Trying to FIX: Original Xbox Flashing Red & Orange
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- Опубліковано 13 бер 2020
- Hi, this 'trying to fix' video shows me attempting to repair an original Xbox console which is failing to start up and flashing red and orange.
Remember that this is just for entertainment and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things.
I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things so I hope that comes across in this 'Trying to FIX' series.
Many thanks, Vince. - Навчання та стиль
Vince, it is called supercapacitor because of the very high capacitance. It's 1F(arad), 1000000 microfarads, not 1 microfarad.
There's a fun story about why they used this instead of a battery for cmos. They were worried the batteries would be doa after sitting on a shelf for up to six months
Nerd
@@SlavTiger Ironic
@@alexferraioli4086 I mean it would only last like 60 days in total because the MCPX needs a LOT of power
Always nice to see really good helpers here, can't wait for revisit!
I have no idea why I find your channel so fascinating, but I do! Love the classical music too!
All these new videos. I'm loving it!!!!
I have a qustion for the Nintendo switch recovery mode, does it delete all my progress if a game is from the eshop or on a micro sd card
Hello vince.
Any chance of a revisit for this, I need too know.
Thanks
Love this console and I enjoy when people try to fix it! Great video man!
Vince buy a modchip and install it. It will let you boot the console back up. Open xenium is a good option. This will also allow you to change the hdd and install a new one / bigger one into the unit. Please contact me directly was heavily involved with xbox back in the day
Gonna have to agree with this comment. Modchipping or tsoping the unit is probably the way to go. Given that it seems the hdd may be dead/dying modchip is probably the way to go(especially since it's clearly been modded since it had a burned disc of a game). The other thing to do would be to verify the traces have proper continuity since the clock cap had leaked.
Can guide you in what needs to be downloaded to load new software etc.. It's fairly easy Vince.
@UC_KRckFmrnm3qGByLGZjUOQthat's correct but hdd is locked with a key. So without unlocking hdd can't do much.. With a modchip and custom bios you can unlock /lock drive you can also boot without cdroom drive etc.
@@HoRnEyDvL Nowadays(in fact some some time now) you can do almost if not all of those things with a soft mod.
Yeah he could have checked TSOP points to see if soldered, also doesn't heatsink fan mean 1.0 or 1.1?
Hello from France, 3:00 in the morning here. There is no time for a new video of My Mate Vince still a nice video as always thank you! .
Now *this* is what I wanted to see. I love your retro console repair videos!
Wich led error u have? If it is a Orange and green it is a problem with the Av cable like it isnt connected
Thx for the video and your honesty about it being beyond your knowledge of these systems. I have a xecuter2 modded xbox that I found a few years ago and I am finally getting around to messing with it, but now it is giving me problems and I am trying to figure it out.
I'd follow the traces on the underside of the board, near where the clock capacitor leaked. There's a good chance you'll find trace rott along the thinner traces. If so, follow the traces, and add patch wires. Also, neutralise the area around the clock capacitor with some white vinegar, then clean up with Isopropyl alcohol. You've got yourself a version 1.0 motherboard, which is one of the more desirable versions, because they can be modded very easily, and you'd be surprised just how much they can do.
That's been the problem with all 3 that I've fixed.
My Mate VINCE I have recently fixed my Xbox with the same issue. It took me a long time to find help on it, but there is an archived version here which was an actual fix. I could have cried with joy over it web.archive.org/web/20090829174228/forums.llamma.com/viewtopic.php?t=12329 good luck
I saw the post thats way to technical for many ppl. I dont even own a soldering iron.
Here is my item let me know how much and when can i pick it up.. Thats usually how it goes with me.
You don't use vinegar as that does not neutralise the area, but do use isopropyl to clean.
