Ok a few days ago I finished my first x3 on a 1.6 mobo. I have only ever soldered 1 xbox chip before which was a 2.2 xecuter I think 
I had 10 of these to do for my close friends in my village as they are for their kids for xmas, and they are all finished. Regardless to say I was doing these for free and bricking myself too Well I got through them ok, all chipped mint, with the new bios and slayers 2.6 installed. Therefore I would sincerely like to thank team xecuter for all their hard work on this forum, and their diagrams and wisdom. I could never have done it without this forum.
For people thinking about doing a DIY X3, I believe its easy if you take your time and chill out and get set up tidy. You need the right gear! Good lamp, magnifier, soldering iron and to read read read this forum untill you cant read no more! OK here are a few pics of my lpc rebuild (the red wires are mine, also used pin header, the dzero is not on or the lans in these pics).
I must say I found this forum to be a wealth of help and to be a bit darn cruel to noobs now and then rofl. However I would like to add I havent posted one request on here so that clearly shows that the info is here and newbies must look and read before nagging you just got to read all the stickys In fact the one thing I would say is that the X3 is so easy to use after the install that most people overlook the info in helping others. Christ I read the flash the bios thingys and it was annoying me lol, I booted up the chip after the install and seen boot bios from cd, bloody great, put the bios onto the cd with a large video file, couldnt be bothered to make a dummy one. Renamed the bios_195_etc.bin to bios.bin, burnt to cdrw and followed the onscreen instructions on the version 3.00 flash bios OS. It was so easy I felt ill
I'd also like to thank team xecuter for their drawings and tutorials we should all be very gratefull for those.
Total time to strip n chip and rebuild and install one xbox was 2 and half hours. Then another hour for flashing and putting on slayers and tweaking. I wasnt rushing and had a few shy whiskys whilst working (that should be in the tutorials as a must, stopped me shaking)
As I said I am noob to chipping xboxes with no real soldering experience. I think its quite easy with the right gear and by taking your time. Also if you look at the piccys in the tutorials on here for the X3 the soldering in some of those is pretty crappy I think soz guys, and those xboxes all work so I am sure us newbies can match that!
Ok my tips are these.
1. Good set up, steady desk, lamp with magnifying glass and I like to use an adjustible heat soldering iron. Forget an eye glass as when you shut one eye its damn hard to see depth or perspective, ask any cognitive psychologist
2. Read up on the net on how to solder. Practice on an old sh*tty mobo etc Dont let anyone watch you solder it will make you shake!
3. No need for one of those fiber glass scrapey pen things to get the sprayed resin off the board.
4. Start with the pin header and get ready to be 'one' with the mobo, feel the force
5. Then do the lpc rebuild but what I do is this, have the soldering Iron hot, the hotter the better. Then dab (dab = quarter to half a sec max with the iron n solder) a touch of solder onto the points of the lpc ie where the wires have to go (not the pin header but the board) this kills two birds with one stone. It melts the resin if there is any on the point to be soldered and more importantly it will allow you to solder the wires without pushing the iron down onto them and splaying them (like in some of the piccys in the tutorials).
6. Tin your lpc wires and solder. I find by having the iron hotter you can just tap the prepared joint with the tinned lpc wire and you get a great connection. Eg the hotter iron need less time on the board so heat transfer is lower to the surround components, you can often see something solderd with a cooler iron as it has been on the board longer and melted the surrounding resin as well. Look around pics of pin headers.
