Need help with Tsop recovery after bad flash..

[immune]

Hello,

i just bricked another 2 Consoles flashing corrupt M8+ Bios with Gentoox.

My question is how i get the tsops reflashed with working bios.

I thought about buying an Aladin XT and flash it with M7 recovery BIOS and then try to reflash the TSOP.

but i also read about booting from Aladin XT without M7 bios and using Raincoat Splinter Cell Exploit to reflash the TSOP cause Raincoat will only flash to TSOP instead of flashing the modchip?!

Any advice on that?

Thanks in advance

[professor_jonny]

xblast would be one of the easiest to get a hold of cabable of recovering or a 29 wire modchip?

the tsop recovery it wont work with an Aladdin as you need an output to control one of the tsop wr lines a7 I think

[cashonly]

You cannot flash the TSOP if you boot from modchip and viceversa.
But there is a workaround (i did not tested it):
"1. Insert you booting disc in the DVD drive(HeXen, Auto-Installer...)
2. Tie both D0 and A15 to ground
3. Boot the Xbox with special tsop_m7 bios (from a modchip)
4. Remove D0 from ground (leave it hanging without touching anything)once the front LED starts flashing
5. Remove A15 from ground one you see the Xbox logo on your TV.
6. Flash your TSOP using your favorite tool."

You download the special modchip bios from here: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/sh ... sop_m7-bin

[immune]

Thanks Cashonly,

i read about this method before in another Board :

The guys there mentioned that if you install a Alladin flashed with m7 recovery bios using pin header on LPC,
you could pull the chip from the header once the console boots up to flash TSOP using HEXEN.

The question is if i do this using the method mentioned above,
will i still have to disconnect D0 and A15 or can i simply flash to TSOP once the chip is removed from the pin header ?

Apart from that this will be the first time i will solder something at all . Any suggestions on a good basic solder set ? Maybe one from Ebay?

[NeMesiS]

i just bricked another 2 Consoles flashing corrupt M8+ Bios with Gentoox.

Firstly I would have to ask what makes you certain that the bios.bin was corrupted?
I know on Linux this could be checked by using the compare command like so,
cmp badbios.bin goodbios.bin > badbios.bin goodbios.bin differ: byte 45, line 1

Using Raincoat Splinter Cell Exploit to reflash the TSOP?

Gentoox still uses the Raincoat binary to flash the TSOP...
Personally I use a modified version of the SC exploit which utilities Raincoat 0.7
I'm not sure as to which version of Raincoat that Gentoox uses but I had been advised
by the creator the SC exploit (modrobert) not to use alternate versions of Raincoat 0.7
You could just use EvoX for flashing anything except for the Windbond TSOP...

But there is a workaround (i did not tested it):
"1. Insert you booting disc in the DVD drive(HeXen, Auto-Installer...)
2. Tie both D0 and A15 to ground
3. Boot the Xbox with special tsop_m7 bios (from a modchip)
4. Remove D0 from ground (leave it hanging without touching anything)once the front LED starts flashing
5. Remove A15 from ground one you see the Xbox logo on your TV.
6. Flash your TSOP using your favorite tool."

Before attempting this I would check what version xbox console you have,
And check the size of the bios you were using as I believe there is every chance
that you TSOP flashed a v1.0-1.1 console with a 256k bios...
Note that v1.0-1.1 require 1024k bios and v1.2-1.5 require 256k bios
If this is the case there is a much easier fix for this situation...

THE 3 WIRE TRICK:
I tried finding this online but all websites containing this fix no longer exists
but fortunately I had this saved within my archive of xbox stuff.

1. Solder a wire to each point highlighted red in the image below
2. Twist the ends together to bridge them (I extended my wires outside of the console)
3. Boot your xbox, If your console boots normally it was flashed with 256k bios
4. While the console is still on untwist the wires and reflash with 1024k bios

Note there is a way of using these 3 wires to enable multiple bios's on a 1024k TSOP

Apart from that this will be the first time i will solder something at all . Any suggestions on a good basic solder set ? Maybe one from Ebay?

Just get a standard 40w soldering iron, thats what I used for almost 10 years and
only got a solder station couple of weeks ago. Just if your going to use it for bridging the
TSOP points I would do this as soon as the iron can melt the solder other wise it may get
too hot and could completely lift the pads from the motherboard...

