move forward with... they were concerned about Sony's market in the home space getting bigger! They worked hard on selling the idea that bigger was better lol. Granted alot of western men loved that controller like my brother at the time, so it worked for some!
It was more that Japanese manufacturers wouldn't make a two-piece board for them, since they were American, even though they would of paid more for it. So they were stuck with a HUGE one-piece board that they had to fit a MASSIVE shell around. By the time I got my Xbox, it came with the controller S (which I still thought was rather big) with the white and black buttons at the bottom rather than the top. I also wondered WHY it had 2 slots in each controller, which made sense in the Dreamcast, 1 slot for the Vibration Pak, and another slot for the VMS/VMU. The Xbox controller had rumble built in to them, and an 8GB hard drive to save games to. Pretty much the only thing the hard drive was used for was saved games, unless you wanted to rip cd's to use as a soundtrack. You didn't need to install games to hdd or anything.
Respect for doing a clean removal, Kari. It's all the little things in life that make the most difference, and if you're going to do a thing, do it properly.
Cool vid. Good thing you're planning on re-capping this XBOX since I happened to spot a swollen capacitor on your board there. On that note you may want to do that capacitor replacement sooner than later.
Hi Kari. Only came across your channel today, TH-cam suggestion. I have binged watched your vids, love It. Now subbed and will look forward to more content
Kung Fu Chaos, Fuzion Frenzy, Blinx: The Time Sweeper, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, Fable and Halo 2 are my fav Xbox OG game :D. Great video as per usual!
In the past month I've been going into a deep dive on Xbox modding. Started off by getting that nasty clock capacitor and I'm now attempting to get a SSD to work. Feels like such a coincidence that you're making this video now lol.
Solid video, and good advice! These leaking capacitors are a nightmare on old gear - I have an 90's Toshiba Libretto laptop that I need to sort out in this regard.
It was just a year since i tell to myself "uhm, maybe it's better to change that capacitor on my og xbox"... it have 3 leaking caps, but fortunately they don't have dameged the board! Now i have only to open a second one and spread the voice to my other friend! Thanks for the video!
Nice job! In terms of things to check out for mods etc... while it's not technically a mod, getting it set up on the new Xbox live servers, Insignia Is a must have, so you can play online! HDD upgrade to something larger or an SSD is a must too.
How long does it take for the Capacitor to melt the motherboard? or rather erode out and go bad onto the motherboard? Also what do you lose out from removing the clock capacitor?
Great channel and informative videos. The style and presentation reminds me of a local pc repair channel that aired in the 1990's on the local British Columbia TV station KVOS. RIP KVOS
thanks for the reminder, i have a 1.0 and a 1.1 xbox, i had checked the clock caps a few years ago but never removed them, i took both xbox's apart tonight and both had indeed started leaking, i removed both and neutralized the minor corrosion with 99% isopropyl alcohol and both systems are working fine, im not sure if am going bother putting new clock caps in but i may do a full recap sometime in the future
Exciting, I recently got one, which I replaced the clock capacitor and a few of the bigger capacitors that were bulging on the top with new ones. I later did a TSOP flash which lets you run a custom BIOS without a modchip, and added a 1TB HDD and loaded >100 games on there. The nice thing with the custom BIOS is that you can easily replace the HDD by just putting it straight into the Xbox without having to unlock/lock it. A softmod can be sufficient though, and the latest/easiest way is using the Rocky5 with the Endgame method, which doesn't require using an exploitable game disk, and can be done only using the memory card or a USB drive with some special files on it.
Thanks for the video! I really should get me a desoldering station, that looks so much easier than my solder sucker. Also: Cool shirt! Now I have to watch Goonies again, haven't done so in a long time. 😄
That warranty sticker lasted a lot longer than mine when I bought my first Xbox 20+ years ago. Within half an hour of leaving the shop my friend had it apart and was fitting a mod chip in it
Agreed, I restored the 2 og consoles I currently own. Since both of these are 1.6 didn't need the clock capacitor to be replaced yet, but I'm planning to do it. I strongly advise replacing all the 6.3 V 3300 uF in this mainboard to avoid any power or malfunction issues. They filter the current power supply for the Intel CPU and the custom nVidia graphics chip. And if possible, to make a perfect work, do a full change for all the electrolytic capacitors on all mainboard revisions of the console and the ones within the power supply. And of course apply fresh thermal paste after cleaning properly CPU & GPU chips and heatsinks. I used AS5 and systems are working pretty good, no temperature issues.
