Jump to content
OGXbox.com

Aladdin Advance Enable Permanently


amak79
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi.

I recently picked up a 1.4 Xbox that has an Aladdin Advance modchip installed. It was flashed with X2 4981.67_256k.bin (MD5 b6eb9fb7b79795c962b7f998ee4a8694). It's now flashed with EvoX M8+ since the X2 BIOS doesn't support LBA48.

I discovered that the modchip D0 point was attached the top side D0 point on the motherboard, and was held in place with tape. This wasn't very reliable since even a small nudge could disable the chip. I soldered the underside D0 point to the motherboard ground instead, and now it works every time.

I have one issue left and that is to enable the modchip permanently. I believe I'm supposed to bridge the modchip BT point to the modchip ground (bottom left pin in the image below). I detached the BT wire on the modchip but not on the motherboard, and I didn't touch the L1 and L2 wires. Unfortunately it didn't work. The XBox boots with a black screen and no sound.

655819790_AladdinAdvance.thumb.jpg.c3fd5912eead633b7a687376fd82e726.jpg

I undid the BT bridge and now the modchip is in the state it was when I got it, except for the D0 point.

Can someone please explain how I'm supposed to enable the modchip permanently?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't have the answer for it but I ran into the same issue like you 2 days ago with the same modchip (Tagget as Super Aladdin, installed in 2005 like the owner told me).

I ended up to leave L1 & BT atteched because everthing I tried ended up in a not booting console. Just for security I also flashed the TSOP on that console. NOw he has a multi bios coinsle. :D

So maybe TSOP flashing the XBox and removing the chip is a thing you should consider.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's unfortunate. I guess I'll just leave it as is.

The main reason I want to enable the modchip permanently is because I noticed the IGR differs between the X2 and EvoX M8+. With the X2 IGR would always return to the dashboard (UnleashX). However, EvoX M8+ seems to do a hard reset and returns to the MS dashboard. I figured this was because my modchip wasn't enabled permanently.

Also, thank you for OGXBox Installer 2021. It's been very helpful with getting my Xbox updated.

Edit: The IGR appears to work now. Not sure what I did. Very strange.

Edited by amak79
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, amak79 said:

Hi.

I recently picked up a 1.4 Xbox that has an Aladdin Advance modchip installed. It was flashed with X2 4981.67_256k.bin (MD5 b6eb9fb7b79795c962b7f998ee4a8694). It's now flashed with EvoX M8+ since the X2 BIOS doesn't support LBA48.

I discovered that the modchip D0 point was attached the top side D0 point on the motherboard, and was held in place with tape. This wasn't very reliable since even a small nudge could disable the chip. I soldered the underside D0 point to the motherboard ground instead, and now it works every time.

I have one issue left and that is to enable the modchip permanently. I believe I'm supposed to bridge the modchip BT point to the modchip ground (bottom left pin in the image below). I detached the BT wire on the modchip but not on the motherboard, and I didn't touch the L1 and L2 wires. Unfortunately it didn't work. The XBox boots with a black screen and no sound.

655819790_AladdinAdvance.thumb.jpg.c3fd5912eead633b7a687376fd82e726.jpg

I undid the BT bridge and now the modchip is in the state it was when I got it, except for the D0 point.

Can someone please explain how I'm supposed to enable the modchip permanently?

Add the link from BT to ground as per the green line and remove the blue wire that is currently on BT

At the minimum you remove the wire with the black arrow, I would also remove the two wires with the white arrows, Don't remove the wire with the Yellow arrow.

655819790-Aladdin-Advance-thumb.jpg

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

  • Confused 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, SS_Dave said:

Add the link from BT to ground as per the green line and remove the blue wire that is currently on BT

At the minimum you remove the wire with the black arrow, I would also remove the two wires with the white arrows, Don't remove the wire with the Yellow arrow.

The wire with the yellow arrow is actually detached in the image so it's not doing anything. I've connected the underside/alt D0 point to the motherboard ground instead.

I can try again with L1 and L2 detached from the modchip. I will report back in a couple of days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, amak79 said:

I can try again with L1 and L2 detached from the modchip. I will report back in a couple of days.

Can you post a pic of where the wire on L2 (White wire) is going?

 

I tested this one that someone tried to remove from a board but as it was soldered direct to the board they damaged both the chip and the board.

On the 1.0 I tested it on as long as the D0 point on the main board is grounded it loads the bios on the modchip even with DO, BT, L1, L2 not connected on the chip (so just like you see it in this pic )

Aladdin-salvage-chip.jpg

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, sweetdarkdestiny said:

That ain't work Dave.