The rest is very easy after this, all the wires and pads feel huge after the lpc rebuild Also I put the chip switch on the back as kids cant get at it then, I route the wire out of the side right at the back, and I use a sticky pad with a wire grabber to hold the wires tight to the case
Many thanks again to Team Xecuter and Bald bouncer as you've made many kids up this way very happy for xmas Please keep up the good work as your keeping a nation of gamers very very happy \o/
Here are a few piccys of my lpc rebuild and set up for working, my soldering maybe sh*t I dont know, but they all work and the joints looked great under the lamp
I had 10 of these to do for my close friends in my village as they are for their kids for xmas, and they are all finished. Regardless to say I was doing these for free and bricking myself too Well I got through them ok, all chipped mint, with the new bios and slayers 2.6 installed. Therefore I would sincerely like to thank team xecuter for all their hard work on this forum, and their diagrams and wisdom. I could never have done it without this forum. For people thinking about doing a DIY X3, I believe its easy if you take your time and chill out and get set up tidy. You need the right gear! Good lamp, magnifier, soldering iron and to read read read this forum untill you cant read no more! OK here are a few pics of my lpc rebuild (the red wires are mine, also used pin header, the dzero is not on or the lans in these pics).
I must say I found this forum to be a wealth of help and to be a bit darn cruel to noobs now and then rofl. However I would like to add I havent posted one request on here so that clearly shows that the info is here and newbies must look and read before nagging
you just got to read all the stickys In fact the one thing I would say is that the X3 is so easy to use after the install that most people overlook the info in helping others. Christ I read the flash the bios thingys and it was annoying me lol, I booted up the chip after the install and seen boot bios from cd, bloody great, put the bios onto the cd with a large video file, couldnt be bothered to make a dummy one. Renamed the bios_195_etc.bin to bios.bin, burnt to cdrw and followed the onscreen instructions on the version 3.00 flash bios OS. It was so easy I felt ill I'd also like to thank team xecuter for their drawings and tutorials we should all be very gratefull for those.
Total time to strip n chip and rebuild and install one xbox was 2 and half hours. Then another hour for flashing and putting on slayers and tweaking. I wasnt rushing
and had a few shy whiskys whilst working (that should be in the tutorials as a must, stopped me shaking) As I said I am noob to chipping xboxes with no real soldering experience. I think its quite easy with the right gear and by taking your time. Also if you look at the piccys in the tutorials on here for the X3 the soldering in some of those is pretty crappy I think soz guys, and those xboxes all work so I am sure us newbies can match that!
Ok my tips are these.
1. Good set up, steady desk, lamp with magnifying glass and I like to use an adjustible heat soldering iron. Forget an eye glass as when you shut one eye its damn hard to see depth or perspective, ask any cognitive psychologist
2. Read up on the net on how to solder. Practice on an old sh*tty mobo etc Dont let anyone watch you solder it will make you shake!
3. No need for one of those fiber glass scrapey pen things to get the sprayed resin off the board.
4. Start with the pin header and get ready to be 'one' with the mobo, feel the force
5. Then do the lpc rebuild but what I do is this, have the soldering Iron hot, the hotter the better. Then dab (dab = quarter to half a sec max with the iron n solder) a touch of solder onto the points of the lpc ie where the wires have to go (not the pin header but the board) this kills two birds with one stone. It melts the resin if there is any on the point to be soldered and more importantly it will allow you to solder the wires without pushing the iron down onto them and splaying them (like in some of the piccys in the tutorials).
6. Tin your lpc wires and solder. I find by having the iron hotter you can just tap the prepared joint with the tinned lpc wire and you get a great connection. Eg the hotter iron need less time on the board so heat transfer is lower to the surround components, you can often see something solderd with a cooler iron as it has been on the board longer and melted the surrounding resin as well. Look around pics of pin headers.
The rest is very easy after this, all the wires and pads feel huge after the lpc rebuild
Also I put the chip switch on the back as kids cant get at it then, I route the wire out of the side right at the back, and I use a sticky pad with a wire grabber to hold the wires tight to the case Many thanks again to Team Xecuter and Bald bouncer as you've made many kids up this way very happy for xmas
Please keep up the good work as your keeping a nation of gamers very very happy \o/Here are a few piccys of my lpc rebuild and set up for working, my soldering maybe sh*t I dont know, but they all work and the joints looked great under the lamp
