...errr... it feels very akward coming back to these boards now since its been about a year... looking over a lot of posts, seems much has changed with the current generation of chips...

I've tried seaching the forums, but after an hour of looking thru posts where everyone is playing GTA:SA from either a burned copy or from their hdd, I gave up on trying to find someone with problems with the actual retail disc.

anyway, I have a Japanese Xbox, Sampsung drive, older Matrix (xodus) modchip (the one with the pogo pins...bolted the chip down), with Evox 2.5 colormod, no dashboard...just browse using boXplorer. I'm guessing that this is an outdated setup, but I really only have the chip on there to be able to play North American games on teh Japanese Xbox. I am perfectly happy & have had no issues with this setup for well over a year....well, until today.

I havent had any problems with playing any of the NA games (all official retail discs mind you...gasp !!) I've imported until just now, but just received Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and for the first time ever, this game (and this game only out of 30+ NA xbox games that I have) is giving me the dirty disc error. I only get the error with this game. The disc is pristine & plays in my buddys NA Xbox (unmodded) fine, and my buddys original copy also gives me the DDE, so I am assuming this has to have something to do with the modchip and / or the BIOS I am using being older.

Anyone with a similar setup having the same issues, or anyone with (preferably simple ) fixes that I can make to my current setup that will correct the problem? Any help would be great . thx !!

I wanted to add some questions to other Matrix users out there:

Is there anyone who is successfully playing the North American retail disc copy of Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas on a modded Xbox (matrix mode chip)? Not a backup disc & not playing form the HDD, but using the official retail game disc?

If so, is your Xbox console also a North American console or other?

If you are able to play the retail game successfully, would you mind telling me your XBox setup (Bios, dash, settings, modchip disable or enabled)?

This info may help me get closer to finding out where the problem with my system & setup lies.
Thanks !

Heres some things to do to help with booting your games easier.

1) Update your Bios. Your bios is like crazy old. Go out and grab either EvoX M8 Plus or X2 4981 since the Matrix is only 256k. You can then use XBtool (X2 Bioses) or EVTool (EvoX M8) to edit the bios the way you want it.

2) It might help if you grab a dashboard. I recommend UnleashX. Its got serval nice features such as a File Explorer, Game Saves Manager, a SAFE EEPROM changer, and other nice goodies.

3) Grab DVD2Xbox. This can help copy your games much easier than boXplorer can and it can patch certin HDD copy protections.

4) Grab Xored ETM Launcher (optional) This can load EvoX's ETM trainers for those tough to beat games like GTA San Andreas and Ghost Recon 2, without having to EvoX to load the trainers.

Hopefully this should help you out in the long run with running some of the more recent games like GTA SA.

Hey there & thanks for the reply... Well, since my last post a few weeks back, I have installed Slayers 2.6 & updated my BIOS to M8.

I have tried so many combinations of what everyone else with similar issues have reccomended as far as disabling TSR & IGR, setting the region to NTSC, Japan, Auto, setting the clock, deleting the SA game save in the M$ dash, clearing the cache files, I used DVD2Xbox & tried playing the game from the HDD, used the default .xbe from the SA game, and even the other day someone suggested using the standard AV cables instad of the Hi-def pack & that didnt work either.

Every single time I try to play the game from the HDD or the original disc, the screen goes dark like the game is starting to load & then I am immediately booted back to the EvoX main menu with no type of error message or anything.

I was also reccomended to go to applications to Enigmah Videomode Switchdisc & change the video mode from ntsc to pal & back a couple times then stop on my region (Japan) & then reboot the xbox. I havent tried this yet, but will give it a shot tonite.

The only other thing I havent tried is applying a patch I found on this thread:
http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?threadid=6624
The patch doesnt seem to change anything except the TSR, IGR, & time settings however, so I doubt that it will work. Supposedly, you apply the patch to the default.xbe using your PC & then FTP it back to the SA game folder on the Xbox. I've never done any FTP'ing, tho and am haveing major problems getting my Xbox to communicate with the PC uising my router. Just some more studying to be done on my part, I guess.

However, after trying so many differnt things that have worked for other people & still having zero luck, I am getting the odd feeling that I am having these issues because I have a Japanese Xbox. I don't know why this would make things any different for me, as it is modded & even Japanese boxes are standard NTSC .....& also the PAL folks are still having success in getting the game to run.

Still, I am almost out of ideas and getting pretty frustrated after all the hours I am putting into getting this one single game to work & still having no luck at all....

