Topic: I Tried To Make A Dual Bios Tsop W/switch... (Read 161 times)

jimbo991 · « **on:** May 14, 2004, 11:53:00 AM »

Ok guys, here's the deal. I went out and bought a switch and installed it just like the tutorials said (A19 -> GND and A19 -> VCC). Last night, without mounting the switch or anything, I tested it, flashed the VCC half with a 512k X2 4981 bios and everything worked fine. I flipped the switch and rebooted and sure enough, the MS bios booted. Cool! However, here's where the problems started. Today, I spent the majority of the day drilling a hole into my case so that the switch could be mounted and look all flashy from the outside. Done deal, mounted and looking flashy! However, when I reassembled my box, and plugged it in to run the final check and make sure it worked, the X2 4981 bios (VCC side) booted fine but when I flipped the switch, the MS bios didn't boot at all. As a matter of fact, you press the power button and it makes that sound like it's going to turn on and the fan starts to move but then everything stops and it just won't boot. So, I checked my wiring and found out that the wire had come loose from its original GND position. I tried and failed to get it resoldered to the same point so I gave up and just decided to solder it to the metal chassis as I read in other tuts that it would suffice as a GND. I reassembled, and tried again but the same thing happened. I then changed points again and tried to solder it to a screw plate on the mobo. Same thing happened. Finally, I just tried touching the wire to the original GND point as I turned it on (since I was having difficulty soldering it) and it STILL wouldn't boot. What exactly is going on here!? A19 and VCC have to be soldered correctly for the one side of the switch to work am I right? I know this is a lot but if someone could help clear this up for me I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

frontlinep8tbal · « **Reply #1 on:** May 14, 2004, 12:16:00 PM »

Ok, First off. If you managed to try and solder and "failed" your soldering skills are less to be desired. I would be confident to say that the whole solder job you have done is in question. Give it to an installer before you possibly destroy your tsop. FRANK

jimbo991 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 14, 2004, 12:40:00 PM »

Wow man, thanks! Great post!

colibri · « **Reply #3 on:** May 14, 2004, 01:16:00 PM »

wires are to long.. and why did you drill a hole when you could of mounted it under the left side near the #1 controller port.. i think you meant well but you are creating more work for yourself..

1. replace all 3 wires
2. resolder points with flux
3. when it doubt replace the switch, yes they can go bad, "lemon".

hope this helps

This post has been edited by colibri: May 14 2004, 08:16 PM

frontlinep8tbal · « **Reply #4 on:** May 14, 2004, 01:37:00 PM »

Wasnt meant to be sarcastic, if you took it that way.

If you plan on learning how to solder do it on a old video card or something other then the xbox or Ps2. Something of the sort that has points close to what your working on. There is no way to teach a person how to solder just by typing it out to them. I have heard every excuse about how a person is an electronics engineer.... yada yada.... but cannot solder to smt componets.

We were all new to this one time or another. Fact is, Some can solder some cannot, theres no inbetween. Soldering, is either hit or miss. And if you have wiring poping off or shorting. This will in return lead to possible permanant damage to the machine.

Learn to do it properly by practicing or give it to someone that can. Otherwise you risk a now $149.99 doorstopper.

it could be the switch or wiring, but unlikely. you would not need to tell a person to use flux paste if they were experienced. And saying that wiring is coming off and unable to solder it back, says he does not know how to solder which means that he would not understand the concept of flux paste. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. is the key to learning how to solder.

jimbo991 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 14, 2004, 08:23:00 PM »

Well, I did what you said and re-soldered everything but I ended up accidentally pulling one of the traces (A19) out of the board along with the wire. I didn't sever the wire however and somehow managed to solder a wire to the trace itself. I taped it up real good so it wouldn't move and then tested everything out and it worked. It did something real weird however while my xbox was on as the wire I had soldered to the GND just popped right off the board. I turned it off and back on again and the xbox still booted but to the MS bios. I turned it off, flipped the switch and restarted and the MS bios booted again! I don't know why this would have happened but it's pretty strange. I then re-soldered the GND connection and taped it down this time and everything works perfectly again! The switch functions just as it should and it boots to perfection. I honestly have no idea how it's working with the lifted trace and all but it seems good to me! Thanks for the advice.

