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Understanding the Banks switches on X3


vicicarus
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Thank you in advance for any and all help provided,

So I installed a X3 chip along with the LCD face plate that has USB on my v1.0 Xbox (not windbond/Sharp). I managed to flash bios to the chip but I am unsure of how to understand the bank switches. Bios checker always show unknown bios.

I get Evox Bios to load when all 4 switches lights are on.

I get X3 Bios to load when switch # 2 lights is on.

Every other switch combination my Xbox just powers cycles on/off 3 times with power button flashing before it shuts down. I can't even get to the flash Bios menu anymore. So my questions are....

Question 1: On the face plate are my switches are ON if they light up or are they OFF if no light is on! Is this correct? I don't see the on/off wording on it.

Question 2: How do I determine where to flash a Bios? 256k/512k/1MB/2MB?

Question 3: The graph description below shows what bank you are on depending on the switch combination, yes?
 

 256k Bank
Bank 1: on on on on
Bank 2: off on on on
Bank 3: on off on on
Bank 4: off off on on
Bank 5: on on off on
Bank 6: off on off on
Bank 7: on off off on
Bank 8: off off off on

512k Bank
Bank 12: on on on off
Bank 34: off on on off
Bank 56: on off on off
Bank 78: off off on off

1MB Bank
Bank 1234: on on off off
Bank 5678: off on off off

2MB Bank
Bank 12345678: off off off off

 

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Here is a link to the X3 manual

https://1fichier.com/?49xvyoulamf8rjc8e5ru

 

Try sw 1,2 on 3,4 off

To power on with the chip active I find a quick tap (1/2 second) on the power button and to get to the X3 menu hold both the power and eject until after the animation.

 

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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2 hours ago, vicicarus said:

Bios checker always show unknown bios.

This application is a horrible program to use to I.D. an Xbox BIOS.  To I.D. a BIOS, it has to have the MD5 hashes for each and every variant of a BIOS stored in its Bioses.ini file.  Since updates to the program's configuration file stopped before the latest BIOSes for the Xbox were released, many values are not present in that file; therfore, Unknown is displayed for those without a hash present.

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The bank switches (1-4) and Protect switch on the X3CP have the same function as the standard X3 switchboard:

Bank Number(s): SW1 SW2 SW3 SW4

256k Banks

  • Bank 1: on on on on
  • Bank 2: off on on on
  • Bank 3: on off on on
  • Bank 4: off off on on
  • Bank 5: on on off on
  • Bank 6: off on off on
  • Bank 7: on off off on
  • Bank 8: off off off on

512k Bank

  • Bank 12: on on on off
  • Bank 34: off on on off
  • Bank 56: on off on off
  • Bank 78: off off on off

1MB Bank

  • Bank 1234: on on off off (Set to this when flashing a 1MB X3 BIOS to the modchip.)
  • Bank 5678: off on off off

2MB Bank

  • Bank 12345678: off off off off

Each bank is 256KBs in size.  When multiple numbers are displayed several of these 256KB banks are used as one larger-sized bank to hold a BIOS.  Most modified Xbox BIOSes have a base size of 256KBs; however, a couple - Team Xecuter's X2 5035 is 512KBs and their X3 BIOSes are  1MB in size.

 

Protect switch enables/disables the ability to flash the modchip. 

 

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Thank you for the reply @SS_Dave

 The manual does display the bank switches settings/combinations but not for the face plate with the LED and LCD, I apologize if I didn't mention it was the xecuter x3 panel. At least I didn't see an illustration of panel on/off positions. I can confirm that if the LED switch lit (light on) then the switch is set to the ON position. I loaded into the X3 settings by holding the white button on the controller when I turned on the Xbox. I then used the flash Bios option in the settings. I flash a Bios to bank 5 and then I tried the buttons combinations lights on/off. That is how I figured what is the on/off position of the LED switch. But as to flashing Bios to a specific bank. I do understand that different Bios can have different a advantages/disadvantages. Should a certain Bios be linked to a specific bank because of the banks size

Example: "The X3 1959 Bios (a.k.a X3_1959.bin / X3_1959_v16.bin) is a 1MB Bios" or because of a advantages/disadvantage?

Thank you @KaosEngineer also for replying,

I see why that would display the information in that manner. I was trying to use it to get familiar with the Xbox hardware/software. Since tool was available I figured I would try it out. shame.....

 

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Most Xbox BIOSes are 256KBs in size.  The rev 1.0 and 1.1 versions of the motherboard have a 1MB flash memory chip that holds 4 copies of the BIOS - 256KB x 4 to fill the 1MB flash chip.  Later revisions of the motherboard, v1.2-1.4, only have a 256KB flash chip installed.  You need to know the base size of a BIOS to know which bank size to select.  

Some of the BIOSes are distributed as single copy <name>.bin files.  But, some 256KB BIOSes may be found in 512KB or 1MB sized <name>.bin files.  Those are simply multiple copies of the BIOS joined together in a larger file.

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The 3 main BIOS files are the Ind-5004.67 (256kb), X2-5035.67 (512kb), EvoxM8plus.67 (256kb) they all support up to a 3tb(2.2tb useable).

The EvoxM8 you set it's features with EVtools and the other 2 have a config files on the hard drive.

On m X3 chip I only have the one bios and have not found a need for any others.

 

The X3CP uses the same X3 chip it just has the LCD added and the nice front panel

 

 

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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The 1 meg is just 4 copies of the same bios in 1 file (256 X 4 =1024 )

Here is the EvoxM8plus_67 bios file, the 67 is for partition 6 and 7 ( partition 6 is F drive with 7 been G drive)

https://1fichier.com/?1a5i1ttf85jrh5an7nu7

 

Here is the EVtool program as well.

https://1fichier.com/?7nflp98ojyszcxtq54aw

 

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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