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Author Topic: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!  (Read 18772 times)

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Titchgamer

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Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« on: July 22, 2020, 02:35:33 pm »
Well its been a long lockdown for me thus far being furloughed since march, I have not had so much time on my hands since well Ever really!
Employed since I was 14 and worked every day since so yeah its been a system shock and having bugger all money I have had nothing to do until today....

Forum Member Locke141 very kindly offered me a Original XBOX free of charge! He even TSOP'd it for me and pulled that nasty capacitor out which I appreciate as we all know I hate soldering.
So thank you good sir, You are most kind and a top bannana! Hopfully when this BS virus pisses off I can buy you a beer at zapcon!

Anyways....

So a few weeks later (today) I get a parcel containing a original v1 XBOX :D
Now obviously its a US console and we have 240V over here, So I needed to change out the PSU.
Thankfully I found a UK one of the right type on ebay for £12 so first thing I did was changed that out and powered her up to see if everything made it here in one piece and the PSU actually worked :p




And Voila!

So next thing is a bigger HDD, Now again funds are short and lets be fair IDE HDD's are not the best and yeah you can go SATA but I read many things about having problems with SATA adapters and XBOX's so I decided to go a different route.

I had in stock from when I was doing my A51 cab a selection of IDE to SD and CF adapters as well as a abundance of SD and CF cards.
So a quick google search tells me that they will indeed work and also confirmed by a few guys on a XBOX forum I signed up to who have been really helpful in enabling me to crack on with this as I have never even owned a XBOX before never mind mod'd one!

So I intend on using a 128gb CF card I have lying around however it only dawned on me when I opened the box up both the IDE cable and the Adapter are both female!!
So yeah I have had to order some male apendage (oooo errr misses!!) to join the 2 together ;)

In the mean time however I went to work (to learn and play!) With a SD adapter I also had lying around but of the male variety!

So HDD out and new adapter with 256gb SD card in....



I will stick it down with something eventually but for now its sort of floating there, Cant touch anything anyway so all good haha.

Next I went about installing the OS on it, Found very conflicting info on which disc to use to do this Hexen, Slayer, Robbo etc etc etc.
So after doing some reading I settled on Salyers 2.7, Apparently its old but the cleanest and most functional so I just went with that.

A few mins later and I was greeted with a totally new dashboard!
I then repartitioned the drives so I had the max space on the F drive for games and FTP's Halo over as a tester.



All good!



It seemed to load pretty fast and of course there was no CD or HDD grinding going on which was rather nice.
No idea how fast it loads compared to a actuall HDD or the original disc but it was perfectly acceptable anyways :)

So thats pretty much it for today...

I was intending on carrying on with this over the next few days to get some more games on, Play with the dash and of course actually play some game!

Unfortunately (sods bloody law!) Now I actually have something to do and focus my attentions on after all these months work called me up and now want me in first thing tommorow as apparently something has gone to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- and they need me!!
Typical eh?
Even worse they wont tell me what so I am literally going in blind to a unknown ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- storm at 7am tomorrow!

Well more updates as and when :)





« Last Edit: July 30, 2020, 10:29:22 am by Titchgamer »

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2020, 03:29:32 pm »
Cool beans man.  Let me ask you this... what about partition limits?  That's the only thing keeping me from ditching my OG hdd. 

Titchgamer

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2020, 03:41:53 pm »
Cool beans man.  Let me ask you this... what about partition limits?  That's the only thing keeping me from ditching my OG hdd.

They can be over come by certain Bios's.

Not sure what Bios Locke flashed to this one before he sent it but he tells me its good up to 2tb.

Not that I would want to FTP 2tb over......

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2020, 07:10:59 pm »
Cool! Thanks for sharing details and especially pics of your project. That was pretty generous of Locke141!

I've never owned an original Xbox, but I've played several of the games on the 360. Burnout 3 is really fun and the first Halo really lived up to the hype for me.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2020, 07:35:22 pm »
I've got a 2TB drive in one of mine, turned out the limitation was one of the dashboards I was using. Really overkill as 200gb will easily get you coinops and the games worth playing, IMO.


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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2020, 02:05:31 am »
It'd be nice to have all the games on there though.  Not that anybody would want to play everything, but it means set it and forget it. 

