hey man, you have become my favorite youtuber since I met you, my first video to discover this great channel was from this beautiful console, the xbox. Thanks to you I have learned a lot about electronics and I have been able to fix my beauties that I have here at home. Beautiful work on this crystal :3
Used to install those Aladdin chips back in highschool when these old beasts were the current system like 20 years ago. Those Aladdin chips were cheap and effective. Never had an issue!
One benefit of HDMI is less lag. Usually flat panel TVs with analog inputs add some lag when using them. No need to go with a fully digital hdmi solution to avoid lag though. You can get a cheap, lagless component to HDMI converter. That’s what I’ve done.
1.6 is the ideal candidate for Project Stellar from what I've read. Would be cool to see a vid on that when it's released (even though you're not interested in HDMI mods :P)
I like the gloves for removing the heatsinks wish I thought of that, many, many times. We used to joke around that a computer build/fix would never be complete without a blood offering.
I just purchased a crystal Xbox 1.6 and matching controller off eBay for 69 pounds with shipping, which came out to about $80.00 USD. It was listed as broken but fired up just fine after a good cleaning, it has a nice Hitachi DVD drive that works great as well.
Nice modding...if we can't have our PAL console back...can you return the power supply to Britain...we can still use it...Mark in London England I'm joking of course...I do have a late model XBox the one with the non leaky clock capacitor...I forget the version...2005..6.0 or something? Unmodded
Did the same process for an Italian 1.6 crystal about a year ago. Much cheaper than buying a Canadian NTSC crystal. Did a full recap, MakeMhz XboxHD+, 3TB drive, Open Xenium, etc.
Little tip here I found out myself to make a PAL console true NTSC. Some games like Ratatouille (US) will not boot on a PAL console even if the EPPROM is patched to NTSC. This is due to extra region protection on the game and the workaround to fix it is to use Config Magic and set the Region from 4 to Region 1 and save/reboot. For EvoX, IND and Xecutor bios's the aforementioned is needed. I have not tested this on Titan and Cerbios.
In VERY broad terms, all that power supply is doing is rectifying 110/220AC into DC voltage(s). Dropping from 220 to 110AC input might mean that all the passives are over rated for what you actually need them to do. If you wanted to experiment you could swap the 220v transformer to a 110v one and see what the output voltages are. Going from 220v to 110v should be less of a big deal that going the other way. I have never done this on an Xbox but I have on other electrical components and swapping the transformer worked since the machine didn't care what was making the DC voltages as long as the DC voltage was correct.
I still have my original Xbox as well as a spare one I bought off my friend years ago... one has the Xecuter2 modchip (soldered) and the other was a softmod technique I used where you basically hot-swap the IDE cable during start-up. I have CoinOPS installed on both and I love it so much. Nothing like the feel of those original Xbox S controllers!
I think the system could use a new fan like a Noctua one. Also I really like the OGX360 that allows you to use wireless Xbox 360 controllers. I have a simple OGX360-T4 which is based on a Teensy 4.1 controller but it does the job.
Hi Borderline OCD! I am writing to you from Morocco, I wanted to thank you for these videos that you make, and for sharing this wonderful hobby with us, I did not have much experience with electronics, but I did have a tremendous love for retro consoles, and because of you, I now have the desktop full of systems, and I'm running out of space XD, I started with a ps one that had image problems, I did the test of the cable that you showed and I got the image, so I changed the capacitor and voila! We have a crystal clear image! I couldn't believe it haha, and since then, console that I see, console that I buy. I've even been encouraged to fix a friend's og xbox, the typical thing, a complete recap and an hdd upgrade hehe I sound like an expert now haha. anyway! thanks for everything and keep it up campion!!
you can use the config magic 1.6 to properly change the region setting in the eeprom to Region 1. this will convert the PAL xbox to a NTSC machine. games like panzer dragoon orta, the warriors, ratatouille will run properly. this eeprom mod will work on all xbox revisions including the v1.6. another new modchip coming from the hdmi mod creator is called project stellar and it seems jampacked with a lot of interesting features.
i found a xbox in the bin outside so obviously i had to rescue it, fully working too, my Region lock was on pal and using the splinter cell save exploit i was able to softmod the box and mine is region free :) only thing i need to do is give it a bigger HDD so i can install games.
Confused. Though couldn't play games in HD on 1.6 version. I was bummed when found out having one myself. I've certainly had no luck playing say Jet Set Radio.
@@BorderlineOCD softmodded it and changed to NTSC. Also have composite lead. Told Microsoft changed the graphics chip on 1.6 which doesn't do games in HD. UI is in HD. Actually had to get hack to force game to play in 480p😞 More confused🤔
@@BorderlineOCD meant to say component. Always get wrong name😄 Was so cheap had to wire in extra grounds to stop audio noise. Total bodge you'd hate it😮 Glad yours working👍
Like most modded systems the obvious one is playing backups of your games, or loading them directly from an internal hard drive. There are of course many other mods for these systems but I’d recommend checking out my Cerbios video to give you an idea what a modded rig would look like for most people who just want to enjoy the game library.
I hope all is well as I haven’t seen a vid in several weeks. I hope you and your family have a great holiday and can’t wait to see what you have to show us next 👍
I've done this rebuild a few times and don't remember doing the 3.3v on the LPC rebuild. Also, FYI the Arctic MX5 had several bad batches so they discontinued it. Just a heads up in case you run into thermal issues.
