New Noob...new problem...

[llmavll]

New Noob, New Question.

My 1.6 Xbox was working great till today when I tried playing around with the flashing. Big mistake.

I have an Xbox 1.6
X3 and X3CPL
Using standard AV cables, was using HD.
Bios 3029 with switches 1 & 2 down protect on.

Here is what I did.
For some reason, I tried flashing flashbios_v303.bin to main bank 1 (Flash protect OFF and Banks 1 & 2 (buttons 1&2) selected. Looked like it worked fine (said so anyway) then I did a cold reboot. Now comes the trouble:

Xbox will not:
1.Show any video. Even though BLUE X3 is on.
2. Boot to any bios. Can't even boot to MS dash or anything. Tried every button combo 1,2,3,4, off on 1&2 on 1&4 on ect etc.
3. Cannot boot to safety bios (purple X3) doesn't show any video though the X3 does show purple.

I even took the box apart and removed the X3 chip (not header or anything) but get exact same results except the X3 logo doesn't light up (due to chip being off) I can't even boot into a normal xbox mode, might have also erased that though.....


Now even wierder, I can't open the disk tray....sounds like it might be trying and green light flashes...but will not open. No matter what buttons I push the tray will not open in any config.

Appears I don't have any bios maybe in backup????
Anyone know what I might be missing, better yet anyone know how I start the bios off back at scratch??? Do I need to buy a new X3??

Any help would be appreaciated.


Cheers
Mav

 

[nartac]

Hey, Don't want to rub it in but the wise said "if it aint broke, don't fix it".

First off, your big mistake was using the wrong version of flashbios for your xbox. You have 1.6 so you should have installed flashbios 3.0.1 instead. v1.6 xboxes have issue with flashbios 3.0.3.

Second, your other big mistake was you don't need to flash it back to flashbios to flash to new bios. For start, your X3 has 2 1mb banks so you can leave your current bios as it (was on your 1234 banks as you stated) and then flash your new bios to 5678 banks instead (button 2 on and the rest off).

Third, if you were goind to flash your X3 and you already have an X3 bios installed, it's way easier to ftp flash instead.

Your solution:

If you have an X3CE, flashbios 3.0.3 would be located on banks 5678 so you can't use it. Try to get to backup flashbios by pressing power and eject buttons at the same time until your X3 logo on the X3CP turns purple.

If you have regular X3 and don't have backup flashbios, you can try to flash to banks 5678 (button 2 press on and rest off). Older X3 most likely have flashbios 3.0.1 or 3.0.0 installed.

Keep us updated and good luck

 

[llmavll]

So true....if it ain't broke....don't SCREW with it... however you only learn more after you've screwed it up enough. LOL
I don't have a X3CE, I have an older original X3 on a 1.6b board. My 2nd bank is also unfortunatly "empty" (never got around to flashing it...opps!) and ...ready for this......I never flashed the backup bank....ya I know...keep laughing, ...that's all I can do..lol.

So now the question is, IS there a way to reprogram the X3 with the flashbios or a X3 bios directly??

On another note I cannot even disable the mod and boot into the M$ dash...(must of erased that too...lol) . And I cannot open the DVD tray no matter what button I push.....

Laughing in disgust in Canada...
Cheers
Mav

 

[nartac]

No, I don't think anyone is laughing at you. We all do things we regret later.

You just told us an important fact. Initially you said you have v1.6 xbox but now you said you have v1.6b xbox. That made a big difference.

Yes, if you hav v1.6b xbox, you definitely need flashbios 3.0.3. What is weird is you can't get video or even disable your chip. This leads me to think either you have some wire/cable lose, you have a bad cable to the X3 control switch or your control switch is bad. Try this. Disconnect the cable to the X2 control switch at the chips end and see if you xbox will boot into flashbios. Double check your power/eject adaptor too.

 

[freakzilla3333]

Did you unlock your hard drive or rename/change/move/delete the xboxdash.xbe file? What happens with the chip disabled? Do you get an error code in the top left corner of the screen?

