Bringing XEcuter 3ce Back From the Dead

[jimbobjones]

Hey guys,

Reaching out as i was hoping you could help.

A couple years back i bought another x3 modded xbox and it turned out the chip was faulty. Recently i have decided to revisit this and see if its possible to get this chip working. 

It is installed in a 1.6 version xbox. So far i have swapped the x3 from another 1.6 box and was able to transfer the fault between machines so i know its the modchip.

I am getting the 3.3v and 5v lights on the chip, and the bank switcher lights and button functions are working. I cannot get onto the backup nand either. I have a feeling the previous owner corrupted the main nand as I am unable to flash any bios to the chip. xblastos detects the chip as an xecuter 3 but no other apps can see it.

Just wondering what is left to do? is there a utility that defaults the nand or can recover from a suspected bad flash?

Out of my depth here now, as i've owned numerous x3 boxes over the years but none have ever given me any hassle.

Hope you guys can help.

Cheers!

[Ging3rguy]

Try a hotswap. Use your working X3 to get into the flash menu select the folder with the bios you want to load then swap for the dead X3 and then try and flash bios, try all the combinations as you my have a bad bank.

[jimbobjones]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I think i tried a hotswap the first time around but i never checked the other banks, its been a wee while!

Would you recommend just using the built in flashbios tool from the recovery nand on the working xbox, swap the chip, then try loading the 3294v16 bios onto each of the 1M banks? I'll have a go at this later on and post up my results.

Thanks again for your help!

[SS_Dave]

This is the X3 erase/default program that runs from the Xbox and some manuals also a old and newer BIOS.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zq3c1jvo03tt2na/X3 modchip.rar?dl=0

Make sure that you use the correct version for your Xbox so the X3-1959_v16plus.bin is the Xbox version 1.6

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[lilkuz2005]

i have an original "purple X3" that is messed up, the X3 config menu is broken, but im able to still flash BIOS's to 512kb and 256kb banks, not sure whats wrong with my chip, but i think it was installed wrong from the person i bought it from and i think they corrupted the FPGA somehow

[SS_Dave]

29 minutes ago, lilkuz2005 said:

i have an original "purple X3" that is messed up, the X3 config menu is broken, but im able to still flash BIOS's to 512kb and 256kb banks, not sure whats wrong with my chip, but i think it was installed wrong from the person i bought it from and i think they corrupted the FPGA somehow

I would suggest you download the file in my post and have a read of the manual.
 

It sound like you will need to erase/default it and start again.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[jimbobjones]

Thanks for all the posts folks!

I tried the hotswap method using flashbios, came up 'unknown flash! halting' on both 1M banks.

Came back to post and seen the response about using the 'x3 erase' tool ... so i gave that a go! I'm not entirely sure how to work it as i can see little mention of instructions in the docs. So far i copied over the 1959v16 bios file to c:\bios\ and the x3 erase tool to c:\bios\x3_erase, booted the xbox with the working chip, swapped to the problem one, and ran the x3 erase tool. The box just hangs on the unleashx 'loading...' screen. Not sure how to proceed now.

[SS_Dave]

The chip is not write protected is it?

the small switch on the chip.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[jimbobjones]

Not write protected on either the chip or the front panel dips. Interestingly one one chip silkscreen it says 'green:protect/red:unprotect' and on the other it says 'red:protect/green:unprotect' must be a mistake printed on the latter.

Should i run that prog from unleashx then swap chips, or swap chips first?

[SS_Dave]

Swap chips 1st

Try the switch in the other position on the non working chi

Have you tried booting while holding the white button on controller 1?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

[lilkuz2005]

3 hours ago, SS_Dave said:

I would suggest you download the file in my post and have a read of the manual.
 

It sound like you will need to erase/default it and start again.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

hey i took a look at the files you shared, i am able to flash the x3 v2914 "my xbox is a v1.0" and im still not able to boot into the x3 config live, i hold the white button on my original xbox controller when pressing the power button, but it just boots the bios and loads my dashboard, im thinking this chip is messed up somehow

 

[SS_Dave]

That Bios is a hacked X3 bios that was made to flash to other mod chips.

