HDShadow
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Everything posted by HDShadow
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That my point, from the second pic provided there looked to be no pin header soldered onto the MB's LPC. But on closer examination I can see that there is, it's just rather blurry. You must also wonder if Yanimo presented it like that just to show the chip and if so why? If the chip had been located on the pin header you'd still see everything of significance that is shown in that second pic so why is it off the pin header? He very likely does know it needs to be put back on and took it off for some reason but that does need confirming because it is somewhat important.
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A v1.6 with the now familar Aladdin XT Plus 2 chip. The board looks quite clean. Not seen a chip mounted quite like that ie. off the LPC. Agree with sweetdarkdestiny: it would be interesting to see just how it is wired up underneath the chip itself.
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When you say "....with evox...." what does that mean? Are you talking about a pinky-purple EVOX logo in the top left corner of the screen or does it boot to an EvoX dashboard then shutdown? If its the former then you likely have a chipped/TSOPed Xbox. In any case you're probably going to have to replace or repair something internally so your first priority should be to open up the Xbox to see what it is like inside and whether it is chipped/TSOPed. If its been in storage rather than being used a leaking clock or other capacitor is less likely but now it is practically mandatory to check any unknown Xbox for that as the consequences of not dealing with that can be serious.
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I've used DVD-RW successfully with Hitachi. Its actually my first choice as both my my most used Xboxes have Hitachi disc drives. Two different brands tested and Verbatim DVD+RW. It's actually simpler to say which disc drives don't like DVD-RW: Samsung F and Philips (...35/21). They don't like DVD+RW either and neither does my Thomson. From that YT video: you're using a Philips. So that is the most likley reason the DVD-RW won't boot. DVD-R is the only confirmed universally Xbox disc drive compatible. Weird though - I don't know how the Open Xenium operates but offering EvoX as a dash before you've installed a dash on the HDD, maybe someone can enlighten me as to how that works. What I'd try is if the DVD-R does the same thing try cold booting the disc rather than whatever you're doing now. HeXEn from disc does take 20 - 30 seconds to boot. That is normal.
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Using AID for the extended partitioning was likely the culprit. I'm pretty sure that even the last official version of that v4.53 used XBPartitioner v1.1 or similar age tool for the formatting. Fine for C, E, X, Y, Z and F if its under 137GiB but anything bigger and it will not use the correct cluster size just as KaosEngineer suggested. After the initial formatting and dash install using AID before doing anything else install and use XBPartitioner v1.3 in Apps to check and format the extended partitions, F and G (6 and 7 as shown by XBPartitioner v1.3).
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Depends how much you have on the HDD too but, particularly if the new HDD is SATA and you're using a SATA adapter you will notice that boot up is slower. After the Xbox/MS logo screen it will go blank for 10 -30 seconds before the dash appears. With my 320GB WD (Blue) SATA HDD with about 70GB of free space now my UnleashX dash takes about 20 seconds to appear. On my 'kitchen' Xbox which has a 160GB Seagate IDE HDD and about 100GB of free space my XBMC main dash logo appears only a few seconds after the Xbox/MS logo has faded. In short: what you're seeing sounds pretty normal.
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I'm guessing its probably shortcut to E:\Backups or Apps\MS but its a very strange way to do something like that for actual use of the MS dash. From a folder on C:\ its not going to launch unless the UnleashX config.xml MS dash path was edited. Why would you put in a shortcut in that case and not the actual location? The whole C:\drive is weird and it would be interesting to know how it ended up like that whether it was deliberate or accidental. The presence of a default.jpg and default.tbn suggests its been set up for both UnleashX and XBMC. That led me to wonder if the content of the MS Dashboard folder were the MS dash shortcut files that used to be provided with XBMC. But they're the wrong size even for that. Anyway I've never understood how those XBMC shortcut were supposed to be used having two different .CUT files for softmods and chips/Virtual C. They didn't come with any instructions.
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It must be that particular download then and I'd suspect if you found it somewhere else it could well just be a copy of the same download. People can be a bit lazy, easier to repost a redump made by someone else, without testing it too, rather than do it themselves. If XDVDMulleter isn't extracting the Xbox game content from the redump I suppose you could try another tool and that would at least confirm the problem is with the redump itself. Extract-XISO is the only other alternative I know. Its a bit of a faff to use as the program itself comes with no easily understood information as to how to do that. I think it is a command line tool but there is a good purpose designed GUI for the less knowledgeable ie. me available here.