I've watched a few of your videos and enjoyed them. After watching this one, when you started talking about soldering, I think I fell in love with you. HAHA You're cure, adorable and I love your accent. The fact that your "techie", makes you just that more interesting. The fact that you do soldering, *sigh*
Ahh, that takes me back. A buddy and I had a small biz going modding Xboxes, he did the FW and I soldered the modchips. It made us money enough to buy us both Celeron 300A's and TNT Ultra's. Those were the days.
I did a cap change on my brother's Xbox and a led fan and led controller port mod as it's a crystal it all now lights up green. I got bit by the power supply as I got a little cocky. The ones that go through the board are easy but the surface mounted ones are a little harder. It's just my hobby and I'm learning as I go. I practice on old broken boards I get from the tip.
Hi Kari. I will give you a nice tip for removing old components from boards. If you first give the components some fresh solder, then you can remove them more easily with your desoldering gun because you will get all the solder off. I use this method my self, when I recap old Amigas and C64's f.ex. Thanks for this nice video you have created, and I will use it when I am looking at old Xbox consoles. :)
She literally did that.. she talks about it at about 7:37 (she just didn't show it) - she added some fresh solder and some flux before using the desoldering gun
Good morning, Miss...thank you for sharing, enjoyed watching the video. Please correct me if I am wrong, is there a need to replace that capacitor once it is taken out or can I just leave it as is after it is taken off and it will still work? Thanks in advance.
The front mounted controller ports are really just a proprietary plug for USB. I would mod the jacks and the plug on the end on the controller to be standard USB-A as it not only enables you to use the controller on your PC, but also allows the use of XBOX 360 corded controllers on the old original XBOX. This requires flashing new firmware to the XBOX which is possible.
Cleaning up any leakage from the clock cap is just as important as removing it. Also, it's easier to pull out the clock cap by heating each leg while all the solder is still there. The rest of the solder can be removed by using wick.
Something that you should do to your A500+/600/1200 and the A500 512k expansion as well. As well as recap the 600/1200. Back in the day (2003/2004 to be exact) when I worked in a computer shop, we jury-rigged a female USB connector to a cut-off X-Box controller cable and were able to adapt pendrives and other normal USB devices to it. The connector on the machine has a 5th pin for 12V and I no longer remember if it was a switched or constant voltage, but I think it was for the rumblers and force motors in the controllers. If unswitched, it could have powered external hard drives of that time, even those with a 3,5 inch drive. Nowadays of course almost all external drives you get are all 5V 2,5 inch devices and the modded cable doesn't need to include 12V anyway.
It would have been nice if you'd mentioned what the clock capacitor was actually used for and the effect removing had on the machine (or potential effect.) (I initially assumed you were going to replace it, not just remove it entirely.) Just a suggestion as I'd like to know these things! Enjoyed the video nonetheless. :)
Yea, the general consensus online is, once removed you don't really need to replace. And as far as the outcome, it asks for the time to be re-entered again if turned off for a good few hours. There is summary of this, in the video description.
If you want to feel extra old, it's even longer between now and the release of the OG PlayStation as it is between the release of the Atari 2600 and the OG PlayStation!
As someone who's done modding with OLD Macs. I love that if it's not a leaking battery, it's a leaking cap. The thing that unites us all is leaking electrolytics.
Removed the capacitors years ago so got lucky. Softmodded it 2 years ago (now hdd can be accessed via ftp) and placed a usb connection inside parallel to a controller connection. Still rocking with the original hdd.
Great video. Really good walk thru. Trying to get my kiddo to be more techie and try watching your vids. Any chance you will look into update/mod a PS3?
People always complain about the Duke, but it's way better than the S controller. I guess for you, it's probably much better, but for men the Duke is a much better fit. Great video, I'll need to be sure to check my Xbox as I've not used it in many years.
Hell I'm a married man who is 5'6 and small hands and feet, the duke controller was very comfortable for me. I think these people who complain are just exaggerating for likes or to impress their Japanese friends. Christ anyone I know who had the N64 and Dreamcast was more than happy with the Duke controller.
Good idea for a video; the O.G. Xbox seems to be coming back around again in popularity. BTW The Goonies was in theaters when I was a teen and none of us had any idea the kid with the headband would grow up to be Thanos!