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2020, 07:18:21 am »
It'd be nice to have all the games on there though.  Not that anybody would want to play everything, but it means set it and forget it.

Well I worked out the games I am interested in totals out at 105gb lol

So yeah ime good :)

Also to FTP files over is painfully slow! So a 2TB? Nooo thank you lol
« Last Edit: July 23, 2020, 08:30:16 am by Titchgamer »

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2020, 01:30:21 pm »
You don't have to ftp files over.... you can set them up on the pc before you put the drive in.... or at least you used to be able to. 

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2020, 02:36:51 pm »
You don't have to ftp files over.... you can set them up on the pc before you put the drive in.... or at least you used to be able to. 

Yeah you can inject the files in.
But when I tried it was even slower than FTP and it ended up corrupting the drive :s

I have transferred A-H of my list now so I am about half way through :)

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2020, 07:16:53 am »
So some more progress has been made :)

Firstly my double ended dildo adapter arrived so I can join the CF card adapter into the system, Plugged her in and booted up perfectly :)
Another fast run on slayer 2.7 and I have a working OS on the card.



I then decided to flick through dashes etc and figure out what I liked the look of and I settled on Unleash X in the end, It has the simplest look imo with the most function.



I transfered a couple of games over for testing and the FTP speed difference to a CF card is substantial! With the SD I was getting around 4mb/s now I am getting 10-11 mb/s :D
Loading times also appear faster but I will run proper tests on that once I have sorted the next issue....

So after installing Unleash X I noticed the temps jumped up a little, Not knowing how accurate these things are I decided to do some googling as I know from history the Xbox had questionable quality thermal paste from the factory.

What I discovered was that Unleash X is not that accurate and reports higher temps than the actual.
However they were imo still to high for idle (see pic above) so I thought I would pull the heat sinks to see the state of the thermal paste for myself and change it.



Soooo yeah its nasty....
Rock solid infact so I have ordered some thermal paste cleaner and new thermal paste to try and bring the temps down to a more reliable and less damaging temp!
Unfortunately its going to be a few days so no more playing for the time being....

Oh I also forgot to mention one of the additional features of this new dash is it has a thermal threshold setting, Now I am not certain what this setting does exactly I hope it would shut the system down if it hits it but I can look into it more later.
The max temp of the chip is apparently 80 deg C so I have set that to 70.

Right more once I have the heat sinks back on :D

Titchgamer

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #10 on: July 26, 2020, 01:17:22 pm »
Still waiting on the thermal paste remover and I have had a dull ass day so I started thinking....
Yeah thats always dangerous especially when I have had so much time to myself lately!

I wanted to Jazz the old girl up a bit, Nothing to crazy but wanted to make it "mine". I got thinking about the Jewel on the top and I first thought about making a custom Jewel like I did with my GC but then I thought wheres the fun in that!?
Also as I would find out a little later on it turns out the "XBOX" on the Jewel is sort of cut into the jewel.

So I had seen people who fitted Windows to the top with light and I had seen people who have put LED's around the Jewel etc but I wanted something a little different.
I want RGB for a start (Not seen a RGB XBOX but I presume there is one out there somewhere??)
And I dont want to put LEDS around the Jewel, I want to light the whole Jewel up.

So to the power tools Batman! (Sorry I got that excited with my plans I forgot to take pics.....)

First things first I had to remove the Jewel, Turns out MS probably used the previously mentioned thermal paste to glue the sucker down because to say it was a ---smurfette--- to get off is a understatement!
I heated up the lid from the back using a heatgun after removing the RF shielding and gently pryed the Jewel away from the case.
Even with the heat it did not want to release and took a good 5 mins of me heating and prying to get it off without busting or melting anything!

Once it was off I had to get the sticky pad off the Jewel, This took time, Like lots of time....
I think I spent a good hour dousing it in sticky stuff remover and scraping it with a plastic razor blade scraper thinggy.
I was trying to not damage the plastic underneath as although I intended to polish it after deep scratches are harder to hide!

Once that was all off the real hard work began....

Getting the paint off!
This was more elbow grease and I did it over 2 sessions due to my hands crumping up.
Firstly attacking it with a well worn medium grit sanding stick and water then going over it again with a fine stick and water once it was all transparent.

