Modchip Vs Softmod

[meimar]

Oh dear....so much more to learn 

I was not aware of the Slayer disk! Downloading it now, and getting the details about it.

I see it's only for chipped XBOX, not for softmodded ones - do you know if this is still the case? I'm asking because most posts I've seen are relatively old.

Also I saw that there's some argument saying why use Slayer Disk when there's the Auto Installer Deluxe. Any views on this matter?

I'm not asking to start a flamed discussion, just asking to learn!

[sweetdarkdestiny]

Choose the installer for the job you like to do. To find out whats best for you, load all and check them out. But you will reach a point where you just format your drive with any of these DVDs and then FTP'ing over your own configs, tools ect. from pc to your XBox and thats the best way in my opinion and I think, thats what most of the users here do.

These installers give you just a base. If you don't want more or something else ok. If you want more or differnt things read configs and write your own.  After that you can unpack the installer of your choice, replace/remove configs, apps or backgrounds, repack the iso and make your "own" installer. Didn't need to much time just some effort.

No one can tell you what's best cuz there is no best till you made it your best. 

Edited October 25, 2020 by sweetdarkdestiny

[nucclearffiestas]

On 10/20/2020 at 10:39 PM, sweetdarkdestiny said:

For a TSOP bridge you don't even need a iron. Just a little bit wire and some scotch tape or conductive paint or a pancil. and if you don't have any of it, you can to with just 10 cm kynar wire. When you look at the traces " R7D10" you have a hole before and after the bridge point (stick some wire in it) and "R7D1" has a hole after the bridge piont where you can fit one end of the wire in. The only "tricky" part is to hold the other end of the wire to the little resisor (you could also use a tiny peace of alufoil for this point, you just need a steady hand.  SO TSOP is possible without spending one cent (except for the needed game dvd). For a 1.0 or 1.1 it's the same but, since one point is under the board you need at least some tape.

This is very interesting. I've never heard of a solderless tsop flash before scouring this thread. I have a very cheap iron that's just too blunt for this job and have been wanting to invest in a better one but am on a tight budget. I've already softmodded a few xboxes and am currently working on a 1.0 that I'm giving a facelift.

Does anyone here have pics they can post of a solderless tsop join? Having a visual would give me more confidence to try this out. I want to tsop mainly to be able to boot without the optical drive.

PS are there any alternatives to booting without an optical drive and not flashing a new bios? I've managed to strip the drive down into just a few small components and boot, but it would be nice to remove it entirely. Maybe there's a way to trick the xbox? How exactly does it signal and detect the presence of an optical drive?

[SS_Dave]

56 minutes ago, nucclearffiestas said:

PS are there any alternatives to booting without an optical drive and not flashing a new bios? I've managed to strip the drive down into just a few small components and boot, but it would be nice to remove it entirely. Maybe there's a way to trick the xbox? How exactly does it signal and detect the presence of an optical drive?

The simplest way is to hardmod it (TSOP flash, Mod chip).

The Xbox looks for the DVD drive via a data stream so you need a device to tell the main board it has a DVD connected via a homemade circuit board, so unless you want to re-engineer the wheel you either leave the DVD electronics connected or hard mod it.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[sweetdarkdestiny]

Just a quick one. Needle TSOP. 

[nucclearffiestas]

10 hours ago, sweetdarkdestiny said:

Just a quick one. Needle TSOP. 

What a great idea! Do you have to hold them upright with anything, or are the vias large enough for them to stand in place?

[sweetdarkdestiny]

Both of them hold alone except for one. The one. The one you see one the 2th picture close to the resistor and cap. But to hold it in place it's an easy task (Or tape it with scotch tape). You just need one hand for your gamepad and the job is done in under 30 secounds. And, you should aim for very small needles like the one on the right side. Some kynar 30 and voilá, you can TSOP without soldering. :) 

[VoltXT7]

@SS_Dave

" I don't even softmod to TSOP flash.

