HDD/OS upgrade for a working 1.6A Xbox with a Super Aladdin Live modchip

[Mave_rick]

After much reading I think I found the answer to my flashing issues, 

A few posts ago, I wrote what the xbox views my chip as: 

SST-49LF002A

But the label on the chip says SST-49LF020A, are these two chips very different? 

 

[sweetdarkdestiny]

Yes they are different (Even they have the same pinout).

• flash = 0xbf52,"SST SST49LF020A",0x40000;
• flash = 0xdab0,"SST SST49LF020A",0x40000;
• flash = 0xbf57,"SST - 49LF002A / 49LF002B",0x40000;

There is a topic in a german board about that problem and here on ogxbox are also 2 or 3 of them. BUT I assume that the modchip is old. SO maybe someone swapped out the old SST in the past? You are not be able to flash that chip with evox or xblast because of the miss match.

The only option is to flash the SST with an external programmer. Sry.

 

8 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

Cool,  But, the BIOS that boots from their modchip doesn't have LBA48 v2 or later support.  I wanted him to check how the HDD is formatted without booting OGXbox Installer 2021 that does have LBA48 v2 support.

SAME ON ME! Mea culpa Kaos. Mea maxima culpa.

Edited December 8, 2021 by sweetdarkdestiny

[Mave_rick]

No worries, I have ordered this replacement modchip. Lucky New Zealand have them in stock! 

I might replace the whole modchip rather than just pull out the square bio chip. Looks like the new one is an SST-49LF020 (fingers crossed they aren't telling lies!!) 

[KaosEngineer]

2 hours ago, sweetdarkdestiny said:

flash = 0xdab0,"SST SST49LF020A",0x40000;

There's already a flash ID value for the SST49LF020A:

• flash = 0xbf52,"SST SST49LF020A",0x40000;

so 0xdab0 can't be for it too.

From Hexen 2018's evox.ini file

• Flash = 0xdab0,"Winbond W49V002A",0x40000

and verified from Winbond's datasheets, the flash memory chip with the manufacturerID of 0xda and product ID of 0xb0 (0xdab0) is their W49V002A 256K x 8 CMOS FLASH MEMORY WITH LPC INTERFACE.

 

 

[KaosEngineer]

The SST49LF020A states

Two Operational Modes
– Low Pin Count (LPC) Interface mode for
in-system operation
– Parallel Programming (PP) Mode for fast production
programming
• LPC Interface Mode
– 5-signal communication interface supporting
byte Read and Write
– 33 MHz clock frequency operation
– WP# and TBL# pins provide hardware write protect
for entire chip and/or top boot block
– Standard SDP Command Set
– Data# Polling and Toggle Bit for End-of-Write
detection
– 5 GPI pins for system design flexibility
– 4 ID pins for multi-chip selection

while the SST49LF002A states:

• Two Operational Modes
– Firmware Hub Interface (FWH) Mode for
in-system operation
– Parallel Programming (PP) Mode for fast
production programming
• Firmware Hub Hardware Interface Mode
– 5-signal communication interface supporting
byte Read and Write
– 33 MHz clock frequency operation
– WP# and TBL# pins provide hardware write
protect for entire chip and/or top Boot Block
– Block Locking Register for all blocks
– Standard SDP Command Set
– Data# Polling and Toggle Bit for End-of-Write
detection
– 5 GPI pins for system design flexibility
– 4 ID pins for multi-chip selection

The 020A supports read/write and flashing operations using an Low pin-count (LPC) interface while the 002A is to be used with an Intel 82802 Firmware Hub (FWH) device.

I need to dig a bit deeper into the differences, if any, between these two interface types: LPC and FWH. 

[sweetdarkdestiny]

The 0xdab0 is for SST49LF020A and the W49V002A also because, they are the same chips according to Warlocks post in his form : https://htmh.de/forum/thread/41-sst-49lf020a-49lf002b-flashen/?postID=1690 (Maybe he's wrong)

HeXEn states : Flash = 0xdab0,"Winbond W49V002A",0x40000 and Warlock names the same value for SST49LF020A.

And I found that : https://mechaman999.proboards.com/thread/101/type-aladdin-chip

The MAYBE only chance to flash those FAKES with the xbox is (I guess (HUGE GUESS!)) if some with the right skill could rewrite/change Sunday flasher or xflash (source code available) for example or raincoat

 

FAKE CHIPS SUCKz

 

 

Edited December 8, 2021 by sweetdarkdestiny

[KaosEngineer]

Oh boy, these two interfaces have completely different read and write cycles.

Even though both use 5 pins

• LPC: LAD[3:0] and LFRAME#
• FWH: FWH[3:0] and FWH4

The data loaded on the LAD[3:0] or FWH[3:0] for the two different chips for the START of a write cycle are completely different, 0000 (020A) vs. 1110 (002A), and the most of the values loaded for the many of the following 16 clock cycles for one write cycle have completely different meanings. 

During clock cycle 2, the LPC device has the CYCTYPE+DIR bit pattern loaded onto the LAD[3:0] pins (011X binary for a write operation, X indicates a don't care bit. It can be either a 0 or a 1.) while with the 002A the FWH[3:0] pins are loaded with an IDSEL value between 0000 to 1111 binary to match the binary pattern set on the ID[3:0] pins of the chip.  One of a bank of 16 possible 49LF002A flash memory chips can selected for the write operation.

The LPC device loads a 32-bit address across the next 8 clock cycles (cycles 3-10) while the FHW chip loads a 28-bit address across cycles 3-9 and always is to have the value 0000 set on the FWH[3:0] pins during the 10th clock cycle.  The next two clock cycles for both interfaces have two nibbles (4-bits) loaded that are the byte to be written to the selected address.  Then, the remaining 5 clock cyles have the same values loaded to their associated pins for both types of interfaces: 1111 , 1111 (float), flash memory chip outputs 0000 then 1111 to the LAD[3:0] or FWH[3:0] pins, host (float) then 1111 in for the end of the cycle. (a bit confusing here at first glance). 

Edit: I don't think I've summarized these last few cycles correctly.

Once the chip has a byte of data written, it lets the LPC inteface know that it has accepted the data then the LPC interface again takes control of the bus before starting the next operation cycle.

No wonder an SST49LF002A fails to be programmed by the Xbox's LPC bus.

 

Edit: At least from the very short time I compared the read and write cycles for the SST49LF020A and SST49LF002A flash memory chips, they are very different.  However, I see that evoxdash and other Xbox flashing utilities can flash both types of chips.  That is as long as the chips are properly ID'ing themselves so the correct algorithm is used.

 

 

[Mave_rick]

Good news, I installed a new modchip. Got myself the Aliddin XT Plus2, and I guess it came with a bios that recognised my HDD setup straight away. 

I've started filling the hard drive with my Xbox games I own. n00b question, changing/updating the bios doesn't change the file paths for games or emulators etc? 

Has anyone run two modchiped xboxs and and done system link to play 6 - 8 player Halo 2? Just wondering if there is anything I need to think about 

[colinmcm]

any luck wirh the fake chip.   I got 2 in two xboxs.   got the chips from amazon and the chips wont update.   manufacture says 57.   original should be 52.

[Mave_rick]

On 1/14/2022 at 9:27 AM, colinmcm said:

any luck wirh the fake chip

No luck sorry, the fake chip just wasn't able to be flashed, I resorted to just buying a new modchip (Aladdin XT Plus2), if you are NZ based this website is amazing: 
https://www.modchips.co.nz/59-modding-tools

Otherwise eBay will have plenty of modchips to choose from. It will be your easiest option.