Going to get a Mod-Chip

[Vermillion]

I've done some softmods with the NDURE exploit and they work really well most of the time. Every once in a while, the machine won't boot to the dashboards. It's very rare, but it has happened.

 

I think the biggest complaint I have about softmods is that you're required to lock the HDD to make it useable. In today's Xbox environment, it's not necessary to lock it anymore, since Xbox Live bannings are happening left & right.

 

I think a modchip is still the best way to go and a properly installed one gives you stability and you can disable the opening animation, change colors, etc, unlike a softmod.

 

As for dashboard, I prefer UnleashX myself. Built in Gamesaves Manager, File Explorer, Auto Update feature, built in FTP Client for Xbox to Xbox transfers, etc. make it really nice.

 

I would use XBMC if it had an Auto Update feature due to the amount of times they release a new version and having to re-do my entire XML file and re-calibrate my TV screen every time is a pain in the ass.

[iq_132]

Grrrr.... I got the chip today and installed it. I had it set up perfectly (seemingly), it started up right to the cromwell bios and asked me to flash a bios.

I burned a CD-RW with the bios on it (following a tut on xbox-scene).

Loaded the CD-RW into the drive, the bios flashed fine, then the xbox shut off.

I turned it back on, it reset twice and then the CD status light flashed red and green...

 

Guess the bios flashed incorrectly Now I have to buy the programmer.

[Prican25]

did you try switching banks?

[iq_132]

Yeah, I tried bank 1 and 2

[Prican25]

damn, i guess you'll need one then, what bios and size did you use?

[iq_132]

Xecutor 4..77 or something like that, and I used the xecutor flash tool to make the bios.bin, It was 1mb

[ken_cinder]

I think the biggest complaint I have about softmods is that you're required to lock the HDD to make it useable.  In today's Xbox environment, it's not necessary to lock it anymore, since Xbox Live bannings are happening left & right.

 

I've still got mine softmodded this way (I haven't had time to install my X3 yet, and the softmod gives me incentive to be lazy as well, but I'll get around to it) and I cannot boot my Xbox at all with the drive unlocked, doesn't matter if I'm booting the softmod or the retail dash. Get an error.

 

P.S. For the people who are "wary" of softmodding, softmodding isn't dangerous one bit if you have half a brain. Flashing your TSOP (The onboard bios....you can't do so on a 1.6 btw) is whats dangerous. If anything goes wrong, your Xbox is done for unless you feel like ripping the TSOP out and putting it in a programmer to re-flash it.

[iq_132]

Just ordered the official xecutor programmer -- x-programmer. $19.99, not bad. I guess it'll be here in ~a week

[Inky]

let me suggest that you make a bios that has the flashBIOS from xecuter in bank one and the latest xecuter bios in bank two. then you can reflash from bank one whenever you want with out using a programmer.

[Prican25]

sounds like you followed an old tut from x-s as you didn't need to make it 1mb.

 

i agree with garageinK but put flashbios in bank 2 and the latest x2 bios (5035) in bank 1 since flashbios flashes bank 1 by default and this means that both bioses should be 512K each (latest x2 already is 512K but flasbios comes as 256K).

[iq_132]

Yeah, I plan on that now.

[GLiTcH]

hope u fix it iq,

[iq_132]

Thanks And me too

[Prican25]

programmer isn't hard to use and i think they got the usb one out now which makes things easier tho the printer port one works fine too just gotta remember to enable legacy plug and play for the lpt port via properites for xp