Greetings everyone! What a first post, huh? Got a tough nut on my hands that I need some help cracking. Hopefully someone of you have experienced this at some point. Slim Trinity tested with Slim proto v2, CR3 lite and Matrix Glitcher v2 revc. I had a look at the 'Common JTAG/RGH Errors and Causes/Fixes' , but my issue only takes place when the outer plastic shell is attached. There's no issues when everything is mounted up and secured in the metal cage. Temperatures are fine, 55C without the fan putting much effort into keeping it there. With stock nand reflashed I could not get the issue to appear, this is with the chip totally removed. The freeze happens on boot or a brief moment after. As mentioned above the console works great when mounted in the metal cage and the issue is only present when outer case shell is attached. Which I think is weird as that should not add any noticable pressure to the cpu/cpu. The bolts aren't too tight either. It all points to an gpu issue, but why would it only be present when the last parts are attached? Nand has been reflashed, soldering checked several times and wires exhanged several times as well to rule out any mistake there. I'm using Kynar 30awg wire for everything but ground and vcc. I've also tried shielded cable on cpu reset and with/without post QSB. No difference. The console itself was rather new and rarely used without said problems. I recall getting a checkerboard freeze pretty early after tagging it, but didn't encounter it for a long time after that. I'm also confident that the IHS has not been lifted as the heatsink has been carefully removed. Thermal paste under IHS shouldn't be an issue already I believe. It's also worth mentioning that I've only had this issue with this console out of several tag/glitch hacks on other consoles. I'm lost, could it be an gpu issue already and would that really be present only when the outer chassis is in place? If you need more information let me know what. Thanks in advance and sorry for any grammatical errors!
Modding a console like this definitely puts strain on the CPU and especially the GPU when glitching or tagging a console. New console or not. It sounds like a wiring issue to be honest, maybe something shorting when you put the case back on? It won't be anything to do with what chip you're using as once it completes the glitch cycle it's done. It does indeed sound like a doozey, however I think you should try positioning your CPU_RST wire differently. Especially with Slims it can cause some crazy behaviour. Is it possible you can get me complete pictures of the installation? Chip and all wire positioning as well as all solder points on the mobo? Have you also repasted the thermal paste? (Not that it has anything to do with it, but I've seen issues like this even with a console not overheating.
Thank you for the swift reply. I've tried several wiring positions with the same result, but perhaps I've placed them wrong somehow. Post and reset is kept apart by the way. I'd like to say that I don't look at myself as an expert or professional of some sort if my post gave that impression. Not saying you thought so, I just wanted to make that clear. Doing this as a hobby. Heading out now, but I will return later today. I'll try to get some pictures posted then if that's ok. Hopefully my thoughts of 'ok' soldering isnt going to be crushed, heh. Edit. Yes, repasted when lifting heatsink.
Yeah that's not a problem. Just make sure they are not blurry and if possible macro zoom the close up's of the point soldering too.
Got a little delayed but here are some pictures. Kinda hard to get decent pictures without macro lens, so I went with shitty phone camera and magnifying glass.
Judging by the look of the POST_OUT points, you have lifted the pads, probably due to the QSB. I'd advise against using a QSB for now. First off, I'd advise shortening the exposed wire on the POST_OUT1 Wire. Just stick to using Kynar wire for CPU_RST and try it at different lengths. Also try and utilize the capacitor settings on your chip (I've never used a Matrix Glitcher before, so get diagrams from their site.) Your soldering isn't bad. You say you're a beginner? Honestly I've seen a ton of "first timers" and their work looked like a dogs mess...even worse than that. Sheilded Coax, sometimes proves good with consoles. but from my experience, for a Trinity console 99% of the time Kynar or stock wires that come with chips do just fine. So your first task, snip exposed wire on POST_OUT. Second task - Switch CPU_RST back to Kynar or regular wire and try different lengths. Third task - Mess around with the capacitor and on board combinations. Sometimes different settings can make the console react quite abnormally. I'm quite ill and tired at the moment (Nausea kicking in quite a lot recently) however I will check back in the morning. Feel free to contact me on Skype for more realtime support. You can find my Skype on my XPG profile.