It was a bit tricky to find good instructions for installing an Aladdin XT using an LPC rebuild kit as the official documentation is clearly targeted for an OpenXenium install. I drew some conclusions from reading several forum posts while making sense of the pinout and trying to put it all together. I read that Pin 9 is NC on a v1.6 (Xbox Dev Wiki) so Pin 15 restores the 3.3V line. I didn't confirm by measuring Pin 9 before installing the board so I am not sure, and I admittedly don't really know if the Aladdin XT needs the 3.3V to function. I guess it doesn't hurt anything but I would be interested in knowing for sure so maybe I'll take some measurements on the next v1.6 I work on. Also thanks for sharing about the MX5, I'll keep an eye on it.
so theoretically just changing the power supply can make it usable in the US? as in plugging it into the wall and playing(while still using whatever region games)
Yes, if all you want to do is plug it directly into the wall, although I would definitely recommend the mod to remove the drive region lock and enable the NTSC advanced HD modes.
We changed the video mode to NTSC rather than the region. I believe all custom BIOSes disable the drive region lock so you can play any region discs as soon as you install the modchip.
Are you talking about the video overlay? That's just a USB capture card on my Macbook. For the HD resolutions on the TV I'm using stock (knockoff) component HD cables.
Power is equal to voltage times current. And with the 110 power supply it’s half the voltage so you have to double the current that’s why the parts are bigger
I would love your take on an Xbox with a RAM and CPU upgrade 😁 I would love to one day be able to do CerBios and a loaded 16TB (Xbox, PS1, N64, Mame.... emulation works) on a v1.1 or v1.4 with RAM/CPU upgrade and HDMI mod, and everything else... ultimate modded system.
I'm hoping to get a used DOA blue crystal ed. Xbox soon its JP region so I assume I'll need to reference the same steps here to convert it to NTSC also. Does any one know what liquid was used @6:48, @7:54, & @8:03? Where do you get the applicator if it just isopropyl alcohol. And where do you source the DVD drive belts were they specific to Samsung DVD drive or do they work on all OG xbox DVD drives?
Hi guys, looking for some advice. My dreamcast outputs 31khz/vga fine but 15khz/rgb got strange issue with sync(looks like is inverted or over interlaced even on crt) but retrotink status shows that syn is constantly switching from 240p to 480i. Any ideas what could cause that?
We’ve all been there after choosing ntsc thinking what do I do now. It’s the simplest program to use but could do with a message or option to reboot your black box.
Oh the nostalgia. I had the same crystal clear xbox back in the day. It had blue leds that lit up the power button, top logo, front and sides. It also had an Xecuter 3 modchip and 250gb HDD. XBMC was awesome for playing movies over the network. 🙂
There are a lot of good videos that explain the difference between interlaced and progressive scan. 720p is superior in my opinion but that’s subjective because it’s technically lower resolution. Also very few games support 1080i so I don’t think you gain much by enabling it.
Tape reels are designed for automatic placement machines, i.e. robots. If you’ve ever tried separating components from a tape reel it’ll make a lot more sense. It’s a bit difficult to do, and although I’ve never actually damaged a component by doing it that way in the past, I was always nervous how hard I was tugging at the component to free it’s legs from the adhesive between the tape layers. I got the idea from a “tips” card in a Console5 order. Makes sense that they order large quantities of capacitors this way because they buy in bulk and merchandise the cap kits for each console before they sell it to you.
A plea for help from a fellow restorer: I've recently started restoring old consoles as a hobby after watching videos like this one and I got a great deal for 2 Fat PS2s at a flea market. When I opened the first one I had a bit of a surprise. A disgusting one: the whole console was filled with insect corpses and droppings. The Motherboard especially was half-covered with droppings. I cleaned everything as best I could with IPA and it looks clean now but there's still a problem. The whole thing stinks! It's a real shame because, besides some broken plastic bits from the optical drive that I'm going to glue back on, the console works perfectly fine. Does anyone know of a way to get the bad smell out of electronics?
Clean it with something... smelly ;) like an electronics cleaner or even dish soap. And scrub the inside of the plastic case - these also "absorb" smells from my experience.
@@ssgohan296 I guess the location matters a lot too. I live in Romania and there is not a big retro/old game collecting scene here. At the flea markets I go to there are many sellers who just get stuff they think will sell. Many times they don't even know what the items they have are, so you could get a decent price for them. But there is a big risk for the buyer too because the consoles are usually in really bad shape and you have no guarantee that they will work. But that's just fine with me since I enjoy the repairing aspect.
You are dah man!!! 👍 I am most impressed with your skills!! You inspire me to learn how to solder, etc.-all the skills you have acquired and improved upon since starting this channel!! 😁
You don't need to write out a map of all of the capacitor values, polarities, and locations, the console5 wiki has all of the values and designators documented and the polarities are marked on the pcb
Dammit! I was worried there for a second that the thing had crashed. You know, it would have been useful for the instructions on that XBlast OS screen to mention "together" on the key press combo... Appreciate your help on the previous video nonetheless, it was good to get a confirmation that you can write the EEPROM on a v1.6.
So, I really want to mark where screws go in consoles by color. Is there any recommended marker I can do that with? Preferably a set, or a brand with colour variants.
@@michaelmcpeters8098 There's a piggy back method that was discovered, you place the extra RAM chips over the existing RAM chips and solder the legs down except the chip select pin, you just have to run a wire to the chip select signals on the motherboard for each extra RAM package. That said, the extra RAM doesn't seem to be all that beneficial except for running homebrew software.
