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General Tsop Questions


Swirlygiver
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Hey guys,

 

I’m new to the forum.  Up til now I have only softmodded Xboxes, and it has been quite a while.  I haven’t had an Xbox for the last couple years and I decided I miss them.  So, I picked one up a couple days ago. It is v1.1 and have already softmodded it.  I also picked up a 2TB HD, SATA adaptor, and 80 wire IDE cable.  But I’m thinking that before putting the drive in, I’d like to try TSOP flashing it, then doing a clean install with HeXEn 2018. I have a small list of questions, hopefully I can get answered first.

 

First, I read somewhere on here (I think under the HeXEn 2018 post), that some of the bios have the dvd check turned off by default.  So this is going to sound dumb but, will it still boot from dvd (for HeXEn?)

 

Second, I know I have a 1mb TSOP (mine is the ST.) Can someone recommend a bios?  I don’t plan to use more than one, 

 

Third, I’ve heard that after you TSOP flash, you should remove the jumpers to avoid accidental damage.  What are the thoughts and/or dangers on this?  Wouldn’t the only potential problem be another flashing?

 

My understanding is I need to leave the HeXEn disc in the drive before I begin.  Then I would take out the board, solder the points on top and bottom of the board. Then put it back together and boot to HeXEn and flash it.  Then when it’s done, I can turn it off, swap the drive, and boot to HeXEn again and do a clean install. Is there anything I missed, or anything else I need to leave on the hard drive? Like I said, I already did the softmod. 
 

And is there a way to check that the solder worked, and I have TSOP access, prior to flashing?

 

Any help is appreciated.  

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So, I already went ahead and flashed the TSOP, then put in the new new drive and did a fresh install.  I’m now having trouble with the partition formatting.  I selected even amount for F and G.  I think I hit the wrong button in XB Partitioner.   So I did the whole install over. I have it working, but G shows up empty. 

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13 hours ago, Swirlygiver said:

First, I read somewhere on here (I think under the HeXEn 2018 post), that some of the bios have the dvd check turned off by default.  So this is going to sound dumb but, will it still boot from dvd (for HeXEn?)

Yes. I believe it's a check for the presence of the DVD drive attached to the IDE bus and/or the power/control signal cable to the motherboard by the System Management Controller (a PIC processor), not that it won't boot if a DVD is loaded into the tray on bootup.

13 hours ago, Swirlygiver said:

Second, I know I have a 1mb TSOP (mine is the ST.) Can someone recommend a bios?  I don’t plan to use more than one, 

ind-bios 5004.67 - the BIOS is 256KBs in size and Evoxdash will be replicated it 4 times to fill the 1MB TSOP flash chip on the motherboard.

You also need to upload the ind-bios.cfg file to the root directory (top-level directory) of the Xbox's C drive.

13 hours ago, Swirlygiver said:

Third, I’ve heard that after you TSOP flash, you should remove the jumpers to avoid accidental damage.  What are the thoughts and/or dangers on this?  Wouldn’t the only potential problem be another flashing?

Only needed if you have a younger sibling that may mess things up for you by trying to flash it and pulls power or turns off the console during the flashing process.

13 hours ago, Swirlygiver said:

My understanding is I need to leave the HeXEn disc in the drive before I begin.  Then I would take out the board, solder the points on top and bottom of the board. Then put it back together and boot to HeXEn and flash it.  Then when it’s done, I can turn it off, swap the drive, and boot to HeXEn again and do a clean install. Is there anything I missed, or anything else I need to leave on the hard drive? Like I said, I already did the softmod

Until a replacement dashboard is installed to the hard drive, the MS dashboard will load unless there's a disc in the DVD tray on power up.  It doesn't really matter if you load the Hexen disc in after the MS dashboard has started just power cycle the console to start it.  HeXEn's menu doesn't appear for about a minute so wait for it.

13 hours ago, Swirlygiver said:

And is there a way to check that the solder worked, and I have TSOP access, prior to flashing?

Boot HeXEn and try to flash it.  If you get badk the ID of 09 00 unknown flash, they are not made.  Those two bytes are the first two bytes of the Xbox's BIOS, not the Flash Chip's ID code that should be returned when the bridges have been made to enable writing to the TSOP chip.

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Thanks for the reply.  Like I said I already got it running and the new 2TB HD going. I’m just in the process of loading it. 
 

I used the 512k x2.5035. Could I re-flash it with something different, if I chose to?  I don’t know that I would. But it would be cool to change the boot animation.  
 

And is there anything different about how I go about changing dashboards, if I choose?

 

i kinda like how it is, although the transfers from discs (DVD2Xbox) seem to take a lot longer than I seem to remember.  I used an 80 wire ribbon cable. I wonder if I just got a cheap one. 

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17 hours ago, Swirlygiver said:

I used the 512k x2.5035. Could I re-flash it with something different, if I chose to?  I don’t know that I would. But it would be cool to change the boot animation.

You can flash a different BIOS to it.  Just make sure it has the same LBA48 configuration - .67 or .06.  Since you've used a 2TB HDD, a .67 version is required and partitioning the extended partitions with XBPartitioner v1.3 using 64KB clusters and having it write a partition table to the hard drive - Format and write table operation

17 hours ago, Swirlygiver said:

And is there anything different about how I go about changing dashboards, if I choose?

