Nintendo Gamecube Modchip Installation

Myrddin

Another small mod-log,

This one deals with the installation of a third party mod-chip (how old school, some of you guys do know what a mod-chip is right? ) , into a Nintendo Gamecube. The reason being I've quite a few NTSC Gamecube games I've picked up over the years, & with this modification I'll be able to play them on my PAL Gamecube.

It should be noted, that this chip has other more nefarious purposes, but my reason to install it was to make the console region-free only.

The Nintendo Gamecube (a square Wii really - that was a joke Retr0)



A Gamebit screwdriver head, these are worth their weight in gold when working on Sega & Nintendo consoles. You can use the melted biro method, but the smell of melting solder is enough without melting plastic too!



A few turns of a screwdriver, & the Cube is disemboweled



Ok, the dvd drive unit. It's on the underside of this that the chip is soldered to. The drive is a proprietary type, using Mini-DVD's.



The underside of the dvd drive



The modchip in question, a XenoGC. Very small little thing, which has cutouts for where the solder needs to go. You simply place it over the correct spot, and solder the chip to the correct points. You can also fit the chip via traditional wires if needs be.



The chip placed loosely into position.



The chip, alligned correctly, & soldered into place. Initially this didn't work, as the solder wasn't flowing through the holes on the chip to meet the drive board. I remedied this though by cutting out strips of core of Kynar wire, and pushing them through the molten solder until they met the board. Once the solder cooled & locked the core into place, I trimmed it off. It worked perfectly after that (well nearly, read on)



It seems I had to calibrate the DVD drive potentiometer too, in order to read discs. This is done by taking a reading from this pot and adjusting it into range with a phillips head screwdriver. My reading was far too low, & once adjusted into range, everything worked perfectly.



While the chip is patching the dvd drive, it will display a red led (viewable through a small hole only)



Once the drive is patched, the led turns to green, indicating success.



That's it, I'll put the top back on another day, as it got late & my tea was getting cold



That's all folks. Multi region Gamecube. I'd love an NTSC one, but the postal costs are nuts!

Thankfully I have a freeloader Nice job

lostlarry

wha...
wow... :O

Myrddin

Deleted User wrote: »

Thankfully I have a freeloader Nice job

Is that a boot disc of some sorts? They're definitely the recommended way to go, but do have some drawbacks.

Yea you pop it in and select what region you want, then put in the game and away you go. I used it for RE4, Zelda TP and super smash brothers. I used a separate memory card for the NTSC games just in case.

Newer consoles with updateable firmware negate these kinds of solutions fairly quickly so they are a thing of the past unfortunately.

Myrddin

Deleted User wrote: »

Yea you pop it in and select what region you want, then put in the game and away you go. I used it for RE4, Zelda TP and super smash brothers. I used a separate memory card for the NTSC games just in case.

Newer consoles with updateable firmware negate these kinds of solutions fairly quickly so they are a thing of the past unfortunately.

Aye, modchips have gone the way of the dinosaur. With that comes simple soft-mod exploits, but mass attention.

KeRbDoG

Reminds me of the US/JAP mod you could do to switch either console version between regions with a simple switch you connected to points under the CPU/GPU heatsink.
Modded a number of them which one of the game shops on Talbot Street.
Got me through my college rag week March 2002

Myrddin

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Reminds me of the US/JAP mod you could do to switch either console version between regions with a simple switch you connected to points under the CPU/GPU heatsink.
Modded a number of them which one of the game shops on Talbot Street.
Got me through my college rag week March 2002

Presumeably that can onlt be done to JAP/US consoles? Or is there a similar mod for PAL?

KeRbDoG

EnterNow wrote: »

Presumeably that can onlt be done to JAP/US consoles? Or is there a similar mod for PAL?

Just to JAP/US consoles - linky

Myrddin

I think I remember the story, they got a bunch of import consoles & your eyes rolled over with dollar signs? Would that be right? Lol fair dues, a case of win-win for both of you :cool:

KeRbDoG

The dude asked Cider as I had modded his and he nearly busted his one, then a few weeks later he imported a large number of them for a few customers - what was I to do as a poor student

Great write up btw, never liked those solder directly to board modchips. Needed to do your wire trick using 5mm tinned wire to bridge the gaps.

Myrddin

KeRbDoG wrote: »

The dude asked Cider as I had modded his and he nearly busted his one, then a few weeks later he imported a large number of them for a few customers - what was I to do as a poor student

Great write up btw, never liked those solder directly to board modchips. Needed to do your wire trick using 5mm tinned wire to bridge the gaps.

Yeah it's kinf of risky waiting for the solder to flow down to the GC board, you run the risk of lifting tracks etc from overheating. The wire trick alleviated it though, & worked instantly when done. Simple really, cracking little console I must say.