Eridyne

Ooh. Didn't know that, thanks for the correction. Looks like it's basically a direct equivalent in all practical ways, now. Nifty. Edit: Also, as the vast majority of what goes on most xboxes will be write-once data, SMR drives are probably still more-or-less usable, just definitely subpar and to be avoided if at all practical.

Greetings! I know the feeling, I just recently revived my pair of Xboxes from about ten years ago. If you're intending to run modchipped all the time - and I see no real reason not to - the specific HDD shouldn't matter much, but a 2.5" can make it easier to mount adapters and route cables. You'll be wanting SATA whichever way you go with capacity and size. Due to technical limitations, you're limited to ~2.3TB usable drive space, so there's no point in >2TB drives, and there's little point in an SSD. Since I assume you'll want to reacquire some of your collection, you'll likely want a 500GB+ drive so you can rip plenty of games to HDD and avoid further wear-n-tear on the aging DVD drive, while still having some space for apps and media. As for HDD adapters, those using the Marvell 88SA8052 chip, like the StarTech IDE2SAT2 and the Delock 61702, are fairly surefire options. Generics often work, but can be slower. If you go the generic route, I strongly suggest one that has a master/slave jumper (there are lots of links for them on the ogxbox reddit and some here). Regardless, get yourself an 80-wire cable to replace the 40-wire OEM cable; you may have adapter functionality and/or speed problems otherwise. I'd suggest you check out all your other caps while you're removing the clock cap, just in case any have bulged, vented, or leaked, and make sure to clean up any possible leakage from the clock cap. There's a nifty brand-new internal mod that does HDMI (with digital sound) straight from the internal GPU, from https://makemhz.com/products/xboxhdmi - in case you're interested in further useful mods, though that one will be challenging to solder. You may also want to check out the ogx360, for using newer generation controllers with the original Xbox.

Agreed about the HDMI, it's very cleanly done and the demo pictures are just amazingly clear. Having digital audio over HDMI too is just the icing on the cake. As for the 2.6ce, if you've already tried to flash it with something and had issues, then I'd be a bit cautious and double check everything. Otherwise, you could always assemble a bios file with something new in bank 1, and the same bios you're already using in bank 2, to minimize the risk. Not sure what you mean by a clean start though, since the bios loaded on the chip is separate from the rest of the Xbox. I wonder whether it was an app or a bios that provided the ftp failsafe, that does sound awfully nice...

Good to know, and odd that so many others seem to have much worse luck with SSDs than I do... I actually found an HGST 1TB that I forgot I had, removed from a laptop during an upgrade and stored away. It's now handling, after some prep work, my entire meagre collection of games, though a couple need to be run from ISOs due to apparently-unresolved issues. Thankfully I found a post detailing (most) of the steps for running ISOs from the HDD, via PBL, m8plus metoo, the "CDROM modchip" patcher, and driveimageutils attacher. It's not really viable like that for more than a few games, but I couldn't get the BIOS patcher to work when trying to load it at boot, sooo... Now I'm just seriously eyeing that internal HDMI mod, Project Pineapple. https://www.reddit.com/r/originalxbox/comments/igv7if/xboxhdmi_preorder_announcement_project_pineapple/ #NotDave, but... if you mean on the 2.6CE, you could use X2BM - load a BIOS, 1x 512KB or 2x 256KB, into each bank, save the resulting "image", boot the working bank, and flash the image with BIOS or app/dash.

I did use FATXplorer briefly, it was fast enough and suffered 100% fewer crashes than xplorer360~ I'm not a fan of how it can mount only a single partition at a time, but that's more a mild inconvenience. I don't really like having to take apart the Xbox to get at the drive more than necessary though, and some dashboards have decently fast FTP, which is way more convenient overall. Also, I got ahold of the download for UIX Lite and it is kinda entirely beautiful, even without operable FTP (yet). It instantly replaced UIX as my dashboard of choice, and that's with Avalaunch, XBMC, and UnleashX all set up with nice skins for comparing. (Now I can't decide which ones to get rid of but I suppose it doesn't matter, they're not that big and I could just keep them all...) It's weirdly neo-nostalgic, sitting there with something that keeps to the MS dash style and feel so well, but is obviously newer and prettier and does far more, while still hearing all the little dash background sounds.

Okay, I can't deny that XBMC4Gamers does look pretty good. I'm still just awfully fond of the original MS dash look. Nostalgia, maybe? I do genuinely think the MS dash was very nicely done, as weird as it was, and it functioned perfectly well. And now I've found out that UIX Lite exists in public beta, and shall have to chase that down somehow-or-other. It looks amazing from what I've found.

Thanks much for all the answers, that confirms a lot of what I suspected, and suggests that maybe the boxes would be better with a decent regular sort of BIOS that'll handle an unlocked HDD stuffed in TSOP, given that I now know that's a viable route to flash. And a minor update to progress: Both boxes have their clock caps removed, and neither leaked meaningfully, or did any board damage whatsoever, so I got lucky there. Inspected all the other caps while I was at it, and there are no visible signs of issues. Tried out XBlast and FlashBIOS and prefer XBlast, so both Xecuter chips now have 5035 in bank 1 and XBlast in bank 2. Mostly have the basic set of apps I want loaded onto the working box, though I'm still debating which dash to use. UIX looks super nice, I've always liked the OEM dash, but the FTP... basically doesn't work, and it's kinda weird in how it lists some apps and not others (still haven't figured that out). UnleashX seems to do everything you could reasonably want, and well, but I really don't like its look-and-feel nearly as much... Choices, choices.

