**Disclaimer: This description relates to previously unmodified xboxes, ver. 1.0-1.3, it could possibly also work to repair a failed or incorrect tsop flash, but I have not yet needed to try. When dealing with a ver 1.0 or 1.1, try the 3 wire trick before doing this. The "Focus" video encoder in versions 1.4-1.5 is not supported by this bios, so this method will not boot on those versions. If dealing with a ver 1.6, this will not help you at all as they do not contain a flashable bios. This is my own personal experience, your experience may vary.**

As you may know, if you repair xboxes, or are unlucky enough to have it happen to you, it is possible for a completely stock/unopened box to do the 3 boot frag. You press the power button, eject LED goes green for half a second then box turns off, light goes green again(possibly even flashes green a couple times), then box turns off again, when it powers back up a third time it flashes red and green....NICE. If a visual inspection of the motherboard shows nothing obviously wrong (un-modded, no burst capacitors, no burnt traces), then it is possible you have a corrupt bios on the TSOP. How does this happen?? I really dont know, could be due to lightning, static discharge...not sure, but anyway, there is a problem and it needs to be fixed.

In order to flash the tsop or a modchip, you must boot from the device you are flashing. So if you want to flash an LPC mounted modchip, you boot from the LPC bus, likewise if you want to flash the tsop - you must boot from the tsop. So how do you do this if the tsop is corrupt? You cant boot from the tsop, if you could you wouldnt even be fixing it.... Commonly it is stated that the only way to fix this is with a 29 wire modchip, like an Xray, which basically piggybacks/overrides the tsop to load a substitute bios in the same fashion as the original tsop would. Well 29 wires is a lot to hook up, just to have to cut out again in order to flash. I will explain how to do this with a Doux2 lpc modchip. Ya I know I already said that you must boot from the tsop to flash the tsop, but i will expalin in a bit, how/why this works (if I can, it may just be some crazy voodoo shit)

Ok, so you have a ver 1.0-1.3 motherboard that FRAGs. Install a pinheader and d0 wire. I use a Duox2 because of the 2 switchable bios banks(and its easy to hold). Make sure you leave your d0 wire a little long.... about 4" to give you a bit of room. Boot the box with x2 4981(or whatever your preferred bios is, really doesnt matter but we want to just get the box to work). Make sure that your hdd has all the files required to operate normally, make sure hdd is locked etc, we dont want any error codes when we get it to boot. I do a format/m$ dash rebuild from an auto-installer disk to be sure all the required files are on the hdd. Now if you have an exploitable game like mechassault, then you should now install your game saves, like mecheurasia. I installed a soft mod at this point (krazies ndure) because when we get it to boot we really dont wanna risk having to eject and potentially reset the box, where we would need to start over again, but the choice is yours. Boot your box with the modchip a couple times to make sure every thing seems cool.

Now you need to locate a special bios to flash to your other bios bank on the duox2. It is an old bios by evox called "tsop_d6.bin", it was packed with an older version of evolutionx dash 3921. Xbins no longer hosts evox stuff, for reasons that are none of my business, so you will have to do some hunting to find it, DONT PM ME FOR IT!!! So put "tsop d6" on your duox2's other bank(figure out how to do that yourself) *Edit file is available on xbins once again.*

Make a Eurasia flash disk and a bios disk if you are using a soft mod, or make sure you have the right bios in your mecheurasia folder to flash to your tsop. I soldered a wire on my duox2 from the bt pad to pin 9 so the chip will always be enabled. Solder your tsop write enable points now as well if you havent already.

Basically what you now need to do is boot with d6. Put your exploitable game or eurasia flash disk in the drive(you wont be able to do this with the d6 bios as you cannot eject the tray so make sure you have it in before you switch bios banks). If you power on you will note that nothing happens, eject LED flashes green, harddrive clicks, dvd revs up and down....all sorts of weird stuff. What you try to accomplish is after about, 1 to 1.5 seconds, after you press the power button, you wanna pull the chip off the pinheader... it'll take you quite a few tries to get the timing right. A few things can happen, either it will continue to 3 boot frag-no good, you may get just a solid green LED with no audio/video-no good, you may get a flubber with a yellow X, or you may get just the regular M$ boot up. I am not sure if it will work when you get the yellow x as the time i got it to do that, I didnt have my flash enable points soldered on the motherboard, so not sure if the tsop or the chip would been flashed(eurasia said flash not writeable, well of course not the chip wasnt even on the pinheader, and the write points were disconnected) If you get the regular green x with M i c r o s o f t under the x, and your soft mod loads, or exploitable game loads(which you should have in the tray), you may now flash your tsop. I would advise you to flash it with x2 4981, even if you are just returning to retail (now you can reflash whatever you want back onto the tsop after this as it should always boot now without chip)

