By mod do you mean just putting a mod chip and say bigger HDD or are you talking about more radical mods like putting it in a different case or swapping the joystick parts for regular USB ports etc...
I'll assume you are just meaning the mod chip and maybe the bigger HDD. For the HDD it's simple go to any local computer store and buy a hard drive WD and Maxtor have the greatest compatibility with xbox and size wise I'd recomend 120gig - 200gig.
As for the chip probably the best chip on the market right now is the Xecuter 3 chip with second place to the Xenium chip. If you get the X3 it'll work on any xbox regardless of version I believe the newest Xenium chip will also. However many other chips won't work on version 1.6 xbox's so you need to know your version and shop accordingly. As for where to get it, there are tonnes of online stores and most cities will have a store or two that can get them for you if buying online isn't your thing.
Instructions on how to do it varies with from mod chip to mod chip and the best place to go is the website for the chip you buy, but the basics work like this.
Take apart your xbox (this voids warranty) pull out the harddrive, pull out the cdrom, remove the plastic stands where they sit. This will give you access to the motherboard. You then set the pins for the mod chip and solder them into place the new chips are really great and easy to solder because they have a header board so you don't have to mess with wires. If you are putting in a new harddrive install it and place everything back together again.
Boot up your xbox if you did everything right it'll come up to the flash screen for your particular chip. Most chips boot straight into the cromwell bios at first boot so you need to get a bios for the chip that will allow you to boot beyond cromwell. Some come with their own menu and don't need to be flashed.
In either case once your mod chip is booting propperly it'll boot up and your xbox is working (on the regular hard drive). If you've put in your own harddrive you'll need to install everything on it there are several ways to do it but the easiest is to get a Slayer boot disk. You then boot up with the disk in it'll boot up the disk and from there it'll format and set up your new harddrive with all that you need. Keep in mind that once you put in a bigger harddrive you won't be able to go on Live anymore. Even if you don't put in a bigger harddrive there is a good chance you won't be able to use live anymore.
If you are keeping the stock hard drive you still won't be able to do anything on it other then play legit software. To access the more beneficial functions of a mod chip you need to put on one of the various alternate dashboards such as Avalaunch or Evolution - Evolution probably being the better of the two.
Anyway those are the basics for more detailed instructions you need to do a lot more research and actually figure out what you want to do. Also check out the specific sites for the mod chips you get they all have excellent step by step guides with pictures.
Boot up your xbox if you did everything right it'll come up to the flash screen for your particular chip. Most chips boot straight into the cromwell bios at first boot so you need to get a bios for the chip that will allow you to boot beyond cromwell. Some come with their own menu and don't need to be flashed.
hey kryyst, i know the newer xboxs used to require blind flashing (nothing on the tv) and the only way you knew it worked was because the dvd rom popped out. now, with the newer stuff chips (its been about 8 monthes since ive modded an xbox) maybe thats not the case, but i know some folks that bought used, old xbox's for that reason specifically because they wanted to have some sort of input.
also, veetor, if you have never soldered before, i recommend you try it out first. to the pros, xbox soldering is cake, but it can be fairly daunting if you have never done it before. I had a friend that went and bought a 15 dollar vcr from walmart just to practice soldering before he worked on his own stuff.
also, i would suggest you find out what brand of dvd rom you have in your xbox, as this will greatly help you with modding it. the thomson (which i have, blows hardcore. mine eventually died and i do everything over the network now) you will have to be VERY picky about the media. even with cdrw's that are SUPPOSED to work, very rarely work with this guy. i would suggest you make your bios disc onto a dvd because the chances of it reading it are much higher. If you have the philips, it is much more compatible with more stuff, but go to xbox-scene.com for any more info about compatibility. and if you have the samsung, you are pretty much set for life (or until xbox2) cuz it rocks.
aight, so if you get anything out of this post, just remember that pretty much everything you could need is at xbox-scene.com. tons of great docs, faqs, and tutorials. good luck and let us know how you do!
hey kryyst, i know the newer xboxs used to require blind flashing (nothing on the tv) and the only way you knew it worked was because the dvd rom popped out. now, with the newer stuff chips (its been about 8 monthes since ive modded an xbox) maybe thats not the case, but i know some folks that bought used, old xbox's for that reason specifically because they wanted to have some sort of input.