Is the Xbox booting with that bios and the X3 ce modchip fitted ?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[lilkuz2005]

1 minute ago, SS_Dave said:

That Bios is a hacked X3 bios that was made to flash to other mod chips.

Is the Xbox booting with that bios and the X3 ce modchip fitted ?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

my other x3ce chip is in a v1.6 running the v3294, im going to attempt to use the x3 erase tool and see if i cant get the second 1mb bank to flash, i have the first bank working, i think something is wrong with the flash chip on this x3

 

[SS_Dave]

Have switch 1,2 on 3,4,5 off then run the X3 erase prg.

It should then boot to the config screen

Then load the X3-3294_v16.bin for a version 1.6 and the X3-3294.bin for Xbox versions 1.0-1.4.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

[lilkuz2005]

ok, in flashbios when pressing the power and eject buttons enabling the backup bios, i try to flash a 1mb v3294 and the xbox just shuts down on banks 5,6,7,8 switch's set to 0ff,on,off,off,off, i tried this again and it was the same issue, i think the flashchip is messed up and may need replaced to get this chip working again. i still need to test flashing a 256kb bios to each one of the banks to see if that is in fact the problem with this chip, something could be wrong with the FPGA as well, somethings not allowing the x3 config live to boot up, it should load automatically when flashing a new bios and it should load when pressing the white button at boot, i also tried pressing and holding the white button just before the xecuter logo comes up, still not working. any idea if this 2mb chip can still be purchased ?

[SS_Dave]

Switch 1,2, on 3,4,5 off Try that

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

[lilkuz2005]

2 minutes ago, SS_Dave said:

Switch 1,2, on 3,4,5 off Try that

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

that works, thats the first 1mb bank, my problem happens when trying to flash the second 1mb bank

[SS_Dave]

What bios are you trying to flash the the 2nd bank?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

[lilkuz2005]

 

2 minutes ago, SS_Dave said:

What bios are you trying to flash the the 2nd bank?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

v3294 just like the first bank, i tested that v2914 it worked then i reflashed v3294 back to the first 1mb bank, so i know both of these bios files are good, also i tried th x3 erase and it just reboots my xbox, nothing comes up on the screen, i tried it under the file browser in xbmc4gamers and unleashx same result

[SS_Dave]

The X3 erase program resets all the settings in the X3 chip to default and when you run the program appears to do nothing but when you reboot the xbox all the setting in the chip are back to stock.

What happens if you try flashing the  X3-1959.bin to the 1st 1meg and the X3-3294.bin to the 2nd 1 meg bank?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[lilkuz2005]

okay so i just flashed IND-BIOS 5003 256k to all 8 256k banks that the xbox booted just fine in any bank i want, so maybe the flash is still good and its something to do with the fpga thats not allowing the x3 to flash a 1mb bios to the second bank or to load the x3 config live OS, i really have no idea how to attempt to fix that, im sure its not the same as JTAG on a cpld.

[SS_Dave]

What happens if you flash bank 5678 (sw 2 on the rest off with a X3-3294.bin?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[lilkuz2005]

after trying to flash v3294 to the first 1mb bank the xbox just shuts off now, i tried to flash it twice and the same result, so i flashed that modded version 2914 and it boots, im not sure whats up with this chip, but im going to try and flash that modded version on the second 1mb bank and see what happens, then maybe try to flash the x3 original versions

 

[SS_Dave]

Is this in a version 1.6 or a 1.0-1.4?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

 

[lilkuz2005]

okay that didn't work either, im almost betting the modded version of the x3 bios is working because its missing some of the calls for the config live, seems like only bios's will boot are the ones that have nothing to do with config live, my fpga is messed up on this chip. its weird but i guess it is what it is, no way for my to fix this, maybe ill keep the modded version 2914 on the first 1mb bank and just use 4 256k bios's on the other 1mb bank. thanks SS_Dave for trying to help.