Ging3rguy Posted June 28, 2019 Report Share Posted June 28, 2019 Hi, I have picked up a X3 CE that is fraging no idea of its history. I have tried to hotswap using an existing V1.2 box and working chip to load a bios. I have tried returning it to default settings and loading a X3 bios on 1-4 and 5-8. Also tried flash bios on 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and backup. Also a 512 bios on 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8. Tried ftping but no joy. Do you think it is worth trying to load a bios with disk? Any other ideas gratefully received. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ging3rguy Posted June 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2019 Oh, also when I try to flash a bios is tells me to "remove flash protect and try again". I have also tried flashing the bios with the red and green led lit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS_Dave Posted June 28, 2019 Report Share Posted June 28, 2019 The first x3 chip I got would frag but that was because i was holding the power button to long try a supper quick tap to turn on with X3 enabled long press will boot the OEM bios SS Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaosEngineer Posted June 29, 2019 Report Share Posted June 29, 2019 11 hours ago, Ging3rguy said: Oh, also when I try to flash a bios is tells me to "remove flash protect and try again". I have also tried flashing the bios with the red and green led lit. Do you have the X3's switch panel attached? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikeymikey Posted June 29, 2019 Report Share Posted June 29, 2019 I had a similar problem with an X3, it wasnt fragging but would freeze after the flubber finished, the colours were also all f$$ked up. I fixed it using the attached file. Run the attached xbe which will erase any flashed bios from your x3 and then reflash using the latest X3 bios. Make sure you use the 1.6 version if you have a v1.6 xbox. x3_eeprom_erase.rar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ging3rguy Posted June 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2019 2 hours ago, KaosEngineer said: Do you have the X3's switch panel attached? no I disconnected it to rule out issues with it. I think I will try it in a V1.6 box and see if I have any joy there. 3 minutes ago, nikeymikey said: I had a similar problem with an X3, it wasnt fragging but would freeze after the flubber finished, the colours were also all f$$ked up. I fixed it using the attached file. Run the attached xbe which will erase any flashed bios from your x3 and then reflash using the latest X3 bios. Make sure you use the 1.6 version if you have a v1.6 xbox. x3_eeprom_erase.rar 24.33 kB · 0 downloads is X3 erase basically the autostart X3 confit live? I tried it and that’s what loaded? thanks for your time guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikeymikey Posted June 29, 2019 Report Share Posted June 29, 2019 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Ging3rguy said: no I disconnected it to rule out issues with it. I think I will try it in a V1.6 box and see if I have any joy there. is X3 erase basically the autostart X3 confit live? I tried it and that’s what loaded? thanks for your time guys No, X3 erase will wipe any flashed bios from all banks except the backup bank. This will enable to reflash your selected bios to a clean flash chip just like if the x3 was new. This xbe was created to to issues with overwriting bios's when flashing i believe. EDIT: I just realised if you cannot boot the xbox you wont be able to run the xbe. Do you have another xbox with an x3 by any chance? Thats how i did it. I have a 2nd box that has a solderless x3 , i think i booted the working one and then hotswapped the chips and ran the flash erase. Edited June 29, 2019 by nikeymikey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ging3rguy Posted June 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2019 Yes I have a box with a X3 already installed. I tried a hotswap and with X3 erase and the fraging chip it just sat on a black screen. I tried X3 erase with my working chip and it just loaded back to the autostart X3 config screen!? i will try it with your file and see if I have any more luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ging3rguy Posted June 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2019 okay, so trying to use flashbios to flash 3294 via hotswap and the hdd C partition, getting halt due to unknown bios. Going to try something a bit older. