So, since fall break gave me time off work, and I was able to discover a local maker's club venue that is depressingly only open late nights, I was able to make time and appreciate of their help and expertise... long story short, both of my working 1.0 Xbox consoles are now successfully TSOP flashed, with I think it was X2.5035 BIOS.
So, in personal inventory, last I checked, I have the following:
I've also been trying to see if I could even find a solder-less mod-chip that could work on up to a 1.6 xbox console, since it would make the process of diagnosing and fixing up these consoles a heck of a lot easier than trying to source a new IDE-capable motherboard. No luck there, either. Since a few shops here sometimes do sell "broken" and "for parts" consoles for really cheap, the ability to use something like that to then help me get them up and running again would be a tantalizing prospect.
I also did pick up a SATA-to-IDE adapter that I'd like to use... but so far my attempts at using it with a 1TB or 2TB drive on either TSOP'd Xbox seems to just yield nothing. But that would be a separate question to look out for.
So I guess the questions are as follows (in relative order of importance):
So, in personal inventory, last I checked, I have the following:
- 1.0 Xbox, TSOP flashed, stock 8GB hard drive
- 1.0 Xbox, TSOP flashed, 120GB IDE hard drive
- 1.6 Xbox, soft-mod with EvoX dash (not sure how, since I don't recall making that choice in xboxHDM and used the same disc on all consoles)
- 1.6 Xbox, soft-mod with UnleashX dash
- 1.6 Xbox with an error 05
- 1.6 Xbox with error 16
I've also been trying to see if I could even find a solder-less mod-chip that could work on up to a 1.6 xbox console, since it would make the process of diagnosing and fixing up these consoles a heck of a lot easier than trying to source a new IDE-capable motherboard. No luck there, either. Since a few shops here sometimes do sell "broken" and "for parts" consoles for really cheap, the ability to use something like that to then help me get them up and running again would be a tantalizing prospect.
I also did pick up a SATA-to-IDE adapter that I'd like to use... but so far my attempts at using it with a 1TB or 2TB drive on either TSOP'd Xbox seems to just yield nothing. But that would be a separate question to look out for.
So I guess the questions are as follows (in relative order of importance):
- Is it possible to use either TSOP Xbox to prep a hard drive or repair the data on either that are booting straight to error, so that they could start working again?
- Would Chimp (with a soft-mod) or HeXEn boot disc be better for prepping a really large capacity drive?
- I heard some grumbling suggesting that a modern BIOS would be better off using .06 instead of .67 to basically make an enormous F drive as opposed to separate F & G drives, which would certainly be appropriate if I'm trying to shove a 1~2TB drive in either console. Is there a preferable method to handle for either situation (i.e. is one more preferable than another in a soft mod vs TSOP situation) ?
- Since eBay seems to be going out of its way to aggravate and frustrate me at the time of this writing, where would I be able to find a suitable Xbox mod-chip for dealing with a system that simply won't boot otherwise? Thinking about it presently, such a tool would be invaluable for troubleshooting a console without having to try and hunt down an older computer or motherboard for the job.
- This one has started to become more important, because this old AMD 939 system I was using for running xboxHDM is now toast, and trying to find a working motherboard anywhere that still has IDE slots is unfairly difficult and/or expensive (usually, both).
- I remember way back that using 80-pin PATA cables improved performance on an OG Xbox; however, presently I can't seem to find them at all, much less with the kind of length to be usable inside a stock console form. Is there a place for a viable option to pick up some more of these? It might be standard connectors, but it seems compared to every IDE cable I've come across with any of the motherboards I've used that feature them, the connectors are backwards compared to what the Xbox layout needs.