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Solved Falcon RGH 1.2 not booting to Xell

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DameRaccoon

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I'm doing my first RGH 1.2 with a Coolrunner rev C and it seems like everything is right but it's not booting to Xell. If I reflash the nand with a backup, it boots stock just fine. Looks like it's trying to glitch, Coolrunner blinks long green and then two short green. Tried around 15 different timing files and haven't gotten it to boot once so far. Suspecting my wiring, so I might rewire the chip from scratch tomorrow.
Images of soldering (resoldered the points on the board so that they were a bit cleaner with less excess solder, but the routing is still the same):
 
SGCSam

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For RGH1.2, I'd recommend the rgh12_21.xsvf file. In regards to it not booting Xell, your wire routing itself is fine. My main concerns would be the PLL and POST points. I can see they've got quite large solder balls which could be bridging against other points hence preventing a successful glitch. Before trying that though, I'd try to eliminate software issues first. Make sure that you have glitch2 selected in JRunner and that you write a Falcon ECC to it (a lot of people accidentally write a JTAG Xell-Reloaded image).

Also, ensure that your HDMI cable is plugged in and that your TV is on and set to the correct input before turning the console on with the power button. If you're sure you've written the correct ECC, and you've got your TV correctly setup then I'd try to see if you can get a more "precise" connection to PLL and POST.
 
AWTalklol

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Are you using alt sby_clk?
I know it sounds silly, but I've had to switch to the normal point by the hana,because the alt wasnt glitching the board for me, don't apply too much from the iron to it, just a short touch to connect it, be cautious of the resistors.
 
DameRaccoon

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Double-checked everything on the software side and it looks right. Flashed the rgh12_21.xsvf timing file just to be safe, reflashed the ECC with the proper settings just to make sure, cleaned up my soldering a bit so that solder balls were smaller.

I'm not actually sure which clk point I'm using. I think it might be the alternative point. Not sure what the normal point is.

Cleaned up my wires a bit without rerunning them, had to borrow a better camera to get closer pictures.
 
SGCSam

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Double-checked everything on the software side and it looks right. Flashed the rgh12_21.xsvf timing file just to be safe, reflashed the ECC with the proper settings just to make sure, cleaned up my soldering a bit so that solder balls were smaller.

I'm not actually sure which clk point I'm using. I think it might be the alternative point. Not sure what the normal point is.

Cleaned up my wires a bit without rerunning them, had to borrow a better camera to get closer pictures.

That's really strange as your soldering looks really good, does the Coolrunner ever stop pulsing? I can't vouch for AWTalklol AWTalklol 's suggestion as I've never had any issues using FT2R2, but he could absolutely be correct. If you're going to try soldering to the HANA resistor, be very careful as it's a very tiny point and can easily be pulled.

EDIT: Just to make sure, some consoles can be a bit temperamental with glitching, so give the console a few minutes just to eliminate a slow boot as the reason.
 
DameRaccoon

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The Coolrunner doesn't stop pulsing. It does two quick pulses, a long pulse, pause, and then repeats the pattern. The longest I've given the console is around 10-15 minutes.

I'll try the other CLK point when I get home. After that, I might just run new wires to make sure it's not that.
 
DameRaccoon

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Okay, just gave it another shot with what I believe is the other CLK point? Wasn't 100% sure from looking at images online but I think it's the right one. Either way, exact same behavior. Long green, 2 short green, pause, repeat. Not really sure where to go from here outside of rewiring it and then buying another chip to rule out the Coolrunner being defective.


Edit: Could my dashboard version be an issue? I'm on 12625.

Edit 2: Updated to 17502 (since it was the first one I could find that was worked oob with Jrunner) and it booted Xell. Instant boot.
 
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DameRaccoon

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Okay, after updating it worked normally. Xell booted, installed the XEBuild image. Took it back apart to clean up some wiring and now when I put it back together it doesn't want to power on. RF Module/Ring of Light board doesn't show any lights and doesn't react when pressed, but I see the console is at least getting standby power as the Coolrunner has its power light on. No idea what I could have messed up since I only soldered new power and ground cables to the Coolrunner and gave a tiny bit of hot glue behind the CLK cable for good luck. I don't have a proper wired controller on hand, but I tried making it boot with a charging cable and a wireless controller and that was a no-go. Thinking I might have killed the RF module, but wouldn't it turn on when the controller is plugged in all the same?

