The patient
Microsoft Xbox. The original – not the 360, One or Series X.1 In researching this repair, I learned that my Xbox is part of the original production run in 2001-2002. It’s nearly 25 years old and, while perhaps not as fondly remembered as the PlayStation 2, it has a stellar library of games.
The problem
Like many consoles, the Xbox has an internal clock for timekeeping purposes. When you unplugged these old consoles after a session, they would often lose their clock settings (modern consoles work like other computers, and sync their time over a network connection). To mitigate this, the Xbox uses a capacitor to store energy and keep the clock running when powered off.
Unfortunately, this clock capacitor is prone to failure.2 When capacitors fail, they leak their electrolytes over the surrounding components, and this can erode electrical traces and even eat through a motherboard. So it’s imperative to remove the capacitor even if your Xbox is working as normal or hasn’t been used for many years. If you have an Xbox stored in a cupboard, you need to do this! (Also, if you have a Sega Game Gear you haven’t touched in a while… enjoy the repair adventure that awaits.)
The fix
The Xbox works fine without the clock capacitor, so you can just remove it from the board (assuming it hasn’t already removed itself like an exploding petrol station in Just Cause 2). The location of the capacitor changes depending on which model Xbox you have – all models have the same risk – and it’s easy to search online for your console revision.
Opening the Xbox is straightforward: you need the right Torx and Phillips screwdriver bits but, once you’re in, it’s really just a compact PC. To access the motherboard, you need to remove the hard drive and DVD drive. On my Xbox, this was easy because half the screws were already missing and one was rattling inside the case. Great build quality!
The tricky part is gently lifting out the drives without tearing the ribbon cables, like opening an antique book. These are very robust compared to smaller microelectronics, but it pays to be cautious. Once you have removed the drives, you can either snip off the capacitor with wire cutters, or gently twist back and forth to snap it off.
This was a simple repair, and a good excuse to clean out the Xbox. It was so easy that I’m tempted to get into some real modding in future, including upgrading the old hard drive and ripping my old games direct to disk.
Hold that thought…
Game over
After decapitating and rebuilding the Xbox in January 2024, I didn’t actually check to see if it was working until February 2025, when I had a spare evening to test a spare Xbox 360 gifted by a colleague. (It works, thanks Jordan!)
I plugged in the original Xbox, powered it on, and was greeted by a clicking noise and this message:
The hard drive is dead, and needless to say, it’s a little too late to contact Xbox customer support. My only option to repair this console is to install a modchip such as OpenXenium or Project Stellar and upgrade the hard drive. It’s within my soldering skill set if I’m careful.
But wait, there’s more! While rummaging around for the Xbox power and video cables, I found a Sega Saturn controller with a frayed cable and decided to fix it to cheer myself up. I opened it up and reinforced the connection with plenty of electrical tape, reassembled it, then popped in Street Fighter Alpha 2 to give every button a thorough workout.
The Saturn wouldn’t read the disc. I then tried Virtua Fighter 2, but that wouldn’t work either. So it seems as though my Saturn’s disc drive is also broken. Not a great evening of retro gaming, all things considered. I’ve got a lot of options for fixing the Saturn, from bypassing the optical drive entirely using a Satiator or Saroo, or soldering in a replacement disc laser from AliExpress. I will likely try both options, since I already have a large library of Saturn discs. Also, I love that crunchy grinding noise of the Saturn loading discs. It’s the sound of nostalgia!
When I first played these old consoles, they were like magical black boxes of gaming goodness. I wouldn’t have dreamed of opening them up. But I have learned that if you want to enjoy classic consoles for years to come, some disassembly and maintenance is required.
To be continued…
- Enough people have made light of the Xbox’s confusing names over the years, but it is still ridiculous when you have to write them in sequence. ↩
- In the course of writing this I learned about the ’capacitor plague’, which is a beautiful turn of phrase. I don’t know if the Xbox is specifically affected, but it’s the right timeframe. ↩
