A Different breed of black screen....

[helrazer83]

Hey guys.

I've been a member over at Xbox-Scene for awhile, but I've gotten no help there so far, so I figured I'd give it a whirl here.

At first glance, my problem resembles the "resolder LPC points 13 and 14" problem...but I'm pretty sure thats not it. NO bios other than flashbios will run on my 'box. No X2, no M8, nothing. Will not boot in disabled mode, or even with the chip removed from the pinheader. Just a black screen and a solid green eject LED. I resoldered it anyway, evened out the pinheader, nudged the chip around a few times, even found another source for the X3 BIOS to make sure the one I had wasnt corrupted.

I mean if the LED was red, I would understand. But green, with no error codes or anything? I'm assuming that since the 'box won't boot even with the X3 removed from the pinheader, its either soldering, or something worse. Any help you guys could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

v1.0, X3 CE, Thomson, stock HD, still locked.

P.S.-two more interesting things; when the blank screen comes up, the HDD busy light on the pro switch stays lit. And when i boot an older X2 BIOS, "Loading configlive..." (or something of that nature) stays on the screen for about 5 seconds, and THEN the black screen hits again.

 

[Poida^]

Looks like your hinting its a hard drive problem since you actually got X2 BIOS to run but not read anything off the hard drive, but then that should at least come up with a service screen I guess. If X2 or FlashBIOS are working it still does seem like its a pin 13+14 problem.

Do you have a boot disc you can try out?
and are you still using the stock AV cable?

 

[helrazer83]

thanks for the reply!

yeah, i have an EvoX boot disc i can try....but i am unsure this is a 13/14 problem, simply because my 'box wont boot with the chip removed, either.

perhaps it would help if you thought more in terms of what would make a stock xbox do this...the more i think about it, the more a bridge or splash somewhere becomes apparent. But i cant find any! Nothing is obviously wrong with the board that i can see. *Sigh*

EDIT: btw...I am using the standard MS AV cable. Thanks again.

 

[Poida^]

I'm still pointing at pin 13+14 or something in that area for now since, X2 and FlashBIOS don't use those, but X3 bios does.

But what could make a stock Xbox do that? Cables and things not plugged in right, maybe a solder splash but then FlashBIOS wouldn't work I think. Yeah, standard cable is what I should have noticed as well because FlashBIOS was working.. silly me.

Just a thought, since FlashBIOS is already on the chip have you tried getting it preflashed from another xbox? If that works, try reseating the chip, or bend the pins out a little so its making a solid connection. It might have something to do with the flashing process getting corrupt from a funny connection.

 

[helrazer83]

the x2 bios wont work either, nor will evox m8...the ONLY thing my xbox will boot to right now is flashbios.

I have thought about flashing it from one of my other xboxes...because the only method i have used for flashing this one so far is http, and as you said, maybe its not getting a good flash.

This sure is frustrating.

 

[helrazer83]

Was gonna edit the above post, but it was too late.

I went through and tested the voltage on the LPC according to a diagram I found at xbox-scene. All of the voltages were good (even 13 and 14).

thought this info might help.

 

[helrazer83]

Aight, sorry for posting the ever-living sh*t out of this thread, but i found one more thing...and maybe I'm on to something. The trace that runs right beside the spot you solder the LAN activity wire (green) to, I believe, is bridged. I wonder if this could have this effect on my box? I've gotta go get some braid tomorrow, but maybe if i desolder the wire and put it back, CAREFULLY this time, ill be back in business. Dunno. Anyways, it took a serious magnifier to even find it...the solder just barely hits the trace, but I'm pretty sure its bridged. Any comments?

