well, I spent the morning soldering it into place and it looked like a good job. howeverthis smartxx pin header install is behaving strangely and I need some advice.
The symptoms are two false starts where the eject light flashes green and the machine starts and then dies. On the third try it flashed red and green, but stays running. The peculiar part to me was that this only happens in certain circumstancees:
It happens after the machine has been shut down moments before. The first time i turned the machine on xboxdash booted and no smartxx OS came up at all. The second time it gave me the two greens and the red/green. Now smartxx boots normally UNLESS i try to turn the machine on after turning it off. It usually takes a minute or two to get "normal"
any help would, uh, help.
christian

Yeah this is covered already all over the place here in the forums. You need to search for Flashing Red and Green (FRAG)..basically, bad LPC point.....solder isnt making a complete connection..so check all the LPC points, get a magnifying glass if you can and check them, if you have a multimeter use it, theres a tut linked off the main XBox-scene.com site, at the tutorial link, on how to check the XBox + Chip.

yer the solderign can be a real prick. it can look fine, but not be makign a good connection. just check very thougrougly all of the soldering points

k thanks!

glad to be of some help

ok, so i went back an really, really soldered my lpc points. I got them really good. If they aren't soldered now then I don't know what is.
But my problem is the same. If anything the fragging is more frequent. My question is, is this still the lpc points? do i need to de and re solder? or am i working with a fried mobo? I am optimistic and think i can fix it still.

its the points... they arent connected... more than likely its only one point... check with a multimeter if possible

i have the same problem i just oredered a second version cause i was tring to install a version one on a 1.6 xbox version. so what it is or at least what i find out is that the chip has an old os that v1.6 won't load what it was recomended to do was install it on an older xbox and update the os then comeback and installin on the 1.6 it rather order a new one (chip).. so lets see if it works what i'm gonna do i'm gonna put that new lpc board and try the v.1 and see if it work then if not i'll try the v.2 and if it work i will comfirm it. hope this helps buddy

ok, i'll buy a multimeter

Your problem is probably due to having an incorrect bios loaded on your chip. Currently only the M8_16 bios works on 1.6's. The problem you are describing is consistent with an incomapatible bios

let me reflect a bit. I have a 1.4 box, not a 1.6. Some well intentioned sole said something about a 1.6 but i don't have one of those. I appreciate all the help though. just thought I would keep it where it is.
assuming the bios won't matter on my 1.4 xbox
xtian

well id try de soldering all of the wires, and solder them back on again. then check them with a multimeter just to be sure

The most common causes of a FRAG are:

Bad Soldered LPC points.
-Recheck all solder points.
-Check to make sure there is no continuity between any of the pins.
-Make sure pin header is not off by one row of points.

Solder Splashes.
-Check the entire MOBO for solder that may have splashed or dripped.
-Check both sides.

Recommended Tools.
-Multimeter (for checking continuity)
-Magnifying Eye Loup (allows you to examine MOBO at a very detailed level)

Other Tests.
-Does XBOX boot normally with chip removed or D0 unhooked? or does it still frag randomly?
-What color are the lights on the SmartXX?

I have fixed many xboxes for people and usually a small speck of solder was splashed somewhere. It really causes sporadic problems. Sometimes it works, other times it FRAGS. I recommend you check for this.

/\/\/\/\/\ this guy knows what he's talking about

thanks a lot for the detailed replies. you have been extremely helpful with this. i am impressed with the quality of the members of this online community. if you are ever in Baltimore, stop by.

xtian

OK! I'm getting somewhere. With my multimeter I tested all my points against the excellent multimeter lpc tutorial here at xbox-scene by milingo. Just as everyone told me there was one bad point. Nowi'm a bit stumped. The first LPC point, point 1, or LClk, is way off the mark, reading like 15v. The others are right on the money. I will look around to figure out what that means but any hints would be helpful.
I have also inspected the MOBO and cleaned residual solder off.
Nect I plan to try to boot up without mod chip and test that way to see if i still frag.
xtian

and it does frag with everything connected minus the modchip. So is that it, am i fried?
?
-xtian

I have similar results with the red/green lights. I have installed smartxx v2 on a 1.6 box and I get the lights with no display. However, if I take the smartxx chip out and leave the rebuilt board and the pinheader, it boots up fine. Does this say anything whether I have a bad smartxx chip or should my system boot fine even if I had bad solder points?

JCuervo811