LESTAT · « **Reply #6 on:** May 14, 2004, 09:21:00 PM »

watch your heat, its going to cause issues with that trace.

and flux.. no you dont ever use flux on a motherboard. no no no no. no no no

especially something as small as xbox solderpoints. it takes so little solder to make a good solering point flux is just going to spread and also it is proven that flux on things like motherboard and other pcb type board causes the solder to deteriorate. and solder spreads out with flux, you want that solder to stay right where you touch it to.

ive never used flux on a pcb solder. and NEVER on an xbox, the solder points are too small and too close together and too close to those traces. ive never had any problems

man you must have some seriously shakey hands to have all the trouble you did.

i like others had to use a 6 inch electronics magnifying glass. the kind on a stand and it's lit like a lamp. that is almost 100% needed unless you have super vision.
plus i alwayskeep really corse sand paper around and clean the tip after every couple of touches with solder. so the point is nice and sharp.
another thing you can use although i dont recommend it is electronics weld paste. its conductive and dries solid.

jimbo991 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 15, 2004, 12:32:00 AM »

Man oh man oh man... after taping the re-soldered GND connection down, I was playing xbox for about an hour when I heard the small little pop again and sure enough, the wire had come off the soldered point. I don't know why it keeps doing that but it's almost as if the point is heating up so much that it's melting the solder and then causing the wire to just lift the solder right off of the board. Anyhow, w/out the GND connection soldered in, the xbox boots just fine but to the MS bios. It boots this way on both sides of the switch just as it did before. When I try to re-solder the GND connection again (even to another point), I get the re-boot twice and then red/green flash (TSOP reads an invalid sector or something) for one side of the switch (VCC side) and I get the MS bios for the other side of the switch. This whole thing is really weird and I'm wondering if I'm just pushing my luck. I'm thinking of abandoning the whole switch thing, booting into MS bios, cutting all of the wires after booting, and then just flashing the TSOP with a 1 meg X2 bios and calling it a deal. I'm pretty sure the problems have arisen due to the A19 trace but I don't exactly know what went wrong. Does A18 work the same way as A19? Forcing the xbox to read from the last half of the TSOP when connected to VCC and the first half when connected to GND? If I just cut the wire that I soldered to the lifted A19 trace and try and do it with A18 instead will that work? Does A19 have any other important functions that would be messed up by having it lifted off of the board?

lordvader129 · « **Reply #8 on:** May 15, 2004, 06:05:00 AM »

thats odd because without the GND connection it should boot one side of the switch and FRAG on the other

are the wire connections on the switch itself good?

also, try just wapping the GND wire around a screw, rather than soldering it

frontlinep8tbal · « **Reply #9 on:** May 15, 2004, 07:25:00 AM »

he doest listen others advice. Period. as with many others. He will keep tearing into the machine lifting off traces, breaking componets, then say,

Huh wonder why it doesnt work now.

Amazing!!! just have to say glad its not my xbox he is working on.

jimbo991 · « **Reply #10 on:** May 15, 2004, 10:49:00 AM »

yo frontline, dude, not one thing you have written in this post has been productive at all. All you have said is that you're a pro and I obviously am not because I'm asking for help. Who the fuck would come here if they were a pro (unless they were actually going to help people)?! The point is, there is absolutely no reason for you to be posting here unless you have something worthwhile to say. Nobody asks questions to be reamed by some dipshit who thinks he knows everything about everything. Obviously, I'm having some difficulty soldering, so if you could just take that stick out of your ass and answer the questions at hand (NOT address the personal problems you think I may have), I might take what you have to say into consideration. And on another note, I HAVE read and very much appreciated all the other posts from other people... they're ACTUALLY TRYING TO HELP!

frontlinep8tbal · « **Reply #11 on:** May 15, 2004, 11:34:00 AM »

[/QUOTE]Wasnt meant to be sarcastic, if you took it that way.

If you plan on learning how to solder do it on a old video card or something other then the xbox or Ps2. Something of the sort that has points close to what your working on. There is no way to teach a person how to solder just by typing it out to them. I have heard every excuse about how a person is an electronics engineer.... yada yada.... but cannot solder to smt componets. We were all new to this one time or another. Fact is, Some can solder some cannot, theres no inbetween. Soldering, is either hit or miss. And if you have wiring poping off or shorting. This will in return lead to possible permanant damage to the machine.
Learn to do it properly by practicing or give it to someone that can. Otherwise you risk a now $149.99 doorstopper.

it could be the switch or wiring, but unlikely. you would not need to tell a person to use flux paste if they were experienced. And saying that wiring is coming off and unable to solder it back, says he does not know how to solder which means that he would not understand the concept of flux paste. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. is the key to learning how to solder.

IN FACT YOU DONT KNOW HOW TO READ AND ARE LOOKING TO BE BABYSITTED YOU MORON. This is the first time I havd had to flame the ignorant and retarted. Its your friggin xbox not mine. I have been doing this for 3 years and offered sound advice. FACT is YOU DONT KNOW HOW TO SOLDER. YOUR FAULT NOT MINE. Yes, Im advanced and offered advice. Sorry I didnt sugarcoat it for your sorry ass. At least the information has been Constructive unlike your DESTRUCTIVE nature with your horrendous soldering skills. So go F yourself and your xbox.

delacruz · « **Reply #12 on:** May 15, 2004, 12:02:00 PM »

terrorvis · « **Reply #13 on:** May 16, 2004, 01:09:00 AM »

Found this in another forum...

lordvader129 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 16, 2004, 08:38:00 AM »

Author Topic: I Tried To Make A Dual Bios Tsop W/switch... (Read 161 times)