Hello all, I've decided to got an xbox 1 since they are dirt cheap now and make quite a good media centre / player, but how do I get started. I know this is a no brainer to some but I dont have the slighetst!

Im gonna buy my unit second hand so worst case it could be a 1.6 board, we'll se in the comming fututre.
Whats the best way to mod the xbox.

What I want from it:

A) XBMC to play movies from the hard disk
B) the ability to play games from the hardisk. (thinking xbox mini in mind)
C) the ability to upgrade the hard disk, non-restrictive of locking stuff. so any IDE / sata on converter.
D) the ability to remove the dvd drive perminatly or replace the stock one with a laptop form factor one.

So whats my options?

TSOP, ModChip, Game exploit every time?

Also where do I get an xbox modchip in the UK these days? Anywhere prefribly with PayPal.

Also whats the likelyhood of a brick doing a TSOP is there any backup bootlader to restore from a brick?

Regards, Steve

to be free of locking the HD and to be able to remove the DVD drive youll need to flash the TSOP or install a modchip

if its a 1.6 your only option will be modchip


TSOP flashing is pretty easy, as long as you make sure you read the guides and know what bios you are flashing you shouldnt have any problems

its still possible to brick it, but its also possible when installing a modchip or even a softmod if you arent careful. fixing it depends on what went wrong, so i wouldnt worry about that for now

@lordvader129

Cheers for the info man, time to see what on the outside of the box will tell me what's inside.

It looks like TSOP is my only option since i cant find a modchip.

Anyone heard of an IC lattice / IC Alladin XT? are those chips any good?

Regards, Steve

litsplif sold me a duox2 chip was pretty cheap he has post in the B/S/T section came from the usa but im in the uk.

I have an aladin chip also (not sure what type it is) seems to work but i rather tsop when i can and use the chips to repair if needed.
When it comes to tsop. make sure the hdd your using is not clunky and horrible sounding. and make sure the dvd player works good.

The only bad tsop flash I ever had was on a xbox with stock drive, i usualy softmod them make the new larger disk then tsop.
I figured it would be faster to softmod then tsop and swap the disk after "technicaly it would be" but the stock hard disk was next to dead. and the process never finished. so thats a good thing to remember. (if the hdd sounds bad, use a diferent one)

Right so a modchip can be used as an unbrick method for a bad tsop, good stuff.

Thats all tasty, I found a comparison table here on the site, thats got the gen on the Alladin chip. 256kb chip. massive amounts of space to play with. but my only option if i end up with a 1.6.

Regards, Steve

the 256kb refers to the bios size on the chip. the old 1.0 xboxes had big tsops (basically thats the bios) they were 1mb 4x256kb the good thing about them is that you could unbrick them with a 3 wire trick that changed the tsop to 256kb so you could use 1 bank (obviously dependant on what you did)

the 1.6 doesnt have a tsop so you cant tsop flash them and so your only option is a chip if you want to make a slim box. softmods dont support the removal of a dvd drive.
As regards to your slim laptop dvd drive usage, please remember that you wont be able to use original xbox disks if you use one of those.
There are converters that will allow some dvd drives to work as an xbox drive although i never eard of one that works with a laptop drive. and you can also flash some "very specific" dvd drives from a pc to work as an xbox drive. although thats not going to help for a slim box.

One other possibility for a slimbox softmoded 1.6 would be to keep the pcb from a dvd player for an xbox and hook that up internaly although by my reconing that may cause slow boot times due to the pcb trying to activate the lazer excetera when there is none present. I havent actualy tried it so its possibly not an issue at all..

Thanks for your reply shambles, ill see what i've got by 2morrow. then we'll see what version and such parts ill need. the slimbox idea was purely an idea for now so that's nothing to worry much about.

Hey if its a V1.0 were in on it! well see...

Regards, Steve

Damn, Surpassed the 24 hour edit limit.

GOOD News, Ive got a v1.1 according to the version checker on the homepage

Conextant Video
Fanless
Single line power connector

So what course of action can I take? Since Im a v1.1 I can TSOP.

So What do I do now? There's that many tut's I don't know what to pick! Any BIOS reccomendations.