I hope this helps...

[cashonly]

OP, you said that you did not solder anything, how did you bridged the "TSOP enable write" contacts?
Also you have no need to solder the D0 and A15 from my picture, you only stuck the wire in the holes and they can make contact. If you use a too powerfull soldering iron, you risc to break the board.
And to answer your question, you boot the console with the D0 and A15 tied to the ground, and after the boot, you untie them and after that, you flash the TSOP.

[NeMesiS]

OP, you said that you did not solder anything, how did you bridged the "TSOP enable write" contacts?

Yea, true... I wonder if a conductive glue or something similar could be used?

[cashonly]

You only need to insert the striped wire in the D0 and A15 holes, and they make contact.

[immune]

Firstly I would have to ask what makes you certain that the bios.bin was corrupted?

I tried to flash a M8+ Bios with a custom .DDS file. I flashed it before with another .DDS made be me. And then i modified the .DDS again using Photoshop and EVTOOL and fragged my Box(1.4 SST Flash).
Unfortunately i fragged the second one(1.4 Winbond) just minutes later as i flashed the same corrupt Bios by mistake

Personally I use a modified version of the SC exploit which utilities Raincoat 0.7

Any change you can send me this version?

OP, you said that you did not solder anything, how did you bridged the "TSOP enable write" contacts?

As i have nothing to solder and didnt done it before i use special Silverpaintcolor to bridge the points on the PCB.
Something like that:
Then i dip a small Toothpick in it and bridge the Points needed. Its fast and simple and i have never had any problems.

Also you have no need to solder the D0 and A15 from my picture, you only stuck the wire in the holes and they can make contact. If you use a too powerfull soldering iron, you risc to break the board.
And to answer your question, you boot the console with the D0 and A15 tied to the ground, and after the boot, you untie them and after that, you flash the TSOP.

This is great news for me. Thank you again for your advice Cashonly. But i still have to solder the Pinheader and the Modchip to get this to work right ?. I just ordered an Alladin XT for this little intervention.
But i dont have an Account on Eurasia. So if anyone could please send me the M7_TSOP Recovery Bios would be great.

As for the Picture you posted Cashonly: Which of the Points is D0 and which one is A15. Is it descriped in the Modchip instructions?

[NeMesiS]

I tried to flash a M8+ Bios with a custom .DDS file. I flashed it before with another .DDS made be me.

What was the purpose of changing the .DDS file? Trying to change the logo or something?

As i have nothing to solder and didnt done it before i use special Silverpaintcolor to bridge the points on the PCB.

Oh nice, good to know... Don't be too hesitant to solder is not actually that hard and there's plenty of youtube videos to help you out...
The pin header is probably one of the most easiest things to solder. I hold it in place with some tape then old my iron next to the pin
and add solder as needed. Next will be the D0 point the easiest location for this is underneath the board and D0 can also be earthed.
And finally the BT, most people tend to solder to the resister location but it can be soldered to one of the pins behind the power button.
If you need I could find some images to assist you but I think I got the alternate D0 & BT locations from a Aladdin install diagram.
As for cashonly's solution if it could be done without soldering as suggested it shouldnt be too much of a problem...

So if anyone could please send me the M7_TSOP Recovery Bios would be great.

Yea I got it...

Any change you can send me this version?

My version? It's still a work in progress but it will flash the TSOP without issues...

[immune]

What was the purpose of changing the .DDS file? Trying to change the logo or something?

Yes i wanted to give the box i was building for my brother in law some "personality".
I guess i got the Bios corrupted as i switched from a b/w .DDS picture to a coloured one.
Not really shure if it has something to do with the fact that i don´t used the "clean registry" .exe that comes with EVTOOL or if it was an issue with GENTOOX Loader but most likely it was the .DDS

Also thanks for your soldering advice NeMesiS.

I´ll let you know when i get my fragged boxes back to life

Could you send me a link for the recovery Bios or send me an NUP for Eurasia? That would be really great

[MrMajst3r]

tsop_m7 https://www.mediafire.com/?a11n3ul64wuzqwz

[immune]

tsop_m7 https://www.mediafire.com/?a11n3ul64wuzqwz

Thank you very much Sir

[psyko_chewbacca]

Hey, can I chime in?

