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[josh1e]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone maybe able to follow what i've done to help rectify it?

I've fitted 50+ xecuter 2 & 3 modchips, all worked fine. Last one was around a year ago, so i've been out of the scene for a while. I spent 24hours solid reading before i started & referred to loads of posts / notes before i started. (some made sense, some confused me tbh)

The reason i did this was I wanted to see if i could flash the tsop eeprom on my sons xbox to remove the x2 chip for a newer 1.6 xbox.

so i started with..

working 1.2/1.3 xbox, with x2 lite modchip with 4978.03 bios. xbmc as default dash on f/apps/xbmc. shortcut from c/evoxdash.xbe. m$ dash 5960, unknown kernel. Locked HDD (if i remember right)

I think its a winbond tsop (has white W on it & W49F020T-90B, 224059201, 302AHSA) Samsung memory & Nvidia MCPx x3 chip)

steps i took...

turn xbox on normally with modchip turned on.
load up bios flash app
turn off modchip with switch on front.
run flash
reboot

what happens now....

everytime i turn on the xbox with modchip turned on i get 1 green power light, then red only flashing light

everytime i turn on the xbox with modchip turned off i get 1 green power light, then red only flashing light.

the light does not flash red/green/red/green, it consistently flashes red / off / red / off & so on...

i can eject the drive using the button, and pressing it again closes the drive, i can do this repeatedly.

there is no video using a normal video out cable.


steps i've tried to rectify it...

I've tried removing the modchip & reflashing it with an external x2 programmer with a known working bios & with another xboxes bios dump. it made no difference, it still flashes exactly the same.

questions :-

if i have changed the tsop, i thought this wasnt possible unless i soldered points on the motherboard?

could installing the x2 chip on the lpc header have joined the same points needed to flash the tsop?

could it be as simple as the tsop was flashed with a bios set to display HD & i'm not using a HD cable?

if so, why doesnt using the modchip bios overrule this & give me video? the modchip is not a HD bios....


if it helps to diagnose the problem, or fix it, i have another working xbox with an x2 chip, and a working x3 modded xbox.


sorry if this is confusing,

Thanks
josh1e

[lordvader129]

check your D0 wire, and try another chip if you can

you cant flash the TSOP without bridging the point on the motherboard, and you cant flash the TSOP after booting an LPC chip (you have to boot with the chip disabled to flash)

[josh1e]

Hi Lordvader,

thanks for the reply,

I resoldered all my LPC pin header points & D0 after making the post, i sussed it might be D0 while making the post, the modchip doesnt "seem" to be interrupting the tsop booting.

however so far it hasnt made any difference i put it all back together & was still press on = green, then red flashing.

gonna crash for tonight & attack it again tomorrow, bit frazzled today, been loosing a fighting battle with it for around 12hours today lol.... /cry...

I had read other posts that state you cannot flash tsop without bridging the flash points, although presume something i did upset it, also wasnt sure if the lpc pin header for the x2 chip bridged those points?

I booted with the chip enabled, ran the xbe to flash, but before hitting flash, i turned off the modchip, so it "shouldnt" have flashed the tsop... thats what i thought...

thats why i am kinda stumped. hopefully it's just a faulty d0 eh?

thanks m8

[lordvader129]

yeah, basically theres no way you flashed the TSOP, and the fact that you get the same result chip on or off supports that its not a TSOP issue

IIRC red only LED can be an eeprom problem, try programming a bios with an embedded eeprom and see if it will boot that way

[josh1e]

Hi Lordvader,


While i've got the board out & re-re-soldering (bang head against wall lol) i was thinking about the 3wire trick to try & fix the tsop, i believe for whatever reason the tsop bank 4 is def foobar.

I need to figure out why the chip isnt interrupting, but back to the original reason i started - i want the chip out & the tsop flashed...

For the 3wire trick, I believe i understand the steps involved & how it works, but from reading several posts about tsop flashing, i have 1 question about the wiring / soldering involved...

when i've soldered the 3 points (A18/A19/ground) do i also need to solder the bridge points described in tsop flashing posts or is it enough only to solder the 3 wire trick points?