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikeymikey Posted June 30, 2019 Report Share Posted June 30, 2019 Are you sure the erase xbe has actually run properly and erase the flash? Try booting from boot disc such as slayers and running the erase xbe again. Try with the fragging chip installed first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ging3rguy Posted June 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2019 Okay I’ll give it a try. Going to have to put it hold for a week, off on my hols Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaosEngineer Posted June 30, 2019 Report Share Posted June 30, 2019 I didn't think the x3 erase app deleted the BIOS's flashed to the modchip. It only clears or sets the default values stored in the X3's onboard configuration eeprom chip. I've read about the latest X3 BIOSes having a reset feature (not sure which version after which it was included): Hold A+B+X+Y on cold boot Another post about using the X3 Eraser app and reflashing the modchip using the recovery FlashBIOS at team-xecuter.com - How to fix you EEPROM if mess up with X3 Config Live! A bit dated as it mentions the X3 1959 version of the X3 BIOS, not the latest 3294 version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ging3rguy Posted June 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2019 39 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said: I didn't think the x3 erase app deleted the BIOS's flashed to the modchip. It only clears or sets the default values stored in the X3's onboard configuration eeprom chip. I've read about the latest X3 BIOSes having a reset feature (not sure which version after which it was included): Hold A+B+X+Y on cold boot Another post about using the X3 Eraser app and reflashing the modchip using the recovery FlashBIOS at team-xecuter.com - How to fix you EEPROM if mess up with X3 Config Live! A bit dated as it mentions the X3 1959 version of the X3 BIOS, not the latest 3294 version. I’ll try this when I am back and post how I get on. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobInDistress Posted July 11, 2019 Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 On 6/30/2019 at 11:12 AM, Ging3rguy said: I’ll try this when I am back and post how I get on. Thanks any progress as of yet ? I'm in the same boat although self-inflicted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ging3rguy Posted July 11, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 Okay so you know your chip works? What happened ? I have done a fair bit of reading and one way to kill the chip is to attach the alternative 5v to a 1.0-1.5 as well as through the pinheader, strangely the chip doesn’t like it. Has anyone with a dead chip tried to load a bios? Just wondering if it still tells you to unlock the write protect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ging3rguy Posted July 11, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 Going to try installing in a 1.6 box later and see if I have any luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobInDistress Posted July 11, 2019 Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 32 minutes ago, Ging3rguy said: Okay so you know your chip works? What happened ? I have done a fair bit of reading and one way to kill the chip is to attach the alternative 5v to a 1.0-1.5 as well as through the pinheader, strangely the chip doesn’t like it. Has anyone with a dead chip tried to load a bios? Just wondering if it still tells you to unlock the write protect? unfortnuately i have no clue whether it works correctly(!) or not. here's the story so far (if you're up for a read ) I wanted to upgrade to 128ram. although I have a few xboxes I decided to do the job on my flagship, a 1.1 xbox with xecuter front panel and the X3 modchip. Why do the job twice when I'll be successful the first time. At least that's what I was thinking. So i soldered the 4 chip to the board and fired it up. FRAG! It's not that i didn't do some research beforehand but I'm somewhat stubborn and going back and forth between this and that bios really ain't my pleasure. Recalling all the settings for all the banks really challenges my discalculia. In addition to messing up the soldering I thought that my bios maybe won't support 128mb. So I took the X3 mounted it to another box or rather get another motherboard into the box with all the harnesses for the chip, soldered the little led/hdd/D0 harness to the board and started the xbox. The chip was just doing fine. Switched banks and flashed Xblast 0.56 to it. Tested it and it worked. Tested both bios and by now i figured that the Xecuter bios I got is the most recent and supports 128mb. Moved the little harness back to the mb I was performing the 128mb upgrade on, moved the chip over switched to Xblast bank and fired up the xbox. FRAG! I waited a day checked all my soldering on the rams again with a microscope (Yes, I had some bridges soldered ) and even on the harness for the chip. After all looked good I turned the box on again. FRAG! Moved the chip over to different motherboard and tested it there. Since I (for some reason) didn't trust the Xblast bios I switched to the bank I used ever since I modded the flagship and turned it on. My wife heard me yelling across the house since the box came alive and no FRAG. I performed a IGR held the white button and went to Xlive config. Bios banks looked good with the Xblast in the banks I wanted it to be. Booted the xbox again and it worked. So i turned it off, switched banks to Xblast and started it. FRAG. Ever since it's fragging no matter what bank I switch to. X3 chip looks ok to me with 2 blue leds lighting up but I can't access Xlive config nor does it boot into backup/falshing mode holding eject+power. I