Per my other post, note to self, I thought I would just let my friend have my lame xbox. I have to use a modchip to boot it up. Since I don't want to give him my modchip, I would like to find a way to get it to boot on its own.

Its an Xbox version 1.0. When I remove the chip and attempt to boot the screen remains black and there is no audio. I read that it could have something to do with the video compatibility, similar to how Cromwell (at one point) would only boot the Xbox via RF. So I ruled this out by trying to boot via RF and AV. The LED stays green and does not frag during this process.

I took a backed up eeprom from a working Xbox and tried to repair my eeprom via the method written here. http://arisme.free.fr/Xbox/Reflash/

It patched my eeprom successfully upon reboot but once again, it will not boot without the modchip.

Any ideas?

Ensure that the HDD is locked before removing the chip. You will not be able to boot to an original Xbox bios with an unlocked HDD. That's what it sounds like to me or it just maybe something else really weird going on inside your box.

it the hard drive was unlocked, it would still boot, he'd just see an error screen.

it's kind of a weird problem he's got going on there.