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[AmO]

I have noticed a lot of people with seemingly wrong information about frags and modchips.  The formula is as follows, (please note: this is not a flame just hoping to clear up a lot of misinformation)

1) If your xbox frags by showing no image, restarting 3 times then flashes the eject light the problem is the following - Your LPC, (the 2 rows of hole running next to each other) are not soldered properly, either there is a short between them or a miscontact somewhere.

QUOTE (EmperorPsiblade)

Frag means that the MCPX can't find any BIOSes or the motherboard has sustained critical damage.... such as burning off the d0 with a soldering iron (60watts of powah) or dropping a glob of solder onto the mobo....(Edit By AmO - This last part is rare but always possible)

Also what it means is that your D0 is working perfectly (unless you have soldered to the wrong D0, reconfirm that you have soldered to the correct D0 to potebtially save you lots of problems - dzv)because there is a circuit that is completed by the D0.

2) If you boot your xbox and it just boots normally as if no bios or chip is present (this is very easily apparent with Xenium chips because the Xenium OS SHOULD appear before the flubber animation, this may also be true with chips like the SmartXX and X3, if you have a 3rd Gen modchip or below then it can be tougher to tell, try using an Xecuter bios because it replaces the MS text with Xecuter2, if it doesnt try using the Eject button to turn on the xbox or hold the white button as xbox is booting, if you still see the flubber animation then read on) then the problem lies in your D0.  The topside D0 can be a bitch to solder, I know that In MY case even with what seemed like a perfect joint, i still just booted like a normal xbox without the chip.  You have 2 options here.  Try resoldering the D0 or solder to the bottomside D0 (or LFRAME on v1.6 xbox).  The reason that it seems as if the chip is not there is because the D0 creates the circuit for the chip, without the D0 there is no circuit and thus no chip, that is why often people get very confused because everything looks perfect but in fact the problem is just the D0.

QUOTE (dzv)

Many modern chips Ground D0 to LPC pin 2, which happens to be the most difficult LPC pin to solder for novices. If your soldering on LPC pin 2 is not up to par, then the chip may not be able to Ground D0 correctly, even if you have soldered the correct D0 point perfectly.

I hope this clears up a few issues and if you all have any questions or confusions about what I have said, please let me know.  I sometimes word things wierd and people get confused.

AmO

[EmperorPsiblade]

frag means that the MCPX can't find any BIOSes or the motherboard has sustained critical damage....

such as burning off the d0 with a soldering iron (60watts of powah) or dropping a glob of solder onto the mobo....

you just said how to solve the most common errors and not exactly what a Flashing Red And Green (FRAG) is....

QUOTE

Also what it means is that your D0 is working perfectly because there is a circuit that is completed by the D0.

completely correct! i am amazed at the amount of people who think a frag means that their D0 doesn't work.....

QUOTE

Also what it means is that your D0 is working perfectly because there is a circuit that is completed by the D0.

Agreed.... do not make the mistake of using the top d0... the bottom d0 is MUCH MUCH easier!

[feflicker]

I know this is the Xenium forum, but...

If you don't have a valid OS or BIOS on your chip to boot from, booting to the chip will also result in a FRAG  

Booting to a hosed TSOP will also cause a FRAG.

So basically, any situation in which the BIOS doesn't load properly causes FRAG'ing. (as EmperorPsiblade stated)

[AmO]

thanks for all the reply's folks, Emporer ill add that bit about the bios's to make it more clear, thanks

[Master-Chief]

This is a very useful thread and I'm sure that it will help several people.  

[AmO]

thanks for the compliment master-chief  

[madjo311]

Thanks I have been having the exact problem in number 2 and i suspected it was D0 but now I know for sure. Thanks a bunch.

[dbldown768]

what exactly do you guys mean about the bottom D0.  I know what and where the D0 is i just dont understand the bottom term.  There are 2 particular places wehre u can hook up for a D0 on a v1.6 correct?  When u mean bottom do you mean the bottom one(further away from the chip) or do you mean soldering it to the bottom side of the board (as in the same side of the LPC rebuild wires)?

[acemilo]

On 1.0 - 1.5 there are 2 d0's one on the top and an alt on the bottom of the board.  On a 1.6 there are 3 places, 2 on the top and one one the bottom that are all the lframe.  Any one will work, but the bottom points tend to be easier.

[AmO]

updated my post, thanks dzv for the extra info, added it to the post (and gave credit where credit was due   )

[Gumba]

QUOTE (dzv @ Aug 11 2004, 06:11 PM)

Again, there's at least one other possibility...  Many modern chips Ground D0 to LPC pin 2, which happens to be the most difficult LPC pin to solder for novices.  If your soldering on LPC pin 2 is not up to par, then the chip may not be able to Ground D0 correctly, even if you have soldered the correct D0 point perfectly.

Yup, this happened to me in the most recent chip I did

with a magnifying glass I could see the joint wasn't actually that great... touched it up, and it booted straight into XOS

The perfect example of what *looks* like a d0 problem, but was actually an LPC ground problem.

[Fantoman]

I have one little point to add regarding the D0 , to avoid confusion.

If you have actually wrecked your D0 as I did on my box, such as lifting the trace etc, you will get 3 reboots and Frag with no display, with or without a mod installed.

Don't try to tell me that you won't, because I have had this happen when trying to solder to the top D0 I lifted the trace to the MCPX.

As soon as I was able to repair the trace (be it temorarily) the box worked fine, although the repair lasted a whole of 5 minutes and I then managed to wreck the board while trying to fix it again - thus the purchase of a new board off ebay and soldering the D0 to the bottom point which worked fine, having a larger point with solder on it already, makes it sooo much easier...

So the moral of the story is, if the D0 is not actually making a circiut into the MCPX i.e. damaged trace, then the box will reboot 3 times and Frag with no display.

Hope this has cleared up any confusion...

[gamehack]

well according to the post right above yours you may have ruined the d0 point

[prplehz]

[AmO]

QUOTE (Gimplar @ Aug 20 2004, 06:59 PM)

I have a small problem..and was hoping I could salvage my X-box before shelling out for a used one. I'm getting the three reboots and then blink red/green eject button. I did a tiny bit of debugging, First I unplugged the D0/ground loom..Right so now the D0/Ground loom has no interaction with the modchip. Reboot - same problem. Okay..so I unplug my chip..but this shouldn't cause the 3-reboot flash frag...this is because I installed it earlier w/o solder using the solderless adapter. The chip wasn't seated right and it just booted to the normal BIOS. After pressing down on the adapter, the X-box would boot to the Xenium OS2. So I unsoldered the D0 loom. No go. The pin header is still in there. I didn't think that it would screw anything up..after all it's pretty much an open circuit from the LPC contacts to the pins. Shouldn't this do absolutely nothing? System still reboots 3 times and flashes.

Actually, it could also mean a short in your LPC, check carefully for solder splash as this can be an unseen error