Hmm from what I understand (reading and experience) it's not the version of the xbox it's the version of the chip. Some chips have external lcd's that'll tell you if it worked or not others you have to wait for the drive to eject like you said. But of the two I've worked with Xecutor and Xenium with some old 1.0's and 1.1 boxes and a fes 1.6's they all had on screen displays. The Xecutor chips just booted straight into the cromwell bios and the Xenium has their own built in bios menu that is pretty slick. I still prever the Xecutor chips though they are more powerful, but really it's just a preference thing.
However on different chips that don't have a preflashed bios on them then yeah if you booted up with them they would have no display until you loaded a bios on them, which was from a cd.
I also agree put anything you do on dvd-r's regardless of the dvd-rom in your xbox it just works better. Even though the xbox can supposedly read CD-RW and DVD-RW it's extremely picky and even with a brand that works well it doesn't always works well. Which when you are actually setting things up is the last thing you want to mess with. Not know whether you did something wrong or it's just not reading the disk. DVD-R's though always work.
OH and If you Thompson is burned out you can just replace it with another dvd drive, though I forget what the tricks are there. If you are always working mod chip enabled then I believe any drive will do. But if you sometimes boot with the mod chip dissabled then only a few specific drives will do.
yeah, i have a friend that has a "tricked out" 16x dvd drive for his xbox. i think all he had to do was flash the firmware and it was able to work fine with the xbox. but, to be honest, i didnt really use the dvd drive that often anyway, just because its much easier anyway (at least for me) to just transfer stuff over the wire. honestly, i have hardly even noticed its gone
Same here mostly I just ftp whatever straight to my xbox - when it comes to xbox stuff. But I also use my xbox as my DVD player so I still put a lot of use on my DVD drive when it comes to movies. However where games are concerned they are all off the hard drive.
i couldnt agree more. to me, the single greatest reason to mod an xbox is to run games off the hard drive. performance and loading times are just a billion times better. and a close second greatest reason is XBMC coupled with my media whoring ways
The games off the HDD is great, but lately I've found I'm enjoying my XBMC more. Granted that's because of movies off the harddrive - but either way the xbox modded is the coolest geek tech on the market.
are you running evox as your default dash or xbmc? i have found myself using evox much less now since xbmc is a fully capable dash replacement. i have been thinking about switching so that it loads up when i turn on the xbox, but havent made the jump yet. pretty much the first thing i do no matter what whenever i turn on my xbox is launch xbmc. i was trying to think of some drawbacks to using it instead of evox as default and couldnt really come up with any . . .
are you running evox as your default dash or xbmc? i have found myself using evox much less now since xbmc is a fully capable dash replacement. i have been thinking about switching so that it loads up when i turn on the xbox, but havent made the jump yet. pretty much the first thing i do no matter what whenever i turn on my xbox is launch xbmc. i was trying to think of some drawbacks to using it instead of evox as default and couldnt really come up with any . . .
I'm still using evox as my main dash because I like the default movie player better and when I'm just playing games and stuff it's easier. I have been thinking about switching to xbmc though as my default, probably the only reason I haven't is cuz I've been to lazy to bother. Also really it's pretty much a wash boot up into evo and then arrow down to xbmc for the 1/2 sec extra I don't care that much either way.
No real dissadvantages to XBMC as the dash, it may boot a little slower but that's about it. OH and like I said I like the default evox movie player better for playing DVD's. Friend of mines got XBMC as his dash and he loves it no complaints.
Listening to you two ramble on almost makes me want to by an x-box, just to mod it!!!!
Almost.
