Interesting problem: Bank mirroring?!?

[Magic Monkey]

In a previous post I mentioned how I had finally flashed X3_1959_v16plus.bin to bank 1-4 after many hours trying, by flashing Evox M8 16+ to bank 8. Well, today I tried to get back into Evox by switching from bank 1-4 to bank 8. Bad idea. It didn't load up. No worries, just switch to bank 1-4 and ... oh crap. It didn't load up either.

That was 5 hours ago, and I still can't get it working. I tried doing what I've done before, but a more interesting and perplexing problem has arisen. If I flash any 256k BIOS (from Evox to FlashBIOS) to bank, say, 8, it'll also load up if I switch to bank 4. Load it up on 7, comes up on 3. 6 to 2 and 5 to 1, it works vice-versa too. So you can see my problem - I can't install Evox like last time to run default.xbe and wipe the EEPROM, as if Evox is on 8, it thinks its on 4 as well, and only gets 3/4 of the way through flashing.

If anyone has any idea how to solve this dilemma, please help!

 

[Magic Monkey]

I've read for Evox you can create a bootable CR-RW/DVD with its default.xbe and an .ini file - would this be possible with m3_erase/default.xbe too? It would mean I can just run erase from the DVD drive bypassing an install of Evox on any of the banks.

 

[MidnighToker]

if you download something like slayer then it will let you flash your bios from there.

sorry if this is irrelivent but i'm problems understanding your origional post (the effects of the time and weed, rather than something you've done, i feel).

If you hold down both the power and reset (so your X3 status light goes purple) does it boot into the backup/flash bios? if so you can flash from here.

 

[Magic Monkey]

I downloaded Slayer, but the "Flash Mod" option doesn't work - something about Device 09 not working. I'll check it later and see what it says exactly...

Yeah, I can boot into backup/flash bios no problem, its just that the first time around that didn't work when trying to flash X3 to bank 1-4. After running the m3_erase/default.xbe file however, it wiped the banks so I could install it (from backup, of course). But now, due to the "bank mirroring" effect, I can't wipe the banks completely, as I need Evox on bank 8 (or any bank, but this is where I put it the first time), and seeing as it's mirrored on bank 4, it can't wipe it fully. The only solution I can think of is running m3_erase/default.xbe from a CD-RW/DVD, but don't know if this is possible or how to go about it.

 

[MidnighToker]

at the moment I've got the 1959 X3 bios on banks 1-4 and the evoX bios on bank 5 and everything happily switches over and boots.

Unless you want ANOTHER bios ontop of these two, then this should work for you.

Little question; but why are you wanting to boot the EvoX bios? the X3 seems to do everying (and more) the ExoX bios will -as well booting EvoX.

 

[Magic Monkey]

Like you, I had 1959 X3 bios on banks 1-4, and evoX on bank 8. After I flashed X3 to banks 1-4, I didn't touch the switch, until that point when I thought "Hmm, I wonder can I switch back to evoX on bank 8". So with the power off, I switched to bank 8, power on ... and FRAG. Switched back to banks 1-4 ... more FRAG. I've since been trying to get X3 on banks 1-4 but this bank mirroring problem is preventing me from doing so.

I don't want to boot the EvoX bios - I only put that on bank 8 initially so I could run the EEPROM m3_erase/default.xbe file to wipe the remaining banks so I could put X3 on banks 1-4 (which worked, the first time). But this time around, it ain't working, due to EvoX being mirrored on bank 4 when I put it on bank 8. thereby preventing the wipe.

See my previous post here for more info: http://www.teamxecuter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24588