ShreddieMercury Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 I recently took apart and cleaned out an old Dreamcast controller that I have, and it was really fun and rewarding to get it clean and functioning again. So, I then bought an old 1st generation Xbox, some thermal paste and torx wrenches and cleaned it up inside. Not sure if I'll ever get to the point where I can solder things or do any serious repairs, but it's really fun to take apart consoles and learn how things are put together/clean them out and restore the parts that you can. It sounds from reading a bit about it like I should mod my Xbox because it's a v.1 with a supposedly unreliable DVD drive, but I'm pretty intimidated by modding overall. Anybody have experience doing this stuff or enjoy it? Also, maybe this should go in Retro Gaming? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodporne Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 I was actually into modding Playstations when I was a teenager but unfortunately that was the first and only console I messed with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CastlevaniaNut18 Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 I have a husband for this stuff. All of our retro consoles have been modded to various degrees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chakoo Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 I do light work on my own stuff. I generally prefer to avoid any heavy soldering because I'm not the greatest nor go the full route/toolkit for those jobs. So I more do light touch up work. Ultimately it's something you get better at with time and practice. I also tend to keep to stock as much as possible on my stuff instead of customizing them. I more like playing them how I remember, that includes over fugly composite on a CRT. The only exceptions I'm looking to break is maybe my GG because the white ghosting is making the screen harder to see and I'm considering the Wonderswan IPS screen that's been floating around (but i'm looking to buy a system specifically to replace vs touching my existing SwanCrystal). -edit- Also if you're modding an original XBox, make sure to remove the resistor used for the clock. There are quite a few cases of those leaking and destroying the motherboard when it's not fully needed to function (only handles keeping time while the system is unplugged). Save Your Original Xbox From A Corrosive Death | Hackaday HACKADAY.COM Fans of retro computers from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras will be well aware of the green death that eats these machines from the inside out. A common cause is leaking electrolytic capacitors, with RT… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShreddieMercury Posted February 16, 2021 Author Share Posted February 16, 2021 2 hours ago, chakoo said: I do light work on my own stuff. I generally prefer to avoid any heavy soldering because I'm not the greatest nor go the full route/toolkit for those jobs. So I more do light touch up work. Ultimately it's something you get better at with time and practice. I also tend to keep to stock as much as possible on my stuff instead of customizing them. I more like playing them how I remember, that includes over fugly composite on a CRT. The only exceptions I'm looking to break is maybe my GG because the white ghosting is making the screen harder to see and I'm considering the Wonderswan IPS screen that's been floating around (but i'm looking to buy a system specifically to replace vs touching my existing SwanCrystal). -edit- Also if you're modding an original XBox, make sure to remove the resistor used for the clock. There are quite a few cases of those leaking and destroying the motherboard when it's not fully needed to function (only handles keeping time while the system is unplugged). Save Your Original Xbox From A Corrosive Death | Hackaday HACKADAY.COM Fans of retro computers from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras will be well aware of the green death that eats these machines from the inside out. A common cause is leaking electrolytic capacitors, with RT… Thanks for the tip - I had heard about that, so I took it out when I opened it up. It didn't seem to have leaked, and the system is still working well thankfully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GameDadGrant Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 4 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said: I have a husband for this stuff. All of our retro consoles have been modded to various degrees. I need a husband for this kinda stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CastlevaniaNut18 Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 2 minutes ago, GameDadGrant said: I need a husband for this kinda stuff. It’s much nicer playing all these old systems in RBG and looking crisp. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raggit Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 I ordered an acrylic display case for my game boy pocket, along with some tools to open it up. I plan to clean it up (a lot of dust got inside) then put it on display. I've also been looking for a cheap broken one online to experiment with, but I haven't found one cheap enough yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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