How to softmod your Xbox and install XBMC for free

tetsujin1979

Made the mistake of not having my PC's Hard Drive connected on power on, I had already removed the IDE cable to reduce time when hotswapping the drives.
Once I realised this, it was easy to get it set up.
I'd also recommend confirming through the BIOS that the Hard Drive you are going to hotswap out is the Primary Master, and the CD Drive is on the Secondary cable. Not sure if it makes a difference if it's a master or slave, but I have it set to master.
Next up is to replace the hard drive in the XBox.

johnnyboy4711

went into Game (not gamestop) in galway yesterday and they said they had 2nd hand xbox originals for sale for €30.
the guy did say that certain models could be modded and some couldnt be(or maybe it was easier to mod earlier models that later ones)
not sure myself but whats the craic on this?
thanks
john

ongarite

Not for this guide. They are all just the same for this hotswap method or memory card softmod.
I avoid XBOX version 1,1.1 (made in hungary) as they are the loudest.

weeder

mine isnt after some TLC

a LOT of that noice comes from the jacketed seagate drive they have in it

johnnyboy4711

splinter cell,mech assault and what other one?
thanks
john

PS got machine in GAME Galway for €30 bucks
not bad but once bitten twice shy re:hotswap method so i think i might got for memory card option.
Once modded what can i expect XBMC and what else.
is there a description on what i would get anywhere?
also how do you transfer files from the pc to the memory card when usually from what i can see you dont get a usb connector from pc to memory card.

a seperate topic on increasing the size of the hdd and/or streaming media from pc through router .Anyone done either of these???if so any good tutorials out there?


thanks for all your help!
again
j

Black_Knight

johnnyboy4711 wrote: »

a seperate topic on increasing the size of the hdd and/or streaming media from pc through router .Anyone done either of these???if so any good tutorials out there

Ive done both to all my ones. Ive a tutorial on it here

Both mine have 250Gb Hard drives. My dad did his and he has a 500Gb hard drive.

weeder

i am GENUINLEY confused here,if i try saving a file anywhere in F i get an error about not being allowed save files in root,only happened since i changed to a wireless adaptor and im not sure if its with the other Dir's

any ideas?

weeder

update on this,i can ftp single files to anywhere on the xbox but the moment i try a directory i have trouble, using filezilla on ubuntu

weeder

formatted drive same problem, same problem on a wired connection ARGH

ongarite

What dash are you using?

weeder

tried with XBMC and evox


installed with slayers and upgraded to t3ch

weeder

seems it was my client f*cking about, in other news, the lack of long file names sucks

ongarite

Nothing can be done about that. Its a FATX(16) limitation along with 4GB file size.

robbie1876

Just wanted to say a big thanks to Longfield for posting this tutorial, great work. I only fried one Xbox in the process, but at the second attempt everything went swimmingly and I am now enjoying streamed movies from my PC.

God job Longfield!

Robbie

weeder

well i tempted faith and tried to do a 1.6 lpc last night, didnt go too well

but on the bright side i can fix lifted traces now

witnessmenow

Ok I have another problem for you guys!

Tried to hot swap an xbox there yesterday, and it didnt work. When it was installing the Ndure on it had about 10 read write errors on step 2/3 of putting ndure on. When it finished it didnt load up any dash at all (just got to the x symbol , sometimes should a blank screen and other times was showing me error 13/16 or 21 (i think!), as you can tell i've tried this more than once!).

I manged to fix it with a the modified version of the hot swap cd (If any body has the same problem as i had just ask and i'll post up how to fix it)

Any body know what those read write errors are about? It says that things are read only(I'll post exactly what they are later today) I tried with a generic kernel cd too and i had the similar problems

Aprreciate any help guys!

Ron DMC

I didn't come across any problems with the ndure install at all so can't really comment.

I did however have an issue when it went to back up the original dash. There was a space issue on the drive (due to a load of music being saved on it), and so it resulted up with an error, it looks like the files and all for the original dash are there, but any time I launch it, it ust brings me back to xbmc.
No biggie really as everything still works grand and can load games no problem, and my network settings etc all seem to be working grand.

As an aside, is there a simple to follow walkthrough anywhere on how to set up Vista shares and get them to show up in xbmc? I've had to use uPnP streaming for the last few days (which is fine watching video, but transferring files doesn't work).

tetsujin1979

I did mange to wreck the first XBox I tried this, I get the XBox start up screen, then nothing happens and eventually a "Contact support" screen, with error 07 in the corner.
From what I've read around on the net, the hard drive is broken, and there's nothing I can do about this, is that correct?

witnessmenow

Yeah , Apperently error 7 is when the xbox isnt detecting a hard drive.

