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X3 Ce Frag


Ging3rguy
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8 hours ago, Ging3rguy said:

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?

X3 bios is on banks 1-4.   Xblast on 7(-8)

tried with dipswitches disconnected to no avail.

will an Aladdin work for a hotswap considering that i can get a hand on a working xbox ?

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5 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said:

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.

i had the X3 installed to boards with hard drives and dvd and it still did frag.

what i haven't tried yet due to the lack of locked hard drives that match the motherboard is to test the motherboard for function without a modchip.

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On 6/28/2019 at 4:55 PM, Ging3rguy said:

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.

[...] Thanks

Sorry Geng3rguy for hi-jacking your thread so massively. That wasn't intended

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Do you know that it has the X3 BIOS flashed to the banks on the chip 1-4 or 5-8?

You do not have to use the X3 BIOS with this chip. You can't use all the features the chip provides without using it though.  The X3 modchip can have any mix of 256KB, 512KB or 1MB BIOS's that fit on evenly divisible bank boundaries:

1MB BIOS's only work when flashed to a group of 4-256KB banks: 1-4 or 5-8

512KB BIOS's only work in 2-256KB banks: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 or 7-8

256KB BIOS's work in any single 256KB bank: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8.

You cannot overlap 2 different sized BIOS's that would occupy another BIOSes bank(s).

 

-----

Aladdin modchip:  You installed one onto the pin header where the X3CE fragged and it to fragged.  Double check the pin header soldering for good connections.  The X3CE uses all 16 pins and the Aladdin only needs the first 12.  Pin 1 is the square pad and the numbering alternates right to left for the odd and even pin numbers.

16 15
14 13
12 11
10 09
08 07
06 05
04 03
02 01<--Square pad

LPC Debug Port pinout: http://xboxdevwiki.net/LPC_Debug_Port

 

 

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1 hour ago, KaosEngineer said:

Do you know that it has the X3 BIOS flashed to the banks on the chip 1-4 or 5-8?

You do not have to use the X3 BIOS with this chip. You can't use all the features the chip provides without using it though.  The X3 modchip can have any mix of 256KB, 512KB or 1MB BIOS's that fit on evenly divisible bank boundaries:

1MB BIOS's only work when flashed to a group of 4-256KB banks: 1-4 or 5-8

512KB BIOS's only work in 2-256KB banks: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 or 7-8

256KB BIOS's work in any single 256KB bank: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8.

You cannot overlap 2 different sized BIOS's that would occupy another BIOSes bank(s).

 

-----

Aladdin modchip:  You installed one onto the pin header where the X3CE fragged and it to fragged.  Double check the pin header soldering for good connections.  The X3CE uses all 16 pins and the Aladdin only needs the first 12.  Pin 1 is the square pad and the numbering alternates right to left for the odd and even pin numbers.

16 15
14 13
12 11
10 09
08 07
06 05
04 03
02 01<--Square pad

LPC Debug Port pinout: http://xboxdevwiki.net/LPC_Debug_Port

 

 

I appreciate your thoughts and information though the X3 was running since ~2004 with the same bios setting. i never dabbled with multiple bios and even while moving across the atlantic the setting didn't get messed up.

so yes, i'm sure the X3 bios is in banks 1-4 and that's what X3 Live Config confirmed after I pulled the chip from the board i failed on upgrading it to 128mb.

X3 Live also confirmed the Xblast bios in bank 7(-8) on that occassion.

the trouble really started when I switched banks to boot with Xblast and it fragged.

Forget the upgraded and failed ram. i can live with the loss of the board and the chips.

the main problem is that the X3 was running once my xbox came to live as it always did. but since i wasn't all done with the 128mb upgrade i switched banks to Xblast. and from that moment on i get nothing but FRAG.

i got me 4 xboxes now that I'll check for function and get the X3 on to test it once it's confirmed that the stock boxes will work work.

 

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5 hours ago, NoobInDistress said:

I appreciate your thoughts and information though the X3 was running since ~2004 with the same bios setting. i never dabbled with multiple bios and even while moving across the atlantic the setting didn't get messed up.

so yes, i'm sure the X3 bios is in banks 1-4 and that's what X3 Live Config confirmed after I pulled the chip from the board i failed on upgrading it to 128mb.

X3 Live also confirmed the Xblast bios in bank 7(-8) on that occassion.

the trouble really started when I switched banks to boot with Xblast and it fragged.

Forget the upgraded and failed ram. i can live with the loss of the board and the chips.

the main problem is that the X3 was running once my xbox came to live as it always did. but since i wasn't all done with the 128mb upgrade i switched banks to Xblast. and from that moment on i get nothing but FRAG.

i got me 4 xboxes now that I'll check for function and get the X3 on to test it once it's confirmed that the stock boxes will work work.

