Softmodded Xbox to Tsop Tutorial Needed

I got an as new original Xbox recently and softmodded it with Ndure 3.1 / Unleash X.

I already cloned the original Hdd to a 250gb, and it works fine.

I am good at soldering and would have no problem bridging the points on the motherboard, so I want to Tsop flash it, it's a V1.1 with a 1meg Tsop.

Can I use Unleash X to flash X2 5035 to it and how is this done?

Can anyone point me to a good tutorial?

 

I use the Gentoox bootloader to flash mine. For the Gentoox method it's best done with a composite video cable since component doesn't work on analogue TV sets. Install the Gentoox as an app in UnleashX, make a folder in the root of the C drive titled "BIOS" Put the Bios there making sure it is 1024K since you have a 1.0 board, be sure the points for the write enable are bridged, load Gentoox up and have at it. It's pretty intuitive at that point. If not, I can walk you through the menu screen if confused still.

Google search for the latest Gentoox. That's what I used.

 

Get evox dash, run as app - flash from there, its built into the dash.

 

Do that. I think it would be much easier than the method I use.

 

Thanks for your quick replies, I may go with X-ecuter 2 4981 BIOS instead as it is supposed to load quicker and I found a tutorial on how to set it up in XbTool, it looks pretty easy, set and forget, I will use the Evox method that seems easy too.

One more question, once I flash it what do I do with my Ndure 3.1 softmod?

 

I have been reading up on TSOP flashing and it appears that the only reasons I would want to do that is:

1. Makes it easier to upgrade the Hdd.
2. It harder to make it mess up.

I have got my Ndure softmod working at the moment and am going to run XBMC as the dash.

I already upgraded my hdd to a WD 250gb using Chimp and it works fine. There is nothing stopping me from cloning another Hdd as I have the original Hdd that's softmodded as well.

I have a PC that has no problem running XBoxHdm and as I have the eeprom.bin it will lock and unlock drives as well, I used this method to unlock the drive for the softmod.

So it's just incase it messes up by files getting deleted or corrupted which is unlikely in my case as I'm the only one using it.

I will see how it goes, I can always flash the Tsop in future.

 

Why don't you flash the tsop anyway and leave the hdd as it is?

 

That was my earlier question, If I flash the Tsop what happens with the Ndure 3.1 soft mod?

 

Absolutely nothing. TSOP flash doesn't do anything to the hard drive. It just puts an alternate BIOS on the console for extra benefits. Things like no DVD check, no need to lock the HDD, 128MB RAM upgrade support for certain BIOS files, in game reset to dash, etc.

Biggest benefits are the no DVD drive check and no need for locking the HDD. You can unlock the hard drive for easier access and if the DVD drive craps out you aren't dead in the water. Other benefits include the ability to play burned games from disk, some can run debug code if you have a 128MB RAM upgraded board, the list goes on.

In short, the hard drive won't be affected at all. You can still run it locked with the alternate BIOS but I see no reason to. If the machine dies then using the drive on another will be harder since you will need the security key to unlock it and that will be hard to pull from a dead console. Unlocked drive can simply be locked with the new key for another machine or run unlocked if it has an alternate BIOS by means of modchip or TSOP too.

 

So to be clear:

I can use any DVD drive in my Xbox with a flashed Tsop? And is it true the I don't need any mod files on the Hdd so I could delete those and just have XBMC and other dashboards.

I was thinking of doing this, put Evox on as an app, flash the Tsop, unlock the Hdd with XboxHDM (I already have the eeprom.bin, I made a reader) and reinstall the stock C drive files, and have XMBC, Evox and Msdash and that should be it? Delete the mod files from E: as well, just leaving the Apps, Games, Udata, etc.

Because the bios on the Tsop just needs a dash and if I want to ever bring up Msdash I need the stock files in C?

 

So I can just have the regular C: files and XBMC, Evox, and MSDash if I wanted, and I could delete all the rest?

As I understand it the chip has the boot sequence.

 

Yesterday I got to work altering the code in Race Driver 2, for some reason Codemasters made this game incredibly hard in championship mode for the average player, and that's me.

I reduced the cornering ability of the CPU drivers which makes the game a lot fairer, as they don't just fly around the corners while hardly slowing down. I left their straight line speed and aggression the same.

Now the game is much better, I have a much better chance or doing well in the races, but not have to restart a race like 20 times just to come in the top 3 like it was before.

This is the reason I wanted to mod my Xbox so I can play games of the Hdd and then alter them to suit me.

 

UnleashX has game ripping, HDD loading, and a file browser built in. It also has FTP for easier access to the game files on the HDD.

 

Thinking in computer terms the Tsop has the bios like the bios in a computer, MS bios has it handicapped so it can't do much, the custom bios lets it run free.

The dashboard is like the operating system, it has everything to make it run and access programs.

I wasn't sure about XBMC but now I understand how it works I think it's great.

 

Thinking of maybe leaving UnleashX in favor of XBMC myself to get all the RAM on my 128MB console to work at startup.

 

XBMC is great. Get a component cable if you haven't already.

I have heard it's hard to upgrade the ram, I can solder tiny 8 pin SMD's but not sure about those ram chips with all those pins, I might try doing it on an older computer ram module to see how hard it is.

 

PC ram modules have much less pins than the xbox ram.

 

Great, you have done this.

Did you use a rework station, or a hot air gun with low melt solder?

How did you clean the old solder off the pads, vacuum?

I design analog circuits, build prototype PCB's and then design and have manufactured PCB's made.

Did you use a SMT stencil, I can make one of those at home, then use it to apply the solder paste and use a hot air gun to remelt it, I think that would be best it looks like a QFP 0.65mm pitch 20 x 30 outline, I have that outline on my CAD program, I think this would be easiest would you agree?

My workbench at home:

 

Yes, I did one like 2 days ago.

Solder off the pads - desoldering braid
Fit the chips - soldering iron, drag soldering method. Once all seems applied ok, go over it with hot air rework station to make sure everything is 100%
Removing donor chips - hot air and dental pick.

Stencil would probably work really well. If you make one, I would like one


Id post a picture of my workshop, but its a mess. But I have a 100mhz scope, IR BGA rework station, hot air station, soldering station, desoldering station, $1200 universal programmer, logic analyser(s), and some other stuff.

Do want a drill press though!

 

I do have one along with a 5.1 surround sound setup. Only thing I'm missing is a 720P or 1080P flat screen and a EMS Top Gun 3 to have the perfect setup. The Top Gun 3 works on the Xbox and is made for the LCD flat screens. May have to upgrade that next since my Toshiba CRT set cuts too much off the edges for the overscan section. At least it takes 640x480 component video and it was found by a dumpster for the cost of me hauling it 200 feet to the apartment I was living in at the time.