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Original Xbox XDK Beta 2 Prototype?

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That's going to be the really hard part.... especiall finding the bezzel for the drive. the internals were black right? or were those thing also crystal?

The drive trays are all black, but yeah, I was referring to the bezel since it looked like a crystal Xbox from your pic.

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The drive trays are all black, but yeah, I was referring to the bezel since it looked like a crystal Xbox from your pic.

It is a crystal case. Only have the bottom portion of it though... Truly a project worthy of looking into I think.

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It is a crystal case. Only have the bottom portion of it though... Truly a project worthy of looking into I think.

That true does suck then, cause the DVD bezel has green writing while the stock crystal case writing is silver. Also the top cover is taller and has green writing... 

img_4579.jpg

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That true does suck then, cause the DVD bezel has green writing while the stock crystal case writing is silver. Also the top cover is taller and has green writing... 

img_4579.jpg

Shit.....  I can tape the logo and try to color match it, the stencil I'd probably need to look around for or make it from scratch..   =\

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Thanks! I was wondering how I would read and/or write to it, but from what I'm gathering is that you use the app on the superdisc iso to read the EEPROM and write it to the donor drive correct? Kinda like doing the security sector hack?

Well, it's not really used the same way on Classic Xbox, IDE drives have a "lock", this is what microsoft used in the Classic Xbox, if the lcok isn't present it'll throw you an error (error 16 if memory serves me right) this only happens when you try to boot up the original dash tho as XBMC/EvoX etc. don't really care about it :)

Superdisc have an app that lets you Lock/Unlock HDD's using the key stored in the eeprom

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Well, it's not really used the same way on Classic Xbox, IDE drives have a "lock", this is what microsoft used in the Classic Xbox, if the lcok isn't present it'll throw you an error (error 16 if memory serves me right) this only happens when you try to boot up the original dash tho as XBMC/EvoX etc. don't really care about it :)

Superdisc have an app that lets you Lock/Unlock HDD's using the key stored in the eeprom

Yeah I noticed when I loaded the disc last night. I thought it'd be more complicated than that. Pretty cut n dry actually. Thanks again for the utility disc man. Awesome stuff!!

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Yeah I noticed when I loaded the disc last night. I thought it'd be more complicated than that. Pretty cut n dry actually. Thanks again for the utility disc man. Awesome stuff!!

Np ;)

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Well, I went and traded a Falcon JTAG, Silver tip phat PSU and when I order the crystal console from Canada, I'll be giving him all the parts off of it that I don't use in restoring this devkit. One strange issue though. The console boots, no RoL errors, but I cannot get it to give me a display with my AV cable, but his displayed the splash screen. Any specific type of AV cable I should be using with this thing and any ideas as to whether or not  HD conversion is possible with it?

 

My other question is whether or not if I solder out the old original EEPROM chip itself with one from another xbox that I have a working drive for will it recognize and work? I've done this with repairing  standard hard drives by doing a controller board replacement so I'm really curious as if it's possible or not.  Now hard drives have EEPROM built into their controller board so I'm assuming here that the EEPROM on the console is a second one for drive verification purposes. So the thought here for me would be that even if my donor hard disk failed, then as long as I swapped the EEPROM from the failed drive to the donor drives controller board that it should recognize as long as it is the same make/model drive as the original one.

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What a fun thread. Wish I would have looked into it sooner-- congrats on your find!

First tip I have for you is, if you don't have a DVD drive in it yet, try your best to get a Samsung rev B (or version B; can't remember). This was the clear winner in the OG Xbox days, as unlike the common (and crappy) Thompson drives, it was able to read CD-Rs without an issue. Officially, Microsoft would not admit to a difference in media compatibility between drives, but it was there. Sounds crazy that a device from that time was incompatible with CD-Rs, but Thompson owners were usually well aware of this. (I discovered the issue after seeing my friend copy a burnt music CD to his Xbox; I couldn't figure out why he was able to). Phillips drives are a little rare, and while not the best in compatibility, is still better than a Thompson.

As for your AV cable issue, the best I can recommend is HD component cables, as VGA was strictly not supported. You could modify your Xbox to output VGA, but I remember it requiring either custom cables or bioses. If both component and standard AV cables don't work, then sadly you are most likely S.O.L.

