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[Chancer]

Make sure you have a bios on it that is compatible with the 1.6. The chip may be an XT clone but either way the standard install works. so double and treble check your install points also what does the box do when you boot with the chip off?

Also the bit in my signature that says  I cannot reply to people who e-mail me through the forums but do not supply their e-mail address refers to you as as well. If you click e-mail on this forum I have no way of knowing your e-mail address and hitting the reply button would e-mail xbox Scene.

[wup]

Im thinking maybe a bios issue, since the blue LED is on. The aladdin lives that had problems on 1.6's I believe caused the system to FRAG when the chip was disabled.

Wup

[ak_47]

The light now flashes orange and red.  Any idea what's causing that?

[Chancer]

Does the box boot ok with the chip disabled?
can you put up any install pics to show the installation?

[Chancer]

If you have tried 3 chips then its not the chips at all. the clue here is the box will not boot disabled. the only SAL chips that had a problem booting disabled were the early versions and these did not have the X point on. So if the box won't boot with the chip switched off then you have done some damage to the LPC or rebuild points during soldering.
The chip you have is a clone by the sound of it but this will not mean its a bad chip and certainly not 3 bad chips all in one bunch.
what worries me slightly is can you confirm the exact bios you have tried?. Can you confirm that you have used the 1.6 versions of the M8 bios because the non 1.6 M8 versions will not work in a 1.6.
The only required connections to make tis chip work are BT from chip to Right side of R3G6 LFrame on Xbox to D0 on chip. TheLlPC points and obviously the rebuild of the LPC.
I am still leaning towards your installation though seen as the box will not work without the chip on now (presumably it did before) The only other chip with a quirk is the Super Aladdin (Not SAL) which needs the L2 point grounding for the chip to work.

[Chancer]

You need to unplug the chip and try the box booting the normal  M$ bios. If it does not boot and work then the damage you are looking for is a solder short somewhere or a small nick in one of the traces (this can be hard to spot and a very good illuminated magnifier will help)
If the box works ok then the problem may be related to the bios files you have tried and in particular the source for these. I would obtain a copy of M8+.16 from Xbins and flash that to one of the chips to try it.

[Chancer]

QUOTE

Super Aladdin Live! Pin header are Not Compatible with 1.6 series xbox.

Where did you get that from. the pinheader already on them works  fine providing its not faulty. I have fitted loads of these. Also if they work in a 1.0 to 1.5 could you explain why they are not compatible with a 1.6.

I have had the odd XT with problems with the onboard socket but thats it and its not all of them.

[Chancer]

I knew that there were sporadic problems to do with the actual contacts in the pin header on some aladdins but have not come across it on such a wide scale.
The couple of dodgy ones I had would boot if pressue sideways was applied to the header socket so I just stuck a female socket in the quicksolder slot.
the bit i can't understand is why they would work in a non 1.6 as they are doing the same job in all the versions. It would be interesting to hear anyones thoughts on this or if they have come across it before.

[s_cube]

Just for completeness,
    I have never used any of the BT, L2 connections for any of my alladin super lives (even on the v1.6 boards) except for to see it functioning.  I first started out with AppleX chips and didn't like the way they handled 'enable/disable', so i put my own radio shack switch in which connected D0 to GND...that's IT!   I liked this simple approach (as did my customers) and it stuck.    Then, on the v1.6 boards, w/ these alladins I also had to switch the LAD0 connection from the LPC port.    If my LFRAME/D0 was grounded (I used a resistor to avoid the life-expectancy scare) and the LAD0 was connected, the chip would boot.   if LAD0 was disconnected and LFRAME was not grounded then the MS bios would boot (chip disabled).    I've never had to attatch BT or L1 or whatever to these chips to get them to work.   As a debug test, on a v1.6 board you could try tying LFRAME to GND (chip always enabled) for the different chips you are trying (as opposed to soldering L1, BT, etc to each chip).  Of course, if this frags then you have a problem booting from the LPC port....either a BIOS problem, or a solder problem.    It is a good idea to confirm you can boot to MS bios first to rule out potential problems.

   However, from the sound of it you seem to have a bios problem.   I  had problems until I used the M8_16_plus bios version. (that's the "+" version 16).   If you have modded a v1.6 before then you know well about the LPC rebuild, else that could be a source of problems.  

s_cube

[ak_47]

Alright, I tracked down the M8Plus_16 bios, flashed the chip with the programmer (appeared to flash just fine), then I put it back in and the same thing happened.  Black screen, flashes on and off three times, then flashes red and green.  

So is it safe to say there's a problem with my install?  I've checked all the points and there doesn't seem to be any problems.  

[s_cube]

ak,
 I'm assuming that you have done you lpc rebuild correctly.   It's not that hard, but we should be clear that everyone is on the same page.
   Next, its been suggested that the female socket that comes soldered onto the chip is potentially faulty (this is news to me, but I did have a few that the LED would go intermittent, but this had no effect on my v1.3 box), so you could grab a female socket and solder one onto the vacant end of your aladdin chip (oppositte of the flashrom chip, duh) and try that.
  Third, you said you flashed your chip.   To super-verify the write, you could read the bios back off the chip and load it into Evtool to make sure there is no corruption (this should have been verified after the initial flash though).  
  Fourth, there are pics of the LPC and which voltage values each LPC point should have. you could bust out your trusty multimeter and test for values.  some LPC voltage values are not DC though, so your simple multimeter won't give a true reading, but it's still good for debugging your LPC port pinheader.
  Fifth, there are cheapmod pics about that show which LPC point is attatched to which pin on the 020 socket.  these are good for testing continutiy between the header socket (either the one you soldered on or the one that came on the board) and where they meet up with the flashrom socket (this may be a bit advanced, I know I confused myself trying to read/write it).

  If it were me, and I was confident that my programmer flashed my aladdin successfully, I would tie LFRAME to a screw or something (ground it out) which would tell the xbox to read from the LPC port.  with your modchip removed the xbox should frag (flash red and green) if turned on now.  turn box off. Then, putting the chip onto the pinheader and turning the box back on should boot your aladdin.   I can say for all the super aladdin live (SAL) chips I have done,  it is not necessary to mount D0 or BT to the chip to enable it.  after you get the chip working you can worry about doing radical options like cut the LFRAME trace and such...

scube

[ak_47]

Finally, I'm getting somewhere.   I re-soldered all the points and tried a different chip that wasn't flashed.  It came up with the Evox logo in the corner.  

Now how do I load the dashboard?  

Or should I still flash the chip with the M8plus_16 bios before doing anything else?

[Chancer]

QUOTE

tried a different chip that wasn't flashed. It came up with the Evox logo

You mean tried a different chip which was preflashed. If it wasn't flashed it would frag. Do not flash this chip as its obvious whatever file you are flashing to this chip is not correct so if you flash this to the pre-flashed chip you may be back to square one. stick evoxdash on then worry about re-flashing the other chip correctly.