I still love playing the original Xbox. The last few I've found at thrift shops have been about $10 so your pricing is pretty comparable. I normally soft-mod them when I find one so I don't need to worry if the disc drive fails. And they make great emulation machines.
Cool futureproofing. It's really great that there are information about these things, so people can prevent disasters happening. Managed to save my Commodore Amiga 500 extra ram card from disaster, as the real time clock battery tends to leak in these as well, and destroy the pcb. Found information about it in online forum, checked mine, and indeed catched it just in time, it had already started forming corrosion to the battery, but it wasn't at the pcb yet :) Never had the original Xbox, my only one is Xbox One S and my favourite game is Forza Horizon 4 and 5, love the open world driving in them. I guess Forza games (Motorsport and Horizon) started with the original Xbox.
I wasn't that lucky with my Amiga 500 plus, the board had quite a bit of damage. Thinking though, of either getting a donor one from eBay, or a complete new PCB that I can transfer what I can rescue over. Also happened to a Acorn A3010 I've got. I hate those, clock batteries!!!
@@karilawler Indeed A500 Plus has the battery on the motherboard, so it's not that easy to check comparing to older Amiga 500 extra ram card through the trapdoor underneath. Removed my leaking Varta battery in 2006, and the manufacturing date on my extra ram card seems to be 1993, so just 13 years, and it started showing signs of "green crusties". If I didn't catch it, probably these days the entire card would be completely destroyed, so indeed really glad people had posted about this problem in online forums. In 2006, TH-cam was just in it's "infancy", so not many videos yet about stuff like this back then :) Good thing is there seems to be new motherboards available, RMC channel did a video about it couple of years ago: th-cam.com/video/87q-TTG48Ew/w-d-xo.html Also good thing is that more modern devices use regular coin cell batteries, which usually don't leak. At the start of this year, replaced dead battery from my PS3 Slim which I bought in 2009. No damage :)
I just snapped my cap off, didnt need to remove the motherboard from the case that way. Also those shock warning stickers are kind of worth heeding, I got a nasty shock when swapping to a bigger harddrive and touched one of the heatsinks.
The Elder Scrolls Morrowind, the reason I bought my first xbox. I discovered it at a friends house who had an xbox. I played it at his house for days before I left, and on my way home I bought and xbox and a cooy of the game. Still playable today on a Series X/S with backwards compatability.
i loved the original Xbox controller it was the perfect fit for my massive hands it was the only controller i ever used without getting cramp in my fingers even as big as it was my Thumb still covered ALL the button diamond on the right.
Well done. Looking forward to the next parts of your OG Xbox modding journey.
Thank you ... now looking at soft modding and replacing the HDD with an SSD, due to the age 👍 ... love you videos BTW 🤓
@@karilawler Noooooo. The modchip way is way better (and safer!) than softmodding, specially if you want to replace the hdd.
Check OpenXenium, or any of the other modchips!
@@karilawler soft mod is probably good enough, but worth considering installing a modchip. There's some really useful benefits over the softmod, only reason to do softmod is if you are on tight budget or don't know how to solder.
@@karilawler Think about hardmodding. Project Stellar is a new-ish modchip for the OG xbox consoles which has a novel approach, allows lots of interesting stuff (such as removing the size limitations for HDD/SSD) and comes with some modularity which makes flashing and updating a breeze.
There are also mods for HDMI output and more, the scene around old consoles has been pretty alive in the past years. Worth looking into :)
@@karilawler OMG why you yell in this video so much!? You have the mike right under yer mouth, we can hear yer.
You know, man, there's something about the pixelated poetry of Halo 1 & 2 and Fable that just hits different. Those games didn't just entertain--they transported me. They pulled into a universe where the line between hero and antihero blurred like a cheap scotch on a Monday night.
Halo's vast cosmos and Fable's whimsical lands--they weren't just backdrops, they were characters in their own right. I soaked up every bit of lore, every twist in the storyline like it was the last cigarette in a rainstorm. Master Chief, Cortana, the heroes and villains--they had arcs, they had depth. They were more than pixels; they were practically breathing.
And those moral choices in Fable, man. They forced you to stare into the abyss of your own soul and decide what kind of player, what kind of person, you wanted to be. Good, evil, or somewhere in between.
If I could distill just a fraction of that world-building, that character depth, and those gut-wrenching choices into my writing, I might just have something worth reading.
