Xbox 1.6 Motherboards and Polymer Capacitors

[qwerty99]

Hello!

I need to change the capacitors on my three original Xboxes.

Two of them are 1.6B revisions and have Hynix RAM, and the other one is a 1.6 with Samsung RAM.

The 1.6 has the infamous Nichicon HM capacitors around the CPU, which have all bulged and started to leak. This Xbox no longer powers on.

The 1.6B revisions have Rubycon MBZ capacitors that all look fine, but I’ll change them in due course. Both of these work fine.

I’ve seen some excellent threads on the forum about replacing/upgrading capacitors, but I can’t seem to find anything specific to 1.6 motherboards and polymers.

For pre 1.6 motherboards, the advice seems to be that 5 x 1500uf to 2200uf polymers should be used to replace the existing THREE electrolytics. However, the 1.6 revisions come from the factory with FIVE electrolytics (3300uf, 6.3v).

Does the advice to use 1500uf to 2200uf polymers still apply to the 1.6 revision motherboards?

If so, will these work?

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/...2MJ20S/5824538

I chose these primarily because they have a 20,000 hrs @ 105c rating and are in stock. The ESR looks good too and the dimensions are no bigger than the existing factory capacitors.

I know stj has posted Aliexpress links for replacement polymers, but I’d prefer to go with brand name components because I don’t really want to have to change these again.

Thanks!

[stj]

6.3v is enough,
any larger and your wasting money.

the 1.6 only has space for 3 cpu caps, so using 2200uf is good.
the 2 caps closer to the corner are not cpu related, they are smoothing the power input.

you dont need to pay too much attention to lifespan, it's only at 105'
at lower temperatures the lifespan is many times higher.

btw, did you hear about the "TITAN" bios patch?
you can use 16gig harddrives now!!!
(or less)

[qwerty99]

Hi stj!

Thanks for your reply.

I didn't realise that only three of the five caps I referred to were for the CPU.

Despite that, can I still use the caps I linked to in all five positions?

I was planning on getting the 6.3v caps, but when I looked on Mouser and Digikey, there weren't that many caps that were 6.3v and 2200uf.

So I decided to look for the next size up, which just happened to be the 16v ones that I linked to.

I think there are literally just 2 choices available if I want 2200uf caps. The United Chemo-cons and these Nichicon caps, which are even more expensive:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/...MDS1PH/7427973

I'll be buying in multiples of 10 (need about 20), so it should work out at about $1.34 each for the United Chemo-cons and $2.73 for the Nichicons. The United caps aren't too badly priced I guess, assuming they're good caps.

[stj]

the caps are fine,

but isnt digikey going to fuck you on the minimum order / postage?

similar spec
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/polym...citors/1749911

[Per Hansson]

It might be worth it to measure the voltage on those caps and if it is low enough use 2.5v 3300µF polymer caps:
They are not in old recommendations simply because they did not exist back then.
Looking at stock levels they seem unavailable but 3900µF is close enough:
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/...MDO1TD/4991291

[stj]

the cpu is a p3,
the corner pair are for 5v i think

[qwerty99]

Originally Posted by stj

the caps are fine,

but isnt digikey going to fuck you on the minimum order / postage?

similar spec
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/polym...citors/1749911

Digikey offer free shipping once you spend over $50! I'll definitely be spending more than that because I'll be ordering for 3 machines.

I'll probably replace the smaller capacitors as well, although I might leave the surface mount ones for the time being because I'm not sure if I have the skill to remove and fit them nicely.

[qwerty99]

Originally Posted by Per Hansson

It might be worth it to measure the voltage on those caps and if it is low enough use 2.5v 3300µF polymer caps:
They are not in old recommendations simply because they did not exist back then.
Looking at stock levels they seem unavailable but 3900µF is close enough:
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/...MDO1TD/4991291

Thanks Per!

I'm not sure I have the balls to experiment like this!

I'm not a professional by any means and just sort of go along with what the majority and pros recommend. I wouldn't have the skills to troubleshoot if things went wrong, so I'll be back here hassling all of you every day!

[Per Hansson]

Well there is nothing inherently difficult with it:
You just measure the voltage on the different capacitors with the system running to see what voltage rails they are on...
For example the Pentium III Coppermine would be around 1.6v to 1.75v.

[qwerty99]

Yep, you are right of course, but I've got three completely stripped xboxes that I just quickly want to put back together again before parts start going awol.

I don't usually work like this, but I bought them all used (at the same time) and they were so filthy that I had to take them apart and clean them. Now there are parts all over the flat including two metal rf shield's that are awaiting a final coat of paint because they were rusted to hell.

I'm also no expert when it comes to capacitors, so I don't really want to push the boat too far out for fear of making things even more difficult for myself.

I'll certainly give it a go once I have more time though. Right now, I just want to get a working Xbox again so that I can play them. I've not played any of them yet!

[stj]

remember to throw away the super-caps near the ribbon connector
the 1.6 wont boot without something there, so put 220uf or 470uf 16v in it's place.

[qwerty99]

Thanks stj, was going to ask you about this.

Do I stick with a normal electrolytic or can this be a polymer as well?