You can change the dashboard either by editing the E:\x2config.ini file's dashboard entries or creating a shortcut to load the dashboard you want to use - edit the full path to the replacement dashboard's default.xbe file on the hard drive and name it evoxdash.xbe.

Here's an example using the Windows application Xbe Shortcut Maker 2.0:

F9GwC6o.jpg

After setting the path, change the Title Name and Title ID, click on the Create Shortcut Xbe... button to save the shortcut xbe file with the name evoxdash.xbe.  Rename the current C:\evoxdash.xbe file on the Xbox's hard drive and upload the new shortcut file.  Reboot.

17 hours ago, Swirlygiver said:

i kinda like how it is, although the transfers from discs (DVD2Xbox) seem to take a lot longer than I seem to remember.  I used an 80 wire ribbon cable. I wonder if I just got a cheap one. 

I don't have a good answer for this query.  It's (very) slow compared to today's PCs transferring data to a hard drive.

Edit: E:\x2config.ini not E:\x2-config.ini that I original posted.  Fixed in text above.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/12/2020 at 2:22 AM, KaosEngineer said:

ind-bios 5004.67 - the BIOS is 256KBs in size and Evoxdash will be replicated it 4 times to fill the 1MB TSOP flash chip on the motherboard.

You also need to upload the ind-bios.cfg file to the root directory (top-level directory) of the Xbox's C drive.

If I change to this ind-bios 5004.67, is uploading the ind-bios.crg to the C drive an option on the HeXEn flashing tool, or how is that done?
 

 Could I do it now, after the 2TB is already setup and has games?  I did use xbpartioner 1.3 and 64k clusters when I did it?  

 

And would that bios support 128mb ram if I decide to upgrade?  Are there any disadvantages of ram upgrading?

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10 hours ago, Swirlygiver said:

Q1: If I change to this ind-bios 5004.67, is uploading the ind-bios.crg to the C drive an option on the HeXEn flashing tool, or how is that done?
 

Q2: Could I do it now, after the 2TB is already setup and has games?  

I did use xbpartioner 1.3 and 64k clusters when I did it? <-- KaosEngineer: Not a question here.

 

Q3: And would that bios support 128mb ram if I decide to upgrade?  

Q4: Are there any disadvantages of ram upgrading?

A1: HeXEn copies the ind-bios.cfg file to the hard drive when you use the menu option to flash a Modchip or the TSOP.

A2: Yes

A3: Yes, the ind-bios.cfg configuration file has an option to set if you have installed the additional 64MB of RAM:

  • USEUSEALLMEMORY=0    ;Use 128mb of Ram if Available                Default=0

I believe it is set to 0 when 64MB or 1 when 128MB of RAM is installed.  It's a binary flag to disable (0) / enable (1) the named operation.

I'm not sure if there's a typo in the 5003 and Beta Feb-11-05 (aka 5004) BIOS archives as the ind-bios.cfg file reads USEUSEALLMEMORY.  Most other options just say USE<option> = 0 or 1, not USEUSE<option> = <flag value: 0 = disable, 1 = enable>.

A4: RAM UPGRADE DISADVANTAGES

  1. If you don't know how to solder 100 pin fine pitch surface mount chips and have the proper equipment, you could destroy the motherboard making it no longer work.  Do NOT attempt it if you have not soldered other similar chips onto a printed circuit board.  Practice, practice, practice!
  2. Expensive of obtaining the parts and tools to do the installation.


 

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Advantages:

Some if not all emulators can use the additional RAM which allows some games to run properly that would not without it.

There are a few Sega Chihiro arcade games that will run on the Xbox once the additional RAM is added.

XBMC can use the additional RAM to improve video playback.

The Xbox runs the Linux distributions ported to it better with 128MBs of RAM than with only 64MBs.

You can use the retail Xbox as a debug kit when properly configured. (Not to say that you can't with only 64MB; however, debug kits all have 128MBs of RAM.)

Disadvantages:

None :)

 

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Nice.  The link I had was from Floydzabarber too.  But, it is no longer working - and a newer one posted at emuxtras.net states,

Quote

You need permission.

Want in? Ask for access, or switch to an account with permission.

to download the file.  The two links I'd found were posted a year or two after the one he posted on YouTube. Weird that they don't work but the older one still does.

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Hey, couple more TSOP/bios questions.  I decided to re-flash and switch to ind5004 F + G on both xboxes.  One them is awaiting a new hd, for a fresh install. When I put one in, will the hexen install place ind-bios.cfg in C, or will I have to ftp a copy in?  And in ind5004, is there a way to view/access the bios settings?  Or do I just view the cfg file directly?

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23 minutes ago, Swirlygiver said:

I just switched back to X2-5035 on both and the FTP is actually easier and faster.  I wish I understood why.  I’d like to better understand what all I can set in the bios and how to do it. I’d like to change the flubber colors too, if there’s a working config maker for x-5035. 

Switching back to the X2-5035 bios should not have made any difference but it has for some unknown reason.

I use the M8 bios the the DVD check off,No animation,No TM(trade  mark),No Splash logo,No Evox logo.

You can set custom colors on the X Logo as well as fan speed and it makes for a quick booting Xbox.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Those that can Hard-Mod. Those that can't Soft-Mod.

 

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