Ohh love the Bach Well Tempered Clavier Prelude No.1 in C Major Book 1 on the fast forward. Great vid
My Xbox turns on just fine without the video cable plugged in but if I turn it on with the video input in it briefly shows orange and turns off. Can my Xbox be fixed? It’s softmodded with UnleashX
Frag error of on/off 3 times is indicative of a transistor which maintains 5 volts. Located near the left side of the board, there are a few websites about this.
Many are convinced that their Xboxs just suddenly "lose" their eeprom, that's not the case. For all you clock cap goofs, always presuming a clock cap is silly too, because the 1.6 doesn't have the same clock cap systems.
A frag can mean many things, but I have seen websites and videos about the transistor fix. If you have a fried transistor on the board, no modchip would make a difference because the board is short circuited at the dead transistor.
Thanks, I'll try that next, changed all cap, changed all ram, added a modchip and it is still doing the 3 reboot.
the bowing of the board is caused by the plastic backplate. the same happens on PC motherboards when you use the push down pins on the intel CPU Coolers. id check the power rails on the Power Supply id also checked the board for cracks
What screwdriver and bit set do you use?
There are two EEPROMs on the motherboard - an 8-pin 2048-bit (256 byte) serial EEPROM used to hold configuration information between the TSOP flash EEPROM and PIC processor at U7C2 and a TSOP packaged 8-Mbit (1-MByte) flash EEPROM that holds the BIOS at U7D1..
I just brought one, didn't turn on, then it did with flashing red and green, no idea, would like to know if I should get a refund
The clock cap is the one with the two circle silkscreen locations marked by the one you found the corrosion at. It's a 1F 2.5Vdc PowerStor AeroGel supercap. Not 1uF but 1F (1,000,000 uF)
How can I contact you? There is something I’m interested in sending you for repair or spare parts for free.
What's the code when you turn it on hooked up to the tv? Should have video. The hdd could be corrupt but it's "married" to the mother board. So you have to dump the eeprom on the motherboard to install a new hdd
Hi Vince. Have you ever done a video on an XBOX 360 slim red dot of death? Thanks.
FYI: You only voided the warranty on the DVD drive :)
I think the warranty of that drive went out of the window a long time ago.
🤔😄
Warranty Void stickers don't hold up, they are just there to scare people now. www.bbc.com/news/technology-43724348
I got the same issue blinking red in orange after playing halo combat evolved for 1 week could be av issue or overheat or capacitor i want to open it but i still waiting for my order t20 torx to arrived
Hey Vince, just curious how to send you stuff? Wanted to maybe send you a Faulty Sega Game Gear as I think it would be fun seeing something older on the channel!
I like that idea :)
He has done game gears. Even replaced the screen with a more modern display
Somebody tell me. What's the resistor value R5 and R6 of this power supply version?.
Was reading that could be the AV pack on the board where the av cable goes into. Maybe worth a shot
I did not do this comment not me in real life
Hi vince, if you want to make sure the bga chip, chips are working properly, then just put the console up so you can turn it on, then put your finger on the chip to be tested, and if you feel the chip is warming up, there are no solder balls underneath cracked, if the chip does not heat up then the chip is likely to be problematic.
Love your channel
👍👍
First thing, you need to test the main board with a known good power supply. You do not need any IDE cables or drives connected. If the board works you will get a video with an error message. It very well could be a bit rot corrupt BIOS flash or a soft mod gone wrong. You need to bypass the onboard BIOS with a MOD chip soldered on. They should be found cheap and it's only a small 12 pin header and one or two wires. I wouldn't rule out the board just because of the flex warp. If you do the mod chip, don't bother with the LED and Mode wiring crap. Just ground the BIOS D0 point and chip BT pad. There is both a firmware flash chip and an eeprom. The eeprom contains the hard drive unlock key and some settings. The DVD ROM is not married to the board but you will get an error code on the screen if not connected.
Late to reply lol, so got one that have the same issue, changed all ram, changed all cap (removed super cap), put a modchip, checked all track, still no luck. It continue to red/yellow.
