Original Xbox FAQ
Why is my original Xbox controller port not working?
Let's start simple, the port
If you haven't opened or disassembled an original Xbox before, then let me inform you that the controller ports on your original Xbox are stand alone components inside the console. They are split into 2 sections. Controllers ports 1/2 are a section by themselves and ports 3/4 are by themselves. These can go bad all on their own for various reasons. The contacts inside the ports can start to rust and become corroded. Additionally damage or just all around ware and tear on the component can also cause it to fail. If only one of the controller ports in a section aren't working, The inside of the port may be rusted and corroded. If both on a section don't work then the whole component has damage.
However, this is NOT the only cause. In fact you can also have quite a serious problem on your hands. But more on that later. In the meantime your best bet is to pick up An original Xbox replacement controller port set like one of these.
PRO TIP: There are different styles of these controller ports. Some of them use different lengths of cable to connect to the motherboard. You need to get the replacements with the longer cable type to make sure the cables aren't too short. If the place you are looking at doesn't mention the length of the cable, DON'T GET THEM!
As I said before, your original Xbox controller port might not be working for a much more serious reason. If you replace the controller ports that were not working and still have an issue, keep reading on.
Bad Traces on the Motherboard
A common issue known in the original Xbox community is that of the leaking clock cap. In fact I wrote a complete guide to this issue in my blog here. To make a long story short, a capacitor causes damage to the motherboard by slowly leaking onto it. There are many issues this can cause but one of them is corrupting the trace on the motherboard that communicates with the controller ports. If that happens you will never get that controller port to work again without extensive repairs. Those repairs really aren't worth it in most cases. It can be done, but it would require you to hand wire a wire from the start and end point of the controller port traces. This would essentially bypass the trace on the mobo all together and would fix that controller port that isn't working. This is a very tedious job and also doesn't solve the issue of the leaking cap, so you would continue to have more damage to the motherboard until you also deal with that issue.
If your original Xbox controller port is not working due to a bad trace, you would need to look into replacing the motherboard itself with an Original Xbox motherboard like one of these. It is a lot easier than trying to manually bypass the trace and it is a lot cheaper than replacing the entire console.