 

Yeah, I think the 1st thing to do is make sure you have a box that will boot to the M$dash, ideally a V1.0-1.4. Then solder the pinheader for that version and check for continuity and shorts (bridges). Once you are happy with that connect the X3. Check it without the switches as is should load banks 1-4, also try loading the backup bios. If no joy then go through all the bios combinations with the dip switches attached. 🤞 You are sure the X3 bios you have on the chip is a V1.0-1.4?

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4 hours ago, Ging3rguy said:

[...]

🤞 You are sure the X3 bios you have on the chip is a V1.0-1.4?

yes, absolutely. flashed it back when it got released and never touched the bank ever after.

I got me a 1.2/3 and a 1.6 and two 1.0 today. Got them all working and will try the X3 on the 1.2 and 1.6 later on.

 

there is one thing that i recall now:  before i switched the bios to the Xblast I checked the X Live Config. Although it booted to it there was a permanent flickering in the top right corner of the screen, switching between 'Softselect Bank' and 'Dip Select Bank' (or something similiar) radpidly. That got me the idea to maybe resolder the dip switch connector on the chip or at least check it for proper continuity.

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Okay anyone used erase before, how long does it take? I have done a hotswap on a 1.6 Xbox, loaded the erase xbe, it said loading and has gone to a black screen and the xbox is still running.

when I tried this on a 1.2 Xbox it said loading and then turned straight  off.

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Pretty sure the X3 I have that is fragging is fooked. 

Did a hotswap and tried to load all combo for bios apart from a 2Mb, I guess I should try it to rule it out.

Tried loading X3 erase but just went to black screen.

Did hotswap and loaded flashbios tried loading from C:Bios/ just got message "unknown bios, halted"

I will try flashbios http next but I am not hopeful☹️

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so I got my X3 to a v1.3 motherboard with nothing attached to the chip but in all stock xbox. well not totally stock since i had to reset a soft mod to stock configuration.

bios_xlive.thumb.JPG.6240fee90bd6e4f3c4634a8467ac5890.JPG

 

I have no idea what i did wrong apart from efing up while soldering the ram to the first board (v1.1). but why the chip acted up on the 1.0 i have no clue.

finally it sits in my shelf again with faceplate display and what not attached and playing music as it used to do.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions and help

 

@Ging3rguy

i hope your X3 will come to life as well. maybe try to get it to a box that doesn't have a softmod or reset it like i did

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Great I'm glad you got it sorted. Is your V1.0 booting to stock M$ dash okay? You can try rechecking your soldering, what looks like a good connection on the pinheader might have to high a resistance for the chip. You should be getting 0 ohms resistance on the connections on the pinheader and D0.

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i just tried the v1.0 with an Aladdin that i held back for testing.

The board came to life but stalled after the flubber was done. Maybe due to the hard drive not being a match to the eeprom or whatever. Might have mixed hdd also as well. I hate this locking feature. that's why i'm not too fond of soft mods. Although I appreciate and admire the skills the folks had or have who made soft mods possible.

For now i'll let the v1.0 rest. I might resolder the pinheader and check with the Aladdin again at some point.

Next project will be to rebuild the LPC on a 1.6 and equip it with another X3 that should be on its way.

i got a source for cheap xboxes that ain't dry as of yet if the owner of the store didn't exaggerate when he said that he got xboxes stacked 3 feet high all along the wall.

so far i got 5  from him for $5 each all stated to be broken but they only had a totally gunged up dvd drive or loose belt

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26 minutes ago, Ging3rguy said:

Will he let you look through them, odds are you will find one or two that are already chipped and you might find something interesting?

If you null all your drives that need to be locked it will not matter if you mix them up.

I think i nulled them but i lost track on the ones i yanked out and replaced them with old IDE ones and chipped the xbox.

I asked him whether i can take a look at them but since it's a game store with the employees staying in an aquarium like glass box he either didn't hear it or simply ignored it.

I'll pretty much will gut the 1.0 for its ram and try another upgrade on another box. Preferably with Xblast for a bios. not gonna be that blue-eyed about my own skills again.

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 8/13/2019 at 6:21 AM, lilkuz2005 said:

i have a purple xecuter3, i cant flash any x3 bios to either of the 1mb banks, but i can flash a x2 bios and it boots, i think something is wrong with the fpga on my chip, if your chip frags with x3 bios then flash a 512kb x2 and see if it boots

What banks can you flash the X2 bios to? Have you tried flashing an older version of the X3 bios? I tried every bank combo for a 256, 512 & 1MB bios with no joy.

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