Ok great you updated your bios to M8 and installed SLaYeRs disc. I still recommend you get unleash x but if you want to stick with EvoX heres what you do to run GTA SA in EvoX go to your settings find the region settings and change it to North America. Then try booting GTA SA. Oh and ditch the Engimah X NTSC-PAL switcher all that tool does is screw up boxes in my opinion. Most PAL games will run under NTSC just find elimating the use of the Engmiah Switcher. But try switching the region to North America like I sid and post back.

Hey again...thanks for the reply. Yeah, I have set my region setting to both Noth America and have also tried Auto, still no go booting either from the HDD or the retail disc.

Do you agreee that I should disable TSR & IGR?

Should I be launching the game from Evox or Avalaunch?

When booting from the HDD , which default.xbe should I try using (copying the one from retail disc vs. using the one installed after using DVD2XBOX)?

Do the cache files on E: & the game save files that the XBOX creates under the M$ dash need to be erased EVERY time I try this (as SA automatically seems to create these files every time I attempt to run it)?

Is there really a difference between using the hi-definition pack vs. the standard AV cables?

Do you think it is worth my time to FTP the files to my PC & add that patch that I linked? I've tried connecting the box with the PC a number of times in the pst with no luck.... don't want to waste the time trying if it doesnt actually change anything that I havet already tried...

Any other ideas on what to do? What exactly do you have all your settings on & what are you using to launch SA? Are you having luck booting from both HDD & retail disc?

Im getting pretty frustrated on this one.... its been over a month that Ive been at this & still no closer than day one. Thanks again for all your help , tho... I really appreciate the advice !

Just try another dashboard thats all i know to do. I have a NTSC v1.1 xbox running EvoX m8 plus and i havent had a problem with gta sa. just copy gta sa to the hdd and try loading the game through another dash other than evox like unleashx or if you want to try to load gta sa through evox disable tsr and igr in evox dash and have the region on north america. thats how i got my gta sa trainer to work under evox (this is b4 i got the Xored ETM Loader and ditched EvoX dash) other than that i dont know what to do try searching under the dvd backup section for some more help.

i have the same problem and after recent ' exploring ' of my box, the only thing i can determaine is the dafault.xbe is corrupted, i tried to use default.xbe from other games on my hdd, but i realised theyre all unique. ive come to the conclusion that is it that file, becuz when i use file explorer on my box, all the other files work. if any1 is out there with the GTA:sa default.xbe, plz post it somewhere, somehow.

thanks

bump

Anyone have any luck running GTA:SA on a Japanese xbox?

I have tried everything to get my NA GTA:SA to play on my Japanese Xbox with no luck.... not playing the retail disc directly or even playing it copied to the HDD. Using SLayers 2.6, tried multiple combinations of TSR & IGR & everything else I mentioned in my prior posts. After spending too many hours (days !!) on it, I eventually just gave up.... would love to hear from someone who actually has a copy of NA GTA:SA running on a Japanese Xbox.

Have you tried changing the region code to 1 per this threadhttp://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=257341?

Im having a somewhat similar problem with gta SA. I own a korean modded xbox with evox +3935 and the current dash is :1.00.5960.01 and kernal 1.00.4817.01 . I own the retail version (version 2 w/o the hot coffee) of GTA SA. The game used to run fine either on my hdd or direct off the disc. I went onto xbox live (to download those new halo 2 maps, and I used one of those free 2month subscription cards). When I went online I updated my xbox via xbox live. I poured over the internet checking if xbox live would srew up my xbox, I could not find any documentation saying not to do it. Of coarse I updated and reset my xbox. After that I could not play either GTA SA, Star Wars KOTR, my xbox states "Region Error". It doesnt work through exox either, the screen fades out like its loading then fades back in like it was rejected. If I play it off the hdd it freezes at the evox loading screen. The weird thing, I can play most of the other games I have either on HDD or disc (Half Life:2, Halo 2, Gun, DOOM 3 collectors, brothers in arms)either through exox or M$ dash. What should I do I went to a gamestop the told me they can be fired for talking about modded consoles which is rediculous since the supreme court ruled modchips and modded consoles legal. Should I upgrade evox or downgrade my M$ dash does any one know excatly what I can do? PS: Im not sure what modchip I have but i do have samsung dvd drive and 120 gig hdd. PS how exactly do you upgrade evox, I know how to ftp and transfer files but cant figue out how to upgrade the evox dash.

I have an xecuter modchip but im not sure what version

No, they did not. PS1 chips were ok'd in Australia. Get your facts right.

I have a US Xbox, with EvoX version 3921 running and am having the same Dirty Disc Error msg with this game. I have tried changing the settings and changing the GTASA .xbe file to no avail.

I'm at the end of my rope here... been trying to get this game to work for a week now.

That quote was from an employee of a EB games, dont blame me.