Help! Xbox 360 USB relocate problem

[bartock]

Hi, I am having a very confusing problem. I desoldered the front USB tower from my 360, and used some wire to relocate it for my xbox portable project. There are no cold joints, and everything appears to be wired correctly. I have took everything apart and re soldered a few times but the usb doesnt work. I get a brief flash of power on my controller, but then nothing. BTW the hard drive connector and front power button were desoldered and relocated the same way and work fine. I have no idea what to do so any help or advise is appreciated.

[collinE]

I guess there's no way for us to know exactly what happened. It's possible that the wire isn't thick enough. Try resoldering some new thicker wire. Its also possible that when you desoldered the port, the pins pulled up the copper shafts in the vias that connected the layers of the board. What guage is the wire that you're using?

[bartock]

Im using 22gauge wire. its about as thick as the pin headers that came off the usb. Also the copper parts that connect are intact. the solder pads are clean, and I do use flux...like I said its a mystery to me. I suppose just using the 1 usb on the back of the board would be ok, but more functionality is always better.

[collinE]

maybe the port itself is messed up. you could try getting two new USB ports and wiring them up or, on the cheaper side, testing the solder spots on the board with a multimeter to see if the power is running through them.

[itherian]

I am having the same problem, I disassembled the usb adapter checking everything. I noticed if I move the usb connector around it finally lets me use the controller and as long as i hold it perfect like that it works.

[Tralius]

How long are you extending the wires? Are you getting power from the USB port? You can check that with a multimeter. If it is getting power you can try twisting the data wires together as the data signals could be getting interference and corrupted. If you are not getting power to the ports you can take the 5V from anywhere else on the board to power it.

[NES]

I have had the same problem. Im using pretty thick wire and both times everything has been soldered correctly. Maybe its because we both took off the metal shielding?

[Tralius]

Thick wire isnt the best idea, the thicker the wire the more voltage drop you will get, which may underpower the usb port.

Edit: Yes i could be confused, sorry

[RDC]

Thick wire isnt the best idea, the thicker the wire the more voltage drop you will get, which may underpower the usb port.

The thicker the wire the less Resistance it has, hence less voltage drop, you're bass ackwards about that.


To anyone having a problem with this you can try one of two things..

1 - Reinstall the USB ports on the motherboard and see if they still work there, if they do work, then it's your wiring. If not, then you've damaged something on the motherboard, a Via, Trace or component.

2 - Wire them up correctly to start with, and that's not a knock on anyone's soldiering ability, maybe desoldering though as it's more difficult to do without causing damage to the board sometimes. It's only 8 wires and if it's not working then something isn't done right or was damaged when removing the USB ports from the motherboard, as described above.