Cerbios on a Xenium with a component to HDMI adapter possible?

[phrunt]

I'm so far behind on the Xbox stuff being out of it since long before Cerbios took over like a storm, I vagely remember Cerbios couldn't be used if using component cables to connect the Xbox to the TV? would I be right in saying this? 

I run my Xbox using the Microsoft Component adapter with the SDDIF on it, which the spdif connects to my Amp for audio and the component I use a component to HDMI adapter which runs to my TV.  

Is Cerbios going to work in this situation, and if so which Cerbios should I be using? 

I have a 2TB HDD full of stuff, I don't want to have to format that to get it going.  

From my reading today it sounds like I can just flash the bios using the Xenium OS tool, rather than any boot CD's, and that sounds the best way to go for it.

Thanks for any assistance

 

[KaosEngineer]

Yes, Cerbios 2.3.1 beta.

[phrunt]

5 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said:

Yes, Cerbios 2.3.1 beta.

Thank you very much.

[KaosEngineer]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

I have a 2TB HDD full of stuff, I don't want to have to format that to get it going. 

Which IDE-to-SATA adapter are you using?

The various UDMAn (n=4 and 5) releases are for higher maximum data transfer rates across the IDE bus:

UDMA2 = 33.3MB/s
UDMA3 = 44.4MB/s
UDMA4 = 66.7MB/s
UDMA5 = 100MB/s

For anything higher than UDMA2, you need to swap out the original 40-wire 40-pin IDE cable for an 80-wire 40-pin high-speed cable.

Edit: fixed max data transfer rates for the various UDMA modes.

Source: UDMA - Wikipedia

[phrunt]

Just now, KaosEngineer said:

Which IDE-to-SATA adapter are you using?

The various UDMAn (n=3-6) releases are for higher maximum data transfer rates across the IDE bus:

UDMA3 = 33MB/s
UDMA4 = 66MB/s
UDMA5 = 100MB/s
UDMA65 = 133MB/s

For anything higher than UDMA3, you need to swap out the original 40-wire 40-pin IDE cable for an 80-wire 40-pin high-speed cable.

I'm not sure what brand it is, it's been in there for years, doesn't have a brand written on it, I have an 80-wire cable on there.

So I should try the fastest one and see if it works, and work my way down? 

 

[KaosEngineer]

1 minute ago, phrunt said:

So I should try the fastest one and see if it works, and work my way down? 

Either way, slowest to highest speed work your way up or try the fastest if it doesn't work go down to the next lower UDMA mode.

[phrunt]

Thanks, all sounds pretty straight forward, pretty easy the Xenium I guess as I can have a bunch of different bios's.

It's not going to mess with the data on my hard drive in the process?

 

[KaosEngineer]

5 minutes ago, phrunt said:

It's not going to mess with the data on my hard drive in the process?

No. 

[phrunt]

Ok, thanks for all the help, so far, I've thrown Cerbios udma 4 on and its working from what I tell great, no issues and boot times are faster.  I've not yet tried the faster ones, but had a question, what are the signs they're not working? Will it play up straight away booting or will it be unstable during gameplay? Will it corrupt data? 

I've ordered some red Startech adapters to put into my Xboxes to replace the ones I have just in case, expensive little suckers.

This is the adapters I'm currently using, they're Jmicron JM20330 branded and seem to work fine, had them for years with no issues in all my Xboxes.

[phrunt]

Ok, I've managed to update my Xboxes to Cerbios, all UDMA4 and just left it at that, seems fast enough for me so don't really care about trying to go faster.

Everything appears to be working fine on them.

I appreciate all of the help.

Next, my favourite two Xboxes are Xenium's, from memory Xenium Ice chips, original ones from back in the day.  I use component cables out to a HDMI converter, and If I recall correctly a few years ago I had to downgrade my Xenium OS for it to work on my HD TV's properly, can't remember what that was all about, now I see there is a new Xenium OS 2.3.5 that seems to fix that video problem I was having, is it worth me installing it? Or should I leave mine as is.  They're working fine so should I just take the if it ain't broke don't fit it stance, or is there a benefit to updating to the new 2.3.5? 

I also have one with an X3 chip on an Xbox but prefer the Xenium OS over using the dip switches.    