What I want is

HDD freedom, any IDE hard disk I like lockable or not.
XBMC Either running from boot or a menu entry in the dash.

Any suggestions / Links / recommendations are welcome!

Regards, Steve.

1. Solder the TSOP points.
2. Softmod the Xbox (Krayzie 1.1.1 gamesave, or Kingroach NDURE 3.1 if you hotswap).
3. Use HeXEn (Google Heimdall's Xbox Engineering Disc) to flash the TSOP and set up your disk, and to install XBMC and set it as your dash. Use X2.5035 as your BIOS.
4. Use HeXEn to install and build your new, larger hard drive.


The edit limit is around 30 minutes, not 24 hours.

not 100% sure about the rarity of winbond chips on 1.1 boards.. But you will need to double check what Tsop chip you have as winbond needs a diferent option from the hexen tools.

Nuts, I aint got either of those games. Time to head to amazon or somthing Lies, I do have splinter cell, however its a "Classics" version

EDIT: Shambles, Ill check that out. which side is the TSOP chip on topside or underside of the mobo?

Regards, Steve

P.S. That was a fast reply, thanks!

Splinter Cell classics is perfect, as long as it's the original game and not Pandora Tomorrow, or Chaos Theory, or any of the other sequels.

Once you get the Xbox softmodded then use HeXEn and this post to flash it, install XBMC, and switch to XBMC as your dash.

The TSOP is on top of the motherboard, and shouldn't be a Winbond - I'm almost certain that the Winbond chips are 256kB only, and only fitted to some 1.4 Xboxes.

Judging by pics on google images, the TSOP is the long skinny chip with pins and the narrowest ends. And its got a logo with "ST" in a trapezium.

I havent got a memory card, any ideas? I do have a soldering iron and a spare usb socket lying around. can it be homebrew botched? my local game shops dont stock old style mem cards any more.

If my chip aint winbond how big is it? dual bootable?

Regards, Steve

EDIT: I should also put the following from the about bit of the dash

Kernel: 1.00.4817.01
Dashboard: 1.00.5960.01

1.1 = 1MB TSOP, and it isn't a Winbond.

Buy or make one of these, and use Xplorer360 beta 6 to copy the gamesave to a USB stick, but remember that not all USB sticks will work in the Xbox, even ones that are less than the Xbox 4GB limit.

This is gonna sound mega stupid but how do I update to the latest dash? XBL for xbox 1's has been gone for well over a year now, what's the solution without buying a game? Ive got my memory unit sorted out btw, PSP FTW!

Ive tried a network connection, no live. that didnt work

You don't need Xbox Live, just a live-enabled game.

The solution without buying a game is to load Splinter Cell, load the exploit gamesave, then as soon as the softmod installer menu appears you FTP to the Xbox and replace the contents of the C partition with a new clean copy of the Xbox dash, version 5960. Once that's done you continue with the Krayzie softmod installer - backup the eeprom, FTP it to your PC, then select basic install, UnleashX dashboard.

The FTP method is just another vairable to go wrong. Ah sod it i'll just buy a post halo 2 live game? any PAL recommendations?

Not post Halo 2, Halo 2 or later. Halo 2 and Doom 3 definitely work (I've used them both), and Pro Evolution Soccer 4, Need For Speed Most Wanted, and Goldeneye Rogue Agent should also work.

The FTP method is simple and straightforward, you just need to be slightly logical for two minutes.

Perhaps I missed something but why does he need to update his MS dash?

From the info he provided earlier (3rd Oct.) ) it appeared to me as though he has reported his dash is already v.5960 ie. 1.00.5960.01

Ah, It appears I cant read. You are correct, good spot. I've been looking at the kernel number! To the NDURE softmod now! and that also explains why halo 2 boot up without an update prompt, silly me.

How do I copy the gamesave to the memory unit using xplorer360? The sace pack came with 2 bits a folder labeled udata and a udata1.zip?

Righto Ive got myself softmodded with unleashx dashboard. And ive got the Hexen disk working, didnt like a dvdr but a cd r did the trick. what bios should i choose 256kb or 512 kb? i have an ST tsop chip for sure