Thanks a lot for the input. Yes, sadly I pulled some points when trying to remove the qsb some time ago, haven't used one since. Kinda like to do it with just wires now. I've only done trinity consoles when it comes to slim and Kynar wires has been enough. On occation coax has been used to test/improve boot times or as an experiment in general to see if there was any noticable difference. The reset wire is kynar with heatshrink on. I think the wire length is ok as it is. When coiled right + 270 pF it's up close to insta if not ~2 cycles, but freezing has been present on different- or no capacitors. Can't do much about dips on the matrix chip since there's only one setting for trinity. Do you think the ground has been covered on this part? Glad to hear the soldering isn't horrible. Haven't soldered for long, my guess would be that I started May this year. The biggest challenge is to not get 'dry' soldering. Gotta be quicker about it I suppose. Appreciate you taking the time to help me figure this out. Hope you get better. I might add you at a later time when you're feeling better, but for now here's good. No rush. Edit: In case anybody wants to know Matrix Glitcher v2 Rev C capacitor config is Both open - 0 pF Bottom bridged - 50 pF Top bridged - 270 pF Both bridged - 320 pF
I still think you should give CPU_RST another go as that can cause similar behaviour. Maybe also try a different CPU_RST point?
Sure. I'll give it a go. You mean starting over from 50 and going down with a new wire? Haven't slept so I'm a bit fuzzy. I tried the c5r17 point but the matrix chip couldn't get a successful glitch. I don't recall if it went through cycles or not, it's been a while since i tried. c5r17 is the one used by slim proto v2 i believe. Had same issues, freezing/checker etc, when I had the tx chip hooked up to that point. Is there any other cpu_rst points than those two on trinity? Edit: Trimmed down the post wire earlier, just need to put it back together in-between daily chores.
Yes, start with 50CM and work your way down to perfection. use C5R11 for CPU_RST. Never had an issue with it.
Ok, I wasn't sure if that spot was R11 or R17. I'll give R11 a go and work my way down the wire. Did it not too long ago, but one more time won't hurt + it's another point. Updates sometime during this weekend.
No problem. Keep my updated. Hopefully it goes well. During boots, if you are still getting the pixelated screen and freezing, while booting up, try applying pressure to the south bridge.
Oh, well. It's only freezing when the final outer plastic top and bottom case. Edit: Guess I could apply pressure if everything but the front is put together. I don't use the dvd drive anyways.
You could also try removing the metal plate that sits on top of the chassis? Sometimes it can cause interference.
Excellent! Didn't think of that. Hopefully we'll hit the nail. Edit: Just come to think of something. I shouldn't have used "cycles" when speaking of the boot times. Cycle is a full set of "glitch attempts", yes? What I meant is that boot was insta to 1-2 glitch attempts at max. Edit 2: Finally got around to switching rst point and wire. Worked my way down to approximately 35-40cm. Not getting anything stable yet, but it was the same last time when I used FT4R2. Sadly I also encountered my first "out of case" freeze now (still in the metal cage, though). No idea if it was wireplacement or what since the rst wire has some movement when coiling it up again after each strip of length. Went away from the screen for a moment or two after boot and it was "checkerdeck" frozen in FSD by the time I got back. When I was finally able to get a successful glitch once more after the hang I applied some pressure to south bridge which gave me no more than a bright white screen. I guess south bridge pressure is used to identify any hardware issue, but what is the expected outcome for doing so? Edit 3: I'll just add a little now and then as I go along. Noticed that whenever the cpu_rst wire is close to or touching south bridge I would either get; 1) No successful glitch or 2) freeze with checkers etc. Am I crazy here or is there something to it? The cpu_rst coil I made broke free from a piece of tape holding it together and landed on SB followed by a fatal freeze like before. Update 02.09.14 Changed rst and post wire to wires that came with cr3. I don't get distorted/checkerdeck picture, but it still hangs randomly at boot logo, in NXE and FSD. Weirdly enough it hangs with and without HDD, but I could not get it to crash when i ran everything from a flash drive. Gonna try some different wireplacement under the board and hope that solves the issue.
Sorry for double post. Figured this was the easiest way to contact you. Issue located: After much fiddling around I finally found the source of the problem. Somehow both the motherboard and metal cage is bent, no idea how that could have happened. The console hangs when screws are mounted (except xclamp screws), no matter how tight/loose they are. How this happened is beyond me. The motherboard has been carefully removed and the cage has been put aside whenever it's been disassembled. No force has been used. Tried to assemble without the screws but it continues to hang when outer case screws are in place. No idea what to do now. It's only useable without cage etc. Right now I have mounted some spacers but the thought of having an out of case console by the tv isn't appealing.
That is strange indeed, what about if you were to put some insulation tape where the mobo fits on the metal chassis? Could be the interference causing a short of some sort.
I tried to do that on the edge, but I'll try to cover most of the bottom. Hopefully that'll do it. Edit: I'd be damned. Looks like taping the whole bottom except the ventilation holes fixed the issue. Outer case isn't on yet but everything is screwed together inside the cage. Played for 40 min or so without any issues. I'll accept that result for now and hope for the best. Thanks a lot! I really appreciate the tips and help solving this. Hopefully this can help others sometime.
