Well I finally cracked open my xbox and it sure was dusty. Anyway the reason was so that I could check the modchip to see how to unlock the flash protection (which may not even be there, can't be sure), and flash a new BIOS that supports LBA48 or whatever it was called. So far so good and I found a little modchip right under the DVD-drive. It's got white text on it saying "Aladdin 2" which after a quick google search seems to be a reasonable guess.

Some more searching and I find this site (with the google image border showing the picture of my mod chip). The closest match on xbox-scene is this table though Aladdin Pandora2 may be an unrelated modchip and since most of the info in that table contradicts the previous site it seems unlikely. So my question is if this is one of the ancient ones that first rose over the mythical M$ empire to create and uphold the modding of the Xbox but were only desgined to run "Hello World" (which would be just my luck) or something a bit more modern that more specifically is capable of getting a new BIOS flashed. (which seems possible according to the first site at least)

The modchip has worked for me so far and I've got both XBMC and XlinkKai running with it. If anyone could help me check the flash-protection (and how to disable it (is it neccessary to enable it?)) while they're at it that would be great too. And is my modchip one of them "cheapmods" or some "alternative" chip?

Oh and first post outside newbie forums so yay me.

Ok I reread my post a little and decided to just shorten it a bit with this post. I simply want to find out how to turn on flash-mode or turn off flash-protection (again if there is any) so that I can flash a new BIOS. Do these modchips come with any operating manuals that I may have lost? If so is there anywhere I can download scans?

I also want to ask about the BIOS size. My current BIOS is M8.16 which seems to be a 256k bios but on my C I have a backup folder (I think my EvoX was installed by Slayers) with a bios.bin that's 1024kB. Is this a backup of my bios created after installing slayers? If so why is it 4 times as large as it should be? (can same type bios come in different sizes?) Or is this a backup of the entire flash, erm, space in the modchip? I mean does the chip have enough space for up to 1024kb so it just backed up everything even the, erm, empty space? Sorry I'm not very good with the terminology here but I hope I make sort of sense. Or is this completly unrelated? Should I start a new topic for this perhaps?

Well the weekend's almost come and gone so it would seem like no one knows. So I'll yet again redo my question. What's the worst that could happen if I would flash a new bios now? Just to find out if the chip actually is flash protected?

All my previous questions still stand and I would be happy to clarify or provide more informations if something isn't clear.

I don't think this section gets many visitors, so your question may have gone unnoticed for a while.

All Gen2 and above modchips ("LPC modchips") are flashable. The Aladdin2 is definitely reflashable. Easiest way to reflash would be from within EvolutionX.

Your Aladdin has 256KB of flash memory on-board, so don't try to flash a BIOS larger than that (like X2.5035). Stick with X2.4981.06 on a 1.0 - 1.5 motherboard, or M8+1.6 if you have a 1.6 mobo.

Your BIOS.BIN is 1MB in size, because Evo-X will always generate a dump that size. (It is four copies of your 256KB BIOS in a single file.)

I don't remember much about flash protection in the Aladdins, so just try and flash. If it gives you an error, then maybe you'll need to figure out how to unprotect it.

Good luck,
Plex

Hey!

Hope I'm not breaking any rule by bumping an old thread. I PM'd the OP, but noticed he hasn't logged in a few months, so I'll have to bump this anyway.

I've also got one of these cheap Aladdin 2s, and I'm thinking of flashing the bios too. However, I can find absolutely no documentation on these chips! Can I ask where you got that information, Perplexer?

Also, I understand that flashing it with the 256kb M81.6.bin would be fine? If the chip is flashable, that is - the OP never came back to mention what happened after all.

Thanks.

Yes, if your Xbox is a 1.6, but M8plus1.6.bin would be better. If your Xbox isn't a 1.6 then you need a 1.0-1.5 BIOS - have a look at iND-BIOS.5003.