He might be lucky or it is shoot like mine :/
its been years but i seem to think about a switch made in to the av port can cause this problem put a few drops or deox in it give it a try whats it going to hurt
Love your videos
I just reapplied thermal paste to my gpu and cpu and after putting together ran into the red ring issue. I took it apart and found that I didn't properly connect the ribbon cable to the board. So the issue could be the cable or on the board.
Don't worry about the bowing of the board most mother boards bow when the heatsink is screwed down. This is due to the pressure from the heatsink and the processor chip nothing to worry about.
I bought a working version 1off ebay for the purpose of modding it, and it was working fine after the installation but I plugged the power lead into the back and heard some very loud arcing from the power supply, when testing it out after the arcing the xbox had the same orange and red lights and power cycle, I did some research and what I found was its either a bad bios been flashed to the xbox or there is a fault on the power supply, but im useless at finding faults and im too nervious about working on high voltage circuits. but that's what happened to mine before this fault occurred
One of my Original Xbox’s do this but it powers on and off 3 times before flashing yellow.
Hi Vince,
first of all, i really like your videos.
I'm very interested in repairing things, because I also repair electronics stuff at work.
It's a really strange coincidence that you did a video about this fault,
because i also opend up my XBox last week and had the exact same problem.
Unfortunately i only put it apart to clean it and it worked perfectly before.
Couldn't find much about that in the internet. Some people said that this is a memory issue,
but I'm not a 100% sure.
My XBox is a Version 1.6, yours looks to be a 1.0 or 1.1.
I wasn't able to fix the problem yet, but I'm currently trying to get another mainboard
of my version to make some measurements and compare them with my broken one.
You showed that the board is warped, but I think this is not necessarily the problem.
This is do to the fact that the heat sink is pressing down on the CPU.
Mine is warped too, but as i said earlier, mine was working perfectly.
I might have damaged something during the cleaning process. Maybe do to electrostatic discharge.
I took care about ESD savety but you never know. I hope I can find the fault, because it is my
very first console.
I also tried to install a mod chip but it made no difference.
Hope we are able to fix our XBoxes.
best regards
Christian
Have you managed to fix your xbox? I'm no expert but maybe it's one of those really small SMD's that came loose during cleaning.
Stay safe!
@@Pant2kr Hello, unfortunately the XBox is still not working. I wanted to fully inspect the board but haven't found the time and patience to do this ;).
I will do this soon. Hope I can find something.
Thanks for you advice.
I tell you when I'm done :)
Greetings
Christian
Had the same issue, checked everything all track, all component, modchiped it, changed the ram, changed all cap, removed super cap, changed the alim, still same yellow/red error. Last ressort I'll try to reflow it in the oven, but I think it is just dead.
@@ChristianW920 did you ever fix the Xbox?
@@R-E-D-A-C-T-E-D. Hi, i haven't fixed it jet. i haven't had the time to investigate it any further.
But Vince made another video ua-cam.com/video/cZiMMz_NpNk/v-deo.html about that issue and i will try this fix in the near future. If it works i will give you feedback.
Have a nice day.
hi it's 15 years old about i had a hard drive like this in a computer it's very good going for the years it's had nice try to fix a new thing again
I'm going to place my bets on the RAM being bad. I'd take a look to see if the chips were upgraded, and/or replaced. Simple swap would fix that. And I agree I suspect this was soft modded.
I found one at a thrift store a month ago, luckily for me upon booting it up it was a modded Xbox with a 2TB hard drive in it with the entire Xbox OG library...not bad for $15
Damn, it must have had some kind of sata to ide adapter then if it had a 2tb drive in it?
the mre nerd it does, plus they added a better fan & water-cooled it
@@theqnkshow4157 how do you watercool an OG xbox?