Now this is where I changed tac to some others, All the XBOX's I have seen where people have made the Jewel transparent have left it that way, I didnt want to do this.
I probably would of if you could see something interesting like the mobo but all you can see is the top of the DVD drive and thats boring!

Soooo I decided to coat the back of the Jewel in white Vinyl I had left over from doing the Neo 29.
Now my hope is that this will serve 2 purposes:

1) It will stop you being able to see the dull internal of the top of the DVD drive and look more "normal" when its off. Besides White always compliments black!
2) Act as a diffuser of sorts for the RGB LED's I plan to install underneath.

So after doing that I banged a 64mm Hole through the top of the XBOX lid and test fitted.
This unfortunately is where I made a mistake in haste albeit a easy one.
Under the Jewel in the middle of the round bit was a small mark which I assumed would be central....
Yeah it wasnt... So when I drilled through the hole was off to the side by a few mm :(
Luckily I "fixed" it by filing out some of the excess on the side that was not cut but managed to leave just enough of a lip to glue the jewel back to.



Thats the only pic you get for now sorry :p

Its not glued yet but sits in there ok.

Now I have ordered some RGB LED's that are powered via a Molex connector so will be dead easy to connect up and fit.
I am not sure how exactly I am going to fit them yet but I will make that call once I have them and can work out how the light gets thrown around under there.







pbj

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #11 on: July 26, 2020, 05:07:29 pm »
I took a belt sander to the back of my jewel.  Ripped that paint right off.  The paint fills in all the gashes so it’s all invisible from the top once you change the color.


I did warp my case with an unattended hair dryer, though.  Oh well.  2004 problems.


Titchgamer

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #12 on: July 26, 2020, 06:13:40 pm »
I took a belt sander to the back of my jewel.  Ripped that paint right off.  The paint fills in all the gashes so it’s all invisible from the top once you change the color.


I did warp my case with an unattended hair dryer, though.  Oh well.  2004 problems.

Yeah I sanded my GC one with a multitool which ripped the paint off quick but then took me ages to polish out so thought I would try it the other way this time :p

Took just as long haha.

Titchgamer

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #13 on: July 27, 2020, 11:59:10 am »
Bit of a bitter sweet update today.

My cleaner came a day early so I have cleaned the chips, Applied some new MX-4 paste and reassembled it all.





On idle its basically running the same temp as before :s
On the plus side when I go into a game it does not seem to be climbing much higher than it is on idle.
I had 15 mins on DOA 3 without any issues and when I returned to the dash it was running 2 degree hotter.

So I guess its doing the job but I am still slightly confused why its not running much cooler idle than it is in game.

Currently its FTP'ing files over and its rose slightly to 55.8 but then its going back down to 55 and bouncing between the to so I guess thats where its capping out at, Not sure if FTPing is more CPU intensive than playing a game though??

I will give it another game session after its finished and see where its at, I read somewhere that thermal paste has to sort of break in so hopefully it will get better once its been hot a while.

So far seems moderately successful so Ile take it for a first attempt lol

« Last Edit: July 30, 2020, 10:33:24 am by Titchgamer »

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #14 on: July 27, 2020, 12:32:44 pm »
Ugh, that doesn't sound like fun and reminds me of trying to use thermal paste to fix a PS3 yellow light of death. I've also had 3 ps2's and numerous sony controllers die on me over the years. A friend had an OG Xbox and a 360 die because of commonly known power supply/cooling issues. I wish Microsoft and Sony would make better quality hardware.

Good luck with your project!

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #15 on: July 27, 2020, 01:24:58 pm »
Ugh, that doesn't sound like fun and reminds me of trying to use thermal paste to fix a PS3 yellow light of death. I've also had 3 ps2's and numerous sony controllers die on me over the years. A friend had an OG Xbox and a 360 die because of commonly known power supply/cooling issues. I wish Microsoft and Sony would make better quality hardware.

Good luck with your project!

Really? I have never know a PS2 fail, I still have my OG Phat PS2 and other than hoovering it out never done anything to it!

But yeah the OG PS3 was very poorly designed in terms of cooling as was the 360.
Sony did sort it out with the PS3 slim as they are much more reliable but XBOX never did quite sort their heating issues out!

As for controllers PS2/3 again not really had any issues with, Now my PS4 controllers on the other hand....
Dont get me started on them!

