Print

[EvilSmurf]

I've always been happy with Easybuys chips. They were my first choice and I never saw any reason to try a more expensive one when the cheapest one on the market did everything I wanted and more. So when I saw that they made an even cheaper one I was stoked.

In the past I'd had heartache rebuilding the LPC port for 1.6 boxes but I've done a few now and this time it was no problem. The strangeness came after I got the chip on.

First off, I was worried about hurting something when I saw that I had to break apart the part with the LEDs on it but that actually went fine.

Then when I fired it up: FRAG.

But not the normal frag. It would be green then orange for a second then shut off. Times three.

Similar to others I've heard of but not quite the same.

Anyway I figured I probably screwed up the soldering somewhere, but before I took everything apart again I figured I'd try the recovery mode. And it worked!! So now I'm thinking: WTF? I thought it was suppossed to come w/ cromwell flashed on it in the bootable bank? Whatever, I got it working and flashed it w/ evox_1.3 for 1.6 4MB bin via HTTP -everything seemed to go fine. So I set the dip swtich back to normal (all off except for 4 - I like the leds)  and was able to load Evolution X from a DVD.

After I had evox up and going I did my normal thing FTPing all the usual stuff into the xbox. Then I decided to make one of the other banks boot up using M8plus1.6 because I can actually change the colors of the X logo that shows during start-up using EVtool. I wanted a red theme for this box.

So I configured the new bios (M8plus16), threw it onto one of the 256 banks and set that one as bootable using the bios tool in evox_1.3 (where you have to hold the start button during boot-up). Whoo-hoo success. It booted up like it should with my big ol red X.

Everything seemed great until I tried to turn the chip off. When I did that instead of disabling the chip it just loads up the old evox_1.3

Luckily the guys I'm doing this for only use KAI so Live isn't going to be an issue, but I'm doing another one in a couple of days and I really don't want the same thing to happen again because this next guy plays Live all the time.

Sorry it's such a long post. Any idea's on what I might have done wrong and how to avoid it next time will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[EvilSmurf]

Correction:

When I try to turn off the chip (DIP 1 set to ON) it still loads the red X bios (same as when DIP 1 is off).

When I try to go back to recovery mode (DIP 2 set to ON) it goes to evox_1.3 bios (where I can hold the start button down to get to a bios menu).

I thought I wasn't supposed to be able to overwrite the cromwell recovery bios? I thought DIP 2 was always supposed to bring that back up.

Also I've found that I can still run the original stock xbox bios from the bios menu of evox_1.3 but is the chip REALLY disabled? Or might a player still get banned that way? The red LEDs are still on on both parts of the chip. Thanks again.

[christineyoung]

Hi,

Where are you grabbing 5V from if pin #6 on LPC port would explain your symptoms. Or unplug power and reattach cord to allow chip to take changes into effect.

[EvilSmurf]

Hey Christine,
   I've got the +5V coming from the right leg of the transistor, just like it says to in the Master Install guide easybuy put out. And I've had the xbox unplugged multiple times moving it from room to room without any change.

Here's something else I've noticed: If I use the eject button to turn on the box then it loads up using the evox_1.3 bios. Whether DIP 1 is on or off. But using the power button always loads up M8plus1.6

However when DIP 2 is on it loads evox_1.3 regardless of which power-on method is used.

I know the X-chip can be set up to use different bioses depending on how you turn on the xbox. And that that can all be configured through either the X-Control program via USB or through the on-box Bios menu using whatever version you have of evox's x-chip bios. However I never set mine up like that. And when I look at the Bios banks using evox_1.3 there's no indication that it should act like that.

The way things stand now I have set-up (through the aforementioned on-box Bios Banks Menu) the original xbox bios to boot if you hold 'A' while evox_1.3 is loading and I think that will take care of my problems.

One last thing: Inside that on-box bios menu again the first 3 you can't change. Number 1 is the "Original XBOX BIOS" which is green. And then the next 2 are blue "X-BIOS V1.3" and "X-SETUP V1.3" the x-bios v1.3 gives you the option to boot that bios from the menu but the x-setup does not. I expected the x-bios v1.3 to load up the evox_1.3 bios when booted from the menu but it didn't, it loads up whatever I have currently set as the bootable bank. And yes I've tried changing it around a few times.

