help Who has real experience flashing an LG GDR 8163?

[sweetdarkdestiny]

Win 98 supports up to 512MB Ram which is also enough for XP. How ever, you can "tweak" Win 98 in case you have more ram in the PC for XP. In that case you could add up to 2GB. Win 98 will than just ignore anything above the 512MB. That being said, I would not add more as 2 x 512MB to keep thing simple (In case of 2 x 1GB you would need a smaller ram stick just to set up win 98 and "tweak" it to ignore the extra ram instead of just booting one time with a single 512mb ram stick). 

And not to forget it's not a gaming mashine, it's more or less just a tool.

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by sweetdarkdestiny

[Bowlsnapper]

29 minutes ago, sweetdarkdestiny said:

Win 98 supports up to 512MB Ram which is also enough for XP. How ever, you can "tweak" Win 98 in case you have more ram in the PC for XP. In that case you could add up to 2GB. Win 98 will than just ignore anything above the 512MB. That being said, I would not add more as 2 x 512MB to keep thing simple (In case of 2 x 1GB you would need a smaller ram stick just to set up win 98 and "tweak" it to ignore the extra ram instead of just booting one time with a single 512mb ram stick). 

And not to forget it's not a gaming mashine, it's more or less just a tool.

 

Right it's just utilitarian. I waas just thinking that if I DO have to add RAM it may be expensive due to the "Retro Tax". lol.

[Tartarus]

4 hours ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Okay. I'll keep that in mind. I'm worried a machine designed for 98 will probably need memory upgrades to run XP very well... Although I may get lucky.

Retro is starting to cost a lot. Look at every single CRT listing on ebay: Every single listing "retro gaming" in it. Like people looking for a crt don't know what the benefits are. lol. If you see "retro gaming" in the title, you can expect to pay hundreds of dollars.

yes it's starting to get really ridiculous

[Tartarus]

6 hours ago, sweetdarkdestiny said:

Win 98 supports up to 512MB Ram which is also enough for XP. How ever, you can "tweak" Win 98 in case you have more ram in the PC for XP. In that case you could add up to 2GB. Win 98 will than just ignore anything above the 512MB. That being said, I would not add more as 2 x 512MB to keep thing simple (In case of 2 x 1GB you would need a smaller ram stick just to set up win 98 and "tweak" it to ignore the extra ram instead of just booting one time with a single 512mb ram stick). 

And not to forget it's not a gaming mashine, it's more or less just a tool.

 

so the overall goal if possible is to go between something with Windows 98 to XP reason for this is because the compatibility for the IDE capability my plan is just to set up the free dos usb drive and see if I can get this to work

I got the stuff ordered we'll see what happens either way I think I'm going to have fun even if I have a tremendous failure I missed out when Xbox was at its peak Mod Time

Edited August 2, 2023 by Tartarus

[Tartarus]

okay I believe I have successfully flashed the drive sorted out all the connections with resistors in the order it is to be.. however I'm having an issue where I go to turn the console on insert a disc it doesn't want to read however if I then reset the console with the disc in it will read the disc

I also noticed that on the dashboard it says that the disk drive is opening when it's doing nothing

I also left pin 9 data unconnected to anything as it didn't reference it to be connected to anything is that correct or unless I failed to understand?

side note after I flashed it it did say GDR 8050L I was curious and went and looked at what it would say after and is that correct?

Edited August 10, 2023 by Tartarus

[Bowlsnapper]

17 minutes ago, Tartarus said:

okay I believe I have successfully flashed the drive sorted out all the connections with resistors in the order it is to be.. however I'm having an issue where I go to turn the console on insert a disc it doesn't want to read however if I then reset the console with the disc in it will read the disc

I also noticed that on the dashboard it says that the disk drive is opening when it's doing nothing

I also left pin 9 data unconnected to anything as it didn't reference it to be connected to anything is that correct or unless I failed to understand?

side note after I flashed it it did say GDR 8050L I was curious and went and looked at what it would say after and is that correct?

Should be correct. I think the problem you're experiencing is when the "Drive Ready" function is not working correctly. Can anybody conform this? I think it's a wire that does this.

[Tartarus]

Drive Ready so does that mean that I did something wrong that I need to go back and look?

 

I did use this drive prior to install Windows XP on a machine it also copied drivers off of a disc just fine.. just in case anyone asks

 

while I'm waiting for verification on Drive ready I am going to go back and look to make sure all my connections are correct

[Bowlsnapper]

57 minutes ago, Tartarus said:

Drive Ready so does that mean that I did something wrong that I need to go back and look?

 

I did use this drive prior to install Windows XP on a machine it also copied drivers off of a disc just fine.. just in case anyone asks

 

while I'm waiting for verification on Drive ready I am going to go back and look to make sure all my connections are correct

It's a wire that the xbox bios uses to communicate with the drive to let it know when the drive has a disc inside, among other things. If you try to use the drive without flashing it can read copies of original games and data discs, but not originals, and because of the "drive ready" communication factor, if you put in a disc and close the drive, the console will NOT see it. You would have to fully power cycle the xbox and then try to boot the disc before it will see that a disc has been inserted.

Usually, I believe this function is performed within your operating system through the IDE bus.

[Tartarus]

I understand that the optical drive has to be flashed I believe I've accomplished that and I knew what you meant by Drive Ready or pin 10-CD-ready.

