So I xclamped my first machine last week. Another friend found out that I may be able to revive their system so he dropped it off earlier today.

I took a look at it...it seemed like the box was hacked to bits, after opening it up, I can tell that the xclamp mod was attempted (horribly attempted I might add) and that the case had been cut at the back to increase the air flow.

I powered it on and got the error code first to begin my diagnostic.

0003...

So here I am, I google searched the forum and found out what it may mean, either the PSU chip or the actual gpu chip itself (he probably tried to towel or heatgun and failed).

How do I go about troubleshooting this mobo? I really don't mind spending the time, I am studying to be an electrical engineer so even if I can't fix it, it would be a good learning experience for me.

So for all the hardware gurus here, can you point me in the right direction? How do I begin to troubleshoot this system?

The system starts with a beep, the psu goes orange -> green -> orange and the fans come on for a second and then stops.

Thank you for any help you can lend

Sounds like a short to me if the PSU does that.

EDIT: 0003 Power problem could be the PSU could be the GPU/CPU, somehow the console isn't getting clean power from the power supply.

Something MUST be shorted.

so how should I proceed finding out what is shorted?

bumpady bump?

Any ideas?