This order includes:
- PS2: Refurbishment and installation of a PicFix
- Xbox 360: Refurbishment and TLC
- Nintendo 64: Installation of a Nintendo 64 RGB mod
Playstation 2
This was a phat console with a board revision v10. The console had been previously been modded with USB power, a Noctua fan and a Modbo 3.0. The consoles was somewhat dirty and upon disassembly the a somewhat messy installation of the USB mod was revealed. Before trying to power it on, the installation needed to be fixed to avoid short-circuit between the live and ground wires.
Next step was full disassembly and washing of the shell, as well as removing a bit of rust in some of the metal shield
The battery and the thermal pads were also replaced
The DVD drive was also opened up an cleaned. Some interesting finds hidden in the tray
PicFix was also installed trying not to disturb the existing installation of the Modbo chip which seemed to work i.e. the console would boot and the Matrix logo was shown. No further testing has been done of the Matrix chip functionality
Once the console power could be applied the fan didn’t seem to work. On inspection, a fuse nearby the fan connector was blown (perhaps due to a short on the usb power caused by those strands of wire). As agreed with the customer, instead of trying to find a replacement for the fuse, the fan was directly wired to the 12V output of the buck converter. In this way the fan runs at full speed (instead of the 7V at the fan connector), although it also means the fan will run as long as the USB cable is connected.
Console was tested with a PAL DVD and it run well. No further testing with other region discs, HDD or network were conducted
A final wipe and plastic enhancer was applied to make the console look as good as possible.
Xbox 360
Console had been previously modded with RGH3. On disassembly, several tabs were broken and screws missing. Some of the screws were missing because the plastic posts in the shell were broken. One of the top grills had a few of the tabs broken and as agreed with the customer, an undamaged grill was sought from eBay and was replaced on arrival.
While the RG3 mod was working, the quality of the install was questionable. The old tape was replaced with kapton tape but the soldering was not touched. Particularly one of the solder points was done in the solder ball under the chip directly, when normally an adapter is used. Hopefully the new tape will hold the wires in place better to prevent any issues in the future
The thermal paste was replaced and the anti-vibration foam for the fan adapter was replaced.
All the metal and plastic parts were dusted and washed
The DVD drive was also opened up and cleaned
Nintendo 64
The initial console sent by the customer had stability issues and would turn off after a few seconds. Customer had advised that propping up the PSU sometimes helped, but cleaning of connectors and using Deoxit didn’t do anything. Upon disassembly, it was clear that there was a lot of rust and the issues could come from anywhere. Customer was advised not to mod a console that wasn’t in good internal condition, and he decided to buy another one and send it directly for modding
The new console was tested successfully and disassembled for installation of the the RGB mod. Internal status was relatively clean.
The Rev3 of the flex-only modkit was installed, configuring it to NTSC as advised. An NTSC SCART cable was also sent to the customer.
The shell was also fully disassembled and washed, and the console tested both with regular games and games requiring an expansion pack
