Replacing X3CE 2mb flash

[jezj]

Hi All,

Can anyone give me the details of the 2mb flash so I can get a replacement, think mine has died. I get "unknown flash! halted" error.

Can boot the x3 into backup but that's about it.

[professor_jonny]

im sure team xecuter eched the chips with their own info to try to throw of copy cat versions of the x3.

[psyko_chewbacca]

I'm not entirely sure but doesn't the Xecuter 3 reports "unknown flash! halted" error when flash protect is ON?
Maybe it's not the chip itself but the flash protect switch that is broken.

Did your Xecuter 3 suddenly stopped working or did you try to flash something on it and then it broke?

Anyway, flash used on Xecuter 3 is most likely a TSOP48 AM29F016D chip by looking at flashBIOS' source code.

[spicemuseum]

flash used on Xecuter 3 is most likely a TSOP48 AM29F016D chip by looking at flashBIOS' source code.

Nice work Psyko.

[jezj]

Thanks Psyko, never thought about the switch being faulty, the lights change ok using the switch or the panel, but I have noticed it quickly flashes up 'Read Only???' then the device ID when booting into FlashBIOS 3.0.1

Is there any way to bridge this to permanently disable flash protect in any way?

I took the xbox apart to fit a permanent coax digital port on the back, put it together and then it turned on permanently with the red X as soon as I plugged it in, all I can do is disconnect the power/reset and bridge the cable to get into backup mode, nothing more.

I've managed to unlock the drive using the backup flashbios and softmod it for the time being

Any ideas on how to fix this would be appreciated.

[xman]

The switches on the panel are simple DIP switches. They are either on or off. You slide the switch across, it closes to form a solid wire, you slide the other way, the wire is broken.Unplug the connector to the panel and all the switches will go open, or all the wires will be broken. You solder a link across behind that switch in the DIP switch bank and it is closed as if the switch was turned on.
You could just remove the whole DIP switch bank and replace the switch bank with a new one that would be of better quality. I always found the quality of that DIP switch bank used on that panel very poor quality myself after having a few break.
There less than a dollar to buy and I personally would use the ones that require a pointer to go in to slide them rather than the ones that have the slide sticking proud of the switch body.

[jezj]

Thanks, but the problem persists when the panel is not connected as well, the switch changes the light on the X3 but I get the same error in either direction.

[jezj]

I'm not entirely sure but doesn't the Xecuter 3 reports "unknown flash! halted" error when flash protect is ON?
Maybe it's not the chip itself but the flash protect switch that is broken.

Did your Xecuter 3 suddenly stopped working or did you try to flash something on it and then it broke?

Anyway, flash used on Xecuter 3 is most likely a TSOP48 AM29F016D chip by looking at flashBIOS' source code.

Just looked into it and that code is a 16mb chip, seems to be the AM29F200BT. Can't seem to find a single one cheap just to try to swap and see if it fixes it. Was worth a shot I guess.....

[psyko_chewbacca]

Just looked into it and that code is a 16mb chip, seems to be the AM29F200BT. Can't seem to find a single one cheap just to try to swap and see if it fixes it. Was worth a shot I guess.....

AM29F200BT's device ID is 0x57

In flashBios source code, XECUTER3 is identified with a manufacturer ID of 0x01(AMD) and a Device ID of 0xAD (AM29F016D)

A way to check which chip is used between the two is to physically probe the chip using a multimeter.
AM29F016D chip have pins 35,36 to GND and pin 12,37 to VCC.
AM29F200B chip have pins 27,46 to GND and pin 37 to VCC.

Probing GND pins would be a good way to know. Pin 35,36 on AM29F200B are data lines and so would not register a short to ground (at least for pin 35). Pin 27,46 on the AM29F016D are Address lines and so would not register a short to ground (at least for pin 27).

So to recap, GND on pin 27 == AM29F200B and GND on pin 35 == AM29F016D. That is, of course, if it is not a completely different chip.

EDIT: Octopart shows some suppliers with decent price for single item: http://octopart.com/partsearch#!?q=AM29F200BT and http://octopart.com/partsearch#!?q=AM29F016D. If not, you can always search on Aliexpress or UTsource.net

EDIT2: Oh and I just noticed that AM29F200B is in fact a 2mb flash chip (256 K x 8-Bit) and not 16mb(2M x 8-Bit).

[jezj]

Thanks Psyko, my mistake was thinking bytes not bits when looking.....

Before I get one and swap it out, any ideas on permanently disabling the write protect, just to be sure its not that on the X3?

[psyko_chewbacca]

Thanks Psyko, my mistake was thinking bytes not bits when looking.....

Before I get one and swap it out, any ideas on permanently disabling the write protect, just to be sure its not that on the X3?

Removing the external switch module should do the trick. Make sure both cable harness that connect the external switch module to the X3 are unplugged from the modchip itself (it may be an issue in the cable so remove any potential source of problem).

I would also carefully check both connectors on the X3 modchip itself for bent pins that could be shorted right inside the connectors. It happened to me once.

By removing the external switche module, you'll enable bank mode 1-8 but the xbox will only boot using bank mode 1-4. So basically flash back X3 Config Live BIOS when you boot from backup bank and if everything went well, your Xbox will boot X3 Config Live BIOS.

[jezj]

Removed the external module at the start, it makes no difference. The led on the X3 does change when I switch on the x3 itself but still the same error.

On boot, x3 is not enabled and if the power/reset is connected, both buttons do not work and the xbox powers on automatically (with x3 disabled)

Checked all pins on the x3 and they are all ok

[xman]

Check the flat cable. It may have a break in it?. We use heaps of flat cables, they go to every coin mech on every machine, and I am always changing them.

[jezj]

There is no flat cable, I have removed it so as per Psyko's comment it boots bank 1-4 as default. X3 is not enabled and boots MS Bios, I can only get into backup bios by bridging the power/reset cable (power/reset pcb not connected as this causes the xbox to turn on, boot ms bios with front panel buttons not working)

[psyko_chewbacca]

You can plug Power/Eject cable on the X3 modchip. The only cable that can potentially be source of issue (in your case) is the one for the external switch module.

Just a thought, sometimes solutions are right in front of us but are you sure that the flash protect switch on the X3 chip itself is properly set and that it is not damaged?

[jezj]

I cannot plug in the power/eject pcb as the xbox turns on as soon as there is power and the front power/disc buttons do not work. With it disconnected, i'm told the x3 should run enabled but it doesn't. I can however bridge the power/eject cable to force the X3 into backup mode.

The flash protect switch changes the colour of the LED when switched and does not look damaged, tested the switch with a multimeter and on/off is working.