Softmodded a series of XBox OGs but issue with v1.6 and dualboot not working

[xboxretro]

I softmodded a series of XBox OGs in a marathon week but discovered an issue with model v1.6 and dualboot not working. 
All versions below seemed to work ok. 

Anyone else have this issue?

 

Thanks

[xboxretro]

Just to clarify v1.2 and 1.4 versions ok, jst these 1.6 dont activate dual boot

[xboxretro]

...and yes I have done the NPatcher and it seems to succeed but nothing on reboot

[xboxretro]

Sorry, not sure how to update or edit posts.  It seems that v1.2 XBoxes I just did from scratch using Endgame method also do not have dualboot working.  The first two I did had the Legacy method initially since 2018/19.  I then used to update and upgrade methods to get them up to Unleash v1.2.1.  So far thats all I can differentiate between the models softmodded.  Has anyone else experienced this?  I will attempt to use the update/upgrade method now and see if that activates something and report.

Thanks

[NokSueCow]

I attempted dual boot a while ago, but found out about Dashloader soon after, and never got dual boot working. Are you familiar with Dashloader, or just prefer Dual Boot?

[Bowlsnapper]

13 hours ago, xboxretro said:

Sorry, not sure how to update or edit posts.  It seems that v1.2 XBoxes I just did from scratch using Endgame method also do not have dualboot working.  The first two I did had the Legacy method initially since 2018/19.  I then used to update and upgrade methods to get them up to Unleash v1.2.1.  So far thats all I can differentiate between the models softmodded.  Has anyone else experienced this?  I will attempt to use the update/upgrade method now and see if that activates something and report.

Thanks

Your posts are limited to 10 posts a day as a new member, so use them sparingly. Unless you are a paid member (which isn't much) I think you can only edit your post within 10 minutes. You can be a committed member for 5 bucks. I recommend it.

[xboxretro]

10 hours ago, NokSueCow said:

I attempted dual boot a while ago, but found out about Dashloader soon after, and never got dual boot working. Are you familiar with Dashloader, or just prefer Dual Boot?

Thank you.   I am not familiar with it but will check it out.   Good to know someone else couldn't get it working - unfortunately.

[NokSueCow]

25 minutes ago, xboxretro said:

Thank you.   I am not familiar with it but will check it out.   Good to know someone else couldn't get it working - unfortunately.

Instead of either pressing Eject/Power to decide what to boot to, you hold one of up to 8 buttons on the controller. Dashloader is installed by default on Rocky's softmod, and can be installed on a hardmod. I use it to boot to the MS Dash, UnleashX, and Emustation, while XBMC4Gamers is default.

[xboxretro]

After borking the softmod files trying to get this going, not being able to boot the drive and spending a considerable amount of time purchasing IDE adapters, and recreating the drives, I am back to the Rocky5SoftMod and will attempt the above recommendations.  The Warmstor brand IDE adapter,  FATXplorerBeta64 and XBoxHDM-2.3-Beta4 saved the day.  Thanks to all developers over the years that got these working.  Will keep the stock drive standars and now look into building a 2TB to put a few games I have on there and enjoy the hell out of it.  Thanks all

[FrostyMaGee]

3 hours ago, xboxretro said:

After borking the softmod files trying to get this going, not being able to boot the drive and spending a considerable amount of time purchasing IDE adapters, and recreating the drives, I am back to the Rocky5SoftMod and will attempt the above recommendations.  The Warmstor brand IDE adapter,  FATXplorerBeta64 and XBoxHDM-2.3-Beta4 saved the day.  Thanks to all developers over the years that got these working.  Will keep the stock drive standars and now look into building a 2TB to put a few games I have on there and enjoy the hell out of it.  Thanks all

The 2Tb sata upgrade makes sooo much difference. I love having games running on it and not having to use the dvd drive. I’ve had it that way for far too many years and have been spoiled by it. Lol. Oh and that warmstor adapter has been one of the most consistent adapters I’ve used for locking/unlocking the ide hdds since my old usb adapter died a few years back. I’ve never run in to an ide hdd it didn’t work with using fatxplorer or Xboxhdm. 
 

