xbox turns itself off

Anibal5 · Post by **Anibal5** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:41 pm

Afternoon All,

I have a crystal xbox with an Xecuter 3 chip installed, 500gig HDD and running as a media centre with XBMC.
Built in approximately 2007.
This has been used for maybe 8-16hrs a week to watch downloaded shows.

As of seven days ago the xbox now starts, gets to splash screen for XBMC/Rox my Box, then XBMC home screen for approximately 10s and then turns itself off.

What have I done so far?

1. Rebooted into the chip (pin on on off off), flashed an updated bios, X3 3294 v16plus.bin
2. I then booted up into the safe option and FTP'd a newer XBMC via #xbins, XBMC4XBOX-3.2.1-STABLE

All reboots well and stays on for around 2 minutes, thens turns off still.

3. I gave all of the air intake/outtake's a good clean and did notice that the power supply (?) at the rears' fan IS rotating.

What would be your suggestions now?
A. I am assuming that the HDD is fine as I would have likley different errors and the boot up would not be perfect, until turning off.
B. I am also thinking that I most likely have a heat problem as when the HDD was under low "load" via ftp'ing through the x3 chip, it was stable and did not turn off.

Your collective thoughts, as always, are welcome and appreciated.

Kind Regards
Marcus

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:33 pm

Your right it could be a heat deal but if I remember right when they get really hot and shut down the front ring light will blink orange or red letting you know something is going on. When you were in X2 Config Live did it list your temperatures? Even more did it stay in X3 config live without shutting off?

Anibal5 · Post by **Anibal5** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:58 pm

I will give the x3 config/safe (white button on start up) a test tonight and see how long it stays on. I will post later today/night with the results
I get no red ring, just a sudden screen turn off/power down. Which could be still heat related, just that it is climbing so quickly it shuts down prior to any external "feedback".

I will have a look at the config settings and see if I can see a.) any temps and b.) any climbing changes in temp/s

As a side issue I did not delete the old XBMC folder, assuming that the software is the issue. I simply renamed it XBMC-old.
Should I delete that folder completely (now named XBMC-old) and then retest as a "clean" directory for XBMC?

Thanks for your input above, much appreciated.

Marcus

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 5:31 pm

Dont worry about deleting that old build, you did the right thing in renaming it. Only delete it if you want to but it should not be interfering in any way at this point. One thing you can also check would be where the power plug connects. XBOX's had a common problem on the power supply's where the solder joints for the power plug would crack (bottom side of the PSU). Check to make sure the power plug is in firmly and intact and if you have the time remove the PSU and inspect the solder joints on the bottom, since you have it out I would re-flow the solder on the joints just to make sure. To me it sounds like power supply issue or a loose power cable from the wall to the xbox.

See here, i didnt listen to the video but he covers what i'm talking about.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwhaiQaNJXk[/youtube]

Anibal5 · Post by **Anibal5** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 5:38 pm

Great idea Nextelhalo! I would not have thought of that.

I will dismantle the xbox, likely tomorrow, and get back to you with whatever results I have.

I haven't soldered for a while, would this be an acceptable SI for the job in your opinion? http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... 935070.htm

Thanks Again,

Marcus

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 6:06 pm

That should work as long as it melts solder. You can either re-bleed the solder that's on there or just add some on top of it just dont pile it up since there is not much clearance between the PSU and the metal shielding under it. Dont want any shorts to occur. Keep us up to date on your progress.

Anibal5 · Post by **Anibal5** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 6:27 pm

The battery model gets a lot of mixed reviews, from "great" to "doesn't melt the included solder".

I think this may be a safer bet;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soldering-Helpi ... ering+iron

Will obviously open the xbox first before committing to the purchase.

Cheers

Marcus

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 6:34 pm

That sir looks like a nice little kit to have. I would pick that up just to have around for electronic repairs and what not.

Anibal5 · Post by **Anibal5** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:20 pm

Afternoon Nextelhalo,

Just an update on so far.

