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[kevinherring]

Hi
I have an xbox 1.1 and a cromwell/white duox2 mod chip which I am trying to install.
Firstly I just cant get it to work.  I have installed the chip using the pin header method (albeit upside down, with the socket on the board and pins on the chip).  I have connected the DO wire and the BT wire (what does BT stand for??)  I have tested that all the contacts are good (using my multimeter).

However when I power it on, it just ignores the duox2 and tries to boot with the ms bios.  The red led on the duox2 doesnt light or do anything, however when i test its voltages, there is 0.3v running across the led.  I have the hard drive and dvd out, so the eject button flashes orange and green.  When I put them in I get an 09 error on the screen.

I have tried soldering the DO on the front and back.  I have tried with and without the BT wire.  There is voltage running across the pin header (a 3.3 and a few 2.9's)

I have tried both banks and have tested the switch is working correctly.

Do i have a dead chip?

Secondly I am a little confused about this flashing business.  All i want to do is install Linux (i'm not interested in any gaming stuff, at all).  I thought the chip was pre-flashed?  Do i need to flash it afterwards? (assuming i ever get this bloody thing working!)

I have read every duox2 post on this forum and i am now at a loss.  Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance

Kevin

[HackDaBox]

Hello there,

 You have probly already found my website www.HackDaBox.com and read my Duo X2 Install guide but if not then go to it now !

HackDaBox's Duo X2 Install Guide !

I dont understand how you have installed the chip upside down Does your install look like this ...

(IMG:http://www.hackdabox.com/header.jpg)

If not then redo the install following my guide posted above.

BT is for Button Control - It sees a signal when you press eject and knows you want ms bios otherwise it boots with modchip bios !

You do need BT connected and you should use the BackSide D0 point as it's easier to solder. Your D0 is not conected properly or the chip is not making contact with the lpc bus properly becuase you have installed the headerpins wrong.

Re-Do your install following my Install guide and ...

HackDaBox's Duo X2 Troubleshooter !

You wont need to flash the chip at all , select bank 0 and leave it there for linux !

HackDaBox !

[HackDaBox]

argh i get what you are saying now about the headerpins. you solderd the male headerpin to the duox2 and you soldered the female headerpin to the motherboard !

HackDaBox !

[kevinherring]

thanks for your reply hackdabox.  Yeah I followed your instructions.

You're right, the male is on the chip, female is on the motherboard.  Made sense to me at the time, although I cant see that would make any difference.  I can't correct my mistake however, because the cut pins would be in the wrong place.  I know, I am stooopid.

i mailed the place I bought it from and they said that the D0 probably isnt connected properly.  

I soldered the wire to the back of the motherboard and the chip.  I tested it by placing one prong of my multimeter on the D0 on chip and the other on the D0 solder point on the front of the board and the buzzer sounded which says to me that there is good contact although the place i have bought it from says that this doesnt prove anything.  I will retry tonight.  If it doesnt work I will put some pictures up.

Thanks again
Kevin

[kevinherring]

righty, now i am getting somewhere. I attached everything and then switched it on and the red LED blinks! hurahh!  not sure what i did, maybe the BT wire wasnt done properly.  I didnt pay too much attention to this orginally because I thought you only needed it if you wanted to switch it on using the eject button.

Ok so now it turns on and I the led blinks red, but i get the usual xbox screen (not the blue one to indicate that the mod is working) and then i get an error 6 (which means the hard drive is unlocked).... will keep trying....

[kevinherring]

now i'm back where i started: the red light no longer blinks.

Ok I would be extremely greatful for some help please people.  Part of the trouble is that I know nothing about xboxes, the other is that i intentionally bought a faulty machine because it was cheaper, thinking it wouldnt matter.

What I am trying to do:
Set up a linux fileserver using an xbox

Heres how I thought I would do it:
Buy Xbox
Buy and install duox-2 mod chip that has been pre flashed with cromwell.
stick xbox-linux cd in drive and boot from it.
install linux.

et voila.

However clearly I was misguided.