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First obvious question: did you remember to switch the new HDD back from Slave to Master? Error 13 almost inevitably evolves into error 16 unless the Xbox is kept plugged in. What I'm not sure is what happens in a case where the clock cap has been removed and you get an error 16. Anyone here know? I hope you didn't unlock or do anything to the original softmodded HDD you cloned from. Was/is it the original IDE HDD? Whatever the case the obvious first thing to do is refit that and hope you're not greeted with a similar error. It could be the HDD or the SATA adapter and I've had dodgy 80 wire IDE cables too causing problems so if the original HDD works you can be pretty sure that as long as the Chimp clone was good its something to do with one of those three things. If you have a spare SATA HDD trying cloning to that instead.
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I've mentioned this before here but worth repeating that if you used AID (Auto Installer Deluxe) to install a dashboard/update an old SID softmod it will Xmas tree on first boot ie. go through all the LED colours, then orange before going to the default, usually green. On reboot it will just go to orange for a few seconds (indicating the softmod is active) before it switches to the default green. That initial Xmas tree LED display often worries new users but its quite normal. Other software, softmods may alter the LED as a warning too ie. that you're using something potential dangerous to your Xbox. Chimp, ConfigMagic, various HeXEn functions and the AID dual boot installer dash tray out option are good examples of this.
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The EvoX skin pack name of the MXM one is "X2 Blue". Its actually double packed. Indeed it includes that quite impressive WMV too in the "media" folder. Could easily be adapted for a UnleashX background or loading FMV. -
Worked my way through all the EvoX skins in the download last night. As I thought many I'd not seen before so definitely a good find as it contains stuff you won't get in most of the other EvoX/Skin packs floating around. Couple of things: the 'EvoX' set contains at least nine Avalaunch skins. First one is a dead giveaway: "avadash" and there is also "Default" which is the complete default Avalaunch dash skin. If anyone wants to know the other names I can post them. I think there are only nine but its possible I missed one or two as there are over 140 skins in that pack. Oh yes, there's also a MXM (Media X Menu) skin in there too. A few of the EvoX skins are a little more 'spicy' than some of the others; the three seXyboX ones included might be found overly 'challenging' for the easily offended.
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Thanks for this. Even before seeing them I'd bet that those "X Girl" ones would be 'spicy'. I don't know what it was about the EvoX skinning, perhaps that it is just as easy as replacing a picture or two of an existing skin, but it did inspire the 'creativity' of porn loving dudes. There are some really hard-core images in at least one EvoX skin pack I've seen and eye-watering anime pics involving things like ****girls and serious S&M. Why anyone would want to turn on (hah!) their Xbox and see that sort of stuff as a dashboard background I do not want to speculate. But UnleashX skinning was not immune from some of that type of material and there are two skins I've come across (innuendo not intended) which feature the notorious Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson sex videos as backgrounds. EDIT Thankfully the X Girls ones I've just had a quick look through are just "spicy" - nothing to frighten the horses. Plenty of skins I've not seen too in both packs, in fact most of the UnleashX ones I don't recognise. Thanks again to hastings298 for providing them.
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Skins I'm always interested in and there are certainly skin names there I don't recognise. From the ones I do recognise it looks like many of them are EvoX so they might all be. Still interested even if they are.
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Yes safe to delete the ConfigMagic eeprom back ups if you already have eeprom backup elsewhere. But, assuming they are from ConfigMagic, they are a good reminder that you should have an eeprom master password backup "TEAMASSEMBLY" available too. HDDLoader is an old app very much like like DVD2Xbox. With some older UnleashX dash versions the Config.xml included it (both E and F drive locations supported) in the Games menu as a source for installed games. TBH I've never used it so have no idea exactly how it works but I'd guess that if you've used it to rip a game it might store it in its own folder by default rather than "Games". So I'd check that there aren't any installed games associated with it before deleting the folders but otherwise its unnecessary.
