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Screwed the Pooch.


farrdeamer
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OK... Long story - have a older Xbox (pre 1.6, mf 2002) which years and years ago I installed an Xecutor 2 and unlocked the drive, installed new dash etc.

Unfortunately after removing the clock cap, I played one game and the HDD developed a hard fault. Bought a new SATA drive for it (and adapter), found Hexen 2018 and used it to remake the OS. Booted fine, but couldn't see the larger drive (0bytes shown free). 

 

Ah! thought I, maybe I need to flash the XEcutor 2 with a new BIOS to let it see a larger drive.

Out comes the Hexen disc again, and I used option 3 (flash), chose an 1.1-1.5 BIOS 256k and pressed to update.

After completing, it shut down... and won't startup!

I guess I wrote an incompatible BIOS (or it wrote it to the machine).

Any ideas how I can breathe life back into the machine? 

 

Tried booting - after it tries to boot 3 times I get red/green flashing.

Tried unplugging the XEcutor from the board, I get a red ring of death (red flashing).

Tried unplugging the drive and plugging other drives in (it was unlocked).

I believe there is a copy of the flash on the HDD (but I can't read it!).

During my initial recovery, I have a copy of XBINS site, so I have all the tools on there (just that it is nearly 20 years since I used any of the tools and setup an XBOX!)....

 

Thanks for any help...

 

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13 hours ago, farrdeamer said:

OK... Long story - have a older Xbox (pre 1.6, mf 2002) which years and years ago I installed an Xecutor 2 and unlocked the drive, installed new dash etc.

Unfortunately after removing the clock cap, I played one game and the HDD developed a hard fault. Bought a new SATA drive for it (and adapter), found Hexen 2018 and used it to remake the OS. Booted fine, but couldn't see the larger drive (0bytes shown free). 

 

Ah! thought I, maybe I need to flash the XEcutor 2 with a new BIOS to let it see a larger drive.

Out comes the Hexen disc again, and I used option 3 (flash), chose an 1.1-1.5 BIOS 256k and pressed to update.

After completing, it shut down... and won't startup!

I guess I wrote an incompatible BIOS (or it wrote it to the machine).

Any ideas how I can breathe life back into the machine? 

 

Tried booting - after it tries to boot 3 times I get red/green flashing.

Tried unplugging the XEcutor from the board, I get a red ring of death (red flashing).

Tried unplugging the drive and plugging other drives in (it was unlocked).

I believe there is a copy of the flash on the HDD (but I can't read it!).

During my initial recovery, I have a copy of XBINS site, so I have all the tools on there (just that it is nearly 20 years since I used any of the tools and setup an XBOX!)....

 

Thanks for any help...

 

try removing the modchip, d0 ground, and all cables(including ide) but only leave the front panel and psu connected along with the a/v cable and turn on the xbox. does it start with the normal splash screen and then go to an error 7 screen? also try connecting both the original and the new hdd's to your pc and run crystal disk info. what does it say about the health of the drive? by any chance, did u put new thermal paste under the heatsinks? don't if u haven't already.

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On 9/25/2020 at 9:06 AM, SS_Dave said:

Have you tried to boot the Hexen disk again with the new hard drive.

And what BIOS are you  using, What size HDD is the new drive

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

-

 

Hi - The system won't boot - when I leave the Xecutor2 connected it shows red flashing ring (DVD drive and HDD spin up, but black screen). If I remove the Xecutor, the system 'starts up' 3 times then I get a red/green flashing ring (still black screen). No idea what BIOS I'm afraid - I thought I had flashed it using the Hexen disc to the 256 Xecutor one but looks like I didn't...

Any thoughts?

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On 9/25/2020 at 12:15 PM, bulkchart32 said:

try removing the modchip, d0 ground, and all cables(including ide) but only leave the front panel and psu connected along with the a/v cable and turn on the xbox. does it start with the normal splash screen and then go to an error 7 screen? also try connecting both the original and the new hdd's to your pc and run crystal disk info. what does it say about the health of the drive? by any chance, did u put new thermal paste under the heatsinks? don't if u haven't already.

