Forlorn Penguin

No, that won't work. If the Xbox boots from the LPC it will only try to flash to the LPC even if the chip is removed. You're going to have to set it up to boot into a softmod installer. You can grab the XboxHDM version of Rocky's softmod installer from his GitHub or Google Drive pages and edit the config.xml file to allow file explorer access when it's in the the installer menu (UnleashX) then copy the installer to C. Also copy your desired BIOS .bin file to C:\BIOS and copy the XBlast OS .xbe file to anywhere on the HDD. The recommended BIOSes are EvoX M8+ or iND-BiOS. If you go with M8+ make sure that you configure the BIOS to look for your dashboard on boot before flashing. If you go with iND make sure to place an ind-bios.cfg file on C that points to your dashboard. Once all that is done, power off the Xbox, remove the chip and power the Xbox back on. It should boot directly into the softmod installer. If you had edited the config.xml earlier to allow file explorer access, you can now open the file explorer, navigate to wherever you installed XBlast OS and launch it, then flash the TSOP. If you did everything correctly, the console is now TSOP flashed and should boot to your desired dashboard location. You can now delete C:\BIOS, the softmod files and, if you want to, XBlast OS.

Definitely a lot better than the old, ultra bright, retina burning one. lol

I'll second ImgBurn, as that's what I use. For burn speed, select the slowest option available for your PC's optical drive.

You don't need any of that to flash a TSOP. Just put the BIOS file you want in C:\BIOS and then run XBlast OS to flash it. If you're flashing iND-BiOS or X2 5035, you also need C:\ind-bios.cfg and E:\x2config.ini, respectfully. If you really must use a disc for some reason, then use HeXEn, but really, just use XBlast OS.

Make sure you check which revision it is and remove the clock capacitor if it's a 1.0-1.5. Otherwise it will kill the Xbox.

Just F. You only create a G partition for HDDs larger than 1TB.

Rocky's Extras Disc has XBMC4Gamers and XBMC-Emustation, but there's no reason to use a disc to install them and wear out the dying laser. Just download the dashboards from Rocky's GitHub and FTP them to the Xbox. And you don't need to use a .xbe shortcut. Just change your BIOS' boot path to point to XBMC4Gamers.

It will format a HDD the same, but from what I recall it's worse for installing a dashboard and for flashing a BIOS since it uses a stock xbe for UnleashX instead of a patched one and its EvoX M8+ BIOS files still force the DVD drive check on the user.

Got mine a few days ago. Works great. I noticed that several pins are not soldered on the player 2 module. I'm guessing those aren't needed for the slave modules then and I can ignore them when installing modules 3 & 4?

There is nothing different or special about Japanese consoles, no. Not unless it was a limited edition version, which it's not. That Xbox is a 1.0 though, so it has a bad clock capacitor that needs to be removed ASAP before it destroys the motherboard.

YOu don't need to use a disc to update your dashboards. You can just grab them online and FTP them to the Xbox.

Like Kaos said, it's a 1.4 and it has some pretty bad clock cap leakage that you need to take care of.

That save is evidence enough that it was softmodded. However it appears that it was incorrectly softmodded (they used a very outdated installer). So you'll want to upgrade the softmod to JCRocky5's Xbox Softmodding Tool. From that link, go to the installer variants section and download the Quick Upgrade tool. Then FTP that to your Xbox's E partition and run it. Once you are upgraded, use the NKPatcher Settings application to null your HDD key (NKPatcher Settings is installed with Rocky's upgrade). By upgrading to Rocky's softmod, you will automatically have your dashboard switched to UnleashX. You'll want a bigger HDD to play backups. While you can burn games to DVDs, you should never use this option because Xbox DVD drives have extremely high failure rates these days. If you keep putting extra strain on the laser, you're just going to kill it faster. Run everything from the HDD instead. Load times are also better this way. Your Xbox is a 1.6, so the clock capacitor is fine. Do not remove it.

Could be a compatibility issue with the flash drive (yes, even if saves are writing to it). The Xbox is very picky about flash drives. Also FYI, don't use SID. It's terrible and outdated. Use JCRocky5's Xbox Softmodding Tool instead. And null the HDD key after the softmod is installed.

The last version Microsoft ever released was 5960.