Original XBOX Power Button Issues
Last September, YouTube channel ModernVintage gamer became one of my favorite channels. He was working on an original XBOX and provided many guides on how to restore and modify them. I always had Nintendo stuff growing up, so I never played on an original XBOX much. Curiosity got the better of me and I picked up my first XBOX. Fair warning, these consoles are not for the faint of heart when it comes to soldering. I didn't know it at the time, but it's almost a sure bet that your XBOX is full of electrolytic capacitors leaking away. My XBOX wasn't too bad but there were a good number of capacitors that required replacement. I had the XBOX restored and modified exactly the way I wanted by the end of last September. I thought the project was done.
I've had my XBOX in storage since last December because I was moving. I pulled it out of storage yesterday and to my delight, I have a new issue on this console. It seems the power button is now inoperable and the console will turn on and off at random, all on it's own. Best case scenario, the power button itself is broken. But in all likelihood, it's probably classic trace rot. These consoles are notorious developing trace rot right below the most leak prone capacitors. The electrolytic fluid leaks and corrodes the copper traces on the PCB. In the coming days, I'm going to pull out the motherboard for inspection and see what I can learn. I'll try and get some up close photos of the traces. Maybe if I'm really lucky the traces will be fine.