The latter 2004 to 2005 Xbox models have a better quality capacitor in them. If you remove it, the console will not boot.
The first Halo was nearly a perfect game. I still think about that last level a lot.
Great job on the hardware fix!
There was one floor. The auto save was F*d . There was no fail safe on the saves. What I mean by this is if you were about to die and it auto saved it would endlessly loop rather than push you back to the previous save.
Karis videos are always straight to the point with no gobbledygook :)
True, but I don't mind a bit of gobble whatever you said too. 😅
I didn't know this was a thing. Thanks for the heads-up. Another no-nonsense video of yours. No waffle, just straight into the important stuff. Hats off to you for also continuing to avoid doing the usual "Don't forget to click like and subscribe" many TH-camrs come out with. If people like your stuff they'll like and subscribe without a nudge.
Very interesting video Kari I thought perhaps you might be installing a cap at a slightly higher voltage so it wouldn't leak and still provide dc smoothing on the clock circuit.
Much more similar than I expected to what the PCs used to be back then. Specially the DVD drive and the HD... Really nice 👍
saved my Xbox as the capacitor was bulging ! cheers Kari !
Subscribed, you make desoldering look so easy. I was worried about attempting this with my Xbox, but I'm going to give it ago thanks to your video. I can't believe you got the original Xbox for a tenner.
I don't have an electric desoldering gun but I find it's not hard, even with my spring loaded solder sucker.
Just break it off. No need for solder it off. Fast and easy.
@@MAL-Collector Some people like to do a good job, I'd rather replace it with a better one.
Cutting is definitely the recommended way for surface mounted caps of only having a (1) soldering iron. Better safe than sorry.
Of course having the right tool for the job is always safer still.
@@ffviifakeremake9997 It can actually be easier to desolder and recap it with the wiggle or twist method, and there's less chance of damaging the board with excess heat since there's no component attached to the legs to leech away heat. If you want more information on the twist method I suggest taking a look at one of the many recapping videos Adrian Black has done on his channels, Adrian's Basement and Adrian's Basement II.
I am just exploring everything surrounding capacitors on retro consoles, I just recapped a PSOne in fact. seeing your video now is leading me to write on my project list doing this exact work on my xbox that I got second hand a few months ago. It works, I haven't opened it yet to assess it's state, hopefully when I do there hasn't been any initial damage. Great video Kari! looking forward to more projects on your xbox!
Nice! I wouldn't power on that OG XBOX again until you check the caps! :)
Remove the clock cap and replace the thermal paste. It's a good idea to go ahead and buy a SATA to IDE adapter (Startech is the best for OG Xbox) and replace the hard drive. You can softmod your Xbox and use CHIMP to clone the drive over to the new one. Sadly, OG Xbox hard drives are one of the biggest problems. At their current age, they will likely die very soon if they are still working, as the life of most HDDs are 10 years or so. If you are able to softmod and clone the drive, it will ensure it can run for quite some time. You CAN use a solid state SSD as well if you want to have less moving parts and may keep the Xbox running even longer.
@@husky3g solid tips thank you! I haven't gotten go this project yet but I will soon...
Great job Kari. Glad to hear you are going for a total recap.
Not only you found an OG xbox, you found one that was never opened, that is the wet dream of many console technicians and collectors
Don't diss the Duke! Seriously though, great video. So glad to see an expansion of the types of people preserving the older console generations!
Did my two a couple of months ago along with redoing the thermal paste and softmodding them. I also changed the ide hdd for a sata one. Great vid as always , look forward to the next one
I loved the full size Xbox controllers, obviously they are too big for children and a lot of adults too, but if you have big hands or long fingers it's the best controller ever made.
Exactly
The S controller is probably my favorite one.
Same here. They only downsized when they started shipping to the Asian markets and sadly never went back. The Duke was that size because the original controller it is modelled on is the Microsoft sidewinder
I use to love working on these. I think this is my favorite Xbox so far. That controller with my big hands was epic!
Whoa! Flash back! I haven't seen an xbox since I was a kid.
Back when playing Halo and Fables was the coolest thing ever. It was an easier time.
Thanks Kari. I was about to open up my old Xbox as it's turning on but then turning off again after a while. So this video is already helpful and while I look for the error I'll also remove that capacitor.
Thanks for sharing!
