Cerbios flash problems here! Bricked. Any advice from the great sages?

[neakmenter]

Sooo..... chinese IDE 80 way cable to sata adapter (Master jumper available and enabled)... "aladdin advance" modchip with SST chip. 2TB drive yada yada... been working fine for years. with Evox

Wanted Cerbios because... y'know - new toysnstuff....

Flashed the default 2.3.1 Beta - All working well - lovely stuff. Then... I thought I'd try the one with UDMA4 on the end.

Now - no video output. At all. my TVs all say (no signal)... This is with component and with composite.

Green lights come on on power on - flashing if I push the eject button to turn on. (I heard there was a "safe mode" udma2). But alas no video.

Did my flash go bad? It seemed to complete the flash just fine in EvolutionX flasher for both the standard 2.3.1 Beta, and for the "UDMA4" version. But dead now.

 

Any ideas?

zero cost option I guess is remove the modchip and TSOP flash (I think it's a 1.4 board definitely not 1.6)? Or try to get a disc to load hexen 2021??? the DVD drive seems to try to open (I can force it with the little pokey hole thing - the eject rubber band is dry)...

Or do I have to buy a chip flasher... wanna avoid money spend if possible! lol!

Thanks folks!

 

[NokSueCow]

Is your sata adapter in this list? Verify its confirmed udma settings.

Smacking the top of the xbox, right above the dvd, opens my stuck ones, 100% of the time.

Edited March 20 by NokSueCow

[neakmenter]

Hai! thanks for chiming in! - I've got "China Adapter 1" which the list says should support UDMA4 stable...

I've got the DVD drive open and thown in a TrueHexen2021 - It takes like - forever - and spins up and down - and loads apparently nothing. Working blind, there's nothing appearing on my router's DHCP list and nothing there when I try to FTP (I assume that the truehexen 2021 dash uses DHCP for it's FTP IP addressing).

It's weird - I don't even get the Cerbios logo showing - literally nothing out of the video port at all.

It does still orange/green if there isn't a video cable plugged in though...

It's definitely due a recap anyway I was wondering if cranking up the UDMA to 4 somehow increased power drain or noise and the flakey caps are just not having it? - I gotta buy a set - considering a "wired opposite" set maybe if they deliver to UK. Easier than rading CPC/Farnell/RS/Mouser for bits?

Any more ideas, good people?

[Bowlsnapper]

4 hours ago, neakmenter said:

Sooo..... chinese IDE 80 way cable to sata adapter (Master jumper available and enabled)... "aladdin advance" modchip with SST chip. 2TB drive yada yada... been working fine for years. with Evox

Wanted Cerbios because... y'know - new toysnstuff....

Flashed the default 2.3.1 Beta - All working well - lovely stuff. Then... I thought I'd try the one with UDMA4 on the end.

Now - no video output. At all. my TVs all say (no signal)... This is with component and with composite.

Green lights come on on power on - flashing if I push the eject button to turn on. (I heard there was a "safe mode" udma2). But alas no video.

Did my flash go bad? It seemed to complete the flash just fine in EvolutionX flasher for both the standard 2.3.1 Beta, and for the "UDMA4" version. But dead now.

 

Any ideas?

zero cost option I guess is remove the modchip and TSOP flash (I think it's a 1.4 board definitely not 1.6)? Or try to get a disc to load hexen 2021??? the DVD drive seems to try to open (I can force it with the little pokey hole thing - the eject rubber band is dry)...

Or do I have to buy a chip flasher... wanna avoid money spend if possible! lol!

Thanks folks!

 

That sounds like a coma boot. Like the flash is being partially read. 

[neakmenter]

so, take off the modchip, softmod and tsop? or usb bios flasher for the sst plcc32? no other free options?

 

BTW thanks everyone for the help -you folks are awesome.

Edited March 20 by neakmenter

[neakmenter]

4 hours ago, Bowlsnapper said:

That sounds like a coma boot. Like the flash is being partially read. 

Hey - um - you know the A18/A19 trick (that works for bank switching on the 1MB capable TSOPS)?

Does it work for modchips too?

Like... would changing these address lines change the bank referenced on the modchip maybe (if my aladdin advance SST chip is 1MB not 256KB)?

nope scratch that - it's a 256kb SST chip anyway (the 020 not the 080)...

Maybe if I boot with D0 not grounded (it's currently just mobo to gnd), then exploit, reconnect D0 and run a bios flasher it would act a bit like a hotswap maybe...?

Edited March 20 by neakmenter

[neakmenter]

Okay so, i lifted d0 then booted to a softmod from stock bios, (which worked nicely). Then tried re-grounding d0 and flashing but evox still only saw the built in bios chip to flash, not my aladdin.

so then, its a 1.4 so i soldered the two pads needed to unlock tsop write enable. Booted into my softmod again and flashed the udma2 2.3.1 beta cerbios to my tsop. 

all went well and i’m back in business.

the aladdin is still connected but without d0 it’s like it isn’t there.

at some point i’ll buy a usb flasher and rescue my aladdin with sst chip for my 1.6 (after rebuild)…

Thanks for being there for moral support and advice!

[Bowlsnapper]

2 hours ago, neakmenter said:

Okay so, i lifted d0 then booted to a softmod from stock bios, (which worked nicely). Then tried re-grounding d0 and flashing but evox still only saw the built in bios chip to flash, not my aladdin.

so then, its a 1.4 so i soldered the two pads needed to unlock tsop write enable. Booted into my softmod again and flashed the udma2 2.3.1 beta cerbios to my tsop. 

all went well and i’m back in business.

the aladdin is still connected but without d0 it’s like it isn’t there.

at some point i’ll buy a usb flasher and rescue my aladdin with sst chip for my 1.6 (after rebuild)…

Thanks for being there for moral support and advice!

Wait... your HDD is softmodded? Since your TSOP is flashed and you are hardmodded, I would run an installer disc and reformat that drive. Back up any goodies you have on there and restore a normal dashboard structure. Having a softmod and a hardmod can cause major problems for you at some point.

Also, instead of a programmer, I would buy an XBlast Aladdin or an OpenXenium. You will spend probably less money and you will have a chip that you can boot to the chip's OS with and flash any bios of your leisure without a programmer. Stock Aladdins are a nightmare to deal with.

[neakmenter]

Aha! No, its okay, Ive got 3 boxes - two are softmodded, so I just stole the HDD from one of those and changed the lock to my main box’s eeprom in fatxplorer - just to give me something to boot from - as soon as i flashed the TSOP i went back to my main HDD thats set up for a hardmod.

Is true open xenium or similar is probably the way to go, but I also nerd out repairing amigas, C64s and the like so a more generic eeprom programmer will probably be more useful for me in other ways too… but yeah, money allowing, i’ll get both! 
 

ta!