First of all, tsop_m7 or tsop_d6 will not work if you've got M8+ (partly flashed) on your TSOP, there's no denying that. Long story short, the 2bl on Evox M8+ and everything not M8+ (and X2 5xxx btw) are different and will not unpack a kernel the same way. The TSOP recovery trick relies on the fact that the 2bl on the (corrupted) TSOP is still able to decrypt and unpack the kernel of the tsop_m7 BIOS.

Second, what I think happened here is that you only flashed the first 256KB of your 1MB TSOP. You're left with a TSOP that partly contains a M8+ BIOS and whatever you had there previously, which is most likely not M8+. Gentoox Loader does not mirror a BIOS image to fill the whole TSOP flash array. To my knowledge only EvolutionX Dashboard and XBlast OS does it (XBlast OS also verify after write ).
Could you please confirm the size BIOS you tried to flash using Gentoox Loader? If it wasn't 1024KB then that's what happened but rejoice! There is a way to fix this "easily". You just need to temporarily split your TSOP in half. You will need a DPDT(or DPST) switch for more convenience. Just wire the common terminal of the switch to your TSOP A19 line and connect 1 switch terminal to GND and the other to +3.3V (or +5V if you have a Sharp TSOP). You can probably find tutorial on split your TSOP in half on the internet so I won't go into details here.

From here on, we'll call the corrupted first 512KB part of the TSOP "bank1" and the other 512KB's "bank2".

Once your TSOP is split, just toggle the switch either way to boot from one of the bank (try the other if the first one FRAG). Heads up, the good bank will be when A19 is connected to +3.3V, so bank2. So boot the good bank, find a way to launch your favorite BIOS flasher tool, flip the switch to toggle bank1 and flash what you want. If you plan on removing the switch to keep a single bank 1MB TSOP, make sure that the same BIOS is mirrored on the entire 1MB array. So make sure the content of both bank1 and bank2 are identical. If it's not the case, flip back the switch to toggle bank2 and flash the same thing you flashed on bank1. Remove the switch and you should be good to go, assuming you previously tested booting from bank1 before removing the switch.

Remember, that will only works if you tried flashing a BIOS smaller than 1024KB on your TSOP. If the BIOS was 1024KB then there's really something corrupted on your TSOP and you will require to either solder on a 28-wire modchip or desolder your TSOP to flash it in an external programmer.

By the way, I uploaded tsop_m7 and XBlast OS on Eurasia.nu if anyone ever needs it.

EDIT: Oh and you should avoid flashing tsop_m7 BIOS on a single bank modchip, like and Aladdin. The thing is the BIOS will only successfully boot giving you TSOP access, not LPC. You will not be able to reflash it on its own. You'll either need to replace the socketed flash chip on the Aladdin or boot from another modchip and hotswap to reflash it.

[immune]

Hi psyko_chewbacca,

thank you very much for your advice on that but oh well....

as far as i understand and i mean i´m absolutely not sure if i do its not as easy as thought it would be right?

So i dont have a change to do the recovery using a modchip like alladin but instead i have to split the TSOP banks of the boxes i´ve just fragged, which includes lots of soldering i´ve never done before...

I always thought that only 1.0 and 1.1 have 1MB TSOP Chips. The Boxes i´ve broken are 1.4 of which i thought have only 256K ??

Heres a pic of my "Bad" Bios:



The thing that confuses me now is that i already flashed the same Bios using GENTOOX just with a different .DDS to one of the Boxes i bricked and it just worked fine.

To my knowledge only EvolutionX Dashboard and XBlast OS does it (XBlast OS also verify after write ).

As for XBlast_OS : I just downloaded it from your bitbucket site but didn´t find a Flash Option. Is it hidden?

EDIT: Oh and you should avoid flashing tsop_m7 BIOS on a single bank modchip, like and Aladdin.

I thought i would be ok with that as my plan was to only having the Alladin to be my recovery tool when i just messed things up again

[psyko_chewbacca]

Hum sorry, I was under the impression the Xbox in question was a 1.0. In that case sorry, you're right and 1.4 indeed have 256KB TSOP, so there's no splitting possible... You're left with the 28-wire modchip or desolder TSOP options.

I'm not versed in DDS manipulation and such but maybe the problematic one was too big and overwrote program data in the BIOS?