Why does it work, we booted from the lpc?? Well, not really sure, there is something special about the bios, and the fact that you interrupt the loading process of the bios, by pulling it off the pinheader... I guess a part of the hacked bios remains in ram, and it picks up the rest of it from the tsop, or it just delays the boot process to retry the bios load more times?? Maybe the code in the bios tells it to ignore the first # of kb and substitute its own. I dont have the answer....contact the evox team as they made the bios.

I have done this now on 3 different mobos with success, all were ver 1.2/1.3 Hope this helps someone fix a tsop, or at least gives them false hope....hahahah

Thanks to Lordvader129 for making me aware of this bios(I read it in one of his posts) And thanks to team evox for making such a thing.

*edit* clarification of versions, other updated info..

actually xbins and evox appear to have made up and xbins is once again hosting evox stuff, including the TSOP d.6 bios, it can be found with the 3921 build of evox in the "old" folder on xbins

BTW this bios wont work for a 1.4/1.5, since d.6 did not have focus video support, not sure why evox never made a TSOP m7

It would be cool if this works. I nuked my TSOP (see my other post) and had already ordered a DuoX to get the box working again before I read this post.

Unfortunately I have a v1.4 box with the focus chip, does that mean I'm out of luck or just that we haven't yet found a BIOS that works in the same way as d6 but with focus support?

Peter

I have also killed my tsop. I flashed it with a 1mb evox_tsop.bin flash, everything had been good until then but I hadnt read that this flash was to fix a 1.0 tsop not a flash for a tsop(dumbass) was late. Anyway, I have an x2.6 ce chip installed on a pin header now and i can get it to boot with the tsop_d6 but the xbox logo is always yellow and blue and i cant reflash my tsop, I get ff ff instead of a chip id, if i plug my mod in i get the 09 00 write protected error. Anyone know why i cant get it to flash my tsop? the write enable points look ok still and it flashed fine before i got it with the wrong flash. Any ideas why i get the yellow and blue X? and it cant flash my tsop? thanks in advance and thanks for your great tutorial

Oh yeah its a 1.1 xbox

im not sure if it will work for you, i know the bios requires at least some speck of bootable code on the TSOP, im not sure if it will work with the TSOP d.6 on the TSOP


wont work, as it iwll just frag with modchip enabled as well, liek i said im not sure why evox didnt make a TSOP m7 for 1.4/1.5, but then again im not sure why they never added the full-chip erase command to evox to flash winbonds, lol

I can get it to boot after 6 or 700 attempts at removing the chip in time, it boots to a blue & yellow X then runs the disk, i have run the eurasia flash disk, an auto installer disk and splinter cell, but every time I go to flash the tsop i get error, manf ff dev ff, the write enable points are good. I would try the 29 wire trick but I dont wanna do all that to find my tsop still wont flash. A few times its booted with no disk in to evox but same flash error. Any ideas how I might get it do boot to a green X? Instead of the blue and yellow one. Thanks again

Since you have the d6 tsop bios already on the tsop.... if some how you could get it to boot without a chip @ all, you should be able to flash....this is a long shot, but you could try momentarily grounding the d0 wire on boot (with no chip on the pinheader) and remove it from ground in a simular manner as removing the chip...it may force a boot of the d6 that is on the tsop.......It seems that when you get the yellow x...it has booted from the lpc and therefore wants to flash the lpc.... but if you get a yellow x with no chip...It must come from the tsop, and allow a tsop flash..... I may be totally wrong though, hahahah, good luck.

Hi, thank you for your idea. I tried it last night but had no luck I remembered my tsop has the older evox_tsop_matrix flash on it not the d6 one. With no chip in it the power light just blinks, 3 times then frags. Gutted. I think im gonna try the 29 wire trick today. My xbox is fine with the chip on but knowing it wont work without it bugs me. Thanks for all your help

I received a few Pm's from people who didnt quite understand the procedure... so here it is very simply.

