Chipped Xbox question with offer

[Hep038]

Ok here is the story.

Last year I chipped my xbox because I wanted to turn it into a MAME system. Everything went great with the instal, I got as far as flashing the bios and stopped. What happened you ask? Well me and my wife had a baby girl. So my Room of Doom was turned into a nursery of pink and green. After moving everything and taking a hiatus from gaming to spend time with my daughter, I decided to get back to the xbox project, all I needed was to add a new dash. But I lost my origional HD. Yes I know every walk through says I should have backed up my HD but I did not. So now it boots to the xbox screen with the xecutioner rox my box and stays there. I can play xbox games but I have no way to get to the dash to set up my IP.

SO my question is am I screwed? Or should I just send it to someone and pay them to finish the job? IF anyone other there is intrested let me know what you charge, or preferabley I am starting to move out a lot of my old collections and would be willing to trade for services.
Systems I have for trade
Colecovision (I have a FS thread on the message boards)

Sega Saturn boxed with ST key and Boxed nights into dreams controller and game

JVC X-eye with final fight

Sega master system boxed with around 20 games

Let me know if you are able to help me out and any of this intrest you.

[PapaStu]

**moved to Tech and Resto**

[NayusDante]

Since you can boot disks, I would try hooking up any old HDD and running a utility disk. There's many pre-made utility disks that can dump that little system-ID chip and generate HDD lock/unlock codes from it, and properly install a new dash.

The key here is that chip, and I forget what they call it. Once you have it, you can prepare a hard drive on any spare PC. Normally, you'd be screwed without a working HDD, but since you can still run disks, it shouldn't be a problem.

I've basically treated my Xbox like a Windows XP system, so I've done a "reinstall" several times. I wouldn't mind doing the research to figure it out again, since it's been a little while for me.

[SkiDragon]

Yeah, I never saved the old hard drive, I just threw a new one in and ran the Slayers installation disc. At this point most of the software on it is out of date, but it gets you a working system and you can upgrade from there.

[NayusDante]

My suggestion is to find whatever "auto installer" you can that runs on the Xbox, then get it working so you can put Xbox Media Center on it. If you can get on the Xbins FTP, there's an Auto Installers category in the /xbox/apps/ folder, so I'd start with one of those. Auto Installer Deluxe is good, if you can find a working torrent...

Since mine isn't chipped, I just had to borrow MechAssault from a friend and get my EEPROM dumped. Now, I have a CD that I can boot a PC with to format, install dash, and lock a new HDD. Since yours is chipped, you may not even need to bother with EEPROM stuff or even lock the HDD.

[Hep038]

Cool thanks guys, I will give this a shot.

[ProgrammingAce]

Download a slayer 2.6 disc, install a blank hard drive to the system, run the slayer installer. Since you have a chip, you don't need to worry about the hard drive lock code.

I'm suprised games even boot without a hard drive, most games cache data to the drive and should crash out if it's missing...

[Hep038]

It has a plain blank 80GB HD in it that is how I am able to play games.

[NayusDante]

Basically, you need to properly partition the hard drive. After that, it might be a good idea to just try FTPing the files you need into it. There's a guide on installing a dash here:

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=406656

There's a group called "t3ch" that releases compiled binaries of XBMC, so I'd give that a try. I can't link directly to it, as the actual compiler is leaked Microsoft property, violating a lot of legalese.


Honestly, I'm not sure what to do with my Xbox these days. The 360 upscales the games that work, I don't play the ones that don't that often, and emulation on Wii feels much cleaner. It's still fun to mess around with, but I just don't see it as being as useful anymore.

[megasdkirby]

Is there a game that can also be used as a transfer utility?

For example, say you have the recommended game to boot up the softmod installer (say you have Splinter Cell). You have the necessary boot files on your Memory Card (say that the files were already there or you transferred them from your PC, say with an Action Replay).

Since you can boot games, you should try to find a game that can also be used as a file transfer medium (like some PSOne games where you can transfer other game saves directly from the game itself).

That way you can transfer the Xbox files to your HDD and boot up the required game to begin the softmod (in this case, Splinter Cell). Then you can use it to extract the eeprom.bin file and save it to your memory card.

From there, transfer the file to your PC and make the HDD maker thing program CD. Then you can reinstall the original dash and hack it asap.