I got one with a Xecuter 3 chip installed for $30
You lucky sob. I'm jealous
That bended board it's perfectly normal. It's caused by the cpu heat. My two original xbox has the same bending at the same spot but they work great. I think it's just like many comments says, maybe the last owner tried to flash the software and bricked the console. The most easy way to make it work it's installing a mod chip.
the "bios" on the original xbox is stored on a EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) chip so it's not related to the hdd. You could try looking up how to softmod the xbox and see if there is any way to reverse it or fix it if something goes wrong.
only the kernel is stored in flash the xbox operating system is stored on the hard disk.
Maybe the software was put on the main board section to store the "No hard Drive" message if that is a thing.
This is just a thought because I have never seen one of those Xboxes before.
Hi I had this very issue today, turns out I hadn't put the ribbon cable back properly
I had the EXACT same problem with one of my units after i removed a mod chip. You need to solder a mod chip on this unit, thats it and it would explain why someone inserted a burned disk
My thought is capacitor issues, those era electrolytics were not the greatest & it's already proven that 2 were bad through leakage, how many more are high ESR or electrically leaky? Seems the boot loop could be down to that in my semi-educated opinion. First thoughts were power supply not able to supply enough current on one of it's rails but equally it could be a cap on the mainboard drawing excess current initially. The warpage i wouldn't worry too much about, just try to keep from screwing and unscrewing the board from the chassis more than absolutely necessary as repeated flexing might fracture some BGA joints.
Quite right sir :) Had an 1.3 once that would boot fine with the modchip disabled, but would go "Christmas lights" (the behavior you can see on this video) when trying to boot from the modchip. Also another one would go christmas lights when trying to power on whit the cddvd rom connected but it would boot fine with another cdvdrom. In that case it was the cdvdrom that had gone faulty (a philips one like this one on video). The Thing is when an xbox does the christmas lights thing troubleshouting the cause can be a serious pain if you have not the debug port plugged on a pc running the proper software (which most people won't have)
Hi Vince. These older OG xboxes are notorious for trace rot Exact same issue I have with one of my consoles. It has 2 outer tracks rotted nearly 3 inches long. Both tracks run along the front and right hand side of the motherboard. The rot is only visable when magnified.
On a 1.6 rev board you can't just remove the clock cap, it needs to be there so you would need to replace
I have some really good memories of this system then again its the same for the Xbox 360 and now the Xbox one X.
i have that same model. and i reflow the NViDIa chip. and the display on screen error shows.error 16
Vince, a quick google gives the LED error codes for the OG XBox. Apparently, flashing red/orange is 'bad RAM' and yes, the green/orange is just 'missing AV pack'. Those caps definitely needed replacing but maybe try some RAM from a donor board?
From experience of working on many xboxes, it’s unlikely to be a softmod issue. Xbox HDDs are “locked” to the motherboard with a unique key. If the HDD is unlocked in a softmod and this fails, you will get an error message on screen. It’s likely not the PSU either. Flashing Christmas tree lights normally indicate an av cable problem, so start with that. Clock cap leakage also creates other weird errors, like only being able to turn on with eject. It’s likely to be connected to that. Possibly the “boot loop” problem linked to the clock cap?
Ist true the leaky cap destroy the traces that control the buttons ejec and power, making a resistance on the track, my dead xbox have this isue only power on with eject buttom
Before doing anything crazy (apologies if you have already tried this), use a known working AV Cable, connect up power but completely disconnect the DVD Drive and Hard Drive (both power and IDE cables). See if the console will do more than just FRAG (Flash Red & Green after turning itself off and on 2 times). I have had this FRAGGING happen with a Dodgy Hard Drive attached to the machine.
Failing that, its not uncommon for these Xboxes to have "Trace Rot" which can also cause the FRAGGING. Andrew Paul has done a repair video on Trace Rot, check that out to see if the box you have got has a similar issue.
I've fixed many fragging Xbox 1.0 / 1.1 consoles by replacing a few capacitors on the board. It's typically the 100uf and 22uf caps near the clock cap. Swap a few at a time then test.
Interesting. I never suspected those clock ones (aside from the 1 farad) to go bad or affect the system.
