Issue with the Xbox flashing red and green light.

[KomradeRed]

Hello I recently got an OG Xbox kind of cheap together with some demos and 2 controllers. I tested it and it worked all good for the demos at least, when I put games in it didnt recognize them at all because they were copies something that I didnt really check when I did buy them because they were in DVD boxes with printed labels and all that. 

After some searching I found that the console was modded because it was showing Xecuter 2 on startup, I didnt know about that because never had an Xbox before so I thought that was normal startup screen lol. So after playing a bit with the settings I gone to flash bios which made sense for me after flashing the first option which I dont remember the name now It started playing one of the copy games but it was stuttering a lot after a while. After another restart I gone to flash the second option and then it stuck without flashing or doing anything for like 20 minutes after which I turned the console off.

Now after I turn it on it makes 2-3 attempts to turn on and then starts flashing red-green light constantly, the DVD drives responds and opens up when I push the button for the tray but other from that I have nothing on screen and it doesnt boot up into any menu from what I understand. What are my options from there ? Can I somehow make a new install of the firmware or flash some new bios to it or maybe is the mod messing up ? Any help will be much appreciated as this is my first Xbox console and my knowledge of it is extremely lacking.   

[nikeymikey]

Lesson one, Never click anything to do with flashing unless you are certain you know what you are doing. 

Now to help you we need to know if you have a modchip or not. You will need to open the console and look inside. Take some pics of the motherboard and post them. We will then be able to advise you what to do next in the journey to repair this console. 

[KomradeRed]

16 minutes ago, nikeymikey said:

Lesson one, Never click anything to do with flashing unless you are certain you know what you are doing. 

Now to help you we need to know if you have a modchip or not. You will need to open the console and look inside. Take some pics of the motherboard and post them. We will then be able to advise you what to do next in the journey to repair this console. 

Thank you for the reply, yes lesson learned there I have just a bit of taken it too easy. The disassemble was a lot easier than what I expected so uploading the screenshot of the MB now   

[nikeymikey]

Ok, so you have a 1.1 version motherboard and the red thing on the right is an Aladdin modchip. Looks like its been there a long while so it should be flashable. Have you tried powering on the console with the eject button? This can sometime force the console to boot with the chip switched off.

Does that console still boot from a disc? 

If it does then burn an installer disc to a blank dvd-r and boot the console with it in the drive. You should then be able to use it to reflash the chip. 

If it doesn't then you will either need to crack out the soldering iron and remove the chip to flash it externally with a programmer OR just buy a new chip and put that in instead.

All of the above will depend on how badly you borked things with your random flashing though. 

If after removing the chip the console boots to the stock dash then you could always either flash the TSOP or just install a softmod. 

EDIT- The very latest installer disc is here, https://www.xbox-scene.info/forums/topic/382-dl-ogxbox-cerbios-disc-1fichier-mega-updated-with-cerbios-242/ 

This will let you flash Cerbios which is the best bios out there to use in 2024. 

[KomradeRed]

I tried a couple of things that you suggested here. 
1. I tried turning it on with the eject button but it does the same thing when using the power button, sounds like it tries to to turn on and failing 2 times and then the red green light starts flashing. 
2. After that I tried inserting one of the Demo disks that I did buy the Xbox together with and they worked before I borked it with flashing. Now after powering it off I used the Power button to turn it on with the disk inside and it did the same thing, 2 attempts to turn on and then green red flashing, the same with the eject button, on both attempts I believe that it was reading the DVD but that also dont mean much I believe since it was not booting up at all.
3. I didnt burn a DVD since it was not booting up from that demo DVD but should I try it anyway or is it better to skip this step ? 

After that should I proceed to desolder the chip ? My soldering skills aren't great at best I do some soldering at amateur level but I never worked on the Xbox so not sure what is the best way at removing the chip, a guide would be really helpful there as to not damage anything anymore haha. Should I begin by desoldering the wire that goes from the chip to the motherboard ?    

Thanks again for all the help. 
Also excuse my English as it isnt my first or second language so I hope it isnt that confusing. 
           

[nikeymikey]

2 hours ago, KomradeRed said:

I tried a couple of things that you suggested here. 
1. I tried turning it on with the eject button but it does the same thing when using the power button, sounds like it tries to to turn on and failing 2 times and then the red green light starts flashing. 
2. After that I tried inserting one of the Demo disks that I did buy the Xbox together with and they worked before I borked it with flashing. Now after powering it off I used the Power button to turn it on with the disk inside and it did the same thing, 2 attempts to turn on and then green red flashing, the same with the eject button, on both attempts I believe that it was reading the DVD but that also dont mean much I believe since it was not booting up at all.
3. I didnt burn a DVD since it was not booting up from that demo DVD but should I try it anyway or is it better to skip this step ? 

After that should I proceed to desolder the chip ? My soldering skills aren't great at best I do some soldering at amateur level but I never worked on the Xbox so not sure what is the best way at removing the chip, a guide would be really helpful there as to not damage anything anymore haha. Should I begin by desoldering the wire that goes from the chip to the motherboard ?    

Thanks again for all the help. 
Also excuse my English as it isnt my first or second language so I hope it isnt that confusing. 
           

If you remove the wire then the Xbox "should" try and boot without the modchip. 

If that works then you know you still have a working console and you can move forward from that point. 

When it comes to removing the chip, make sure to use plenty of flux, add some fresh solder to the soldered joints on the chip and then solder wick should be enough to get the solder removed and the chip will then come out. Do not try and pull the chip up unless the solder is gone as you could damage the LPC port and make it difficult/impossible to install another chip at another time. 

