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Xecuter 2.6CE on a 1.4, having issues flashing it ! Help please


Lensman2k
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Hi, I have a 1.4 with an Xecuter 2.6CE fitted, I have just fitted a 2TB drive with 80 pin cable, but it can't see the extended partitions, so i need to flash the chip so that it will accept larger drives.

I have Cerbios 2.3.2 Alpha on DVD and have booted from that, but when trying to flash with Xblast or EvoX I get an error. The latest is an "unzip FAILED "c:\BIOS\BIOS.BIN". Error Code 5"

I have tried to flash it with my old 16ogb drive fitted (40 pin cable), still get the error. I have ensured that protect on the chip is set to off and I have tried both banks. I am going to burn the DVD again, just incase it is a burn error.

Any suggestions on what the issue is likely to be ?

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Hi,

Just wondering how big is the bios.bin file you are trying to flash?

The X2 2.6CE supports either a 1x1024K or 2x512K banks. Either way, you should be creating a file of 1024K in size and flashing that.

Since Cerbios is 256K, you could create your bios.bin file as 4 consecutive copies of Cerbios, or say 2 copies of Cerbios v2.3.2 followed by 2 copies of another bios (say Cerbios v2.3.1 or EvoX M8+). So, If you use a 256K bios 4 times, then copy 1 is bank one, copy 2 is just padding, copy 3 is bank 2 and copy 4 is just padding. I hope that makes sense?

 

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I have a X2 2.6CE it has two 512kb banks.  The chip enable should be on then start the xbox original and then flash the bios.  The chip led is red when off green when on.  The xblast os.xbe version 0.56 is then run from the C drive.  It is best if you flash from the hdd so that is where you put the bios.bin in a folder called BIOS that is on the C drive as well.  Xblast os and evox should resize automatically to a 512kb from a 256kb but confirm with somebody else before proceeding.  You can copy the .bin file using file explorer from the D drive to the C drive folder you created called BIOS.

Edited by Aero_105
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3 hours ago, Aero_105 said:

I have a X2 2.6CE it has two 512kb banks.  The chip enable should be on then start the xbox original and then flash the bios.  The chip led is red when off green when on.  The xblast os.xbe version 0.56 is then run from the C drive.  It is best if you flash from the hdd so that is where you put the bios.bin in a folder called BIOS that is on the C drive as well.  Xblast os and evox should resize automatically to a 512kb from a 256kb but confirm with somebody else before proceeding.  You can copy the .bin file using file explorer from the D drive to the C drive folder you created called BIOS.

Confirmed. XBlast will resize appropriately depending on the bank size that it sees and that you are trying to flash to.

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Thank you all, it was an interesting read. I was trying to flash directly from the DVD, but the errors only seemed to happen when it tried to extract to the C drive, after several attempts I ignored the error and it let me continue and it flashed the chip anyway with a 512kb on Evox. So I am none the wiser why it wouldn't extract from the DVD to the C drive, but it is done now and is working perfectly.
It's the first time I have touched it since I modded it back in 2004, so the brain is a bit rusty...lol, just need to look at re-capping it next (-:7

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You must create a 1MB-sized (2 x 512KB ) resized BIOS dot bin file to flash an X2.6CE modchip.  When flashing the modchip, it writes to the entire 1MB flash not just the single bank selected on the bank selection switch.  

The X2.6CE has 2 512KB banks so you have to resize a 256KB sized BIOS, like the majority of original and modified BIOSes are, to 512KBs then contatenate two of these BIOSes into one 1MB sized file.

I had / well have an X2 pro modchip that allowed you to flash a single bank based on the switch selection but the lite modchips don't work the same way. :(  The entire flash is overwritten.  

P.S.  I've not used a X2.x Lite modchip to verify what I have said.  I've only used an X2 pro which allowed 256KB, 512KB or a 1MB do bin file to be flashed to the modchip.  256KB and 512KB dot bin files allowed selection of a specific bank to be flashed.

