Journey to the Center of the GameCube: Part I / nsidr

Journey to the Centre of the GameCube

I've been sitting here looking at my GameCube for the past 2 weeks thinking, what would it be like to take apart my favourite console? Ok well, maybe that's not everything that's been on my mind for the past 2 weeks, but you get the idea. There's something about gaming equipment that I find incredibly interesting. Most likely, it's the fact that everything is just so compact and proprietary. It's not like taking apart a VCR with plastic nubs and wires strung all over. Best of all, nothing flies out at you when you're removing something.

Gaming consoles are usually a fairly tight package and Nintendo's GameCube is no different. Everything has a specific place and function, which could be seen as a problem. If everything has a specific place and function, isn't there more chance of causing unrepairable damage to your GameCube? Yes and no. The great thing about proprietary equipment (as opposed to say, something like a PC clone or VCR), everything fits just right. This means that if you pull it out in the correct fashion, and put it back in using that same correct fashion, there should be no problems.

So, I bet by now, most of you are asking: Why on earth would you want to open up your new gaming console? The answer is simple, because it's there. This feature is geared to those who are curious about what's inside, but don't feel like doing it themselves. It can also be used by those individuals that would like to do it, have the background, but would like to prepare themselves for the task.

Now that we've reached this point, it's probably best that we dispense with the warnings.

By disassembling your GameCube, you are voiding the warranty.

N-Sider assumes no responsibility for any damage caused to your GameCube before, during or after the process.

Do not use a magnetized screwdriver.

If you have no background in this sort of work, DO NOT attempt this by any means. Please, if you are interested in this sort of thing, but have no background, go practice on something much cheaper and much older. I can't stress this enough.

Now that we have that over and done with, let's get to the fun part.

The Screwdriver

Having taken apart various Nintendo products before, mainly cartridges for cleaning purposes, I'm quite familiar with the screws. Here's the problem, they're proprietary. This is to stop your average gamer from becoming curious and taking a flat-end or phillips screwdriver to his console. I am of course, not your average gamer. Now, most gamers would just go out and buy a Gamebit, but it's hard to find, and it costs somewhere around $15 USD, shipping and handling not included. You of course can do that, I for one am too cheap. Back in the day, I had fashioned a tool that could remove the screws, it unfortunately could not be found. Luckily for you, you get to witness the creation of another one.

To start, you'll need a file, hacksaw, and a brass rod approximately 6 mm in diameter. The diameter of the rod isn't critical, but it shouldn't be much less than 6 mm, or you'll have nothing to work with. Make sure it's long enough to reach down the holes of your GameCube. Now, to get a general idea of where the cuts needed to be made, I used an SNES game cartridge (ooo, Uniracers). The smarter thing to do would've been to use the N64, as it uses the same size screws, but I was just looking for a guideline anyway. Getting back to the brass rod. I used the first thing I could find that looked like it would work. A small brass rod, with a plastic piece attached to the end. Do not try this. The plastic piece stripped right off and I had to start over. Now, you don't necessarily have to use brass, but I would recommend it. It wont strip the screws, and it's easier to work with. Sure, it may wear down more quickly over time, but you can just make another one, right?

Take one end of the brass rod, and start filing out three equally spaced cuts. It should look like something that has teeth that line up with this. When we were doing it, it wasn't quite as symmetrical as we would've liked, so we pulled out the hacksaw. The great thing about the hacksaw is that you'll have much more control over your cuts. Basically, it's just a matter of going back and forth between your file and hacksaw until you get some nice looking teeth. Luckily, the head of the screw is rounded, so the grip will still be there, even if the cuts aren't perfect.

Now, you'll probably notice that there's no way to fit your bit over the head of the screw. Solution, the middle has to be drilled out. I'm not here to give a course on proper shop technique, but when you're doing any kind of metal work, the hardest thing to do is keep the drill bit centered and perfectly perpendicular. If you happen to have a drill press sitting at home, by all means, use it! We started with 7/64ths, but it wasn't big enough. So we moved up one to 1/8th. Again, not big enough. We used 9/64ths and it worked just perfectly. You'll want to start at 7/64ths anyway, moving up in 64th increments. Any more, and you risk damaging the teeth of your new bit as well as your own drill bit. Following this, you'll want to break out the file again, to get your teeth into a useable form. Here's the finished product.

Disassembly

Now that you have your tool, whether you bought it or made it, you can start the fun job of removing the screws holding down the outer casing. Disconnect everything from your GameCube (especially the power) and move it to a place where you are less likely to lose any parts or screws. As you can see from the pictures below, we decided to move out of the workshop and into the dining room, where there was less of a mess. The screws on the bottom of the GameCube are extremely tight, and are especially hard to remove with a homemade screwdriver, but with a little bit of patience and a lot of downward pressure, it can be done. You may notice some wear on your tool already, but it's to be expected. Remember, it's made out of brass.

Now it's time to seperate the front panel from the body of the GameCube. Push down from the top, and it should pop down without any problems. The next move is optional, you have to decide whether to disconnect the cable attaching the circuit board on the front panel to the GameCube or not. It makes life easier to not have the front panel connected through the cable there, but if you remove it, you'll have to reconnect the cable when you reassemble it. This can be tricky. Not only that, but if you can't get it back in, or break it, you wont be using your controller for awhile. If you do decide to remove the cable, simply pull up on it, and it should come off easily.

