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General Games issue


gt46l
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My issue is that out of all the games I have, probably only every 4th or 5th game actually launches.  The rest just go from whichever dashboard I am using, to a black screen, then back to the dashboard without running at all...  The screen flickers a bit but stays black and its always the exact same amount of time.  Now if its a working game, it works.  It loads instantly, no waiting, and it has no glitches or crashes. 

First the specs:

Xbox v1.0 with a OpenXenium modchip recently installed.  I am running 3 different dashes (mostly as incremental troubleshooting steps, not to complicate things).  The first is a softmodded UnleashX using Rocky5's latest.  2nd boots using M8+ bios to XBMC.  3rd boots to EvoX also using M8+.  I upgraded to a 2tb drive and copied over all my original roms, plus a hdd ready set I found on the usual places.  I had done a power fix on the motherboard traces and removed the clock cap after it burst(no corrosion), but that was while it was softmodded for the last 13 years, and its never affected the ability of games or applications to run from disc or hdd

Troubleshooting:

I've done all the usual troubleshooting steps like trying both my Component and Composite cables, and forcing resolutions from 1080i down to 480i.  I've attempted to launch all the roms using "launch as NSTC" or "launch as PAL" (forcing PAL-60), and setting regions to auto or default.  I've also read that softmods and hard mods don't like working together, so I reformatted C and put back clean C files for the original MS Dash.  I did not clear out the UDATA or TDATA folders on E, but I wouldn't suspect that to affect launching specific games.  I routinely clean out the drive cache folder, and I have plenty of space free on all my partitions.  I've tried running the games from UnleashX, Evox, XBMC, and game mgr in DVD2Xbox. 

Thinking perhaps it was just the hdd ready set I obtained was partially bad, I tried getting some redumps of a few of the non-working games.  I XISO'd them using dvdmulleter, burned them to dvd-r, then ripped them to the xbox hdd using DVD2Xbox(patching and ACL processing enabled).  I also tried Qwix to ftp over files from XISOs.  Originally I had FTP'd over the entire 2tb hdd ready set using FileZilla using Binary, but these few games I was testing I must have transferred dozens of times for testing making sure it was set binary and that the xbe's were patched first.  Those redumps function the same as the hdd ready set.  Black screen, then back to dash.  Very consistent... if the game will run, it will run no matter how I get it onto the box.  If not, then black screen.  Where I launch them from has ZERO affect.  All my original rips on the hard drive (made by me over the last decade while the box was softmodded) still function fine, including original discs, and maybe 20% of the hdd ready set. 

Are there some basic step I've overlooked in the modding process?  I am new to this OpenXenium modchip.  Is there some other bios I should try, either newer or older like M7?  It feels like this old v1.0 xbox may not be liking all this newer software and hardware, but thats just my desperation grasping at straws. 

Any questions, help, or suggestions?  I felt like this was the best place for this thread, but I'd be happy to ask a mod to move it or start a new one in the correct forum if "games" is not the best place for it.

 

 

 

Edited by gt46l
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I have a 1.1 running with the EvoxM8plus booting to XBMC4Gamers on a 2TB hard drive topped off with a internal HDMI(so component only output)

The only games I have found that don't load are the Pal football ones unless I set it to Pal but then I lose the HD output.

Is it the same games each time that don't load? and will the same games load on a different Xbox? What games?

Has the hard drive been correctly formatted for F and G partitions? I have found that reducing partition 6 (F)and 7 (G) by 1gb (926.47gb each) can also help along with formatting the F and G partitions twice.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

 

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This box is NTSC as well if I hadn't mentioned previously, and I also did a coax digital out mod on it as well.  I used xbpartitioner or whatever its called (latest version) and I did in fact have to partition and format the drive multiple times before they showed up and worked correctly.  I just used the standard size though, 928gb or whatever for both f and g.  That would blow having to repartittion and format then retransfer, but I will try as a last ditch effort if it comes to that.

