Well chill, I know this is like the only thing I say to anyone, but when something has worked for you, you make sure someone at least tries in their hope
To make the story short, I had the same problem as you, and I resoldered like 5 times.
(It CAN be the solder, let's not kid ourselves.)
But I had the same deal, the flash would NEVER complete without saying "Programming Failed". A few times it even did get passed the "Rox my Box" screen AND let me install a dash, use the dash, DL a game, AND play from it.
What was the problem? No Access to X3CL. >-(
So after my 5 resolders, I still didn't get any further until I noticed the chip socketed wasn't compltely seated on the pinheader.
Now, at this point I can't tell you whether the pins were too deep and causing a prob, or if the pins weren't perfectly aligned, and making improper contact.
What did I do? I pulled the chip up a little (less than a 16th of an inch) then made sure the chip was level, and after a few alignments I got perfect flashes every time.
So, morale of the story is spend 10 mins trying that out, and if it still doesn't work then spend the 2 hrs resoldering.
Have fun, good luck, and DONT try pulling the chip so far up the post that it's falling off / gonna fry a chip.
