After spending 6 hours trying to get X3 1959 reinstalled (it was already there, but became corrupted due to someone messing around) on a Crystal XBox [v1.6, Xecuter 3 chip, Samsung RAM, Xcalibur video, FlashBIOS 3.0.0] I thought I'd post here in case anyone has the same problems.
Initially I booted to the backup ROM (FlashBIOS 3.0.0, by pressing the eject and power buttons simultaneously), selected "Enable Network Flashing", and after the XBox was assigned an IP, used IE 6.0 to flash via HTTP the X3 BIOS.
Unfortunately, while the erasing (yellow bar) completed fully, the green bar (flashing) only got 3/4 of the way to the end, and then just paused. I left it for 5 minutes. Nothing. 10 minutes. Nothing.
After spending the next 4-5 hours reading these forums, twiddling with the switches and generally trying to understand what the heck was wrong, I finally got it working. In retrospect, the solution was simple enough. With the XBox powered off, I selected Bank 8 (256k, off off off on off) on the switch, then booted to the backup ROM. From here, I flashed via HTTP Evox M8 16+ (m8_16.bin, thank you xbins) to Bank 8. It flashed perfectly. After the XBox powered off, I booted normally (quick press the power button) into Evox in Bank 8. Now I could transfer the m3_erase/default.xbe file onto the XBox using a FTP client and run it (as previously, I had tried booting into each of the 15 banks, and while banks 1-2 were empty, 3-4 both had FlashBIOS 3.0.1 in them from previous prodding and poking, so I figured may as well try wiping the banks clean and see if that works - even though I read that flashing X3 BIOS to banks 1-4 should erase everything there, it didn't seem to, from only getting 3/4 of the way flashing maybe it was trying to write to some protected bank? I still don't know).
I went into Evox's XBox File Explorer, ran default.xbe, and turned off the XBox. After setting the switch to Banks 1-4 (on on off off off) I booted into the backup ROM, and flashed X3_1959_v16plus.bin to banks 1-4. Powered up, and X3 "Rox my Box" came up. Finally!
So, if you're having similar problems, just install Evox to a free bank (any 256k bank from 5 to 8, leave 1 to 4 free for X3), run the default.xbe, then boot to the backup ROM and flash X3 to banks 1-4 again, and it should work.
Initially I booted to the backup ROM (FlashBIOS 3.0.0, by pressing the eject and power buttons simultaneously), selected "Enable Network Flashing", and after the XBox was assigned an IP, used IE 6.0 to flash via HTTP the X3 BIOS.
Unfortunately, while the erasing (yellow bar) completed fully, the green bar (flashing) only got 3/4 of the way to the end, and then just paused. I left it for 5 minutes. Nothing. 10 minutes. Nothing.
After spending the next 4-5 hours reading these forums, twiddling with the switches and generally trying to understand what the heck was wrong, I finally got it working. In retrospect, the solution was simple enough. With the XBox powered off, I selected Bank 8 (256k, off off off on off) on the switch, then booted to the backup ROM. From here, I flashed via HTTP Evox M8 16+ (m8_16.bin, thank you xbins) to Bank 8. It flashed perfectly. After the XBox powered off, I booted normally (quick press the power button) into Evox in Bank 8. Now I could transfer the m3_erase/default.xbe file onto the XBox using a FTP client and run it (as previously, I had tried booting into each of the 15 banks, and while banks 1-2 were empty, 3-4 both had FlashBIOS 3.0.1 in them from previous prodding and poking, so I figured may as well try wiping the banks clean and see if that works - even though I read that flashing X3 BIOS to banks 1-4 should erase everything there, it didn't seem to, from only getting 3/4 of the way flashing maybe it was trying to write to some protected bank? I still don't know).
I went into Evox's XBox File Explorer, ran default.xbe, and turned off the XBox. After setting the switch to Banks 1-4 (on on off off off) I booted into the backup ROM, and flashed X3_1959_v16plus.bin to banks 1-4. Powered up, and X3 "Rox my Box" came up. Finally!
So, if you're having similar problems, just install Evox to a free bank (any 256k bank from 5 to 8, leave 1 to 4 free for X3), run the default.xbe, then boot to the backup ROM and flash X3 to banks 1-4 again, and it should work.
