A friend gave me many years ago an Xbox unit after his house was flooded by a terrible storm. According to what he told me, the Xbox was full of dirt, but it was cleaned/tested by some technician, and assured me that it worked. He also told me but that it lacks of a hard drive and the lens must be replaced, and it also doesn't have controls or cables. Soooo, I really don't know how to check if what he said is true (except opening and maybe check if it has a hard drive). What could I do with this Xbox? What kind of interesting mod should I try? Is it worth it to buy the parts and try to fix it? I was thinking about maybe doing an Xbox-themed chest and use the case for storage as last option but I don't know. I would appreaciate any suggestion, maybe the console still can have some good use.
Well, given that you can get cables for it for almost nothing (it uses the power cable that most other systems have plug into their power brick and getting an RCA cable for it can't be more than $5), you should be able to test it and see if it turns on. I haven't opened my Xbox but I believe if you wanted to gut it, you'd need to file some stuff down, I believe there's plastic molds in there you'd need to get rid of. If it's just the cables, definitely keep it, there's a ton of great games for the old Xbox that are definitely worth playing.
If it really is missing the hard drive, its going to be pretty difficult to get it going again. APE, I assume a chip will bypass the HD lock check?
I have a hard disk untouched from an Xbox that you can have if it helps? All I would want is postage.
Hey guys, thanks for the responses! I took a look to the console to see which screws I needed to take out, and it didn't have any! It was completely loose. I removed the upper part of the console, and the harddrive bay and the cdrom didn't have screws as well, so I moved them to the side and took a peek to the board. The console has an Aladdin Advance v1.0-1.6 modchip installed, so I think that's a huge plus! I never owned an Xbox so I am not familiar about how to play backups/homebrew, but after searching for some info, the Aladdin seemed to be a good chip. I read also about some software for loading isos through FTP, Dvd2Xbox, EvolutionX, but don't know which is better. Are those together with the Aladdin enough for loading isos? EDIT: I didn't see alecjahn's comment before, now that's a big problem, there is a HDD connected but according the previous owner it is not working. Can get the Xbox to work without it for the time being?
Oh thanks a lot for the offer! I am going to see what my options are right now, and later I will let you know if I could buy it. Thanks again!
I have a motherboard and harddrive just chilling in my closet the only thing missing is the dvd drive and the case.
You'll need a HDD in the XBOX as it's OS is loaded from the drive. To load ISOs, just run UnleashX or Avalaunch and FTP games to your system.
Oh I see, I was hopeless and without too much interest in getting this to work heh, but now I will get some cables and try to boot it up, see if there is still some life in it. I will let you know if I definitely need the HDD. Thanks a lot guys!
well the cables aren't that hard to find, you could practically use any 2 Prong AC power cable (like the one on the picture below) and as far for the RCA AV cable those can be found on at several online retailers and usually cost about $6. I also have a spare controller S for the xbox if you're interested.
