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[SPENGLER]

Well, was able to get all LEDs to light up without the chip...D0 was a bizatch, but got it after bending & torquing wire to sit where it needs to.

Now:
1. all 5 LEDs light up with no chip, and stock OS runs.
2. add the Xenium Gold with the 'X' closest to back of box, and back 4 pins are exposed
--- LEDs 2 and 4 turn off when i power up (chip in regular & recovery mode)
--- XBox now just FRAGs

I've tried all sorts of things, all hardware is plugged in again (DVD & original HDD) and the chip just doesn't want to load.

Can't get into stock OS, can't get into XOS, totally lost here.

I have NOT tried the recovery DVD/CD because I just don't think the chip will ever get that far.

Does anyone have any suggestions to this one???  I see loads of helpers out there, and I bought the GOLD for a customer cause my ICE has been so great.  I can probably take my box apart and load the chip on there for testing, but i'm curious if i've plugged the chip on wrong or something.


Thanks in advance,
Michael (SPENGLER)

[JonBOY]

does the xbox do a 3 reboot frag? if so, revisit that d0 hook conection that was such fun for you in the first place. Other then that, correct orientation is X toward the back of the box, chip sitting on the adapter pins as close to the front of the box as possible, so it sounds like your positioning is ok.

Check also whether any of the pins on any of the adapters are bent. you may also want to remove the adapter and clean all the motherboard vias and LPC locations with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol.

[SPENGLER]

okay, tested the GOLD chip in my XBox that has the ICE chip.  setup the same way as the ICE, and get the same sorta 3 FRAGs and halt.  I'm not sure if the GOLD requires the extra power wire though.  it has a port for it, but nothing in the SPICE guide tells me to connect it.  and if i do need to connect it, then i'll have to solder something.  isn't that the point of buying a solderless adapter?

I would like to do a RECOVERY on the GOLD chip in my ICE-Xbox, but not sure how to jack it in.  my ICE-Xbox is a fully soldered solution that is stable as gold, just not with the GOLD chip.  and i'm definately no soldering wiz...meaning, i can't get the solder to actually solder anything..ever (either wiring doesn't obsorb, or i just can't get any solder to stick to the tip for the old touch and meld trick).

anyway, any help is highly appreciated.  this is for a customer that must be getting ansi by now (1 month).  note, i'm a software guy, not a hardware guy.

thanks,
SPENGLER

[SPENGLER]

right well, foot in mouth.  I've got the GOLD working now on MY Soldered box, and realized that the wire that i'm referring to above was/is not a power source, but the D0 or something...whatever is the worst hole closest to the main chip (maybe the BIOS chip???).

anyway, trying now to do the RECOVERY on my ICE chip, and HDD solution not working.  Will try the DVD solution and see how that goes.

I guess I will have to re-visit the solderless crap with Isopropyl ... that sucks.  this was supposed to be easy .

anyway, i'll post back with results of the alcohol treatment.

• Am I just supposed to Q-Tip cotton swab the holes with the alcohol or do I have to clean them first with needle or something?
• Will the IsoPropyl act as a solvent on the laquer?
• Do i have to be nervous with it?

Thanks as usual.

SPENGLER

[JonBOY]

Ok with your Xenium installs there's baisically two ways of chip installation that you're messing around with. The first is the completely solderless adapter which your using to install the GOLD. The second is the pinheader method which is your ICE install.

Now, with the solderless GOLD install, if you have a v1.0-1.5 box then all you need is the black adapter with the d0 hanging off the side of it. If you have a 1.6 this adapter must be couple with the white SP adapter with the LEDS on it. Since you've used an SP adapter you've obviously got a 1.6.

With the pinheader install howver, sitting the chip on the soldered in pinheader alone doesn't provide the chip with a d0 connection. As such it is necesssary to add one, this is from either the upper d0 via (which varies amongst different xbox versions) or the lower d0 via which is on the underside of the motherboard and is always in the same place. Now with this d0 connection, the wire can be either removable, in that the end connected to the chip has white plug on it that you can unplug from the chip, it it can be permanant in that the wire has been soldered to the d0 pad on the ice.

If your ICE has the removable plug, all you have to do is unplug the d0 connection from the chip, remove the ICE from the pinheader, fir the GOLD onto the pinheader and plug the d0 wire back into the GOLD (which have the same plug connector as the ICE). If the d0 wire is not removable then yes you would need to do some soldering.

If you could try the ICE on the SP adapter in the box that you're installing the GOLD  in that would be a great way to figure this out. If the ICE works then you know the problem is that the GOLD likely needs to a recovery to reflash the onboard OS. If you go to reflash the GOLDS XOS, try to do it on the other box with the pinheader as recoveries on 1.6s don't give you any video to see whats going on.

[SPENGLER]

Thanks JonBOY,

actually, what i've testing is this:
1. both XBox are 1.6 (crystal) XBox's
2. both chips work in the pin-header "soldered" solution (my ICE-Xbox)
3. neither chip works in the S.P. XBox..both do the same FRAG where LEDs 2 and 4 turn off.

I'm confident that I'm wiring it properly in that on the ICE-Xbox (soldered) I'm using the extra Blue/Black D0 wire for both chips and it's okay.  but in the SP-XBox, neither chip works even though the SP LEDs report "all okay".  i really do agree that I'm going to have to revisit the SP kit with some alcohol.  Catch is i have to go buy some now...tomorrow i guess.

Thanks JonBOY
SPENGLER

for quick reference:
ICE-Xbox === soldered solution with the extra D0 (black/blue) wire
SP-Xbox == solderless kit with no extra wires

both are v1.6 Crystal XBox's (identical RAM/GPU)

[SPENGLER]

IsoPropyl seems to have done the trick.

1. dismantled everything
2. removed PIN header rivets
3. cleaned all contacts with sewing needle and IsoPropyl Alcohol (70%)
4. remounted back in box
5. remounted CHIP (this time i used the plastic guide...couldn't see well enough with it before)
6. turned ON....BOO YA...worked.

Now I just hope that vibrations won't disconnect anything.  Cause if it does... I'll be calling my soldering guy .

Thanks for tips,
SPENGLER

[JonBOY]

glad to hear you got it sorted.