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Attention Original Xbox owners - Remove the Time Capacitor before it's too late!

The description says don't do it if you have a 1.6 Xbox. I wonder if that's my version, I bought it pretty late

I don't think it's 100% guaranteed, but I'd say if your Xbox's manufacturing date on the sticker underneath is 2004/5 onwards, it's a 1.6. I have one from 2004 and another from 2005 and they're both 1.6.
 

Shaneus

Member
Any reason you couldn't replace it with a button-cell or something? Obviously it doesn't need to have a lot of power, just enough.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
You're bullshiting me.

Even when the damn thing is unhooked & in storage, it's still working?

No. Just time/heat and stuff will have the stuff corrode. Water vapors and all that.

As it is, apparently this doesn't effect 1.6 X-boxes?
 

Skele7on

Banned
I know just the guy for this job
sfC2iOz.jpg

why wont he come back :(

See I imagine this is what happened to mine actually.

I opened it up and the mother board was absolutely ruined, a shame as I wanted to really play Blinx and Brute Force
 
My Xbox has never maintained time while unplugged, not since I bought it. And I don't mean unplugged for hours or days. During a minute or two of being unplugged to move it into another room, it will reset the time and date. It's a launch model. I guess mine was pre-detonated?
 
Well that sucks because I am never going to go through all those steps to remove a tiny capacitor. I am not the kind of person who tinkers with this kind of stuff or has any of the tools to even attempt it.
 

Het_Nkik

Member
I did this to my Xbox a while ago, which looked like it was beginning to leak, and everything still works fine.

A friend of mine that still has one since release already leaked pretty far, and was the cause of his power/eject buttons not responding, and randomly turning on/off his system, because of it somehow spreading to the powerboard in the faceplate.

I did a thorough cleaning on his. Those buttons work perfectly again, and his system doesn't turn on and off at random. DEFINITELY do this if you still have one, especially with the older models.

Hm, about a year ago my Xbox's disc tray started opening up on its own whenever the fuck it felt like. Do you think this was the cause?

Since it WAS a year ago, I'm not having high hopes of things not having gone horrible since that time.
 

Yoday

Member
No. Just time/heat and stuff will have the stuff corrode. Water vapors and all that.

As it is, apparently this doesn't effect 1.6 X-boxes?
I know mine still works, as I have hooked it up recently, but what you're saying is that keeping it in the hot attic is probably a bad idea?
 

Cynn

Member
Thanks for the post OP. (As a Samsung HDTV owner I know all about replacing caps.) I must preserve my Xboxen even though they are out to pasture.
 

Elija2

Member
The description says not to do this if you have a 1.6 Xbox. Does that mean that those Xboxes aren't affected by this? Do they not have the capacitors or something?
 

Anilusion

Member
I bought one preowned like a month ago, on the sticker on the bottom it says:

MFG. Date: 2005 - 08 - 16

It should be alright then?
 
I heard about this a few months ago, I still haven't done it, but it is high on my to do list, I just want to wait until a day where I've got plenty of time to look at it and make sure I know what I'm doing.

Honestly, this is one of the stupidest design flaws I have ever heard of. A capacitor, to hold the internal clock time... what were they thinking!?

This is why we need full backwards compatibility...

This. We will lose some original Xbox exclusives to time if we don't get it.
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
I don't think it's 100% guaranteed, but I'd say if your Xbox's manufacturing date on the sticker underneath is 2004/5 onwards, it's a 1.6. I have one from 2004 and another from 2005 and they're both 1.6.

Yeah, mine is 2004. I actually bought mine a couple months before Halo 2 came out

Weird that 1.6 Xbox aren't affected (I think?). I didn't really look too much into the video if it explains why
 

Dizzy-4U

Member
I just got my first original Xbox a few days ago. I need to check this out :/

By the way, is there an original xbox thread? You know, like the PC-Engine, Saturn, etc?
 

FaintDeftone

Junior Member
I just performed this surgery on my Xbox. Even though the video failed to mention a fee extra screws on my model, the repair was successful. I did notice the bottom of the capacitor was looking like it was going to pop. Good thing I took care of this.
 

Elija2

Member
I just looked it up and apparently 1.6 Xboxes can't function without the capacitor. So it's not that the capacitors don't need to be removed from them, it's that they can't be removed from them. Essentially all 1.6 Xboxes are ticking time bombs and there's nothing you can do about it.
 

TheChaos0

Member
I just looked it up and apparently 1.6 Xboxes can't function without the capacitor. So it's not that the capacitors don't need to be removed from them, it's that they can't be removed from them. Essentially all 1.6 Xboxes are ticking time bombs and there's nothing you can do about it.

Thanks (and to the people mentioning it above), I have added the info to the OP.

My Xbox was manufactured in 2002... :)

Yeah, mine is 2004. I actually bought mine a couple months before Halo 2 came out

Weird that 1.6 Xbox aren't affected (I think?). I didn't really look too much into the video if it explains why

Oh they are affected, it's just you have to replace the capacitor instead of removing to keep the box working. Thanks Microsoft.
Honestly, this is one of the stupidest design flaws I have ever heard of. A capacitor, to hold the internal clock time... what were they thinking!?



This. We will lose some original Xbox exclusives to time if we don't get it.

I'd imagine they thought it was a better and more term solution than having a battery and probably cheaper...
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
Oh they are affected, it's just you have to replace the capacitor instead of removing to keep the box working. Thanks Microsoft.

Oh that's even better considering I don't really have the know-how to do that (if there's even a solution)
 

HTupolev

Member
It is absolutely the opposite. Every other company used watch batteries for a reason.
Supercaps are fairly popular for holding charge on low-power parts of circuits these days. Run a low-leakage diode from the main vdd to your isolated section, get one or two farads in there to keep your timing chip happy, and you've got a decent setup. Usually.

Supercaps are borderline batteries, though. ;)
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
I google'd around and apparently 1.6 uses a better capacitor, I dunno. I didn't know this thing was an issue until today actually
 

Lindsay

Dot Hacked
Yikes! I hope mine will be okay! Gonna check it in the morning. It would be the worst thing if I couldn't play Shenmue 2 ever again >_<
 
Thanks for bringing this to attention. I just opened mine up and the stuff apparently leaked out and started corroding the metal shell below the mobo. Took the cap off and the thing still boots fine and works (was hesitant I haven't turned this thing on in a while)
Mine was a 1.0 board so It got plenty of time to leak all over.
Was also modded years ago and used a xbmc box.


 

Jawmuncher

Member
Currently going through Dino Crisis 3.
I'll check this tomorrow too see. With no emulation this thing needs to last.
 
So this is my my launch xbox started not having a working power button? It would just turn on when plugged in. From the cap leaking on it? Heh if I known that I would of cleaned it up a while ago. My new Ebay xbox is a 1.6, it's not effected by this?
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Here's the problem with you guys hoping for a later model Xbox.

A lot of later model Xboxs won't output progressive scan on certain early Sega titles like Jet Set Radio Future.
 
Thanks a lot for the warning, I checked mine and was absolutely perfect, still I took the capacitor out, it wasnt leaking but it worked without issues after removing it.

Thanks :)
 
Planned obsolescence.

Not necessarily. I remember when I worked as a tech in college we had a ton of GX270, I think, from dell that had this exact same problem. Got to the point where we were swapping motherboards on at least 2-3 of them a week if not more.

My samsung HDTV had a very similar issue. They actually sent someone out to fix that one though, and replaced all the capacitors. Sadly, the backlighting is all kinds of screwed up on that screen now, so it's been earmarked for replacement this fall, finances allowing that is.
 
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