Its the same games each time have issues.  I had about 20 or 30 of my own games ripped which all work fine from burned or original discs, and from the hdd.  This hdd ready set I got has around 900 games in it.  It seems most of that set does not work.  Its probably closer to 15% that actually run based on my testing.  The handful of games that I chose to thoroughly test from this set were "SSX on Tour", "4x4 Evo2", and "American Chopper". 

First I deleted them off the hdd, then retransferred them with filezilla making sure it was with binary, then launched each from every dash and app I could....  Black screen for 30 seconds then back to the dash or app.....  Then I tried Qwix to transfer them to make sure the binaries were getting patched....  Black screen then dash...  Then I downloaded the redump isos for each game(so no longer using the original files), used dvdmulleter to convert them to XISOs, burned them to dvd-r, transferred to the xbox using DVD2Xbox with patching and ACL processing enabled, then tried loading them from all the apps...  Black screen and back to dash or app...  Same if I just tried to run the game directly from the disc. 

It appears that certain games just will not run since I've tried everything I can think of to get this test batch running.  It feels like there is something wrong at a bios or hardware revision level...  or maybe some sort of protection on the games that my v1.0 can't circumvent.....  certainly something higher up than just the applications I'm using to rip or play the games.  The games that do play, play fine, so I wouldn't suspect it being like a bad chip on the board glitching stuff out, or I would think it would happen with all games.

I know I'm blasting out lots of info at the risk of being confusing, so maybe I can just boil this down to a simpler level of "I can't run one game called SSX on Tour", and then what steps would we look at to troubleshoot, taking into account what I've already documented.  I do not discount the possibility that regardless of all my efforts in testing that I could still be doing something fundamentally stupid every single time.

 

Edited by gt46l
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9 hours ago, gt46l said:

The handful of games that I chose to thoroughly test from this set were "SSX on Tour", "4x4 Evo2", and "American Chopper". 

All of these games work on my 1.1 with XBMC4Gamers and my 1.6 with X3 chip using a 2tb HDD with component video and Coax audio out.

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

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15 hours ago, SS_Dave said:

Can you chech the cluster size in XB Partition 1.3.

It should be 64kb ane the drive size 927.78

 

1331893105_2tbpartitions.jpg.9eb78d44797ccf7f73fec3c334a66114.jpg

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

 

So I checked xbpartitioner, and the partitions are the same size as in your screenshot.  One thing I noticed however is that even though my application is listed as xbpartitioner 1.3, when I run it the heading at the top actually says xbpartitioner 1.2 patch 3, NOT 1.3.  Very odd...  I swore the version I am using was off the Rocky5 extras disk, but maybe not....   I don't know what the difference between the 2 versions would be, but I suppose it could have been for a significant bug update??  I think before I go get 1.3, blow out the partitions, and start from scratch I'm going to re-softmod the box with Rocky5, then pull the modchip.  I can do all that fairly quickly to get to a point I can test SSX again.  I'd like to eliminate the possibility of a glitchy modchip being my issue.  If that still doesn't work however, and we can't think of any other troubleshooting steps,  I'll be willing to do a full new build from scratch.  In the meantime, if you have any other thoughts, lemme know and thanks for helping me out.

Edited by gt46l
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Rather than softmodding it you could test it by connecting any Sata drive, format, load your dash then test the SSX game. If it loads ok then it must be a HDD problem.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

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15 hours ago, SS_Dave said:

Rather than softmodding it you could test it by connecting any Sata drive, format, load your dash then test the SSX game. If it loads ok then it must be a HDD problem.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

 

I wanted to test removing the modchip first to eliminate that possibility, just because I recently added it. 

