X2.6CE Install: worked but now FRAGs

VintageGold

Full Member
Sep 20, 2004
30
0
Work, always work
I've spent about 12-14 hours working on this and am about ready to tear my hair out. I installed (6th box I've modded) an X2.6 on a version 1.2/1.3 Xbox.

The very first time I installed the chip (soldered in) the box fired up and worked fine. I was able to get the HDD formatted and copy a few things to the drive and test them out. After it had been running awhile, I restarted the box and it would 3x boot and FRAG. Not sure why it did this at all since it was working, I double and tripple checked the D0 wire and had good continuity at all D0 points, front and back, and through the grey wire to the connection on the chip.

I fiddled with the switches and finally the box would boot back up. Thinking everything was fine, I delivered the Xbox to the customer, but let him know I had a small issue with it and for him to let me know if there were any problems.

He used the box for about a week, at 1 point for almost 6 straight hours while we played Halo and Halo 2 at his place with no issues - turned it off and on several times while doing a demo for some other friends - nothing wrong.

Beginning of the this week I get a call that it's not booting up again so I had him bring it by. I plug it in and the thing fires up the very first time, no problems. So I let it sit running for a while to see if anything would happen. Next time I start it up - 3x boot with FRAG.

At this point I'm a little baffled so I pull it apart and swap the chip with another known working Xbox - same thing, 3x boot with FRAG. I then swap his chip into the other box and it boots up just fine - so I'm fairly confident it's not the chip.

I try another switch, thinking since I had to play with it before, maybe it was that - both chips FRAG on his box, works fine on mine - so not the switch.

I checked for continutity at all points (LPC, D0) and all check out fine.

So I tested the power ratings at the LPC and have this -

NOTE !!All voltages are measure using the contacts on the back of the chip itself!!

With chip ON

Voltage and Pin Location

0.00 - 16 15 - 3.30
3.30 - 14 13 - 3.30
0.00 - 12 11 - 3.27
3.27 - 10 09 - 3.30
3.27 - 08 07 - 3.27
4.54 - 06 05 - 0.16
0.00 - 04 03 - 1.71
GND - 02 01 - 0.00

With chip turned OFF (I get the same numbers with the chip removed and measuring at the pins)

0.00 - 16 15 - 3.29
3.27 - 14 13 - 3.28
0.00 - 12 11 - 3.24
3.24 - 10 09 - 3.29
3.24 - 08 07 - 3.24
4.56 - 06 05 - 3.24
4.56 - 04 03 - 0.00
GND - 02 01 - 1.20

I was kind of curious and also measured voltage through the D0. I get almost nothing with the chip enabled, but with the chip off I get a constant 4.56 volts, just like the 6 and 4 pin.


I resoldered the pin header and the D0 and tested the chip again and retested - AGAIN - for continuity and everything checks out okay - AGAIN - and get just about the same voltages.

I get nothing but 3x boots and FRAGs on the box. With the chip disabled I get Error code 05 - HDD not locked (duh, I'm not running from the stock drive).


Can someone please offer a solution or some things to try? Like I said at the beginning, I'm about ready to give up on this whole thing.
 

Big_Whoopin

VIP Member
Jan 29, 2004
811
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SE Pennsylvania, USA
Don't waste your time on D0. If the box boots fine (aside from error 5) with the chip disabled and FRAGs with it enabled then D0 is working. This simply triggers the motherboard to boot from the LPC socket. Focus your efforts elsewhere.

You've tried a new chip and new switch, but did you test with a new switch cable? Possible the cable is clamped/cut where it installs through the front of the box?

Don't have much more to recommend, you've already done most of what you can do to try and isolate the problem...

-Whoopin'
 

VintageGold

Full Member
Sep 20, 2004
30
0
Work, always work
The other switch I tried was just connected to the chip without being fed through the case. I went as far at one point as swapping the boards from one box to the next to isolate the power soarce. I was able to boot up my board using his box and the switch connected to it, so I think I've ruled it out as well.
 

