HDShadow

Does the LED remain red when you just boot the console ie. without using any disc? It sounds as if you were experimenting trying to get the console back to retail state is that correct? If so what, exactly, did you do?

^That is rubbish information. Philips behave no differently whether soft or hard mod. They do seem to have a habit of failing completely and that causing boot problems more often than others. Philips disc media compatibility is not that much different from Samsung 605F and unless there is a problem with the specific DVD drive DVD-R should be good for them just like it is with all other known DVD drive types. DVD-R is the only universally Xbox friendly disc media. That has been proven time and time again with discs from a wide range of manufacturers not just brands.

If you use UnleashX as your main dash it has a controller/remote shortcut facility which allows you to assign almost any controller or remote button to launch any XBE. You can have it set up to launch any dashboard you like - you just hold down the assigned button on boot or reboot. I've not used it but there is a XSelect tool that gives you a launch option menu rather than a main dash. https://www.xbox-hq.com/html/xbox-tutorials-239.html Don't really see the point of it TBH. You might as well install other dashes as apps launched from your primary dashboard or use the UnleashX controller/remote shortcut facility I described instead.

Yes as long as it is installed correctly and in particular its XBE (which maybe evoxdash.xbe or similar if your file source is a main dash installer) is simply changed to "default.xbe" (no quotation marks of course). You'll probably need to reboot to get it working from Programs/Apps or wherever you have it installed. If it is still not working check that it is only in a one level folder ie. UnleashX/default.xbe. The UnleashX default.xbe is actually all you need in the folder as it will automatically generate its own config.xml and item.xml when it is first used. The config.xml is a default one and doesn't have all the bells and whistles you'll find with the usually highly customised config.xml used by a dashboard installer. However you can copy in such a config.xml replacing the default one if you so wish.

Sounds interesting - I'm wondering if it is really the MS dash. How would you replace the "Xbox Live tab" with whatever this Phoenix thing is?

I've used double-sided tape too and, in absence of glue, even squished Blu-Tack as a temporary and reasonably reliable short term solution to sticking the feet in place. Best glue I've found is a 'simple' general purpose solvent based glue: Bostick. It grabs harder when dry than whatever was used originally but the rubbery feet are still 'peelable' without damaging them if they ever need to be removed again. Alternatively you can just stick down only the bottom half so they can be bent back enough to get at the screw underneath.

Just an update: the chip is now back to behaving normally. Boots the bank 1 'logo' Evox BIOS as normal and reboot. So whatever it is/was is it appears it is not a BIOS corruption issue. Whilst that is welcome it just adds another level of mystery to the problem.

I've always thought that the cheap quality switch array might be a source of problems so I've rarely played with it over the years. I just don't understand how cold booting and rebooting could use different BIOS on the same chip. If the EvoX logo version BIOS was corrupted and it was set up to use the Bank 2 BIOS in such circumstances (is that possible) how come Bank 1 BIOS is apparently being used on reboot etc. You explained a few months ago here, all new info to me, that the BIOS for the Xecuter 2.6CE is an unusual beast that needs a combined single BIOS file to install two different 512K BIOS. I'm probably showing my ignorance about how these things work but Is it possible that part of the Bank 1 BIOS initial boot commands is corrupted? However the rest is OK and as they are not used on reboot or IGR the Bank 1 BIOS, otherwise working, is still being used.

I've had a v1.6 Xbox with a pro-fitted Xecuter 2.6CE since 2005 and its been pretty much perfect until recently. On two or three occasions its refused to boot either via the Power button or the Eject/Close button. I get a green/red flashing LED typically indicating a hardware error. Sometimes it does that once and then shutdown, others times it frags. However I found that if I shutdown, switch the chip off, boot to Error 5 (unlocked HDD) then switch off and reboot with the chip back on everything is back to normal. But yesterday I noticed something else weird: the chip has two 512K banks with the originally supplied custom EvoX BIOS on both. The only difference between them is Bank 1 has the EvoX logo and Bank 2 doesn't. I usually have it set to the EvoX logo one but now it has swapped to the non-logo version on boot. It doesn't seem to matter whether I switch banks or not. You might think a connection problem with the switch array ie. it is stuck on Bank 2 but, here's the weird thing: if I Reboot from my Unleash main dash or IGR the EvoX logo version BIOS appears to be used. Never heard/read about anything like this - any ideas what is going on?