When you get to the hdd upgrade stage you’ll need an 80 wire 40 pin ide cable to replace the stock cable, a sata to pata adapter for the hdd (startech preferred unless you have one of the dvd drives that doesn’t play well with those and then usually the green Chinese brand works. The most important feature is to have a master/slave pin designation option as you’ll need this), and obviously a sata drive. If you stay mechanical something like a WD Blue or Black works well. Avoid any of the green or power saving type hdds. If you’re not building a new drive via fatxplorer or Xboxhdm and plan on using Chimp to clone your old drive then you’ll also need a molex splitter or you can use the power from the warmstor adapter to power the sata drive during the cloning process. 
 

It’s an easy process and everyone here can make recommendations on hardware and help out with the process when you get ready to proceed. Best of luck and glad you were able to get the current stuff straightened out!

[xboxretro]

On 4/11/2024 at 3:19 PM, FrostyMaGee said:

The 2Tb sata upgrade makes sooo much difference. I love having games running on it and not having to use the dvd drive. I’ve had it that way for far too many years and have been spoiled by it. Lol. Oh and that warmstor adapter has been one of the most consistent adapters I’ve used for locking/unlocking the ide hdds since my old usb adapter died a few years back. I’ve never run in to an ide hdd it didn’t work with using fatxplorer or Xboxhdm. 
 

When you get to the hdd upgrade stage you’ll need an 80 wire 40 pin ide cable to replace the stock cable, a sata to pata adapter for the hdd (startech preferred unless you have one of the dvd drives that doesn’t play well with those and then usually the green Chinese brand works. The most important feature is to have a master/slave pin designation option as you’ll need this), and obviously a sata drive. If you stay mechanical something like a WD Blue or Black works well. Avoid any of the green or power saving type hdds. If you’re not building a new drive via fatxplorer or Xboxhdm and plan on using Chimp to clone your old drive then you’ll also need a molex splitter or you can use the power from the warmstor adapter to power the sata drive during the cloning process. 
 

It’s an easy process and everyone here can make recommendations on hardware and help out with the process when you get ready to proceed. Best of luck and glad you were able to get the current stuff straightened out!

Thanks a mill FrostyMaGee! for all the great info and offer in further guidance.  It has been a hell of a journey to say the least.In between reading posts, I managed to get one XBox back to stock and softmodded and upgraded the drive.  I ordered the IDE(PATA) adapter 6 years ago along with the 80pin ribbon cable, so was all good to go.  Had a few 2TB WD green drives that checked all the boxes.  I know you said avoid them but they are very quiet and I haven't noticed any stalling when playing or loading - so far. 

After my negative experience above with the wrong unlock/lock adapter, I had the workflow down pat playing around with the Warmstor brand IDE adapter from eBay,  FATXplorerBeta64 and XBoxHDM-2.3-Beta4 (on the borked but recovered drive above).  Quick and easy.  Did not tick the right box in FATXplorerBeta64 to format the drive correctly so quickly doing that gave access to the whole drive.  Managed to rip most of my games onto the HDD (a few refused to work) and have been a happy chappy since.  If anyone needs a link to the IDE unlock adapter in Oz, do let me know.

The clock capacitor has been removed on this baby, but I need to replace the x3 caps near the CPU/GPU - thermal paste replaced on both chips.  Parts coming in from abroad.  Another XBox had a flashing orange ring after cleaning copious filth upon opening and stopped working - was working seemigly ok with carpets of filth - with the orange light indicator and refusing to show an image and then completely blank.  I narrowed it down and replaced the ADM1032 Temperature Monitor with this https://au.rs-online.com/web/p/temperature-humidity-sensor-ics/7919623, which may have been indicating overheat and causing the issue.  I ripped pads and spent a week micro-soldering to recreate connections but managed to get it onfor continuity.   I'll confirm all is working once the caps come in so I can recap both xboxes and then add a 2TB to this one, too.

Two remaining questions I have:
1. The damaged caused over time by clock and other cap leakage should not be underestimated.  I have been lucky with these two I have and will ensure I get to all the other caps in time.  Please please please remove the clock cap at minimum.   Apart from the four caps I will have replaced, are there others that have a tendency to do the above mentioned damaged?
2. There seems to be a lot of corrosion/rust on the metal suppoprt frame at the bottom or near the fan.  I tried soaking in baking soda but that did not help - maybe I should make the bath more acidic?  If anyone has any experience with this corrosion any advice would be appreciated

[NokSueCow]

I forget where I saw it, but I read that to avoid the issues with power saving drives, you need to disable the head parking feature. Not sure if this is a permanent fix, or it just helps reduce the chance of issues.

