I am making a couple of slimbox's without dvd roms and would like to know which bios to use that wont search for a dvd rom when booting and allow it load the hdd.

If you've got a 1.0 xbox you could tsop flash it with the latest X2 bios. Not sure if any of the 512k X2 bios have support for no dvd drive, but you could check.

http://www.xbox-scene.com/bios_retail.html

all x2 bios have the dvd check removed by default, evox bios you can use evtool to remove it, im not sure of ind bios, but im sure it has it off by default

personally i recommend x2 5035 for 1.0/1.1, x2 4983 for 1.2-1.5

youll need a modchip for a 1.6

Ok, what is the best process for flashing the bios ? I realise i have to softmod them first but then how do i do the flashing ? I also have a chipped xbox with a duox2 chip with a bad flash, couldi use the same bios's as above this xbox as well ?

Ive recently flashed my TSOP so I could take out my DVD drive. After many many different bios's, ive settled on X2 5035. My only problem is it takes 2mins 40 seconds to boot up to XBMC! After the flubber and big X, it hangs on a blank screen.

Maybe its just me but ive not found a solution yet. Anyone else get this? FYI, I didnt use a modchip, I flashed the motherboard bios.

as long as teh chipped xbox isnt a 1.6 you can use the same bios

depending on what kind of TSOP you have to can flash with evox, or eurasia (use eurasia if its a winbond TSOP chip, common on 1.2-1.5)


use x2ool to create x2config.ini and put it in the root of the E drive, the reason its taking so long is probably because its looking for this file before loading the bios defaults

Ive the ini file in the E: already. Im pretty sure its all set up correctly. I opened a discussion here the other day but ive had no success with any replies.
Ive posted a short snip of my ini file in the link above also. Any thoughts would be most welcome.

i use iND Bios. it works good for me. no dvd check. and u can edit the flubber and X screen on the fly. loads quick. but i think it only works for 1.2-1.5. idk if there is a 512mb bios. been a while since i looked.

Using IND BIOS and have taken out the logo & flubber but still have a disc check (it seems). Cold boots to XBMC menu in 13 seconds.

I use iND-BIOS 5003. It works fine to bypass the DVD check but it takes a little longer to boot up than with one connected. Also the flubber screen is a little choppy and the boot up audio is not in sync. I would recommend it if you disable the flubber animation, which is easy to do with the ind-bios configuration app.

As far as the actual flashing goes, telnet-ing always worked for me. I tried using Evox to flash but never got it to work. Whatever works for you i guess

Finally got some time to myself so i flashed my V1.1 xbox with X2 4983.07 bios, after the message "xbox will shutdown ", i restarted and got the flubber with executer 2 underneath then a blank screen ?
Do i now need to re do my softmod or do i just ftp my choice of dashboard back onto the hdd ?

I read thru about 4 pages of posts and found the answer to my problems, used my AID disc to remove the softmod then loaded XBMC as a C: dash. Only problem i have now is i get a slight stutter with the flubber and it takes about 20 seconds to load XBMC after i get the XBMC logo - really need to remove the flubber altogether .

the stutter is due to not having a dvd drive, the slow loading XBMC might also be related, make sure XBMC isnt set to autoload anything from the dvd drive

I have now loaded Ind bios 5003.67 for a 160gig hdd, now i want to edit the bios to get rid of the flubber and other animations and just load straight to XBMC. I have ind bios configurator but i dont know how to use it, googled and found the website but get some crappy ads instead.

What part are you having trouble with?

It might have been better for you to have used the 5003.06 bios. Do you have like a small G:\ drive now if you use that would be added to the F:\ drive

Yeah i originally used 5003.06 but then changed to 5003.67 and i now have a 21gig G partition which is fine.
Its the ind config program that i dont even know where to start ?

ok once you get the program started on the basic tab remove the check from beside the autoload dvd then go to the second tab called animation and uncheck the first 2 boxes beside show intro and show flubber then go to the last tab and remove the check beside dvd and make sure that the first second and third boot devises are checked and also write down the names of what is looked for cause thats what is gonna be looked for to boot. You can actually change it to fit what you want to boot like change one to C:\default.xbe that why if you forget to rename one when you change the dash then you are still safe or you can put it as a backup on a different partition like have your main dash say on E:\ then have a backup dash on C: and just never mess with c:\

After you have made all the changes you want just click file > save cfg> then name the cfg IND-Bios and place it on the C:\ drive and you should be set to go

I figured it out, after i make my selections i save the config file then inject the config into my bios of choice. The xbox i'm flashing is chipped so using a 2gig flash drive i copied the bios to the xenium chip and then set it as the default bank for booting. Works ok except even after unchecking dvd and checking both evoxdash.xbe and default.xbe (2nd and 3rd boot) i still just get a blank screen . I have also used Heimdalls Hexen disc but i need to be able to edit the iso before burning so i can add my patched bios oncei get it working properly.

Don't inject the config until you have fully debugged it. It boots quicker with an injected config, but it might not boot at all with a bad config......

Not that it matters with a Xenium, because if it doesn't boot you can just switch to another bank. More importantly, you can flash a Xenium without a flashing disc - you can just use Evox, or alternatively I'm sure that the Xenium OS has flashing tools.

If i use IND5003.06 unpatched it boots fine but after numerous tries to patch it i cant seem to get it right.
I'm only flashing the xenium untill i get the bios right then i'll flash the tsop and remove the chip to use on other xbox's to repair them - its a 1 wire chip (plus socket) so its a quick fit.

I didnt have any luck with the IND bios and the configurator so using XBtool i patched an X2 bios and it worked first time, now i need to know if there is a HDD based flashing program so i can save the bios to hdd and flash from there or should i just load EVOX as a dash and use that if it will flash a winbond chip ?

you have to flash a winbond either with a eurasia disk or by using raincoat I would go with the eurasia disk

No worries, thanks again for your help. I believe CDRW's is the best media for flash discs is this right ?

there are versions of eurasia you can run from the HD, just strip one out of a gamesave package like mecheurasia

now i did not know that. I am gonna have to try that cause that would make it the best method to use since it would work for xboxs except the 1.6

just keep in mind eurasia doesnt upsize a 256k bios to 1mb, so youll have to make sure you have the right size bios for 1.0/1.1