Yeeeah that sounds familiar. I have no idea how that actually works, as far as the D0 and A15 lines. It's all interesting, but hard to find anything about beyond the basics in the xblast lite manual and some scattered posts. I wasn't aware any of the A15/D0 controlling hardware was still available. That might be a nice thing to keep around, even though (as far as I understand) that method relies on the TSOP being flashed with at least a partly-working, near-stock type BIOS. I think a quick softmod by one or the other method sounds like the most reliable option... which I might well do, though I'm not sure what exactly I'd load on the TSOP.

Thanks! I thought that, but I recall seeing something involving disconnecting a line like a half second after boot somewhere allowing the other way round, so... was unsure. Not something I'll try regardless.

So there are some things I'm trying to figure out and having a hard time with, due to old, contradictory, or lack of info out there, and I'd greatly appreciate any thoughts. For reference, I have one each of v1.0 and v1.1, both with Xecuter 2.6 Lite chips. If caps require replacement (not the clock cap), are there any known to have special requirements for ripple or ESR? I'm thinking regular polymer electrolytic caps from Rubycon or Nichicon would be fine? Is there any reason to use FlashBIOS instead of XBlast? Assuming they're both stable, it looks like XBlast outright has more features. Are the FlashBIOS/XBlast web flashing interfaces reasonably safe to use? Without exploitable games or an Xbox/USB adapter, would the best way to TSOP flash a modchipped Xbox involve FTP backup of C&E, mod the backup with ndure, FTP it back to the Xbox, and turn off the modchip, then flash TSOP from the softmod dash? Can Xblast be flashed to TSOP safely? I've seen posts arguing both ways. If it can, could Xblast on TSOP be used to flash a modchip, if the chip is turned on after booting?

Thanks, it's good to know that for sure. That's what I'd been doing, using X2BM to assemble ready-to-go files, and I don't think it's caused any issues so far.

I guess you've had much worse experiences with SSDs than I have. Neither of the two boot drive SSDs around the house have had any issues, and they're several years old each. They're not even anything special, just basic m.2 nvme models. I haven't heard of any issues from friends, either. I agree that it's kinda overkill for the performance, to put one in an xbox. I'd just planned to put some-or-other well-liked BIOS in bank 1 and flashbios (or maybe xblast) in bank 2. Oh, I couldn't figure this out, but perhaps someone around here knows. Is it possible to flash just bank 1, with a 256 or 512 bin? Or does the chip require the full 1MB flash every time? I got the impression it was the latter, but some scattered old comments left me wondering. Also, what's up with X3BM wanting two copies of any 256kb-sized BIOS loaded into each 512kb bank? Is it just to fill up the rest of the space in that bank? With how X3BM illustrates it, it almost looks like you could split the individual banks, but I can't imagine that would work? I briefly considered also flashing the TSOP, but I'm very much not sure I want to futz with that. Also unsure how much in the way of capacitor replacements should be done (aside from the clock cap, I mean). Lots of the caps on the board look like electrolytics, and I know they have finite lifespans before they dry out, but is that worth doing as preventative maintenance? I'm leaning toward no, but I'd be curious to hear what the prevailing opinion is.

I'd never really looked into the xenium chips, but I might now if they're semi-readily available. X3's seem like they're fairly expensive when they appear... I just really liked that backup bank on the X3s so you never need a chip programmer - which I don't have and am not sure I could get, these days. Oh, I didn't mean speed, as the SSD goes. I'd be mostly interested in it because, well, I like that you can't have mechanical problems with an SSD. (Related: I've lost one too many HDDs to people and sometimes their pets knocking stuff over.)

I meant to fix them up nicely the first time I started this whole thing, then life happened and they ended up stuffed in a box and hauled around for a while... I wasn't sure if the clock cap was also intended as a decoupling cap for a nearby chip, but if it removal hasn't been shown to cause any harm... it's probably okay-ish. I don't think mine have seen power in as long as the whole time they've been stored, either. Oh, true! Big drives are definitely way cheaper (and bigger), and midsize SSDs are pretty affordable, which is tentatively the plan. I don't need to keep a whole archival library on it, just my own personal (very modest) collection, and I've no intention of using it for storing media or running emulators. I was considering TSOP flashing too, as a backup for the chip since the 2.6's don't have an integrated recovery mechanism, but I dunno. Kinda wish I could've gotten the 3.0 instead of the 2.6 for that.

The clock caps are first on my (new) to-do list. One's a v1.0 and the other's v1.1, so they need it. None of the caps look bulged or seem to have leaked, so I think I'm okay for the rest...

Weeell... not far enough, but I did get Xecuter 2.6 chips installed in both. Never fixed the crashed HDD on one or got a BIOS on it, and the other never got more than Avalaunch installed, but at least it works. Ooon the other hand, I never did the thermal paste, clock caps, or HDD upgrades on either, so there's plenty of work to go around~

Hah, true, but I think I could've rushed this a liiiittle bit more. Ten years is a long time, long enough for most of the modding scene to vanish, and for me to need to relearn everything from scratch.

New to the site and finally getting around to finishing(?) a pair of xecuter modded Xboxes about ten years after I started. Oops...?