Hello! this was originally e-mailed to System Mods Technology - the place my friend got the X3 chip from. I included everything that happened.
I hope this answers all questions you have - I badly need the help!
First off, I am ***'s friend. He is the one who ordered the chip.
I was the one to install the x3. I have actively soldered for more than 10 years(the reason *** asked me to install the chip), so installing the chip was no problem - I triple checked each and every solder point.
I followed the instructions exactly, and made certain the protect switch was in the off position, and the chip was seated properly.
I then proceeded to replace the HDD and CD drives, making sure the cables were seated and in place.
I replaced the cover, screws in place, and plugged the cables in.
When i plugged the power cable in, the xbox immediately turned on.
i noted that all of the lights on the chip came on, as well as the indicator, lan, and HDD leds on the external switch.
The external switch lit up red (disabled) as the xbox turned on, and the xbox booted into the normal dashboard.
I was confident that the x3 was operating normally, so i browsed around the xbox, pressing the cd open button at different times. I had read that i should press the cd open and power buttons at the same time.
At the network settings menu, the network search dial thing (it may have been looking for a netwok, i dunno) froze. I pressed the cd open button, and Flash BIOS 3.0.0 came up. (I have a 1.4 xbox)
This is where the real problem is.
The first thing i did was put in a cd (burned correctly - I got instructions from the Team Xecuter website) and selected flash from CD.
The Xbox recognized the cd, and the size of the BIOS. (I used the Cromwell BIOS)
Unfortunately, FlashBios then displayed the
Unknown Flash! Halting!
error message.
I learned that that error message meant that the flash protect switch was on. I tried to flash the xbox again (same boot method) and
i had the same result. I then re-opened the xbox and made certain the switch was correct.
At this point, it was 2 in the morning, so i took a break for sleep, and tried again the next night.
This time, I went to my friend's house (he has cable internet and DHCP so the xbox could get an IP) and tried the FTP and HTTP methods. Each time, the XBOX displayed the same error.
Unknown Flash! Halting!
I tried each and every combination of switches on the external switch, with the same result.
Unknown Flash! Halting!
At this point, I was very frustrated. I went back into the xbox and redid each solder point.
I again tried every method, switch combination both on and off (taking me at least 3 hours) and still getting the
Unknown Flash! Halting!
I had also downloaded another cromwell bios to make sure it wasn't the file that was messed up. it wasn't. I had also renamed the filename to BIOS.BIN, which still gave me the same error as the original name.
I have only found 2 other people online with the same problems as me, and they had to return their chips. One dropped off the face of the earth, while the other reported that his new chip worked fine. {here in this forum, actually}
I would like VERY much to know what your diagnosis of my friend's chip is, and if it is possible to return it, whatever will get a working mod chip in my friend's xbox.
Thank you for your time,
Allen Long
PS - i actually was trying to use the 1959 bios and EvolutionX's bios (i only wanted to be able to return the chip if i had to - System Mod's won't let you return a chip if you intend to reflash it. so i fibbed a little...
I hope this answers all questions you have - I badly need the help!
First off, I am ***'s friend. He is the one who ordered the chip.
I was the one to install the x3. I have actively soldered for more than 10 years(the reason *** asked me to install the chip), so installing the chip was no problem - I triple checked each and every solder point.
I followed the instructions exactly, and made certain the protect switch was in the off position, and the chip was seated properly.
I then proceeded to replace the HDD and CD drives, making sure the cables were seated and in place.
I replaced the cover, screws in place, and plugged the cables in.
When i plugged the power cable in, the xbox immediately turned on.
i noted that all of the lights on the chip came on, as well as the indicator, lan, and HDD leds on the external switch.
The external switch lit up red (disabled) as the xbox turned on, and the xbox booted into the normal dashboard.
I was confident that the x3 was operating normally, so i browsed around the xbox, pressing the cd open button at different times. I had read that i should press the cd open and power buttons at the same time.
At the network settings menu, the network search dial thing (it may have been looking for a netwok, i dunno) froze. I pressed the cd open button, and Flash BIOS 3.0.0 came up. (I have a 1.4 xbox)
This is where the real problem is.
The first thing i did was put in a cd (burned correctly - I got instructions from the Team Xecuter website) and selected flash from CD.
The Xbox recognized the cd, and the size of the BIOS. (I used the Cromwell BIOS)
Unfortunately, FlashBios then displayed the
Unknown Flash! Halting!
error message.
I learned that that error message meant that the flash protect switch was on. I tried to flash the xbox again (same boot method) and
i had the same result. I then re-opened the xbox and made certain the switch was correct.
At this point, it was 2 in the morning, so i took a break for sleep, and tried again the next night.
This time, I went to my friend's house (he has cable internet and DHCP so the xbox could get an IP) and tried the FTP and HTTP methods. Each time, the XBOX displayed the same error.
Unknown Flash! Halting!
I tried each and every combination of switches on the external switch, with the same result.
Unknown Flash! Halting!
At this point, I was very frustrated. I went back into the xbox and redid each solder point.
I again tried every method, switch combination both on and off (taking me at least 3 hours) and still getting the
Unknown Flash! Halting!
I had also downloaded another cromwell bios to make sure it wasn't the file that was messed up. it wasn't. I had also renamed the filename to BIOS.BIN, which still gave me the same error as the original name.
I have only found 2 other people online with the same problems as me, and they had to return their chips. One dropped off the face of the earth, while the other reported that his new chip worked fine. {here in this forum, actually}
I would like VERY much to know what your diagnosis of my friend's chip is, and if it is possible to return it, whatever will get a working mod chip in my friend's xbox.
Thank you for your time,
Allen Long
PS - i actually was trying to use the 1959 bios and EvolutionX's bios (i only wanted to be able to return the chip if i had to - System Mod's won't let you return a chip if you intend to reflash it. so i fibbed a little...