I saw someone on reddit say that they used Autosol for the shielding. I've never tried anything myself.

I've seen some caps between the board and fan bulge, but I don't know if any others fail at a more extreme rate.

Edited April 23 by NokSueCow

[FrostyMaGee]

1 hour ago, xboxretro said:

Thanks a mill FrostyMaGee! for all the great info and offer in further guidance.  It has been a hell of a journey to say the least.In between reading posts, I managed to get one XBox back to stock and softmodded and upgraded the drive.  I ordered the IDE(PATA) adapter 6 years ago along with the 80pin ribbon cable, so was all good to go.  Had a few 2TB WD green drives that checked all the boxes.  I know you said avoid them but they are very quiet and I haven't noticed any stalling when playing or loading - so far. 

After my negative experience above with the wrong unlock/lock adapter, I had the workflow down pat playing around with the Warmstor brand IDE adapter from eBay,  FATXplorerBeta64 and XBoxHDM-2.3-Beta4 (on the borked but recovered drive above).  Quick and easy.  Did not tick the right box in FATXplorerBeta64 to format the drive correctly so quickly doing that gave access to the whole drive.  Managed to rip most of my games onto the HDD (a few refused to work) and have been a happy chappy since.  If anyone needs a link to the IDE unlock adapter in Oz, do let me know.

The clock capacitor has been removed on this baby, but I need to replace the x3 caps near the CPU/GPU - thermal paste replaced on both chips.  Parts coming in from abroad.  Another XBox had a flashing orange ring after cleaning copious filth upon opening and stopped working - was working seemigly ok with carpets of filth - with the orange light indicator and refusing to show an image and then completely blank.  I narrowed it down and replaced the ADM1032 Temperature Monitor with this https://au.rs-online.com/web/p/temperature-humidity-sensor-ics/7919623, which may have been indicating overheat and causing the issue.  I ripped pads and spent a week micro-soldering to recreate connections but managed to get it onfor continuity.   I'll confirm all is working once the caps come in so I can recap both xboxes and then add a 2TB to this one, too.

Two remaining questions I have:
1. The damaged caused over time by clock and other cap leakage should not be underestimated.  I have been lucky with these two I have and will ensure I get to all the other caps in time.  Please please please remove the clock cap at minimum.   Apart from the four caps I will have replaced, are there others that have a tendency to do the above mentioned damaged?
2. There seems to be a lot of corrosion/rust on the metal suppoprt frame at the bottom or near the fan.  I tried soaking in baking soda but that did not help - maybe I should make the bath more acidic?  If anyone has any experience with this corrosion any advice would be appreciated

Glad you were able to get everything going!

There are 3-5 caps (depending on revision) near the cpu and power connector that’ll be either 1500 microfarad 6.3v or 330 microfarad 6.3v (depending on revision). These tend to be common points of failure so they’re definitely caps to replace if you haven’t already. Given the age of all the of the radial caps they could honestly all use replacing but I’d start with those even if I didn’t do any others. 
 

As to your second query it sounds like you are referring to the rf shield underneath the mobo. Is that correct?

[xboxretro]

1 minute ago, FrostyMaGee said:

Glad you were able to get everything going!

There are 3-5 caps (depending on revision) near the cpu and power connector that’ll be either 1500 microfarad 6.3v or 330 microfarad 6.3v (depending on revision). These tend to be common points of failure so they’re definitely caps to replace if you haven’t already. Given the age of all the of the radial caps they could honestly all use replacing but I’d start with those even if I didn’t do any others. 
 

As to your second query it sounds like you are referring to the rf shield underneath the mobo. Is that correct?

I'll look at getting all caps replaced in time but I will do the main ones for the time being. 
Yes, it's the RF shield - sorry I wasn't specific.

Ta

[FrostyMaGee]

25 minutes ago, xboxretro said:

I'll look at getting all caps replaced in time but I will do the main ones for the time being. 
Yes, it's the RF shield - sorry I wasn't specific.

Ta

If you just did the those I mentioned (and of course any that looked suspect) you’ll probably be fine for a while. Just thought I’d mention the full recap as an option for down the road.  If you run in to issues finding the cpu caps on the board dm me your revision or a pic of the mobo and I can give you the locations and values. 
 

For the rf shielding I thought you might find this useful. Quite a few people chimed in with different methods they use (sanding, painting, replacing, etc).