Another XBOX mod chip thread - have a few q's

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Milenko

[H]ard|Gawd
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I have a version 1.0 xbox with a thompson drive.

I was looking at this modchip for the holidays:

https://shop.system-mods.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=178&HS=1

and was wondering what everyone thought about it?

I know there is a newer version available, but for half the price, what features could I be losing out on?

I use the xlink/kai online gaming, and it says it is compatible with it. Would this modchip allow me to play my backups as well?

Thanks in advance.
 
That chip will work great. Will work with Xlink Kia. I use Xbox Media Center as a dash board, can watch videos from all four of my PCs at home. I have DVD ISO images on the PC and XBMC will read those as they were a real DVD.

Any questions, let me know.
 
Astronutty said:
That chip will work great. Will work with Xlink Kia. I use Xbox Media Center as a dash board, can watch videos from all four of my PCs at home. I have DVD ISO images on the PC and XBMC will read those as they were a real DVD.

Any questions, let me know.
Click to expand...

I appreciate your response.

Once I install this chip, do I need to do anything else? Any flashing etc?

With the chip installed, how hard is it to do everything above you mentioned?
 
When you first boot up, you will be presented with a screen to flash the bios... you can make a bios CD...
 
Astronutty said:
When you first boot up, you will be presented with a screen to flash the bios... you can make a bios CD...
Click to expand...

And that isn't hard I assume?

Just burning a cd in your computer and tossing it into the xbox drive?
 
It will need to be a CD-RW, The bios file is just 256-1024kb, so you will need to add "fluff" to make the CD file size larger because the Xbox will not read a CD with very little on it.

My first mod-chip install, flash failed so I had to use an external flasher from my PC...

I now have a known to be good Bios CD that I use.
 
I have the newer version of that chip (the X3)

and I believe the only real differences are the support for the LCD, and their fancy new add-on hardware switches.

Other than that you get the same functionality.
 
KaosDG said:
I have the newer version of that chip (the X3)

and I believe the only real differences are the support for the LCD, and their fancy new add-on hardware switches.

Other than that you get the same functionality.
Click to expand...

Awesome - I was looking for a response like this, thanks.
 
Astronutty said:
It will need to be a CD-RW, The bios file is just 256-1024kb, so you will need to add "fluff" to make the CD file size larger because the Xbox will not read a CD with very little on it.

My first mod-chip install, flash failed so I had to use an external flasher from my PC...

I now have a known to be good Bios CD that I use.
Click to expand...

Should I follow this?

http://www.teamxecuter.com/cromwell.htm
 
I've been browsing the site a good amount this morning. Found installation guides for the 2.6 which I bought. Thats a good thing.

Should I browse their forums there?

I'm just pretty much looking for everything to do to get started. I bought the chip, got the install guide, got the dvd burner, have some idea about flashing ...that all I really need to know?
 
Their forums are really good. And the guys there know a lot more than most people here about XBox and mods. Plus they have excellent guides and what not.
 
Hey guys, just remember that if you attempt to connect to Xbox Live with a modded box, they will ban your box, and possibly your account as well. You don't even need to have a game disk in, simply powering on the box while it is connected to the Internet will allow it to phone home, and if the mod is detected, that's enough for the ban to take affect.

Otherwise, happy modding :)
 
JethroXP said:
Hey guys, just remember that if you attempt to connect to Xbox Live with a modded box, they will ban your box, and possibly your account as well. You don't even need to have a game disk in, simply powering on the box while it is connected to the Internet will allow it to phone home, and if the mod is detected, that's enough for the ban to take affect.

Otherwise, happy modding :)
Click to expand...
It won't connect to Live automatically unless you have it set to in the Dashboard. If you don't have a Live account registered to your Xbox, then it won't connect unless you tell it to log into Live. This isn't really a problem if you're using a modern Xecuter BIOS. They just block all Live access when the mod BIOS is loaded.

Regarding the original poster, I've installed several Xecuter 2.6's. It's a breeze. The only "tricky" part is flashing it with the proper BIOS. If you screw that up, it more or less hoses your mod chip unless you get a stand-alone flasher or hot-swap it into someone else's modded Xbox. A safe practice to follow is to always keep the FlashBIOS on one of the banks of you BIOS image. That way if you have a problem, you can always switch banks and recover. That particular chip should come with FlashBIOS 3.0.X which supports flash over LAN, so you don't even need to make a disc. Just make sure you're using a full one-meg (two-banks) image, I've heard of problems only doing 512k at a time.

Any other questions, just post back here and I'll try to help or else check Xbox Scene's tutorials section or the forums there.
 