Thanks. Did that and just get a red flashing ring (black screen) (it was working fine before the flash). Original HDD is failing, new HDD is OK.  No:)  I was going to sort out the heatsinks after all this !

 

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49 minutes ago, farrdeamer said:

Thanks. Did that and just get a red flashing ring (black screen) (it was working fine before the flash). Original HDD is failing, new HDD is OK.  No:)  I was going to sort out the heatsinks after all this !

 

best to leave the heatsinks alone if u haven't already disturbed them. if u are just getting a black screen after trying this then u have hardware problems somewhere on the motherboard. with everything unhooked, u should get the normal splash screen and an error 7 screen afterwards. what kind of cables are u using to connect it to the tv. yellow, white and red? are u certain that u did not flash the on board tsop chip? did u remove the board from the case and make certain that the d0 point has been removed? also, does it have any bulging capacitors?

Edited by bulkchart32
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7 hours ago, farrdeamer said:

Hi - The system won't boot - when I leave the Xecutor2 connected it shows red flashing ring (DVD drive and HDD spin up, but black screen). If I remove the Xecutor, the system 'starts up' 3 times then I get a red/green flashing ring (still black screen). No idea what BIOS I'm afraid - I thought I had flashed it using the Hexen disc to the 256 Xecutor one but looks like I didn't...

Any thoughts?

With the modchip removed and the drives (DVD, HDD) disconnected the Xbox should boot with the flubber animation and then display a service required screen with a error number

Also the D0 wire may have been dislodged from the main board especially when it soldered to the top of the board while you have been working on it or the chip has not been soldered correctly and has a bad solder joint.

Can you post a pic of the main board.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

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13 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said:

Evox BIOS instead of dashboard for 1.0-1.5 256KB in size

That will cause a problem if he used the No DVD EvoxM8 from the 2020 hexen as it stops the DVD drive from loading but it can still boot from the HDD and should not cause a fragging.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

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On 9/29/2020 at 2:53 PM, bulkchart32 said:

best to leave the heatsinks alone if u haven't already disturbed them. if u are just getting a black screen after trying this then u have hardware problems somewhere on the motherboard. with everything unhooked, u should get the normal splash screen and an error 7 screen afterwards. what kind of cables are u using to connect it to the tv. yellow, white and red? are u certain that u did not flash the on board tsop chip? did u remove the board from the case and make certain that the d0 point has been removed? also, does it have any bulging capacitors?

Thanks - No I didn't touch the chips. I am using the yellow/white red but getting no signal (same cable works with another xbox I borrowed and without changing TV input). No bulging caps (I previously removed the clock cap although that was looking OK). I can't see anything on the D0 underneath. There is a small grey and black cable which has a header which connects to the modchip, but I disconnected it from the modchip so it isn't doing anything. (see photos)

I also wondered if I managed to flash the onboard TSOP too (not watching what I was doing no doubt) - is there a way to re-flash it in this state or is it now dead?

20200930_175130.jpg

20200930_175021.jpg

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I am guessing it's a version 1.1 board

The gray wire in the 2 pin plug is the D0

The chance of flashing the TSOP is low, As what ever chip it boots from TSOP or Modchip thats the chip that gets flashed, and to flash the TSOP it need 2 links on the board like this one (black Circle) and there is also one on the bottom

IMG_20200729_193247.thumb.jpg.5bbc928f9c4c72810c38e5f9b7999918.jpg

With the way the board is now without the modchip and the gray wire disconnected it should boot and then display a service required screen unless it has a bad onboard BIOS and that's why the chip has been fitted.

I would plug a new chip on the board with the gray wire linked to ground and it should work.

