Print

[VampX]

Got me a little problem here guys..

You see i got my hands on a 2nd xbox (for mah bedroom)
and i modded it with an Xecuter3 CE chip and an X3 control panel,
now here's where it gets strange, now and then the sound either cuts off or stars.. "crackling"
(sometimes the video dissapears as well)
I don't really know how to describe it, its kinda like the sound you hear when you fiddle
with your microphone plugs (cracklebzzzcracblepgggcrackle)

now i did alot of deducing trying to find the problem but so far i found nothing,
here's some info about my xbox :

1 - it can be a dvd problem but take note that games/movies/music run from the hd will also crackle

2 - hd/lan/d0 points are all properly soldered

3 - the solder on the PSU has been fixed to prevent it from breaking in the future

4 - the chip is placed on the mobo with the pinheader

5 - its either a v1.2 or 1.3 (build in 2003)

6 - its not a bios problem, the problem also occurs when i boot without the modchip

7 - the mobo looks fine, no brown spots anywhere on top or bottom

8 - its not a heating problem either, i left the xbox running a homebrew game for an hour last night and nothing happened,
yet today i turned it on and it crackled right from the start.
(the only difference is that i unplugged the power cord from the wall socket last night just to be safe)

9 - its also not an ntsc/pal problem, i tried out every video mode and it didnt seem to make a difference,
(though the video being cut off did seem to happen a lot less when i switched it to pal, though that could just be a coincidence)

10 - the eh.. "video out port" seems to be fine, no cracked solder or anything like that.
(i hope its something else, i'd hate to have to unsolder that thing)

11 - the problem is always there when i boot up unleashX, unleash uses the ms dash sounds and those sounds all come out crackling.
(yet the ms dash itself sounds fine)
(i use xbmc most of the time btw)

12 - its not the tv and its not the cables, my other xbox works perfectly with those. (a 1.1 with x3 chip)

i hope my message didnt come out too chaotic, i'm trying to remember everything i tried.

well i hope anybody here has a clue, cause i'm all out of idea's.

[Heet]

Ya thats a first and the WEIRDEST shit I ever heard but I know you've been here a while and know a damn xbox   .  What I mean is that I know you would know if it was the psu or something simple.  

Something affecting video AND sound?  Hrmm....


Do you have blades on the picture???

[VampX]

QUOTE(DarkSky Forever @ Sep 4 2007, 05:34 AM)

Maybe its your speakers? Have you tried it on a different TV?

I tried two tv's both had the crackling, but not when i hooked up my other xbox.

QUOTE(Heet @ Sep 4 2007, 05:44 AM)

Do you have blades on the picture???

Blades? how do you mean? you mean if the video output is clean? cause its either clean or its not there.


Btw i think i found out what might be causing the problem..
remember how i said i watched some movies without any problem?
well yesterday i turned the xbox on again and the crackling was there from the start,
so i booted up the ms dash, and guess what.. it wanted me to config it all over again, language, time, date, etc.

and after setting all of that up and rebooting the crackling was gone! O_O

Maybe i should not have directly copied over my other xbox's C drive..
maybe the 1.3 xbox needs its own ms dash? (i never really paid attention to the whole 1.1 / 1.2 1.3 etc difference cause i only had one xbox)
so maybe higher numbers have a different ms dash?

i'll hook up the old 1.3 xbox HD and transfer over the C drive to the new drive i'm using in the 1.3

though with my rotten luck it will probably be something else

but yeah after setting up the ms dash again the problem didnt come back at all that night,
and its still running good today (i kinda suspected all settings to be gone again though)

very odd...

[VampX]

QUOTE(VampX @ Sep 4 2007, 02:19 PM)

but yeah after setting up the ms dash again the problem didnt come back at all that night,
and its still running good today (i kinda suspected all settings to be gone again though)

And today the crackling sound came back again, and booting up the ms dash did not matter since all the settings were still intact.

i'm pretty sure its something simple but i can't seem to figure out what it is!

[Alex548]

I had a box just like that. . . actually still do.
It's sitting in my closet since I never bothered to figure out what was wrong.

Things I did, but didn't solve problem:

· replaced PSU
· reflashed TSOP
· Formatted/reinstalled M$ dash
· tried different A/V cables
· packaged it up & threw it in the closet.

[FrostyTheSnowman]

You might have some weak connections under your MCPX...

The MCPX chip is responsible for Network, Audio, and I believe IDE... so that could very likely be the problem.

The MCPX also does not have a heatsink, and it does get fairly hot, so after so many cool downs/warm ups those connections can easily break.

In any case though, if this is the problem, it will not be easily repairable.

[VampX]

Ah crap, i knew it would be something extremely anoying.

well at least i didnt pay for it!
I got it for free from a friend of mine who has a 2nd hand store, he gave it to me for free because the dvd drive wasnt working.
(though a quick swab with a cottonswap and some alcohol fixed that problem)

Ah well, guess i'm in the market for another xbox..

[Movax]

You could try gently heatgunning it, à la xbox360. Or run it with the top off and DVD drive out of the way and apply pressure the the mxpx on power on to hopefull verify the problem.

[VampX]

QUOTE(Movax @ Sep 6 2007, 05:40 PM)

You could try gently heatgunning it, à la xbox360. Or run it with the top off and DVD drive out of the way and apply pressure the the mxpx on power on to hopefull verify the problem.

Yeah good idea, i'll try both those idea's this weekend.