XBox 1.0 Vs 1.6 What To Do? What To Do? Modding

[JohnnyPhantom]

Hey Everyone,

I just recently got a xbox 1.6 in great shape! super clean and a like new shell. I installed OpenXenium chip inside, upgraded the drive to a 2TB SATA (may go to a 500GB IDE I have hanging around maybe) upgraded to a 80 wire IDE, and it works well, only issue is. The DVD drive is DOA. I found it cheaper to buy another xbox for parts than a working/tested drive on ebay. So I paid $5 +SH for another xbox. This one was listed AS IS and not working, case was fair shape. I got it, it's a version 1.0 and seems to work just fine, the DVD drive works as it should. I placed it into my 1.6 and it's fine. Question now is... do I keep the 1.6 xbox as is and call it a day? or should I move the modchip (it's only plug and play really, just gotta solder new header pins to the 1.0 xbox) to the 1.0 xbox? should I go with the 500GB IDE or 2TB SATA? could I move the heatsink from the 1.6 to the 1.0GPU to get rid of the fan on the GPU cooler on the 1.0? and I would assume the system shell is universal and I could use it either way. With the parts I have, what can I do to make the best xbox I could?

 

Thanks everyone!

~John

[samspin]

For full compatibility you are best using the V1.0 board if you can. In my experience the proprietary Xcalibur video encoder on the later V1.6 boards can cause issues with some games in 480p and higher. Microsoft's own recommendation at the time was to use lower resolutions for such games, and this required using the appropriate cable. As most people use HDTV sets these days (which may not even include sockets for lower-resolution inputs) this seems a bit naff. Another incompability I randomly discovered with a V1.6 board is Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire. Attempting to boot it gave me a black screen no matter what BIOS I used, which are severely limited in choice for the V1.6. There could well be other randomly incompatible games.  In the end I got so sick of these random ailments I went with an older board. I therefore recommend you to make the most of your situation and move your modchip to the V1.0 board if you can. With regards to the SATA vs IDE HDD: so long as you are using a decent IDE to SATA adapter, you shouldn't run into any problems. I have had a terrible experience with cheap adapters in the past but Startech IDE2SAT ones have always worked perfect for me. They even include jumper selection for Master, Save and Cable Select in case you do need to manually set it to Master (cheap ones without any jumper tend to default to Cable Select, which doesn't work with all cables). Sometimes you will find that the HDD works, but the DVD drive won't, due to issues with Master vs Slave setting. I've never had this issue with the Startech IDE2SAT adapter. If yours is working with the swapped DVD drive at this point though, you should have nothing to worry about!
If you wish to move your V1.0 board into the V1.6 case that you say is in better shape, that's perfectly possible, albiet a screwhole is missing on the bottom, although it doesn't make much difference here. You may need to swap over the controller ports as the wiring on the V1.6 versions tend to be much shorter, although as the V1.0 has a removeable daughterboard for these ports to plug into they might just reach anyway. Don't forget to swap the PSU as the V1.0 has a PSU with a single row of pins for the connector, the V1.6 uses an ATX-style double-row connector.

BUT: do NOT put the V1.6 board in the older V1.0 case! One of the screwholes will touch the bottom of the V1.6 board where there is no through-hole and will short one of the regulators! That is, unless you file off the extra screwhole and place tape over where it used to be for good measure.
In short: I highly recommend you use the V1.0 board to get the best experience!

Edited April 2, 2020 by samspin
the editor randomly moved my text around and muddled up the sentences

[JohnnyPhantom]

7 minutes ago, samspin said:

For full compatibility you are best using the V1.0 board if you can. In my experience the proprietary Xcalibur video encoder on the later V1.6 boards can cause issues with some games in 480p and higher. Microsoft's own recommendation at the time was to use lower resolutions for such games, and this required using the appropriate cable. As most people use HDTV sets these days (which may not even include sockets for lower-resolution inputs) this seems a bit naff. Another incompability I randomly discovered with a V1.6 board is Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire. Attempting to boot it gave me a black screen no matter what BIOS I used, which are severely limited in choice for the V1.6. There could well be other randomly incompatible games.  In the end I got so sick of these random ailments I went with an older board. I therefore recommend you to make the most of your situation and move your modchip to the V1.0 board if you can. With regards to the SATA vs IDE HDD: so long as you are using a decent IDE to SATA adapter, you shouldn't run into any problems. I have had a terrible experience with cheap adapters in the past but Startech IDE2SAT ones have always worked perfect for me. They even include jumper selection for Master, Save and Cable Select in case you do need to manually set it to Master (cheap ones without any jumper tend to default to Cable Select, which doesn't work with all cables). Sometimes you will find that the HDD works, but the DVD drive won't, due to issues with Master vs Slave setting. I've never had this issue with the Startech IDE2SAT adapter. If yours is working with the swapped DVD drive at this point though, you should have nothing to worry about!
If you wish to move your V1.0 board into the V1.6 case that you say is in better shape, that's perfectly possible, albiet a screwhole is missing on the bottom, although it doesn't make much difference here. You may need to swap over the controller ports as the wiring on the V1.6 versions tend to be much shorter, although as the V1.0 has a removeable daughterboard for these ports to plug into they might just reach anyway.

BUT: do NOT put the V1.6 board in the older V1.0 case! One of the screwholes will touch the bottom of the V1.6 board where there is no through-hole and will short one of the regulators! That is, unless you file off the extra screwhole and place tape over where it used to be for good measure.
In short: I highly recommend you use the V1.0 board to get the best experience!