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Those are usually created when you've used ConfigMagic's backup eeprom option prior to locking a HDD. It just dumps them on the E:\drive like that. I'd just create a new folder in E:\Backups: "ConfigMagic EEprom Backup" or something like that and keep them there. Unless you've messed around with your eeprom ie. changed or nulled it you don't really need them if you have an EvoX eeprom backup in E:\Backups. But they take up so little space its no problem. The fact is an eeprom back up there is not a lot of help in an emergency, having it available on a PC is the important thing.
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I didn't know what an IGP heatsink was before I just looked it up (Integrated Graphics Processor) but I do know you can successfully and effectively replace the v1.0 fan and heatsink with the larger passive heatsink used in later versions. I've done that myself, no problem. If you're asking about using some other third party passive heatsink I'd guess it is possible but how you'd attach it would likely be a problem. To use the intended securing strap it would have to be significantly physically modified. I believe heatsinks for the Raspberry Pi are self adhesive but whether such a solution would be suitable for the Xbox GPU I don't know. Maybe the v1.0 Xbox used some, at the time, 'standard' heatsink design but I don't think so. It has an unusual 40mm x 50mm size plate, difficult to measure with a ruler but seems to be roughly 3.5mm thick with about 3mm wiggle room all round. The thickness of the base would be a particular issue if using the existing method of attaching it.
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Official MS 8MB Memory Card Gone Bad
HDShadow replied to HDShadow's topic in General Xbox Discussion
Flash drives have always been odd with Xbox. Nobody seems to know what particular criteria are necessary for them to be compatible. I've had USB v1.1 ones which have behaved in all sorts of weird ways and USB v2.0 ones likewise. But you don't expect an official memory card to go like that let alone two. I have one Sony official 1MB and half a dozen third party original Playstation, some multi-page, memory cards between 20 - 24 years old I'm either using or still can use. But having said that I did have several very cheap third party PS ones which failed but that was mainly 'mechanical' damage from long use where the metal contacts had worn. I do have one 8 x multi-page memory card where one page has a single unusable save block but otherwise works fine. With the MS Xbox ones the have always been plugged into a controller and then rarely, if ever, moved. So whatever the problem is it can't be wear and tear, it has to be a component failure of some sort. -
The original Xbox controllers were/are far better than the Sony Dualshocks in this respect. I've had probably four or five Dualshock or Dualshock 2 rendered unusable because of contact pad wear and tear. Quite literally the latter - the rubberised pimple would actually split around its edge, particularly the Square and X buttons which get the most use. Only way to deal with it was/is to replace the pad.
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I've always recommended not to use isopropyl alcohol (IPA)/rubbing alcohol for a lot of cleaning purposes, particularly plastics. I did a bit of research on this a few years ago along with recommendations for lubricating plastic components too. The bottom line is you have to be careful what you use for either purpose. I'd question the need to clean controller button contact pads at all. The soft rubberized material may be real or synthetic rubber but in either case I wouldn't use any volatile cleaning agents as they might affect its material properties which are essential to its correcting functioning. As for the electrically conductive coating - I wouldn't touch it. Physical abrasion or some adverse chemical reaction could cause damage. With circuit boards 99% IPA is apparently safe for cleaning purposes and used by manufacturers too because it evaporates quickly. Rubbing alcohol which is usually about 70% IPA is said to be OK but it has other ingredients including water which may make it not as electronics friendly. Some sources suggest it can be used to disinfect electrical appliances - although from what they don't say and as 99% IPA is going to be more effective one wonders why diluted IPA is being recommended even for that.
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Is that SPPV's XMV converter? That's the one I use and I was actually involved in its development in a very, very minor way. Basically I posted on a forum he is associated with that I couldn't get another XMV converter tool to work with some video formats and that prompted him to put together one that did. It went through several iterations and I think the final version allowed batch conversion, although I believe there is a limit. I still use one of the earlier versions simply because it did and still does just what I had wanted. I can't say what particular video formats work but the one I wanted to be able to convert was .BIK, often used in games. I've used those in particular quite often for making better video previews than some of those supplied in preview packs. The 'Attract' videos many games include make excellent previews and being able to convert them in one go to .XMV rather than having to use another tool to convert them to .WMV first is a great time saver.