I know it sounds stupid but did you make sure the 2 hard drive cables are firmly in?

I just cant figure it out at all! I've tried googling the errors and i'm not the only one to have it, but the peopl who had it never seemed to get answers, some of them just came back and said "its ok i got it sorted now" but never said what they did!

Its hardly the media im using for the cd is it? The first 4-5 xboxes i did i used tesco brand CD-R and all seems good, the last one i did was using an aldi CD-R (i've been using these cds since aldi came to the country and i never have issues with them, so i dont think its this)

Also none of the xboxes i've done dual boot, im 99.99% positive i followed all the instructions, any one else have this problem?

tetsujin1979

witnessmenow wrote: »

Yeah , Apperently error 7 is when the xbox isnt detecting a hard drive.

I know it sounds stupid but did you make sure the 2 hard drive cables are firmly in?

Yeah, they're in all the way.
What I did was start my PC without the hard drive plugged into the IDE cable, this was to save time hotswapping the drives. When I plugged the XBox hard drive in, and ran xbrowser it failed to detect the hard drive, so I shut down the PC, with the XBox hard drive still connected.
Not sure exactly what damage was caused, but it's not working anymore. I could go down this route - http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Repairs/Reading_Xbox_Hdd_key.htm - but I'm not that good with soldering.
The second XBox I bought worked out fine, and XBMC is running away on it, so I've no real need to fix the other one.

weeder

a new xbox would be more worth it tbh because even if you get it unlocked you dont have an eeprom to relock it

witnessmenow

That should have sone anything should it? Did the hard drive get powered off at any stage during the hotswap?

I was a bit worng, error 7 is where an Isnt getting a response from an IDE cable, it could be your DVD drive, also check that the IDE cable is plugged into the motherboard properly (Sorry , i know this stuff sounds really obvious but just to make sure you've covered all bases before you write it off) they could have come lose during the hot swapping. Sure if you get it fixed you can sell it and give me some of the money:p

Nick_oliveri

Gamestop rode me with dongles for the controller, if anyone is willing to send out their bricked xboxes dongles, please let me and anyone else in the same boat know.

edit: tetsujin1979, try another IDE cable after following what witness said. Worth a try.

witnessmenow

BTW i fixed my problem with the installing of ndure.

I burned the CD again and it worked fine, apperently i hade done something worng with the NDURE file that longfield attached.

But this console just does not love me!
Did the hotswap, now i have no MS dash (Unleash is working fine though) Currently downloading the AID cd to see if that can sort it out, as ftping the dash on isnt working for some reason?

I'll upload the iso of the recovery CD that i (kinda) made over the next few days, there was definitly one person on this thread who had the same problem as me!

Nick_oliveri

Witness what happens when you press the eject button from power off? I do know the orig dash is somewhere on xbins. How to install it without messing up the softmod is another story.

witnessmenow

None of my consoles that i tested dual boot, they all boot the same thing that they do when you push the power button(UnleashX or XBMC) I have the original dash downloaded alright, but as you said putting it back on with out affecting the soft mod might be another story altogether!

Supercell

sugarman wrote: »

Didn have a chance read everyones comments but would it be possible to use an ide external hdd through usb as i only have a laptop for doin this?

No, don't try this.

witnessmenow

@ Sugerman: Any old crap Pc will do the job grand as long as it has two IDE connection( which i've never seen any old pc not having)


Oh dear god this crystal xbox is driving me CRAZY! I've figured out the problem why my MS dash isnt working. Shadow C is not installing properly, I'm trying to manually do it but my bloody C drive is full!

To add insult to injury its phillips dvd drive started to give up last night so i switched it with a samsung one in another xbox i have, I have about 50 blank DVD+R..... the samsungs dont read DVD+Rs! I hate you xbox!

ongarite

Please take screenshot of your C:\ drive so I can have a look at it please. Thanks

witnessmenow

Thanks for the offer Ongarite , but i literally just fixed it 2 mins ago!

I copied the real c drive of one modified xbox to my pc, then ftp'd the crystal one and compared them folder by folder, it ended up the crystal one had 2 files extra on the root of the c drive that were using all the room. For anyone who wants to know a proper real C drive should look like this



To get to the real C drive :

On unleashX or XBMC go to file browser/manager.

Go to your E:\ndts\ and select default.xbe

Your status light at the front should change red, now when you ftp the xbox the c drive will be the real one.( The one you Ftp without doing this is the ShadowC one)

One last problem(then i can sleep happy!!!) this , like all of the xboxs i've done do not dual boot(ie pressing eject when off does not boot the original MS dash), is there anything i can do now to fix this?