Bricked 1.0 Tsop Flash

[Steven Mrozek]

I had a successfully flashed 1.0 mobo with an X2 BIOS. I got a little curious and flashed the X3 3294 BIOS and now my console wont turn on. Light turns green, fans spin and then immediately turn off. Honestly, I kinda expected it. But what are my recovery options? I know I can install a modchip on top of it, but I don't want to fork out an arm and a leg for a good one. Theres some cheap ones on ebay right now for about $5 and I'm curious if I buy one, install it and go to reflash, how do I get it to flash the mobo TSOP and not the modchip? Thanks for reading.

[N163LPH03N1X]

I don't think you can recover the mobo flash. The only thing you can do is modchip or if you have an eprom flasher of some sort.like raspberry Pi. If you boot the chip you can't access the mobo chip to flash it unfortunately. I've seen some people brick their systems doing this on some other forums they say to never ever use an x3 bios on mobo. If you get curious next time just ask I'm sure someone here will have an answer. Learning experience. 

[KaosEngineer]

X3 BIOS is specifically made for the X3 modchip.

DO NOT FLASH THIS BIOS TO THE XBOX TSOP OR ANY OTHER NON-X3 MODCHIP!

There are ways to restore the flash by connecting, IIRC, 3 additional wires to the motherboard and jumper them to GND at the appropriate time to regain access to the TSOP after booting from a modchip with a special recovery BIOS - read this thread at assembergames.com (AG).

Or, the new XBlast Lite modchip by bennydiamond @ AG (a.k.a. psyko_chewbacca) can be used to fix a bad TSOP flash.  The older Chameleon modchip could be used for TSOP flash recovery too.

Or, unsolder the TSOP EEPROM from the motherboard and use a FLASH programmer (eBay search for TL866CS or TL866A with a 40-pin TSOP adapter) to reprogram it with a compatible properly sized BIOS then reinstall it.  (Install a 40-pin TSOP socket similar to what Andrew "bunnie" Huang did when he worked on hacking the Xbox after it was first released.

"bunnie" is the author of the book: Hacking the Xbox available in the downloads section here at ogXbox.com or from the publisher's website for FREE!)

Excerpt from bunnie's open letter about why he decided to release the free PDF of his book (prefer a physical copy, the softcover edition is still available for purchase online):

Quote

Dear Reader,

No Starch Press and I have decided to release this free ebook version of Hacking the Xbox in honor of Aaron Swartz. As you read this book, I hope that you’ll be reminded of how important freedom is to the hacking community and that you’ll be inclined to support the causes that Aaron believed in. ...

Edited March 2, 2018 by KaosEngineer

[KaosEngineer]

Here's the information to use a modchip flashed with the special tsop_m7.bin BIOS (works on v1.0-1.5 Xbox consoles):

read! tsop m7 bios instructions.txt

tsop_m7.bin

Edited March 2, 2018 by KaosEngineer

[Steven Mrozek]

1 minute ago, KaosEngineer said:

Here's the information to use a modchip flashed with the special tsop_m7.bin BIOS (works on v1.0-1.5 Xbox consoles):

read! tsop m7 bios instructions.txt

tsop_m7.bin

Thanks for this, I do have a few questions though.

So it should go down like this:
Install modchip
Flash the M7 Bios to the chip
Follow those directions?

Also, where is A15 point on a 1.0 motherboard? And it says connect D0 to ground, does that mean don't connect it to the modchip?

[KaosEngineer]

3 minutes ago, Steven Mrozek said:

Thanks for this, I do have a few questions though.

So it should go down like this:
Install modchip
Flash the M7 Bios to the chip
Follow those directions?

Also, where is A15 point on a 1.0 motherboard? And it says connect D0 to ground, does that mean don't connect it to the modchip?

Yes.  Both D0 and A15 are manually moved from ground to disconnected at the appropriate time during the recovery process.  I need to find the picture with A15's location shown.  I'll post it here soon.

[KaosEngineer]

D0 point:

Addition of A15 (trace with via connects to TSOP pin 5 - the circular indent seen on the TSOP indicates pin 1):

Image Source: http://xbox.x-pec.com/chameleon/index.html

ST M29F080A Flash EEPROM Datasheet.pdf

Edited March 2, 2018 by KaosEngineer

[dark]

Alternate A15 and DO under the motherboard

[Steven Mrozek]

I am rather concerned that this won't work because I flashed an X3 bios, and the chip will have to be permanent. I will attempt it and post back here with the results (I'm hoping I can film a video as well).

[KaosEngineer]

Interested in finding out if tsop_m7 can recover or not. 

If not, there are other options. You could do a 29-wire mod (connecting an EPROM as the boot ROM), Or, could go the route of unsoldering the flash chip and use an external programmer to reflash the TSOP (TL866CS or TL866A with 40-pin TSOP adapter) and resolder it to the MB (I'd install a zero-insertion force (ZIF) socket if this method is used).

Edited March 6, 2018 by KaosEngineer

[Stuart Popplestone]

I did exactly the same as the first guy, I just had to see what would happen lol. I done a bit of looking around and the above info about using the D0 and A15 points is mentioned on a few sites, but I always confirm info here now I found the group. Did the recovery method work for you? I'll post my results when I try the same. 

Mainly just glad I'm not the only one who did this.

[syndicator]

I did the same thing to a version 1.0 board

[monblondero]

Hello
I have xbox ver 1.0, after unsuccessful tsop.
The black screen turns on, I have an aladdin chip.
I know that the topic has already been, can someone describe step by step how to program the chip and what?
Gentoox + tsop_m7.bin of course recorded it on the CD?

Edited August 19, 2018 by monblondero
Dash starts on aladdin, but I would like to regain access to tsop. Gentoox I flashed the chip, I inserted the tsop_m7.bin batch into the xchanger 2.5 chip and now the console does not start on the chip does not appear the menu is black screen. I uploaded

[KaosEngineer]

After you TSOP a softmodded console, you have to go back and remove the softmod files from the HDD. 

Boot HeXEn 2017/2018 disc to remove the softmod.

You cannot have both a modchip or TSOP flashed with a custom BIOS and HDD with softmod installed at the same time.  Both modding methods clash with each other and generally result in a BLACK screen when the dashboard tries to start.

[Theodore Le Clerc]

Also, I've heard the video format changes and all you see is black screen. Maybe it's your video adapter?remember xbox  has 2 different  adapters, I think  you need the low definition adapter.

[monblondero]

I already have a black screen, how to program an xchanger if it has a tsop_m7 bank deleted?