I'll be interested to know how flashing that goes for you. Having a Xecuter 2.6CE myself and on a v1.6 but never having touched the BIOS it would be potentially helpful to know that this Xecuter 2.6CE specific BIOS pairing works OK and the flashing details ie. the tool used.

Thanks but what I actually meant was anyone interested in the EvoX manual? I have a copy or two archived I was just wondering if it was worth sharing it here. But as you do now have it available as a download not much point in me attaching it.

I did look but couldn't find it here - not sure why my copy, which I think I got from Xbox-HQ years ago, is smaller in size so I'm downloading it from here now to check............or would be if the I wasn't getting an error message. Try again..................oh, I see it was my download manager that some sites do not like, standard browser downloader worked fine. Can't see any difference between the two; same 32 page PDF. I thought it might be the images on pages 14 onwards were missing but no they're all there too. So why is my PDF only about 1.5MB and the one here 5+MB? Odd, particularly as I found I also had the UX Manual archived in Text Document Form (Libre Office) too and that's only 1.5MB as well. Probably not important but it would be interesting to know what's padding out UX PDF download here, any ideas? BTW do we have the EvoX 'manual' here? Its more a text document than a manual but it has useful information although far from everything, particularly in regards to the syntax required for some purposes.

Not for the first time I've gone looking for the 'official' UnleashX manual online to point a poster in a forum to some of the useful information it contains. I've just had to do that again and this time I could not find an online copy except for one some bad monkey web site is trying to get users to pay for. I thought why not attach the original copy I have to a post here. Hope it works. If not then perhaps somebody else could post a working link or share a copy and add it to the downloads here instead. UnleashX Tutorial.pdf

There's a video somewhere, I think it was Timesplitters FP, might have been Timesplitters 2 where they compared GC and PS2 versions with the Xbox one. As it was a UK games TV programme they were likely all PAL versions so they did not compare it in 480p, just SD 480i/60Hz. It showed that any differences were marginal. If it was TS2 I would not expect TS FP to have been any different. The only games with a significant graphical advantage were the games [b]originally[/b] exclusively released for the Xbpx first like Splinter Cell and I believe Indiana Jones and The Emperor's Tomb. But after that brief period of Xbox temporary exclusives cross platform games were usually designed for the lowest common denominator one, the PS2. Being able to play using 480p and latterly 720p in some cases is the Xbox's big graphical advantage over the others as 480p support for them was not as common. The stuff you can find on YT clearly showing the Xbox's superiority in frame rate with TS FP as well, at least against the PS2, don't as far as I can see specify the cable type being used. A Xbox using Component 480p is al;ways going to lick the butt of a game graphically running on Component at 480i or other SD cable type. If its not like against like its not a fair comparison.

Glad to hear doing that did work, I thought it would. Using UnleashX installed as an app to fix it yet again proves my long held belief that having an alternative dash in Apps should be standard practice. Reinstalling the game was probably unnecessary extra work but if its all fixed that's the main thing.

What dashboard are you using? With UnleashX the game save manager is found under the System sub-menu. With XBMC or its variants the menu link to the Game Saves is in the left side menu when in the Programs menu but that does depend on the skin/XBMC variant you're using. With EvoX AFAIK there is no game save display option that can be added to the main menus. It doesn't include a file manager either so you'd have to do it by FTP or installing a file manager as an app. The location of the games save in question is:- E:\UDATA\abbafff0\0fd719fe19c1\config.cfg You can delete the whole 0fd719fe19c1 folder because playing the game will generate a new one. If doing the above doesn't fix the issue I'd also try deleting the contents of E:\CACHE too and check on X:\, Y:\ and Z:\ that there are not any temporary Q2x files present either.

It should work from any directory - F:\HomeBrewGames was only meant as an example. I'm installing the Q2x download right now on a softmodded machine - I'll let you know if there is any problem getting it to boot as soon as that's done...................................... Just finished testing it - no problems. It required a reboot after install or it would not go to the Start menu but after that no trouble. I took the opportunity to kill some stuff. Well we now know that the download I linked to is OK so that means we have a known good start point. If it still doesn't work for you it would suggest a settings issue and I was just reminded that when I tried to run the Q2x in 1080i ( a supposedly supported resolution) on my primary Xbox years ago I had problems with the game freezing after the initial FMV. In the end I ran the game at 480p without issue. The Xbox I've installed this on just now is only set up for SD so I can't test that but if you can't get to the main menu again via the game the only solution I can think of that will is you delete the Quake II game save settings file. That should restore it to default resolution. There is a F:\Quake II\baseq2\config.cfg which I've had a look at but I can't see any resolution setting option there. That maybe because I'm using the default 480i/60Hz setting. You could check and edit it if there is a resolution entry in your config.cfg instead but I think deleting the settings game save and restoring it to default would be the best thing to try first.

