So I have not used my xbox in a few years, but now I want to make it a server. I modded the xbox(v1.0) with an xecuter 2 cromwell and a 120gb hd. Everything went well and I put it away still working.

Now I get it out and it can't boot off the modchip. It does the strange power on - off- on then frag. I completely rewired the chip. I have tested every pin with a volt meter. There are no loose connections. The D0 is definitely connected. Yet the xbox cannot get the chip's bios. I can bypass the chip and get the ms dashboard but this is useless.

It is almost 5 am and I am out of things to read or try. Everyone says this issue is caused by either bad connections or bios. I know that the connections are good so now I should try the bios. But I don't know how to go about flashing this thing without the flashbios utility provided by the chip. Please any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Try the other BIOS bank on the Xecuter 2 chip.

Thanks for the reply, tried that. Neither bank seems to have valid bios on it anymore. I was reading this exact thing happened to a couple others on this forum. I'm thinking my chip sat too long without power and died?. Can anyone tell me the exact volt readings they get from each pin on their chip while its on?

Sounds like you need to hotswap the chip onto a working chipped Xbox, or buy an Xecuter programmer (but note that the advertisement is wrong - they only use USB for power, you need a parallel port to flash the chip).

I found the x2 Cromwell for $10 from diveneo.com so that is on its way. I will let you know if this solves the issue. Thank you for suggestions.

So I got my new chip and voila.. Turns out this chip does die from not be operated for extended periods of time. That is the only thing I can think of. Hope this saves someone else time.

I'm sure there is a more "logical" explanation but I have had a similar thing happen to me. I had a DuoX2 GS chip that was sitting in the package for a couple years, and I dunno what happened to it but it never boot right. Maybe it was my soldering, I dunno.....