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[notwoohoo]

After seeing tons of people screw up their xboxes by using the wrong bios/bios size, here is a simple post for newbs.

Xbox version 1.0/1.1 uses 1mb bios (use Xbtool or similar tool to make 1mb bios from 256k bios)
Xbox version 1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5 uses 256k bios

Xbox version 1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3 uses Conexant video encoder (and pretty much any bios will work)
Xbox version 1.4/1.5 uses the Focus video encoder, and Xecuter 4979 or above or Evox m7 MUST BE USED.

Common Issues:
----------------------------------
Red/Green flashing light, powers up twice:  
EITHER

1. You have flashed a 1.4/1.5 with a bios that does not support the Focus video encoder chip.  To fix the TSOP you will need to do a 29-wire mod, or you can install a LPC modchip and always boot off of that.

2.  You used a BFM bios.  You will need to use a 29-wire mod to fix the TSOP or get an LPC modchip and always boot off of that.

3.  You used the wrong bios size, remember the 1.0/1.1 uses 1mb, while the 1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5 uses 256k.  If you have a 1.0/1.1 you can use the wire trick to boot off of another bank of the bios and it may work (see pinned topic "So, You Screwed Up Your X-box" for the bios split trick).


I hope all of this is correct and decently complete, I am just sick of seeing people ruining otherwise good Xboxes by not reading.  Please reply if there are any errors/omissions and they will be corrected.  Thanks!


NOTES
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If flashing a 1.0/1.1 (1mb tsop) through evox it will fill all banks and you will be good to go.  With raincoat however, this isnt the case and either a 1mb bios or 4 256k bioses (using offsets) should be used.  (Thanks to BaDvs3viL)

EvolutionX cannot flash Winbond chips because it cannot erase them (current EvolutionX 3935)as Winbond TSOP chips use chip erase and all other tsop chips use block erase.  (Thanks to A@ron).  Raincoat however can flash Winbond chips.

--
Xbox #1
---------------------
Xbox Early 1.1
Xecuter 2.2 lite with wire install
Xecuter 4979.06
Seagate 160gb hard drive
Avalaunch

Xbox #2
----------------------
Xbox 1.5
TSOP - Xecuter 4979.06
Seagate 160gb
Avalaunch

This post has been edited by notwoohoo: Jan 20 2004, 01:15 AM <

[sbyrn4]

Hmm, I read somewhere that if you use a 1mb bios and your chip needed a 256k then the flash just wont perform, which tells you that you need a 256k, however if you flash with a 256k and you needed a 1mb bios then you screw your xbox big time.
Only thing to do then is to use a 29 wire mod or an lpc one as you say.

So, (and this is just my way of thinking) if you always try and flash with the 1mb first (and the correct bios for your video chipset of course) its practically impossible to mess up?

Let me know what you think notwoohoo  <

[notwoohoo]

Interesting idea, i would like to know if anyone flashed a 256k tsop with a 1mb bios (if it flashed/if it worked correctly) with both Evox and raincoat.  I will change the post if anyone can confirm that flashing a 256k tsop with a 1mb bios works correctly or will not flash period.  Thanks!  <

[Flagg3]

Never tried that, but I do know that if you accidentally use a 256k BIOS while flashing in the newest versions of Evox it will automatically resize it to 1mb if you have a 1.0 or a 1.1.  

It's not something you should do intentionally, but it is there.

Flagg  <

[BaDvs3viL]

Thats right...With evox, it will resize/copy the 256k over 4 times to make it 1MB.....On the other hand Raincoat will not....It will put the 256k on the 1MB bios and then you'll have to the switch trick to boot the xbox off that 256k bios...  <

[sbyrn4]

Probably way outta my league here but is the reason why Evox cant flash the Winbond chip (and I mean Evox with the 007AUF hack) because there isnt a line for it in the evox.ini?

I understand the the bios can be flashed with raincoat, so how is this different. Also the evox included in the slayers 2.5 is 1.83921 which is much later than than the one i have with the hack. And after reading the .nfo with slayers it says it has support for ALL version Xbox's from 1.0 through 1.5, so could I not just use the Evox from slayers in my gamesave and flash the winbond on my 1.4?

Like I said, probably way outta my league here but if you dont ask, you dont get

 <

[A@ron]

Because Winbond chips require a different erase procedure known as chip erase, not the "block erase" all non-Winbond chips use. EvoX only "knows" how to block erase the chip and thus it cannot erase a Winbond chip prior to flashing. Raincoat knows that if the erase fails the first time to try a chip erase and thus can erase the Winbond chips with no problem, unfortunately evox isn't that smart... yet.

A@ron  <

[sbyrn4]

OK guy's, I just got hold of the highway_007mech_flash_pack which by the sounds of it boots EvoX as well as Raincoat, thus being an all in one flash pack
Not quite sure how to use it yet, and whether or not EvoX boots first and then runs Linux if you want to flash the Winbond chip's.

Either way, this is looking like the definitive package so far, for all TSOP's. From what I can make out though raincoat is command line based (please correct me if I'm wrong here) so I'll keep you informed on how many box's I kill with raincoat before i figure out how to use it properly.
Thing is I'm only ever going to use it on the Winbond chips because EvoX works fine on all the others

Oh, by the way notwoohoo, I tried to flash the 1.5 with evox and the 1mb M7 bios and it just failed, so i rebooted box and flashed with the 256k, and it worked like a charm    

This post has been edited by sbyrn4: Jan 20 2004, 10:14 AM <

[Johnny_Crackhead]

Hi,
I succes fully flashed a few boxes with raincoat. now some months later i tried my first 1,5 box. here is what happened:

made a evox D6 bios and put in in the raincoat

Loaded raincoat 0.501 using hotswap on xbox drive (tried it with no soldering on the flash to boot and box resets after a while like normal)

soldered the write protection points like the 1,2 box in this article:  http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/tsop.php

than turned on the box loaded the game with 007 didnt give raincoat any command through the network (did have a network cable in it though).

the tv didnt make a sound xbox went off and when turning it on it rebooted twice and than cicle green/red.

Ok, i know i did some dumb things but i didnt give the flash command to raincoat.

so what now?? please help! thanks in advange  <