Xbox Original, part I

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PlayStation vs. Xbox – I really don’t care.

History

We started out with a PlayStation. This was so we could borrow and swap games with our friends as they all had the PlayStation. The first games we got was Need for Speed: Underground and of course Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. This was a Christmas present for my daughter – and she loved those games … NOT!

Still, I don’t own a PlayStation my self as the PlayStations I have is either my daughter’s (PS2), my wife’s (PS2) or it belongs to Rasmus (PlayStation).

Today

This Xbox, is actually mine, as this was a gift from one of my oldest friends, Peter J, and he gave it to me some 3-4 years back. Already back then he told me to replace the thermal paste on the processors before running it for longer periods of time, as it was already gone bad. Along with the Xbox, I also borrowed a toolkit and some of this magical thermal paste.

But it wasn’t until the end of 2021, I took the time to do this

While doing the research on how to replace the thermal paste and also how to open this Xbox, I’ve learned that I also need to do some essential replacements as the first generations of Xbox‘s all was hit by the capacitor-plague that was around in the beginning of the century.

So, as soon as I was finished with the thermal paste replacement, polishing and then testing, I knew I was forced to return inside soon.

Issues

Here are the issues that I may to fix in the second part of this series:

  • cabinet fan – very noisy
  • heat sink fan for graphics chip – might be noisy
  • clock capacitor
  • 25+ standard capacitors of different sorts

The main issue, besides the air plane taking off when turning on this Xbox, is the clock capacitor and whether or not to replace it, or just leave out, before it leaks and do real damage to the circuit board.

As my Xbox isn’t used that often and is sitting on a shelf most of the year, this as an easy decision: leave it out of the machine.

I would like to replace the cabinet fan also as it is the worst, but as I probably cannot find a brand new genuine Microsoft Xbox replacement fan anywhere and the alternative is a non-standard fan that wont fit the cabinet anyway – I may leave the original as is. And yes, I know of eBay and all that stuff, but the items will be almost as old as this is anyway.

After the thermal paste replacement was made, the Xbox was tested and worked like it was 2002. But damn, it’s noisy.

Further reading