I've got a fragging 1.1 I'll remove those caps today and test in ESR meter.
I need you to fix my game I don't know why it won't update and get on 86 and it stop
Hey Vince did you ever fix this issue?
Hey vince it would be the hard drive faulty but i would try replaceing the ide cables first and then see if that works also the xbox won't boot when the av cables are unplugged but the flashing the xbox tsop methed to replace the hard drive as the harddrive is locked to tge motherboard also for the dvd getting stuck replace the rubber band with a new one and that sould solve the stickness problem hope this helps for ur next video
That curve in the motherboard is normal, my consoles have it and they work well, Maybe that it is a problem with the bios on the TSOP chip (bad flash?) Or the same hard disk if it has softmod
If it plays burned games...
Back in the day you would cut a trace on the mobo, solder across two other spots and reflash the onboard bios (with goldeneye). Maybe a bad flash?
Hi Vince I have a original microsoft xbox console 1.0 system just like that one mine has the sea gate 10 gb hdd fox link power supply unit and philips disc drive I cleaned fixed inspected refurbished repaired restored reapplied new thermal paste on the central processing unit graphics processing unit also sanitized it and it works excellent
It's an OG 1.0. Nice find.
Hey, maybe should get some of these thermal camera addons for your smartphone or a thermal camera... I also watch Louis Rossmann and he uses it to find shorts because often that chips etc get hot if something is wrong.
Nice to see the TV in a new video. Here is what the light's Code means
Solid red, overheated.
Flashing green, bad bios load.
Flashing red-orange, bad video output.
Flashing orange-green, AV cable not plugged in properly.
Flashing red-green, system faliure
Hope this helps.
Plug in the av cable you last said orange/green flashes and early on you said orange/green resolved with plugging in av cable.
did you do a revisit?
I didn’t see anyone comments about the Orange and Green flashing light, that is an Xbox system information light to tell you that you have no AV cable plugged in. I remember having this problem myself as a kid! The system will not do anything until that is plugged in. I believe the reason for that is similar to how PC bios boots now. The system is fault checking everything in the system first before it is able to boot, this is why it is taking preference over the red and green flashing light, which is a generic fault light for the Xbox system. Microsoft repeated this same functionality and fault checking in the very early models of Xbox 360 the ones that had the 3 light red ring of death! It would also flash orange and green if the AV cable was not connected.
If you want to continue to work on it you’ll need to have the AV cable plugged in. Not necessary to have to plugged into the rear of the tv but you do need to have it plugged into the Xbox itself
Old versions had the small heatsink with fan, later revisions got the larger heat sink only.
Check the traces under the clock cap, also with it being a 1.0 Xbox reflow the connectors on the powersupply as they have caught fire from damaged/cracked solder joints, try with a known good powersupply and leave everything disconnected. If it works then you should get an error on screen.
I fixed one by just cleaning the points around the clock and removing the cap!
.
If it's a bad flash the eprom may of got wiped. Check to see if the 2 points r16.. (I think can't remember ) and another on the bottom are conected then someone may of Tsop't it!
Download Hexon utility disk and re-flash the T-Sop if the harddrive has the backup eprom then it should work... just download burn and start the xbox with the disk in... or you could try the Rocky ultimate disk. .. both still on X bins I think... or Google around a bit!
Both disks are worth having for any xbox repair.
Or get any cheap mod chip and it will bypass a failed eprom and it's fun ro solder in! Or if you can find it the screw in one!
Hope it helps!
It looks like there is something wrong in the power supply section, possibly a cap or resistor. Replace the board to see if that cures it
Metal object touching capacitor leads = scary, not knowing how long you had its power disconnected. Be safe, Mate!
look into the power supply vince model 1's were notorious for failing power supply's as well
Guys, we've found the ONE person using Microsoft Edge!