It's really a greate machine, even if you never play games. It's the best Multi-Media machine you can get, dvd's, cd's mp3, streaming video/audio whatever you want it can do it. Hell put your pictures on it and preview them on the tv. etc...etc...
hey kryyst, i know the newer xboxs used to require blind flashing (nothing on the tv) and the only way you knew it worked was because the dvd rom popped out. now, with the newer stuff chips (its been about 8 monthes since ive modded an xbox) maybe thats not the case, but i know some folks that bought used, old xbox's for that reason specifically because they wanted to have some sort of input.
also, veetor, if you have never soldered before, i recommend you try it out first. to the pros, xbox soldering is cake, but it can be fairly daunting if you have never done it before. I had a friend that went and bought a 15 dollar vcr from walmart just to practice soldering before he worked on his own stuff.
also, i would suggest you find out what brand of dvd rom you have in your xbox, as this will greatly help you with modding it. the thomson (which i have, blows hardcore. mine eventually died and i do everything over the network now) you will have to be VERY picky about the media. even with cdrw's that are SUPPOSED to work, very rarely work with this guy. i would suggest you make your bios disc onto a dvd because the chances of it reading it are much higher. If you have the philips, it is much more compatible with more stuff, but go to xbox-scene.com for any more info about compatibility. and if you have the samsung, you are pretty much set for life (or until xbox2) cuz it rocks.
aight, so if you get anything out of this post, just remember that pretty much everything you could need is at xbox-scene.com. tons of great docs, faqs, and tutorials. good luck and let us know how you do!
By mod do you mean just putting a mod chip and say bigger HDD or are you talking about more radical mods like putting it in a different case or swapping the joystick parts for regular USB ports etc...
I'll assume you are just meaning the mod chip and maybe the bigger HDD. For the HDD it's simple go to any local computer store and buy a hard drive WD and Maxtor have the greatest compatibility with xbox and size wise I'd recomend 120gig - 200gig.
As for the chip probably the best chip on the market right now is the Xecuter 3 chip with second place to the Xenium chip. If you get the X3 it'll work on any xbox regardless of version I believe the newest Xenium chip will also. However many other chips won't work on version 1.6 xbox's so you need to know your version and shop accordingly. As for where to get it, there are tonnes of online stores and most cities will have a store or two that can get them for you if buying online isn't your thing.
Instructions on how to do it varies with from mod chip to mod chip and the best place to go is the website for the chip you buy, but the basics work like this.
Take apart your xbox (this voids warranty) pull out the harddrive, pull out the cdrom, remove the plastic stands where they sit. This will give you access to the motherboard. You then set the pins for the mod chip and solder them into place the new chips are really great and easy to solder because they have a header board so you don't have to mess with wires. If you are putting in a new harddrive install it and place everything back together again.
Boot up your xbox if you did everything right it'll come up to the flash screen for your particular chip. Most chips boot straight into the cromwell bios at first boot so you need to get a bios for the chip that will allow you to boot beyond cromwell. Some come with their own menu and don't need to be flashed.
In either case once your mod chip is booting propperly it'll boot up and your xbox is working (on the regular hard drive). If you've put in your own harddrive you'll need to install everything on it there are several ways to do it but the easiest is to get a Slayer boot disk. You then boot up with the disk in it'll boot up the disk and from there it'll format and set up your new harddrive with all that you need. Keep in mind that once you put in a bigger harddrive you won't be able to go on Live anymore. Even if you don't put in a bigger harddrive there is a good chance you won't be able to use live anymore.
If you are keeping the stock hard drive you still won't be able to do anything on it other then play legit software. To access the more beneficial functions of a mod chip you need to put on one of the various alternate dashboards such as Avalaunch or Evolution - Evolution probably being the better of the two.
