1.4 Xbox, XeniumOS 1.0, Flashing Red Light

[SirRedwood]

I'm bringing up my console collection to the modern ages... Or at least trying to keep them from wasting away in a pile of leaky capacitor fluid. 

I have a 1.4 OG that was modded with a Xenium Blue chip. Original HD, DVD, etc. Just modded to turn it into a media box back in the day. Prior to the restoration, I would get an initial green light, then flashing red light constantly. I've recapped the entire system, reflowed the LPC to the Xenium, and verified continuity. There was slight corrosion under the clock cap and a few of the CPU caps had bulged. 

Post-rehab, I can boot initially to the XeniumOS 1.0 menu. I have two old BIOS images available along with "Original BIOS", however when any of the options are selected the eject button LED goes from solid green immediately to a flashing red light. Two spin-ups of what I believe is the DVD drive, no video, no audio. Flashing red continues until a single press of the power button shuts down the system. Eject button works during this time. Component A/V cables will not work display the XeniumOS menu, but RCA cables will.

I've seen another post on reddit discuss an EEPROM failure as the potential cause, and I'm starting to think that's most likely it. In the EEPROM tools section, the Game Region is "INVALID!" and cannot be flashed to another region. 

Before I go down the rabbit hole of procuring another EEROM, flashing, and reinstallation I wanted to see if anyone here had any other thoughts on the issue. I appreciate any insight you folks may have. Thanks!

[Bowlsnapper]

3 minutes ago, SirRedwood said:

I'm bringing up my console collection to the modern ages... Or at least trying to keep them from wasting away in a pile of leaky capacitor fluid. 

I have a 1.4 OG that was modded with a Xenium Blue chip. Original HD, DVD, etc. Just modded to turn it into a media box back in the day. Prior to the restoration, I would get an initial green light, then flashing red light constantly. I've recapped the entire system, reflowed the LPC to the Xenium, and verified continuity. There was slight corrosion under the clock cap and a few of the CPU caps had bulged. 

Post-rehab, I can boot initially to the XeniumOS 1.0 menu. I have two old BIOS images available along with "Original BIOS", however when any of the options are selected the eject button LED goes from solid green immediately to a flashing red light. Two spin-ups of what I believe is the DVD drive, no video, no audio. Flashing red continues until a single press of the power button shuts down the system. Eject button works during this time. Component A/V cables will not work display the XeniumOS menu, but RCA cables will.

I've seen another post on reddit discuss an EEPROM failure as the potential cause, and I'm starting to think that's most likely it. In the EEPROM tools section, the Game Region is "INVALID!" and cannot be flashed to another region. 

Before I go down the rabbit hole of procuring another EEROM, flashing, and reinstallation I wanted to see if anyone here had any other thoughts on the issue. I appreciate any insight you folks may have. Thanks!

Green and red? It's fragging when attempting to boot the bios stored on the chip... Have you tried flashing another bios? Maybe Cerbios? Sounds like an IDE drive, so UDMA 2?

[SirRedwood]

I'll give it a shot. The list of BIOS slots filled are the Original Bios, Xecuter2 4981, and EvoX M7 ef. All immediately turn to flashing red when selected. I think you're correct, however, it's flashing red as soon as a BIOS attempts to load.

[SirRedwood]

The boot sequence for XeniumOS (see photo) also seems to indicate failure to unlock the HDD and a failure to read the HDD (seems like a HDD failure?). 

Forgive my lack of familiarity with the software side of this; is the HDD required to boot? I tried removing the IDE cable with the same result. Still seems to earlier in the process than the HDD.

[Bowlsnapper]

1 hour ago, SirRedwood said:

The boot sequence for XeniumOS (see photo) also seems to indicate failure to unlock the HDD and a failure to read the HDD (seems like a HDD failure?). 

Forgive my lack of familiarity with the software side of this; is the HDD required to boot? I tried removing the IDE cable with the same result. Still seems to earlier in the process than the HDD.

That's not good. It shouldn't have trouble with an aftermarket drive. It should have the code for it in the EEPROM.

[SirRedwood]

It's the original drive, unfortunately.

I need to figure out the ways to read/flash the EEPROM and see if there's an issue programming it. Maybe reflow the chip?

I assume I'll need to swap out the HDD anyway... Might as well get started on that too.

[Marty]

Your modchip seems to not be recognized...

Perhaps you have some bad solder joints?

[KaosEngineer]

20 hours ago, SirRedwood said:

I'm bringing up my console collection to the modern ages... Or at least trying to keep them from wasting away in a pile of leaky capacitor fluid. 