then inspected the modchip itself and found 2 bridged pins on the backup chip. I'm not sure whether it is meant to be like that or whether I splashed some solder although I have no clue how that could have happened since I stored the chip out of reach while soldering. I removed the solder bridge and belled the 2 pins but even without the splash they have straight forward continuity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ging3rguy Posted July 11, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 What version is the xbox that is, was working? You didn’t do any soldering between when it last worked and then started fragging? Check the D0 has good continuity. Does the box frag with the chip removed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobInDistress Posted July 11, 2019 Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 10 minutes ago, Ging3rguy said: What version is the xbox that is, was working? You didn’t do any soldering between when it last worked and then started fragging? Check the D0 has good continuity. Does the box frag with the chip removed? the flagship was a 1.1 and that mb is toast due to my soldering efforts. i moved the chip to a 1.0 mb and there it was working and i could flash the Xblast. with the Xblast active i got it to the 128mb (v1.1) board with no avail to check on the board since it was FRAGging right from the start. i move the chip back to v1.0 board with X3 bios active and it came to live - reboot with Xblast = FRAG i belled the D0 from the topside point to the end of the little harness and it was fine where the harness is soldered to the bottom of the board. i checked both boards with an Aladdin and they both don't work though the Aladdin does as i mouted it to another box Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ging3rguy Posted July 11, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 What banks have you flashed bios to? Have you tried it with the dip switches disconnected? Try booting to the backup with the switches disconnected. Have you got a way to load flashbios to the xbox and try a hotswap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ging3rguy Posted July 11, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 okay so I have now tried my fragging x3 on a V1.6 and no joy with all possible bios combos. using the dip switch panel and trying to boot the backup chip I can see from the led colour that it is trying to load it but it just frags. Next I will try a hotswap with the V1.6. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaosEngineer Posted July 11, 2019 Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 A 1.6 Xbox requires a 1.6 BIOS. It will not work with a 1.0-1.5 BIOS flashed to the modchip. A 1.0-1.5 Xbox can boot a 1.6 BIOS; however, it is highly recommended to flash a v1.0-1.5 version of the BIOS instead of using the 1.6 BIOS on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaosEngineer Posted July 11, 2019 Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 If you disable or disconnect the X3 modchip from the memory upgraded motherboard, does it still FRAG? Not sure if you already said that it did or didn't in any previous post. If FRAG'ing, there's a hardware problem. The memory chips must not be connected properly. They are oriented in the correct direction? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobInDistress Posted July 11, 2019 Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 (edited) 40 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said: If you disable or disconnect the X3 modchip from the memory upgraded motherboard, does it still FRAG? Not sure if you already said that it did or didn't in any previous post. If FRAG'ing, there's a hardware problem. The memory chips must not be connected properly. They are oriented in the correct direction? forget about the memory upgrade since i failed on that project. i most likely fried the 1.1 motherboard since it frags with an Aladdin mounted to it. the X3 came to live once on a 1.0 (64mb) motherboard using the X3 bios. when i switched to Xblast bios it fragged instantaneously and that's what it does still. what i can't tell as of now is whether the motherboard will frag without a modchip. most likely it will since i have no matching hard drives for the board but might be able to get a hold on a stock xbox shortly to check the X3 on and the board and without X3 after whatever result comes up Edited July 11, 2019 by NoobInDistress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaosEngineer Posted July 11, 2019 Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 With the X3 installed, you should be able to install any empty hard drive and format it using the X3ConfigLive Hard drive tools menu. Then, boot HeXen to build the NTSC or PAL drive (install content to the C and E drives/partitions of the newly formatted drive.) Hexen menu options 3.5.3 or 3.5.4 Update: Hexen can format a drive too. Without one installed I think a BIOS other than X3 will FRAG. They expect a hard drive to be present. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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