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Solved original xbox mod chip ... no power

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somacast007

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Hello ,

I bought a second xbox to give it a clear case mod, however it was not working, so I opened it up, first suspect was the PSU, however after trying it in another xbox and trying my other xbox PSU here it did not work, so it was not PSU.

so I moved to the motherboard, under it there is a modchip with maaany wires I guess this one is to play backups only, and on the top side of it the usual red color modchip for EVO-X etc (Alladdin advance I think is its name), so by searching all the capacitors none was visually leaking, but looking closely at the red color modchip, I thought it might be the issue, so I de-soldered it, and the console powered up and screen display is fine, however it gives (service) secreen with no error code!! I guess it could be the HDD formatted with a dashboard or something...

later I thought of re-installing it using wires instead of direct soldering to the mother board, and again the console stopped working, sometimes only a small spin of the fan, sometimes just powers on then immediate off, then on by itself, and without screen display, then the light keeps changing its color to many colors ...

so my question is : is it only a defective mod-chip issue? or is there another problem??

Thank you


https://1drv.ms/i/s!AnMC5eArOOXltlNf11neyhGcDSBt
 
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Hello ,

I bought a second xbox to give it a clear case mod, however it was not working, so I opened it up, first suspect was the PSU, however after trying it in another xbox and trying my other xbox PSU here it did not work, so it was not PSU.

so I moved to the motherboard, under it there is a modchip with maaany wires I guess this one is to play backups only, and on the top side of it the usual red color modchip for EVO-X etc (Alladdin advance I think is its name), so by searching all the capacitors none was visually leaking, but looking closely at the red color modchip, I thought it might be the issue, so I de-soldered it, and the console powered up and screen display is fine, however it gives (service) secreen with no error code!! I guess it could be the HDD formatted with a dashboard or something...

later I thought of re-installing it using wires instead of direct soldering to the mother board, and again the console stopped working, sometimes only a small spin of the fan, sometimes just powers on then immediate off, then on by itself, and without screen display, then the light keeps changing its color to many colors ...

so my question is : is it only a defective mod-chip issue? or is there another problem??

Thank you


https://1drv.ms/i/s!AnMC5eArOOXltlNf11neyhGcDSBt
I suspect the HDD is unlocked, also it does seem like a defective modchip. Did you try with any other chip?
 
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somacast007

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I suspect the HDD is unlocked, also it does seem like a defective modchip. Did you try with any other chip?

thanks for your reply, in fact I have an update !!

even after removing the chip, it worked for a while then again same crazy behavior: on for 2 sec, off, on by itself for 2 sec, off, on and in 1 sec light blinks red, green rapidly with no display in tv!!


removed both chips, cleaned mother board thoroughly, no effect!!

when it worked for a while i tried the hdd and its locked, and even retail formated!!
also it didn't give microsoft not even once, now its back to craziness

also i have noticed that when it was powering on for a while there was little noise in display as if its an RF display!! cable is fine tried it elsewhere

any clues please? thanks

capacitors looks normal, but should i start taking them off and testing them?!
 
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somacast007

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I read up on the symptoms you are experiencing here. Judging from that, it could be that some component on the mobo is damaged and needs replacing.


Atlas, HuskerHeaven any ideas?

thaaaanks aloooot, the first part is EXACTLY what i have here, the only difference is that it goes and comes.. which is driving me mad, iam strongly suspecting the region at which the chip was install near the ide cable, it was too dirty, cleaned it powered then stoped working later, but so far i could not even make it read a single disk..
 
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somacast007

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update : i cleaned and cleared that area completely, no solder remains no fluids, cleaned with alcohol, did not help..

do i have to reflow?
can faulty capacitors cause this?
if this is a bad eprom flash, can it be undone?

thanks
 
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He stated earlier the HDD is locked. S somacast007 , a reflow may not be a bad idea. But if all else fails, I'm afraid that mobo may be simply dead.
 
