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Accidentally Flashed Wrong Bios Now XBox Wont Startup


Spackie21
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Hey guys, im new here so this is my first post and regretfully its a bad post.

 

Being the dumb idiot I am, I accidentally flashed a 1.0-1.5 BIOS onto my 1.6b Xbox, the modchip is an aladdin from about 10 years or so, now my Xbox wont even output any video and its FRAGGING, its also not letting me open the disk tray, is my Xbox completely broke or am I able to put a new modchip in?

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Is the flash memory chip on your old Aladdin soldered to the modchip's printed circuit board (PCB) or socketed?

If socketed, you can remove the chip from the socket and use a Nano USB Flash programmer on a PC to reflash the correct BIOS to the chip. One such eBay listing. There may be several sellers so check pricing by looking at a few other listings or any other external flash programmer (e.g., TL866ii plus with PLCC32 adapter) that supports the flash memory chip - it is most likely a SST49LF020 or SST49LF020A.

If you have another modchip and installed the Aladdin using the pin header instead of quicksolder install method, you can remove the bad flashed modchip, install a working modchip in the Xbox and hotswap the modchip after booting to reflash the wrong BIOS flashed one.

It the wrong BIOS flashed to the modchip that's now causing the Xbox v1.6b to FRAG.  The Xbox will boot again when the correct BIOS can load from the modchip.  

Remove the modchip and it should boot into an unmodded state no longer FRAG'ing.

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10 hours ago, Spackie21 said:

Hey guys, im new here so this is my first post and regretfully its a bad post.

 

Being the dumb idiot I am, I accidentally flashed a 1.0-1.5 BIOS onto my 1.6b Xbox, the modchip is an aladdin from about 10 years or so, now my Xbox wont even output any video and its FRAGGING, its also not letting me open the disk tray, is my Xbox completely broke or am I able to put a new modchip in?

if you are in the US I can send you a new flash (as long as its socketed) chip if you cover the shipping.

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It looks like your best bet is buying an external programmer with PLCC32 adapter to fit the flashrom from your current modchip, and using that to put a 1.6-compatible BIOS on it. I've had a glance over the eBay listing mentioned earlier in this thread and noticed a snag: if you look closely down the page there is a note "64bit driver is not completed yet. Programmer works only TEST mode." This essentially means that although it can in theory support 64-bit versions of Windows, the driver is NOT signed. Which will mean it will be a massive PITA to get working. Windows will stubbornly refuse to obey you when you try to install the driver, telling you that it is not signed and that 64-bit Windows "requires" it, and that therefore the install is aborted. The only way around it involves restarting into a temporary TEST mode. Nope, not by clicking restart and pressing F8 (at least if you're running Windows 8 and above, since F8 at startup has been removed!). By pressing the Window Key and R to get the "run" box open, then typing the command "shutdown /r /o /t 0" without quotes, and then choosing "change windows startup behaviour". Then when it starts up again, choose the option "disable driver signature enforcement" (this is what it means by TEST mode, intended for developers). From that point on, for that session only, you'll be able to install the driver and click "install anyway" when warned that it is not signed. You should then be able to load the software for the device, plug the flash chip into it, and program a 1.6 Xbox compatible BIOS image onto it. Also note that in most cases you'll only be in this TEST mode until the next reboot. On the next reboot the driver will be blocked again, rendering the device useless until you repeat the above steps. If you do want to try it, be aware of the above steps that will be required unless you are using Windows XP, or 32-bit WIndows Vista or 32-bit Windows 7, since those versions do not require all this faffing. I do know that Windows 8 and 10, whether 32-bit or 64-bit, DO most of the time! (see this page for more information about the precise Microsoft policies regarding this) That's probably why this device is so cheap, because the maker does not want to pay extortionate prices to a certification authority that Microsoft approves of to get the driver signed. Or... you could get an alternative programmer elsewhere on eBay that has working drivers for all modern Windows editions, but they are a bit more expensive. Anyway, good luck, I hope you get your Xbox working again! It might be worth going to all this trouble if you only have to do it once, right?!

Edited by samspin
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Purchase a more expensive TL866II plus external programmer and PLCC32 adapter for it.

If you are running 32-bit Windows OS, you will not have problem using the NANO USB Programmer to reflash the SST49LF020A chip.

Windows Defender tags the flashing software as being infected with a virus. Or at least, it used to. The seller claims it's from part of their license protect code.  Yeah, right! Okay.. ;)

I don't own one of these programmers. I'd downloaded the software before and Defender had popped up a message about an infection some time ago when I looked into purchasing the NANO USB Programmer to flash SST49LF080As.

Update: Not much better now.  23 of 72 detection engines at VirusTotal show that the executable extracted from the archive is infected. (https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/fdac946d0171aae5d6d38a67055f61f8762e9d7a1d8f61c5e9724a598fe09249/detection)

Even the 32-bit software and driver are not signed and Windows 10 Security pops-up a message asking if you really want to install it or not.

2147054705_Drivernotsigned.JPG.508800b33baeeb1411929f66d7112857.JPG

Doesn't instill confidence in this product.  Sorry I mentioned it.

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Purchasing a flash programmer and going to the trouble of using seems a lot more complicated than just restoring LFRAME. 

72198-Aladdin-XT-installation-Guide-pdf

Above link covers install instructions for the chip you mentioned. A cursory look at the board should reveal the cut trace at U7C1. You can restore this trace fairly easily with some solder or a conductive ink pen, then follow Ging3rguy’s instructions. 

Honestly if I were in your situation I’d probably just cut out the middleman and stick with the softmod. But... being able to customize your BIOS is pretty nice. Until you end up in a situation like this :P

I’m right there with you though so I’ve got no room to talk. 

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Sorry for being SOL guys, work commitments etc.

I have good news and bad news, good news first.

I decided not to purchase a flash programmer but instead I just ended up buying a new modchip as it would of cost more to buy the programmer and reprogram the chip then to just buy a whole new one in general, so I decided to buy a newer modchip.

Bad news is I am SOL for another week or so, as I own four Original Xboxes, only the 1.6b works as the others are faulty and cannot be fixed as they have multiple issues and I don't have the time to fix them so I just use them for spares, however I am thinking of buying another Original Xbox (pre 1.6, hopefully 1.0-1.3) sometime this week to either keep as a backup or set it up to be a main as i'm contemplating on doing the 128mb RAM Upgrade.

 

I'll post back here once the modchip arrives.

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