Xbox Powers Off After 5 To 10 Minutes - Ideas? Options

[nickb834]

My Xbox has recently started turning itself off after between 5 to 10 minutes. This occurred after I'd been using Xbmc to play music for about 4 hours.

I had Xbmc set to automatically cool the Xbox so the fan speed would vary automatically to make sure the CPU never went above 55 degrees C.

Now when it is running if I launch the avalaunch dashboard (I have XBMC as my main dash) and look at the temperature graph, I can see that the Xbox slowly warms up to a normal operating temperature around 50 degrees. After 5 minutes it powers itself off without any comotion or alarms or errors.

I have tried the Xbox booted without the modchip on (X3 CE) with it on, booted to the MS Dashboard, Avalaunch and Xbmc and the same thing occurs.

I don't think this is a modchip issue as it still occurs when the chip is disabled. I doubt it is a dashboard problem as whilst it is running everything works as it should. When this does occur none of the dashboards are doing anything in particular - they are all in an idle state.

I am leaning towards this being a power supply issue as in something in the PSU is heating up, and it trips out - although the instant the Xbox goes off I can turn it back on instantly and it'll run for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Do you guys have any ideas or can point me in the direction of a relevant thread? I've tried searching but you know how cra**y the google search is on these forums.

I think I'll try and retreive my xbmc logs so I can see if anything gets written into the log just before the failure that may help.

Cheers

Nick

This post has been edited by nickb834: Apr 2 2006, 04:59 PM

[Cappi]

pablot.com

[nickb834]

pablot.com

OK good link I didn't know about that site, however my problem is the exact opposite of this - my Xbox powers off by itself after 5 minutes rather than turns on automatically.

Although, the Xyclops chip and the PIC issue is something to think about.

Thanks.

Nick

[smokingmods]

hate to tell you this but sounds more like a dieing chip on the mobo
believe its the xerc? hell I am messed up with the time change rite now, somebody can correct my spelling anyway, depending on the version of your xbox, its sounding like you got a chip that when it reaches temp its done and just shuts off. since your cpu aint overheating its not flashing orange for an over heat, its the mobo shutting down not the chip.

[nickb834]

hate to tell you this but sounds more like a dieing chip on the mobo
believe its the xerc? hell I am messed up with the time change rite now, somebody can correct my spelling anyway, depending on the version of your xbox, its sounding like you got a chip that when it reaches temp its done and just shuts off. since your cpu aint overheating its not flashing orange for an over heat, its the mobo shutting down not the chip.

This is affecting the v1.4 Xbox in my sig, I hope it's repairable as I added 64 megs extra RAM to it and I don't wanna have to do that job again!

I think by Xerc you might mean Xyclops? or perhaps the PIC associated with it?

[Chancer]

Most common is MCPX.
Touch it with box running if its hot its shot.

[nickb834]

Chancer - I think I live like 1 mile from you - I'm in Altofts! Wonder if we went to that same crappy school round the corner from you?

Anyhoo - the Xbmc logs show nothing of interest occurring prior to the shutdown.

This post has been edited by nickb834: Apr 2 2006, 07:13 PM

[nickb834]

Ok, I checked the temp of the MCPX and some other chips when it shutdown and this is what I have found:

All temps in Celsius

MCPX = 45
CPU = 47
GPU = 45

The heatsinks around the PSU seem to be around 40 degrees too.

I did hear a loud crack just the once when it got upto temp but it actually stayed powered on, I turned it off quick. I think I may just have to take the PSU out and check for any burn marks underneath - it didn't stink like blown up electronic components do - and it's still working.

Nick

This post has been edited by nickb834: Apr 2 2006, 07:47 PM

[nickb834]

Ok I think I got it figured, my Xbox has had quite a few mods done to it, namely:

X3 CE chip and X3 Control Panel and LCD
Illuminated jewel using Cold Cathode and inverter

I think that the Cold Cathode and the X3 Control Panel and LCD were drawing too much current from the PSU, which was having a momentary sag / brown out and of course the Xbox goes off.

To test the theory I unplugged the Cold Cathode and left it off and the Xbox has thus far run for two hours without any problems.

AFAIK the X3's LCD draws a miniscule current, something in the order of a couple of hundred milliamps at 5v and much the same at 12v for it's backlight, whilst the Cold Cathode's inverter takes a couple of amps at 12V.

So potentially I was drawing an extra 2.5 / 3 amps out of the PSU and it really doesn't like it. I experienced something similar with a PC of mine that has been modded to hell (PSOne 5" TFT installed in drivebays showing temps and e-mails / weather stats etc etc) I kept getting hard drive failures which eventually turned out to be sags in the PSU's output, once I replaced with a larger PSU all was well and the "faulty" drives actually turned out to be ok.

it appears the moral of the story is, the Xbox's PSU has a very limited power output and you can't get away with drawing too much current off it.

Does anybody know where I can find the specs of the different PSU's both MS and third party made?
if I can find one with a higher output I might just swap this one out.

[Pikkon]

Well I had a v.10 that did the exact same thing,I had it pluged into a surge protector,it would turn off in about 5 to 10 minutes or so.Then I pluged it in to a standard outlet and it ran fine,it fixed my problem.

[nickb834]

I wonder if your surge protector was kinda faulty and instead of protecting against surges, was actually creating sags and thus your Xbox powered off?

Who knows, at least we both figured out our probs!

Nick