 

[llmavll]

Ok, I might be wrong.....I know I have a 1.6, I'm not sure if its a 1.6 or a 1.6b, how do you tell. (Searching the forums as we speak)
Secondly, Nartac, I have done what you said, disabled (disconnected) the pro switch (actually its a Full LCD control panel, but I disconnected the pro switch part). This I believe will only then boot into bank 1 and as suspected it only FRAGS, no video or anything. If I even try from here to go into the backup it also doesn't show any video.

Third, just to state again, that this mod WAS working for the last couple months (and this morning)...its just what I did this morning that screwed it up, and anything else that may have happened as a coincidence.

Fourth, I cannot for the life of me figure out why the DVD tray won't eject and why I can't disable the mod.

Anyone?

 

[llmavll]

Also the X3 is the one with the Red Back. Is that a X3 original or an X3 CE???

 

[nartac]

the one with red back is X3CE. You can tell if it's a 1.6 if your xbox memories are Samsung. 1.6b has Hynix memories.

 

[llmavll]

Ok. Its a X3CE and a 1.6 as it has Samsung.

Is it possible to "hotswap fix" the X3 bios .... even with the X3 LCD/pro switch front panel with another xbox thats identical, other than its a 1.4????

Anyone have the steps to do a "hotswap" any real dangers????

Cheers

 

[nartac]

real danger is you can short out the other xbox, LOL. If you are careful, it will be ok. I have done it multiple times and no problem. Damn, I'm tired of typing but I have written instructions for someone to do it once or twice. Do search on my post but if you can't, PM me and I will force myself to give you another instruction.

 

[llmavll]

Ok, even trouble shooted it more:

If I remove all wires from the X3 and the chip itself from the motherboard, it frags??? Yet it was working for the past 2 months, just when I tried to put the flashbios_v303.bin (256kb) into the 1 mb bank,this morning , this happens.

I have checked the voltages on the pin header and found this:

Pin 1 is 0.00 ----> I think it should be 0.20
Pin 5 is 0.20 ----> and I think this should be 3.3v

Anyone?

 

[nartac]

if it frags with the chip out from the system, then you have a hardware failure (ie motherboard, dvd, hd, etc).

 

[llmavll]

UPDATE: wire was being pinched under motherboard thats why the system wouldn't boot with chip out. Fixed, chip can now be disabled with long power on button. Works fine in "disabled mode".

HOWEVER, the bios problem still remains.
Bank 1 (1mb) [Pro-Off,On,On,Off,Off] flashed accidently with "flashbios_v303.bin" and rebooted, now bank 1 FRAGS
Bank 2 (1mb) [Pro-Off, Off,On,Off,Off] have never used so I assume it is blank. It doesn't frag but nothing loads either, blank video etc.
Backup (256kb) I never backed anything up onto it since I got it (I know...I know ) and I assume it comes on the X3CE "blank" therefore it does the same as bank 2, just loads (X3 logo-purple) no frag, but no video and no bios....tried eject button many times no luck.

So now I ask, what is my next step? Is there a way to get a flashbios loader back onto the chip on a Xbox v1.6 or do I have to buy a new chip? Does anyone have a link to a company that can "reprogram" a X3CE? Anything else that I'm missing??????? lol.

Cheers
Mav

 

[nartac]

well, that is a partial relief.

Theoretically, all X3CE have flashbios v3.0.1 flashed to the backup bios but I guess for some reason, you don't have that.

Bank 2 is out of the picture since it has flashbios 3.0.3

I do have a suggestion and this is a long shot. Try the following switch configurations. If one of them gives you flashbios 3.0.1, just pray first and then flash to an X3 bios:

on you pro switch set

1) off on on on on if not reboot to
2) off off on on on
3) off on off on on
4) off off off on on

These are for banks 1, 2, 3, 4 specifically. Good luck

 

[llmavll]

FIXED!!!!!

Ended up that after 17+ tries of constant rebooting into the backup rom, it finally gave me the flashbios screen, I was then able to HTTP flash bank 1 with 3108 and bank 2 with 3029.


Thanks all for your input.

Still wonder why it took so many tries to get into the backup....