The next step is to remove the back panel. This is necessary to remove a couple of screws later on. The panel should just slide off if you pull back on it gently. Next, you'll want to remove the fan assembly. Now, I removed the actual fan out of curiosity. It's in no way necessary, and probably best that you don't do it just for the sake of saving a few screws. If you're curious about the specs, I took them down because I figured the fan will probably be the first thing to die in the console.

Model

Rating

Dimensions

Misc

Removing the fan assembly requires a Phillips-head screwdriver. Just remove the screws, and slide the assembly out. Make a note of where the wires came from, you'll have to put them back in the same way that they came out.

You can now start working at the rest of the screws surrounding the top assembly. Once you've taken care of the screws on each side and in the back, it's time to remove the four small screws found at the front with a small Phillips-head screwdriver. These will pull up the ground connectors for the circuit board of the front panel assembly, keep these screws seperate, as the only place they go is here. You're now ready to remove the top assembly. There's only one connector, it leads from the disc reader to the motherboard. Shouldn't be a problem, but lift straight up, and be careful.

Ah, now you're looking at the motherboard. There's only one thing standing between you and the Gecko Processor, RAM, ATI Flipper, etc... the heat sink. The big silver thing with the slots covering most of the motherboard is the heat sink and it is your new enemy, you will learn to despise it. You'll try to be friendly with it at first, but it will refuse to share the same feelings. All kidding aside, this is the hardest part of your job. Getting the heat sink off requires infinite amounts of caution, patience and care. Also, let me just say that heat sink removal is extremely dangerous, as messing it up could very easily shorten the life of your GameCube. Seriously, if you're unsure of yourself, do not proceed passed this point.

First off, the screws are insanely tight, you'll need to put on a lot of downward pressure, and make sure you have the right sized screwdriver. If not, you could strip the screws. It may help to get a pair of tweezers to pull the screws up out of the slots in the heat sink since your screwdriver isn't magnetized. Now, it's best to remove the motherboard to make life easier. Since the screws that held down the motherboard are the same ones that were holding down the soon to be removed heat sink, this is quite simple. There's one connector that you have to worry about, which goes to the power supply. Just like the top assembly, lift straight up and be careful. If you don't lift straight up, you risk snapping little plastic spikes, hooks, etc. Trust me, you don't want to spend the rest of your evening trying to crazy glue a piece of plastic that's about 4 mm in diameter. I didn't have to do it myself this time, but I do have experience with taking apart other electronic devices, and those little plastic things can be a major pain if you break them.

While you're here, you can take off the four screws you see on the metal plate in front of you. Underneath, you'll find the power supply, shown below. There's really nothing else to the GameCube beyond this point, the serial ports and parallel port are just connected to the bottom of the motherboard and feed through the holes in the bottom section.

Now, let's get back to the heat sink. It would probably come better if you used a metal tool, but I highly recommend against doing that. You really don't want to risk damaging anything. It's best to lift it carefully with a plastic tool. I used an old toothbrush. As you can see, the heat sink material stuck to the Flipper graphics chip and Gecko Processor chip. What you want to do is, slide it off with something flat. Don't use your fingers. Make sure it doesn't fold up, or anything like that. Then place it onto the heat sink exactly where the outline of the material is. This is something you do NOT want to mess up.

Picture time!

GCN Motherboard

Reassembly

Take all the pictures you want. If you were planning on modding anything, now would be the time to do it. Start by putting the metal plate that was covering the power supply back on. Make sure you've got it lined up properly, it can get confusing. Next, put the motherboard back on, placing it straight down and making sure the power supply connector fits right in. Now, remember the heat sink? Well, you should, it's that metal piece that gave you all the grief when you were taking it off. Guess what, it's not done yet. To reattach the heat sink, you must be extremely cautious, it has to be lined up precisely. As I said before, failure to do this properly will shorten the life of those chips. Thread the screws back in. When you screw them down, make sure they're as tight as possible. You'll need these as tight as possible to ensure proper functioning of the heat sink.

Now you can place the top assembly back on, making sure the motherboard connector connects properly of course. Place the front panel assembly ground connectors back on and thread the screws in. Make sure you have them facing the right way before you do anything dumb. Start threading back in the surrounding screws. Everything may not line up perfectly, but there's nothing you can do about it. So just thread it in as best as possible. Leave the first and last screw on the left side, these two are for the fan assembly. The screws on the back side may require the help of tweezers.

Tip: Pinch the indent of the screw with one side of the tweezers, it'll give you much more control.

Put the fan assembly back on. Remember where the wires were last time? If you don't, look back at the picture. If the wires are placed back incorrectly, you could pinch them. Make sure the fan assembly is snug against the main assembly and thread the screws back in. If you unattached the fan, you can reattach it more easily when the fan assembly is secure.

Now to reattach the front and back panels. Start with the back panel by lining up the plastic connectors, and pushing it straight on. Now, if you unattached the cable that led from the front panel circuit board to the body of the GameCube, you'll need to reattach that first. Place it down directly and make sure it's seated properly. Once you have the cable attached, you can put the front panel back on. Simply place the bottom end in first at an angle, then push the top in. Now you can put the cover back on. All you have to worry about now are the power and reset switches, but they should line up just right if you put the cover on properly. Take the cover screws and drop them into the holes of the bottom of the GameCube. Take your homemade screwdriver (or the one that you bought) and thread the screws back in. And finally, tighten them down, then go plug it back in to continue your gaming pleasures.

Brenden Petracek