X3CE Issues, possible hot swap?

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 1:54 am

Ok so I've got my hands on a nice X3CE chip but I've run into a wall and wanted some input from folks. I've tried using this chip on two of my X3CE xbox's, one is a 1.4 and the other is a 1.6 (to rule out bios issues). Here is the problem, on either machine, power it on with the chip enabled and it frags. Try to boot into Flashbios and the xbox frags(X3 does show purple at first). Bank switches have no effect so I'm assuming that the main ROM has a bad flash and I'm assuming the same thing on the backup ROM.

Does anyone know or has anyone tried to hot swap and flash one of these? I've done it in the past with a DUOX2 by sharing the D0 points, loading up EVOX and hot swapping to flash the chip. Not really sure if this will work with an X3 though, I'm not even sure if EVOX can flash these things so before I even attempted it I wanted to run it by you guys. Let me know what you guys think.

NEX

Post by **xman** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 4:11 pm

I think it will work but you need to upload a good copy of the bios to a file in ExoXDash first so you have it to re-flash the faulty X3 with and then you need to make sure your version of EvoXDash actually has the correct numbers to match the X3 bios or EvoXDash will continue to fail to flash. Seeing as the modchip appears that both chips have failed, I would be looking very closely at the modchip board itself first and look at tracers that are going to be common to both chips like the power and earth traces. Alternatively you could set the dip switch settings to run off one bios and re-flash just the bios selected not using the X3 OP at all and then this will tell you if you do actually have something major wrong with the board using the hotswap method if you can't re-flash directly. Through memory if you disconnect the dip switch board on the X3, it will default to a bios that should be able to be re-flashed. Ow, you did try swapping the cable and dip switch board didn't you?. By the way the dip switch settings are in the Mod Chip Data section in the Modding section.

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:58 pm

Gotcha, I think we're both on the same path here. I'll double check all the traces and what not on the chip just to be sure. I've tried using it on a 1.6 with an X3CP and then on my 1.4 with the normal front control panel. Both showed the same issue no matter what order I set those dip switches on. I'll be honest I only set them to the normal settings that the average person would use but I havent gone through all the 256k settings. I'll give that a shot tonight and see what it does.

So I'll have a look at the EVOX.ini and see if I can get the find the chip ID. If all else fails i'll remove the front switch so that it defaults to the 1MB bank and see what happens. So for that hot swap, do you think I should just boot it up, get EVOX loaded and then unplug the current chip and mount/plug in the chip in question and attempt a flash or perhaps should I have the D0 and front switch power already hooked up to the chip in question (sharing D0 and the front X3 P/E board already has a second switch slot) and then try to flash? That's what I've done in the past with the DUOX2's, I've just had two wires on the D0 point of the board, both already soldered onto the chips so that there is not time being wasted and no need to de-solder the D0 from the chip. Dont want to risk any shorts here.

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:04 pm

xman wrote:By the way the dip switch settings are in the Mod Chip Data section in the Modding section.

You sir are correct, hidden in that PDF. This is from the XPhazer, thank you sir for hosting this.

Post by **xman** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 12:57 am

Having the DO wire soldered to both chips seems like a good idea. Never done it that way myself but it is definitely a better way than soldering it powered on like I have done in the past.

professor_jonny · Post by **professor_jonny** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 1:25 am

the eeprom on the x3 may be corrupt there is an x3 erase tool that will fix problems related to this.

I had mine it would boot and frag on the x3 bank but would boot normsally if I booted another bank with a normal bios on it and it would crash booting the backup bios as it was a 1.6 and has a 1.x version of flash bios on it.

boot up with a chip hot swap run the tool and it may fix the problem?

worth a try.

the problem is on the newest bios if you set a x3cl password it corrupts the eeprom it was a bug in the last x3cl build, there was documentation saying if you wish to have a password on x3cl us an older bios version.

hope this helps ?

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 3:00 pm

Thanks for that Prof J. I'll have a look for that app and see what happens. I still have to go through every set of bank switch settings but I had never heard about the password corrupting the EEPROM. Glad you told me about that because X3_3294 is what I'm always using on these. That's one hell of a bug. Any idea what the app was called?

