Bad news solderless chip fans...

 It seems the new Xecuter 2.3b Lite Plus offers up a few installation problems.

I have received quite a few boards recently that have similar damage to their traces as the one pictured here. 

Don't laugh...  someone was trying hard to get their box working.  I can imagine never having done this before and kept seeing tantalizing glimpses of the yellow LED turning on as the pointed pogo ground across the D0 trace.  I can just imagine a little encouragement with each pass until finally it booted no more :-(

The root of this problem seems to be related to the new D0 pointed pogo pins as in the photo from http://www.teamxecuter.com/x23b_liteplus_method.htm

If alignment is not perfect, the D0 pogos turn into little daggers etching their way into your motherboard and cutting traces.  With the reduced surface area of the end of the D0 pogos they MUST be aligned to fit into the center of the D0 via (via's are the little holes in the circuit board)

On this photo in the upper left, you can see the off set of the screw hole and motherboard.  Also notice the box labeled D0, the lower right corner yellow dot is a via that the pointed pogo is supposed to fit dead center into.  As you can see from the scratches on the board in the photo the pogos rest over a millimeter away at its closest point.

I have fitted these chips as well, the problem seems to arise from the Xbox motherboard resting in the case just a little high and to the left of center (compared to the screw holes).  In my experience  this slightly up and left configuration seems to be the normal positioning on most of the consoles out there.  Even if you loosen all the motherboard screws to try to align the board to be more centered I find they do not move much if at all, this is due to some plastic nubs that stick through the board for alignment.  I'm not sure why this positioning wasn't taken into account when designing the chip.  Also the screw hole in the modchip is so small a normal Xbox screw will not fit, even with the supplied screw the fit is so tight that there is no room to position the chip up and to the left on several motherboards it has been impossible to properly position the chip without -

1 loosening the chip until it is almost off,
2 raise the chip so it is high on the screw end
3 position it so all three lights come on
3 gingerly tighten the screw

Those three steps differ from that of the manufacturers instruction that tells you to tighten the screw then adjust.

Hope these tips save a motherboard or two out there!

If you now have a board that looks like the one pictured above, it now flashes green and red and nothing is displayed on screen, consider sending it to us to have it repaired.

- Llamma