 

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1 hour ago, KaosEngineer said:

You must create a 1MB-sized (2 x 512KB ) resized BIOS dot bin file to flash an X2.6CE modchip.  When flashing the modchip, it writes to the entire 1MB flash not just the single bank selected on the bank selection switch.  

The X2.6CE has 2 512KB banks so you have to resize a 256KB sized BIOS, like the majority of original and modified BIOSes are, to 512KBs then contatenate two of these BIOSes into one 1MB sized file.

I had / well have an X2 pro modchip that allowed you to flash a single bank based on the switch selection but the lite modchips don't work the same way. :(  The entire flash is overwritten.  

P.S.  I've not used a X2.x Lite modchip to verify what I have said.  I've only used an X2 pro which allowed 256KB, 512KB or a 1MB do bin file to be flashed to the modchip.  256KB and 512KB dot bin files allowed selection of a specific bank to be flashed.

 

Does XBlast not know how to automatically size the file being flashed for this chip? I'm honestly very confused by this setup. Why does the lite have to have a 1MB bios file (2X512) if it has two separate banks? I have a headache. 😛 Your first two paragraphs mention the same chip. Did you mean two different ones instead?

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2 hours ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Does XBlast not know how to automatically size the file being flashed for this chip?

XBlast resizing a BIOS will write 4 copies of one BIOS to the 1MB flash of the X2.6CE modchip.  You will have the same BIOS on both banks.

2 hours ago, Bowlsnapper said:

I'm honestly very confused by this setup. Why does the lite have to have a 1MB bios file (2X512) if it has two separate banks? I have a headache. 😛 Your first two paragraphs mention the same chip. Did you mean two different ones instead?

That's just the stupid way the X2.x lite modchips work. Edit: The BIOS you flash fills the entire 1MB flash memory chip on the modchip, not a specific bank.

On my X2 pro modchip, you selected the bank you wanted to flash (one of the 4 256KB banks or one of the 2 512KB banks or the entire 1MB bank of the modchip) and flashed it with the correct size dot bin file.  Edit: Actually with Evox it didn't have to be the correct size if the selected bank was 512KB and you were flashing a 256KB BIOS it wrote it two times to fill the entire 512KB bank.

If you create a 1MB file with 4 separate BIOS concatenated together you can select each one separately using the bank select switches for the 4 256KB banks.

 

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1 hour ago, KaosEngineer said:

XBlast resizing a BIOS will write 4 copies of one BIOS to the 1MB flash of the X2.6CE modchip.  You will have the same BIOS on both banks.

That's just the stupid way the X2.x lite modchips work. Edit: The BIOS you flash fills the entire 1MB flash memory chip on the modchip, not a specific bank.

On my X2 pro modchip, you selected the bank you wanted to flash (one of the 4 256KB banks or one of the 2 512KB banks or the entire 1MB bank of the modchip) and flashed it with the correct size dot bin file.  Edit: Actually with Evox it didn't have to be the correct size if the selected bank was 512KB and you were flashing a 256KB BIOS it wrote it two times to fill the entire 512KB bank.

If you create a 1MB file with 4 separate BIOS concatenated together you can select each one separately using the bank select switches for the 4 256KB banks.

 

Okay. I have an X2Pro in one of my future project boxes with the parallel port in back and I'll experiment with this. I don't even know what PC software to flash it with. I also didn't know that Evox was able to resize bios files like that... although it seems to be a narrow usage. I need to read the manual and see how banks are assigned and selected. Definitely reminds me of how the X3 flash banking is arranged. Not with set bank sizes necessarily but with certain areas of the flash selectable as long as you understood which parts of the flash you were actually writing the data to.

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48 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Okay. I have an X2Pro in one of my future project boxes with the parallel port in back and I'll experiment with this. I don't even know what PC software to flash it with.

Xeucter2 BIOS Manager (X2BM 2.3 is the last release.)

You need a short ( less than 3 foot long I believe was mentioned somewhere; however, I believe I used a shielded cable that was longer) 25-pin straight through DB-25 printer cable, not a serial cable.

 

 

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