Add the links as required

1. Copy 007AUF save hack to the Xbox

2. Load 007AUF and run the game save.

3. Flash TSOP. "

Could you elaborate a bit more what exactly do I have to do between steps 2 and 3 ??

Edited October 27, 2020 by VoltXT7

[SS_Dave]

6 minutes ago, VoltXT7 said:

Could you elaborate a bit more what exactly do I have to do between steps 2 and 3 ??

2.5 Select the BIOS file you want to flash from the list of different bios's

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[VoltXT7]

@SS_Dave

16 hours ago, SS_Dave said:

2.5 Select the BIOS file you want to flash from the list of different bios's

? ? ?

Sorry, I still don't get it.

First, I have an Xbox NTSC-U  Version 1.0

Second, for that Xbox, which Bios do you recommend ?

Third, from WHERE I select the Bios file I want to flash; I only copy 007AUF to the Xbox !?

Fourth, WHEN do I have to solder/bridge the TSOP Points (R7D3/R7R3 in my case)

[SS_Dave]

5 minutes ago, VoltXT7 said:

@SS_Dave

? ? ?

Sorry, I still don't get it.

First, I have an Xbox NTSC-U  Version 1.0

Second, for that Xbox, which Bios do you recommend ?

Third, from WHERE I select the Bios file I want to flash; I only copy 007AUF to the Xbox !?

Fourth, WHEN do I have to solder/bridge the TSOP Points (R7D3/R7R3 in my case)

To reflash the TOSP using my method you need a original game disk.

You can use 007AUF, Splinter Cell, Mechassault, Tony Hawk's pro skater 4 Games, Not all 007AUF disks work and only the 1st release of Mechassault works, it's the version that is NOT Xbox Live Enabled, The Tony Hawk's game has a strange way of loading the games save  to Flash the TSOP and the Splinter Cell is the easiest game to find that works. 

You need to solder the 2 links 1st

The temporary reassemble the Xbox

Now you copy the game save to the Xbox from your memory card using the MS dash

Load the game disk and when it has loaded select the saved game or mission (depending on the game)

That will cause it to load the TSOP flash program and from there you select the BIOS file you want to use, For most Xbox's I use the EvoxM8 plus 67.

Then you need to start the flash procedure by pressing A

When it is completed the Xbox will power down.

 

I have 2 versions of the Splinter cell TSOP flash system.

1 is using Xblast software to flash the TSOP via your home network(your Xbox needs to be on your home network) and the 2nd way direct from the Xbox and select the BIOS from list.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

 

[meimar]

Hi again. 

I'm stuck at the point I want to upgrade my HDD. Aparently, my DVD drive won't boot any of the installation disks I have (SlaYer, 2x copies of HeXen 2018). The DVD boots normally if I have the stock disk installed, but when I install the new drive, it just stays at the boot screen with the EvoX logo, and the light turns red. The disks are quality ones (Verbatims and TDK) burnt at x4 speed.

Any ideas how to move on? Could I try the "hot-swap" method that I use on soft-modded systems?

Please note that I have changed the cabling so the chip is always on.

[sweetdarkdestiny]

20 minutes ago, meimar said:

...

Does your xbox boot burned games without problems? If not it's maybe not a problem of the install dvd's which can happen. Which dvd drive you have in your xbox?

And Hexen sometimes need up to 45 -60 secounds to boot. Slayers needs ~15 - 20 secounds.

[SS_Dave]

What hard drive have you fitted?

Are you using a 80 way IDE cable?

Is the harddrive set to master?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[meimar]

The DVD drive is a Philips. I have no issues reading/ booting disks with the stock HDD fitted. I only have this problem when I try to install a new HDD.

The new HDD is a WD with a capacity of 80Gb. I am using a 40wire cable (stock) since as far as I know I only need an 80-wire cable for larger capacities. At least I have used this config several times in the past in other machines.

The hdd is set to cable select because this is what is used in almost all the tutorials I've seen. I will try the master setting now.