I am one too. Though it's mainly on older hardware as it is a heck a lot more optimized than chrome and Firefox
Edge rubbish hate the interface tbh firefox is way better than that as you get extension plugin which makes it more useful than you think since i use it for ad blocking as i dont get one ads pop up in youtube video what so ever
@@YoureUsingWordsIncorrectly the new edge yes but the old isn't. And internet explorer is even more optimized than edge. Try using chrome and internet explorer side to side. you will see that internet explorer uses less processing power than chrome and in my book that's a win
@@neddy1287 uhuh sure. You don't even realize edge is more optimized than chrome and Firefox. it isn't rubbish ok sure it doesn't have many extension but that's what you should expect from a not so popular browser.
I use microsoft edge at school because i dont want to use Internet Explorer, Plus Inspect element is not blocked on Microsoft edge so we get to change all of the pages :)
I had a modded Xbox years ago and had to boot it by holding in the powerbutton a few seconds insted of quick press it.
I had to dump one about 7 years ago, shame as it had a upgraded hard drive in it with saves I wanted to backup I have a feeling it was the clock capacitor what was happening was strangely if I used it more and more when cold booting it would not display/start but if you left it on 5 or 10 minutes then powered off and on it worked, then it began taking 30 minutes to work then a hour then not at all. I still have the larger hard drive but no way of using it without a chipped newer console.
hey mate i have an old v16 Xbox that was softted long ago but shortly after the ethernet stoped i don't Realy trust to many to fix it because of the softy but i was thinking since i have learned so much from you i figured id ask if you wanted to take a shot at fixing the ethernet on it and i will be more than happy to compensate you?.
Most likely if it was caused by a voltage spike on the Ethernet port it’s most likely the Ethernet chip. It could be bent pins in the Ethernet port.
Id start with clock capacitor replacement with the trace repair under the board associated with it
Some Tips
Green Orange Lights are always normal even on brand new ones
The disc drive stickyness can also be slow turning gears in the drive that can be realigned or greased up
The Bend is normal because it is the exact same on some models because of the CPU heat
You should check if the CPU or GPU has any heat on it, if one doesn’t, there is a problem with it or something else
Check for Trace Rot
Very Common Problem
And one last thing
Might be southbridge chip some forums say that and some don’t
try to buy another av cable, i think that is the problem. I have a og xbox too, but when i turn on, it turns off right after when I press the button 🤦🏻♂️
check the power supply,i had some thing like this on my xbox were it wouldnt turn on, might have a bad cap
hey Vince, I have 2 original xboxes,one that is chipped and doesnt work, one that works that has nothing done to it. If you're up for the challenge you can have the one that works if you fix my non-working oneTried fixing it myself but never got tit to work and dont know what my next step is to actually make it work again :(
i fixit has these marked as the light diagnostic system.
Solid red, overheated.
Flashing green, bad bios load.
Flashing red-orange, bad video output
Flashing red-green, system faliure (can be alot of things)
You can try to replace capacitors near cpu. Sometimes they are dead. In 1.6 board those capacitors are 3300uF 6.3v. But i dont know which one they used for this board. I think your board is 1.0. By the way, i have saved 2 xboxes by changing that capacitors.
i second that ;)
I have an xbox here with the exact same problem, but on mine the clock capacitor had leaked quite a bit more. I read that some people suggest to install a modchip, and this could work. However, I did this and for me it made no difference, I guess it has some trace damage and although I spend quite some time trying to fix it, let's face it, it's just not worth it. So my plan is to 'harvest' the memory chips from the board and install those on another xbox, I think this will be a more fun project then trying to save this one.
Dead boards (and systems) still make good parts machines.
I almost forgot what a thicc boi the original XBOX was :)
Also no mod chip for game backups needed, afaik it was only a new ROM firmware.