When I bought my xbox, when it was turned on the xbox logo would appear, it would try the dvd, then the hard drive would chug away for 30 seconds or so and then i would get an error 21.
1) what should happen in this situation? presumably MS dashboard should load?
2) what does dashboard look like?

Now from hackdabox's helpful trouble shooting page it says once i switch it on the red led should blink (which is was doing).
It then says "If the RED led flashes but the MS BIOS boots then the D0 point is the problem"
3) So how do i tell whether the MS bios has booted?

It also says "sometimes people think the chip isn't working becuase the MS dashboard boots but this is normal, it won't look different unless you have installed a replacement dashboard".
4) What does the MS dashboard look like?
5) using a pre-cromwell-flashed bios, if i boot without a disk in, shouldnt it forist display a blue xbox logo and then just go straight to a screen that looks a bit like this:
(IMG:http://www.hackdabox.com/cromwell.jpg)

Anyway so even when the led was blinking the machine still showed a regular green xbox logo.

I have checked the D0 connection so many times.  is there anyway I can test it is done correctly?

Thanks again

Kevin

[kevinherring]

ok, I have put some pictures  here

could someone take a look at them please?
thanks

This post has been edited by kevinherring: Nov 3 2005, 11:52 PM

[Chancer]

You have 2 problems.
First the LPC soldering is not correct the solder has not flowed on a number of the joints and the lPC ring is clearly visible.
The error 6 is HDD locked with the wrong key not unlocked so you may still have that bridge to cross when you get the chip working. Are you sure this is the correct HDD for the box?
Tackle the soldering first

[kevinherring]

Ok will take a look at the weekend.

Thanks a lot Chancer, much appreciated.

[HackDaBox]

WOW some nice clear pics ! Yeah just remelt the solder on each lpc connection and add a little more solder. You should have a nice shiny mound of solder and you shouldn't be able to see the ring around the hole. Also do the same to the headerpin on the chip.

 Remove the link wire you have from BT to pin 9 on the chip and fit a wire from BT to on duox2 to BT on motherboard again as this was only for diagnosing !

 Now flick the bios bank switch as you want the cromwell screen for running linux.

Once your chip is soldered properly it should work like this...

press eject to boot normal MS BIOS ( green Xbox LOGO and then a menu with Memory , Music , Xbox Live , Settings ( the screen is all green )
But if you hard drive is locked to another motherboard you will get a green xbox logo followed by error 9 !

Normal MS BIOS LOGO
(IMG:http://www.hackdabox.com/green.jpg)

Or press power to boot with the chip enabled and it should boot to the cromwell bios which will look like this ...
(IMG:http://www.hackdabox.com/cromwell.jpg)

 Is this the original Hard Drive that came with the xbox ? if its not make sure the jumper is on cable select and if its been locked on another xbox then unlock it on the xbox it came out of or get another hard drive thats unlocked !

 HackDaBox !

[kevinherring]

thanks hackdabox, at least I can take some decent photos eh?  Still it took me ages of fannying around before I realised there was a macro button on my camera! d'oh!

Any with regard to my hard drive:  I bought the box on ebay knowing there was an error with it, but I figured it didnt matter as I am putting a 2.5" hard drive in place of the 10gb and a 160gb one in place of the dvd drive and replacing the BIOS.  Therefore I dont know if the harddrive is the one that came with it.

To reiterate- i am only interested in running Linux on this box, therefore there should be no reason for me to ever go into the regular MS BIOS/dashboard right?  As this is the case, the fact that the harddrive may not be the correct one is irrelevant right?

I am writing an article for a popular website, so I will be sure to mention you both in it.  Thanks again for your help :-)

[elpimpo12]

What he's saying about the locked hard drive is that if it in fact is locked, it needs to be unlocked using the xbox that locked it.  When it gets locked, it puts a specific locking code on there and only the xbox that locked it can unlock it b/c of that (This is what I gathered from playing around with my xboxes at least).  But if the xbox that you have is the one that locked the hard drive, then there should be no problem.

[HackDaBox]

Thats right... so if the hard drive was locked on another xbox then remove it ! becuase it will never boot into linux while that hard drive is in the xbox !

HackDaBox !