Box powers on then turns off.

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Milkysunshine

Junior Member
May 25, 2005
11
0
Ok... This is my 6th box I have done with an X3. The other ones all had their own little issues, but this one is driving me crazy.

Brand new X3, Xbox 1.0, bios 3294, pro switch.

Did the hardware install, no problems at all. Everything went fine. Re-assembled for testing (without hard screwing everything down.) Set switch to 1st 1 meg bank (on on off off) Booted to flash bios! SWEET! So I figured smooth sailing from there (as I have done this before). Well, I was wrong.

I flashed the bios with 3294 via http. Box powered down correctly after flash... When I powered it back up, it turned on for a couple seconds and then turned off. No FRAG. just on, then off. So I switched to the second 1 meg bank. off on off off. FlashBios showed again. Ok, no problem... I will try again. Same problem. successful flashing, fails to boot. So, I test it with the chip disabled. Everything boots correctly. So, I boot into the backup rom and try flashing on on off off again. this time, I re-downloaded the bios. I flash.... success. This time, it boots fine!
sweet!
so I go and also flash the second 1m bank (off on off off) just so it isn't defunct.
Power it up again, right into the config. I did not change any settings at all in the bios. I just powered it down, and ate dinner.

After I came back, I turned it on.. and same thing as before 2 seconds after I turn it on, it turns off. So I try flashing again, it finishes every time, but does the same thing. I downloaded FlashBios 3.0.3 and flahed on on on on with it. It booted up fine. so I tried to flash the bios again... nothing.

So I can boot with the chip off, no error codes.
I can boot if flashbios is installed.
I can't boot at all with 3294 installed.
Does not FRAG
I am not using the 1.6 bios.
all pins on the pin header read correct voltages.
D0 was triple checked (but I don't think that is the problem since FlashBios boots fine, and no fragging.)

I am calling it a night for now, I was hoping someone could offer some suggestions.
 
P

Poida^

VIP Member
Jul 13, 2005
1,088
0
Australia
Hmmm... try bypassing the (power/eject) adapter and see if you can boot enabled.

Try another bios such as X2 bios... if that works recheck pin 13+14?
Ummm.. running out of ideas... install 'seems' to work.. still could be a loose cable or bad point... so check power, HDD cables.. etc and not too sure what else.
 
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Milkysunshine

Junior Member
May 25, 2005
11
0
Thank you for the quick reply.

I will try the x2 bios and bypassing the switch pcb.


...So far this morning, I have created a bios DVD and tried flashing from there... same issue. But that does rule out the IDE cable. (that and I can boot fine into the MS dash with the chip disabled.)


I will also re-check the pins. I am going to slide the plastic 'guide' off of the pin header, and check the top to make sure nothing is bridged or scewed up there.

If that doesn't work, I am going to take the chip out and put it into my modded box (which is also a 1.0) This way I can just rule more things out in getting to the bottom of this.
 
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Milkysunshine

Junior Member
May 25, 2005
11
0
Ok.. I tried bypassing the switch PCB... no go.

I re-re-checked the soldering, and honestly, it is one of the cleanest solderings I have done. All of my voltages still read OK also.


So I tried the X2 bios, and it WORKS!

is there any reason why I can't get the X3 bios flashed on here?
What is different between the X2 and X3 that would make one bios work and not the other???
 
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Milkysunshine

Junior Member
May 25, 2005
11
0
ok, I may have jumped to conclusions.

After installing the X2 bios, the box boots saying 'entering x2 config live' or something to that effect, but I can not get into config live at all. it just keeps going into the default xbox dash. ugh
 
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Milkysunshine

Junior Member
May 25, 2005
11
0
ok, I found that the x2 is done by the ini... I am not familiar with the x2 bios at all. I am still not making any headway.

I think I will try the evox bios, and if it works, run AID. from there, I should have more options.
 
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Milkysunshine

Junior Member
May 25, 2005
11
0
Good news!

I finally have it working (so far.)

I installed evox m8, then AID... ran the x3 erase.

Then I flashed the on on off off bank with the 1892 bios, and it worked. I was able to get it.

Then I flashed with 3294 and haven't had a problem since.

Could something have been corrupted because I had flashed 3294 on both 1meg banks?



thanks again for your post Poida^.
 
M

Milkysunshine

Junior Member
May 25, 2005
11
0
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

this is really making me insane.

So it was working fine, until I unplugged it to change rooms. Now, same as before.

WTF?
 
P

Poida^

VIP Member
Jul 13, 2005
1,088
0
Australia
Sorry I didn't reply to you. But it did seem like you needed to try other bioses and see what was wrong with X3. It acted like a password was set? Weird.. Oh well. Looks like X3 bios needed to be erased, but I'm glad the suggestions did help you play around with it a bit. Well done to your troubleshooting.
 
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