MrMajst3r · Post by **MrMajst3r** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 3:35 pm

X3 Erase Tool:
https://mega.nz/#!95NUELQR!8iTKklEyojPv ... MGlQbFrWrc

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 5:06 pm

Grassy ass guys, world class help here!!

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 5:00 pm

Update, was able to snag another X3 fitted xbox yesterday for a fair deal, going to use it to see if I can salvage this chip and I'll report back to you guys. Really curious to see if this hot swap method works or not and if the EEPROM is corrupt. Always nice when you open up an xbox and see this

...........................................

Hey at least it all works and the chip is a newer gen.

Post by **xman** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 6:41 pm

It looks like a dog's bed actually but as long as it works I guess. You can always use a blower vac on it later.

professor_jonny · Post by **professor_jonny** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 1:03 am

you could tsop that sucker and keep the chip for a 1.6 xbox? but yes it is quite fluffy in there.

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 5:32 am

Update, no luck so far. Tried a few different ways but ran into trouble in each method.

1. Booted up EVOX and hot swapped the chips. Tried to flash it but got the "Flash not writable" screen. I flipped the flash protect switch just in case and still the same result. Now, I did not try to flash it with the X3 bios, I just tried X2_5035_1MB, only reason I did this was because I have not found a good evox.ini with X3 info in it. Maybe I just need to edit the file to see the X3 bios however that wont change the Flash not writable error.

2. Tried using the X3 Erase tool as well. I was able to get it booted up from the CD drive and then chose the Erase X3 EEPROM option but it just freezes at the EVOX Loading screen. Not sure if I need to wait a while or not but I waited for a good 5 minutes before I rebooted the box and tried again, same result.

Curious if anyone has any guidance on the X3 Erase tool or if anyone knows if EVOX can even flash the X3? It almost seems like when I hot swap the chip the utilities dont see it but see my onboard TSOP. One thing to note would be that when I'm hot swapping the chips I'm not attaching the external panel to the chip i'm trying to flash, not sure if that will matter or not since there a switch on the chip to toggle flash protect.

Post by **xman** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:51 am

Nextelhalo wrote: I'm not attaching the external panel to the chip i'm trying to flash, not sure if that will matter or not since there a switch on the chip to toggle flash protect.

I'm thinking attach that external board and see if you can flash one of the bios locations.

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 3:13 pm

xman wrote:I'm thinking attach that external board and see if you can flash one of the bios locations.

I was thinking about that last night right before I passed out. I'll give it a shot tonight or this weekend and see if it makes a difference. So frustrating when you have a solid piece of hardware and it just wont work.

toxicmedz · Post by **toxicmedz** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 6:42 pm

you are making sure that the little write protect switch on the chip isn't in the on position right? small thing that can sometimes be overlooked..

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:49 pm

Yep that was one of the first things i checked since I was not hooking up the front panel.

Nextelhalo · Post by **Nextelhalo** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 4:18 pm

So still a no go even with the front switch attached. Curious about two things here. Can anyone give me alittle feedback on the process of using the X3 Erase disc? I had it booted up but when i choose the Erase X3 EEPROM option it shows the EVOX booting screen and freezes. Also, can anyone confirm that EVOX can flash these chips? I think i'm lacking the chip ID and the flash type in my .ini file for EVOX. I pulled up the .ini file from the latest slayers disc and there are a crap ton more flash types in there but not sure if the X3 would be one of them. I would be grateful for any help, would like to salvage this X3 and not see one go down since they're getting hard to come by these days.

professor_jonny · Post by **professor_jonny** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 12:45 pm

The chip I'd and all that don't matter the x3 erase tool just works try running it from xbmc or something I don't know I have not had that issue before of it crashing evox.

professor_jonny · Post by **professor_jonny** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 12:49 pm

You could try flash the chip with benny's blastos.xbe ? I'm quite sure it works from there, I believe it will say if the chip is detected as a x3 as it pokes the lcp registers to check the chip type on startup.

X3CE Issues, possible hot swap?

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