 

[Dreamreaper]

Sounds like a solder issue mate, the box showing a green LED and no audio/Visual is normally associated to a "COMA" box, this is where the Clock on the TSOP is not syncing, I recently had a V1.2 that was doing this, If I hit the TSOP with Frozen air it would boot, method of repair in this instance was either change the TSOP or boot from LPC via a chip, as you already have the chip installed and it is not booting then you may be looking at component damage on the board, I notice that it is a V1 box, did you do a wire install or did you pull the solder off the board with either a solder sucker or braid, double check the LPC for splashes etc.
You could try the coma console fix to force the TSOP to boot from a different bank, as the earlier boxes V1-1.1 have 1 meg Bios's split into 4 - 256 banks, bridging the point would force the box to use another bank. It is not unheard of for the earlier xbox bios to become corrupt.

 

[helrazer83]

Completed the "Coma Console" fix, one step at a time....no dice. Also reflashed the EEPROM. Still the same problem...absolutely no change. This Xbox will boot NOTHING but the FLASHBIOS on my X3 chip. It wont even boot with the chip removed. Any more help would be greatly appreciated...this one has me stumped. Im gonna hafta give this guy a motherboard, apparently...

 

[Dreamreaper]

Sounds like the board is toast mate, can you post some hi-res shots of the LPC and surrounding area?
EEprom would give you a steady red light, seems strange that you can boot a flash bios, this at least indicates the LPC is functioning, albeit partially. I take it that this was functional before the mod attempt?

 

[Poida^]

Yeah, some pictures might help people inspect this problem...

But just to be sure, try flashing the chip in another xbox and see what happens...
See if it works in there... try eliminating problems see if there's problems with the chip or the motherboard.

 

[helrazer83]

Yeah, I'll post some pics up when i get home from work tonight. I agree with Dream that there is definately a problem with the mobo, since the box wont boot chipless. Just for sh*ts and giggles, i flashed a 1.1 EEPROM to it, and got the ol red eject led. When i reflashed the 1.0 EEPROM, same ol green LED...so i guess the EEPROM is okay. Ill post the pics of the LPC and other joints tonight. Thanks for hangin in with me guys!


Guess I'll hafta whip out the ol' tripod for these shots...those solder joints are pretty small

 

[helrazer83]

well, no need for the pics...i think i found the problem.

Resistor R7R10 was hanging off of the board, and when i touched it, it came completely off. This thing is SMALL; i have no idea why its even off of the board. Any good ideas (or soldering tips) as to how to reattach it would be greatly appreciated! (and would this cause the problem?)

BTW: The resistor in question is located just processor side of LPC point #15, and it appears to be blue...but its so small im not 100% sure.

Thanks guys

 

[Rookio]

If the resister is still good, clean the surface to which you'll be applying it with solder braid and isopropyl alcohol. Tin the pad's on the mobo. With some very small tweezers, hold the resister on the board and just touch the join on one side with your iron so that solder melts and joins the two. Then touch the other side. That's how I do it.

 

[helrazer83]

fixed and tested the resistor....xbox boots, then no boot, then boot, then no boot (all from an X2 BIOS, still no go with the X3)

take the chip all the way out, no vid or sound, just a slowly blinking red/green LED (not your normal FRAG, this is the type that comes up with an error message) My guess it has something to do with the EEPROM i flashed.

I think im gonna give up on this one, and cough up a mobo. Thanks for you guys' help...Nice to be a new member and still get straight and helpful answers.

 

[Rookio]

You can always come back to it and try to repair it later. then you can sell it on ebay to recoup your costs.

 

[helrazer83]

Great minds think alike!

Actually I will probably end up on top of this one...I only paid 10 bucks for the 'box I'm gonna pull the mobo from. I guess thats my silver lining Just a shame to part out an operable box, but I've got some backups.

Thanks again rookio, ill see ya around the boards

 

[Rookio]

$10 for a whole xbox? I thought i was doing alright getting a working xbox for $70!! (aussie dolllars) how'd you do that?

 

[helrazer83]

well, actually he tried to give it to me, but i felt bad....it had a THOMSON, and you know how those drives are....

after a simple dvd-rom drive swap, it was up and working again.



-Dane