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Softmod/TSOP/Xecuter 2.6ce


Yoinx
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So, I wasn't really sure which forum to post this in since the question will touch multiple categories.

I have an xbox 1.6 which had an xecuter2.6ce that I installed in it many years ago. At the time, I flashed both banks with evoXM8+_16 as a "just in case one of the banks corrupts". I had also bought the programmer for these back then... unfortunately, I didn't keep a computer with a parallel port :( 

That Xbox ended up freezing up a lot and dieing. So, I figured I would try to move the modchip to a backup Xbox I have (daughter's autistic and playing on this is part of her daily routine... you keep backups...) Unfortunately, this backup Xbox is a 1.4. I had a mishap with some traces on the 1.6 while moving the modchip, so going back to reflash anything isn't an option. I'm an Electronics Tech by trade, and am no stranger to soldering... so I'm a bit ashamed of the trace damages and don't really want to elaborate. So, I have no access to a parallel port, IDE cables on a computer (mine only has SATA ports now), or the original 1.6 xbox.

I ended up going to a local vintage game shop and got myself a copy of Splinter Cell as I plan on softmodding the 1.4 console, then probably TSOP-ing it so that I can install a larger harddrive (or just move the HD over from the 1.6 as I know it at least works fine with the Xbox). 

My question before starting this process is this: Is there someway with either the softmoded or TSOP flashed Xbox 1.4 to install the Xecuter2.6CE chip and reflash it? I was thinking that maybe it would be possible to boot the xbox with the chip disabled (via the control switches) then maybe enable it once everything's booted and flash it. Basically, I'd like to reflash this chip to evoxM8+ on one bank and evoxM8+_16 on the other or maybe flashbios on one, just in case this unit dies in the future that I can just reuse the modchip in another if needed. Unfortunately the prices on modchips has increased quite a bit, so replacing it with a fresh one isn't really an option right now.

I figured I should ask here before I started doing all of this and doing something out of order. I'll probably go ahead and do the softmod though since I know that'll have to be done for anything else.

 

Thanks in advance.

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You can hotswap modchips to flash them. I flashed an X2.0 Pro that way. Ground d0 so chips are always on. Boot with any working modchip. Put Xblast and your preferred bios on your HDD. Launch xblast, pull the working modchip, put in the 2.6, then flash the new BIOS.

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5 hours ago, Yoinx said:

I have an xbox 1.6 which had an xecuter2.6ce that I installed in it many years ago. At the time, I flashed both banks with evoXM8+_16 as a "just in case one of the banks corrupts". I had also bought the programmer for these back then... unfortunately, I didn't keep a computer with a parallel port :( 

Evox M8plus 1.6 BIOS will work on all versions of the Xbox.  But not the other way around. The v1.0-1.4 Xbox version will not work on a v1.6 Xbox.

It is however recommended to reflash the BIOS meant for your particular version after you have it running.

Install the modchip in the v1.4 Xbox then power on with an installer disc loaded. Boot it to install a replacement dashboard and other applications (e.g., OGXbox Installer 2021 - v1.5.4).

 

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4 hours ago, brooselee said:

You can hotswap modchips to flash them.

Thanks, I figured that this was probably the case.

3 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

Evox M8plus 1.6 BIOS will work on all versions of the Xbox.  But not the other way around. The v1.0-1.4 Xbox version will not work on a v1.6 Xbox.

It is however recommended to reflash the BIOS meant for your particular version after you have it running.

Install the modchip in the v1.4 Xbox then power on with an installer disc loaded. Boot it to install a replacement dashboard and other applications (e.g., OGXbox Installer 2021 - v1.5.4).

 

Appreciate the answer. I wonder if I just did something wrong installing the modchip in the 1.4 when I tried. It wouldn't boot off of it so I assumed that the 1.6 version wasn't backwards compatible. I'll give it another try and see if I can't get anything loaded from the installer disc. Thanks for the link as well!

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1 hour ago, Yoinx said:

Appreciate the answer. I wonder if I just did something wrong installing the modchip in the 1.4 when I tried. It wouldn't boot off of it so I assumed that the 1.6 version wasn't backwards compatible. I'll give it another try and see if I can't get anything loaded from the installer disc. Thanks for the link as well!

After installing the modchip, what happens when powering on the console?

 

11 hours ago, Yoinx said:

My question before starting this process is this: Is there someway with either the softmoded or TSOP flashed Xbox 1.4 to install the Xecuter2.6CE chip and reflash it? I was thinking that maybe it would be possible to boot the xbox with the chip disabled (via the control switches) then maybe enable it once everything's booted and flash it. Basically, I'd like to reflash this chip to evoxM8+ on one bank and evoxM8+_16 on the other or maybe flashbios on one, just in case this unit dies in the future that I can just reuse the modchip in another if needed. Unfortunately the prices on modchips has increased quite a bit, so replacing it with a fresh one isn't really an option right now.

Installing the modchip is all that is needed to allow you to run unsigned applications.  Replacement dashboards, media players, backups, emulators, etc. 

To install a replacement dashboard, boot a user-burned Xbox installer disc.

As to your question:

If the console is softmoddd, the modchip's flash memory chip cannot be accessed to reflash a different BIOS to it.  A softmod boots the console using the BIOS on the motherboard's TSOP flash memory chip.  You can use conductive paint to bridge the write-enable locations on your motherboard version to reflash it but not the modchip's BIOS.  Doing so is essentially the same thing aa installing a modchip. The console boots a modified Xbox BIOS just from a different location - parallel-bus attached data bus or low-pin count (LPC) data bus.