[nikeymikey]

5 hours ago, phrunt said:

Ok, I've managed to update my Xboxes to Cerbios, all UDMA4 and just left it at that, seems fast enough for me so don't really care about trying to go faster.

Everything appears to be working fine on them.

I appreciate all of the help.

Next, my favourite two Xboxes are Xenium's, from memory Xenium Ice chips, original ones from back in the day.  I use component cables out to a HDMI converter, and If I recall correctly a few years ago I had to downgrade my Xenium OS for it to work on my HD TV's properly, can't remember what that was all about, now I see there is a new Xenium OS 2.3.5 that seems to fix that video problem I was having, is it worth me installing it? Or should I leave mine as is.  They're working fine so should I just take the if it ain't broke don't fit it stance, or is there a benefit to updating to the new 2.3.5? 

I also have one with an X3 chip on an Xbox but prefer the Xenium OS over using the dip switches.    

Unless you use XeniumOS regularly to swap bioses etc then you don't really need to update it. The newer versions are compatible with the INTERNAL HDMI mods (Stellar, XboxHD+) so not sure if it will make any difference to the issue you were having. It really a personal choice if you want to update it or not. Will you get any benefits from updating?? As you said if it aint broke....

Also the X3 chip really does benefit from using the X3 bios, I believe you can also switch banks without using the dip switches. Just hold down the "white" button when powering on the console and it should take you to X3 Config Live and you can switch bios banks there

Tbh though if your using Cerbios then there really is no need to switch to any other bios at all

[phrunt]

34 minutes ago, nikeymikey said:

Unless you use XeniumOS regularly to swap bioses etc then you don't really need to update it. The newer versions are compatible with the INTERNAL HDMI mods (Stellar, XboxHD+) so not sure if it will make any difference to the issue you were having. It really a personal choice if you want to update it or not. Will you get any benefits from updating?? As you said if it aint broke....

Also the X3 chip really does benefit from using the X3 bios, I believe you can also switch banks without using the dip switches. Just hold down the "white" button when powering on the console and it should take you to X3 Config Live and you can switch bios banks there

Tbh though if your using Cerbios then there really is no need to switch to any other bios at all

Thanks so much for your reply, yes, it appears I don't need to update as realistically I never go into the Xenium OS anyway, and I've got Cerbios on there now and the only time I'll use it again is to flash to new Cerbios *hopefully* versions 

I didn't know that about the X3, I should dust off that Xbox and give it a workout and a new bigger hard drive.  Appreciate your input.  I have a softmodded 1.6 I'm yet to mess with, I hope to upgrade that to Cerbios too, fingers crossed I don't stuff it.  I had a look tonight at original Xbox prices, they're sky high now.  Pay more for them now than when they were new

Looking at the screenshots, the new version looks ugly anyway.

Edited May 22, 2024 by phrunt

[nikeymikey]

33 minutes ago, phrunt said:

I had a look tonight at original Xbox prices, they're sky high now.  Pay more for them now than when they were new

Nah, I just sold 2 stock consoles on eBay, just softmodded but not other changes for £15 each

[phrunt]

8 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

Nah, I just sold 2 stock consoles on eBay, just softmodded but not other changes for £15 each

wow that's cheap, here in NZ they're getting high prices.  

[nikeymikey]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

wow that's cheap, here in NZ they're getting high prices.  

I do have an Xecuter 3 console for sale too…£500 if that’s any better for you

[phrunt]

Well, my Startech adapters arrived today so I fitted them to my two favourite Xenium Ice X-boxes to replace the Chinese adapters I had in there, and I discovered unlike my other X-boxes that I've been tinkering with these two Xenium ones had a different Sata adapter to the one I pictured above that were in my other Xboxes.

These two had these ones.

They were working perfectly fine in UDMA 4 on Cerbios, I never pushed it above that.  The new Startech ones are in now so I flashed up to UDMA5 and although I can't really tell any performance difference in booting or or loading Xbox games, I am sure there must be something, what I have noticed since putting on Cerbios and changing Sata adapters is CoinOps R8 starts up so much faster and loads games faster too which is handy as that's probably the most used thing on my Xboxes.

[Bowlsnapper]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

Well, my Startech adapters arrived today so I fitted them to my two favourite Xenium Ice X-boxes to replace the Chinese adapters I had in there, and I discovered unlike my other X-boxes that I've been tinkering with these two Xenium ones had a different Sata adapter to the one I pictured above that were in my other Xboxes.

