Not complaining about ME1, in general, just the silly mini-game. I love the game, the whole trilogy, but elevators, driving endlessly looking for unmapped items and this mini-game make ME1 the least played of the three. While I've played ME2 & ME3 each about 8 times, I've only played ME1 4 times (I've got the whole trilogy on X-Box 360 as well as PS3).
As for the thread, I don't believe there is actually a timer. I've deliberately let it fail looking for a timer, but all I see are alternating lines that shrink completely random and have no specific timing to them. I don't believe those are timers, so much as just decoration. When starting off, the timing is ridiculously fast. I generally max out Tali's Electronics and Decryption skills and bring her along everywhere. Once maxed out, the games are usually bearable.
Timer is on upper part of that minigame window. It's horizontal bar that runs out really fast. On background there are vertical lines that keep going up and down and they are just for decoration.
I have ME1 for PC and I have played it through for at least 10 times, but since minigame is different in pc (and I don't have xbox) i can't really compare