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He stated earlier the HDD is locked. S somacast007 , a reflow may not be a bad idea. But if all else fails, I'm afraid that mobo may be simply dead.

Thanks again for your continuous support, and I will try that out, but I do have a few further question please:

1- I will not do a reballing just a reflow, as I don't have the tracing of the CPU, GPU, so which temp C do you suggest? something around 200 C ??

2- I tried to figure out how to remove the black plastic & the heatsink of the CPU & GPU but I could not figure it out, if I break the plastic pins holding it in place from underneath the motherboard then how would I install it back? is there a way to remove it correctly? I could not find any tutorial on that part...


3- iam still wondering if capacitors has got anything to do with this ? I removed completely the time capacitor as many tutorial recommended to do so, however that had no effect, can a bad cap look so normal? shall I remove them one by one and test?

thank you again
 
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somacast007

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I'm sorry that I can't give too many details, I haven't experienced this before, but I did find a video that could help you, considering it's the same make like the one here.


Thanks again, this gives an indication that bad capacitors could be the reason as well, anyway I have removed the heat sink (could not remove the black plastic frame though but its better than nothing), and I have noticed and I was surprised in fact that M$ used an extremely cheap sticky thermal paste, it took me over an hour and half to just remove it, and it even did not go away with all the scratching scraping alcohol windows cleaner plastic spoon even flat screw driver !!! it was really a sticky ugly gum !!

here are some photos after cleaning !! still not happy with this but it muuuuuch better than before , I should have taken a photo before cleaning too ..

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AnMC5eArOOXltncMBHwoOvQ6x4Di
 
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Replace the thermal paste and I guess test the caps. I'm merely firing off random suggestions at this point. Because of the Conexant Video Encoder I can deduce it's an earlier motherboard, I don't know if that will help you or not.
 
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Most likely source of FRAG'ing (Flashing Red And Green) bad BIOS load from an enabled modchip.

Are you sure you have it connected right? The wires seem to go to the wrong pads on the LPC header. For the direct solder method, the chip should be sitting on top of the LPC port with the flash chip (49LF020A) sticking out to the left edge of the Xbox motherboard (MB) when looking from the front of the case. And from what I can make out, the wires on the chip pads, 1 and 2, those closest to the BT marking, are connected to LPC header pins 11 and 10. No good! But, I could be tracing the wrong out of focus wires.

Looks like pin 6 goes to pin 6, GOOD, but then the next pin, 8, traces back to LPC header pin 2. Not good either.

I just can't make out all the wire to header pad connections. Can you get a few more pictures with all the wires in focus and LPC header connections. Most say the wires should be as short as possible and not antennas (can pick up a lot of noise) like they are in your wire install image.

LPC header pinout
Back of Xbox
16 15
14 13
12 11
10 09
08 07
06 05
04 03
02 01
Front of Xbox
04 = No pin present in header and no solder pad/large via for a pin on Xbox Motherboard.
L06JVN4.jpg

LPC port feed thrus free of solder (some Xbox motherboards come this way while other's require the solder to be removed).

zdUK4TD.jpg

Opposite angle look from back of Xbox case, pin header soldered into LPC debug port.
Image Source: www dot dynatron dot org/howto/XBOX/hackit/MoBo/Duo/
Last updated: 09/02/10 16:45 (retrieved: 07/15/17)

What was wired to the back of the motherboard?
 
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somacast007

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Most likely source of FRAG'ing (Flashing Red And Green) bad BIOS load from an enabled modchip.

Are you sure you have it connected right? The wires seem to go to the wrong pads on the LPC header. For the direct solder method, the chip should be sitting on top of the LPC port with the flash chip (49LF020A) sticking out to the left edge of the Xbox motherboard (MB) when looking from the front of the case. And from what I can make out, the wires on the chip pads, 1 and 2, those closest to the BT marking, are connected to LPC header pins 11 and 10. No good! But, I could be tracing the wrong out of focus wires.

