Xbox One S No Signal HDMI Repair

A while ago I started watching some youtube videos about fixing all sorts of gaming consoles. Most of the times, these consoles had a common problem: everything worked but the display and usually, replacing the hdmi port was enough to fix the problem.

After watching these videos, I felt confident that I can do this myself so I went on Ebay and bought an Xbox one S with damaged HDMI port for 40€.

Once the package arrived and the Xbox disassembled, I discovered that the damage was far worse than what I anticipated. Even worse for a beginner like me, there were a very few tutorials on how to fix an HDMI port with broken pads and none of them about Xbox.

Step 1: Tools and Material

Tools

Soldering iron with fine tip

Electronic microscope

Multimeter (continuity mode)

Scissors

UV lamp (used for solder mask drying)

Air blower

Tweezers

Material

XBOX one S HDMI port

0.1 mm enameled wire

Solder wire

Soldering flux

Solder mask

Isopropyl Alcohol

Step 2: Disassembling the Unit and Assessing the Damage

In order to disassemble the unit, I followed some youtube tutorials (you will find plenty of videos about this). In order to access to the hdmi port freely, you will need to get the motherboard out of the case and remove everything conneted to it.

Once disassembly finished, I discovered that the hdmi port was in far worse shape than I thought as you can see in the pictures: many tabs were broken so a simple fix was not an option. As a newbie, I had no idea on how to fix this kind of damage so I decided to put everything aside and do some research to figure out the best way to fix it.

Step 3: Fixing the Unit

At first, I thought that I could glue the broken tabs back on the motherboard (all the tabs were still connected to the wires). In order to do that, I bought some GB weld heat resistant glue (to be able to do the soldering later). Apart from making the situation even messier, the glue solution was no help at all: the hdmi port tabs were very small and even a needle wasn't small enough to be user to spead the glue.
Again I was back to research and that's when I discovered that using enameled wire was my only chance of getting this right. In addition to that, I ordered an electronic microscope since it was the only way to be able to work on such tiny components.

Having received all what I needed, I started practicing with the enameled wire and the microscope on an old damaged board until I was able use then correctly.

Before starting to work on the Xbox motherboard, I felt that it was important for me to have a diagram with all the connections needed for the hdmi port. This was very helpful as it allowed me to find the best way to tackle the job then I dusted off the motherboard with an air blower and cleaned it with isopropyl Alcohol to prepare it for the soldering process.

Once I got everything I needed, I started the tedious soldering process which took me hours: First, I applied a thin coat of solder on the enameled wire then I added some flux both on the wire and the pin to solder before soldering it very carefully. After that, the wire was cut to the correct length and soldered to the other end using the same technique as before. Once the soldering done, I checked every pin for continuity using a multimeter until everything was OK.

Step 4: Testing the Unit

After checking everything with the multimeter, and before reconnecting the unit, I cleaned the flux residues with isopropyl alcohol and a small painter brush and made sure no solder debris are left there.

Finally, I connected everything to the motherboard (I did not put it back in the case to be able to disconnect it quickly if it needed more work) and connected the new hdmi port to my tv and powered it on.

At first, nothing happened, so I started to gently applying some pressure on the tabs and to my great pleasure, the picture finally appeared. I disconnected it and resoldered some suspicious tabs before reconnecting it: this time the picture appeared instantly and everything was fine.

After ensuring that the unit was fixed, I disconnected everything in order to apply some solder mask to protect the thin enameled wires and applied some uv light on the mask to dry it quickly and this fix is DONE!!

I hope this instructable will be helpful for someone.

Thank you!

Step 5: