Need help with FRAG on a v1.0

[mastr_splntr]

I have a v1.0 board that is TSOP flashed with Cerbios 2.4.1. My UDMA is set to 5 in the cerbios.ini file and I am using a Startech, an 80 wire, and a Seagate Baracuda HDD 2TB from this year. I run this in a cool below room temp room. I have 60mm noctua fan mod running on 100 percent. The temps are around 55C.
 

I have sent this console in to a professional and reputable repair service. I had a full recap done and a PSU swap with a recap also done on the PSU and various testing. 
 

I’ve sent this console in two times. But it always seems that when I get this thing back it will run awesome for about 2 days with a couple of hours played. And then eventually I will be playing a game and then I will hit the dashboard shortcut and it will fail to load the dash. And and that point I know its cooked. And lo an behold when that happens it frags when I power it off and on from that point. And if I leave it off for a bit and try again, boom no frag and it boots up and plays well until the next time it “overloads” enough to frag again. 
 

Every time I send it in they cannot replicate this frag I am having probably because it takes quite a few hours of play time to get it to frag. They ran microsoft’s internal memory test and there are no issues with the memory modules. The only thing that they mentioned was the HDD was getting pretty hot possibly due to my fans being set at the default speed which isn’t enough with a 60mm fan. Since then have set my fans to the max. The disc drive is good. The caps are good. The PSU is good. The memory is good. The temps are good (at least the the numbers shown in XMBC4gamers dash). What does this leave me with? There is something having to do with using it for an extended period. 

EDIT: oh and forgot to mention I also have force 480p enabled in the cerbios.ini and 480p mode enabled on the main MSDash(my main dash is UIX lite) and I use an electron shepard xbox2hdmi adpater hooked up to an LG CX in case it matters

Edited October 2, 2024 by mastr_splntr

[nikeymikey]

Do you still have the stock fan? You could try removing the Noctua and putting the stock fan back and see if it still happens?

As you said the Noctua does not move as much air out of the console. Mine doesn't either, even at 100% it doesn't feel as windy when I put my hand behind the console. I have other fans inside my console doing the work so its not an issue but if you only have the 60mm Noctua then it is worth a try to replace the original and test. 

[mastr_splntr]

6 minutes ago, nikeymikey said:

Do you still have the stock fan? You could try removing the Noctua and putting the stock fan back and see if it still happens?

As you said the Noctua does not move as much air out of the console. Mine doesn't either, even at 100% it doesn't feel as windy when I put my hand behind the console. I have other fans inside my console doing the work so its not an issue but if you only have the 60mm Noctua then it is worth a try to replace the original and test. 

I do still have the stock fans. Ok I will try that and see if it remedies the issue. I just figured if the M/B and CPU temps were good than all was good. I also have a gpu heatsink from a later revision board. Do you think that I should swap the active cooling one with that one? 

[nikeymikey]

15 minutes ago, mastr_splntr said:

 I also have a gpu heatsink from a later revision board. Do you think that I should swap the active cooling one with that one? 

Swapping the GPU heatsink out will require you to replace the thermal paste on the GPU. It is totally possible to do, however I killed a GPU doing this very thing last week. I believe the reason was I didnt use enough paste...... 

So yes you can swap but make sure you get the repasting correct or you will fry your GPU like I did

It wont cool any better than the GPU fan, will just be quieter. I only tried because the GPU fan in my console was broken and VERY noisy. 

[PRince404]

11 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

Swapping the GPU heatsink out will require you to replace the thermal paste on the GPU. It is totally possible to do, however I killed a GPU doing this very thing last week. I believe the reason was I didnt use enough paste...... 

So yes you can swap but make sure you get the repasting correct or you will fry your GPU like I did

It wont cool any better than the GPU fan, will just be quieter. I only tried because the GPU fan in my console was broken and VERY noisy. 

I'm more worried about the removing the heat sink part than the paste. Also what's the "Microsoft's" internal memory test? Haven't heard or seen about it yet. 

[mastr_splntr]

30 minutes ago, PRince404 said:

I'm more worried about the removing the heat sink part than the paste. Also what's the "Microsoft's" internal memory test? Haven't heard or seen about it yet. 

Why is the heatsink a worry? I mean I’ve already taken off the stock pinkish paste that came factory. I just used MX-4 and covered the entire chip. Right over the black corners too not just the main circle. 
 

I’m guessing it was just some basic memory diagnostic. Not too worried about the memory. If it was bad I’m sure it would be pretty evident. 

[PRince404]

19 minutes ago, mastr_splntr said:

Why is the heatsink a worry? I mean I’ve already taken off the stock pinkish paste that came factory.

I've seen a lot of people who ripped off the GPU alongside with the heatsink on r/originalxbox. I guess it's only a issue with 1.6 rev. 

[FrostyMaGee]

4 hours ago, PRince404 said:

I've seen a lot of people who ripped off the GPU alongside with the heatsink on r/originalxbox. I guess it's only a issue with 1.6 rev. 

No you’re right Prince and it’s with all revs. If people remove the heat sinks incorrectly ( like most all of us have seen someone do at some point and we’ve even seen some YouTube videos telling people to pry off the gpu heat sink…ugh) you can definitely damage it irreparably. As you know I’m always quick to warn people on here about doing it the correct way otherwise the result may be disastrous. Probably too much. Lol  

[nikeymikey]

11 hours ago, PRince404 said:

I'm more worried about the removing the heat sink part than the paste. Also what's the "Microsoft's" internal memory test? Haven't heard or seen about it yet. 

Removing the heatsink was easy, just run the console for a while and get it up to temp, then the heatsink comes of easy with a little side to side wiggling. If you have a heat gun to apply some extra heat then it just slides right off.  I killed the GPU by not adding enough paste when putting the heatsink back again. 

[mastr_splntr]

On 10/2/2024 at 12:54 AM, nikeymikey said:

Do you still have the stock fan? You could try removing the Noctua and putting the stock fan back and see if it still happens?

As you said the Noctua does not move as much air out of the console. Mine doesn't either, even at 100% it doesn't feel as windy when I put my hand behind the console. I have other fans inside my console doing the work so its not an issue but if you only have the 60mm Noctua then it is worth a try to replace the original and test. 

Yeah I put the stock Nidec fan back in and set the fan speed to 50 percent in cerbios ini. Yeah its a little louder than the noctua but it is pushing way more air out the back with way more force than the noctua too. I also re pasted while I was in there because why not. Already about a 10 degree difference.
 

Now it’s hanging around 45-50C M/B temp and cpu right after gameplay. It hasn’t fragged. But I also haven’t used it extensively. One of these days I’m going to play a few hours a see if its really good. 
 

I do think an overheating HDD was likely the cause though. It just makes sense because after its on and playing and loading different things for a long time once that heat threshold is passed the next loading operation to happen either freezes or fails and then frag. And then I wait a few minutes which gives the hdd time to cool and its good again. Even from the very first time that this happened it was in the middle of half life 2 loading the next section. And I play all my games off HDD. So once again it makes sense. 
 

I don’t think the repair service was able to replicate it because they just kind of let it run idle. Whereas when you are actually playing and all the loading operations are happening is enough stress on the hard drive to get to that heat level. 

[SakisTheDrifter]

I had that issue before and it was a cracked motherboard. I zip-tied the psu wires going to the motherboard(dont remember why)and the Hdd tray would sit very tight on the console, so tight that even the top shell needed some pressure to close the console. Once the console started to frag, i removed the zip-ties from the wires and the console would frag after playing for some hours until it gets hot. To make it work again, i had to reflow the whole motherboard and even after that it would play for some hours before fraggin again. After around 20 reflows, the motherboard would always frag and never came back to life. I put it into a shredder and enjoyed watching the motherboard getting not even half of the pain it gave me all this time fixing it!!!

[KaosEngineer]

On 10/2/2024 at 2:59 PM, PRince404 said:

I'm more worried about the removing the heat sink part than the paste. Also what's the "Microsoft's" internal memory test? Haven't heard or seen about it yet. 

I'm not sure if this xbmemcheck app for the Xbox is Microsoft's or xbox-scene homebrew (looks like a homebrew app to me) that they are talking about using to test memory.

 

Edit: If it is not this app, would be nice if they would share a copy of the memory testing app they used.

 

[mastr_splntr]

Guys I don’t know anymore. Just got a triple boot frag after failing to load my dashboard from playing a game. (L+R+Back+Start). Was only using playing for a few mins. It was nothing to do with thermals. 
 

Was playing a game for a few mins. Decided to use the dashboard shortcut from in game. Got a black screen and it got stuck there powered off and on and got the frag. 
 

Waited 5 mins and all was good again. I don’t understand why this happens. Does this happen to anyone else? I can’t pinpoint this anymore. It happens so randomly. 
 

EDIT: The 5 mins that I waited bought me like 10 mins of gameplay. Fragged again when trying to dashboard. The frag never happens during gameplay. The xbox plays games without a hitch. Its only when I try to load the dashboard after this “threshold to frag” is passed. For example once I have something loaded it will play and play. Right now if I didn’t try to load the dash from in game I could’ve played for hours. I don’t get it.

Edited October 6, 2024 by mastr_splntr