Its great that you're documenting all of your finds like this, it'll be helpful to many people and hopefully preventing many Xboxs being chucked in the bin 😄
Could it be related to the nearby crystal oscillator? They don't like alcohol across them and it would probably make it stop oscillating. Once the board dried, I would think the oscillator would start back up but maybe your fingers are helping it start back up. Should be easy enough to check the oscillator although your scope probe will probably influence as well.
It can be yes but I checked the crystals. I'm suspecting poor solder joint under PCMX but capacitive touch is causing less noise on a partially floating joint to make it work. I'll try reballing PCMX
Got one that boots 3 times ( on off on off on off) with no signal at all, until today i didn't find a solution to it. Great video like always Luke, looking forward to your explanations 👍
Hey, I've fixed many of these frag issues and 99% most of the time, it's a trace issue. These motherboards are made cheap, and since they are 23 years old, it even more fragile. Check all traces with a microscop and you'll definitely see a micro chipped trace. Good luck. Thanks for sharing your findings.
Interesting! I have an OG Xbox that does this (and which I am massively sentimentally attched to). It had the dreaded leaky clock cap issue but it cleaned up well. I could find no broken traces. I recapped everything - but no change so I wait to hear your further thoughts on this.
That's really nice to see. I always thought it had bad caps. Since bad caps around the CPU area are also becoming more common. I will be reflowing that section when repairing my Fraged Xboxes. Also the PS2 has something similar where there is either garbled graphics or a black screen still with the Blue Light. The fault with that is usually the 1506 47ohm 8 Array Resistors. There is 3 of them in between the GS and the EE and i was able to fix my supposedly unfixable Aqua Blue PS2 that had garbled graphics. I thought the GS was dead but it looks like that wasn't at fault after replacing. It's great to get it fixed especially for a special edition where i can now keep the original Japanese motherboard in there.
Mate. Did you have to change these array resistors or was it cracked solder joint issue? Until past year I perfectly working SCPH-30001 PAL system (GH-011), still waiting to wake up from its slumber.
That is a WILD discovery. The fact that you permanently fix the frag that way is just absurd, I wonder what changes just from the slight finger capacitance?
The IPA will be cooling the pcb substantially and if there is a crack in the trace separating them. Identifying which is a monster, perhaps try a drop of IPA using a grid pattern rather than a spray. Good luck
I have a similar issue to this. Mine randomly flashes orange sometimes. I find the easiest fix is to press lightly specifically on RP7E1. Note that after I watched this video I find something similar happens to mine. When I spray it, the system flashes orange forever. Once dry, it does the normal of flash orange once or twice and then turns off. As soon as I touch the RP7E1 it goes to normal boot.
very stupid thought, but what if you check the resistance/capatance of your finger, and just bridge with a cap same sort of value in certain areas (very stupid idea i know but throwing out ideas)
It's possible but unlikely caps as I have since got it booting by also bending the board near the chips but not touching them so more likely trace issue
Its great that you're documenting all of your finds like this, it'll be helpful to many people and hopefully preventing many Xboxs being chucked in the bin 😄
wow what a head scratcher. Looking forward to your explanation.
Yep it will be follow up video or wiki so keep an eye out
Could it be related to the nearby crystal oscillator? They don't like alcohol across them and it would probably make it stop oscillating. Once the board dried, I would think the oscillator would start back up but maybe your fingers are helping it start back up. Should be easy enough to check the oscillator although your scope probe will probably influence as well.
It can be yes but I checked the crystals. I'm suspecting poor solder joint under PCMX but capacitive touch is causing less noise on a partially floating joint to make it work. I'll try reballing PCMX
Got one that boots 3 times ( on off on off on off) with no signal at all, until today i didn't find a solution to it.
Great video like always Luke, looking forward to your explanations 👍
Hey, I've fixed many of these frag issues and 99% most of the time, it's a trace issue. These motherboards are made cheap, and since they are 23 years old, it even more fragile. Check all traces with a microscop and you'll definitely see a micro chipped trace. Good luck. Thanks for sharing your findings.
Yep I'm pretty sure we are dealing with trace fracture or dry bga ball. No visible trace damage so far so going to do a reball
great work that will last in history thanks
Interesting! I have an OG Xbox that does this (and which I am massively sentimentally attched to). It had the dreaded leaky clock cap issue but it cleaned up well. I could find no broken traces. I recapped everything - but no change so I wait to hear your further thoughts on this.
This has nothing to do with me, but seems like this is your ticket to heaven for doing the community great good 😂
That's really nice to see. I always thought it had bad caps. Since bad caps around the CPU area are also becoming more common. I will be reflowing that section when repairing my Fraged Xboxes. Also the PS2 has something similar where there is either garbled graphics or a black screen still with the Blue Light. The fault with that is usually the 1506 47ohm 8 Array Resistors. There is 3 of them in between the GS and the EE and i was able to fix my supposedly unfixable Aqua Blue PS2 that had garbled graphics. I thought the GS was dead but it looks like that wasn't at fault after replacing. It's great to get it fixed especially for a special edition where i can now keep the original Japanese motherboard in there.
Mate. Did you have to change these array resistors or was it cracked solder joint issue? Until past year I perfectly working SCPH-30001 PAL system (GH-011), still waiting to wake up from its slumber.
@extalia One unit had glitched graphics and the other had a black screen. I replaced the resistors and it started working.
That is a WILD discovery. The fact that you permanently fix the frag that way is just absurd, I wonder what changes just from the slight finger capacitance?
The IPA will be cooling the pcb substantially and if there is a crack in the trace separating them. Identifying which is a monster, perhaps try a drop of IPA using a grid pattern rather than a spray. Good luck
Good luck. Sleep is so important. Get some!
I'll get some extra tonight to catch up 😁
Please do a follow up on this as I'm very intrigued to know the outcome.
Here for the explanation
Great vid, I’ve put a few to the side that have this fault, will have another look after watching this👍🏻🍺😎.
I have a similar issue to this. Mine randomly flashes orange sometimes. I find the easiest fix is to press lightly specifically on RP7E1.
Note that after I watched this video I find something similar happens to mine. When I spray it, the system flashes orange forever. Once dry, it does the normal of flash orange once or twice and then turns off. As soon as I touch the RP7E1 it goes to normal boot.
Did you guys leave the UK? I wanted to order something from your ebay UK store but it was gone, then I saw that your UK site is also gone
Think of all the units that went to landfill over the years due to this issue as we didnt know about the special reset button.
That’s wild!
very stupid thought, but what if you check the resistance/capatance of your finger, and just bridge with a cap same sort of value in certain areas (very stupid idea i know but throwing out ideas)
There are schematics for all version OG Xbox's on the internet.
I’ve got 5 boards that do this same thing, now, I’m going to see if they will boot doing what you did
Could it be a charged cap that is being discharged when you touch it, as in wrong capacitance(failing over time) or bad earth route?
It's possible but unlikely caps as I have since got it booting by also bending the board near the chips but not touching them so more likely trace issue
Are you using 99% IPA or 70%?
99.99
try a ground floating fault dude
For a second I thought that said Xbox FPGA 😮, good luck on fixing these consoles :/
D0000000d.... u fr?
I thought i bricked it😅
Will you be selling Fingers soon?
Stop fingering your console, that's nasty
Very weird and interesting!