@My Mate VINCE
this is an easy fix with just a little bit of time to invest. red-orange flashing can only mean two things, either the EEPROM is corrupted (somebody tried installing modchip or flashing the EEPROM itself with a mod bios) or the hard drive is gone (hard drive is key logged to the console). the solutions to this problem are as following: built yourself an eeprom reader for xbox, its pretty simple and cheap, look it up on google. or if the hard drive health is still good, hotswapping and hooking it up to the pc to read its contents. the eeprom reader way, pretty simple, you can read all of its contents even the unique key the hard drive is locked with, so you can prepare a new hard drive with the system files and lock it with the key. hotswapping method, the console boots up (bootintro) and checks the hard drive key and unlocks it to read its contents. you have to get the ide cable out the hard drive after the unlock sequence and before the xbox dash gets read and connect it to your pc (ide hotswap must be enabled). All you need for the hot swapping method is the avalaunch bootdisc with the hard drive options for unlock/lock and other stuff.
another thing, that is pretty rare to happen, but there are tiny but very long traces right under the clock capacitor on the other side of the board, that get corroded when the caps leak.
Hey mate, what type of job do you have? Where did you learn all of these skills?
engineering & electrical programs in college imo
harddrive failed?
You check the motherboard for capacitor leakage? Red/Orange flashing is a bad RAM indicator. ... So, make sure there are no tiny solder balls that sputtered off the solder onto the motherboard surface or between pins of the RAM chips. Use a magnifying glass to assist in the search.
Great video fans only on v1 used to mod them few years ago
Join custom consoles on Facebook one with Xbox controller picture . They will help you on there
Any Part 2
You should be like Dave on the EEVBlog and say “Warrenty Void if NOT Removed” when you take off that sticker. I’ve removed that sticker plenty of times to pop my consoles open to clean them every few months.
It's so nice to see the fixed tv again 😀
Any chance you ever figured this out? Mine is doing the same thing…
Corrupted eeprom chip, probably caused by a bad softmod, you must reflash it or replace it with a good one, but it must be from the same region and model number.
Unless of course if it just needs a recap. that thing is old ;)
if i remember correctly, xbox will flash the leds if video cable is not there also it doesnt like if either or both cdrom/hdd is not present. And theres atleast one model that checks the clock capacitor that its present and wont turn on if its missing, on later revisions that was fixed, your was broken almost off so might be that.
Maybe this info helps: My mainboard still looks like new, but I caused that orange/red ring error by myself. I followed a youtube video to replace the capacitor with a rechargable battery and that caused this error to appear. The Xbox cannot handle anything else then a capacitor, other then the Dreamcast or PS2. Also the error is described as "video output issue". On a webpage someone said the RAM would be broken if another AV-cable doesn´t help fix it.
PS: I once touched into the open running 240v power supply, that was a very uncomfortable stitch in my chest, luckily I was not hurt or anything. Really be careful with that part. ;)
I would get a mod chip (cheap) and try that. Chances are the TSOP flash ROM has got corrupted. RTC capacitor is 1F (not 1uF) - 1 farrad!!! Corrosion from leaking caps can cause these to not boot properly! Also, the caps on these can go bad, often the tops bulge, but they can go high ESR. It's worth measuring the voltages coming from PSU board to main board too - maybe its power cycling because something is failing to work after reset. An unmodded XBOX has the HDD locked to the motherboard, but even without the HDD connected, the XBOX should give video and an error. But if the TSOP flash ROM becomes corrupted, it's possibly you might see behaviour like you see now - ie. CPU cannot boot properly. Fitting a mod chip (which is easy) basically can bypass the onboard TSOP flash ROM with a hacked / custom version of the boot OS. If it boots from that, you know the onboard chip needs reflashing or replacing.
Nice one Chris, I have ordered one, just awaiting delivery and then I will revisit this one. I have had lots of comments on things to try so hopefully I may have more success next time :-)
I would check the ESR on the capacitors especially around the CPU and graphics chip. I haven't done an Xbox but on PC motherboards faulty caps around the CPU can cause it to boot and shut down. Otherwise I would at a guess say it is either a broken track stopping it from reading the firmware correctly or corrupted firmware it self, and it is causing it to boot loop.