Want to rent XBOX softmod kit!

[skullpoker]

I'm looking to buy an original xbox and mod it for improved functionality. So I'm wondering if anybody in the USA has a kit I can use to softmod. Depending on cost to acquire the xbox, it could take a couple of weeks before I'm ready for the kit. PM me with details if you have what I need.

[Zorlon]

The stuff needed is not really all that costly to be honest

An xbox port to USB adapter, a compatible USB stick and 1 of 3 games

[skullpoker]

I've been reading that the XBOX is very picky about what USB devices will work and most of them are under 1GB, so very hard to find now. Fortunately I remembered a friend of a friend helped him out with this so I can find a kit in my own town.

Do you know much about installable XBOX dashboards and which ones are more functional vs easy to use?

[deadlegion]

You can also mod a genuine controller into a usb adaptor of sorts, the wires have the same colours as standard usb (except for a spare yellow wire on the controller lead which is just for lightgun use iirc). You just need a usb extension cord as a donor.
This means you can use an xbox memory card on your PC using Action Replay PC software. Or you can even go further and mod the memory card port into a usb port.

You can use some 2/4GB sticks.

[Zorlon]

I've been reading that the XBOX is very picky about what USB devices will work and most of them are under 1GB, so very hard to find now. Fortunately I remembered a friend of a friend helped him out with this so I can find a kit in my own town.

Do you know much about installable XBOX dashboards and which ones are more functional vs easy to use?

XBMC was my choice it is very easy to use but also has a bunch of extra features that most don't but I also use avalaunch that is installed as an app rather than a dash that I use just for FTP of games, because it has faster FTP access than any other dashboard for games with the use of Qwix

I skin the XBMC dash with an older blades style 360 looking skin

What you get with the basic installers though are very basic more basic than avalaunch that is basic in it's self but has much more features than those



I used an action replay myself but also have USB cables hooked up with xbox ends they are really very cheap to start with but yeah most USB memsticks I have are not recognized or rather they format fine but as soon as you try to access them they fail, but they are generic USB memsticks though, but there may be info online as to what works, though never looked


Upgrading the HDD can be troublesome if you don't get a compatible HDD, but I know of a list for that, but basically you just need a drive that is lockable, the basic drive you get is only 8GB that is fine for a custom dash and saves and maybe one full DVD sized game but if you want more out of it you will want something bigger 100GB or bigger, I eventually went with a 750GB drive that is the biggest IDE drive you can get but there are SATA to IDE converters that are small enough to fit inside the Xbox alone with a SATA drive so you can have TB sized drives installed if you wanted, but they also must be lockable to work with a soft mod.

Main advantage to having the stuff direct on HDD asides from having the games ready and faster load times, is that the CD/DVD drives in most xbox's tend to be of poor quality and it's usually the first bit of equipment to go wrong with the xbox (most common issue is the drive draw getting stuck so it will not open), the 1.6 xbox though has a more reliable drive in it, but it also has HD issues with scrambled images for a few of the 480p games that older xbox revisions do not have, that is not an issue though if you are not planning on getting HD video cables

[Ichijoe]

Ok First off I don't care for Softmods. IMHO they cause more problems then they solved. Well for me at the time. Anyway. Perhaps that new game at the time was overwriting my Softmod Dash. Causing me no end of ballache. Till I broke down and Chiped it. BEST THING I EVER DONE!

So with that. I would suggest that you head out to the Hardware Store and, get a few things first, like a:

Torx 10 & 20 Screwdriver Set to open up the XBOX
And a 15w Soldering Iron + Solder, and possibly a Desolder Braid if needed.

At this point if your gonna attempt to Softmod it, you may as well TSOP Flash it. The only problem with that is that you'll need to know if you have a v1.6 XBOX or not. AFAIK the v1.6 XBOX's CAN NOT be TSOP flashed. Every other v1.0 ~ v1.5 however can!

This HOWTO explains it in better detail then I ever could. http://www.biline.ca/xbox_mod.htm In the simple case of just Softmoding, you could still follow this Guide more or less as its more or less the same set of steps involved. TSOP flashing, just makes the Softmod more permanent. Like having a Chip in your XBOX.

Problem here is you will still need an Original Copy of either 007 Agent Under Fire, or Splinter Cell. IIRC Mech Assault might have been the Third Game on that List. But, I only know of AUF, and SC. As I actually have those Games.

Now I personally don't condone the sacrificing of good controllers as suggested. So here's a somewhat better Mod that you should look into. http://www.instructables.com/id/Orig...Slot-USB-Conv/
USB Cables unlike XBOX Controllers (Or their Cables!), are literately like a Dime a Dozen.

I think if your lucky you can snap up 007 Agent Under Fire for less then a Tenner off Fleabay, same thing goes for Splinter Cell.

Besides learning what type of XBOX you have you'll almost certainly want to replace that 8~10GB HDD with something bigger sooner or latter. For that I'd suggest looking for a S-ATA to P-ATA (IDE) Converter. That will allow you to use a larger S-ATA Drive.

*EDIT* Oh and, One other thing... That Tip about finding a compatible HDD... You can pretty much chuck it in the Bin. It may have meant something back in 2002. But its a far comp to think that any P-ATA HDD your likely to come across will likely be ATA-133 complaint. Which would make it ATA-66 complaint. Drive Locking IS AN ATA STANDARD first introduced with ATA-66. That basically means that every HDD made after ATA-66 will be lockable!

HDD passwords and security

The disk lock is a built-in security feature in the disk. It is part of the ATA specification, and thus not specific to any brand or device. The disk lock can be enabled and disabled by sending special ATA commands to the drive. If a disk is locked, it will refuse all access until it is unlocked.

A disk always has two passwords: A User password and a Master password. Most disks support a Master Password Revision Code.

You can think of it this way the HDD Key that gets generated by the EPROM.BIN File (XBOX), is like the User Pass. In the event you ever use ConfigMagic to lock, or unlock your Drive. Then the Master Password gets changed to "TEAMASSEMBLY"
This was a fairly stupid way that MicroSoft used at the time to prevent you from installing larger HDD into the XBOX. Its also the leading cause of all ERROR's 5 & 6 you'll come across.

[Inferno.]

Ichijoe, while your post was very good and full of good information, the last post in the thread was in July. We don't allow for threads to be revived without good reason, so I'm going to go ahead and close it now.