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Information About Mod Chip Muppet-X


Zpidelius
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Hello everyone.

Quite new to this site, I was more active a couple of years ago when it came to the OG Xbox, but since, much else in life has taken it's time,, and I got stucj in the RGH business some years,, and I notice how quickly the memory fades.

So now, when time has come back to dust off the old consoles that's been standing in the closet for some years now, many of the sites has been gone with the wind,, but, then I found this one ::) and I'm glad to see that the OG Xbox community still flourishes,, with a lot of new updates and upgrades since I last installed XBMC from a AID 4. disc.

So,, I thought I would see if there's any bright minded folks that know something about a chip I discovered in a recently purchased 1.6.

I searched about it but all I come across is dead links.

The chip is a Muppet-X,, neither Kermit or Animal, but a white one with a 4 pin connector where only D0 is used, no BT etc,, those I removed, just want always on mode.

But, I can't find any information about flash bank sizes, or the switch, so I have not been able to update the bios on this rare thing.

So is there anyone with information about this thing I would be grateful.

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I haven't seen one in many years, and I never personally dealt with one.  I'll see if I can dig up some of my old info and see if I can help you out.  If I remember right it had a 256k bios size but I could be wrong.  I'm sure someone else here has more knowledge about that particular chip though,

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There's a small writeup about the MuppetX modchip at xbox-hq.com:

https://www.xbox-hq.com/html/article1692.html

Wayback Machine captures of various installation picture pages from xbox-scene.com:

v1.0-1.1

v1.2-1.5

v1.6/1.6b

It has a 1MB flash chip on it - SST49LF080A but I don't see where you select the bank to boot from if it actually supports more than 1 bank.

Update: I see now the switch on it is the bank select switch, not to enable/disable the modchip, but to select one of the two 512KB banks.  From what I've read, flashing the chip with Evoxdash use a 1MB dot bin file with the BIOSes combined into one file with the bank select switch set to bank 1.

copy /b 512KBBIOS1.bin+512KBBIOS2.bin my1MBbios.bin

If the BIOS 1 and 2 are actually only 256KB then create the two 512KB BIOS1 and BIOS2 files:

copy /b 256KBBIOS1.bin+256KBBIOS1.bin 512KBBIOS1.bin

copy /b 256KBBIOS2.bin+256KBBIOS2.bin 512KBBIOS2.bin

Or much easier using the Xecuter2 BIOS Manager (X2BM) and load the first 2 banks with the same 256KBBIOS1.bin file and the last 2 with the second 256KBBIOS2.bin file.  Select all 4 banks and save the new 1MB dot bin file.

Edited by KaosEngineer
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Thanks a mill :)

Never heard about the Wayback machine thingy, I have just found a picture of it but with no working links about any install or wiring.

Now, the flashing thing there i am not 100 about what you meant,

I mostly used HeXen, Evox from HDD or such to flash with,, I have an Akira 2 in the first Xbox I bought years ago, so I seem to be lucky when it comes to get odd chips in my consoles :)

But when it comes to flashing 1MB chip, which seems to be split,, would it not be possible to flash an 512kb file when the switch is in either position?

Now it boots up, but if I flip the switch it frag's, so either there is nothing on that bank or an 1.0-1.5 bios.

The TSOP I did some days ago on a 1.1 console,, to move my 2TB HDD over from the 1.6 with the Muppet-x was just to pick a 512kb Bios through Evox and flash it,, and it seems to duplicate it and flash it correctly.

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4 hours ago, Zpidelius said:

But when it comes to flashing 1MB chip, which seems to be split,, would it not be possible to flash an 512kb file when the switch is in either position?

I'm not sure if it will work on the Muppet-X.  From what I recall when I selected a bank on my X2Pro and flashed with Evoxdash, only that bank would be flashed.

The X2Pro has 1MB of flash with bank selection of either 4 - 256KB banks, 2 - 512KB banks or the entire 1MB. Evoxdash would resize the BIOS to fit the space of the bank selected - meaning duplicate it enough to fit the entire selected bank size.

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So the safest way would be to make a 512kb x2 bios and the flash it with the switch to bank 1, or just to take an 1MB bios and flash onto there?

But maybe better to make an 512kb x2 bios, in case there are some corruption in one of the bios someday,, I came across some information when people have had corruption in their bios and have needed a reflash to get them to work again..

I have no knowledge what is going on in those small chips electronical speaking,, but I can imagine it is better to have two bioses, like a dualboot on the pc, incase one OS crashes, it's easy to boot with the otherone to rescue the files.

I have some other chips knocking about, so I flash one of those with an 1.6 bios first as a backup chip incase I need a hotswap chip,,and then try to flash away on the Muppet-X now that I know the banksize and switch function,, and then come with an update with the results here,,if there is somebody else that come across a Muppet-X chip and need information.about how to flash it :)

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  • 2 months later...

I know it's a bit late but I just came across one of these on eBay and bought it! I've really wanted a modboard that supports 1MB flash as opposed to only 256KB.

DO NOT try unplugging your modboard from the Xbox LPC socket (be it Muppet-X, Xecuter or Aladdin) whilst the Xbox is switched on. This can fry the modboard. I lost several Aladdin boards and my only Xecuter board to this mistake during a desperate night. I know it's tempting but it's far less risky programming these externally than trying to swap them around with the Xbox on!

Instead, you should notice that the flashROM chip can easily be removed from it's socket (this applies to the Aladdin board and the Muppet-X). If you're really having trouble flashing directly from your Xbox I would recommend a USB Minipro TL866II along with a PLCC32 adapter to connect the flashROM chip. Install the MiniPro software on your computer. Look at the markings on the the flashROM chip and ensure you select this, and then select a BIOS file to flash. To do this go to File>open or click the icon of a folder opening. The icon of a chip with a letter P on it is the button to start flashing.

Sometimes you might have to wiggle the flashROM chip to put it at an angle in the socket, because the legs don't always align if the socket is worn. The Minipro will abort the process to avoid electrical damage if the chip is not correctly connected and tell you as such. The erase process before 'programming' should take less than a second, followed by a single rise of the progress bar during the slow write. A quick verification pass should occur followed by success. Sometimes you might have to untick "check ID", in my experience I almost always have to do this for some reason, but the flash verifies OK and works in the Xbox afterward fine anyway. If it hangs on erasing with a progress bar slowly moving back and forth, unplug the adapter to abort and try again.

Then put the flashROM chip back in your modboard, put that back in your Xbox. Test by switching on and away you go.

Edited by samspin
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