Just a hint - if you have issues removing a through-hole component, you can add fresh solder and then take the desoldering gun. That usually works like a charm 🙂
Great video, Kari! You are one of us, a kid of the 80's (according to your great T-shirts). The only difference is, that you will experience many more decades than us old grumpies...:)
Great video! I never had an OG Xbox but my friend did. Four of us would get together every Friday night and play Fusion Frenzy. I loved that game, its one of the best party games of all time. Cheers!
The OG XBOX is basically a PC I should know I owned three of them in my life and I love them!
Unreal Championship.Timesplitters 2 Halo obviously and Blinx the timesweeper just to name a few!
Great channel btw keep up the good work 👍
Brilliant video! Ive just purchased a limited edition green xbox so will likely attempt to do this myself. Your tips and advice are appreciated 👍🏻
Good video. I look forward to seeing what other mods you make.
She should do PS3 preservation as it the only way to play ps3 games
Excellent, informative video. I have acquired a couple of X-Box's and I'm going
to set about future proofing mine thanks to you. 👍
Thank you I recently purchased an old Xbox and wasnt aware of this issue your video helped me to identify and remove the issue :)
Thanks for this video Kari, Ive just gotten a v1.6 crystal version and want to make sure the same doesn't happen to mine. You have some setup there, will need to go on the hunt myself now to find someone with equipment here in Ireland to ensure the same is done without killing the xbox or myself. Ive subbed. Cheers again!
From what I’ve read, the 1.6 clock cap is from a better vendor so much more reliable and less prone to leak. However if you do replace it, you have to replace it on this version , otherwise the machine gets put into an infinite clock loop. Hope that helps 👍
@@karilawler Helps alot yano! Nice one! I gave it a solid clean when i bought it before softmodding. Just checking it this morning It looks in good nick for now but I will keep an eye on it.
I still need to do this to my Xbox, thanks for the reminder. 😅 Love the Goonies t-shirt btw!
Great work, here in Brazil the original Xbox is loved by everyone!
I just picked up one, about to do this same thing. Thanks!
Awesome video! I loved my first Xbox... It died for another reason so I don't have to worry about the clock capacitor lol. I remember them talking about that they couldn't find a manufacturer to make their controllers with the features that they wanted. They contacted alot of Japanese companies that made controllers but they all told Microsoft, "No!". So they sort of had to figure it out on their own and that big duke was the result. It's more of a bad prototype that they had to move forward with... they were concerned about Sony's market in the home space getting bigger!
They worked hard on selling the idea that bigger was better lol. Granted alot of western men loved that controller like my brother at the time, so it worked for some!
It was more that Japanese manufacturers wouldn't make a two-piece board for them, since they were American, even though they would of paid more for it.
So they were stuck with a HUGE one-piece board that they had to fit a MASSIVE shell around.
By the time I got my Xbox, it came with the controller S (which I still thought was rather big) with the white and black buttons at the bottom rather than the top.
I also wondered WHY it had 2 slots in each controller, which made sense in the Dreamcast, 1 slot for the Vibration Pak, and another slot for the VMS/VMU.
The Xbox controller had rumble built in to them, and an 8GB hard drive to save games to. Pretty much the only thing the hard drive was used for was saved games, unless you wanted to rip cd's to use as a soundtrack. You didn't need to install games to hdd or anything.
Respect for doing a clean removal, Kari. It's all the little things in life that make the most difference, and if you're going to do a thing, do it properly.
You mean wick off the remaining solder and clean the flux off with IPA? 😉
@@georgeprout42 Everyone just clips them off with a pair of snips. It's refreshing to see someone do it properly 😆
Truth be told, the capacitor was so close to the board on this one, I couldn't see any way of getting a pair of snips in anyway lol
Cool vid. Good thing you're planning on re-capping this XBOX since I happened to spot a swollen capacitor on your board there. On that note you may want to do that capacitor replacement sooner than later.
Hi Kari. Only came across your channel today, TH-cam suggestion. I have binged watched your vids, love It. Now subbed and will look forward to more content
I seem to see this comment a lot. 😄👍
Top tips!!! I'm in the market for an OG XBOX myself. When I find one I'll definitely be following this guide.
Always a pleasure watching your video, well done. Cheers!
Kung Fu Chaos, Fuzion Frenzy, Blinx: The Time Sweeper, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, Fable and Halo 2
are my fav Xbox OG game :D. Great video as per usual!
