Calling All Original Xbox Owners

Lots of vintage computers and consoles suffer from a problem of leakage due to age. This type of leakage is a little more damaging than a weak bladder though. Batteries leak their acid over motherboards or logic boards, destroying PCB traces and components. Capacitors leak their electrolyte and do the same although normally at a slower pace.

It turns out that even more 'modern' consoles are not immune. If you are an Xbox owner, and I mean the ORIGINAL Xbox, not the 360 or Xbone, then you need to act now. Inside the Xbox is a capacitor that was used as a way of retaining the time and date while the console was switched off. Well guess what. The caps used weren't that good a quality and now they are starting to leak and destroy Xboxes, quietly and without any fuss.

Later Xboxes actually had an improved capacitor and are not affected by this problem. A quick way to check is to look at the bottom of the console and find the manufacturing date. If it is 2004 then you are probably OK. If it's 2003 or earlier then you need to do something NOW.

Here's my Xbox looking a bit dusty but, otherwise, in fine working order.

Dusty - But good.

First things first, this one was made in early 2003 so almost certainly has the dodgy clock capacitor. Lets get that top off.

Topless - insides not seen in nearly 15 years

There are the DVD drive and hard disk on top. It's a simple matter of disconnecting the cables then undoing three screws to remove both units. 

Yup - it's a hard disk

Phillips DVD - has a non-standard power connector though

Logic board to the left (green) - Power supply right (brown)

The capacitor is located in a little gaggle near the front and is labelled C7G3 with a C7G2 label nearby. In the picture below there is a suspicious 'shadow' around the capacitor..uh-oh.

Has it leaked?

Yes, why yes, it has.

It has definitely been leaking. Fortunately, there looks to be no obvious damage but the thing has to come out. I tried the 'wiggle' removal method but the cap was soldered tight into the board and I just couldn't get enough movement going. Break out the soldering iron....

To get at the pads I had to remove the entire motherboard. It wasn't too difficult but there are quite a few screws and they are all the 'torx' variety. Have a set of multi-sized torx screwdrivers handy when you do this.

Cap legs marked - don't want to get that wrong!

It was a 30 second job to get it out with the soldering iron. Hit each leg in turn and pull. Eventually, the cap 'walks' off the board. You can see the corrosion on one leg of it in the picture below caused by the highly acidic electrolyte.

Another bad cap.

A quick clean up and it seems there's no lasting damage. It's worth noting that these earlier versions of the Xbox do not need this capacitor to work. However, later versions do so if you try this on a 2004 onward model you will need to replace the cap with an equivalent..

Before cleaning - the spillage is obvious

After cleaning - the spillage is gone

I re-assembled the Xbox and tested it just to make sure I hadn't affected anything else. The only difference is that it will not retain the date and time now but he's safe for now (until the other caps decide to leak....).

There is a lot of information on this issue across the internet including here, here and here. There's also a great teardown by iFixit. If you have an original Xbox, take note and don't delay. Do it now! Go on. What are you waiting for?