The Blog

XBOX (Original) PSU Solder Cracking Reflow Repair

Nix McRetro // 27th May 2013 // Microsoft, Repairs, YouTube

The power supply was arcing like crazy when power was connected. A little bit of a resolder/reflow with some fresh solder and it is as good as new. Continue reading

XBOX (Original) TSOP Flash Overview

Nix McRetro // 26th May 2013 // Microsoft, Repairs, YouTube

Here’s what I soldered to flash the BIOS on my revision 1.2 or 1.3 original XBOX. We have a Winbond BIOS on this. Soldering the two points allows the BIOS to be writable, leaving us the opportunity to install a much better BIOS. It’s essentially a modchip, without a modchip.... Continue reading

XBOX (Original) Softmod Recovery

Nix McRetro // 26th May 2013 // Hacks, Microsoft, YouTube

This guide is by no means complete but might have some hints if you are stuck like I was. Soooo errr the Xbox was softmodded before I started tinkering. I attempted to TSOP flash the Winbond EEPROM BIOS chip and broke the softmod completely. Whoops! Here are half of the... Continue reading

XBOX (Original) Status Update Softmod TSOP

Nix McRetro // 23rd May 2013 // Hacks, Microsoft, YouTube

I know I’m a bit anti-Linux in this video. Sorry Linux, I don’t hate you. I just hate when you are involved in what should have been a simple process… :) At least it all comes good at the end, right? Stay tuned, more on this one coming up! I’d... Continue reading

Bosch PHG 630 DCE Heat Gun Demo on XBOX CPU

Nix McRetro // 23rd May 2013 // Hacks, Microsoft, Repairs

1,2,3 lift! Up it goes, sure it wasn’t removed properly, however it does show that the heat gun outputs heat! And don’t worry this board was already dead. I only have it to pinch the RAM off the board to boost another unit to 128MB (Great for playing debug games).... Continue reading