FRAG 50/50, no video, Caps and PSU good

[arfows]

Hey all!

  I have a 1.0 that spools up to boot for about 2 seconds and then shuts down.  Does that twice and then I can get it to stay powered with a FRAG 50/50 but never has any detectable video output.  Not hard modded.  I pulled the five Caps by the CPU and they all checked within limits.  Clock cap is removed and there is not trace rot.  Power supply works normal with other 1.0 boards.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

[FrostyMaGee]

Hmm. Have you double checked for any shorting or solder splashes that might be causing that?

 

My other thought is “coma console”. If it turns out to be that there was a trick for the 1.0 that could wake it up so to speak but it required some soldering. It basically forces the Xbox to use one of the other banks. Here’s an archived link for it should you need it later. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20060109124019/http://www.llamma.com:80/xbox/Repairs/ComaConsole.htm

[Bowlsnapper]

2 hours ago, arfows said:

Hey all!

  I have a 1.0 that spools up to boot for about 2 seconds and then shuts down.  Does that twice and then I can get it to stay powered with a FRAG 50/50 but never has any detectable video output.  Not hard modded.  I pulled the five Caps by the CPU and they all checked within limits.  Clock cap is removed and there is not trace rot.  Power supply works normal with other 1.0 boards.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

That's a general FRAG. It's hard to say that it could be any one thing. It could be MANY things. Some undiagnosable or able to track down. In the cases I've seen a Coma console stays powered without cycling and just sits at a green light with no video. Did you do anything to it before it happened, or was it just a random occurance?

[arfows]

There's no mod chip and it does the power cycle thing.  If nobody else can come up with anything I'll try the coma thing.

seems like maybe its something with the power receptacle on the mobo, whatever its called that gives the signal to stay powered on or whatever component on the board relays that message maybe?

Still doesn't explain the lack of video though.

[FrostyMaGee]

3 minutes ago, arfows said:

There's no mod chip and it does the power cycle thing.  If nobody else can come up with anything I'll try the coma thing.

seems like maybe its something with the power receptacle on the mobo, whatever its called that gives the signal to stay powered on or whatever component on the board relays that message maybe?

Still doesn't explain the lack of video though.

That’s why I was thinking coma console in this case. As Bowl mentions it could be a lot of things. Reading your post though it reminded me of a 1.0 I had that did the same.  I was able to remedy it with that by forcing the Xbox to use other banks. Wanted to mention it as a possible fix. 

[Bowlsnapper]

3 hours ago, arfows said:

There's no mod chip and it does the power cycle thing.  If nobody else can come up with anything I'll try the coma thing.

seems like maybe its something with the power receptacle on the mobo, whatever its called that gives the signal to stay powered on or whatever component on the board relays that message maybe?

Still doesn't explain the lack of video though.

It is normal for there to be no video when FRAGging. A FRAG is a fatal error. I have never once had video when FRAGging. It definitely DOES explain the lack of video. If you were coma, you would have no power cycling at initial startup and the console would power on like normal with a solid green eject ring. However, you would have zero activity or video. Based on what your OP says, you are technically not experiencing coma behavior. However, there is still a chance that your TSOP is bad, just way worse than Coma status. Try chipping and booting from the LPC. Only suggestion I have right now.

[arfows]

I was just inspecting the board prepping for trying the coma fix.  Saw this - was wondering if it looked damaged, I haven’t modded it but maybe the person who had it before me possibly tried?  Or does it look normal?

[Bowlsnapper]

2 minutes ago, arfows said:

I was just inspecting the board prepping for trying the coma fix.  Saw this - was wondering if it looked damaged, I haven’t modded it but maybe the person who had it before me possibly tried?  Or does it look normal?

No damage. 1.0 boards have the LPC vias filled in when stock. They either need to be evacuated with a desoldering gun, or drained with desoldering braid and a shitload of flux... any other means would require forcing the pins through when melting the solder, and I don't recommend that.

However, to your original point, no, this is absolutely normal.  Don't stress.

[arfows]

Thanks.  They didn't look smoothly filled in like the other boards I had so I was wondering.