He tried that and me tried that also. BT to point 2 on the Aladdin and alt DO to GND = no boot. And DO to Aladdin results also in a non booting console.

Strange

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, SS_Dave said:

Can you post a pic of where the wire on L2 (White wire) is going?

 

I tested this one that someone tried to remove from a board but as it was soldered direct to the board they damaged both the chip and the board.

On the 1.0 I tested it on as long as the D0 point on the main board is grounded it loads the bios on the modchip even with DO, BT, L1, L2 not connected on the chip (so just like you see it in this pic )

The white wire (L2) goes through one of the header holes and connects to one of the pins on the IDE socket.

I will try with BT not connected. I only tried with it grounded.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, amak79 said:

I detached the BT wire from the modchip and left the L1 and L2 wires, and now the modchip is always enabled.

Thank you very much for the help.

Good to here 

L1 is to change the eject led colour when the chip is active so you didn't jump on Xbox Live and get banned for having a modded Xbox and L2 is supposed to flash the eject led when the HDD is active I think.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I've encountered another problem. I tried to launch OGXBox Installer 2021 from the dashboard, but after the initial loading splash screen I got a black screen and there was no reads from the DVD drive. After 10 mins I turned the Xbox off. Now when it boots I just get the blue Xbox logo and the dashboard doesn't load. On some boots I get a black screen and no Xbox logo. I can't even boot OGXBox Installer 2021.

Edit: I reattached the BT wire and it boots successfully even when the power button isn't held down for 1 sec. This is very strange.

Edited by amak79
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It looks like the clock cap may still be there?? as I can see the legs of the cap (Red circle)

82091080-Motherboard1-thumb.jpg

Can you upload a close up of the yellow box and the solder work on the LPC port?

Also can you test the BT on the mod chip and it should be around 3 volt until you press the power button and if you hold the power button it should be around 0 volt and stay at 3 volt if you power on with the Eject button.

 

I would also resolder at least the spots marked as they look a bit suspect.

655819790-Aladdin-Advance-thumb.jpg

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, amak79 said:

I removed the clock capacitor but one of the legs was very stubborn and it snapped off.

That fine. If you add some fresh 60/40 solder and flux then you should be able to remove the leg and the use solder wick to remove the solder from the holes not that it's going to matter it's just for looks.

The solder joints don't look up to scratch partially the ones in red.

Add some flux then reheat each joint and it should flow better

447-LPCPort.jpg

They look like a cold joint with insufficient wetting and the bottom left has too much solder.

 

767366777_Commonsolderproblems.thumb.jpg.27a83262c99d95388a4a04e530fc452e.jpg

As for the traces they look good.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I re-soldered the LPC and modchip pins and they look much better now. I had some trouble with the LPC pin next to R7R4. I couldn't get the solder to attach to the pin, even with flux. I managed to solder it but it has too much solder.

The Xbox boots with a single press. This is with the BT wire attached to the modchip. To confirm, this is correct behavior? I shouldn't need to hold down the power button even with the BT wire attached to the modchip?

I have a digital multimeter to test the BT voltage. To do this, I should put one probe on BT and the other on a ground point?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BT voltage testing results.

* Xbox off -> 3.26v.

* Single press of power button -> 3.26v. Eject LED is solid green.

* Holding down power button -> 0v until released and then 3.26v. Eject LED is solid orange.

* Single press of eject button -> 3.26v. Eject LED flashes green then solid green once the dashboard is loaded.

The modchip is enabled in every instance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, amak79 said:

BT voltage testing results.

* Xbox off -> 3.26v.

* Single press of power button -> 3.26v. Eject LED is solid green.

* Holding down power button -> 0v until released and then 3.26v. Eject LED is solid orange.

* Single press of eject button -> 3.26v. Eject LED flashes green then solid green once the dashboard is loaded.

The modchip is enabled in every instance.

 

It sound like the chip is working correctly.

The orange led is when the write protection is turned off so you can update the bios if need be.

If the D0 from the board was connected to the mod chip D0 point instead of been grounded then powering on with the eject button would cause it to load the original bios and that way you could use Xbox live without getting banned as the Xbox would appaired to be un-modded.

I would give a test for day or two of normal power on off cycles, but it sounds like it's fixed.

 

Edit: As you have the D0 linked direct to ground the chip is always active so that's fixed the original question.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

Board Life Status


Board startup date: April 23, 2017 12:45:48
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.