We have progress, but not sure what its telling me exactly.  I pulled the chip, softmodded it with R5, in the process I blew out the F partition on accident, rebooted and still had games on G so I tried those out.  To my surprise a lot of them started working including all the ones I tested previously (SSX, Evo2, Am Chopper).  Still though a lot don't work, like my baseball games (at least all the ones I tested).  I then popped the modchip back on and verified that it didn't make a difference running games and it didn't.  Same games play whether chip is on or not.  I checked xbpartitioner (1.3 this time), and F had ER on it, so I partitioned/formatted it.  Tried putting a baseball game on it, still woudlnt run.  I thought maybe the issue was just F/G partitions so I moved that game to E and ran it...  same issue.  I transferred it new over FTP a couple times to both E and F partitions to make sure it wasn't just a bad copy.  No difference from E/F/G.  The specific game is "All Star Baseball 2003".

I'm beginning to believe it does have something to do with the drive, at least with partitioning, though I wouldn't rule out hardware.  It was a running drive in a raid system that I pulled and it had no errors before that, so it was a known good drive.  I read somewhere when partitioning xbox drives that if you get the partitions wrong, it will let you partition them that way, but anything stored outside the real size will not work.  I don't know why losing 1 partition would affect games on the other, but it is kinda all pointing to the drive. 

It could be the SATA to IDE converter as well since that was recently added.  Doubtful but possible.  I think I will do your suggestion of using another drive.  This time with just the modchip.  I think I will try an IDE drive first.  I have a stack of those and can remove the SATA converter from the equation.  Depending on how that works, I can return to SATA with another drive.  Thanks again for the help, and if you have any thoughts on all the drive/partition stuff with the revelations I've shared, let me know.

Edited by gt46l
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Use xbpartioner 1.3 and set both 6 and 7 to around 500gb  then format it the reboot the Xbox and then set 6 and 7 to around 800gb and format and reboot. Now load the xbpartioner 1.3 and set  6 and 7 to 927.78 (max size less 1gb)and format again.

The pull the drive from the Xbox and connect to your PC and use FATXplorer to copy the files over as it is heaps quicker than FTP (I can fill a 2tb in under 24 hours)

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

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27 minutes ago, SS_Dave said:

Use xbpartioner 1.3 and set both 6 and 7 to around 500gb  then format it the reboot the Xbox and then set 6 and 7 to around 800gb and format and reboot. Now load the xbpartioner 1.3 and set  6 and 7 to 927.78 (max size less 1gb)and format again.

The pull the drive from the Xbox and connect to your PC and use FATXplorer to copy the files over as it is heaps quicker than FTP (I can fill a 2tb in under 24 hours)

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I hadn't heard of fatxploder.  I'll give that a try after partitioning/formatting.  FTP is painfully slow, but I thought that was the only option.  One thing I wanted to clarify based on your comment about "max minus 1gb"...  xbpartitioner 1.3 auto sets both partitions to 927.78 when using the equal split option or rolling them both up manually those are the max values when sized equally.  Either that is already the max -1gb, or when you say -1gb I would need to set it to 926.78.  I can certainly take off another gb from each, but its not clear if XBP is already doing that.

Edited by gt46l
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So I did the partitioning/formatting as you mentioned in 3 steps with hard reboots in between, up to 926.78.  I installed fatexploder and then transferred over "All Star Baseball 2003" onto G.  I also created a blank "games" directory on F.  I then put it back in the xbox and tried the game.  It still gets black screen. 

Just for giggs I checked F to see if my blank games directory was there and it wasn't...  F was in file explorer but was empty.  I didn't think too much of it at first as I decided to actually play a game.....  SSX off the dvd i had burned the other day, and the dvd worked fine this time.  Another reboot later after fiddling with cables and retrying the baseball game, I checked F again and suddenly it showed the blank games directory. 

Probably still a hard drive issue, software or hardware related I'm not sure though.  The only time I've seen weirdness like directories or files disappearing/reappearing in the past was from a physically bad drive, so I am leaning towards that or a bad sata converter.  Right now though I'm transferring half my collection back onto the drive so I'll test a lot more of them tomorrow.  I want to make sure its not just a bad game, or how many, and I need a night off from troubleshooting this thing.  If that still doesn't work tomorrow, I can try a different drive or 2 then report back.  In the meantime, if you have any other thoughts lemme know.

