Modding an Xbox (not 360)

[Endless Night]

Ive had this xbox +games  (not 360) sitting around my house for years... used maybe 1/2dozen times..  my sons now old enough and wants to play it.  Low and behold i find the dvd drive is shot... after dismantellying it and rebuilding it still gives disk errors.

So instead of spending $50 for a replacement drive (stupid custom drive) for an old system, or sticking it back on the shelf for a few more years to gather dust...  i was thinking of turning the machine into a  PVR/game player...  http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmc/  This involes some hocus pocus type messing about ..

Has anyone done this ..

[Coragin]

I modded my xbox before I got my 360 with a 500gb hd and just put all my games right on the hard drive, even ones I rented/downloaded.  There are many sites out there to teach you such things and it is pretty easy, all you need is an xbox boot disk for your new hd and it will install everything from your computer, then disconnect the drive and put it in your xbox.

http://www.console-exploits.com

[rana70]

I use two old modded xboxes with wlan adapters in my house
as media players.

The Modding is easy I think if you can handler a solder iron.

If you follow the hint with the games on hdd you don't need to replace
the original dvd drive. There are two ways to go ...

if you like to put things on the HDD and there is no real need for
a perfect working DVD Drive later ... 
you can use any regular DVD drive as a replacement ....

if you are lucky any you connect the xBox via LAN cable you still can
move everything from your PC DVD Drive via FTP to the xBox HDD.
The LAN cable is just a question of speed .. uploading 4GB via WLAN
is a little annoying ... :-)

OK about the modding process... Coragain is basicly right...
you just need a boot CD to install the modded xBox...
There are a few good one out there with a kind of plug an play
menu ... and the best "Dashboard" project you found allready
I love my XBMC .. it still plays every Video,Music and InternetRadio

and btw. EN do you speak German ? if yes I can send you a few usefull howto's ?

cu 

[onlyindreams]

EN do you speak German ? if yes I can send you a few usefull howto's ?

cu 

I took around 5 years of German classes and took a trip there for over a month. If you need something translated I may be able to help... I am rusty though.

[Endless Night]

All i know in german is i dont speak german.
Thanks for the link Corgain.. looks like a bunch of reading to do.

The Xbox i have aleady has a network port and 500gb hdd (probably was one of the last non 360s made).  Its just been sitting on a shelf forever .. have a Xbox live subscription code someplace as well.. (might be lost)

Ranna you said i could use any regualr dvd drive as a replacement (got loads of those) .. I take it ill have to rewire the power connector as its using some custom connector.. do you have any links on that.


Thanks for all the help looks like some reading is needed...

[rana70]

All i know in german is i dont speak german.
Thanks for the link Corgain.. looks like a bunch of reading to do.

The Xbox i have aleady has a network port and 500gb hdd (probably was one of the last non 360s made).  Its just been sitting on a shelf forever .. have a Xbox live subscription code someplace as well.. (might be lost)

Ranna you said i could use any regualr dvd drive as a replacement (got loads of those) .. I take it ill have to rewire the power connector as its using some custom connector.. do you have any links on that.


Thanks for all the help looks like some reading is needed...

Hi,
no problem just connect the regular dvd drive with an Y-cable to the internal power connector of the xbox hdd.
The y-cables you usually use for PC's.
It has to be jumpered to slave mode if I remember correct and
you have to use the open button of the dvd drive.

This setup is good enough to flash the BIOS and prepair the box for network use,
mostly you have to do this anyway because of the fact that the original dvd drives
have a big issue with reading  burned cds or dvds.

The original dvd drive has an extra connector the little yellow or brown cable that is used to provide power
and connect the open close button. You can disconnect this while you have the other dvd running.

the only problem would be to play original games,
but with a modded box you simply can copy the games to the hdd and play them from the hdd direct.

There was also a way to replace the original drive with a  samsung 616 regular pc drive, you have to
replace the firmware and you can connect the original power and open button cable and so it would  work
as a full internal replacement with all functions but I have no idea if this drive is still available.


I recommand the tutorials on www.xbox-scene.com and if you look for a nice and cheap mod chip
look for the duo x2 it costs about 10$ and does the job

cu

[Endless Night]

I recommand the tutorials on www.xbox-scene.com and if you look for a nice and cheap mod chip
look for the duo x2 it costs about 10$ and does the job

Is a mod chip a must have... Or can i get away with just soft modding the system.

(Good idea on the replacement dvd .. durr kind of obvious after the fact )

[rana70]

I recommand the tutorials on www.xbox-scene.com and if you look for a nice and cheap mod chip
look for the duo x2 it costs about 10$ and does the job

Is a mod chip a must have... Or can i get away with just soft modding the system.
(Good idea on the replacement dvd .. durr kind of obvious after the fact )

I never liked the softmods, because you usually needed a chipped xbox to get the files transfered
to a memory module and they had a lot of trouble when something got wrong on the hdd... in the
end you always need a chip to fix them ... as long as you or any of your friends can handle a
solder iron .. I would invest 10$ for the easy and stable way.....

Cheap (without a chip) would also be the ultimate modding .. flash the TSOP itself with a
modded bios... the TSOP is the EEPROM that holds the original BIOS....
There are also howtos on the page I wrote before...

[Coragin]

I didnt use a chip in mine.  I did a soft mod.  However I do have another xbox I found at a garage sale for $3, so I can check to see if it even works.  If it does I can do the mod completely and send you all the necessary files.  You will however need one old xbox game I believe, but I dont know for sure on that.  Maybe the xbdb will do the trick.

And when the 360 came out MS shut down all the regular xbox live servers and converted over to 360.  So I dont think your code will work anymore, or if it does you wont be able to connect with a regular xbox, only a 360.  They dropped all support for xnbox when they released the 360.  kinda dumb imo, but thats ms for ya.