1) solder flash enble points and install pinheader & d0 wire
2) turn on box with "d6_tsop" bios on modchip, installed on pinheader
3)approx 1-1.5 seconds after turning the box on, disable or remove modchip
4) when it boots up with a green x flubber....flash tsop

Hopefully that clarifies...

Is there an alternative to yanking the chip off the pin header? I opted to install a miniature forest of wires on my Duox2 because the board's lpc holes were filled with solder. Is there a wire I can "clip" at the necessary time, and if so which one?

Does this have anything to do with the a15 mystery I've been pondering? Sorry to bring that up if it's only germane to the Matrix chip. If it can be applicable to the Duox2, what action specifically does one take?

TX

in theory disconnecting d.0 should produce the same result with the TSOP d.6 bios

using the TSOP d.6 bios i dont believe a15 is required for anything, using the older TSOP.matrix bios you had to ground it

Well i have a big problem with my Xbox a logn time ago ,i edit X2.5035 with xbtool and rezide it to 256k damn!
then im so stupid i flash it to my xbox and Boom you know whats happend Next my xbox gone Frag,well my question is if a get and duox2 i can fix my xbox 1.3? i wanna playy!! is hard to be without box!!

sorry for my Super Bad english...

Thanx if you can help me if not, thanx anyway

youd need a 29-wire chip to fix the TSOP

HOWEVER, if you install a duox2 you will be able to boot your xbox, you wont be able to disable or remove the chip, but youll at least have your xbox back

if posible to fix it with a white duox flash bios edition??

Fix it, no. But a duox2 will fix the box. . . all for $15. It will allow you to do everything but XB Live, since your TSOP is corrupt.

not neccesarily you just have to flash a reatil bios on the other bank of the chip and you can play live

well i install the duox 2 cromwell edition preflashed and i have a problem ,the red ligth of the chip turn on but my xbox still fraging i solder incorretly or something? bt is connected to G to keep the chip alive alltime but not fix my box some one can help me, i just wanna bypass the tsop and use the chip ever

thanks

Resurrecting an old thread. Will this method work with a 1.2/3 with a Coma TSOP? I'm getting Flashing Green no eject, and I was wondering if this will work. I have an xecuter2.3b that I flashed bank 12 with x5035, and 34 with tsop_d6. I'm more than sure this isn't possible but just want to verify. thanks

Also has anyone had success with any chip besides the duox2? Also has anyone had success by switching off the mod (if you have another chip besides duox2) with the switch? Let me know. Either I suck at this or i'm doing it wrong because it's not wantin to work for me.

Duox2 lite would that work? Or does it have to be a duox2? I've installed the lite man I like it I have yet to reflash it and I've had a lot of sucess with them installing. Wondering if I could invest in it or I should just stick with a duox 2.

*I've never reflashed a duox2 lite or a duox2 are there any tutorials on how to do so?

Mhh it won't work with a smartxx se opx. Tried it many times.

Well it wont really work with a chip that has an OS, even if set to quick boot, the timing will be way off.

Hello,

I've tried this procedure. It seems not to work with a non original HDD.
The screen will hang with a green X. I used a Duox from another box
to get the system work with a new HDD. I wan't to TSOP it finally but
it is not simple at all.

Regards,

Marc

I have a question I have an Xbox (V1.3) that someone flashed the tsop with the wrong ms bios and now it just fraggs will this work for it? Also I can't use my X3 mod chip for this either right? also I am getting a doux flashbios/Cromwell edition in a couple of days will that work? I see that other people have asked but did not get an answer.

The X3 (or any 4th gen chip) will not work, as the boot timing is off due to its built in os. It is unknown whether it will work at all if the incorrect bios is on the TSOP. Give it a try. With the decline in prices of decent modchips, it is becoming less and less worthy of the time and effort to ressurect a tsop, since you can get a duox2 for under $15.....

Sorry to bring up an old topic, but, this is exactly what I need, so I did not see any sense in starting a new topic for the same thing...

But, I do have a question...

