[Answered] question : which Xbox mod chip is cheap and easy?

[spystyle]

Howdy,

I just found out my nephew is lending me an Xbox, what a nice lad. Naturally having DSL and a DVD burner I have the idea that I can.... find Xbox backups.

So what Modchip to choose?

I would like a modchip that just seamlessly boots the backups, no swaps and button holding or anything.

Also it would be nice if it was cheap

Thank you,
Craig

[SNAAKE]

duox2 white amd logo..boots anything no swap and xbox live compatible.I mod xboxes too $65 includes installation and chip pm if any interest 

[pointdablame]

Just find a nice solderless chip and be done with it.  You can do the install in 5 mins.  What chip to get depends on what version xbox it is, or you could get the SPICE solderless chip that works with all versions.

[spystyle]

Well I found the DUOX2 for $15 and the Spice for $60 so I opted for the DUOX2 (I am poor)

I also went for the "solder female pin header and add solder kit" for $5

I have no idea what that means, but I can gamble for $5

I bought them from here:

http://tinyurl.com/94rdg

and read this install instruction:

http://tinyurl.com/9ubul

It looks pretty simple, we'll see...

Thanks for the replies
Craig

[rchadd]

i got xecuter 3 fitted in mine and completely happy with it.

press power button quickly the xbox boots with mod chip enabled

press power button and hold a bit longer and xbox boots with mod chip disabled to allow playing on xbox live

it has backup 256K flashbios to help recover in case you flash a bad bios to the chip.

it has 2Mb flash ram and can select 2 x 1Mb, 4 x 512K or 8 x 256K banks to flash bioses to.

check out www.teamxecuter.com

i used solder option with an LPC rebuild kit (not too hard to fit)

i have also just bought a xecuter 2.6 budget chip to fit in my brothers xbox - im sure it will be just as good with cut down features (less flash memory options)

[ROMbler]

I recently put in an Xecuter 3 CE and it's great.  Like rchadd said, a quick press of the power button and your chip is on.  You can set it to auto run whatever backup disc you put in the drive, just like the MS dashboard. Good luck with your mod!

[BobA]

Question about a little war going on in the mod scene.  I have a brand new xbox that needs a mod chip.  Is there actually a v1.7 as some groups say or is it just a variant of the 1.6.  I just don't want to order and find out I need some other setup.

Thanks

[Samstag]

Question about a little war going on in the mod scene.

[BobA]

Just thought that I would pose the question in Consoles due to the wide range of expertise in BYOAC.

[BobA]

Thanks for the info Craig.
Email sent.

[rchadd]

there is 1.6 and 1.6b

friend of mine tried to install an X3 that he bought a while ago (before 1.6b existed) and it did not work on his xbox. when i tested it in mine it works fine! we concluded he had a 1.6b machine and the 3.0.0 version of flashbios that was installed on the X3 chip was not compatible.

i flashed the latest X3 bios onto his chip using my machine and everything was fine for him...

note i think latest X3 chips have both version 3.0.0 and 3.0.3 flash bioses installed on them in two different banks of memory. just need to switch to other bank and reboot if you get a black screen when you first switch the xbox on after modding it.

[BobA]

There is a large price difference between the Duox2 and the Xecuter 3.

[spystyle]

Groovy, they came in! OTB Mods charged me "actual shipping" it's a miracle I recommend them. Now to install the chip...

I dissassembled the unit following this
http://www.chipzone.com/installation/xbox/disassembly.cfm

I found out what version Xbox bios I have by reading this:
http://www.xbox-scene.com/versions.php

(I used a continuity tester instead of a multimeter where advised, it worked)

Watched this video installation, it's good but I recommend a tiny bit of flux on the solder points on the motherboard:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=449151

Then installed the chip using this diagram:
http://www.duomodchip.com/english/install.htm#4

Booted the Xbox, it works! No smoke! It asks for a bios CD.

I got the "eurasia pro generic flash disc"
http://tinyurl.com/8pn2r

and the "EvolutionX M8plus Bios"
http://www.xbox-hacks.net/download/xbox/bios/EvolutionX/

I resized the bios file from 256 to 512 using "EVtool_1.0.9"
http://home.alltel.net/nghtshd/evtool.html

(With this tool I was able to disable the boot animation - that st00pid annoying green goo animation and XBOX logo sequence, meaning it will just boot directly into the game, or if no disk is inserted it boots to the "dashboard" - awesome)

then made a bios disk following these instructions:
http://www.teamxecuter.com/flashbios/cd.htm

Burned an ISO to DVD-R with Nero @ 4X and *voila* it works

Happy Happy Joy Joy

[rchadd]

I recommend a tiny bit of flux on the solder points on the motherboard

flux is essential when soldering on motherboard it enables a good joint and minimizes the length of time that you need to hold iron at the solder point (less chance of damaging the board!)

[slycrel]

Curious, why do you feel (or anyone in general) like you need to buy a mod chip when you can use a software hack to do the same thing?  That never made sense to me.

[versapak]

Soft modding sucks nuts.

90% of all big problems that you ever hear about modded Xboxes these days come from fools that soft modded.

Fortunately for me I bought both my Xboxes back in the first year, and don't need a modchip or softmod thanks to a nice 1MB TSOP, but if I were to buy one of the newer Xboxes, I would no doubt get a chip for it.

I guess as long as you are very careful, you won't have to worry so much about f'n up your softmod, but with a chip, there is no worry at all, especially when you have multiple banks to boot from.

[SOAPboy]

Soft modding sucks nuts.

90% of all big problems that you ever hear about modded Xboxes these days come from fools that soft modded.

Fortunately for me I bought both my Xboxes back in the first year, and don't need a modchip or softmod thanks to a nice 1MB TSOP, but if I were to buy one of the newer Xboxes, I would no doubt get a chip for it.

I guess as long as you are very careful, you won't have to worry so much about f'n up your softmod, but with a chip, there is no worry at all, especially when you have multiple banks to boot from.

Name a problem, id love to debunk them.

The only thing is Xbox Live, not a huge deal to alot of people.. so theres one i cant debunk..

[spystyle]

Curious, why do you feel (or anyone in general) like you need to buy a mod chip when you can use a software hack to do the same thing?  That never made sense to me.

Tell us how to softmod

[BobA]

Only one of many softmod related topics.

[slycrel]

http://www.xbox-scene.com is the place to check all this out.

The funny thing about softmodding is that if all else fails you can chip it and recover.

If you backup your HDD locking key and eeprom dump (for a new HDD if it goes bad) and a copy of your C drive (~20 megs IIRC) you can always recover anyway, assuming you're willing to put your HDD in a PC and such.

The only thing is you have to have one of those games to get things started.   I already had the original mech assault so that wasn't a problem.  I think you can get splinter cell for like $10 used.  Or you can borrow a game, that's what a lot of people do if they don't already have one o fthe exploitable ones.

I recently upgraded my HDD to a 200 gig drive.  I updated my exploit and magically have lba48 support, which is >137 gigs available on a HDD.  The stock xbox doesn't have this.

Anyhow.  I think it's better than trying to solder or attach a chip, plus it's free.