Dynatron Presents:
Installing a D u o X 2 chip on your x box motherboard
What you will need for this tutorial
for this tutorial, we will be using v1.0, v1.4, and v1.6
motherboards to cover all the approaches.
the whole point of installing a chip,
is so that you have the ability to choose which firmware (BIOS) to load. BIOS means
Basic Input Output Services. BIOS is the software that instructs your hardware how
to operate. without this firmware, you have a useless piece of digital equipment.
to learn more about BIOS, firmware, and bios images; click
HERE
to learn how to take apart an xbox, click
HERE
to learn more about the different versions of Motherboards, click
HERE
we'll start with the chip preparation. the chip should come in a
package exactly like seen below.
use the pair of scissors to open the Duo X2 chip package.
included should be the unassembled chip, a protective piece of
plastic covering the switch, as well as 1.6 LPC rebuild board (for 1.6 motherboards).
there should also be a female pinheader, and a male pinheader, joined together
in the same way that they are connected after the install.
the pinheaders need to be seperated. just pull
them apart in opposite directions. be careful not to lose anything.
set the male pinheader aside, and remove the two pins from the female pinheader shown below.
the next thing you must do is put your chip together.
the
female pinheader solders into the part of the chip with all the holes.
you
will have to remove a couple pins from the female pinheader before it will fit in
the chip. set the pinheader and the switch protector down on your surface as shown below.
arrange your chip and femal pinheader like in the picture below,
and heat up your soldering iron.
solder all of the pinheader points in the modchip. and tin
the D0, as well as BT points with a blob of solder (shown below).
after that, we are going to close the BT point by using a wire to jump it to the
pin in the picture below. once you are finished, you should have something that looks
like the picture.
once you have the motherboard removed from the xbox housing,
and your modchip assembled, locate the LPC (Low Pin Count data bus), indicated
by the pink arrow on the picture below.
this is where
you will be installing the male pinheader. the LPC allows you to boot a custom bios
image, which is what allows you to bypass the limitations of the original firmware.
above is a picture showing the location on the motherboard.
below is a close
up picture of the LPC bus.
if you have a 1.6 motherboard, the tutorial continues HERE
...otherwise, get out a roll of black electrical tape,
grab your male pinheader out of your part container, and shove the long end of
the pinheader through the sticky side of the tape, like seen below.
now you're ready to insert the pinheader into the LPC, and
with the strip of black tape, you'll be able to temporarily hold it in place
while you make your first solder joints.
when inserting the pinheader,
be sure to insert it in the correct holes. there should be a little white arrow
on the motherboard pointing to the first pin on your pinheader. you should also
be using the holes furthest away from the screwhole near the LPC.
if the LPC holes are filled with solder, you have to remove the solder.
to follow the "solder wick" tutorial, click HERE
once you have your pinheader inserted, press down on the
strip of black tape so that it adheres to the motherboard.
flip the
motherboard over to ensure that the pins are protruding through the other side
of the motherboard
you can now start soldering the pinheader into place.
i do this by heating the end of the first pin (on either end), and adding solder
until the hole is completely filled with solder. i use a soldering iron at 330
degrees Celcius. the heat can be an important factor when it comes to solder penetration.
the solder point (hole) should appear to be somewhat drawing solder into it as
the solder is added. if not, your solder may have insufficient flux content. in
that scenario, i'd advise you to add just a dab of liquid or paste flux to the points
with a q-tip, previous to adding solder.
after removing heat from the point, the
solder should freeze to a shiny little dome.
repeat the process for the point at the opposite end
of the pinheader. if your first two points look like the ones in the picture above,
then continue on to the rest of the points, being careful not to touch two pins
at the same time, as this may cause a solder bridge between the two points.
once finished, you should have something that looks like the picture below...
if it looks more like the next picture, then you fucked up.
you'll have to reheat/reflow the solder.
once you have your solder joints finished, the other side should
look like the picture below. you have now finished the pinheader. at this point, it would
be a good idea to re-assemble and test to make sure you didn't destroy the functionality
of the board.
the next step is to attach the D0. if the motherboard's D0
point is grounded, the bios loads from the LPC (your chip), rather than from the
motherboard's on-board TSOP chip.
the picture below shows the preferred
location of the D0 point. you will find this point on the back side of
any version of motherboard (except the v1.6).
first, tin the point. then strip the ends of your piece of wire back,
and tin the ends of it. clip the tinned ends short so that you only have 1 or 2 millimeters
exposed. press the end of the wire together with your D0 point on the motherboard using the
tip of the soldering iron until they melt together. check to make sure that no other points
have been bridged.
below is an alternate D0 point on the top of the motherboard.
i don't recommend using this point for multiple reasons.
once you have connected to the D0 point on the motherboard, connect
the other end of the wire to the spot on the chip marked "D0".
alternately, you
can just connect it to any ground point on the motherboard, shown below connected to a screwhole.
now, you can re-assemble the xbox, and power it up.
the chip should light up with a flashing red light, like the
picture above. if not, then refer to the "i fucked up" section.
for instructions on how to re-assemble the xbox, click HERE
I FUCKED UP! (what now?)
Disclaimer:
I am not responsible for any damage you do with these tutorials. read the instructions well, and do a little research before diving in. feel free to report errors, contribute ideas, and link to anthing on the website if not for profit.