Anyway those are the basics for more detailed instructions you need to do a lot more research and actually figure out what you want to do. Also check out the specific sites for the mod chips you get they all have excellent step by step guides with pictures.
hey kryyst, i know the newer xboxs used to require blind flashing (nothing on the tv) and the only way you knew it worked was because the dvd rom popped out. now, with the newer stuff chips (its been about 8 monthes since ive modded an xbox) maybe thats not the case, but i know some folks that bought used, old xbox's for that reason specifically because they wanted to have some sort of input.
also, veetor, if you have never soldered before, i recommend you try it out first. to the pros, xbox soldering is cake, but it can be fairly daunting if you have never done it before. I had a friend that went and bought a 15 dollar vcr from walmart just to practice soldering before he worked on his own stuff.
also, i would suggest you find out what brand of dvd rom you have in your xbox, as this will greatly help you with modding it. the thomson (which i have, blows hardcore. mine eventually died and i do everything over the network now) you will have to be VERY picky about the media. even with cdrw's that are SUPPOSED to work, very rarely work with this guy. i would suggest you make your bios disc onto a dvd because the chances of it reading it are much higher. If you have the philips, it is much more compatible with more stuff, but go to xbox-scene.com for any more info about compatibility. and if you have the samsung, you are pretty much set for life (or until xbox2) cuz it rocks.
aight, so if you get anything out of this post, just remember that pretty much everything you could need is at xbox-scene.com. tons of great docs, faqs, and tutorials. good luck and let us know how you do!
I don't know if it is my puter or what trying to reply and it won't acknowledge on the site. Anyway try again. Can someone define or explain evox, XBMC, dash, and a Slayer disc. Thanx
A dashboard is the opperating system for your Xbox. The standard dash that comes with every xbox is called MSdashboard. With it you can oly use your xbox as it is originally intended regardless of what you've done to it.
Evox is an alternate dashboard. With it you can play backed up games, watch divx movies, copy games to a modded harddrive FTP into your xbox and make changes and ultimately run other programs.
XBMC is Xbox Media Centre it also acts as a dashboard. But it's real benefit is that you can stream media content from your computer to your xbox and then onto the tv it has built in script for running mini-web browsers it'll has a music player where you can customize tracks and many, many other functions.
Slayer is a disk that once you've modded your xbox with you boot up using this slayer disk and it'll copy evox and XBMC (now way out dated version though) to your hard drive along with a lot of other very handy utilities. The slayer disk makes it extremely easy to upgrade and put the necessary software onto your xbox especially if you put in a bigger hard drive as it will format the hard drive to xbox's standard and set up all the partitions.
Thanx again, my motivation in all this is to get some knowledge. I hate getting work done on my puter and getting hosed. Is there anything out there that I can read or watch to gain know how into the physical working of PC's. I hate being able to tear down a V8 and rebuild it and not being able to do the minor repairs on my puter or gaming devices. What I am looking for is an intro to PC repair with all the jargon definitions.
I'm sure there are self help instructional videos out there but as to specific ones can't help you. If you want a fairly friendly and usefull guide to the works of a PC start collecting the various .... For Dummy books, they are surprisingly good for most things and have a wealth of information until you need to get into very high level stuff.
If it's xbox specifics no such thing exists. xbox-scene has about the best knowledge base for it on the net.
Here's a free pc building manual for beginners. You can download it and at least get an idea what's involved. It's in Adobe Acrobat format, so you can download it and read it on your pc or you can download it and print it out like a book.
I looked around and tried to find you one that is close to being up to date. Dr. John's PC Guide
Here's a free pc building manual for beginners. You can download it and at least get an idea what's involved. It's in Adobe Acrobat format, so you can download it and read it on your pc or you can download it and print it out like a book.
I looked around and tried to find you one that is close to being up to date. Dr. John's PC Guide
Thanx for the link. Exactly what I was looking for also Community College has a 2 week PC repair course that I want to look into.
I'm sure there are self help instructional videos out there but as to specific ones can't help you. If you want a fairly friendly and usefull guide to the works of a PC start collecting the various .... For Dummy books, they are surprisingly good for most things and have a wealth of information until you need to get into very high level stuff.
If it's xbox specifics no such thing exists. xbox-scene has about the best knowledge base for it on the net.
Thanx, I have saved this site to my favourites folder. Will be keeping in touch.
Thanx to Kryyst and Drowd you guys have been extremely helpful. To everyone else replying to my questions thanx also. I will be posting more quandries in the near future I'm sure. Once again thanx, Vic
Vic, One thing to remember. We all started out somewhere and had to learn the workings of a pc or an x-box for that matter. My wife & I wanted a pc for yrs before I even bought one, for fear of not knowing how to operate it. Afraid we would break it or ruin it somehow in the first week of use. LOL Or, We wouldn't be smart enough to run a pc.