Here's a YT video on using wick in case you've never done it before

 

 

[pr0cess0r]

Look like the clock capacitor leaked. This will damage small traces under the board and will do exactly this xbox turn on when you connect the power... It try to boot many times and fail.

I got one xbox this week like this and by luck it booted 2-3 times then started to give all thai trouble.  I fixed the affected trace and now it work perfectly.

https://www.ogxbox.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29-how-to-fix-trace-corrosion/

 

[nikeymikey]

35 minutes ago, pr0cess0r said:

Look like the clock capacitor leaked. This will damage small traces under the board and will do exactly this xbox turn on when you connect the power... It try to boot many times and fail.

I got one xbox this week like this and by luck it booted 2-3 times then started to give all thai trouble.  I fixed the affected trace and now it work perfectly.

https://www.ogxbox.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29-how-to-fix-trace-corrosion/

@KomradeRed This is correct, I didn't even look as I'm so used to the clock cap being removed already lol. A leaky clock cap can result in the console randomly powering off and also powering on as soon as you connect the power cable. I've not had one get the FRAG (Flashing Red And Green) from just the clock cap leaking but it woudl suppose it is possible depending how much fluid has leaked and where it has gone to. 

See the attached image. The red arrow is pointing to the clock capacitor. REMOVE IT and clean the board all around it with isopropyl alcohol. It is unlikely to resolve your issues as I would say they are related to the random flashing you did but its something that you should do anyway. 

[KomradeRed]

18 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

If you remove the wire then the Xbox "should" try and boot without the modchip. 

If that works then you know you still have a working console and you can move forward from that point. 

When it comes to removing the chip, make sure to use plenty of flux, add some fresh solder to the soldered joints on the chip and then solder wick should be enough to get the solder removed and the chip will then come out. Do not try and pull the chip up unless the solder is gone as you could damage the LPC port and make it difficult/impossible to install another chip at another time. 

Here's a YT video on using wick in case you've never done it before

 

 

Thank you it worked well without the modchip and started up right away.
I will desolder the modchip later but from what I understand it is unsalvageable now correct ?

Other from the modchip this repair was a complete success as everything is working now so thank you for the invaluable info and helping me fix that. 
The only other thing is that one of the official controllers for it isnt working but I am 99% sure it is the wire coming loose because he had it wrapped very tightly around the controller itself haha.

 

17 hours ago, pr0cess0r said:

Look like the clock capacitor leaked. This will damage small traces under the board and will do exactly this xbox turn on when you connect the power... It try to boot many times and fail.

I got one xbox this week like this and by luck it booted 2-3 times then started to give all thai trouble.  I fixed the affected trace and now it work perfectly.

https://www.ogxbox.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29-how-to-fix-trace-corrosion/

 

Didnt know about that and now that I searched around it sounds like a common problem, thank you for bringing it up as I would now have found it otherwise before it was too late. Going to remove it and clean up the motherboard with some alcohol to make sure everything is ok and will continue to be working.     

  

[nikeymikey]

3 hours ago, KomradeRed said:

Thank you it worked well without the modchip and started up right away.
I will desolder the modchip later but from what I understand it is unsalvageable now correct ?

Other from the modchip this repair was a complete success as everything is working now so thank you for the invaluable info and helping me fix that. 
The only other thing is that one of the official controllers for it isnt working but I am 99% sure it is the wire coming loose because he had it wrapped very tightly around the controller itself haha.

 

Didnt know about that and now that I searched around it sounds like a common problem, thank you for bringing it up as I would now have found it otherwise before it was too late. Going to remove it and clean up the motherboard with some alcohol to make sure everything is ok and will continue to be working.     

  

The modchip is likely dead due to the random flashing you did. 

Like I said on pm, now you have a working stock console you have a few choices of what to do next. 

Install another modchip, flash the tsop or install a softmod. 

[FrostyMaGee]

21 hours ago, KomradeRed said:

Thank you it worked well without the modchip and started up right away.
I will desolder the modchip later but from what I understand it is unsalvageable now correct ?

Other from the modchip this repair was a complete success as everything is working now so thank you for the invaluable info and helping me fix that. 
The only other thing is that one of the official controllers for it isnt working but I am 99% sure it is the wire coming loose because he had it wrapped very tightly around the controller itself haha.

 

Didnt know about that and now that I searched around it sounds like a common problem, thank you for bringing it up as I would now have found it otherwise before it was too late. Going to remove it and clean up the motherboard with some alcohol to make sure everything is ok and will continue to be working.     

  

Definitely hit the underside of the mobo when you’re doing the cleanup for this as well. I’d just give the whole thing a good once over with some 99 percent ipa and a soft bristle brush while I had it out but at the very least do about a 3-4 inch circle around the clock cap area. You may have already read that but I figured I’d mention it just in case. 
 

Some optional things you could do if you wanted to:

-recap the motherboard or at least replace the five gray power caps near the cpu if they’re still the original. These are a common point of failure on the Xbox mobos. I like to do a recap of the whole thing when I work on them but at the very least I do those. 
-Once you remove the old hardmod you could install a pin header in the lpc port which would make your next chip install a bit easier with most of the modern versions of the hard mods. You’d still have to do D0 but that’s easy enough. 
 

Anyway that’s just some things I thought about while reading this. @nikeymikey probably covered it and a bunch more already in a pm but figured I’d throw it out there. Glad you were able to get it booting normally though!