But is there such a game that will also act as a memory card/system manager? Hmm...

[NayusDante]

If you have a save-exploit game, then you should just perform the softmod. THEN, you'll have the FTP running and you can replace the dashboard with whatever you want, and then backup the EEPROM as a fall-back. I see what you're saying, but why extract the EEPROM to the memory card when you can just FTP in and back it up? Of course, that's what you would do with an unchipped Xbox.

Since his is chipped, he just needs to run a disk that will repartition his HDD and install a third-party dash. Having it chipped basically negates the need to bother with the EEPROM, unless you want to remove the chip and sell it.

[megasdkirby]

If you have a save-exploit game, then you should just perform the softmod. THEN, you'll have the FTP running and you can replace the dashboard with whatever you want, and then backup the EEPROM as a fall-back. I see what you're saying, but why extract the EEPROM to the memory card when you can just FTP in and back it up? Of course, that's what you would do with an unchipped Xbox.

That's another good method. Heck, even before the softmod, one can backup the eeprom.bin file! What I do is load the exploit to bring up the softmod installer (like Endure), and backup Eeprom.bin file (without installing the softmod). During the exploit screen, it is possible to FTP the Xbox and back up the file. I've done this and it's great.

Problem is how to read the exploit file. I don't recall Splinter Cell reading files from the memory card, but what about The 007 and Mechassault game? If so, he still has a chance: load the exploit off the memory card, and if it boots to the softmod installer, do the procedure listed above. Retrieve that eeprom.bin file, and you can then create the HDD recovery/creator disc! ^_^


Since his is chipped, he just needs to run a disk that will repartition his HDD and install a third-party dash. Having it chipped basically negates the need to bother with the EEPROM, unless you want to remove the chip and sell it.

Would AID 4.x do it? I don't think he should have any problems then, as long as the Xbox can read a DVD-R.

[Breetai]

Is there a game that can also be used as a transfer utility?

For example, say you have the recommended game to boot up the softmod installer (say you have Splinter Cell). You have the necessary boot files on your Memory Card (say that the files were already there or you transferred them from your PC, say with an Action Replay).

Since you can boot games, you should try to find a game that can also be used as a file transfer medium (like some PSOne games where you can transfer other game saves directly from the game itself).

That way you can transfer the Xbox files to your HDD and boot up the required game to begin the softmod (in this case, Splinter Cell). Then you can use it to extract the eeprom.bin file and save it to your memory card.

From there, transfer the file to your PC and make the HDD maker thing program CD. Then you can reinstall the original dash and hack it asap.

But is there such a game that will also act as a memory card/system manager? Hmm...Since his X-Box had a mod-chip, non of this stuff is needed.


I'm currently in a very similar situation. I have a modded X-Box that I took the hard drive out of a long time ago, so it has no hard drive now. My scenario so far is posted at Xbox-scene.com. Here's the link if you're interested. (http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=681352) Unfortunately, I won't be getting into this further until August or September at the very earliest.


BTW, I'll happily accept donations in the form of X'eyes or Master Systems for any advice I happen to give. :)

[Hep038]

Thanks for the help guys. I am traveling for the weekend, so I will have to try you suggestions when I get back. But I am very excited to get my XBOX up and running MAME. My nephew has got bitten by the retro bug and this is one of the reasons I want to get this system running to expose him to all of the arcade games I played growing up.

Sorry Breetai, the offer of systems was for somebody to take my xbox and set everything up for me. :)

[NayusDante]

If you're selling any of those, would you consider discounting them since we helped with information? :P

[Hep038]

Yeah sure to the guys in this thread, if I get it to work and you are interested in the stuff I am selling, let me know what you are interested in and how much you are willing to pay. If the offer is good, and you are in the good old USA I will pay for shipping.

[Breetai]

Yeah sure to the guys in this thread, if I get it to work and you are interested in the stuff I am selling, let me know what you are interested in and how much you are willing to pay. If the offer is good, and you are in the good old USA I will pay for shipping.Well... Japan is overrun by the US military forces... so I guess you could say I live in the USA.

Does that count? If you're willing to personally deliver, I'll even give you a guided tour of Akihabara!

Seriously, with your modded X-Box, it sounds like you really won't have much trouble getting it going again.

[Hep038]

Hey if shipping to Japan was like shipping to New york, I would have no problem sending it. LOL