Now for the eeprom... You can try it, and it might work, but I strongly recommend keeping the original eeprom and locking a new HDD to it. I used to be a huge original Xbox need, and at one point moderated/administrated at Llamma.com (RIP). Based on what I used to know, I seem to remember the eeprom was more than just for locking drives to the console. It may have even stored region information in it. I wish I could remember clearly, but this is why I'm leaning toward keeping your original dev kit eeprom (you may get a FRAG). Another significant eeprom info is, the eeprom was what M$ used to ban consoles from Live. So to unban a console, you needed a clean eeprom (and either a way to lock a new drive to it, or the original HDD). This doesn't apply to dev kits, but once a HDD and eeprom pair connected to XBL, they were considered "married" (though only enforced online)

The only other thing I know about the eeprom that is significant is, when you lock a HDD to it, it uses the serial number of the HDD to do so. You can lock multiple HDDs to one eeprom with no problem, so it seems that something is saved to the HDD to confirm the lock. This is good to know if you start with a stock HDD (8GB IDE) and wish to upgrade later. If you use an X3CE, you can lock/unlock straight from the bios. Otherwise be prepared to use either Super Disc or SlaYers to do the job for you. If I were you, I'd skip the 8GB drive and go for a bigger one. IDE drives above 8GB are fairly cheap these days.

My main point on the eeprom talk is this: it was a very central part of the console, much like Keyvaults on the 360. I don't believe there was much (if any) unique information stored on the TSOP (NAND?) itself. Hacked bioses just overrode the onboard one, and there was no special preparation to flash one (CPU key? OG Xbox says "lol wuts that"). You could simply download a hacked bios and flash as is to your modchip so long as it was compatible (for example, a 512kb X2 bios would not fit on a 256kb chip... For obvious reasons. Also, X3 bios is only compatible with X3/X3CE)

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Ok, I'll make sure that one of the many drives that I put into it is a Samsung.

 

Now for the AV cables, the weird thing is this: My set that I have for my softmodded one work perfectly find  on the softmod console but not this one; I'd think bad AV port; however, my buddies cables which are older work just fine on it.

Since its a devkit, it's most likely not region protected. Not too worried there.

The drive I'll put into it is as high a capacity WD or Hitachi Deskstar HGST in EIDE format (Doubtful HGST was ever made as EIDE though...) I was considering using a SATA adapter on a 2-4TB Hitachi Deskstar HGST though... And any Deskstar's from the EIDE days when IBM owned them were absolute shit so no "Death Star" is going in my rig.

I probably won't screw with the bios anytime soon either, I just want to get it rolling again and fully assembled as close to original as I can possibly get it.

 

UPDATE

 

So I finally figured out why the video wasn't working on this devkit, it was "Coma Console" status and I fixed it by soldering a jumper wire from the cap at C6R3 to resistor point R7R2 at point A18

This guide was very helpful in troubleshooting it on page 74

http://adriancallaghan.co.uk/wp-content/downloads/Guides/XBOX_REPAIR_GUIDE.pdf

Definitely worth saving to disk if anyone still tinkers with these consoles.

 

Now that I have a splash screen and nothing else I'll go to get a running dvd drive for it next right? Then get a hard drive, and load superdisk and attempt a unlock/lock to itso that it can be usable for this system.

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###UPDATE###

 

So after trying the superdisc to no avail, I went and made my EEPROM Reader//Writer as Gavin suggested by following this video here:

 

That was easy enough, then following how to use the stuff the writer of the video did a follow-up on how to dump the EEPROM here:

 

His links are out of date but I did find liveinfo here:  http://theisozone.com/downloads/xbox/tools/live-info-eeprom-viewer/

And a compatible version of PonyProg here: http://www.lancos.com/ppwin95.html

NOTE: You will want the older version of PonyProg...

What the creator of the TuT failed to mention was that USB to RS232 adapters do not work for beans with the EEPROM cable.

For the life of me I thought it was the cable I made until I scrounged up an old legacy system (Windows 98 even!!!) that had a serial port and successfully dumped the EEPROM.

 

post-56760-0-91705700-1452559312_thumb.png

Thought my problems were solved and that I'd be able to use the Locker//Unlocker Linux program to build a new drive with this new info but no.... Sadly...