Titchgamer

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #16 on: July 30, 2020, 04:48:33 pm »
Well I am now basically finished :)
Little video of the light mod I did and a example video of How fast the CF card loads.




« Last Edit: August 02, 2020, 07:04:16 am by Titchgamer »

Titchgamer

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #17 on: August 02, 2020, 07:15:44 am »
Just to finish things off I wanted to get the best picture quality out of it (obviously!) And as it was one of the first consoles to allow HD (albeit lower HD than we have now but still) I really wanted to see what it looked like.

Turns out the Original HD cables for the OG Xbox are stupid expensive now (Bit like the GC component cables!)

I tried a off the shelf pound HDMI adapter from a local game place that are normally pretty good, However these pound adapters are gash so I dont recommend anyone ever buy one!
Luckily said company are very good and are refunding me for said crap.

So anyways I got looking and got pointed to these:


It allows connection of a regular component cable (a decent quality one obv) and also a optical sound! So as good as the OG cables but at less than 1/2 the price ($40)!

The reviews I have seen have been excellent so once it arrives I will report back but it could be quite a while as its coming from Canada. And the Xbox from Locke took a few weeks and that was sent higher priority LOL

Also I wanted to lock the system down to prevent tampering when at events etc.
So I found out I could edit a config file over FTP that hides all the options menus, formatting etc etc.

So now event safe to :)

 

« Last Edit: August 02, 2020, 08:19:11 am by Titchgamer »

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #18 on: August 02, 2020, 02:40:05 pm »
Turns out the Original HD cables for the OG Xbox are stupid expensive now (Bit like the GC component cables!)

No they aren't. 

https://www.ebay.com/i/392729034980?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=392729034980&targetid=930233624056&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9054284&poi=&campaignid=10455978148&mkgroupid=104612011180&rlsatarget=pla-930233624056&abcId=2146002&merchantid=6296724&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyJn5BRDrARIsADZ9ykE1wbxh9BNgwsYddUwCS7PbEvvnK4WVji3FzyBJTDRcoKWVRukMbiwaAjv8EALw_wcB

If you mean NIB cables from Microsoft maybe, but most people didn't use those back in the day anyway... they used whatever generic brand their local electronics store kept in stock. 


Titchgamer

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #19 on: August 02, 2020, 03:20:02 pm »
Turns out the Original HD cables for the OG Xbox are stupid expensive now (Bit like the GC component cables!)



No they aren't. 

https://www.ebay.com/i/392729034980?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=392729034980&targetid=930233624056&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9054284&poi=&campaignid=10455978148&mkgroupid=104612011180&rlsatarget=pla-930233624056&abcId=2146002&merchantid=6296724&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyJn5BRDrARIsADZ9ykE1wbxh9BNgwsYddUwCS7PbEvvnK4WVji3FzyBJTDRcoKWVRukMbiwaAjv8EALw_wcB

If you mean NIB cables from Microsoft maybe, but most people didn't use those back in the day anyway... they used whatever generic brand their local electronics store kept in stock.

Yeah but those are cheap generic things, Same as any other generic AV cable the quality will be poor.

I was talking about the proper shielded HD cables.
They are like £70+ :o

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #20 on: August 02, 2020, 03:51:00 pm »
Actually they usually look just fine.  You absolutely need to get a good quality cable with lines of a adequate thickness, but shielding isn't as necessary as you think.  It prevents interference (which you shouldn't normally have in your entertainment center) and cable cross talk, which isn't really an issue here as each line has it's own rubber insulation.  Companies like monster cables started that whole "you absolutely need shielded cables for the best signal"  business.  I'm not saying don't get shielded cables, I'm just saying if you can't or they are expensive you probably aren't going to notice any difference anyway.  The only thing you want to avoid are rca cables that are noticeably thinner than the ones that came with the console... those are cheap Chinese garbage. 

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #21 on: August 02, 2020, 04:30:54 pm »
I have a set of Psyclone component cables for my Xbox. Image is great, and they sell for $20-30.

I have some pound knock off hdmi adapter and it also looks great...