Went back and double checked the power situation and both PSUs looked good:

Color wire           Expected V            Actual V PSU1/PSU2

Yellow                       12                                11.64/11.76

Red (all 3)                 5                                    5.0/5.05

Orange                     3.3                                 3.25/3.3

Brown             3.3 Stby/3.3 Pwr             PSU1 3.24/3.17    PSU2 3.3/3.3

White                       3.3                        when power button pressed 3.2/pwr 3.29

Blue                         3.3                                   3.24/3.29

I know you the voltage diagram says not to rely on white/blue voltages but I put them on here for reference

Both PSUs power other boards without issue, my only idea would be if for whatever reason the board is super finicky about 12V and couldn't tolerate it being slightly under voltage (unless that is in the acceptable design range)...but then again, it FRAGS and stays running...sorry just thinking and typing real time here.

[arfows]

Tried the coma console fix and it had zero effect so this became a donor board.  Hope I have better luck with the next one

[FrostyMaGee]

1 hour ago, arfows said:

Tried the coma console fix and it had zero effect so this became a donor board.  Hope I have better luck with the next one

Well that sucks. Sorry it didn’t work dude.   I wish we could figure out what’s up with some of these that have this issue. They seem to be becoming more prevalent. 

[arfows]

In the end, did better overall than I thought I would, including one where I did a powertrace bypass solely on the front of the board from R3G4 to the PIC since the TP on the back was lifted and trying to solder to vias is harder for me.  Besides the one we were working on above, I bricked/FRAG'd a perfectly good board.  A 1.1 that I went through the whole cerbios TSOP process and then when I clicked both triggers, start and white button it just went back to BIOS select screen, meaning one of the tsop points wasnt soldered properly  Since shadow C had been deleted I had to delete all save / softmod files and reinstall.  Did that and then resoftmodded and tried the Cerbios disc TSOP again since it was all hooked up, and hey why not.  of course it still didn't work.  The tsop solder joint job on the front looked great but the one near R7R3 wasn't quite connected I suppose so I tried to fix it and made it worse, ended up lifting the pad and even part of the trace.  You can see the result here...and subsequent boot attempt resulted in a FRAG.  I don't know if that damage would cause a FRAG, or if it was due to BIOS getting corrupted somehow so tried the Coma fix but it was unsuccessful...sorry to have that one not work out, especially since it didn't have any corrosion   However, not counting the one discusses above that wasn't fixable, the total for the effort was 5 of 6 back to full operational status:  5 successful TSOPs, 4 trace repairs, several Cap replacements, and despite the pad lift, think I've improved my soldering skills a bunch, especially considering doing it without the proper equipment or setup.  Now onto loading dashboards and upgrading hard drives...

[Bowlsnapper]

17 hours ago, arfows said:

In the end, did better overall than I thought I would, including one where I did a powertrace bypass solely on the front of the board from R3G4 to the PIC since the TP on the back was lifted and trying to solder to vias is harder for me.  Besides the one we were working on above, I bricked/FRAG'd a perfectly good board.  A 1.1 that I went through the whole cerbios TSOP process and then when I clicked both triggers, start and white button it just went back to BIOS select screen, meaning one of the tsop points wasnt soldered properly  Since shadow C had been deleted I had to delete all save / softmod files and reinstall.  Did that and then resoftmodded and tried the Cerbios disc TSOP again since it was all hooked up, and hey why not.  of course it still didn't work.  The tsop solder joint job on the front looked great but the one near R7R3 wasn't quite connected I suppose so I tried to fix it and made it worse, ended up lifting the pad and even part of the trace.  You can see the result here...and subsequent boot attempt resulted in a FRAG.  I don't know if that damage would cause a FRAG, or if it was due to BIOS getting corrupted somehow so tried the Coma fix but it was unsuccessful...sorry to have that one not work out, especially since it didn't have any corrosion   However, not counting the one discusses above that wasn't fixable, the total for the effort was 5 of 6 back to full operational status:  5 successful TSOPs, 4 trace repairs, several Cap replacements, and despite the pad lift, think I've improved my soldering skills a bunch, especially considering doing it without the proper equipment or setup.  Now onto loading dashboards and upgrading hard drives...

I'm glad you're improving your skills! 
When it comes to TSOP flashing, I've had VERY mixed success with soldering the points and flashing. It seems to work about half the time for whatever reason. I started using the trace pen for that and it works EVERY TIME. I now use it to flash TSOPs.