You just wouldn't believe the thoughts non- conputing people have, thinking they're computer illiterate and will be the rest of their lives. We finally jumped in and with the help of friends online & off. We now have 4pc's in our house on a network. I've built pc's for my brother, inlaws and friends and even got them to get into using them. I also upgrade and maintain them to keep them running good. I'm a prime example of someone who thought he could never do this. I even custom mod my pc's now with windows, lights,etc. It's a blast! Just remember --One step at a time and ask questions when you're not sure. Most people enjoy helping others learn the ins and outs of pc's. Welcome to the world of computing friend.
Well said - and you'll find to be pretty much common amongst most computer types they start from not knowing anything and just keep learning and expanding. Remember you'll learn a hell of a lot more from breaking things and having to fix it then you will from not trying it at all.
Comments
I'll assume you are just meaning the mod chip and maybe the bigger HDD. For the HDD it's simple go to any local computer store and buy a hard drive WD and Maxtor have the greatest compatibility with xbox and size wise I'd recomend 120gig - 200gig.
As for the chip probably the best chip on the market right now is the Xecuter 3 chip with second place to the Xenium chip. If you get the X3 it'll work on any xbox regardless of version I believe the newest Xenium chip will also. However many other chips won't work on version 1.6 xbox's so you need to know your version and shop accordingly. As for where to get it, there are tonnes of online stores and most cities will have a store or two that can get them for you if buying online isn't your thing.
Instructions on how to do it varies with from mod chip to mod chip and the best place to go is the website for the chip you buy, but the basics work like this.
Take apart your xbox (this voids warranty) pull out the harddrive, pull out the cdrom, remove the plastic stands where they sit. This will give you access to the motherboard. You then set the pins for the mod chip and solder them into place the new chips are really great and easy to solder because they have a header board so you don't have to mess with wires. If you are putting in a new harddrive install it and place everything back together again.
Boot up your xbox if you did everything right it'll come up to the flash screen for your particular chip. Most chips boot straight into the cromwell bios at first boot so you need to get a bios for the chip that will allow you to boot beyond cromwell. Some come with their own menu and don't need to be flashed.
In either case once your mod chip is booting propperly it'll boot up and your xbox is working (on the regular hard drive). If you've put in your own harddrive you'll need to install everything on it there are several ways to do it but the easiest is to get a Slayer boot disk. You then boot up with the disk in it'll boot up the disk and from there it'll format and set up your new harddrive with all that you need. Keep in mind that once you put in a bigger harddrive you won't be able to go on Live anymore. Even if you don't put in a bigger harddrive there is a good chance you won't be able to use live anymore.
If you are keeping the stock hard drive you still won't be able to do anything on it other then play legit software. To access the more beneficial functions of a mod chip you need to put on one of the various alternate dashboards such as Avalaunch or Evolution - Evolution probably being the better of the two.
Anyway those are the basics for more detailed instructions you need to do a lot more research and actually figure out what you want to do. Also check out the specific sites for the mod chips you get they all have excellent step by step guides with pictures.
hey kryyst, i know the newer xboxs used to require blind flashing (nothing on the tv) and the only way you knew it worked was because the dvd rom popped out. now, with the newer stuff chips (its been about 8 monthes since ive modded an xbox) maybe thats not the case, but i know some folks that bought used, old xbox's for that reason specifically because they wanted to have some sort of input.
also, veetor, if you have never soldered before, i recommend you try it out first. to the pros, xbox soldering is cake, but it can be fairly daunting if you have never done it before. I had a friend that went and bought a 15 dollar vcr from walmart just to practice soldering before he worked on his own stuff.
also, i would suggest you find out what brand of dvd rom you have in your xbox, as this will greatly help you with modding it. the thomson (which i have, blows hardcore. mine eventually died and i do everything over the network now) you will have to be VERY picky about the media. even with cdrw's that are SUPPOSED to work, very rarely work with this guy. i would suggest you make your bios disc onto a dvd because the chances of it reading it are much higher. If you have the philips, it is much more compatible with more stuff, but go to xbox-scene.com for any more info about compatibility. and if you have the samsung, you are pretty much set for life (or until xbox2) cuz it rocks.
aight, so if you get anything out of this post, just remember that pretty much everything you could need is at xbox-scene.com. tons of great docs, faqs, and tutorials. good luck and let us know how you do!