I have a 1.4 OG that was modded with a Xenium Blue chip. Original HD, DVD, etc. Just modded to turn it into a media box back in the day. Prior to the restoration, I would get an initial green light, then flashing red light constantly. I've recapped the entire system, reflowed the LPC to the Xenium, and verified continuity. There was slight corrosion under the clock cap and a few of the CPU caps had bulged. 

Post-rehab, I can boot initially to the XeniumOS 1.0 menu. I have two old BIOS images available along with "Original BIOS", however when any of the options are selected the eject button LED goes from solid green immediately to a flashing red light. Two spin-ups of what I believe is the DVD drive, no video, no audio. Flashing red continues until a single press of the power button shuts down the system. Eject button works during this time. Component A/V cables will not work display the XeniumOS menu, but RCA cables will.

I've seen another post on reddit discuss an EEPROM failure as the potential cause, and I'm starting to think that's most likely it. In the EEPROM tools section, the Game Region is "INVALID!" and cannot be flashed to another region. 

Before I go down the rabbit hole of procuring another EEROM, flashing, and reinstallation I wanted to see if anyone here had any other thoughts on the issue. I appreciate any insight you folks may have. Thanks!

From your Xbox's symptoms, it sounds like the configuration EEPROM contents are corrupt or the chip itself has died.

Xenium OS can boot with a corrupt EEPROM; however, stock and most modified Xbox BIOSes will NOT. Result - a flashing RED eject ring.

Does the Xenium OS have a backup of the EEPROM saved that you can Restore?

See Xenium OS 2.0 User Manual page 11.

 

Which version of the Xenium OS is installed on the modchip?

 

[KaosEngineer]

3 hours ago, Marty said:

Your modchip seems to not be recognized...

Perhaps you have some bad solder joints?

The modchip is working.  Otherwise, the Xenium OS background and other information displayed would not be displayed on the screenshot posted.

However, the HDKey stored in the configuration EEPROM along with the hard drive's model and serial number used to cryptographically compute the unlocking password displayed did not unlock the hard drive.

 

Edit: With a modchip, the hard drive does not have to be locked; however even with a modchip, if it is locked, it still has to first be unlocked before content stored on it can be accessed.

[SirRedwood]

12 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

From your Xbox's symptoms, it sounds like the configuration EEPROM contents are corrupt or the chip itself has died.

Xenium OS can boot with a corrupt EEPROM; however, stock and most modified Xbox BIOSes will NOT. Result - a flashing RED eject ring.

Does the Xenium OS have a backup of the EEPROM saved that you can Restore?

See Xenium OS 2.0 User Manual page 11.

 

Which version of the Xenium OS is installed on the modchip?

 

(Sorry, ran out of posts yesterday)

It's running XeniumOS 1.0. If there's a backup of the EEPROM, it was lost to time during the install back in 2004. You say "most modified Xbox BIOSes will NOT" boot with a corrupt EEPROM; is there one I can try that would?

From what you're saying and what I've gathered elsewhere, it appears that I need to rebuild my EEPROM. However, without the backup image I'm going to lose the cryptographic key that's tied to the HDD, so all the data there will be lost. The EEPROM is communicating; it doesn't appear to be a bad connection to the board.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are these my options?

1. Try and salvage the EEPROM image... It appears that there's only one bit that's corrupt (the console region), so maybe it's doable? Is there a guide somewhere of how to pull an image off the EEPROM without booting into the BIOS & using FTP?
2. Use another EEPROM image and flash a new chip (or use the old, initially), transplant it into this box, and give it a new HDD (which was the goal anyway). 

Appreciate the help! I've attached a photo of the board for everyone to make fun of my 20 year old D0 connection and ugly solder joints.

[Bowlsnapper]

On 8/18/2023 at 8:48 AM, SirRedwood said:

(Sorry, ran out of posts yesterday)

It's running XeniumOS 1.0. If there's a backup of the EEPROM, it was lost to time during the install back in 2004. You say "most modified Xbox BIOSes will NOT" boot with a corrupt EEPROM; is there one I can try that would?

From what you're saying and what I've gathered elsewhere, it appears that I need to rebuild my EEPROM. However, without the backup image I'm going to lose the cryptographic key that's tied to the HDD, so all the data there will be lost. The EEPROM is communicating; it doesn't appear to be a bad connection to the board.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are these my options?

1. Try and salvage the EEPROM image... It appears that there's only one bit that's corrupt (the console region), so maybe it's doable? Is there a guide somewhere of how to pull an image off the EEPROM without booting into the BIOS & using FTP?
2. Use another EEPROM image and flash a new chip (or use the old, initially), transplant it into this box, and give it a new HDD (which was the goal anyway). 

Appreciate the help! I've attached a photo of the board for everyone to make fun of my 20 year old D0 connection and ugly solder joints.

Ha.