Edit: gave it one last go with the soldering iron before I went to bed. Seems to work now. No idea what the problem was. Resoldered the CLK point and that was it. If anyone has an explanation I'd love to hear it, though.
 
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SGCSam

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Okay, after updating it worked normally. Xell booted, installed the XEBuild image. Took it back apart to clean up some wiring and now when I put it back together it doesn't want to power on. RF Module/Ring of Light board doesn't show any lights and doesn't react when pressed, but I see the console is at least getting standby power as the Coolrunner has its power light on. No idea what I could have messed up since I only soldered new power and ground cables to the Coolrunner and gave a tiny bit of hot glue behind the CLK cable for good luck. I don't have a proper wired controller on hand, but I tried making it boot with a charging cable and a wireless controller and that was a no-go. Thinking I might have killed the RF module, but wouldn't it turn on when the controller is plugged in all the same?

Edit: gave it one last go with the soldering iron before I went to bed. Seems to work now. No idea what the problem was. Resoldered the CLK point and that was it. If anyone has an explanation I'd love to hear it, though.
Damn man, if you were on 12625 you could have done RGH1. It doesn't really matter too much as RGH1.2 seems to work really well on Falcons, so you're fine.

I believe RGH1.2 will only work on kernel 14699 or later initially (keep in mind, once you've got the RGH1.2 hack completed, you can write an xeBuild image for any dashboard - your starting dashboard has no effect on which ones you can run), hence why the console wasn't booting.

I'm not sure what the issue with the RF module could be - in such a situation I'd attempt to power on via the eject button and check the light on the PSU to see if it indicates a fault or a short.
 
DameRaccoon

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Damn man, if you were on 12625 you could have done RGH1. It doesn't really matter too much as RGH1.2 seems to work really well on Falcons, so you're fine.

I believe RGH1.2 will only work on kernel 14699 or later initially (keep in mind, once you've got the RGH1.2 hack completed, you can write an xeBuild image for any dashboard - your starting dashboard has no effect on which ones you can run), hence why the console wasn't booting.

I'm not sure what the issue with the RF module could be - in such a situation I'd attempt to power on via the eject button and check the light on the PSU to see if it indicates a fault or a short.

I was considering RGH1, but because I heard RGH 1.2 performs well on Falcons and I could find a lot of good information about RGH1, I went with RGH 1.2. Good to know for the future that I need to be running 14699 or later, when I was looking into it, information about that was a little all over the place.

Either way, thanks for your help, everyone!
 
DameRaccoon

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Okay, tried to put it back together and we're back to where we were last night. Took it back apart. Can't figure out why it won't boot, no response from RF module.

Edit: Won't power on via eject, PSU isn't tripped (light is orange). Board is getting at least some power as the chip is showing standby power. No lights from the RF module at all. Just double-check my soldering for any sign that something was bridging.

Edit 2: It seems like a power delivery issue. If I unplug the PSU from the wall while keeping it plugged into the Xbox and press the eject button, it drains the PSU.
 
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SGCSam

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Okay, tried to put it back together and we're back to where we were last night. Took it back apart. Can't figure out why it won't boot, no response from RF module.

Edit: Won't power on via eject, PSU isn't tripped (light is orange). Board is getting at least some power as the chip is showing standby power. No lights from the RF module at all. Just double-check my soldering for any sign that something was bridging.

Edit 2: It seems like a power delivery issue. If I unplug the PSU from the wall while keeping it plugged into the Xbox and press the eject button, it drains the PSU.

Did this happen before you did any soldering to the board? You'd be pretty unlucky if the PSU went back coincidentally after the RGH.

Obviously, if you can, try with a different PSU.

Failing that, here's a possible idea - this sounds silly but give it a shot. Can you try disassembling the console again and unscrew all the screws excluding the ones for the X-Clamps and see if you're still having the issue?
 
DameRaccoon

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Did this happen before you did any soldering to the board? You'd be pretty unlucky if the PSU went back coincidentally after the RGH.