According to this guys article here http://www.s-config.com/original-xbox-debug-console/

Devkits do NOT Lock/Unlock hard drives....  Therefore, that info is unneeded and even moreso, it's reflected on the EEPROM dump when no serial number is given and Liveinfo says "This EEPROM could not be decrypted ! This is not a valid V1.0 or V1.1 EEPROM image..." with the EEPROM data on the converted *.bin file.

Devkit related issue I'm assuming...  =\

So I did some more research and I found that using a devkit recovery cd could fix my problem. In this case I used XDK 5849 (Google is your friend if you ever need this) I won't hotlink it and I hope you understand why...  The Recovery disc didn't even load at boot. The drive works fine, I've tested it on my working oldschool Xbox... 

So other than the Coma Console fix, which allows me to get video on this PoS, I'm still back at square one with nothing but a splash screen. No error codes (because its a Beta 2 prototype devkit from 2001 I'm further assuming) Any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated. I now have a DVD drive that works in it, and a hard drive which I'd like to use for it but at the splash screen, the M$ logo does not show up, it just hangs at the flubber sequence. Is this BIOS or TSOP related???

I could greatly use any advice from the oldschool hardware hackers of this consoles generation to hopefully get her up and running.

 

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@sladezzdragonzz had a modchip in one of his other xboxes, might be able to use that instead of doing the dump with an eeprom reader.

I got the modchip now its an Executer 2 correct? What all might I need to use this little gem on these problematic abandonware projects? I have about 25 retail xbox's that are bricked that I do plan on fixing up soon.

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I got the modchip now its an Executer 2 correct? What all might I need to use this little gem on these problematic abandonware projects? I have about 25 retail xbox's that are bricked that I do plan on fixing up soon.

Xecuter2, made by Team Xecuter... but, i think it'd be a Xecuter 2.6 CE more likely?

The chip allows you to override the onboard bios and run a custom one from the chip, you can use it to bootup something like superdisc which lets you replace whatever you want on the HDD etc. etc. aswell as possibly reflash the onboard bios if you need/want to do that...

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Xecuter2, made by Team Xecuter... but, i think it'd be a Xecuter 2.6 CE more likely?

The chip allows you to override the onboard bios and run a custom one from the chip, you can use it to bootup something like superdisc which lets you replace whatever you want on the HDD etc. etc. aswell as possibly reflash the onboard bios if you need/want to do that...

It says on the bottom of the padding X2 Pro

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Since it seems to be a fairly old Xecuter chip, you'll likely need to use a 256 bios (either an Xecuter X2 bios or Evox M8... Or an iND bios, if you want to swing that way)

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Since it seems to be a fairly old Xecuter chip, you'll likely need to use a 256 bios (either an Xecuter X2 bios or Evox M8... Or an iND bios, if you want to swing that way)

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For the devkit or the garage full of bricked classics?

I'd like to just softmod this devkit if I can get away with it but right now my primary concern is just getting it to boot normally stock first.

 

Bear in mind, I only have the chip, no cables, nothing...   Will have to source out those parts once I figure out what they are and what software I'll need for it. Looks like I'll need the POGO board for it too since the pin header on this devkit is 8x2

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Both, actually. I haven't checked Xbins for a while, but there might be a dev bios on there. Even if there isn't, you can test with a hacked retail bios to see if it boots that way. Whatever your result may be, the beauty of the OG Xbox's LPC based modchips is, you can simply unplug it when you don't need it. (Assuming you do the recommended pinheadder install method)

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Both, actually. I haven't checked Xbins for a while, but there might be a dev bios on there. Even if there isn't, you can test with a hacked retail bios to see if it boots that way. Whatever your result may be, the beauty of the OG Xbox's LPC based modchips is, you can simply unplug it when you don't need it. (Assuming you do the recommended pinheadder install method)

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Which one would you suggest and do you think its the bios from what I posted above with the video?

http://www.realmodscene.com/xbins/XBOX/Console%20Based%20Applications/bios/GueuX-NeT/

 

EEPROM version is XM2_3944

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I took a look at the readme files and sizes, and it seems the only one you can use with your current chip is the last one:

Debug-bios-256k-Gueux_Net-V2.rar

The other ones are 512k bioses, which likely will not fit on what you have. Keep in mind you should only flash your modchip with this-- do not flash your TSOP (onboard bios chip) with it, as per the readme.

If you want a 512k modchip, I could probably find one for you, as well as where to buy one.

