Sombrero wrote on 2025-06-25, 06:16:

Hopefully they made the slim less annoying to open.

If anything, they made it even more annoying. 😁

I watched a few Xbox 360 S disassembly/cleaning videos on YouTube, and getting to those tabs can be tricky. And since plastic becomes brittle with age, I get the feeling that even a minor slip up would cause them to break.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-05-23, 09:57:

• MSI Z77A-G43 (MS-7758)

Do you have any noise on PCI ports?
I have same mobo (MSI Z77A-G43) and my Audigy 2ZS card make the background noise like cheap AC'97 codec.
I was afraid A2ZS was broken, but when I checked it on another computer (P4/i865PE) the noise was gone.

EDIT:
I tried to move A2ZS card to another PCI port, it didn't help.
PS: All analog/digital inputs in the mixer were muted.

ott wrote on 2025-06-25, 07:22:

Do you have any noise on PCI ports?
I have same mobo (MSI Z77A-G43) and my Audigy 2ZS card make the background noise like cheap AC'97 codec.

I don't currently have any PCI sound cards in this system, as I have no use case for them.

However, about 5-6 years ago, when I was just getting back into retro PC hardware, I did briefly put a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 (SB0100) in this rig. From what I recall, it worked fine, and I don't think there was any excessive noise. In case it matters, my motherboard revision is 1.3.

I have the exact same motherboard and used PCI X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro with it for a while with zero issues. I may have also had PCI X-Fi XtremeMusic in there for a moment, not sure, but if I did it also worked fine.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-06-25, 08:25:

I have the exact same motherboard and used PCI X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro with it for a while with zero issues. I may have also had PCI X-Fi XtremeMusic in there for a moment, not sure, but if I did it also worked fine.

I have first revision Audigy 2ZS with golden jacks, maybe it is too sensitive?
Anyway, I got such noises on the ASRock Z77 Pro3 mobo. Then I tried A2ZS on the Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3-A mobo and didn't detect any noise.
So I think the noise issue related to ASMedia PCIe-PCI bridge, which is used on MSI Z77A-G43 and ASRock Z77 Pro3 mobos.
GA-B85-HD3-A has another iTE PCIe-PCI bridge.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-06-25, 05:41:

But I'm certainly not looking forward to opening up my Xbox 360 S or my PlayStation 4 Pro when the time comes. The latter is almost 10 years old now, and the fan has started to get pretty loud, despite being cleaned regularly.

I just cleaned and repasted my PS4 Pro using this video as a guide. While my console wasn't nearly as filthy as the one from the video, it did have considerable dust buildup between the heatsink fins. I got that new Duronaut for the repaste job, and also some 1mm thick strips of Minus Pad 8 for replacing the old thermal pads on the memory chips and the VRM. Lastly, I took this opportunity to replace the CR2032 battery as well.

Anyway, it took a couple of hours to do all this, but the results exceeded my expectations. With around 25C room temperature, my launch model PS4 Pro (CUH-7016B) is now nearly silent while playing Horizon: Zero Dawn in its 4K mode. Previously, the fan would ramp up to very loud levels under similar circumstances. All in all, this was definitively worth it. Hopefully, I'm good for the next five years or so.