More than 20 years ago, I got my first Xbox (what we call the Xbox Classic today). A couple years down the line, I upgraded to the - then brand new - Xbox 360 and I had no more use for the old console. So I did the usual thing of passing down old hardware to younger family members. I that case to my wife's (back then girlfriend's) little brother, who made good use of this present and put many additional hours of gameplay on this Xbox. At some point however, he also upgraded to a better console and we both forgot about this "ancient piece of hardware".

The Surprise

To my great surprise however, he recently asked me if I wanted to have this bold Xbox back or should he throw it out. As it turned out, it had been sitting in the attic of his parents' house all these years.

And yes: I very much wanted it back! 🤩

The Disappointment

Wow - so, I had my old Xbox back. I could hardly believe it!

I dusted it off, plugged it in, pushed the power button ... and nothing. It simply would not turn on.

However, when handing it back, my brother-in-law mentioned that the console had been in a working condition when he was used in last. So it must have "died" while sitting in the attic. What a bummer ...

The Challenge

But then - maybe this would be an easy fix?

I started my investigation.

Many of the "Xbox won't turn on" troubleshooting guides (like this one) that I found, pointed to a faulty clock capacitor, so I started with that.

However, further research unveiled that mainly early revision of the Xbox are susceptible to this problem. The 1.6 version that I have, would most likely not be affected by that.

Finding out the version of your Xbox
Here are a couple of resources that helped me determining the version of my Xbox Classic:

• https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:Versions
• https://xboxdevwiki.net/Hardware_Revisions

With the help of these resources I could easily nail my Xbox version down to 1.6.
What gave it away?

• "The metal shielding along the bottom of the AV port".
• The video encoder chip reads Xcalibur.

Opening it up and checking the clock capacitor visually confirmed that. No leakage, no bulging - nothing suspicious.

However, another set of capacitors looked really suspicious!

I unsoldered and tested them with a multimeter. The Farad readings were off for most of them and one was completely gone, I had full continuity.

I did not have exact replacements (3300µF, 6.3V) ready but I found an actual replacement set which I ordered.

The Happy End

A couple of days later the replacements had arrived, I soldered them in, closed up the Xbox, pushed the power button and ... drumroll 🥁 ... it turned on again!

And there I was: playing Halo like it was 2001 all over again 🤩.