Thanks

[stj]

just a normal high temperature one - i use panasonic FR for just about everything i fix..

[qwerty99]

Thanks stj, would this be ok?

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/...1C471B/2504111

The chip shortage is making ordering parts a pain in the arse. I was thinking of changing all the other caps as well, but so much stuff is out of stock.

I think Im going to have to just do the 3300uf and 1500uf caps first and do the rest in a few year's time.

Cheers.

[stj]

thats electrically fine, does the diameter match the pads on the board?

btw, you got these consoles in a bad way - do they boot and run?
if not then dont go mad on them till they do - just saying.

once you get them running we can talk about bios flashing

and check any fox psu's for 1200uf caps - they allways fail.
and check the soldering on the mains inlet - early xboxes had problems there that caused a few fires.

[qwerty99]

Originally Posted by stj

thats electrically fine, does the diameter match the pads on the board?

btw, you got these consoles in a bad way - do they boot and run?
if not then dont go mad on them till they do - just saying.

once you get them running we can talk about bios flashing

and check any fox psu's for 1200uf caps - they allways fail.
and check the soldering on the mains inlet - early xboxes had problems there that caused a few fires.

The diameter of the original clock cap is 8mm and so is the replacement I've linked to. I measured the distance between the legs with a set of callipers, and it is more or less 5mm, which is the same as the replacement.

The xboxes aren't too bad. I bought two of them as fully working, but when I got them home, neither of the dvd drives worked, although they both booted up fine, so I was given partial refunds. They ended up costing about $25 a piece.

Both of these have MBZ caps around the CPU, which I hear are pretty solid. Without a working dvd drive, I couldn't really do much, so I stripped them down and cleaned them. I also removed the corrosion on the rf trays and painted them.

I need to get mod chips for these so that I can put in new hard drives and install games to them. I'll try and refurbish the dvd drives, but I'm not optimistic.

I probably won't touch any of the caps on these two boards until I have installed the mod chips and fully tested them. Like you say, I don't want to make trouble for myself.

The final xbox is a limited edition blue Halo model. That was bought as faulty because it wouldn't power on. It was boxed and complete, and I paid about $50 for it.

That's the one with the bulging Nichicon caps. The machine looked like new and there was no dust on the motherboard, so I reckon it was a one-game machine that never really got used.

The plan with this one is to replace the 5 bulging caps and see if it all works. Once I have confirmed that, I'll maybe start replacing all the Nichicon caps that are on there. I haven't decided yet.

I have Delta PSUs in all three machines, and I haven't spotted anything untoward yet.

Thanks for your help again!

I'm going to order the 3300uf and 1500uf polymers and also the Panasonic 470uf.

Mains inlet on the two PSUs that I've already removed: I've checked them and they both look solid. Joints look clean and unbroken. I'll check the Halo one later. Don't want to strip that down anymore than I have to because I'm running out of space to store stuff!

[stj]

the dvd drives are trash in xboxes,
i used to replace them with modified pc drives.
i cant remember the details right now.
you dont need the drives anymore anyway,
there is pc software that can format the harddrive and copy the games to it.
if i do any more xboxes i may just blank off the dvd area with a grill or relocate the harddrive away from the psu there.
if you do that you just have to jumper 2 pins on the dvd power cable to tell the board that the tray is closed - or it will freeze up waiting for the non-existant drive to close the tray

[qwerty99]

Yep, I don think I've personally ever seen an Xbox that has a working drive. You can actually buy a 3d-printed blanking plate of Etsy if you are serious about getting rid of the dvd drive. It might even be on thingiverse, so you could print it yourself if you have your own 3d printer.

I've ordered the caps of digikey, so they should be here in a week or so. I'll post some pics once I've installed them on the Halo board. Hopefully, it was just the five bulging caps and nothing else.

I think the software you're talking about is called Chimp. Unless the dvd drive in the Halo works, I'll be using that to format my new drive.

[stj]

not chimp - you need something that supports TITAN.
https://github.com/gaasedelen/titan

https://fatxplorer.eaton-works.com/

btw, make a new ribbon cable using ATA133 80pin cable & connectors.
the new bios patches can bump the controller up to 133 from 33 or 66

[qwerty99]

Originally Posted by stj

not chimp - you need something that supports TITAN.
https://github.com/gaasedelen/titan

https://fatxplorer.eaton-works.com/

btw, make a new ribbon cable using ATA133 80pin cable & connectors.
the new bios patches can bump the controller up to 133 from 33 or 66

Ah yeah, fat explorer, that's the one! I'll most likely just fit a 2GB drive to all three machines. I'm not sure if I need anymore than that. I only want to play original Xbox games. But I might change my mind once I start looking at hard drive prices.

I've already got the IDE cables and the Star Tech adaptors. The only real sticking point now is the mod chips. I have an Open Xenium mod chip (and HDMI upgrade board) that will go in one of the machines, but I need two more.

Was thinking of getting the Aladdins, but it looks like I'll have to buy an external programmer as well if I go this route because the new ones can't be flashed on the Xbox.

I would just get another 2 Open Xeniums, but they are a bit hard to come by and getting more and more expensive by the day.