Things You Must Know About The Xbox:, Starting a list.... Options

[BenJeremy]

The first thing you should do, after modding an Xbox, is BACK UP THE HARD DRIVE!!!

The next thing you should do is BACK UP THE EEPROM!!!

There never has been, nor will there be, a PS2 or Gamecube emulator for the Xbox. Likewise, there is no Dreamcast emulator, either, and probably won't be one. Anybody who claims this is lying to you.

There is support for a keyboard in only one commercial game - Phantasy Star Online. M$ offers USB adapters, free, except for shipping and handling. Games that do not have this support cannot be 'patched' for this, though.

Evolution-X is really two different things: a Modchip BIOS, and a replacement dashboard. Technically, Evolution-X is the dashboard, and Evo-X refers to the BIOS, or not. It's like Soda Pop or Pop or Coke... you just have to figure it out for yourself.

Evo-X BIOSes usually come numbers, as in: 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 and now D.6 (The "D" stands for "Dual" and boots in all versions of Xbox)

QUOTE

Evo-X and X2 BIOSes (the most current available) are "hacked" BIOSes. They are derived from the original Micro$oft BIOS, patched to eliminate critical checks in the system's copy protection system, allowing a consumer to run backups of their software and homebrew applicaitons on their Xbox. While it is illegal to distribute the hacked BIOS, there is a fuzzy legal question regarding "fair use" and the fact that the owner of an Xbox actually "owns" the BIOS and the right to derive a new work from it. As this is the only way to provide a means of backing up games and using those backups on an Xbox, the rights of the consumer end up conflicting with the latest laws (DMCA). The government appears unwilling to test these laws when it comes to consumers themselves, instead targeting vendors and distributors of 'illegal' files.

Cromwell and the related "FlashBIOSes" do not boot backups or even 'original' Xbox games. They cannot boot dashboards or XDK/OpenXDK written homebrew apps.

QUOTE

Cromwell was designed as a "clean, legal" BIOS for booting Linux and Linux-based apps (using a special bootloader) on the Xbox. A FlashBIOS is a derivative of the Cromwell BIOS with a Linux-based FlashROM programming application built into it, allowing you to burn your own choice of BIOS into the modchip you've installed or TSOP (after proper modifications ot the board).

The Xbox hard drive is divided into partitions, each representing a logical drive... "C:" and "E:" are the two primary 'drives' on your original Xbox drive. "F:" is a third primary partition which can be created when instlaling a larger hard drive. "X:", "Y:", and "Z:" are TEMPORARY drives, and mostly unimportant, so don't sweat it if you do not see these when using FTP to transfer files to and from the Xbox. "D:" is typically the DVD drive.

Avalaunch, Media X Menu, NeXgen are other replacement dashboards, and far more interesting than Evolution-X

Nothing prevents you from keeping all dashboards handy on youyr system. You may use a program like X-Select to choose which one to boot.

About the game you burned, it's very possible you simply have bad media. You are not the first person this has happened to.

In fact, chances are, no problem you encounter on the Xbox is likely to be a new problem. In every case, this has happened to MANY people before you.

Oh, and no, that bad disc you burned does not incorporate some new modchip detection.

Xbox Live does not work with a modchip enabled; if you do this, you will get banned by M$ from Live.

There is no magical 'boot disc' for the Xbox.

There will never be a commercial Cheat Code Ssytem like the old "GameShark" or "Action Replay" for the Xbox. The new "Gameshark/Action Replay" is merely a save game tool, nothing more.

Most Xboxes will not read CD-R discs, but some will.

Most Xboxes will read DVD-R, DVD-Rw, CD-RW, DVD,R and DVD+Rw, but some won't read DVD+R/RW.

Only Xbox controllers will work as Xbox controllers. PC steering wheels will not work as Xbox steering wheels.

This post has been edited by BenJeremy: Sep 24 2003, 11:27 PM

[BenJeremy]

No you cannot load up a cdrw/dvd-r of evox and change the settings there coz your xbox's drive isn't a dvd-writer. You cannot save settings into a disc!, --> reburn with edited settings or simply ftp over the corrected settings *

Ftp speeds DEPEND on several things,
1) Cable: cat5,crossover,etc, or even quality/brands does make a difference sometimes,
2) Versions/builds of Evox? or other ftp enabled dashboards (new evox 1.8.3285 seems to be best) ,
3) Your NIC chipset (yes it does make a difference) ,
4) Your PC's NIC settings 5) Different versions/different FTP softwares (try different ones until you are satisfied
5) Best ultimate advice before attempting to ftp --> understands what it means by DHCP, Static Ip, Dynamic Ip, Protocols etc.... all these explanations can be found even in windows help or use the internet search

Regards...

A 7200 RPM drive is no faster than a 5400 RPM drive in the Xbox. The 7200 RPM drive will generate more heat than the 5400 RPM drive in your Xbox*

CODE

The 7200 RPM drive will generate more heat than the 5400 RPM drive in your Xbox Actually.. I take exception to this... I've tested a number of 5400 / 7200 drives from leading manufacturers... and have found that the 7200 are not producing more radiated heat then their 5400 little brothers from the same MAKE. I'm finding that they must have improved the hard... better fluid bearings.. ventilation.. etc. Keep in mind... these are currently shipping united from WD, SAMSUNG, and MAXTOR I haven't done the same testing with other make.. and have no intention of doing so. I DO AGREE that in the XBOX... there is NO noticable speed improvement between 7200/5400. Some of the 7200 with LARGE cache memory and better Pre-Fetch may have slightly better SEEK times on the XBOX... but transfer of the data is still at ATA 33 speeds! Well, I think what it boils down to is that the 120GB 5400 Samsungs run VERY cool, contrary to most people's experience with the 7200 drives. As I understand it, thsi has to do with the use of 2 platters, vs most 7200 drives 1 platter. Seems like 2 platters might be a hair faster, internally, too.

Look at the tutorials and use Search to find if what you are looking for has been discussed. If you haven't follow the forum closely, make sure to select "Search posts from..." more than 30 days (the default).

So far, only Samsung DVD drives have the highest success rate of reading many types of media, especially CDRs.

You can identify the Samsung drives by the 2 extra holes on the left and right sides of the DVD tray. You have to plug in the Xbox to find this out. There is no way to find out at the store, but there is a list of Lot# and manufacturing date that Samsung drives have been reported.
HERE is a guide to help you identify WHICH DVD drive you have, Samsung, Thomson or Philips.

QUOTE

Samsung drives: Handles CD-R very well, Handles all media well except "+R" DVD media. There have been a handful of reports of people having success with DVD+R media, but not enough to consider them reliable. Use DVD-R and DVD-RW for recordable DVD media. Any CD Recordable media will work well in this drive. Philips drives: Any recordable DVD media should be fine with this drive. There are sporadic reports of success with CD-R media, but do not rely on this - it will more likely NOT work on your system. Of course, CD-RW should work well with this drive. Thomson drives: Any recordable DVD media should be fine with this drive. CD-R media does not work with this drive; you cannot tweak the drive to handle this media, either. Of course, CD-RW works with this drive, but media can be very picky, and your drive MAY require tweaking (last resort).

Pot-tweaking is the last thing you should try if your Thompson drive do not read CD-RW or DVD-R. DO NOT try this to get it to read CDR.