 :dunno

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #22 on: August 02, 2020, 05:19:54 pm »
Actually they usually look just fine.  You absolutely need to get a good quality cable with lines of a adequate thickness, but shielding isn't as necessary as you think.  It prevents interference (which you shouldn't normally have in your entertainment center) and cable cross talk, which isn't really an issue here as each line has it's own rubber insulation.  Companies like monster cables started that whole "you absolutely need shielded cables for the best signal"  business.  I'm not saying don't get shielded cables, I'm just saying if you can't or they are expensive you probably aren't going to notice any difference anyway.  The only thing you want to avoid are rca cables that are noticeably thinner than the ones that came with the console... those are cheap Chinese garbage.

Well I dont normally use component at all if I am honest, Being a Euro all my consoles are hooked up Via RGB SCART and I only ever get good quality cables as you notice the poor ones pretty quickly!
I have proven sources for them though that dont cost the earth but this is a slightly different beast having early HD compatibility I wanted to see how it looks at its best.

So Yeah going off my previous experiences with SCART cables I wont buy a £3 cable off ebay.

MVG did a interesting video I found earlier on the XBOX though and actually compares the unit I have purchased against a range of other available cables inc cheap ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG3aLLiJuXc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3qseNJdfT4k23oHqnr5gomuEoG-a67xIA4SHx0be13AENC9YuR1N0C2sc

I have a set of Psyclone component cables for my Xbox. Image is great, and they sell for $20-30.

I have some pound knock off hdmi adapter and it also looks great...

 :dunno

I tried the Pound adapter couldn't get it to work at all.
Just kept loosing the signal.



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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #23 on: August 03, 2020, 12:13:15 am »
Well scart is different and you probably do need shielded cables for that.  The difference is the physical design.  RCA/Component cables have each lead physically separated into a rubber coated wire.... that means it has some inherent isolation built in.  Scart is totally different in that all the wires are thrown together into a single glob of wires with a thin, singular outer coating of rubber.  Shielding will help this type of cable as well as vga or anything that doesn't physically isolate the wires. 

That being said I've bought $8 scart cables and I've bought $25 ones.  There's often a difference but sometimes it isn't a dramatic one.  I usually buy the cheap ones since scart connectors come apart anyway I can just use a freebie vga cable and rebuild it if needed. 

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #24 on: August 03, 2020, 01:36:47 am »
Well scart is different and you probably do need shielded cables for that.  The difference is the physical design.  RCA/Component cables have each lead physically separated into a rubber coated wire.... that means it has some inherent isolation built in.  Scart is totally different in that all the wires are thrown together into a single glob of wires with a thin, singular outer coating of rubber.  Shielding will help this type of cable as well as vga or anything that doesn't physically isolate the wires. 

That being said I've bought $8 scart cables and I've bought $25 ones.  There's often a difference but sometimes it isn't a dramatic one.  I usually buy the cheap ones since scart connectors come apart anyway I can just use a freebie vga cable and rebuild it if needed.

Cant argue with you there.
I have broken more SCART cables than I care to count LOL

I have a 8 way SCART switcher on my setup so I am not constantly pluging and unpluging them.
And any I do have to change I tend to buy moulded plugs, They are more expensive but as usual you get what you pay for.
I use JVC branded ones, Getting hard to find now but very reliable and solidly built cables.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #25 on: August 05, 2020, 05:04:59 pm »
Completed the last of my mod's today.
It should of been a fairly straightforward mod but turned into a bit of a arse twitcher!

So I commenced the install of the temp monitor which came yesterday, To install techncially fairly easy as its powered from a Molex and you just have to push the temp probe into the heat sink dead easy....

The case obv had to be cut to accommodate which I did with a Dremel cutter and a file to tidy the edges up etc.

Anyways after all the pissing about etc I reinstalled everything and powered on the console for it to totally lock up at the start screen!  :'(

At this point I am having one of those FFFFFF************KKKKKKKKKKKK moments!

Anyways after a few seconds to recompose myself and gather my thoughts I figured I would just take it apart again and look for anything obvious.

As soon as I glanced in I spotted what I suspected may be the issue.....
I had forgotten to plug the DVD drive power supply back in  :embarassed:
Now in itself that should not of caused any issues (other than to the DVD drive obv) But I had managed to trap it between the mobo and the bottom of the drive!  :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

So at this point I am thinking that I have prob killed the board and will be SOL!