Acceptable_Risk said:
Regarding the original poster, I've installed several Xecuter 2.6's. It's a breeze. The only "tricky" part is flashing it with the proper BIOS. If you screw that up, it more or less hoses your mod chip unless you get a stand-alone flasher or hot-swap it into someone else's modded Xbox. A safe practice to follow is to always keep the FlashBIOS on one of the banks of you BIOS image. That way if you have a problem, you can always switch banks and recover. That particular chip should come with FlashBIOS 3.0.X which supports flash over LAN, so you don't even need to make a disc. Just make sure you're using a full one-meg (two-banks) image, I've heard of problems only doing 512k at a time.

Any other questions, just post back here and I'll try to help or else check Xbox Scene's tutorials section or the forums there.
Click to expand...

Just regarding flashing over LAN, does it give me instructions how to do this? Is there an online tutorial?
 
Milenko said:
Just regarding flashing over LAN, does it give me instructions how to do this? Is there an online tutorial?
Click to expand...
It's an option when FlashBIOS starts up. You select enable LAN access, then you just go to your internet browser and punch in the IP it tells you.

Also, if possible, use the pinheader installation. It makes things a lot cleaner. This may be a problem since you have a 1.0 Xbox. The holes on the LPC are filled. You'd need to use a solder pump or wick to pull the solder out. It'll work just fine with the wires, but it's just not as nice.
 
Acceptable_Risk said:
It's an option when FlashBIOS starts up. You select enable LAN access, then you just go to your internet browser and punch in the IP it tells you.

Also, if possible, use the pinheader installation. It makes things a lot cleaner. This may be a problem since you have a 1.0 Xbox. The holes on the LPC are filled. You'd need to use a solder pump or wick to pull the solder out. It'll work just fine with the wires, but it's just not as nice.
Click to expand...


I can pump the solder out, thats not a problem. I've done some soldering before, I'm alright with a soldering gun. So this FlashBIOS thing comes up right after I put the modchip in and boot it up for the first time?
 
Acceptable_Risk said:
It won't connect to Live automatically unless you have it set to in the Dashboard. If you don't have a Live account registered to your Xbox, then it won't connect unless you tell it to log into Live. This isn't really a problem if you're using a modern Xecuter BIOS. They just block all Live access when the mod BIOS is loaded.
Click to expand...

Actually, it does. The Console will phone home as soon as it detects an internet connection, regardless of whether or not you have an Xbox Live account. Things happen in the background that aren't always apparent to you as the user. Do you really think they'd wait for you to complete the process of signing up for an account before checking the validity of your console? That's the first thing that happens, before you ever have the chance to actually log in with your user account.

I'm just saying, don't expect to be able to play online with a modded box.
 
So I got everything via UPS today.

I'm going to radio chack right now to get some flux and solder, wish me luck.

If theres anything I should know, tell me now.

I think I am going to do the wire install, since the holes are already filled with solder. If this is a big problem, let me know now.

Thanks guys.
 
Milenko said:
So I got everything via UPS today.

I'm going to radio chack right now to get some flux and solder, wish me luck.

If theres anything I should know, tell me now.

I think I am going to do the wire install, since the holes are already filled with solder. If this is a big problem, let me know now.

Thanks guys.
Click to expand...
When you go to solder the D0 point, make sure you take a hobby knife or something and gently scrape the coating off of it so it's shiny. Otherwise you're going to have a hell of a time getting any solder to stick.
 
Thank God I checked this thread now, I just soldered the 10 colored ones and I'm on the D0 now. Appreciate the advice.
 
Just thought I would check in.

Everything went fine. Took me awhile, and I got a FRAG when I first started it up. Opened it up again and saw one of my wires was loose. Re-soldered it and it works fine.

Took me awhile to figure out how to flash the bios, and I ended up doing it somewhat wrong. It works but I don't have the option to flash it again when I switch banks.

My backups work fine, I didn't use a "recommended" dashboard, so I'll leave that out of it.

Thanks for everyones help, I appreciate it.
 
Well, if it boots, you're in pretty good shape. You can reflash your BIOS through a number of avenues via software.
 
Astronutty said:
Good job on the Mod... is everything working well and are you online with XlinkKia?
Click to expand...

Everything works great, I am online with Kai...been Halo 2ing with a few friends. Thanks so much for your help.

I use the dashboard you recommended, are there any other recommended programs I should load onto the box? You can PM me if necessary.
 
Just as an FYI, installing a mod chip can easily get you banned from XBOX LIVE if you use that service. They have a new detection scheme which has not been 100% figured out yet, as it has been detecting ppl's modchips even with them turned off.
 
tranCendenZ said:
Just as an FYI, installing a mod chip can easily get you banned from XBOX LIVE if you use that service. They have a new detection scheme which has not been 100% figured out yet, as it has been detecting ppl's modchips even with them turned off.
Click to expand...

I have no intentions of using xbox live, but thank you for the advice.
 
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