Wow thanks for all that info!

I think I may just do that, convert it all to the 1.0MB. The IDE2SATA adapter I have seems to be working well, system just boots a bit on the slow side, but that may be the dashboard/bios reading all that extra space as compared to the 500GB which boots faster. As far as the heatsink for the GPU goes, are they mix and match? or am I stuck with the fan one on the 1.0? (I assuming I cant install the 1.0 gpu for heatsink on the 1.6 motherboard due to lack of fan header

I'll tinker with them and see what I can discover

 

Thanks!

~John

[samspin]

If you're looking for a quieter V1.0 board by swapping the GPU heatsink: yes, they are mix and match. Microsoft realised it wasn't really needed at the default clock speed and did away with the fan design in later boards. However they are a little tricky to remove: the gum underneath sets fast when cold: you have to carefully apply heat until the gum gives away and the heatsink should then lift free with little force. Do not try to simply yank them off: otherwise you'll end up lifting part of the GPU itself off and permanently breaking it (*thumps the table in frustration* Don't ask me how I know!). One way you can do this is disconnect all the fans and power on the board until the gum unsets and then gently pull at the heatsink (use gloves: it does get hot!). Not the best way of doing things, although to be fair the board would turn itself off to protect itself before any heat damage is done to the components. Even so, only leave it on for as long as it needs to be on, and give it plenty of time to cool afterwards. Make sure you use new thermal paste after cleaning away the old gum! Now: if you do want to use the fan on your V1.6 board for some reason, here's a little more info.
Up to the V1.4 versions Microsoft still included holes where the GPU fan socket would have been and it was possible to either add one or simply solder wires to them to use the older 1.0 fan that way. Sadly the V1.6 has had this removed completely. So you would need to power it either by finding alternative 12V sources on the board and soldering, or to play it safe buy a Molex + fan header splitter adapter to share power from the HDD: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pin-Molex-Female-Splitter-Cable/dp/B002VSTYJC .
With regards to the slower 2TB boot time: this can happen, especially if you are utilising a lot more of the space. One way you can try to keep this slowdown to a minimum is to reformat the partitions and then transfer data *one file at a time*. The reason I mention this is because many people use Filezilla to connect via FTP, and by default Filezilla sends multiple files at a time. This has the effect of fragmenting the files on the hard drive! You really want to keep this to a minimum for as long as possible.
See the screenshot below where I've changed this setting for uploads to change this:

Edited April 2, 2020 by samspin

[JohnnyPhantom]

I've decided, I may just keep the 1.6 as is, it's working, and no issues really. But I purchased yet another as is xbox for $15 on ebay in hopes of stealing its dvd drive and making the 1.0 whole again. I'll then wetsand the case of the 1.0 (or the case of the recently purchased xbox, which ever looks worse) and try out painting it. Next question is, I'm curious about TSOP flashing. I know I can't do this on the 1.6, but I can on the 1.0 with its 1MB flash. If i temp move over the openxenium chip from the 1.6 to the 1.0 (unbridging the D0 point on the chip and attaching the wire to the D0 point on the motherboard of the 1.0 to install the chip) can I then simply flash the tsop? or so I need to do more rewiring first? I've done modchips in the past, for xbox's and other systems, but never a TSOP flash and just about all the guides I've found online show rewiring and bridges being made on the motherboard on a softmodded system

 

Thanks!

~John

[JohnnyPhantom]

Ah, looks like I got my answer, needs a few more solder points done

Edited April 3, 2020 by JohnnyPhantom

[samspin]

I'm afraid here's where things get a little tricky. You can indeed use the modchip as leverage, but heres the important thing: to flash the TSOP directly from the Xbox itself, you MUST have booted from it in the first place (that's the short story. It IS also possible to flash the TSOP even when booted off modchip when using a really old, 21-wire chameleon modchip, but those are nearly impossible to find and it's a lot more work anyway. I have heard it is also possible with an XBlast modchip, but i personally haven't tried this as I don't own one). Here's how I would do it in your situation:
1) Temporarily install the modchip and whatever hard drive you want to use. The modchip will allow you to boot the Xbox without requiring that the hard drive be locked.
2) Boot from DVD drive using HEXEN . You can download this here and then burn it to a DVD.

 Go through the options to format the disk and prepare it. Make sure you install a SOFTMOD, and then choose to lock the hard drive. The reason you have to do this is because the retail BIOS on the TSOP requires the hard drive to be locked.
3) Remove the modchip, and then follow this guide to see where you need to solder the write-enable points on your Xbox board: https://www.biline.ca/xbox_solder.htm
4) Boot using the HEXEN DVD again. The installed softmod will allow the DVD to boot. This time you can go through the options to flash the TSOP to whatever BIOS you want (EXCEPT X3 BIOSs, since these are only for X3 modchips, not a TSOP.) Provided that your soldering was correct, the flashing should take place and then power the Xbox off.
5) If all has gone well, you should be able to turn the Xbox on again with HEXEN one last time. This time, go through the options to "clean up softmod" after TSOP flashing. I honestly can't remember at this stage precisely where in the menus it is (it is ages since I've used this) but it should be there. Also: make sure you UNLOCK your hard drive as you no longer need this! Once you've done that, remove the DVD and turn off the Xbox.
6) Turn on the Xbox and enjoy, put on games via FTP, or whatever.

Edited April 3, 2020 by samspin

[zaiem]

Excuse me @samspin I am still tring to find my way around moding Xbox.

but what is locked Hard disk, and why it is needed.