I want to try booting from another tsop bank firstly, just for the satisfaction of getting it to boot.  If that works then i would like to softmod it long enough to reflash the full 4 banks, maybe even leave a switch connected so i can change between ms bios / modded bios. but ultimately remove the chip.

sadly the 2 xecuter2 chips i have are significantly different, one is a 2.2 on wires, the other (this one) is a 2.6 on a pin header, without removing it, i'm not sure about the x3 (its a 1-5ver, not 1.6), i can't remember if i can swop it out for a 2.6 or if the wiring's different... been sooooooooooo long lol..

will have to go rummage through my old favourites lol..

thanks for your help m8.
josh1e

[Heimdall]

I agree with lordvader (it's more likely to be the eeprom because it's happening with the chip enabled or disabled). To do what you want with the TSOP you need 4 wires, not 3. 3 wires (A18, A19, gnd) makes the Xbox boot from the lowest 256k bank of the TSOP, but if you want to try other banks you need a 4th wire with 3.3V. There's a picture here. I made this table from another post here on Xbox Scene (which I now can't find!!) showing how to enable the various banks using A18 and A19:


______________A18 Float______A18 Gnd______A18 3.3/5v
A19 Gnd_______0-512_________0-256________256-512
A19 3.3/5V_____512-1024______512-768______768-1024

(Had to replace spaces with _ because the duplicate spaces didn't show up properly!)

I'm fairly certain you don't need the bridges soldered for this to work - but you might as well solder them while you have the board out!

As lordvader said, before that try a BIOS on the X2 that doesn't need an eeprom. According to their notes (and other posts I've seen) X2.5035 and iND-BIOS.5003 both boot with an invalid eeprom, and Flashbios 3.0.3 unauthorized (must be the unauthorized version) will allow you to overwrite the eeprom with a blank one. In both cases you can use Config Magic to rewrite the original eeprom from your backup.

[lordvader129]

if it was a TSOP bank 4 issue youd get 2 reboot attempts and then FRAG, and the modchip would certainly bypass this

youre going to have to solder the write enable points eventually, so you might as well do it when you have the board out, as its slightly easier (since you have a 1.2 or 1.3 you can do it with the board still in the case)

[josh1e]

quick update while i'm "re-flashing / re-soldering"...

thanks for the help btw  

i've re-flashed the banks on the modchip with a d6 & m8 bios.

with the d6 bios on the modchip i get the frag (red / green alternating light)

with the m8 bios on the modchip i get the same green on, then red flashing.

using the spst switches to switch between tsop banks & the modchip removed didnt give me a bootable xbox on any bank / combination.... i just got the same green on, then red flashing.

I'm flashing some other bioses onto the modchip while i post this, now the x2 modchip seems to be interrupting properly, i want to see if i can get it to boot again ....

looking back, x2 installs were soooo easy but then i suppose everything is when you know how to do it...

oh & some warning for others over how small & close together the a18 & a19 points are ....aarrgghhh  



quick update while i'm "re-flashing / re-soldering"...

thanks for the help btw  

i've re-flashed the banks on the modchip with a d6 & m8 bios.

with the d6 bios on the modchip i get the frag (red / green alternating light)

with the m8 bios on the modchip i get the same green on, then red flashing.

using the spst switches to switch between tsop banks & the modchip removed didnt give me a bootable xbox on any bank / combination.... i just got the same green on, then red flashing.

I'm flashing some other bioses onto the modchip while i post this, now the x2 modchip seems to be interrupting properly, i want to see if i can get it to boot again ....

looking back, x2 installs were soooo easy but then i suppose everything is when you know how to do it...

oh & some warning for others over how small & close together the a18 & a19 points are ....aarrgghhh  



hmm...

I can get flashbios 3.03 to boot from bank1 on the modchip. (YaaaaY )

(however it does complain of an invalid eeprom)

so what do you guys think i should do now?

I'm going to try X2.5035 / iND-BIOS.5003 as per your post heimdall (thanks) and see if that lets me boot to my existing locked drive...

if i can get the xbox to boot from either of these on the modchip, how should i rectify getting the eeprom re-flashed? if i understand right, it can only be flashed by booting from it on a softmod, or a 29wire mod?

is there any reason i shouldnt leave 5035 / ind5003 as a working bios

does this mean i am better off leaving it modded? and not bothering with the tsop (doh)

thanks again

[Heimdall]

You're nearly there. Flashbios 3.0.3 unauthorised (not the standard version) gives you the option to rewrite the eeprom instead of complaining. X2.5035 should just bypass it, then you can use Configmagic to rewrite the eeprom.

