First off, I'd like to thank everyone at this site, I have found so much useful information here on how to mod my xbox. This is my first time posting here.

Onto my topic.

This afternoon, I created a "home-made" Action replay memory card and softmodded my xbox using the gamesave hack through 007 Agent Under Fire.

The dashboard that I am using is Evolution X

Once I did this, I backed up my hdd and ftp'd it to my PC.

I then made an ISO of that backup and created then locked a new HDD for my xbox. I now have a 60 GB hdd in it.

I booted up the xbox and ran dvd2xbox and copied NHL 2005 to my hdd in the F partition.

Then I rebooted the xbox and EvoX dash loaded, I went into the games menu and chose to run the game.

The game started to load (very quickly i might add) but stops at the last stage of loading an freezes.

I didn't get a chance to play around with it a lot seeing as I need to go to bed. So, I figured i could post here and see if anyone could give me some pointers. I tried to search for other topics similar to this problem but didnt find anything too useful after reading through probably 4 or 5 threads. If there is already a thread with the information I need, can you please link me to it, or just type out the information here. Either way works for me.

Also, would anyone suggest me using a different dashboard?
I have read some things about flashing my bios, I am not quite sure if i have done this yet, i dont beleive i did. but i could be wrong.

Thank you in advance for any help.

skeightballer

Format your X, Y and Z partitions, and delete the E:\CACHE folder. These are temp files that sometimes corrupt and cause problems.

When you say, "the game started to load" do you mean it actually started up and THEN froze, or it froze on the Now Loading (or whatever) Evox screen?

Here's where to start troubleshooting your freezing games: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=212739

Start with the cache clearing first. That's almost always it. Then the MS Dash clock, etc.

Evox is a fine dash, but most members fall into the Avalaunch or UnleashX camps. Me? I'm biased, obviously.

Edit: Ah, good catch on the formatting of the cache drives, modbox_

When I say "the game feezes when oading" I mean that it starts the game and then freezes when loading the game. in my case, the only game i have loaded is NHL 2005, when i start the game, the "NHL 2005" logo is in the middle of the screen with a loading bar. the bar gets about 90% of the way done then stops.

I am going to go ahead and clear the cache, hopefully that will work. thanks for the replies. I'll post back letting you know how it went.

I think the XBMC is the best dash, but im not sure if you can use it if you have a softmod.

Ok I cleared the cache and then it worked flawlessly... thank you so much for the help.

Now, I have been reading about how one must turn off their mod-chip before trying to go on xbox live. if you dont then your eeprom will be banned. I wish to avoid having mine banned and i play halo 2 on xbl fairly regularly.

Is it necessary for me to run the C: drive backup utility and restore my HDD back to its original state before attempting to go on xbox live or am i safe because its a soft-mod?

I would assume that i need to restore it because of the fact that my bios have been changed and thats what they look for. any insight is greatly appreciated.

In the case that i would need to restore it... this is how i would go about doing it (if anyone has a better solution, please let me know)

(The xbox is alreayd modded an backup_linux has been created)
1. FTP backup_linux to my pc c:/xbox/originalhdd
2. Delete backup_linux from my xbox hdd
3. Run the backup utility again to create a backup or my modded hdd
4. FTP the new backup_linux to my pc c:/xbox/moddedhdd

then whenever i want to switch back, all i need to do is ftp the corresponding backup_linux folder and run the c: restore utility.

again, if there are any other suggestions please let me know, thanks

skeightballer

Ok, correction... I was fishing through the menus in my EvoX dash and found that my bios are set to "Original 3944"

Now, In any tutorial that i have found regarding use of xbox live with a modded xbox says that you need to have the original bios loaded in order to not get banned. In this case, I should be ok to go online. I am just posting here to double check that my assumption is valid.

thanks - sheightballer

Since you have a softmodded box, a "hacked" bios is loaded into memory after you boot. This is what allows you to run all the "homebrew" programs (like evox.) You will be banned from XBL unless the box boots up in its retail state (i.e no modded apps/dashes). The truth is, there is always a chance of getting banned if your xbox is modded in any way. I got banned with my modchip off. Go Figure. Good luck and I would suggest XBConnect

Ahh I see, that makes more sense. That sucks that you got banned with it off. I mean, its one thing if youre modding to cheat and if your modding just to have some fun. Its too bad there really isnt a way to distinguish who is cheating and who just has it modded ofr fun. I hadnt looking into modding until the other day and i was only planning on softmodding it to play games off the HDD but im actually getting into it a bit and might take it to the next level relatively soon.

so do you think that the method of restoring the c: drive each time would work?

If you put an original Live enabled game in your DVD drive and turn the xbox off, then turn it on again it will boot directly into the game, so the softmod has not been activated and your xbox is in a safe state for live, this is called Coldbooting, so you dont need to restore your C drive to stock each time you want to play live, just coldboot the xbox.

oh awesome... thanks that will come in quite handy. im going to restore my modded drive in a little while then ill try out cold-booting. thanks

skeightballer

FYI, any dash can be used with a softmod. Just replace the one the softmod loads with the xbe of the dash you want to use (renamed to be what that softmod is set to look for). As for XBMC or other meaty dashes, you can store the bulk of it anywhere you want and just define that location in the <home> tag of xboxmediacenter.xml.