Random Modding Thoughts...

Myrddin

justryan wrote: »

What surprises are in the dashboard update?

The new disc format that offers the extra 1GB, paypal support & one or two other bits...all stuff Sony should be learning from, as in, they're actually improving the console.

Jimbobjoeyman

Any one have some rubbish xbox 360 mainboards ie. rrod with no dvd key ?
I want to buy a couple to practice reballing

Reamer Fanny

Check out adverts plenty of rrod consoles last time I checked, do you still use a hot air setup with preheater?

Jimbobjoeyman

Yup
I repaced my first gpu last night
I'd rather just get some complete rubbish motherboards without dvd keys to practice on rather than a good board

Myrddin

Welcome to the party bestpig 12625 - http://www.bestpig.fr/news-22-freeboot-toolbox-004-maker-v27c.html

A little late though

witnessmenow

Grrr, I managed to update my 360 fine with best pigs tool, but doing the same steps on my brothers and getting nowhere!

its a BB jasper, I've taken a full dump from the xell http server (and from flash 360), and taken the key from xell, put it into to best big and:
"Your dump has not been properly extracted. The reason is unknown"

Any ideas guys?

Reamer Fanny

Check the option for Debug Mode it should sort it

witnessmenow

"Error: Could not find file "sysupdate.xexp1""

A little further i guess


EDIT:

Im after finding the original dump (i hope) and im after generating an update file fingers crossed

So to confirm, because im sick of reading "never mind i solved it" posts to do wiht this error, I solved it by using the original nand dump from the xbox.

TouchingVirus

witnessmenow wrote: »

"Error: Could not find file "sysupdate.xexp1""

A little further i guess


EDIT:

Im after finding the original dump (i hope) and im after generating an update file fingers crossed

So to confirm, because im sick of reading "never mind i solved it" posts to do wiht this error, I solved it by using the original nand dump from the xbox.

Did this solve the problem? When bestpig fails I always fall back to the fbBuild method - it's a little more verbose in output when you include the -v

Myrddin

Is there any point putting the latest Dashlaunch & FSD on my jtag, which is currently on 12625? Or would I be better waiting until the next dash incase Dashlaunch/FSD get updated also?

Jimbobjoeyman

Just after ordering this

My griddle took a dump on me a while ago and I couldn't find another suitable one so i bit the bullet and bought a proper ir preheater.
Lets hope it arrives in one piece

**Edit- 250th post ***

TouchingVirus

EnterNow wrote: »

Is there any point putting the latest Dashlaunch & FSD on my jtag, which is currently on 12625? Or would I be better waiting until the next dash incase Dashlaunch/FSD get updated also?

Considering it took almost 2 months for 12625 to get patched with fbBuild and there are a few extra things in the new dash that need to be looked at (e.g. firmware checks, XGD3 etc) I'd throw dashlaunch and FSD on. Sure you should still have it all practically set up on your hard drive anyways since you were doing it before, the only thing you need is Dashlaunch 2.21 to patch the loaders again

witnessmenow

Installed latest freestyle from xbins at the weekend.

I spent hours trying to get the new multi ISO feature working, trawling through forums getting no where.. til someone mentioned about a plugin folder... something i did not have! Downloaded a copy of freestyle from somewhere else and just copied the plugin folder across and boom

tl;dr: Latest copy of freestyle dash on xbins is missing the plugins folder!

Myrddin

A friend of mine has an Elite with a faulty Lite-On (not reading discs). It's a console used on XBL, so I'd rather go just replacing the lens unit from a donor, or the logic board onto a donor drive (ie keep away from flashing).

Whats the safest/best method of sorting the problem with regards keeping the console clean on XBL?

Jimbobjoeyman

Firstly I'd clean the lens with 99% isypropal alcohol and see if that works some of the time its just impurities on the laser.
Then After that if it still dosent work I'd replace the laser.
Also keep an eye out for the laser sticking sometimes with liteons and benqs the laser sticks at the back of the drive and dosn't move into the disc read position this can cause open tray aswell.

Reamer Fanny

If you've got a multimeter try tweaking the laser pot

Myrddin

Cheers guys, might try a pot tweak first. Whats the story with opening consoles & not having them flagged, is it just a case of don't power it on while opened? Sorry for the noobish q's, but XBL is never something I've had to consider as I'm not a user of online multiplayer thingys.

Jimbobjoeyman

EnterNow wrote: »

Cheers guys, might try a pot tweak first. Whats the story with opening consoles & not having them flagged, is it just a case of don't power it on while opened? Sorry for the noobish q's, but XBL is never something I've had to consider as I'm not a user of online multiplayer thingys.

Clean the laser first with isypropal alcohol if you do a pot tweak if its not needed you could burn out the laser.
Your not supposed to turn on the console without the dvd drive attached or you get flagged.
Personally I dont think the console logs if the dvd drive is attached or not but I always have the dvd drive attached when powering on a console that I'm working with if its not my own just to be on the safe side.
But with my own console I have powered it on without the dvd drive at times and I'm not banned and Xval says I'm not flagged either.

