EEVblog #1164 - Xbox Engineering Baptism Of Fire

A retro look at the 2005 Xbox 14 million unit power cord replacement issue and a teardown and analysis of the supplied protection device from Microsoft.
Some interesting engineering lessons to be learned.
UPDATE: Apparently what this is an "Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter" (AFCI) that continually monitors the current for the presence of arcs caused by such an intermittently faulty power connection. Hence the complexity and micro with ADC to monitor the current.

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[Bushougoma]

I used to repair these consoles back in the day. Here's the real reason for those cords.

The issue was the IEC 8 power input jack on early revisions of the internal power supply had no mechanical support other than the solder joints. Every time you connected the power cord or moved the console the slight flexing of the connector stressed the joints. Eventually they would crack and begin to arc which can potentially cause a fire.

Later power supply revisions had 2 rivets that went right through the connector and through the PCB which took the mechanical stress off the solder joints.

[originalbluebuddha]

I worked as a Tier 3 Xbox Live support tech at the time. ALL calls that came in about consoles letting the magic smoke out were immediately transferred to a queue manned by a select team, 100% recorded, with Microsoft attorneys also on the line. They played it cool for the public, but internally it was a 24/7 full blown code red for a couple of months.

[EEVblog]

*UPDATE*
Apparently this is an "Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter" (AFCI) that continually monitors the current for the presence of arcs caused by such an intermittently faulty power connection. Hence the complexity and micro that would be using the ADC to continually monitor the current. It's not just a simple 610mA electronic fuse, although it almost certainly has that function too, hence the label.
And apparently these are now a legal requirement in US outlets since 2014?

[vincei]

FULL WAVE BRIDGE
The screen is supposed to shake whenever you say that, Dave.

[emolatur]

the "electronic fuse" is an AFCI. It's complicated because it's not just looking for overcurrent or ground fault, it's looking for waveforms that indicate (or suggest) arcing.

The XBOX fault itself was that the solder connections on the power input connector would fail, then you'd have lots of arc'ing and sparking -- and heat -- and eventually a fire.

[derofromdown-under]

I used to mod as well as repair these suckers since their inception. The reason for the fire was due to the power socket connector solder joints cracking due to heat. Due to this, the Metal-oxide Varistor had to cope with the spikes that were generated due to the intermittent contacts of the solder joints. Over time, this changed the molecular structure of the varistor due to heating and cooling and eventually it caused the varistor to short-circuit. Its the varistor that either burned out with heaps of the magic smoke, or it actually caught fire. Replacing this component with an equivalent type, though it was extremely important to have heat-shrink slung around it to prevent another flame out in the future. Anyone with spike and surge protection power boards etc. within an area that their mains voltage being very noisy, it would be highly recommended they replace the varistor every few years to ensure future reliability.
For Micro$oft to replace the mains cable would have saved them heaps of money, instead of recalling all the consoles, as the re-settable fuse in the new cord would trip every time the above faulty solder joints didn't make a good contact. Eventually the solder joints would get so bad, that the owner would have to take the unit to get serviced. Even if the varistor failed with this fused cord, it would have prevented any magic smoke or potential fire. The solder joints rarely deteriorated until well after the warranty period, so it only cost Micro$oft those cords. Nice strategy on their part to save money, and to not be culpable of any fires. This saved some face for Bill Gate$.
Other problems with the X-Box, was a leaking memory backup capacitor to which can be replaced with a 10 Farad super capacitor from the likes of Jaycar Electronics. But the cap would have to be mounted horizontally to avoid space limitations with the DVD ROM drive. The area around the leaky cap MUST be cleaned, as it usually corrodes the tracks below it.
Another problem with these consoles, though it really only affected the earlier versions, was intermittent turn-on and it would also turn itself on when the mains plug was connected. It was found that some corrosive element that contaminated certain various copper traces from the factory eventually eroded them to the point that the tracks became resistive and no longer functioned as it should. There is a fix, but if you need it, just search for it on Google. I wrote that tutorial long ago under one of my alias, "Darkmatter".
I hope the above clarifies things.
Regards,
Dero

[vincei]

I think the same engineer works for Weller now. Clearly saved Weller a recall by omitting the fuse.

[bitrot]

Great topic! There may have been very few cases of smoke or fire, but AC jack solder joint failures were quite common on the early revs of the Xbox. I repaired several of them in the mid-2000s, and all of them had some level of degradation to the joints. At least one of them made audible arcing noises when the power cord was wiggled just a little bit. Reflowing the joints with a nice hot iron took care of the problem. The one I kept still works great, and I never heard about any further trouble with the others. (I do keep it unplugged when not in use, though.)

The replacement cords I saw in the US were labeled as “Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters”. A fuse wasn’t a sufficient solution; I guess the arcing didn’t result in excessive current usage, it was just that the current wasn’t going where it was intended. The annoying thing about it is that while the replacement cords make it safe and cover Microsoft’s butt, they don’t prevent the power supply from being damaged. There can still be enough arcing to fry it.

PSA FOR ALL ORIGINAL XBOX OWNERS: if you haven’t already removed the “supercap” that keeps the time when power is unplugged, DO IT NOW. It *will* cause irreparable damage if left in place.

[vnceigz]

Actually, that 30-40 number indicated was how many caused property-damage or injury, not just how many failed or burned.

[TheSilvax]

I always wanted to be an electronic engineer and unfortunately i been to a crappy university that didn't teach me much, but spending time on your channel taught me alot actually, thank you Dave.

[BrianB]

At 21:00 when talking about the solenoid drive circuit - the reason for moving the coil over to the rectifier is so that when it trips you can reset it. The chip has a latching function. Removing power prevents the latch from preventing you from resetting the supply without first unplugging from the wall.

[frankstrasser]

Awesome to see you do a retro console please do more! Another huge problem with the first rev was a faulty clock capacitor that blows inside the console

[shockwavecity]

can't wait for him to do this with a 2080ti in 10 years.

[Sticky]

Your Nintendo 64 teardown video is what brought me to your channel.. glad to see a video game related video 👍👍

[bborkzilla]

There never seems time to do it right the first time. But there's always plenty of time to clean up afterwards.

[swagamotherfr.]

That's a 1.0 Xbox aswell you will need to remove the clock capacitor it will leak and cause trace rot which causes the front panel not to work

[SkyfallLodge]

My friends power supply arced and I saw it first hand. It was in a dark room and I saw a blueish flash in the venting slots that cast light out onto the carpet the unit was sitting on. There was also a burnt electronic smell and small pop that accompanied the flash. I brought it to his attention and we shut it down immediately. Then we decided to see if we could fix it. We could replicate the arcing by wiggling the power cord. After taking it apart we found those solder joints had broken. His solution was to reflow the joints and be careful when inserting the plug. It was very soon after that the cable was released and we both sent off for one each. My Xbox never had this problem.

[FaSMaN]

It was only the first generation with the revision 1.0-1.1 it was a loose power socket (solder points will create a dry joint and it will start to arch), they fixed it in later revisions

Edit: we grey imported a thousand into South Africa.

[gblargg]

The variation on solenoid drive ensures that if the current detection circuit fails as a short, the solenoid triggers.

[dhpbear]

13:20 - I'm guessing that 'S08' board was bought from a separate source ("Medium Micro" perhaps?)