Xeno Modchip Installation Problems

[Scrapydoo22]

Hello, I've recently been having a few problems attempting to install a xeno modchip into a gamecube and I was wondering if anyone could help me out/point me in the right direction. My first attempt I aligned the chip wrong on the board (ya I know that was pretty stupid lol) and soldered it down without thinking about it. I then realized it wasn't right and attempted to unsolder it and ended up pulling off some soldering pads and solder balls from the board. So, I decided to buy two gamecubes for parts and another xeno modchip in hopes that I could get it right this time. I took the drive assembly off of one of the gamecubes I purchased and took off the board and installed the xeno chip. I thought I had done it correctly because when I turned it on the light went from red to yellow (v2.0), however, when I put in a game it would begin to spin it, stop for a little bit when the light changed to yellow, spin again and then after a few seconds the laser would go to the outermost part of the disc and then stop (a few seconds after the gamecube logo had finished loading) and the game would not load. This happened with both backup and official games. I tried installing different lasers but that did not work. I'm thinking maybe the board I took off the drive assembly may not be working correctly (I unfortunately did not test that before I installed the chip), but I'm not sure. Anyone know what I can do to fix this? I'm not sure if I have the right skills/technique to desolder the chip and try it on a different board, so if there is anyway to fix this issue without doing that, that'd be great. Thanks for your help!

[megalomaniac]

did you validate the drive was functional before you soldered on xeno?
no sense in installing to a drive that didnt work to begin with...


if the drive was verified functional prior to installation, then what was the impedance set to? (ohms measurement)
did you adjust the pot after you installed xeno?

[Scrapydoo22]

No, I was dumb and didn't test to see if the board was working or not. I tested the cube before hand and concluded that the problem was the laser, being that it didn't turn on at all, so I thought it was safe to assume that that was the only problem. So, I'm not sure if the drive worked before I put it on or not, but I find it odd that it gets so far into loading the game and then fails (the laser turns on and moves and the gamecube logo finishes it's animation). I did adjust the pot several times, thinking that maybe it was the game that could not be read (they are pretty scratched up), but I took it all the way down to like 170-180 and it didn't work. I tried around 300 also and several numbers in between. Would there be any way to fix the board part, or am I screwed? I've already bought another xeno chip because they are cheap, but if I could get this one to work that'd be great. Thanks for your response.

[megalomaniac]

try adjusting the laser to 100 ohm or even 50 ohm to see if it will read anything

[Scrapydoo22]

So, I tried adjusting it to 100 and to 50 and it still didn't read anything. I'm thinking it must be the board, not the laser, I removed the chip from it and tried to see if it would read games then (this time I didn't totally screw it up and rip solder pads off the board) and it still did the same thing. Oh well, I have a couple other ones I know that work that I'm going to try resoldering it to. Thanks for your help!

[Doomkeks]

I turned it on the light went from red to yellow (v2.0)

This shows that the micro is actually doing something. (which is good)

Please show some pictures of your Xeno install.
Did you use the direct solder technique or did you use wires? Direct soldering is a bit of a problem because you can short out pins easily on the gc pcb. Desoldering is also very tough.

If the cube does not even play originals, something is horribly wrong.

I used the wire technique for my recent Xeno install. LED turned from red to orange, It would play originals but no backups. I adjusted the Laserpot to ~120Ω and it played backups even better than my Viper Chip cube.



I dont know if the Xeno gc chip is worth troubleshooting, you better get a new one. Try to get it out of the cube clean and see if the cube plays originals. If not, get another cube and verify it before the Xeno gc install.