Hmm from what I understand (reading and experience) it's not the version of the xbox it's the version of the chip. Some chips have external lcd's that'll tell you if it worked or not others you have to wait for the drive to eject like you said. But of the two I've worked with Xecutor and Xenium with some old 1.0's and 1.1 boxes and a fes 1.6's they all had on screen displays. The Xecutor chips just booted straight into the cromwell bios and the Xenium has their own built in bios menu that is pretty slick. I still prever the Xecutor chips though they are more powerful, but really it's just a preference thing.
However on different chips that don't have a preflashed bios on them then yeah if you booted up with them they would have no display until you loaded a bios on them, which was from a cd.
I also agree put anything you do on dvd-r's regardless of the dvd-rom in your xbox it just works better. Even though the xbox can supposedly read CD-RW and DVD-RW it's extremely picky and even with a brand that works well it doesn't always works well. Which when you are actually setting things up is the last thing you want to mess with. Not know whether you did something wrong or it's just not reading the disk. DVD-R's though always work.
OH and If you Thompson is burned out you can just replace it with another dvd drive, though I forget what the tricks are there. If you are always working mod chip enabled then I believe any drive will do. But if you sometimes boot with the mod chip dissabled then only a few specific drives will do.
Almost.
I'm still using evox as my main dash because I like the default movie player better and when I'm just playing games and stuff it's easier. I have been thinking about switching to xbmc though as my default, probably the only reason I haven't is cuz I've been to lazy to bother. Also really it's pretty much a wash boot up into evo and then arrow down to xbmc for the 1/2 sec extra I don't care that much either way.
No real dissadvantages to XBMC as the dash, it may boot a little slower but that's about it. OH and like I said I like the default evox movie player better for playing DVD's. Friend of mines got XBMC as his dash and he loves it no complaints.
It's really a greate machine, even if you never play games. It's the best Multi-Media machine you can get, dvd's, cd's mp3, streaming video/audio whatever you want it can do it. Hell put your pictures on it and preview them on the tv. etc...etc...
Evox is an alternate dashboard. With it you can play backed up games, watch divx movies, copy games to a modded harddrive FTP into your xbox and make changes and ultimately run other programs.
XBMC is Xbox Media Centre it also acts as a dashboard. But it's real benefit is that you can stream media content from your computer to your xbox and then onto the tv it has built in script for running mini-web browsers it'll has a music player where you can customize tracks and many, many other functions.
Slayer is a disk that once you've modded your xbox with you boot up using this slayer disk and it'll copy evox and XBMC (now way out dated version though) to your hard drive along with a lot of other very handy utilities. The slayer disk makes it extremely easy to upgrade and put the necessary software onto your xbox especially if you put in a bigger hard drive as it will format the hard drive to xbox's standard and set up all the partitions.
If it's xbox specifics no such thing exists. xbox-scene has about the best knowledge base for it on the net.
I looked around and tried to find you one that is close to being up to date.
Dr. John's PC Guide
You just wouldn't believe the thoughts non- conputing people have, thinking they're computer illiterate and will be the rest of their lives. We finally jumped in and with the help of friends online & off. We now have 4pc's in our house on a network. I've built pc's for my brother, inlaws and friends and even got them to get into using them. I also upgrade and maintain them to keep them running good. I'm a prime example of someone who thought he could never do this. I even custom mod my pc's now with windows, lights,etc. It's a blast! Just remember --One step at a time and ask questions when you're not sure. Most people enjoy helping others learn the ins and outs of pc's. Welcome to the world of computing friend.