Forlorn Penguin

Boot a utility disc and install a new dashboard. DO NOT install a softmod for a hardmodded Xbox.

That Discord server is dead. No idea why it was even created. It's just needless and redundant, since there's already a very active Xbox modding/restoring Discord server here: https://discordapp.com/invite/emWX5Uq You'll get much more help from this one.

Should be fine. You can calibrate the screen settings.

No tutorial necessary. Just gently wiggle it around until the pins snap, then break it off. Afterwards, clean the leakage up on the board with isopropyl alcohol.

It does not need to be replaced. Just break off and be done with it. If you leave it in it will eventually leak (possibly has already started to, as most of them have by now) which will cause massive corrosion and eat through traces on the motherboard, until the Xbox can't even function anymore. Can also potentially start a fire when it gets to that point.

https://github.com/Rocky5/XBMC4Gamers

If you just now pulled out that Xbox for the first time since 2002, you'd better remove its clock capacitor ASAP.

You don't need a disc to get XBMC. Just download it and FTP it to the Xbox. Whatever version would be on AID would likely be super outdated anyway. Also, you might want to look into XBMC4Gamers and XBMC-Emustation instead. Much better dashboards.

Nowhere. HeXEn isn't a unique application. It's just an UnleashX configuration that launches various other apps. The real question here would be "where would one get the source code for UnleashX," to which the answer is nowhere, because the UnleashX source code was never released and no longer exists.

Not sure why you're getting flickering. That shouldn't be happening, but the slowdown in the boot animation and in the dashboard is normal when there's no DVD drive connected.

I'm not sure why that's happening. Maybe change that video aspect setting from "normal" to "widescreen"? However I'd like to advise against enabling 1080i anyway. 1080i is very taxing on the Xbox, often slows down the dashboard and is utterly useless anyway as only about six games even support it. Best to enable widescreen, 480p and maybe 720p if you really like a 16:9 dashboard (there aren't that many 720p supported games either).

iND-BiOS and EvoX M8+ are both good. The former is not compatible with 1.6 Xboxes though. Both will accomplish more or less the same thing. The differences are that iND-BiOS supports 128MB RAM, can be reconfigured via a file on the HDD (C:\ind-bios.cfg), has a slower bootup due to it needing to access said file in order to render the boot animation and load a dashboard, supports a glorious 480p boot animation if you have component cables and every bootup has a random camera angle for the animation. EvoX M8+ does not have any of that, but boots faster because the configuration is saved within the BIOS directly, which also means that if you ever want to edit it, you have to reconfigure the BIOS and reflash with the new configuration.

Why 3TB? The Xbox will only be able to make use of 2TB.

^ Yeah. If you want HD for the Xbox, the best way is to get the official Microsoft component cables. These are expensive though and were never released in PAL regions.

Of course they won't, because as was stated, HD cables need to be hooked up in order for it to display HD settings. Composite is not HD. What do you mean? Just mod the console to remove the region lock. Or by "region lock" do you actually mean the video mode? If so, just mod it and use Enigmah-X to change the video mode.

Yeah, it's easier to use a game save exploit to softmod. That being said, don't softmod with anything other than JCRocky5's Xbox Softmodding Tool. Everything else is outdated, not streamlined and not as stable. It's also very important to null the HDD key after softmodding. This can be done with NKPatcher Settings, which is an app that is installed along with the softmod. Afterwards, you'll want to replace the original, aging HDD with a much newer and bigger one, and rip all of your games to it and play them from the HDD. Never play games from the DVD drive because the lasers are very old and are a frequent point of failure these days. Prevent further needless wearing down of the laser by not using it, so it has a better chance of lasting longer, should you ever need to run a recovery disc. Additionally, standard maintenance is needed too, like cleaning out the inside of the Xbox and replacing the thermal paste. It is also extremely important that you check which revision the Xbox is because if it is a 1.0-1.5, it has a faulty clock capacitor that will leak and destroy the motherboard, so it needs to be removed immediately. It is highly likely that the leaking has already begun too, so get on that ASAP.

You can use XBlast OS v0.56 to flash the TSOP. It will work regardless of which brand the TSOP is. Make sure you also place an x2config.ini file on the root of the E partition too though if you're gonna use X2 5035. However once the TSOP is flashed, you're gonna need some way to remove the softmod from the C partition, otherwise it will create a conflict with the new BIOS and you'll just see a black screen after the boot animation.

I'd suggest just flashing the TSOP to hardmod them if they are pre-1.6. Only need to do a modchip for a 1.6.

You don't need to check which BIOS it is if it's only been softmodded because you already know it's on a stock BIOS. Also using the Xbox DVD drive is a bad idea because they are old and have a high rate of failure, so you want to avoid wearing out the laser unless it is necessary to do so. So if you really need BIOS Checker for some reason, just FTP it to the HDD and run it from there instead. But to answer the question, yes. You would have to burn an iso image to the disc. The Xbox isn't gonna see anything otherwise. Not just any iso image either, but an Xbox iso.

If it's not a 1.6, remove the clock capacitor too, or else that Xbox is done.

Well, it's the best version of HeXEn so far...

Yes. Or you could just copy the EvoX M8+ .bin file that you want from the disc to your HDD and then flash it with EvolutionX, Gentoox or XBlast OS. Or customize your own EvoX M8+ configuration, without the DVD drive check, and flash that.

HeXEn 2018 installs it, but you can also just grab it from Rocky5's GitHub.

Nice. Make sure you remove their clock capacitors right away.

CoinOps is actually ancient junk these days. We have XBMC-Emustation now to serve that purpose. Much, much better. Make sure you get around to changing that decade old thermal paste too.