Edit: Setting the new HDD to master does not work either...:(

Edited October 28, 2020 by meimar

[SS_Dave]

5 minutes ago, meimar said:

The DVD drive is a Philips. I have no issues reading/ booting disks with the stock HDD fitted. I only have this problem when I try to install a new HDD.

The new HDD is a WD with a capacity of 80Gb. I am using a 40wire cable (stock) since as far as I know I only need an 80-wire cable for larger capacities. At least I have used this config several times in the past in other machines.

The hdd is set to cable select because this is what is used in almost all the tutorials I've seen. I will try the master setting now.

Yes the 40 way IDE is fine for that size.

What was the HDD used for before PC,Xbox?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[meimar]

Just now, SS_Dave said:

Yes the 40 way IDE is fine for that size.

What was the HDD used for before PC,Xbox?

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

I'm pretty sure it was not used on XBOX before. I picked it from the flea market, and then used the WD tools to completely erase it and do a thorough health check including surface tests, and finally formatted of course.

Basically this is the process I have used for all HDDs I have installed on XBOX previously and never had an issue. But as I said I have no experience with modchips

 

[SS_Dave]

It sounds like the HDD should be ok then and the DVD drive is not reading a burnt disk.

Do you have a different DVD drive from another Xbox you can temporary use.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[meimar]

Just now, SS_Dave said:

It sounds like the HDD should be ok then and the DVD drive is not reading a burnt disk.

Do you have a different DVD drive from another Xbox you can temporary use.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

Yeah, I was about to ask if I can use another DVD from another XBOX, since I somehow had the impression that they are also hard-locked.

I'll give it a try

[meimar]

No luck. still won't boot

I think I will just put back the stock disk, and try doing the disk swap after the system is booted. any other idea is more than welcome!

 

[meimar]

It is strange though..I can boot all of these disks with the stock HDD installed...

[SS_Dave]

That would lead to the hard drive been faulty as the Xbox must have a hard drive connected in order to boot even if the HDD is not formatted.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[meimar]

well...here's an update  indeed the new HDD seems to have an issue. Not sure what though. I was trying the hot-swap method with Chimp, and it did not work either. It says the drive is locked, and since I had no clue how did that happen I could not unlock it.

So I tried another HDD I had and it worked straight up! I have just finished formatting it. It's 160Gb too!

When I came here to right the post, I saw Dave's message

[VoltXT7]

@SS_Dave

13 hours ago, SS_Dave said:

To reflash the TOSP using my method you need a original game disk.

You can use 007AUF, Splinter Cell, Mechassault, Tony Hawk's pro skater 4 Games, Not all 007AUF disks work and only the 1st release of Mechassault works, it's the version that is NOT Xbox Live Enabled, The Tony Hawk's game has a strange way of loading the games save  to Flash the TSOP and the Splinter Cell is the easiest game to find that works. 

You need to solder the 2 links 1st

The temporary reassemble the Xbox

Now you copy the game save to the Xbox from your memory card using the MS dash

Load the game disk and when it has loaded select the saved game or mission (depending on the game)

That will cause it to load the TSOP flash program and from there you select the BIOS file you want to use, For most Xbox's I use the EvoxM8 plus 67.

Then you need to start the flash procedure by pressing A

When it is completed the Xbox will power down.

 

I have 2 versions of the Splinter cell TSOP flash system.

1 is using Xblast software to flash the TSOP via your home network(your Xbox needs to be on your home network) and the 2nd way direct from the Xbox and select the BIOS from list.

It's almost clear now 

1. I have many Original Xbox Game Disk from your list (Tony Hawk's pro skater 4, 007AUF (The working one) and Splinter Cell). Let's choose Splinter Cell.

2. Looks like you create your own TSOP Flash Program/System. Could you share with us your creation ?? (Link)

3. For the last part, I will choose the 2nd option: direct from the Xbox and select the BIOS from list.

[SS_Dave]

15 hours ago, VoltXT7 said:

2. Looks like you create your own TSOP Flash Program/System.

I have been using the 007AUF save hack since 2003 and I got it from Eurasia.com (closed now).

I will send you a PM a bit later.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.