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I see TL is marked as banned now: clearly very angry about whatever has happened to his Xbox and has been posting long rants on other Xbox forums too. What he describes with the DVD not working post 2TB HDD upgrade was probably just a coincidence but it would be very difficult to convince him of that in his current frame of mind. The of DVD2Xbox being involved somehow is interesting because I've had problems with that myself although it does not sound like exactly the same thing so maybe completely unrelated. It happened a long, long time ago The trouble was caused by using one of DVD2Xbox's alternative skins. That is in itself odd because with all the v7 series versions including the final v7.8 which comes with embedded skins and a PMIII one usually set as default the Settings > Skin change and GUI menu options are broken. For that reason I leave it well alone now. I've tried sourcing DVD2Xbox v7.8 from other places and reinstalling it but attempting to use those Skin and GUI options cause the app to freeze. Anyone else here noticed this problem? When I did manage to change the skin using a much earlier version I can not find now, I think it was the Windows XP one, the result was the Xbox would boot straight to DVD2Xbox and freeze. Bit of problem but resolved by using the alternative dual boot option to the softmod dash I install normally. Even then it did not fix the issue first time. I discovered that both the DVD2Xbox UDATA and TDATA files needed to be deleted to get the Xbox to boot normally and DVD2Xbox restored to use the default skin. The first time I had relaunched it, before I cleared the TDATA folder, it tried to use the problem skin again and I was back to square one on rebooting the Xbox. EDIT I thought I'd have a look at the DVD2Xbox problem - I couldn't recreate it exactly as I remembered but there is something wrong with the Settings options but only once you've changed them. I did not want to test out if it was that Windows XP skin which caused the additional more serious problem. However I found that once you have DVD2Xbox's E:\UDATA\0facfac0 and E:\TDATA\0facfac0 saves you cannot use the Settings > GUI or Skin menu options. You need to delete both using either DVD2Xbox's or another files manager, reboot and 'magically' those menu options and the alternative skins become available. But as I said one of them, possibly the XP one, does cause additional trouble. In short: leave it on the default PMIII skin.
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If its like vanilla XBMC4Xbox it should just be a matter of introducing a "folder.jpg" icon to the relevant folder. XBMC's icon handling can be a bit of a pain, at least I've found so, because once done with anything new added to that folder the "folder.jpg" may be applied to the new contents even if a TBN or other icon is present. If that happens a TBN will then be created in the XBMC > UserData > Thumbnails folder and you'll have to remove the folder.jpg temporarily, find and delete that folder.jpg icon TBN generated for the new content before its own icon will be applied and its associated TBN stored. You then restore the folder.jpg and restart.
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Official MS 8MB Memory Card Gone Bad
HDShadow replied to HDShadow's topic in General Xbox Discussion
Not written anything new to it lately, at least six weeks. The last thing was updating a Timesplitters FP save and I'd been using it more regularly before that backing up my game saves whilst playing the overrated King Kong movie tie in game. Reformatting is what I tried with the first memory card and all it did is, eventually, wipe everything but I still couldn't write anything to it. I've seen the same thing with flash drives that have turned out to be incompatible but that has always been right from the start. I've yet to have a working flash drive go bad in this particular way. I have plenty of backup backup saves on the attached flash drives I use in preference so I'm not going to lose anything. It just a bit weird I've had two cards go bad within a fairly short period. I'm pretty sure I bought them at the same time. I only have one working official MS memory card left now. -
For the second time in 18 months I've just lost use of another genuine MS Xbox Memory card. The memory card hadn't had anything written to it for months although many games access any attached memory devices so you can load a backup save from them. Then suddenly out of the blue this week it started displaying consistently as 0MB free space in the file manager, particularly after rebooting. It was quite full, only three blocks left so I tried deleting a couple of large saves when it, occasionally, started working again. That didn't help at all. I tried other controllers/slots/controller ports too - no joy in any case. The card is still recognised as being attached and when using the MS dash you can see the content although it takes a good minute to appear. What you can't do is write to it or delete anything. Very similar story for the first memory card too. Became unusable in the same way. Anyone else had an experience of MS Xbox 8MB memory cards going bad?
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Board startup date: April 23, 2017 12:45:48