But on the off chance I put everything back and turned it on, Much to my amazement and happiness it all started up ok!
No graphical glitches or errors of any kind!
Plus now have a working thermometer!

So in the end it all went ok although I think I am lucky I didnt fry something permanently! Testament to how solid these little beasts are I guess.

I have had fun modding this thing and got to learn quite a bit along the road, I will totally do one again but dont think I will bother installing a temp monitor again LOL





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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #26 on: August 06, 2020, 12:00:55 pm »
Wow, nice work. I’m very glad it’s working out well for you.

The one I did for my self has a 2GB HD with all the OG game on it, only 2 or 3 unplayable. I have a huge collection of the old consoles so haven’t added much in terms of emulator. I may add the MAME emulator, but I will probably just add a PC from MAME to the setup.

Good job on this build
« Last Edit: August 06, 2020, 12:22:02 pm by Locke141 »

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #27 on: August 06, 2020, 06:21:33 pm »
Wow, nice work. I’m very glad it’s working out well for you.

The one I did for my self has a 2GB HD with all the OG game on it, only 2 or 3 unplayable. I have a huge collection of the old consoles so haven’t added much in terms of emulator. I may add the MAME emulator, but I will probably just add a PC from MAME to the setup.

Good job on this build

Cheers man, Its all thanks to you :)

I dont think ide have the patience to download and FTP an entire XB set over LOL

I have no intention of putting mame etc on it, I have cabs for that.

But a friend of mine has seen what I have done with mine and asked if I can soft mod his 1.6 and install MAME on it for him.
So that will be my next project by the sounds heh.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #28 on: August 06, 2020, 07:02:57 pm »
Ok so I have a 3 step process to finish that bad boy up. 

Step 1:  Install Outrun 2
Step 2:  Install Outrun C2C
Step 3:  There is no step three...those two games are all you need.   :cheers:

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #29 on: August 06, 2020, 10:02:19 pm »
I am going to be bummed if the answer is yes but, can you soft mod an Xbox like that if you do not have the EEprom backed up and the hard drive is dead? I just got rid of an old Xbox my son had because I had deleted all the softmod and EEprom stuff I had figuring I was done with that. So he said the hard drive died and gave it back to me and I never really looked into it other than to see if I could find a backup of the files I had. When I couldn't find those, I tossed it. :( I will be bummed if I find out I could have brought it back to life.

J_K_M_A_N

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #30 on: August 06, 2020, 10:15:17 pm »
Yea mine is mostly just to hold all the OG Xbox games for me.

JKMAN, not modded OG Xboxes are super cheep. Something friends  just give them to me from time to time. I would keep an eye out and just hard mod one when you find one. Also always remove the clock Capacitor, MS used ones with issues that kill the motherboard over time.
« Last Edit: August 07, 2020, 07:06:31 am by Locke141 »

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #31 on: August 07, 2020, 03:36:52 am »
I am going to be bummed if the answer is yes but, can you soft mod an Xbox like that if you do not have the EEprom backed up and the hard drive is dead? I just got rid of an old Xbox my son had because I had deleted all the softmod and EEprom stuff I had figuring I was done with that. So he said the hard drive died and gave it back to me and I never really looked into it other than to see if I could find a backup of the files I had. When I couldn't find those, I tossed it. :( I will be bummed if I find out I could have brought it back to life.

J_K_M_A_N

I believe it can be done but not worth the effort.
Easier and cheaper to just get another Xbox.

Howard, Already had Outrun on it ;)

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #32 on: August 07, 2020, 07:03:15 am »
That is what I thought. But then something made me think you had done all this with a dead hard drive and I was like  :censored:. :)

I will have to keep an eye out. Sounds like a fun project. I used to play a couple games with my son. Not a lot with those new fangled controllers though.  :oldman

Thanks.

J_K_M_A_N

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #33 on: August 07, 2020, 07:23:40 am »
That is what I thought. But then something made me think you had done all this with a dead hard drive and I was like  :censored:. :)

I will have to keep an eye out. Sounds like a fun project. I used to play a couple games with my son. Not a lot with those new fangled controllers though.  :oldman

Thanks.