Kung Fu Chaos and Fusion Frenzy were the best! So many hours playing those with friends
In the past month I've been going into a deep dive on Xbox modding. Started off by getting that nasty clock capacitor and I'm now attempting to get a SSD to work. Feels like such a coincidence that you're making this video now lol.
Solid video, and good advice! These leaking capacitors are a nightmare on old gear - I have an 90's Toshiba Libretto laptop that I need to sort out in this regard.
It was just a year since i tell to myself "uhm, maybe it's better to change that capacitor on my og xbox"... it have 3 leaking caps, but fortunately they don't have dameged the board!
Now i have only to open a second one and spread the voice to my other friend! Thanks for the video!
Rapid update: just open the second Xbox, and now we are at 8 licking caps! 😅
Nice job! In terms of things to check out for mods etc... while it's not technically a mod, getting it set up on the new Xbox live servers, Insignia Is a must have, so you can play online!
HDD upgrade to something larger or an SSD is a must too.
Great videos, keep up the great content Kari
Great video Kari.
To answer your question, favourite OG Xbox games would be: Hunter: The Reckoning, MechAssault and ofc Halo: Combat Evolved
How long does it take for the Capacitor to melt the motherboard? or rather erode out and go bad onto the motherboard? Also what do you lose out from removing the clock capacitor?
Great channel and informative videos. The style and presentation reminds me of a local pc repair channel that aired in the 1990's on the local British Columbia TV station KVOS. RIP KVOS
thanks for the reminder, i have a 1.0 and a 1.1 xbox, i had checked the clock caps a few years ago but never removed them, i took both xbox's apart tonight and both had indeed started leaking, i removed both and neutralized the minor corrosion with 99% isopropyl alcohol and both systems are working fine, im not sure if am going bother putting new clock caps in but i may do a full recap sometime in the future
Older consoles are slowly becoming hazardous.
Great explainer video.
Exciting, I recently got one, which I replaced the clock capacitor and a few of the bigger capacitors that were bulging on the top with new ones. I later did a TSOP flash which lets you run a custom BIOS without a modchip, and added a 1TB HDD and loaded >100 games on there. The nice thing with the custom BIOS is that you can easily replace the HDD by just putting it straight into the Xbox without having to unlock/lock it. A softmod can be sufficient though, and the latest/easiest way is using the Rocky5 with the Endgame method, which doesn't require using an exploitable game disk, and can be done only using the memory card or a USB drive with some special files on it.
Still miss Project Gorham and Jetset Radio Future
Thanks for the video! I really should get me a desoldering station, that looks so much easier than my solder sucker.
Also: Cool shirt! Now I have to watch Goonies again, haven't done so in a long time. 😄
Good job, subscribed so I can see what else you do with the OG xbox
That warranty sticker lasted a
lot longer than mine when I bought my first Xbox 20+ years ago. Within half an hour of leaving the shop my friend had it apart and was fitting a mod chip in it
Halo 1 - 2, Ninja Gaiden Black were and still are some of my faves.
Agreed, I restored the 2 og consoles I currently own. Since both of these are 1.6 didn't need the clock capacitor to be replaced yet, but I'm planning to do it.
I strongly advise replacing all the 6.3 V 3300 uF in this mainboard to avoid any power or malfunction issues.
They filter the current power supply for the Intel CPU and the custom nVidia graphics chip.
And if possible, to make a perfect work, do a full change for all the electrolytic capacitors on all mainboard revisions of the console and the ones within the power supply. And of course apply fresh thermal paste after cleaning properly CPU & GPU chips and heatsinks. I used AS5 and systems are working pretty good, no temperature issues.
I've watched a few of your videos and enjoyed them. After watching this one, when you started talking about soldering, I think I fell in love with you. HAHA You're cure, adorable and I love your accent. The fact that your "techie", makes you just that more interesting. The fact that you do soldering, *sigh*
Thanks Kari! What brand is your desoldering kit?
it's made by DuraTool👍 cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d00672/desoldering-station-uk-eu-plug-80w/dp/SD01384
Top video as always Kari👍
Ahh, that takes me back. A buddy and I had a small biz going modding Xboxes, he did the FW and I soldered the modchips. It made us money enough to buy us both Celeron 300A's and TNT Ultra's. Those were the days.
Great video, sometimes having solder ribbon works much better when trying to desolder than one of the vacuum desolder guns.
I did a cap change on my brother's Xbox and a led fan and led controller port mod as it's a crystal it all now lights up green.