EDIT: what video encoder do you have? It's the chip closest to the AV ports. You'll need either a Focus or Connexant encoder for it to be compatible. Make sure to flash the appropriate bios file for your chip.

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I took a look at the readme files and sizes, and it seems the only one you can use with your current chip is the last one:

Debug-bios-256k-Gueux_Net-V2.rar

The other ones are 512k bioses, which likely will not fit on what you have. Keep in mind you should only flash your modchip with this-- do not flash your TSOP (onboard bios chip) with it, as per the readme.

If you want a 512k modchip, I could probably find one for you, as well as where to buy one.

EDIT: what video encoder do you have? It's the chip closest to the AV ports. You'll need either a Focus or Connexant encoder for it to be compatible. Make sure to flash the appropriate bios file for your chip.

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Its Connexant CX25871-14 and use the 256k debug and not  GueuX-NeT Hack-devkit-GueuX-V2.rar ?

 

TSOP is Hyundai, I think I'm going to edit this whole thread and put the important info at the beginning for good measure. These are things I never even thought of looking at since I never knew they existed or even mattered. Thanks for bearing with my ignorance on this one.

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Okay cool. This is a little off topic, but if you want to find out what motherboard revision you have, you can follow Xbox-Scene's picture guide here.

The good news is you don't have a v1.6 motherboard-- these require an LPC rebuild in order for a modchip to work (v1.6 always have Xcalibur video encoders). Aside from the LPC pinheadder, you will only need to solder one wire to the d0 point.

If you're lucky, you might have a v1.1. These are the most feature packed motherboards the OG Xbox had to offer

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Okay cool. This is a little off topic, but if you want to find out what motherboard revision you have, you can follow Xbox-Scene's picture guide here.

The good news is you don't have a v1.6 motherboard-- these require an LPC rebuild in order for a modchip to work (v1.6 always have Xcalibur video encoders). Aside from the LPC pinheadder, you will only need to solder one wire to the d0 point.

If you're lucky, you might have a v1.1. These are the most feature packed motherboards the OG Xbox had to offer

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I followed the link and it is a v1.0 board. Is there any way I can go about backing up all the data (TSOP,etc...) using just hardware for now as the machine will not boot? Once again, not trying to sound like  a redundant jerk but it's a Development Kit (Not debug) not sure if that matters at this junction or not but I really don't want to do anything to it that will perma-brick it. I know it's most likely damaged and this has become my newest hobby/project/obsession/nervous breakdown (hahahah)

When I saw it I instantly wanted it because I'm a hoarder like that and I traded my buddy a fully working JTAG Falcon for it and the innards of the crystal case replacement console (Which I want for case parts to "make" work for this restoration.)

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Well, I did some light research on this... And unfortunately I can't find any way to back up the TSOP. I thought you could using a homebrew app (you can at least back up the eeprom this way), but it appears that there are only flashing utilities and no dumping utilities. As for a hardware method to dump it... Well, back then there wasn't much of a reason for retail users to dump their own bios, so no solutions like NAND-X or SD tool QSBs were ever developed. The only hardware way I can think of is removing the chip and connecting it to a reader/programmer. I think it would be very difficult to pull off.

On the other hand, there's good news about having a v1.0. It's the exact same as a v1.1 except for the USB daughterboard (the board the controller ports plug into; later revisions removed this). The feature you probably would be most interested in is, your motherboard has a 1024k flash. Since Xbox bioses are typically 256k, they "extend" the bios with four copies of the same 256k bios, thus creating a 1024k flash image.

This is a beautiful thing for modders-- you can actually install a switch (or two) to split the TSOP into two banks of 512k (or four banks of 256k). On a retail Xbox, this means no need for a modchip. On your debug, your situation will require one initially. If you can find a good devkit bios that is safe to flash to the TSOP, then you can also pull off a multi bank mod.

If you're interested in this later down the road, it would require two solder bridges (to disable write protect), 3-6 wires and 1-2 SPDT switches.

EDIT: if you imagine your TSOP is a four 256k bank chip, it's possible the first bank got corrupt somehow... It doesn't boot, right? In that case, installing switches can allow you to test the other three banks. If bios corruption is the reason for no boot, then switching to another (hopefully non corrupt) bank could save the day... Just an idea to try.

 

EDIT2: Typo. Meant to say 3-6 wires.

 

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