J_K_M_A_N

Oh nah the OG HDD was fine, But was only 8gb.
Plus its TSOP flashed so the HDD does not need to be locked.
Most people suggest nulling the HDD key after soft mod’ing.
That way you can easily put another drive in as the key is just 0’s lol

But from my experiences thus far with this console is the TSOP flash is probably the best and easiest method to mod it.
Especially if your soldering skills aint up to much like mine!

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #34 on: August 11, 2020, 11:24:37 am »
Considering you do not need to anymore I would say TSOP is the way to go.

I have been trying to get a 500GB SATA into my soft modded OG Xbox for some time now.  Got the 100 ATA cable,  StarTech SATA to IDE and a WDS5000AAKS (checked and it is compatible) with Chimp 2.6 (the only version I can get to work).

Xbox only sees 140gb after format and swap. So I dig out my aging IDE drives.  1x 160gb and 1x 120gb.  Enough for CoinOPS massive and a few games, but I want more space. The latest Chimp doesn't work and you need the original controller, CVBS cable, some pixie dust, and a nice day for it to work.  Must be the pixie dust as it will totally ignore the latest Chimp and returns happily in the Evolution X dash.  I've already sunk in $50 so far and it wasn't nearly as hard last time with a mod chip.

I'm open to suggestions.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #35 on: August 11, 2020, 11:39:20 am »
I just don't understand why so many people act like soldering is some difficult task.

Unless you have hooves where hands should be it only takes a little practice to gain proficiency.

Putting down that ink looks more difficult than soldering.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #36 on: August 11, 2020, 03:36:33 pm »
Considering you do not need to anymore I would say TSOP is the way to go.

I have been trying to get a 500GB SATA into my soft modded OG Xbox for some time now.  Got the 100 ATA cable,  StarTech SATA to IDE and a WDS5000AAKS (checked and it is compatible) with Chimp 2.6 (the only version I can get to work).

Xbox only sees 140gb after format and swap. So I dig out my aging IDE drives.  1x 160gb and 1x 120gb.  Enough for CoinOPS massive and a few games, but I want more space. The latest Chimp doesn't work and you need the original controller, CVBS cable, some pixie dust, and a nice day for it to work.  Must be the pixie dust as it will totally ignore the latest Chimp and returns happily in the Evolution X dash.  I've already sunk in $50 so far and it wasn't nearly as hard last time with a mod chip.

I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for sharing that, Its funny I was thinking to myself about that stuff the other day and if it could work for these kind of things.

Think you answered your own Q though.....

Ditch the soft mod and TSOP that biatch!

Titchgamer

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #37 on: August 11, 2020, 03:40:32 pm »
I just don't understand why so many people act like soldering is some difficult task.

Unless you have hooves where hands should be it only takes a little practice to gain proficiency.

Putting down that ink looks more difficult than soldering.

I know how to solder, Years ago I actually used to be quite good.
But I cant hold my hand steady enough on small points anymore, I can still do large through hole solder pads with a bit of effort but small to board solder joints are a no go for me.

Its one of those things I am quite ashamed of really but usually think of ways to avoid it.

Regarding the ink though I think I would prob have the same issues, But atleast its easier to get off if I were to smear it over somthing I did not mean to LMAO.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #38 on: August 11, 2020, 04:06:21 pm »
Having a physical difficulty is a different thing altogether.
Sorry to hear that.
I just see people going to great lengths to avoid learning to solder in the first place.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #39 on: August 11, 2020, 05:16:56 pm »
I consider myself to be fairly proficient with soldering and have done some complex console upgrades like the UltraHDMI on the N64 and the NESRGB on my AV Famicom. Unfortunately when I went to solder the points on the XBOX for the TSOP the damn solder pads burnt off. I barely applied heat, but they must be fairly sensitive. I ended up softmodding it instead. Apparently there are some alternate TSOP points I can try. I may give it another go when I have some free time...   

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #40 on: August 11, 2020, 05:25:56 pm »
Install a bios that disables the DVD drive check. Then you don't have to hot swap - you can leave the old and new bigger HD plugged in. Clone old to new and tell chimp to make the big partitions.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #41 on: August 11, 2020, 05:50:17 pm »
Just had a another thought about the ink...
It would actually be a good solution as once its TSOPd you could get it back off to prevent accidental flashing.
And in game pimps case much less chance of accidental damage.

I was thinking of picking up another unit to play around with so I may get some of that ink to try.