I got bit by the power supply as I got a little cocky. The ones that go through the board are easy but the surface mounted ones are a little harder.
It's just my hobby and I'm learning as I go. I practice on old broken boards I get from the tip.
Congrats on 50k!!!
Thanks
The duke is my favourite controller.
Hi Kari.
I will give you a nice tip for removing old components from boards. If you first give the components some fresh solder, then you can remove them more easily with your desoldering gun because you will get all the solder off. I use this method my self, when I recap old Amigas and C64's f.ex.
Thanks for this nice video you have created, and I will use it when I am looking at old Xbox consoles. :)
She literally did that.. she talks about it at about 7:37 (she just didn't show it) - she added some fresh solder and some flux before using the desoldering gun
@@stephenpalmer9375 Sorry, I didnt hear that. I just saw she was struggling to remove the capacitor and wanted to help Kari. 😊
Another great vid.
I love the labels on the bottom of the console, always good to see a console has some provenance!!
Good morning, Miss...thank you for sharing, enjoyed watching the video. Please correct me if I am wrong, is there a need to replace that capacitor once it is taken out or can I just leave it as is after it is taken off and it will still work? Thanks in advance.
The front mounted controller ports are really just a proprietary plug for USB. I would mod the jacks and the plug on the end on the controller to be standard USB-A as it not only enables you to use the controller on your PC, but also allows the use of XBOX 360 corded controllers on the old original XBOX. This requires flashing new firmware to the XBOX which is possible.
Again such an deep tech subject I wouldn't have thought about. Very inspiring 💡😮🙂
Good video, plus your nice to look at xx
I still have one and it’s modded too so there’s tons of games still on it. I’ll check this to make sure it won’t break, thank you!
Cleaning up any leakage from the clock cap is just as important as removing it. Also, it's easier to pull out the clock cap by heating each leg while all the solder is still there. The rest of the solder can be removed by using wick.
Something that you should do to your A500+/600/1200 and the A500 512k expansion as well. As well as recap the 600/1200.
Back in the day (2003/2004 to be exact) when I worked in a computer shop, we jury-rigged a female USB connector to a cut-off X-Box controller cable and were able to adapt pendrives and other normal USB devices to it. The connector on the machine has a 5th pin for 12V and I no longer remember if it was a switched or constant voltage, but I think it was for the rumblers and force motors in the controllers. If unswitched, it could have powered external hard drives of that time, even those with a 3,5 inch drive. Nowadays of course almost all external drives you get are all 5V 2,5 inch devices and the modded cable doesn't need to include 12V anyway.
It would have been nice if you'd mentioned what the clock capacitor was actually used for and the effect removing had on the machine (or potential effect.) (I initially assumed you were going to replace it, not just remove it entirely.) Just a suggestion as I'd like to know these things! Enjoyed the video nonetheless. :)
Yea, the general consensus online is, once removed you don't really need to replace. And as far as the outcome, it asks for the time to be re-entered again if turned off for a good few hours. There is summary of this, in the video description.
@@karilawler I think I'd replace it as I am lazy and entering the date would annoy me :D Great video though!!
It’s called a clock capacitor, what did you think it did? Of course removing it will cause the console stop keeping time if unplugged.
My brother in Christ, read the description! All the info you need is there.
She did.
I have at least three of these Xboxes and have never checked their capacitors!
Also I love the Goonies :D
Xbox 360 screws are also pretty long!
It donned on me that I must be old now when you compared the xbox to a "modern console". 😂
If you want to feel extra old, it's even longer between now and the release of the OG PlayStation as it is between the release of the Atari 2600 and the OG PlayStation!
As someone who's done modding with OLD Macs. I love that if it's not a leaking battery, it's a leaking cap. The thing that unites us all is leaking electrolytics.
I definitely need to pull out mine and do this. Thanks Kari!
Removed the capacitors years ago so got lucky. Softmodded it 2 years ago (now hdd can be accessed via ftp) and placed a usb connection inside parallel to a controller connection. Still rocking with the original hdd.
Great video. Really good walk thru. Trying to get my kiddo to be more techie and try watching your vids. Any chance you will look into update/mod a PS3?
People always complain about the Duke, but it's way better than the S controller. I guess for you, it's probably much better, but for men the Duke is a much better fit. Great video, I'll need to be sure to check my Xbox as I've not used it in many years.