Once that's done (whichever route you choose) you can flash the TSOP normally. You need to boot from the TSOP, so you need to softmod the box then flash with Evox (use Kingroach for the softmod and just ftp the files across, then turn off the chip), or use a TSOP gamesave. I'd go for the softmod (I've never got a TSOP gamesave to work well!!)

In terms of BIOS, I'd flash iND-BIOS.5003 onto the TSOP.

[lordvader129]

and just so you know, you will be able to reprogram the eeprom with the chip enabled, you just cant flash the TSOP (yeah yeah, know the TSOP is an eeprom chip too, but in the context of an xbox TSOP and eeprom refer to 2 different chips)

[josh1e]

right,

i've got it to boot the unofficial cromwell from the modchip, i then flashed ver 1.2/1.3 eeprom in the "new" menu. I didnt re-flash the modchip.

voila - msdash !!!

so i :-

disabled modchip
booted from tsop normally (bank 4)
copied over my sc savegames (known working) from mc to HDD using msdash option
inserted sc disk (known working)

Error invalid game region !!! arrgghhh.... its always something !!!

I know both the game & savegame works as i softmodded one earlier. I also know the xbox "was" okay as it was in use before i messed with it... so i assume its the bios that cromwell flashed that thinks its somewhere other than the uk?

is there a way to reconfigure the bios to be UK & then reflash it?

thanks...

so close & yet so many things to do / things want to make it more bl**dy difficult than it needs to be

I am used to the x2/x3 bioses, they've never gone wrong for me yet, but i will look into the iND-BIOS.5003 for tsop, i dont yet know which one to use. I usually boot either evox on c/ or xbmc on f/apps/xbmc via shortcut. (do you know boot sequence for ind.5003?)

thanks, couldnt've got this far without both ur help  

[Heimdall]

Turn the modchip back on, run Config Magic and restore your eeprom from your backup - or use Config Magic to edit the region manually.

And I just reread your original post, and realised that the 4 wire trick was pointless - your 1.2/1.3 Xbox only has 256k TSOP, so no banks to switch between. Sorry, should have spotted that earlier.....

iND-BIOS.5003 is definitely worth a look, as it's the only 256k BIOS that supports configuration from a text file instead of having to edit and reflash the BIOS.

[josh1e]

modchip was reflashed with flashbios, so will have to reflash it first with working x2 bios ... doh

team-xecuter you make great gear, but pls bring out a programmer that doesnt take 10mins 26seconds everytime to write a chip

forgot about configmagic

ty ^^

good news about 256k tsop then, i can use switches i bought to break, er i mean tsop flash another one

thanks m8. trying config magic now, just waiting for programmer to finish

[josh1e]

i'm just checking my solder points,

I couldnt config magic as dumba** here didnt bridge the tsop flash points yet....

I've just removed the board, soldered the tsop flash points and removed the wires for the 3wire trick.

I thought it went well tbh, but now I cannot boot from the tsop to msdash. (which i could before i removed it.. are u sure there's not more than 1 bank?)

I can boot from the modchip fine. x2 bios on bank 1 takes me right into my xbmc dashboard, unauthorised flashbios on bank 2 takes me into flashing utilities....

I tried the unauthorised eeprom flash again, but even though it says successful, it still leaves the box flashing red/green (frag) when trying to boot from the tsop. (i dont think it's actually flashing it)

any thoughts?

thanks

[Heimdall]

You don't need the TSOP points bridged to use config magic. You seem to be confusing the two chips that lordvader talked about.   The eeprom contains 256 bytes of config information, and you can edit (flash) that with no soldering just by running Config Magic. The TSOP is 256k, and you need the points bridged to flash that.

If flashbios isn't working, try X2.5035. If I were you, I'd put X2.5035 on one bank of the X2, and 2 copies of flashbios (unauthorised) on the other bank, so you can switch between the two.

Not sure about the 3 wire thing - I've never tried it on a 256k TSOp box, because it shouldn't make any difference.......! Are you sure the Xbox is a 1.2/1.3, and not a 1.1?