Since I've been DIGGING around trying to find out if I can, or how I can, flash a TSOP on a 1.4 version XBOX. Many people say you HAVE TO HAVE a 29 wire mod chip. But, then, I keep reading different articles, and trying to piece things together...to avoid a 29 wire mod.

It looks like I might be able to use the EvolutionX_v2.5_256k_for_matrix BIOS to accomplish what is outlined in this thread, but accomplish it on a 1.4 XBOX.

Can anyone confirm?

I'm about to give up the hunt and just install a new DuoX2. But, I'm kinda particular, and, I'd really like the TSOP to be working.

Thank you!

That bios does not support the focus video encoder found in a 1.4 box, so it will not work.

Hmm...so, if I use a bios that does support the focus video encoder (a bios that would work on a chip on a v1.4 xbox), then this would be a viable option? Or is this method still a no-go on a 1.4 for some other reason?

Thanks for the help!

Like I mentioned, I'd really like to fix (or try to fix) the TSOP, but I'm not interested in doing the 29 wire fix.
I've search the forums, and most people say the "only" option is the 29 wire chip(s).

theres a very good reason most people are saying the 29 wire chip is your only option, because it is

the TSOP fix bios are specially made, just any old hacked bios wont do the trick, and no TSOP repair bios were ever made for 1.4/1.5s, so your out of luck, sorry, best thing to do is just get a modchip and leave it in

There's one more fix that most people don't bother with.... replace the TSOP.
If you're hellbent on fixing the TSOP, replace it with another working one

That's the piece I was missing(or having trouble getting through my thick skull)...thanks for the info!

I've since learned that my trouble(s) are not all TSOP related...the problem XBOX has/had a DuoX2 already in it...I thought the TSOP & chip went bad at the same time - based on the symptoms. (chip disabled I'd get green ring, eject, looks like working properly, but no video; chip enabled I'd get the 3 reboots then frags)

Yesterday I dug in and did some more trouble shooting...was preparing to do a hot swap flash of the chip I suspected to be bad, but, I decided to just test the chip first, and it was fine. Then I re-tested the problem XBOX with no chip installed, and I got the coma console symptom...put the chip back in, still 3 reboots and frags. What a PITA. Anyway...thanks for the help!

^ The BIOS on the TSOP is bad. That's probably why they installed a chip (to bypass the TSOP).

Will this trick work for Xbox 1.0/1.1 with corrupted bios on TSOP and modchip DuoX3 with dual-bios?

MrMajst3r, I don't think the chip itself matters, as long as you have the TSOP repair bios installed on said chip.
Side note: Did you try the 3 wire trick to recover your TSOP?

No, I didn't try. I haven't got this Xbox actually at home.

why could u not use a martix chip and fix the TSOP. i have done this with many units that people have bought me

i meant to add people that bought me UNITS with bad TSOP flashes

ok..
sorry to post up an old thread..

but just thought id pop in here with a few words..

today a box of xboxes arrived for modding.. one had a bad tsop flash. i was going to install a mod chip but rememberd the d6 tsop bios.

So i went ahead and started to fix the issue..
Seems im sold out of all modchips with multiple banks. But i do have 2 aladin chips that i use to soft mod before tsop flashiing. (long story short i made a solderless pin header, old ide cable pokes in to the d0 hole nicley all i boot from the chip and i soft mod with hexen then tsop flah)

any way.
i grabbed one of the aladdin chips. "256k" and flashed it with the d6 tsop bios..
using the same solderless adapter i made i connected it to the xbox..
it did not frag but sat there at a black screen. then i rememberd about having to dissable the chip..

So this is how i got it to work..

Boot the xbox and get a black screen,
wait till i hear the disk spin up.
remove the d0.
When the flubber animation started remove the chip..
console then bootted in to hexen (had the dvd in the drive ready.)
started winbond flash tools. flashed it with ind bios..
(job done)

i dont reccomend using a one bank mod chip.. Its better if you have 2 banks something like the executer 2, duox2 or even the clone duox3 would be fine.
The reason you want 2 banks is so you dont tie up a perfectly good mod chip that could have other uses, Just for the rare occurance of a bad tsop..
in my case its not a problem as i can always hotswap flash it..

i see other places that this method is not reported to be working, and its been a long time since i read it.. But if i did it from memory then the method must work fine.