Hell I'm a married man who is 5'6 and small hands and feet, the duke controller was very comfortable for me. I think these people who complain are just exaggerating for likes or to impress their Japanese friends. Christ anyone I know who had the N64 and Dreamcast was more than happy with the Duke controller.
@@resiefan3258 you’re right, the Dreamcast controller is another one that a lot of people complain about but I never had any problems with it.
Your soldering skills are great.
Did you need to do anything to enable it to boot before or after removing the capacitor, or did it just "work" when you turned it on again
Kari is back again this is a good day
Good idea for a video; the O.G. Xbox seems to be coming back around again in popularity. BTW The Goonies was in theaters when I was a teen and none of us had any idea the kid with the headband would grow up to be Thanos!
I still love playing the original Xbox. The last few I've found at thrift shops have been about $10 so your pricing is pretty comparable. I normally soft-mod them when I find one so I don't need to worry if the disc drive fails. And they make great emulation machines.
You should mod that console!
It's not an easy task, but the final result is a a beast machine.
do you replace the capacitor with a new one, or just remove it ?
Why not put in a new cap? Thanks for sharing
Cool futureproofing. It's really great that there are information about these things, so people can prevent disasters happening. Managed to save my Commodore Amiga 500 extra ram card from disaster, as the real time clock battery tends to leak in these as well, and destroy the pcb. Found information about it in online forum, checked mine, and indeed catched it just in time, it had already started forming corrosion to the battery, but it wasn't at the pcb yet :)
Never had the original Xbox, my only one is Xbox One S and my favourite game is Forza Horizon 4 and 5, love the open world driving in them. I guess Forza games (Motorsport and Horizon) started with the original Xbox.
I wasn't that lucky with my Amiga 500 plus, the board had quite a bit of damage. Thinking though, of either getting a donor one from eBay, or a complete new PCB that I can transfer what I can rescue over. Also happened to a Acorn A3010 I've got. I hate those, clock batteries!!!
@@karilawler Indeed A500 Plus has the battery on the motherboard, so it's not that easy to check comparing to older Amiga 500 extra ram card through the trapdoor underneath.
Removed my leaking Varta battery in 2006, and the manufacturing date on my extra ram card seems to be 1993, so just 13 years, and it started showing signs of "green crusties". If I didn't catch it, probably these days the entire card would be completely destroyed, so indeed really glad people had posted about this problem in online forums. In 2006, TH-cam was just in it's "infancy", so not many videos yet about stuff like this back then :)
Good thing is there seems to be new motherboards available, RMC channel did a video about it couple of years ago:
th-cam.com/video/87q-TTG48Ew/w-d-xo.html
Also good thing is that more modern devices use regular coin cell batteries, which usually don't leak. At the start of this year, replaced dead battery from my PS3 Slim which I bought in 2009. No damage :)
Surprising to see an og UNOPENED xbox, all the ones I come across have all been modded/opened up!
Buenísimo el video! Gracias por compartirlo!!
Thanks for this! I just did 3, and have 2 to go!
I just snapped my cap off, didnt need to remove the motherboard from the case that way. Also those shock warning stickers are kind of worth heeding, I got a nasty shock when swapping to a bigger harddrive and touched one of the heatsinks.
That's hilarious. Sometimes brute force works just as well as finesse
IDE cables. Haven't seen these in a while. Probably the last version with IDE, I assume?
Ciao Kari grazie al tuo video ho riparato il mio vecchio xbox ,sei bravissima, sei una donna molto in gamba ti abbraccio forte GRAZIE Giuseppe 🥰
Instructions unclear: I accidentally removed the flux capacitor from my DeLorean. :(
The Elder Scrolls Morrowind, the reason I bought my first xbox. I discovered it at a friends house who had an xbox. I played it at his house for days before I left, and on my way home I bought and xbox and a cooy of the game. Still playable today on a Series X/S with backwards compatability.
Commenting so the algorithm helps this get more views and more people can save their Xbox.
o7
Good watch as usual....
Favorite original xbox games?
Halo
Onimusha warlords
Project Gotham
Dead or alive 3
Nhl hits 2002 & 2003
Outlaw golf
I may give this a go on my Xbox.., hopefully haven't left it to late!!! Video suggestion for u, changing Dreamcast battery??
i loved the original Xbox controller it was the perfect fit for my massive hands it was the only controller i ever used without getting cramp in my fingers even as big as it was my Thumb still covered ALL the button diamond on the right.