My xbox works fine 98% of the time playing backups/movies of the harddrive, the other 2% it freezes randomly. Like when i tried to pick up a gun in Call of Duty or launching a movie from my hd that normally works fine. As a side note while playing the Angle DVD's with the MS player the audio kicks in immediately but the video will take up to a minute to kick in?
After these mysterious problems started I opened up my xbox to see if there was anything physically wrong with it, I was concernded to find a mysterious hardened white deposite beneath one of the capacitors. I know that some capacitors have electrolytic goo inside but don't know if the xbox uses these. Even more concerning was some small spots of carnbonization close by, that I would guess is from current arching across the board.
Could this be the source of my freezing woe's?
Should I be concerned about my board frying?
I scraped off the white crud as best i could with a swab and through a pick of electrical tape over the area with the carbon spots but that is no fix. What should I do? Any help would be great, I don't want my xbox to die!

lol, maybe it was there for a reason... i got it, but ive had my box repaired from electrical damage a few times (bad region.... now i use surge protectors...)

so in conclusion, i dont know if boxes come with it but imho its harmless

thanks for the input,
I am running an older version of xbmc with the mayhem dash, could the freezing be because of some glitch in an earlier build?

Sorry I know it's the wrong forum.

By the way, the goo was not factory.

my goo was like a foam turned hard style, and it was sticking to some resistors near the ac, where is yours?

mine was more hard and crystally it was further to the right, near the top of the board near the fan If I recalll, correctly.

I was wondering if a capacitor gave out and was causing power to arc on the board,
(probably not good) that being the cause of the carbon spots.

and maybe freezing? I don't know..... It's always random when it freezes, but it pisses me off1

Do they look anything like the ones on this web site? Bad Caps

There was an article a year or so ago on www.geek.com about how some mobo manufacturers used bad caps to make their mortherboards (Abit was the only company to admit to it... Hmmm wonder if M$ might have skimped to save production costs)

Bad CAPs cause loads of problems (Random lockups, video and audio problems, permanent damage to the MoBo)... better off replacing the PSU if its there or if its located on the board and your feeling brave go to www.digikey.com and get replacements.

Theres no split open tops like in the bad caps pictures and the goo on my board was more white but I think it deserves more scrutiny.
I'll open it up again and take a closer look at the capacitor that was the epicenter for the mystery goo, it is in a place that it could be easilly enough replaced (be brave) so maybe I'll do that, it's an early version box and would be a shame to fry it because of neglect.

Coulld this be caused by extra stress put on the board by a mod chip and functions the box wasn,t designed to do?
I've heard of horror stories of boxes just kind of giving out after awhile from the stress of being modded and doing things the xbox wasn't designed for.(just wondering?)

It has been about four years since my chip was installed is death inevitible for all mods? or is it just a leaky cap? Opinions?

Thanx for input so far, very helpful.

There is 1 capacitor on the XBox mobo that normally does leak but it doesn't (or shouldn't) cause damage. If I remember correctly, it's a 1 farad cap which is down by the connector for controller ports 1 & 2. It leaks a translucent liquid from the bottom which gets fuzzy from dust...it doesn't get white/crusty. From the high value, I would expect it to be a memory or clock power source for when the system is off. It's a different type than the rest of the caps on the mobo.

Would a dead capacitor make the box not boot up. My 1 farad capacitor(i believe it is the clock) leaked.

If it were on the PS then ya..if the clock capaciter popped then it wouldnt save the time anymore tis all...

That's the one alright, is it worth the time and potential fragging up of my mother board to replace it? (amature solderer)

By the way has anyone ever had there MS Dongle stop playing dvd-r's (phillips crap drive) when the media center one plays it fine?
The dongle played my burnt dvd's fine until about a week ago it's an friggin' mystery to me!

Shit..i thought that goo was marshmellows , no wonder i was sick ever since i ate it..

the stuff from a cap can actually corrode the MB and cause it to no longer work. plus, a leaked cap is a badly working/non-working cap.. which can cause random instability.

I have the replacement caps ordered already as far as clean-up goes is rubbing alchohol alright for cleaning the Mobo?

Got my caps, cleaned up the mess, replaced the faulty ones and everything is alllright!
As a side effect when I'm in the mayhem dash of xbmc, specifically My Progams part there is now a spinning gear thing in the back ground, haven't ever seen that since I decided to use xbmc as my dash, must have been screwed for a while. I am quite pleased I didn't kill my box replacing the caps, awesome!