Obviously, if you can, try with a different PSU.

Failing that, here's a possible idea - this sounds silly but give it a shot. Can you try disassembling the console again and unscrew all the screws excluding the ones for the X-Clamps and see if you're still having the issue?

This happened last night after I did some cleanup soldering. Thought about trying another PSU but I don't have another one to test with on hand. I've already disassembled it back down to the point where it's just a motherboard sitting on a bench, been going at it for a few hours now, making sure nothing is bridging and probing it with a multimeter. I read that the PSU only output 5v until it gets a power-on signal, which seems to be in line with what I'm getting. PSU is definitely supplying 5v, which would explain why the Coolrunner is lighting up. RF module is getting somewhere in the ballpark of 3v.

Last night when I was doing the cleanup soldering, I laid my hand on the right side of the board, wonder if I didn't mess something up by putting pressure on it, but can't see anything obvious or think of anything obvious that would cause it to just not power up.

Not sure if I should make another thread for this or not since the topic has kind of changed.

Edit: Just bridged the 5v and the power-on rail to force 12v output. Coolrunner didn't react so it seems like that didn't force it to turn on.

Edit 2: Just confirmed with the multimeter that it does output 12v. Going to say that the PSU is fine and that it's something on the board causing the issue.
 
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DameRaccoon

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Okay, got it powering on once again (though not anymore). I've traced the problem back to R4B24. I think maybe one of the feet has screwed the pooch. Not sure how to go about repairing it.

Edit: further testing, if I solder a wire to it, it'll at least attempt to boot. Not able to get it to boot with the glitch chip currently, regardless of if I'm connected to the wire connected to the resistor or from the alt point.

Edit 2: Pictures of what's going on. First one in the gallery is the current state of it. Won't boot. Second picture is it with the wire soldered to it. Will attempt to boot, won't boot into the XEBuild image. Need to reattached NAND cables to test if it'll boot into the stock image, but that's not happening tonight.

 
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DameRaccoon

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Okay, I've managed to get everything working now as far as I'm aware. It's been a rather stressful journey of my own making, but all's well that ends well.

To summarize, all I needed to do was update the dashboard to 14699+. Thinking my wiring was at fault, I double-checked all my connections and moved the CLK connection from FT2R2 to R4B24. That was fine until I decided to go back and clean it up, in the process, I damaged the resistor on R2B24 causing the system to not even attempt to boot. To fix this, I soldered a 33ohm resistor across FT2R2 and the point behind R4B24, just above the C4N27 label (pictures of this below). As a side note, I also managed to mess up the connection on R4B6, which stopped the console from booting when the HDD or DVD drive was connected. Luckily for me, the contacts were still good and so was the resistor, so a bit of solder and all was well.



I'd like to thank everyone for their help, both in this thread and in past threads that I was able to glean information from. I hope this thread can help someone with the same issues I've had. This was a great little project that taught me a lot, even if it did cause me a lot of stress.
 
SGCSam

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Okay, I've managed to get everything working now as far as I'm aware. It's been a rather stressful journey of my own making, but all's well that ends well.

To summarize, all I needed to do was update the dashboard to 14699+. Thinking my wiring was at fault, I double-checked all my connections and moved the CLK connection from FT2R2 to R4B24. That was fine until I decided to go back and clean it up, in the process, I damaged the resistor on R2B24 causing the system to not even attempt to boot. To fix this, I soldered a 33ohm resistor across FT2R2 and the point behind R4B24, just above the C4N27 label (pictures of this below). As a side note, I also managed to mess up the connection on R4B6, which stopped the console from booting when the HDD or DVD drive was connected. Luckily for me, the contacts were still good and so was the resistor, so a bit of solder and all was well.



I'd like to thank everyone for their help, both in this thread and in past threads that I was able to glean information from. I hope this thread can help someone with the same issues I've had. This was a great little project that taught me a lot, even if it did cause me a lot of stress.

Good job man! Yeah, that's exactly why I try to avoid even touching R4B24 if I can at all help it as it's so easy to mess it up. I've always gone with FT2R2 as I've never had an issue with it and I've seen it has no effect on boot times.
 
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