VintageGold

Full Member
Sep 20, 2004
30
0
Work, always work
Any other suggestions anyone can offer would be great!
 

VintageGold

Full Member
Sep 20, 2004
30
0
Work, always work
I ordered a solderless adapter which I'm going to try and use. If this doesn't work, I'm just about ready to declare this one a loss and revert it back to stock.

But, if anyone has any thoughts on what else I can try, please let me know.
 

vincentn2k2

VIP Member
Jan 3, 2006
157
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it's a very long shot here but I experienced sort of similar problems with my xbox when I originally had it modded. Of course, I did the whole myself and installed a 40GB HDD. The HDD is not new but a hand me down from my friend with a sticker said "HDD faulty". I tried the HDD on the xbox and it seemed to work fine but .....
1. It inititally worked on me and out of the blue would FRAG. By resitting the IDE cable, it seemed to work again.
2. No matter how many times have I re-installed the applications (using AI Deluxe v2), the app DVDX2 would NOT run any DVD disc even with the original disc.
3. Sometimes my xbox would freeze in the middle of a game and I have to push the on/off button.
4. I've replaced the 40GB HDD with a 120GB HDD and now my apps started o work properly again so ....

It might be that the customer's HDD has some bad sector on it. I would recommend you to download software from HDD manufacturer for low level formatting a HDD. During the format, the software should automatically marked out bad sectors on the HDD so the OS will not write data to those bad sector. Soudns to me like you don't have problems with the chips, the install, the switch, power so it must be elsewhere.
 

VintageGold

Full Member
Sep 20, 2004
30
0
Work, always work
I've used his HDD to boot on another Xbox with no problems. The chip just never acts like it's booting the BIOS. At what point does the HDD start to interact with the chip?
 

jabba2006

Noob Account
Feb 28, 2006
4
0
I modded my xbox 1.1 ver with the 2.6 excuter chip. All was good. Spent the first night tearing my hair out with the bios flash and figuring where to go from there. The next day for no good reason I start getting the 3 boot crap described above. aditionally the cd eject button has a mind of its own (luckily I use freaky fliers as my test disc). At this point I still get the triple boot, and now I get no picture? the minute I plug it onto my rca's for the xbox i get the red/green flash of death. I'm ready to go office space on my precious xbox.

any ideas that haven't already been stated? I'm using the xapter so the room for error is minimal.

aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

the board looks good , I swear I've gone thru everything. Does anyone have a FAQ of all issues encountered by model and chip?


help
S
 

VintageGold

Full Member
Sep 20, 2004
30
0
Work, always work
Please, no hijackers.

jabba2006 said:
I modded my xbox 1.1 ver with the 2.6 excuter chip. All was good. Spent the first night tearing my hair out with the bios flash and figuring where to go from there. The next day for no good reason I start getting the 3 boot crap described above. aditionally the cd eject button has a mind of its own (luckily I use freaky fliers as my test disc). At this point I still get the triple boot, and now I get no picture? the minute I plug it onto my rca's for the xbox i get the red/green flash of death. I'm ready to go office space on my precious xbox.

any ideas that haven't already been stated? I'm using the xapter so the room for error is minimal.

aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

the board looks good , I swear I've gone thru everything. Does anyone have a FAQ of all issues encountered by model and chip?


help
S
This is all well and good, but please start your own thread and don't hijack mine.
 

Fantmx

VIP Member
Feb 15, 2004
2,274
0
It may be a heat related issue. From what I can tell it boots just fine the first time, but after it has been running for a while it has problems restarting right? Try letting it heat up, and then check the voltages. It is possible something is expanding ever so slightly under the heat and that is causing the problem.
 

VintageGold

Full Member
Sep 20, 2004
30
0
Work, always work
Until I can get the box working at all I won't be able to test for heat, but I'll certainly keep that under advisement.