Once the console loads a BIOS from one of these two locations, the other is inaccessible.

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8 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

After installing the modchip, what happens when powering on the console?

I'd have to reinstall it to give you a solid answer, but I want to say it did the 3 green flash then orange "frag" boot. Which I understand to mean that it was trying to boot from the modchip, but couldn't successfully. Which is why I was thinking the bios was just incompatible.

I had tried to install it using the wire harness vice the pin header though, just because I had the wiring harness still unused. However, the wiring harness that came with the X2.6 has less connections than the pin header would have. I'm unsure as to why they did that though.

At this point, I've got the console softmodded. I'm probably just going to write the modchip off and leave the console softmodded since it looks like you can swap harddrives with a softmod anyway (per the guides I was reading), which was the whole reason I thought I needed a modchip to begin with.

 

Thanks for you time, you definitely answered my questions. It makes sense that it locks to whichever location it boots to, I was mostly just hopeful that toggling the chip to "enable" after a boot would have somehow tricked it into swapping over but that also wouldn't make a ton of sense either I guess. *shrug*

I was thinking about TSOP-ing, but if that goes bad I'm kind of out of options and it doesn't seem like I'd get much more than what a softmod with a swapped harddrive would provide anyway.

Edited by Yoinx
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6 hours ago, Yoinx said:

I had tried to install it using the wire harness vice the pin header though, just because I had the wiring harness still unused. However, the wiring harness that came with the X2.6 has less connections than the pin header would have. I'm unsure as to why they did that though.

Standard pin headers come in 2xN configurations.  Unused pins are not cut out of the header leaving a vacant spot in the header. Traces if present on the modchip's printed circuit board simply go nowhere with the signal that may be available there.

Modchips connect to 9 signals [edit: Make that 8. There are two (2) grounds in the LPC Debug port.] (indicated in bold below) available from the Xbox's LPC Debug port and the D0 signal from the modchip to the D0 point on the motherboard to enable booting the BIOS from the LPC connected flash memory chip (modchip).

LPC Debug Port Pin Layout
Name Pin Pin Name
SERIRQ (v1.0) 16 15 3.3V
SDA 14 13 SCL
GND 12 11 LAD0
LAD1 10 9 3.3V
LAD2 8 7 LAD3
5V 6 5 LRESET#
PWR v1.6 only) 4 3 LFRAME#
GND 2 1 LCLK (square pad)

Note: The X2 Lite's wiring harness has 10 wires - 8 connect to the LPC Debug port, 1 ring terminal for ground and the D0 wire used to tell the MCPX to load the BIOS from the LPC-attached flash memory chip instead of the on-board TSOP flash memory chip.

 

The X2 Lite's ground (GND) connection through the modchip's wiring harness is made with a ring terminal connector held in place with a screw at the nearest motherboard mounting location. These mounting points connect to the motherboard's ground plane and hold it in place inside the case.  When the modchip is installed with a pin header, ground is provided through connection to pin 2 and 12 of the LPC Debug port header.

 

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Sorry I didn't reply to this very quickly. I ended up bricking the 1.6 I was working on. I tsop'd the 1.2 that I had, but now I have another 1.6 that someone at work gave me so I'm back to this.

I ended up looking at my wire install connector again... It looks like my connection may have had one of the wires ripped out of it as I have a pin in the connector for pin 15 (left of the gray wire in the below image where get if facing the camera) with no wire. However looking at the installation image that I can find (that's never in English) doesn't show a wire there. I also don't have a ring terminal, neither does the install image. I can add one, but where? Wire 2? I would assume that is the pin header could ground to pin 2 the wire install would as well.

Here are pictures of the chip and the wire install. I didn't pull the 5v wire that fits to the red connector, or the 3 pin one for d0, lan/HDD LEDs from the old box yet. And the selector board is connected but not pictured.

My original attempt on my bricked box was to solder the wires directly over to lay as if they matched the header locations/orientation. But any number of other things could have been going on with that unit. I'm assuming that these should just straight over to the lpc in the right order, unless I'm missing something. I'll have to go the lpc rebuild on this new box, but that's not a huge deal.

I'm thinking that in your note under the lpc pinout you may be confusing the x2 and 2.6? As you mention d0 in this writing harness, but that's on the white connector on this chip, not the lpc wiring harness.

20220518_215950.jpg

20220518_220032.jpg

20220518_220146.jpg

Edited by Yoinx
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Ended up installing it like I thought it should go in this 1.6, booted up fine with the evox bios. So everything's good. It's constantly on, (blue light) as long as there's standby power. But I think it was like that in the last one too. *shrug*

 

Thanks for the help!

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3 hours ago, Yoinx said:

Ended up installing it like I thought it should go in this 1.6, booted up fine with the evox bios. So everything's good. It's constantly on, (blue light) as long as there's standby power. But I think it was like that in the last one too. *shrug*

 

Thanks for the help!

That's why pin 6 is not connected to an X2.6 or X3 modchip when installing them in a v1.6 Xbox.

To provide 5Vdc power, you have to connect to the alternate switched 5Vdc source on a v1.6 motherboard.  Otherwise, the modchip in a v1.6 is always powered on as long as AC power it connected to it.

 

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