I did go through the connections last night everything seems to be in order I don't know what's going on

Edited August 10, 2023 by Tartarus

[Tartarus]

I understand its purpose I'm just thinking to myself basically what have I done to make this not work correctly. my thoughts boil down to either I did not assemble it correctly

I will post a picture of the drive model and the result after the Flash

 

 

[Tartarus]

going back to this I either did not flash this correctly or the flash did not take I use the application that flashes off desktop of xp

when ran the application it prompted with information to follow I did all the following steps executed The Flash

then rebooted the computer and what you see on the last picture there is what it said

honestly if it turned into a paperweight I'm not worried the experience of doing this was pretty fun

I am definitely going to attempt it again I want to learn unless someone can chime in and give me some information to potentially try to correct it if possible or what I might have done wrong

 

 

 

 

 

[sweetdarkdestiny]

The flash is fine.

For the 8163b I can say thats more or less "luck" and how worn your drive is. I have one that works 50% of the time (I have a video on YT of it), 2 which decided to not  do anything at all after the flash (On the PC Both where fine) and 5 others which works flawlessly. 

I also did a couple of 8164b which all work perfect. 

[Tartarus]

okay so basically luck of the draw well I'll keep going thank you for that information I was driving myself nuts I kept going back over everything haha

[Tartarus]

now for the 8164b is the process basically the same just different Flasher?

[sweetdarkdestiny]

The process is the same but you need some different parts. A quick look at the 8184b 

 

 

[Tartarus]

I literally just started looking on your YouTube channel.. i had to step away for a brief minute came back seen I had an email seen the link 

thank you for your help

[Bowlsnapper]

8 hours ago, Tartarus said:

I literally just started looking on your YouTube channel.. i had to step away for a brief minute came back seen I had an email seen the link 

thank you for your help

Any luck so far?

[trencherfield]

I done a fair few of these 8163b's, all been perfect for me. I can't completely remember, but vaguely remember there being 2 flash files and one being a duffer, it had a marker in the name to say it was the 'fixed' version - this is the one I use. Don't know if that's the one you have? If so ignore that then.

Also, another guide mentioned to keep the cables short to the yellow cable, which I do, and also watch what the wires are passing over and resting on and as they come out the back too. Use the smd resistors on the pcb.

Try a second flash, chip is old, just like the flash chip in an xbox, sometimes its not a bit perfect flash on these things.

Just had two more 8163b's delivered, so have probably quite a few now that I need to do at some point soon. I use a USB stick on a tiny old 1ghz industrial pc board (complete with bulging caps about to pop!) think it is with dos on the stick and just load up the tool in dos.

[Tartarus]

On 8/11/2023 at 2:12 AM, trencherfield said:

I done a fair few of these 8163b's, all been perfect for me. I can't completely remember, but vaguely remember there being 2 flash files and one being a duffer, it had a marker in the name to say it was the 'fixed' version - this is the one I use. Don't know if that's the one you have? If so ignore that then.

Also, another guide mentioned to keep the cables short to the yellow cable, which I do, and also watch what the wires are passing over and resting on and as they come out the back too. Use the smd resistors on the pcb.

Try a second flash, chip is old, just like the flash chip in an xbox, sometimes its not a bit perfect flash on these things.

Just had two more 8163b's delivered, so have probably quite a few now that I need to do at some point soon. I use a USB stick on a tiny old 1ghz industrial pc board (complete with bulging caps about to pop!) think it is with dos on the stick and just load up the tool in dos.

 

yeah I'm going to try again and I'm going to use the fixed version next time I've done a little bit of talking and some research I think I've done everything correctly but I need to use fixed version the drive still technically partially works so I'm not too disappointed it's going to get put away on the shelf and used for Xboxes that don't have a drive to test them

overall I enjoyed the learning experience I think I know what I need to do for next time

[trencherfield]

I've got pictures of one I did on another drive somewhere so will add them here for ref. for peeps. Will attach the fixed flash file too from wherever I've stored that as well. These files probably need more places available as other sources dwindle.

[Bowlsnapper]

On 8/12/2023 at 7:29 AM, Tartarus said:

 

yeah I'm going to try again and I'm going to use the fixed version next time I've done a little bit of talking and some research I think I've done everything correctly but I need to use fixed version the drive still technically partially works so I'm not too disappointed it's going to get put away on the shelf and used for Xboxes that don't have a drive to test them

overall I enjoyed the learning experience I think I know what I need to do for next time

I'm disappointed you couldn't get it to fully work. It looks like you did everything right. I'm glad you tried.

[Tartarus]

I'm not worried about the money aspect of it I had fun and enjoyed myself yeah it might be a brick but it was learning experience and I got two older PC Towers out of the deal that I enjoyed messing with and yes I am going to do it again  

 

 

[Bowlsnapper]

5 minutes ago, Tartarus said:

I'm not worried about the money aspect of it I had fun and enjoyed myself yeah it might be a brick but it was learning experience and I got two older PC Towers out of the deal that I enjoyed messing with and yes I am going to do it again  

 

 

Good! Old computers are always good to collect. You can tell that these people are gouging. Some of them know what they have and some of them just follow the prices on ebay. These same drives, one model off and unusable in an xbox, are 30 bucks, probably. That's fucked up, man.

[trencherfield]

2 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Good! Old computers are always good to collect. You can tell that these people are gouging. Some of them know what they have and some of them just follow the prices on ebay. These same drives, one model off and unusable in an xbox, are 30 bucks, probably. That's fucked up, man.

Yeah, coz they work with nintendo stuff as well

Bad as ‘retro gaming crt’ and the rest.

[Tartarus]

yup lol