I have disassembled the xbox, but I have not taken the "power" circuit board off the mounts yet.

LOTS of dust, so that is fixed.

I have purchased some new arctic silver and will be re-doing the heat sink on the cpu while I have everything open.

Tomorrow I will be looking at any obvious soldering issues as your video suggested.

Then reassembly and see if anything has changed.

I will let you know either way..

Regards
Marcus

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:25 pm

Fantastic, while your in there you might cut the metal shielding behind the fan and on each side of the xbox case to allow for more air flow. You'd be surprised at how much of a difference it makes especially when the xbox is under load playing games/emulators and what not.

Anibal5 · Post by **Anibal5** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:54 pm

That metal shielding is holding quite a bit of rust.

So no issue with it going.

Marcus

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:59 pm

One more reason to get rid of it then. I'm always curious to see what the guts look like on different xbox's, shoot some pics if you can.

Anibal5 · Post by **Anibal5** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:02 pm

Will do.

I will be taking some pics before I unscrew the power supply motherboard section.

In case my memory gets hazy.

Anibal5 · Post by **Anibal5** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 12:27 pm

Afternoon Nextelhalo,

The CPU has been re-silvered.
The power section of the motherboard was removed and showed no "damage similar to the video" as far as my electronics-non-existent knowledge could tell.
Some of the internal metal frame has been cut for improved air flow.
The GPU heat sink was very tight, so I didnt force it off.

I will be booting the box up a bit later today.
I will send a report.

Regards
Marcus

Anibal5 · Post by **Anibal5** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 1:29 pm

turned off just as fast ...

back to the drawing board

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 4:28 pm

Sounds like it's time to rule out each piece of hardware. Put it all back together but the leave the hard drive unplugged and see how long it stays on. Do the same with the DVD drive if it's still showing problems. If problems continue and you cant rule out any devices I say it's the power supply, you've had some pretty good use of the xbox so it might just be time to change it out, cheap anyways.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/1916416544 ... =82&chn=ps

Anibal5 · Post by **Anibal5** » Sun Aug 02, 2015 4:42 pm

Excellent suggestions Nextelhalo.

Thats lifted my spirits somewhat.

First thing I will do later is actually watch the rear fan to see that it actually "continues to spin" and doesn't just initially spin up.

That board is damn cheap!

Report soon.

Marcus

professor_jonny · Post by **professor_jonny** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 11:36 am

I did not read the whole massive post but have you checked for trace corrosion or built up wet dust in that area?

also the power plug on the psu on some older models has solder problems do you hear arcing sounds if you wiggle it around ?

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Mon Aug 03, 2015 3:39 pm

This one is a buger, it boots up to XBMC but shuts down after a few seconds of running. To me it feels like a bad power supply but you never know.

professor_jonny · Post by **professor_jonny** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 8:22 pm

Nextelhalo wrote:This one is a buger, it boots up to XBMC but shuts down after a few seconds of running. To me it feels like a bad power supply but you never know.

@ Marcus it sounds like a spare psu is on the cards to swap it over to test?
where do you live one of us may be near by to have a look or offer you a loan of a psu to test if you don't have any spares?

I have had one that would do a similar thing and it was one of the caps on the motherboard shorted and it caused the power supply to turn off with overload after several seconds, but yes a spare power supply to test it would be key there.

how I fixed it was to hook up a 450 pc psu and it did not shut off with overload and it allowed the capacitor to explode with out me having to desolder and test them all

Check for swollen tops on the caps on the motherboard and psu I guess but that is often not a definitive test sadly as they can go bad with out swelling

The other thing is to try force on the psu by shorting the ps_on signal and see if the output stays true on the psu and if the xbox stays on in that state or if the psu loses it's output, it would narrow it down to a psu or motherboard problem.

I'm guessing you have limited tools (multi meter etc....) , and you could easily short the power on wire with a paper clip to make it turn on to test it with the fan to see if volts are present after the 10 second wait period

.

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