So, the other day, I did an IGR and instead of rebooting, the xbox stayed off. I pressed power, and it FRAGged, at which time i was informed that it had done it the day before, and leaving it alone solved the problem. So, I left it alone, and tried again hours later, and nothing. Eventually, i ripped everything apart, checked the chameleon (solderless), checked the d0, yadda yadda, everything seemed great. Also of note, with the chip removed, everything was keen, MS dash booting up and all sorts of fun. So. unable to fix it, I went to work for 8 hours.

When I got back, it powered on first try. I took the opportunity to disable IGR, thinking that maybe I had rebooted in the middle of some important data transfer that fucked everything up (not likely, but I wanted to be sure). And then, I rebooted, thinking that since nothing was moved, it would work. This resulted in FRAOing. I set the dips to use banks 2 3 and 4, all of which yield FRAGing, bank 1 still FRAOs, and taking the chip off results in normal activity. So, I assume the problem has nothing to do with the board.

Can anyone make sense of this please? Preferably in a way that doesn't involve linking me to www.xbox-scene.com/articles/red-orange.php ? Seriously, don't link me to that worthless article, I've been searching for a solution for hours, and all i've found are people who have the FRAOing problem, and replies sending them to that page, and then more replies saying 'thanks, but that doesnt fix anything'.

I did find one site where someone advocated 'spanking' the xbox, as it worked several times for him and one other dude. so, is there a possibility that one of the drop-in pins for the solderless adapter 'fell' too far and isnt making connection with the springy point on the clip? I'd really like to fix this problem, but the randomness of the whole situation is making it even more annoying. Broken is broken, but half-broken is kinda annoying. Thanks in advance to anyone who replies and doesn't link to www.xbox-scene.com/articles/red-orange.php

More information which I forgot to include! After the first occurence of FRAOing, I switched to bank 4, got it FRAGing, and switched back to bank 1, and it would start up, stop, then start again (like it was going to FRAG), but on the second bootup, the green light stayed on, but there was no video. So I pressed the 'open' button, and when the tray opened, the splash screen came on. This seemed like an incredibly random occurence, but it repeated itself the next five times i tried to power on. During the second 'turn on', it would stay green, and pressing the open button would actually start the unit. On the fifth try, I re-enabled IGR (in the evox settings) thinking that maybe I made a big mistake turning it off. Then it FRAOed again, so i tried the 'switch to bank 4' think again, it FRAGed, then back to bank one, still FRAO.

I have no idea if this info is useful, but it is weird enough to maybe uniquely identify the problem, so here it is!

get an updated chip, i had a chameleon 1.3 tried using a flubber tool, after reflashing my chip with the edited flubber it never worked again in any xbox, i bought a prgramer, all the flshes went successful but yet when i took it from the pc and put it in a box it fragged again like tha flash never took through the programer, just get a newer chip and you should be fine, i even used the wire install method from the wire adapter i never used for my X3, i removed all the uneeded pins in the harness and solkdered them to my BIL xbox and well still frag so i just softmodded his box and called it good, just get a new chip throuw it in and you should be good

I had a feeling that would be the result. Being strapped for cash, I was hoping there was another option. Thanks for the quick reply, and for not linking to www.xbox-scene.com/articles/red-orange.php !

It is very possible that the solderless adapter isnt making contact with the LPC as it should, so you may want to remove it, clean the points and try re-seating it a few times. Another possibility would be to actually solder the pin header in place and try installing the chip that way. If you try re-seating the solderless adapter and are unsuccessful, you may also try using your programmer and flashing the chameleon with the appropriate cromwell bios and see if you can start over from scratch, then try reflashing the chip via the dvd rom drive. There are quite a few possibilities before just buying a new chip. If you're up for paying shipping costs, you're more than welcome to send it to me and I'll take a look at it free of charge. I have an handfull of refs on here if you need em.

not to mention he's a moderator

I'd take him up on his generous offer..beats buying a new chip

I accidentally demolished the chip whilst trying to bend the pins to have them make better contact. Not a wise move So, today I am going to order another chip. Thank you for the offer though, it was very cool of you.