Looks like pin 6 goes to pin 6, GOOD, but then the next pin, 8, traces back to LPC header pin 2. Not good either.

I just can't make out all the wire to header pad connections. Can you get a few more pictures with all the wires in focus and LPC header connections. Most say the wires should be as short as possible and not antennas (can pick up a lot of noise) like they are in your wire install image.

LPC header pinout
Back of Xbox
16 15
14 13
12 11
10 09
08 07
06 05
04 03
02 01
Front of Xbox
04 = No pin present in header and no solder pad/large via for a pin on Xbox Motherboard.
L06JVN4.jpg

LPC port feed thrus free of solder (some Xbox motherboards come this way while other's require the solder to be removed).

zdUK4TD.jpg

Opposite angle look from back of Xbox case, pin header soldered into LPC debug port.
Image Source: www dot dynatron dot org/howto/XBOX/hackit/MoBo/Duo/
Last updated: 09/02/10 16:45 (retrieved: 07/15/17)

What was wired to the back of the motherboard?

Hi , thanks alot for your detailed reply.

Actually the red modchip which you have explained how to install it was installed directly to the MB, however I have removed it, when I removed it for a few times the xbox was powering normally up to the logo of xbox, then it flashes again and refuses to read neither moded HDD, nor stock HDDs, not even CDs it could read, always it went to (your xbox needs service) screen, with no error number even most of time

then it got crazy again even without modchip and refused to power, just after pressing (on ... offf .on .. off,..on with green red rapidly),, so I re installed the chip in the bad way I showed in the pictures above, that did not help, so I removed the chip, cleaned the area nicely to insure no short circuits for example, removed the bottom chip (green square, but has no brand name), but all of this did not help, now the MB without any mod chips at all, still it does not work at all !!! I even removed the clock capacitor, replaced on good capacitor which I doubted , that did not help neither

I really gave up on that MB, unless there is a known solution to this, I tried even to reflow by applying 200 C air, no use...
 
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an Update too :::

I tried the chip removed from this console (the red colored Aladdin chip) on another healthy xbox, and the surprise is it behaved the same !!!! on 2 sec , off, on 2 sec, off, on with rapid flashing green/red with no display at all , removed the bad chip and the console was fine, but over here it did not return to normal after removing the chip !! it still behaves crazy !! I wonder if my loooong testing of the console with the bad modchip installed might have spoiled another component (or caused a permanent damage)
 
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hello again, update again :smile:

well i bought new aladdin xt plus2 modchip and installed it, the system now starts!!!

however its driving me crazy again, the LED of the modchip is ALWAYS ON and no EVOX logo is apperaing on screen!!
i tried it with normal wiring as per the chip maker diagram (bt, d0, l0 to mb), and tried it by connecting bt to lower left connector of the modchip for always on mode without wires, again no evox logo on screen , and led of modchip is always on which means something is not correct.. btw the board is v1.0

any clues plz??
 
DeeLaRoc

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hello again, update again :smile:

well i bought new aladdin xt plus2 modchip and installed it, the system now starts!!!

however its driving me crazy again, the LED of the modchip is ALWAYS ON and no EVOX logo is apperaing on screen!!
i tried it with normal wiring as per the chip maker diagram (bt, d0, l0 to mb), and tried it by connecting bt to lower left connector of the modchip for always on mode without wires, again no evox logo on screen , and led of modchip is always on which means something is not correct.. btw the board is v1.0

any clues plz??
Why you buy a modchip for that version? Just tsop that ****. Works way better and you can save the chip for a 1.6 mobo which cannot be TSOP'D. Grab a Hexen 2017 disc as well as it's more up to date. I'm currently working on a slim case mod on a TSOP'D 1.1 with a 60mm green led fan and it has no DVD. Need to get a replacement clock capacitor cap for it, and I can fix my Dreamcast battery at the same time.
 
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