I'm just curious why my chip's DIP switches don't seem to do what they are supposed to. And now I have no way to get back to the "recovery" cromwell bios. I don't think I'll ever need it, but it does worry me that the chip isn't working like it's suppossed to.

Thanks again

[christineyoung]

I may know...shoot in dark.

Make sure both switches on Modchip are OFF since you are grabbing external power.

[EvilSmurf]

Yeah. They're off. Just double checked.

[christineyoung]

Just for verification, as per install guide you have no pin #6 on LPC port?  So 2 pisn misisng on pin header side by side.


I have tried numerous times to reproduce your exact methods as you describe, only way i have succeeded with bank not resetting is using SB5V.


Also on your LPC rebuild do you have nay wires crossing each other?  I have heard this cause strange issues.  Also are all wires as short as possible or do you have slack ( excess 1 + inches )


If you have a 1.5 or less just curious if you can slap it on a pin header and see if cromwell will boot in recovery mode.

[Grilf]

Sounds like a weird problem, never seen any behaviour similar to this!

I have one more idea(to supplement Christine)... a bit far fetched perhaps but still....

Suppose you have removed PIN6 in the pinheader(SB5V) as described in the install guides.

If you by accident removed PIN5 instead (from the opposite row), then the chip would be missing the LPC RESET signal, and i suppose behavior like this could occur???

Could also just be a bad connection on the RESET signal??

[EvilSmurf]

No, the two pins I took out were the right ones according to the pictures in the guide. I'm not sure on the numbering of them myself, but yes I compared them to the guide multiple times and also this is the 3rd or 4th one I've done.

As for wires crossing over each other, yes. The two wires furthest away from the screw crossed over one another (the ones nearer the alternate D0 LFRAME from the bottom of the MB), they were insulated so I didn't think EMI would affect them. I used 30 guage wire BTW. And it was all very clean soldering with very little excess wire.

I've got one more idea to try but unfortunately I already sent the box off to my friends across country.

My thoughts were this: If I remember right wasn't M8plus1.6 just for 1.6b xboxes? This box was just a 1.6 not 1.6b. Do you think I might have used the wrong bios? When my buddies get it in a day or two I'll have them try reflashing it if you guys think that might be the problem. Or maybe I'm just remembering wrong...

And I would have tried putting the lite onto a 1.4 or earlier box too, but all I have around at the moment are 1.6b's.

Thanks for all the advice from both of you and especially all the trouble you've (Christine) gone through trying to figure this out. I wouldn't let it bother you too much more at this point seeing as how the situation is something that can easily be accommodated.

I'm actually about to start installing my next X-Lite (not sure what ver. the xbox is yet, just barely picked it up...) and hopefully everything will go as expected this time.


Thanks again.

[EvilSmurf]

I meant the two wires closest to the screw hole were crossed. Sorry, one of those days.

[Cvelez]

I am having a similar problem,

I installed an xchip light on a 1.6 xbox, the xbox booted to the cromwell bios without setting the recovery switch (wierd). I was able to flash evox bios via http and can boot it fine but I cant disable it and boot to the original bios (with the dip switch or the eject button). I checked al the wiring and it looks ok.

Any sugestions?


Thanks

[EvilSmurf]

QUOTE(Cvelez @ Apr 8 2005, 12:12 AM)

I am having a similar problem,

I installed an xchip light on a 1.6 xbox, the xbox booted to the cromwell bios without setting the recovery switch (wierd). I was able to flash evox bios via http and can boot it fine but I cant disable it and boot to the original bios (with the dip switch or the eject button). I checked al the wiring and it looks ok.

Any sugestions?
Thanks

I've done three of these on 1.6's now and every single one has been different.

My suggestion to enable you to boot your original bios is to go back into the Cromwell recovery bios and set one of the buttons on your controller or the eject button to boot the orignal xbox bios.

[Cvelez]

I opened it up, moved the wires so they would not cross, and it fixed the problem. go figure!

Thanks for you help.