Been looking for an excuse and reason to play with it any try it out for a few years since I first saw it lol.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #42 on: August 11, 2020, 08:49:24 pm »
Some of them were really difficult to solder.  I also encountered several 1.0 xboxes that simply would not flash. I'd usually cut off about an inch piece of solder and tack both ends to the solder points, do the flash, and remove it. Once you're on M8 you're never changing it again anyway.


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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #43 on: August 12, 2020, 01:59:44 am »
Some of them were really difficult to solder.  I also encountered several 1.0 xboxes that simply would not flash. I'd usually cut off about an inch piece of solder and tack both ends to the solder points, do the flash, and remove it. Once you're on M8 you're never changing it again anyway.

Yeah I read one particular board revision (1.0 or 1.1) with a certain bios chip is a bastard to do.

But yeah I agree once its flashed no need to do it again.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #44 on: August 17, 2020, 05:41:19 pm »
The ink came today and it is messy and needs some preparation before hand unless you want black goo everywhere.  :o

You need a matchstick and very tiny amounts of the stuff and leave it for one hour to dry.

OMG I wished I knew this existed years ago.  I have burnt and ruined the pads on the Xbox so many times.  This stuff is cheap at $6.99 and the amount you need is minimal.  You could buy those applicators for thermal paste and sell them on to TSOP modders.

Messy stuff though.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #45 on: August 17, 2020, 06:07:00 pm »
The ink came today and it is messy and needs some preparation before hand unless you want black goo everywhere.  :o

You need a matchstick and very tiny amounts of the stuff and leave it for one hour to dry.

OMG I wished I knew this existed years ago.  I have burnt and ruined the pads on the Xbox so many times.  This stuff is cheap at $6.99 and the amount you need is minimal.  You could buy those applicators for thermal paste and sell them on to TSOP modders.

Messy stuff though.

I'm glad to know that a) I'm not the only one that has burned the solder pads doing this TSOP mod and b) that the soldering "ink" actually works. I have a second XBOX that I'd like to perform the mod on and I think I will give this solder ink a try. For $7 it seems like it can't hurt...

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #46 on: August 17, 2020, 06:14:17 pm »
I wonder if that could be used to repair a broken ribbon cable on a virtual boy.  One of mine tore on me when I tried to solder it to the pcb.... I really wish somebody sold replacement cables. 

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #47 on: August 17, 2020, 07:29:33 pm »
Graphite mixed with Elmer’s will also work.


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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #48 on: August 18, 2020, 05:35:59 am »
The ink came today and it is messy and needs some preparation before hand unless you want black goo everywhere.  :o

You need a matchstick and very tiny amounts of the stuff and leave it for one hour to dry.

OMG I wished I knew this existed years ago.  I have burnt and ruined the pads on the Xbox so many times.  This stuff is cheap at $6.99 and the amount you need is minimal.  You could buy those applicators for thermal paste and sell them on to TSOP modders.

Messy stuff though.

I got some to!
Not tried it out yet but I have another friends xbox en route to me so maybe get some use in then :)

Thermal paste syringe may work, But a needle or somthing seems to be the best way to control the application heh.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #49 on: September 02, 2020, 02:37:01 pm »
My XOSVP arrived today, And I am really impressed.
The difference in quality is night and day.
These are all 420p shots as I dont have any of the 720p games but I will hunt one down to try.
Soul Caliber 2 probably :p

Old Screenshot for comparison:


New Screen Shot:


More new shots for looks...



« Last Edit: September 02, 2020, 04:56:57 pm by Titchgamer »

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #50 on: September 04, 2020, 06:25:27 am »
Got a few pics of Soul Calibur 2...







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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #51 on: September 04, 2020, 10:53:29 am »
Looks really good. It's amazing how crisp these old consoles can look.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #52 on: September 04, 2020, 11:24:23 am »
Looks really good. It's amazing how crisp these old consoles can look.

Yeah not bad for something thats nearly 20 years old heh.

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Re: Titch's newest project: OG Xbox!
« Reply #53 on: November 16, 2020, 06:44:56 pm »
Picked up the GRS spinner.  Installed it in CoinOPS 8 Massive on the Xbox and it works like a dream.

Use Controller Port 3 and a simple USB cable mod and you are in business.