 

It also looks like it was modded to have a power button in a controller.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

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4 hours ago, farrdeamer said:

Thanks - No I didn't touch the chips. I am using the yellow/white red but getting no signal (same cable works with another xbox I borrowed and without changing TV input). No bulging caps (I previously removed the clock cap although that was looking OK). I can't see anything on the D0 underneath. There is a small grey and black cable which has a header which connects to the modchip, but I disconnected it from the modchip so it isn't doing anything. (see photos)

I also wondered if I managed to flash the onboard TSOP too (not watching what I was doing no doubt) - is there a way to re-flash it in this state or is it now dead?

20200930_175130.jpg

20200930_175021.jpg

i can't really make out much from those pictures. can u take some better pics and upload them to imugr.com and post the link here? by any chance, do u have access to another working modded xbox that u can take parts from to temporarily test your system with?

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Thanks Dave.

The board USED to work OK without the modchip (although it WAS when it was new in c. 2002 when I fitted it!) - so I guess it could have gone bad and maybe my flahsing incorrectly the modchip it foobared it... 

And yes, I fitted a power link - well spotted!

 

What's a good modchip to get nowadays?

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18 hours ago, bulkchart32 said:

i can't really make out much from those pictures. can u take some better pics and upload them to imugr.com and post the link here? by any chance, do u have access to another working modded xbox that u can take parts from to temporarily test your system with?

Thanks - I'll see what a new Modchip does (maybe I killed this one and the onboard flash died) - it was working fine before though so maybe it s the modchip (fingers crossed!)...

 

I think it a V1 board (single row of power connector pins) - I am borrowing another unit which has a different board layout and has 2 rows of pins for the power - not sure what I can swap over?

 

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48 minutes ago, farrdeamer said:

Thanks - I'll see what a new Modchip does (maybe I killed this one and the onboard flash died) - it was working fine before though so maybe it s the modchip (fingers crossed!)...

 

I think it a V1 board (single row of power connector pins) - I am borrowing another unit which has a different board layout and has 2 rows of pins for the power - not sure what I can swap over?

 

swap over the modchip and all the cables and drives and see if the xbox will boot and work correctly. this is to rule out the problem being on the motherboard itself. be certain that u connect d0 to ground. leave the power supplies in each system.

Edited by bulkchart32
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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi all, so my Ebay purchased Aladdin XT PLUS2 arrived finally. Installed it and it boots! 

HOWEVER..

I just killed it! (yes, I know, I shouldn't be let near a modchip!)..

 

I'm trying to use a new HDD in the system (2TB) - I updated the drive cable. wrote a Hexen2018 disc and booted from it - tried to wipe an old (small) drive and this worked. Hexen then booted and I chose to install EvoX dashboard to F.  rebooted. continues to boot to the original dash, and when I insert the Hexen disc, it runs for a while then sits on a black screen cycling the LEDs.

OK I thought, lets' try reformatting the drive on a PC and trying again. I got to the Hexen Menu, and thought (again) to reflash the BIOS on the chip to allow it to use the LBA48 featue so I can actually then use my 2TB drive.... )it comes pre-installed with Evox M8+ which looks like it doesn't recognise the larger drives)  Chose the Flash (modchip) options. Chose X2 256K flash. installed OK and shut down the XBOX....

Now I just get a red flashing LED! 

Is there an easy way to re-flash this. and if so which BIOS (with LBA support)!

 

Thanks again (sorry, it's been 19 years since I last worked on this poor thing)...

 

Edited by farrdeamer
Wrong modchip name
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Red Flashing is still repairable in most cases.

814654469_Xboxerrorleds.jpg.4a41baa066368586bceb1b8b1c579850.jpg

The easiest way to reflash the modchip is the hot swap method in a working Xbox, or buy another Aladdin chip and then you can fix the one you have and have a spare for the next Xbox.

As it's a 256kb BIOS I would use the EvoxM plus.67.bin or the iND 5004.67.bin with both supporting upto a 3tb hard drive

The Evox is my goto as it doesn't need a config file on the HDD but the iND5004 is good for ram upgraded boards.


 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

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