So a friend of a friend had a problem with their modded xbox. It's version 1.4 with an X2.3B Lite+ solderless chip that wasn't working anymore. I said I'd take a look at it. It looks to me like it was dropped. There are some pretty nasty scratches and deformation of the d0 via from the pointed pogos. But it still comes up to the ms bios so I don't think any traces were cut.
I figured I could probably solve the problem by converting the solderless chip to a pin header install. (I have access to the extra parts needed at work)
After soldering in a pin header to the motherboard and a matching connector to the X2.3B I tried bringing up the box and it did the whole on/off frag thing.
So I borrowed the X2.6CE out of my box (with FlashBios 3.03 on the 3/4 bank) to test my rework and the box came up fine. I figured that the bios on the X2.3B was corrupt and I'd try to hot swap flash the X2.3B.
I was able to flash it, only I mistakenly used a 256k image instead of a 1Mb image. Still no joy when I tried to bring the box up again with the X2.3B and 256k image. I didn't think it should matter but I figured I'd try to flash again with a 1Mb image. This time I got an "Unknown flash! Halting" error. I double checked that the flash protect switch was set properly, and it was. Crap!
I stuck my X2.6 back in and booted from an EvoX boot disc and tried flashing from there. It claims the device and manufacturer ID are both ff. (and unknown) So I'm guessing that I fried the chip somehow.
Anyway, I went to put my X2.6 back in my box and I think I plugged it in a set of pins too high. (It's keyed so it can't be plugged in too low, or off to the right, only too high or to the left) My box didn't come up and I couldn't shut it off so I pulled the plug. I repositioned the X2.6, plugged the box back in, and tried turning it on again. Now MY box does the on/off frag thing too!!! I tried switching between banks and got the same results.
So with all that background my question is how bad of a thing have I done?
Is there any chance I didn't fry my X2.6?
In looking at where the pins go, I figure if anything is fried it's the PLCC IC in the middle of the board. (Directly connected to Lad0-4) Does anyone know what this IC is? I'm hoping it's something common (If I'm really lucky even something we stock at work) but all the identification info has been wiped off the ICs on the X2 boards. I figure if it's a common chip I'd be able to fix my X2.6 and possibly even the X2.3B for less than five bucks.
Rob
I figured I could probably solve the problem by converting the solderless chip to a pin header install. (I have access to the extra parts needed at work)
After soldering in a pin header to the motherboard and a matching connector to the X2.3B I tried bringing up the box and it did the whole on/off frag thing.
So I borrowed the X2.6CE out of my box (with FlashBios 3.03 on the 3/4 bank) to test my rework and the box came up fine. I figured that the bios on the X2.3B was corrupt and I'd try to hot swap flash the X2.3B.
I was able to flash it, only I mistakenly used a 256k image instead of a 1Mb image. Still no joy when I tried to bring the box up again with the X2.3B and 256k image. I didn't think it should matter but I figured I'd try to flash again with a 1Mb image. This time I got an "Unknown flash! Halting" error. I double checked that the flash protect switch was set properly, and it was. Crap!
I stuck my X2.6 back in and booted from an EvoX boot disc and tried flashing from there. It claims the device and manufacturer ID are both ff. (and unknown) So I'm guessing that I fried the chip somehow.
Anyway, I went to put my X2.6 back in my box and I think I plugged it in a set of pins too high. (It's keyed so it can't be plugged in too low, or off to the right, only too high or to the left) My box didn't come up and I couldn't shut it off so I pulled the plug. I repositioned the X2.6, plugged the box back in, and tried turning it on again. Now MY box does the on/off frag thing too!!! I tried switching between banks and got the same results.
So with all that background my question is how bad of a thing have I done?
Is there any chance I didn't fry my X2.6?
In looking at where the pins go, I figure if anything is fried it's the PLCC IC in the middle of the board. (Directly connected to Lad0-4) Does anyone know what this IC is? I'm hoping it's something common (If I'm really lucky even something we stock at work) but all the identification info has been wiped off the ICs on the X2 boards. I figure if it's a common chip I'd be able to fix my X2.6 and possibly even the X2.3B for less than five bucks.
Rob