 

 

Edited by gt46l
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If you are using a chinse Sata2Ide re-solder the Sata connector and the 4 pin power connector.

I had intermittent drive issues from tarnished connections between the HDD PCB and the connections to the Drive heads.

remove this PCB

1408010231_smallIMG_20191015_215615.jpg.1d0371d26f1615a58b8b6d71daac3d0e.jpg

 

And clean the tarnished connections in the squares

575836438_smallIMG_20191015_215449.jpg.e496eebcfd16ae5dbd12841bfb718467.jpg

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

 

 

 

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So I think I got this resolved now.  I believe it was a partitioning issue, but because of a mix of partitioning software and previous use of the drive for Windows, it seems that NEW partitioning would not take correctly, even though I was receiving no errors in the process.  Over the past week I had used usbXBOXHDM, xbpartitioner(1.2 and 1.3), and my modchip for partitioning (which has its own OpenXenium partitioning/formatting utility) .  I think somewhere along the line the mixture of partitioners irreversibly messed up the partition table. 

I really didn't want to give up on this 2TB drive because I knew it was a good working drive before trying it on the Xbox.   I loaded up FatXplorer and connected to the drive with the intention of copying over my roms.  First thing it said when I clicked on the drive was there was a Windows partition present on it, and that it could remove it for me if I pressed OK.  I know I used diskpart in Windows to manually clean that drive before this whole exercise, so I was surprised by this message.  I thought maybe it was something buggy about the program so didn't think too much of it at the time.  I said ok to delete the Win partition, but it gave me an error "cannot set to an instance of an object" or something like that.  It then continued and I was still able to mount G.  I then tried copying over all my roms, but while it was copying I noticed it was super slow, and constantly with long timeouts between copying some files.  It just didn't feel like it was working, even though I wasn't getting any errors.  It said it would take days to copy over the first 1 tb so I killed the process. 

I was getting fed up, but I decided that if it was in fact related to partitioning that there was one last way I would try to fix it.  I decided to ZERO OUT THE ENTIRE DRIVE using Acronis secure erase.  I let that run over night until it finished.  The next day I rebuilt the drive using usbXBOXHDM and let it build/format F and G partitions (split equally).  It ran quickly and without errors.  I then ran fatxplorer again and it did not complain about any Windows partitions this time.  I decided I would copy over half my roms (including all the sports ones that would not work before), and then test them out.  This time when copying ran, there was absolutely no timeouts, and the speed was more or less constant.  The next day when it finished I decided to throw it in the Xbox and test.  First I tested a few roms I knew worked.  They were good.  Next I tried some new roms I had never tried before, and they worked.  Then I tried my sports roms......  AND THEY ALL WORKED.  In fact, I could not find one rom that would not work.

Truly a weird situation, but then I remind myself that these Xbox utilities are effectively someone's homebrew we are using, and if you screw up a step or use other software on top of them, you might run into some unforeseen issues.  SS_Dave, if you hadn't laser focused in on the partitioning from the beginning I probably wouldn't have continued everything I could to prove that out.  Thank you for your expertise and help. 

 

Final thoughts, I still wonder if there was some sort of a hardware issue (bad sectors or sticking head) in the drive that perhaps my secure erase utility worked out....  but either way I am confident the issue ultimately resided in the partitions.

Edited by gt46l
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3 hours ago, gt46l said:

SS_Dave, if you hadn't laser focused in on the partitioning from the beginning I probably wouldn't have continued everything I could to prove that out.  Thank you for your expertise and help. 

You are welcome and it's good to here you have it working.

 

I always start with a Zeroed drive and let the Xbox install disk create the partitions in thee Xbox and then format with Xbpartitioner in 2 or 3 steps.

Once it has a dash and is booting then use Fatxplorer to copy the files over.

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

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