Sudden Frag

[sinclairuser]

hi all, so i tsoped the 1.1 box i got with m8+ and it all went fine cleared out the softmod files and got it all set up to my liking.

then tonight i installed xmbc for gamers to drive f as an app(just to try it), cleared the cache ejected the disk and rebooted, when i powered it up as the led lit you could hear an audible plop from the tv speaker it continued  to boot, then stopped reset plopped again resarted as a frag but you can hear the harddisk running, the screen is just black.

this box has been fine since i got it i have been using it softmodded since i got it just to see if it was stable, i just get it just as i want it then this happened out of the blue.

does anyone know where i should start to look,

thanks,

aly (sinclairuser). 

[SS_Dave]

I would be haveing a look at the mother board and power supply for suspect Caps

[sinclairuser]

if some cock up was made when in rockys disk and the wrong video region was chosen ie- ntsc-m instead of pal would this cause the issue, from a professional perspective it seems to me it must be a power or video issue.

now the reason i say this is i was just talking with my mate who is here and he swears that when i had the disk open before it fragged it said ntsc-m in the top left hand corner of the screen, i have to say i didn't notice this but he is not the sort of guy to say something like that if it was not true.

so i'm wondering if it is trying to start in ntsc-m composite mode on a old pal tv,  and that is why i hear a plop from the tv speaker and just get a black screen.

i mean if its knackered then fine, but it is just a shame that after looking for a 1.0-1.5 for ten years to try tsop flashing instead of softmods and then this happens.

i still have the old drive from this machine(softmodded), so i could try that i changed the drive because the original was really noisy and while the replacement was no bigger it was in better condition.

the only thing that worries me is i had the drive unlocked due to being tsoped, but its old drive is locked now it has the correct key but is the xpox expecting the drive to be unlocked?, or doesn't that matter as long as the drive has the correct key?. 

[sinclairuser]

1 minute ago, SS_Dave said:

I would be haveing a look at the mother board and power supply for suspect Caps

thanks dave yeah power or video is my first thought though if you read my newer post it may help,

thanks again.

[SS_Dave]

It beeing NTSC or PAL should not make any differance as most newer tv's will work with any signal.

Unplug the AV plug and plug it in again if you havent done that.

Have you tryed booting a hexen disk?

The new drive been unlocked just meens if you but it in a differant Chipped/TSOP Xbox it will work. The old locked drive should still work in the Xbox it came from but if it was a drive problem you would get a green screen with a error message.

I still think hardware fail.

SS_Dave

[sinclairuser]

swapped the drive for the old one and it booted fine to exox dash, shutdown and now its doing the same thing.

so i think the power supply is at fault i will do a proper stripdown tomorrow, and test the power supply off the xbox with the scope.

[c0tt0nm0ufh]

I also believe that two solder joints that connect the power cable to the PSU are known to be weak.  Maybe re-enforcing those little guys with a touch of solder will help.

[Steo1024]

The same thing happened a v1.0/1.1 ( can't remember exactly which one), and the only thing I could think of was the power supply. We were trying to softmod it, and at first we thought that we had shorted the HDD, then the Xbox would boot again after being off for a bit, only to artifact and freeze up. We could only narrow it down to possibly being related to the PSU, as attempting to reflow the board did nothing at all.

[sinclairuser]

so i pulled the power supply and did some tests, i found the connections on the harddrive power cable molex connector are loose,

five volt rail= 5.3 volts,

3.3 volt rail=3.3 volts,

12 volt rail= 10.7 volts,

all other wires are as they should be (pow on, stb voltage etc), no loose or dry solder joints, no burnt components or bulged caps.

i sucked out the caps from the power supply and tested them they are all within tolerance, though one of the big ones on the ac side had quite high esr so i changed it.

so i adjusted the dc output trimpot on the power supply, 12v rail is now 12.4 volts(stable),

however the five volt rail has jumped up to 6.3 volts, thats the problem with adjusting that pot it brings up the 12v rail but also raises the 5v rail.

since i'm not comfortable dumping 6.3 volts into the 5v rail i adjusted it back to 5.1v (stable), though the 12v rail is now 10. 4 volts but it is stable and you can pull some good current from it and it doesn't break down.

so tomorrow i'm going to build a small circuit to boost the 12v rail back to 12v, as far as i can see the harddisk needs at least 12v 10.4 just wont cut it..

when i'm happy no strange voltages or current is coming out of the supply i will re-fit it back and see if the xbox boots.

thanks for suggestions, i will keep you informed of progress.

P.S.adjusting the trimpot does not alter the output of the 3.3v rail only 5v and 12v.

Edited September 27, 2019 by sinclairuser
ps

[SS_Dave]

The 12 volt is proberly a little bit low

My ver 1.6 with 500gig has 11.7 and 5.01 volt the ver 1.1 500gig 11.8 and 5.001 volt

But I do have a disk drive that may have a dry joint on the power conector as it will work fine for days then all of a sudden it stops and as soon as I flip it upside down to mesure the power rails it starts up again. That's one on the back burner for now.

[Steo1024]

One of my 1.6 models was doing this also, where the HDD stopped and squeezing down on the Xbox made it spin up again. I opened it and it turned out that wiggling the cable resulted in the HDD shutting off, but after tightening the connections on the molex using a flathead screwdriver to bend them, it seems to be working fine now.

 

Oh, and 10.4v definitely sounds very low, I've seen PC's drop into the high 11's, but 10v really doesn't sound sufficient.

Edited September 28, 2019 by Steo1024

[sinclairuser]

thats what i dont understand, iv'e had it running connected to a power load and it is consistent no sign of the voltage spiking up.

i'm a bit happier about daves voltage figures above, if 11.7v will run the 12v rail then i can turn it to that and that will bring the 5v rail into acceptable limits, as i said when i turned it up to 12.4v the 5v rail was 6.3v which is too high.

Edited September 28, 2019 by sinclairuser

[Steo1024]

Yeah to be fair it's closer to 7v than it is to 5v. It's unusual that the rails are off by so far though, they're off by roughly 1.5v.

 

The PSU is completely off the rails. 

[sinclairuser]

i thought i would give an update, so the power supply is stable no ripple no spikes in voltage or current, it has been running  my twin raspberry pi sdr transceiver as a power supply solid for two days, so i am going to try it in the xbox tomorrow.

i turned down its 5v rail to 5.1 volts, which in turn turned the 12v rail to 10.4v, i have a boost buck voltage stabalizer board from ada fruit, it can take between 9volts and 18 volts and deliver a solid 12volt supply, its a bit battered as its been used for all sorts of projects but i have ordered an other one if this works ok i will just fit the new one when it arrives or replace the whole supply board.

what i plan to do is chop into the 12v line on the main power plug and remove the 12v wire, then take the 12v line from the harddisk plug to power the boost board this then will provide the 12v main plug line and the harddisk 12v line, it sounds convoluted but in a nutshell it just makes sure the correct voltages are going to where they should be.

now i know the power supply is right i can see it the xbox boots, if it does great i can buy a replacement supply and its good, if it doesn't at least i know its not the power supply, i have also been making a black and white jewel and some other mods to the case when its done i will post about it in the case mods section.

  either way i will post here the outcome of the booting issue,

thanks to everyone here,

aly (sinclaiuser). 

 

Edited September 30, 2019 by sinclairuser