Solid Amber with Flash Bios

[Jetaray]

Xbox boots normal MS Dash with long press on power switch, but when booting from flash bios I get a solid amber color around the eject button and no video output. The results are the same from both version 3.01 and 3.03. The only noted difference is when booting 3.03 the green light around the eject button flashes before turning amber. With the 3.01 bios the eject button is a solid green before it turns amber. I originally thought I just made a mistake, I triple checked my work and removed solder with wick and then re-soldered the header pin and the 1.6 rebuild board.

So I installed one of my other original X3s with an X3 bios on the chip in this box (other XBOX also a version 1.6) and it works great. The only things that will not work are the flash bios. Downloaded and tried both flash bios from this site with the same results. Why would an X3 bios work but not the flash bios?

The only odd thing I noticed was pin 1 has about 1.2 volts with just the header pin installed, but all the diagnostic pages I found only list a voltage of .2 and only for versions 1.0 thru 1.5. Is this voltage normal for a 1.6? I performed a continuity check of all pins and they check OK. I tried 4 different video cables, 1 component, 2 composite, and 1 RF cable, and no help. I will attach a picture of my solder job. Any and all comments welcome, if you want more information let me know.

X3 Hardware Report
------------------

X3 Kernel Version: 1.0.5034.1
Hard Drive Model : WDC WD80EB-28CGH2
Hard Drive Capacity : 7.45 GBytes

Hard Drive Partition Table
==========================
[Par1 = E:] Blocks 5633024 - 15633071, 4.77 Gb
[Par2 = C:] Blocks 4609024 - 5633023, 0.49 Gb
[Par3 = X:] Blocks 1024 - 1537023, 0.73 Gb
[Par4 = Y:] Blocks 1537024 - 3073023, 0.73 Gb
[Par5 = Z:] Blocks 3073024 - 4609023, 0.73 Gb
[Par6 = F:] -- NOT USED --
[Par7 = G:] -- NOT USED --

DVD Model : PHILIPS J5 3235C
DVD Firmware Version : S32M

CPU speed : 733 MHz
NVCLK : 233 MHz
VCO frequency : 800 MHz
Memory clock speed : 200 MHz
SMC Version : P2L
4 MB Hardware Version : DVT4/5
Xbox Version : XBOX V1.6
Video Encoder : XCalibur
Memory Installed : 64 MB
Made in China (2004)

 

[Rookio]

Easiest way to get your chip working is hotswap with this working chip. But... Dunno why flahsbios doesnt work. It's unusual to say the least. Have you tried your new chip in your other xbox to see if flashbios works there?

 

[Jetaray]

All my X3 chips work fine, both backup and normal memory banks. Verified this by placing chips in know working version 1.6 XBOX.

It is just this one XBOX that will not work using a Flash Bios (software). I tried placing both 3.01 and 3.03 flash bios in the main memory (at different times) and Backup memory. Always the same result solid amber after a few seconds. All the X3 bios I tried work fine. I just wanted to have something on the back memory that actually works. Not that I use the backup bios allot, but it is a feature I paid for and it would be nice if it worked.

I realize this is something particular to my XBOX, but I was hopping someone had this problem before and could point me to an alternative backup bios. Even better give suggestions as to what may cause this problem. I am open to all ideas that I did not already try. I would be willing to try any beta bios that will fit in the backup memory.

 

[Jetaray]

Anyone have an idea? Is it really possible I am the only person to have this problem? Someone beta testing the flash bios must have seen this problem before. How about some hints on what causes a solid amber light.

 

[Jetaray]

Is there any chance at all I will get some help? Is it really possible the solid amber light thing has never happened before with an X3 chip? Is it you don’t have the time to help or do you truly believe my problem is so rare that is not worth the effort to fix? I really would like a flash bios from Xecuter that will work. One of the main reasons for getting the X3 was for its backup flash bios that made it easy to flash the main memory via http. If I had known this may not have worked I could have settled for a lesser chip.

Many questions in hopes of a few answers.