Well, that's the story. I received a free Xbox today. I'm almost certain that the person who had this before tried to install a modchip but never finished it/did not work. The problem is I'm getting the "Christmas lights" error. The Xbox turns on, turns off, turns on, turns off again, and then turns on and stays on this time, but the LED light flashes red and green. It doesn't even output any video! I'm puzzled, though, because I don't see a modchip installed.. I removed the motherboard and looked on the back but the only things that caught my eye were four or five tiny pieces of black tape on random parts of the motherboard. Another thing that bothers me is that the fans won't respond! I can turn on the Xbox perfectly fine, but the fans won't do anything. Any help would be appreciated! I'm trying to fix it up and softmod this thing and then plan to add DDR on the hard drive as a small anniversary gift for my girlfriend. She loves the game. Help a guy out! Thanks!
Damaged mobo or a failed tsop flash. You will have to attempt to fit a chip to fix this unless it's a 1.1, in which case look on llamma.com for the tsop flash/repair tutorial. Sometimes they are too far gone as a broken via can be impossible to repair. If the person you got this off is a known modder then it's probably completely beyond it. The non operation of the fan points to a possibly suspect psu as well. I don't like getting these for repair, the success rate isn't high. If a soldered chip has been removed the chances of irreperable board damage are high.
just send it off for repair if it has been opened it will cost you 140.00 for the repair.but the good thing is you get a one year repair warrenty from ms.cheaper than buying a core
I'm almost certain is a dead mobo now. I can turn it on and I can hear the hard drive spinning, but the fans won't turn on. Hmm.
Email me or send me your email address and I'll send you a "fix your xbox" guide for free! I fixed hubby's for him and it works great now. It's got a section on diagnostics that should help you. Peace, ~*MoJo*~
$140 for a repair off M$?? second hand here are £35, and you can probably sell a broken one on ebay. They are getting to the point where another costs less than fixing a broken one, and you can spend quite a bit of cash without any working xbox to show for it. The real experts with hardware repair help can be found in llammas forums. Why I'm pessimistic is somebody has been in there before you and you had it for free.. There is a bit of a bad habit amongst modders (me included) to bundle up a heap of known dead parts and pass them on. Eventually they end up on ebay with a non specific "doesn't start" description. Try looking on llamma, and have a very good inspection of the mobo for broken traces/solder near the left side both above and below the board.