TouchingVirus

Either of them is 100% safe - the logic board has no knowledge of what is attached (i.e. the lens doesn't have a serial number to report to the board if it changes). So whichever one is cheapest

Do not power on the console without a DVD drive connected on both power & data to the xbox motherboard, doing otherwise may raise some flags that will result in the console being probed further or possibly banned

Jimbobjoeyman wrote: »

Personally I dont think the console logs if the dvd drive is attached or not but I always have the dvd drive attached when powering on a console that I'm working with if its not my own just to be on the safe side

The contents of secdata.bin change when you power on a console without a DVD drive connected. Something is definitely noticed

Jimbobjoeyman

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Either of them is 100% safe - the logic board has no knowledge of what is attached (i.e. the lens doesn't have a serial number to report to the board if it changes). So whichever one is cheapest

Do not power on the console without a DVD drive connected on both power & data to the xbox motherboard, doing otherwise may raise some flags that will result in the console being probed further or possibly banned



The contents of secdata.bin change when you power on a console without a DVD drive connected. Something is definitely noticed

Interesting alright good thing I stay on the safe side

Dosnt xval tell you if your secdata.bin is clean or not ?
or does it work off something else ?

TouchingVirus

Jimbobjoeyman wrote: »

Interesting alright good thing I stay on the safe side

Dosnt xval tell you if your secdata.bin is clean or not ?
or does it work off something else ?

Indeed, it'll tell you the difference between banned, due for a ban, or clean. But if I recall correctly (it was a good while ago now) I hex checked a secdata.bin from a console before & after I used the console to power the drive for a flash (i.e. no SATa connection) and the values were different.

TouchingVirus

Busy week for the xbox modding scene:

1) fbBuild v0.30 - Dashboard 13196 gets the JTAG treatment along with an assortment of bugfixes and improvements

2) DashLaunch v2.22 to complement the new JTAG dash

3) A replacement PCB is in production by TX that will enable Slim xbox owners with the DG-16D4S (0225, 0401 and 9405 variants) to flash iXtreme. It's still a little pricey if you ask me but well worth it considering the alternatives are to get somebody to reflow the integrated chip on your DVD drive and replace it with another one

TouchingVirus

So there's this Falcon board..

You've spent 2 hours soldering the nand-X onto traces because the headers are scorched to bits and it's working. And then you solder the JTAG wiring ..and boot Xell, flashing freeBOOT. E74 - what the f*ck? Since this is already a board you JTAG'd initially, you flash the updflash.bin that worked the first time (Dash 2.0.9199). E74. You try another dash version - E74. You try writing it all via the Nand-X - E74. Flashing through Xellous - E74. One more time, flashing through Xe....wtf, what is this garbage on the screen? Lines and funny characters and all sorts of sh*t everywhere, complete video corruption; I can't even make out the text anymore. Power off. "Maybe if I return it to stock it'll work?" Sure enough, it boots into the 7371 dash no problems. I didn't test it, or leave it on for any length of time but stock worked, no E74.

So to sum up:

1) Stock boots
2) Xell/Xellous boots (so the JTAG wiring is fine)
3) freeBOOT/XBR doesn't work - E74
4) Video corruption was experienced at least once
5) It recently had the GPU reballed

Is it a HANA/ANA problem - does that need to be reballed/reflowed? Was the GPU damaged by the reballer? (Xellous is CPU driven, it boots even when there's an underlying E74).

Answers on a postcard please, before I smash my head off this desk...

Jimbobjoeyman

The gpu reball mightn't have taken fully and my need to be fluxed and re flowed again to get it to sit right again.
Or the gpu is partially dead and needs replacing.
If you have a rework station lift the gpu and clean it up and test the resistance on the gpu if its under 2.0 ohms thats your problem and it needs replacing.

TouchingVirus

It's going back to the reballer, I assume it had some kind of reball warranty since it was only done last week

Not my problem anymore, thanks though

Jimbobjoeyman

TouchingVirus wrote: »

It's going back to the reballer, I assume it had some kind of reball warranty since it was only done last week

Not my problem anymore, thanks though

Out of curiosity who reballed it ?
Get them to replace the gpu while there at it it might cost a little more €15-€20
but it will save a headache or two.
If it was "fixed" with a heat gun before or something similar I wouldn't be holding much hope for any long term fix.
might be less hassle to pull the cpu and put it on a good board if thats the case

TouchingVirus

The board was reballed by Consolepros, it's not my board either btw

wotzgoingon

TouchingVirus wrote: »

The board was reballed by Consolepros, it's not my board either btw

Thats not good i've a 360 that needs reballing and i was gonna go to him.
But i dont see how there is only a problem with freeboot and not the default xbox dash. If it was the GPU then the fault would be there for xbox dash as well.

Jimbobjoeyman

wotzgoingon wrote: »

Thats not good i've a 360 that needs reballing and i was gonna go to him.
But i dont see how there is only a problem with freeboot and not the default xbox dash. If it was the GPU then the fault would be there for xbox dash as well.

Supposedly freeboot works different parts of the gpu harder,
And since the gpu was not 100% it made it show e74
I dont know if theres any truth in it but this is the second time I've heard of it and a gpu replacement fixed it the first time.

Consolepros knows what hes doing theres no need to worry about sending the 360 to him nobody has a 100% repair rate and if they do they are lying theres always 1 or 2 that will come back e74 more than others

Jimbobjoeyman

TouchingVirus wrote: »

The board was reballed by Consolepros, it's not my board either btw

Consolepros has a 1 year warranty so no worries there.
I figured as much it wasnt yours since you said the traces were burnt to a crisp (still dont know how some people manage to do that)