These two had these ones.

They were working perfectly fine in UDMA 4 on Cerbios, I never pushed it above that.  The new Startech ones are in now so I flashed up to UDMA5 and although I can't really tell any performance difference in booting or or loading Xbox games, I am sure there must be something, what I have noticed since putting on Cerbios and changing Sata adapters is CoinOps R8 starts up so much faster and loads games faster too which is handy as that's probably the most used thing on my Xboxes.

Dude that soldering is BAD. No wonder so many are DOA. What are they using to solder? Chinese paste and an AIR FRYER!?

BTW, you can use UDMA-6 no problem with the Startech. I use it with all my consoles.

[phrunt]

2 hours ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Dude that soldering is BAD. No wonder so many are DOA. What are they using to solder? Chinese paste and an AIR FRYER!?

BTW, you can use UDMA-6 no problem with the Startech. I use it with all my consoles.

haha yes, I hadn't paid attention to the solder, but when you look at it, it's shocking, I should fix it up.  

I'll give UDMA-6 a shot, so far lovin' my Cerbios Xboxes.

[nikeymikey]

8 hours ago, phrunt said:

Well, my Startech adapters arrived today so I fitted them to my two favourite Xenium Ice X-boxes to replace the Chinese adapters I had in there, and I discovered unlike my other X-boxes that I've been tinkering with these two Xenium ones had a different Sata adapter to the one I pictured above that were in my other Xboxes.

These two had these ones.

They were working perfectly fine in UDMA 4 on Cerbios, I never pushed it above that.  The new Startech ones are in now so I flashed up to UDMA5 and although I can't really tell any performance difference in booting or or loading Xbox games, I am sure there must be something, what I have noticed since putting on Cerbios and changing Sata adapters is CoinOps R8 starts up so much faster and loads games faster too which is handy as that's probably the most used thing on my Xboxes.

I used to buy these adapters in batches of 10 or more at a time for 2 reasons, one to get the price down a bit and two because there would always be some that were DOA. I would say that if I bought 10 I could almost guarantee that at least 3 were dead.  Getting the price down allowed me to take those dead ones on the chin and basically made the working ones cost the original price again

Now I just use Startechs in my consoles. Dont mod for selling anymore.  

[evilmurdoc]

Funny enough I actually ordered that SATA Adapter today for my second XBOX. My other one uses the same StarTech that everyone was using before. I took a chance on this one so we'll see how it goes. 

[Bowlsnapper]

18 hours ago, phrunt said:

haha yes, I hadn't paid attention to the solder, but when you look at it, it's shocking, I should fix it up.  

I'll give UDMA-6 a shot, so far lovin' my Cerbios Xboxes.

On the generics, I think 4 is normal and 5 is pushing it, but can be done with "the resistor". 6... I dunno man. I haven't seen it happen yet.

14 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

I used to buy these adapters in batches of 10 or more at a time for 2 reasons, one to get the price down a bit and two because there would always be some that were DOA. I would say that if I bought 10 I could almost guarantee that at least 3 were dead.  Getting the price down allowed me to take those dead ones on the chin and basically made the working ones cost the original price again

Now I just use Startechs in my consoles. Dont mod for selling anymore.  

Well, did you see if the DOAs were fixable with reflowing all the soldering?

[phrunt]

I've now upgraded to UDMA 6 

This is of course on my two Xenium's with the startech adpaters in them, working a treat.  I'll try UDMA6 on the Chinese adapters next, see how I go.  I've not gone past UDMA4 on them so far.

Nice fast loading times now.

[nikeymikey]

8 hours ago, Bowlsnapper said:

On the generics, I think 4 is normal and 5 is pushing it, but can be done with "the resistor". 6... I dunno man. I haven't seen it happen yet.

Well, did you see if the DOAs were fixable with reflowing all the soldering?

Nah, I would just bin them tbh. I might have one or two knocking around in my spares boxes that I might look at one day If I need another adapter

[Bowlsnapper]

8 hours ago, nikeymikey said:

Nah, I would just bin them tbh. I might have one or two knocking around in my spares boxes that I might look at one day If I need another adapter

Definitely! Try it! I wanna see how many out of the DOAs can be revived simply by reflowing. A before pic would be great, as well.