I'm just downloading/installing from here this copy of Quake2x to test it. Might take a bit of time as I have other things to do but one thing I immediately noticed was that the download is double packed. Once you unzip the download you need to install just the Quake II folder found inside the Quake2x folder eg. F:\HomeBrewGames\Quake II and not F:\HomeBrewGames\Quake2x\Quake II.

I've yet to find any Evox BIOS source except HeXEn that also adds the MD5 hash to the evox.ini. I've tried 3 differrent ones on an Aladdin and I have two different ones I've never touched ion a Xecuter 2.6CE and all of them I've had to add to BIOSChecker, EvoX and XBMC BIOS ID lists manually. Its a bit of pain doing that because there are syntax differences required for most of them and if you have four or five customised Evox versions quite a bit of work is needed if you want all your apps to report the BIOS correctly. Its certainly not essential but I like to have everything matching. With UnleashX as far as I know there's no Source support for BIOS display on the dashboard but you could use the BIOS as your Xbox's "Nickname" or use the BIOS details as the screen saver text.

If the console is region swapped using the Enigmah Region Changer app ie. to NTSC it should play, by default, using your already selected NTSC supported resolutions ie. 480p or 720p. I doubt whatever you're doing to select NTSC playback is involved in the problem but I was just making the point that once the console is region changed there should be no reason to alter any other settings to make it play using them.

Finally had enough time to a take serious look at this problem again. I'd left it in the last state described: it would turn on by itself when the mains power switch was turned on. But after that you could turn it off/on again multiple times without a repeat. But if you left it long enough unplugged the problem returned. I'm convinced a capacitor is involved in this and the reason it does not repeat immediately is that the cap involved holds its charge preventing whatever it is that triggers the problem. It does appear that I have now fixed the problem although I suspect it will return. The cure seems to have been cleaning up those front edge traces, cited as a prime cause of such trouble by SS_Dave earlier in this thread. I just used some IPA and a cotton bud. However, as stated, I examined those traces thoroughly (x8 lupe) and there is no obvious 'trace rot' at all. Nothing had leaked from the caps and there was no other obvious bridging or lifting of any of the traces. It all looks very clean. However the fact is that cleaning that area under and along the MB front edge has apparently fixed the problem.

The two I have which despite still ejecting/closing as normal still cause an Error 7 and on occasion other errors including 11 and 9 are both later model Philips drives too.

To be able to set 480p/720p/1080i the dashboard/console has to have been region swapped to NTSC already if it is a PAL console. Why and how are you opting to run it in NTSC mode as stated in the original post? I'd suggest not enabling 1080i; the OGXbox really can't handle 1080i and as virtually no games support it the option is practically redundant. If it says Error 11 I'd also suggest that you take that at face value and the most likely cause of the problem is the DVD drive. Its irrelevant whether the games are installed on the HDD or not. If the DVD drive is going bad and not being recognised on reboot you'll get an error. If you have another known good working Xbox DVD drive sub it in and see if the problem is resolved.

It does look like that would work; the problem is if you want to disable the grounding for any reason. If it is just a wire between the BT pad and either the LPC connector or (I prefer) the adjacent pad its easier to remove. There's also the danger bridging those Lattice chip pins instead that poor soldering technique might damage it too.

I think I may have posted too soon. Later yesterday after I'd tested it as described I put the whole Xbox back together and decided to do one last test and when I turned on the mains switch the damned thing started up by itself again. But there's definitely been a significant change in the behaviour because I can now turn it off either using the Xbox power button or from the dash and it does not restart. It stays off and that is consistent too - so those blown caps are/were clearly involved. Nevertheless I'm going to have to take it apart again and test the integrity of all the new caps, my soldering in particular. I hoping that is what it is and I'm effectively using just one or two caps rather than all three and that re-flowing will fix the problem. If not I'm going to have to lcheck for other component failures maybe as a result of the caps blowing. I doubt very much it is the trace issue as SS_Dave suggested it could be earlier - the MB is a bit dusty on top but underneath it is clean as a whistle, no cap leakage or trace rot evident at all but I'll still go over it with a x8 lupe again just to be sure.