Concerning XBlast OS, you should have a look at the Wiki on Bitbucket. It's a cool piece of software but can be dangerous if you don't know what your doing. The Flash section is in "Advanced Settings".

If you're cool with flashing TSOP_m7 onto a Aladdin then go ahead. It was just to warn you flashing over tsop_m7 might require a bit of fiddling around.

I have free time after work, I'll try screwing around and cook a "tsop_m8" BIOS but don't hold your breath. I am really not sure it will lead to anything...

[immune]

Hum sorry, I was under the impression the Xbox in question was a 1.0. In that case sorry, you're right and 1.4 indeed have 256KB TSOP, so there's no splitting possible... You're left with the 28-wire modchip or desolder TSOP options.

No prob. i'm glad that you told me that the thing with the tsop_m7 and the alladin isnt going to work just saved me from a lot of headache in the near future.

Anyway.. is it more complex to do the 28 wire thing or to desolder the tsop? How much for an flash programmer supporting the xbox tsops? Do you know?

Yea i really guess i messed up about the dds file i added to the bios. Gentoox flashed the bios as it always did leaving with no errors or whatever but the boxes wont reboot giving me that exciting flashing leds i didnt wanted to see.

I definetly will give flashing with xblast a try. BTW: What happens if Xblast_OS doesnt verfiy the flash?

And for the tsoo_m8 i wont hold my breath but i would love to see it coming if it would help me on my issue, so good luck on that one

[psyko_chewbacca]

Anyway.. is it more complex to do the 28 wire thing or to desolder the tsop? How much for an flash programmer supporting the xbox tsops? Do you know?

28-wire would be more advisable if you're not a seasoned solderer. Personnally, I find it faster to desolder the TSOP and solder it back on but I'm used to solder such parts. A flash programmer that takes TSOP-32 devices will run for about $100USD.

Yea i really guess i messed up about the dds file i added to the bios. Gentoox flashed the bios as it always did leaving with no errors or whatever but the boxes wont reboot giving me that exciting flashing leds i didnt wanted to see.

Gentoox will not report any error during flashing. It just blindly writes data to the flash chip and stops when it reaches the end of the BIOS file. It will not warn you if writing was bad or if the file isn't the proper size.

I definetly will give flashing with xblast a try. BTW: What happens if Xblast_OS doesnt verfiy the flash?

If verify after a write fails, XBlast OS will show a warning telling you so and return to Flash menu. From there, you're free to try to flash again (there's not much else you can try really!).

And for the tsoo_m8 i wont hold my breath but i would love to see it coming if it would help me on my issue, so good luck on that one

We'll see, I will dust off my TSOP test rig tonight.

[psyko_chewbacca]

Welp it's not working... I'm out of ideas. Looks like there won't be any miracle for you tonight.

[MrMajst3r]

Hum sorry, I was under the impression the Xbox in question was a 1.0. In that case sorry, you're right and 1.4 indeed have 256KB TSOP, so there's no splitting possible... You're left with the 28-wire modchip or desolder TSOP options.

No prob. i'm glad that you told me that the thing with the tsop_m7 and the alladin isnt going to work just saved me from a lot of headache in the near future.

Anyway.. is it more complex to do the 28 wire thing or to desolder the tsop? How much for an flash programmer supporting the xbox tsops? Do you know?

Yea i really guess i messed up about the dds file i added to the bios. Gentoox flashed the bios as it always did leaving with no errors or whatever but the boxes wont reboot giving me that exciting flashing leds i didnt wanted to see.

I definetly will give flashing with xblast a try. BTW: What happens if Xblast_OS doesnt verfiy the flash?

And for the tsoo_m8 i wont hold my breath but i would love to see it coming if it would help me on my issue, so good luck on that one

Just install an Aladdin chip in your console and leave broken TSOP alone. Modchip will bypass bad TSOP flash.
Soldering a 29-wire modchip or desoldering the TSOP chip is not an easy thing if you haven't soldering skills. Moreover, to do this you need a 29-wire modchip or programmer.
I played with both of these methods last week. I had some TSOP chips flashed with corrupted bioses. I have installed modchip in one console and then reflash all TSOP chips by soldering them into chipped console (I used Xbox instead of external programmer).

http://imgur.com/lzsM6pX