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[fdelosrios]

Hi people,

First of all thanks for reading. I'm having really weird problems with my current setup. I've been reading a lot about the subject but I couldn't find similar problems. The main one is I can't get nothing better than 640x480 through my Frozen cable. This is my setup:

- Xbox 1.3 bios 4817 PAL (NDURE 3.1 softmod with MS dash on tray ejection, changed to NTSC with Enigmah mode switch )
- Samsung LE32A330 TV (32-inch HD-ready TFT)
- Frozen cable
- Frosty's VGA boot disc v1.0
           
I've tried many things so far and this is what I got. Hopefully with all this info you can say what's going on because I'm clueless:

- MS Dash set to 480p(y)/720p(n)/1080i(n)
- Boot with XBMC at 480p or auto
            Video is fine in XBMC and green in MS Dash. UnleashX or other apps bring a blank screen if launched.

- MS Dash set to 480p(y)/720p(y)/1080i(y)
- Boot with XBMC at 480p
            Video is fine in XBMC and green in MS Dash. UnleashX or other apps bring a blank screen if launched. If I try to set a higher def screen gets black and optionally XBMC freezes.

- MS Dash set to 480p(y)/720p(y)/1080i(y)
- Boot with XBMC at auto
            Blank screen but XBMC is running

- MS Dash set to whatever
- Boot with UnleashX
            Blank screen but UnleashX is running

- MS Dash set to 480p(y)/720p(n)/1080i(n)
- Boot XBMC at auto with VGA boot disk
            Video is fine in XBMC and green in MS Dash. UnleashX and other apps run fine.

- MS Dash set to 480p(y)/720p(n)/1080i(n)
- Boot UnleashX at auto with VGA boot disk
            Video is fine and other apps run fine.

- MS Dash set to 480p(y)/720p(y)/1080i(y)
- Boot with XBMC at auto with VGA boot disk
            Blank screen but XBMC is running

- MS Dash set to 480p(y)/720p(y)/1080i(y)
- Boot UnleashX at auto with VGA boot disk
            Blank screen but UnleashX is running

Well, as you can see I've been trying hard... Note that the resolution always is 640x480 despite widescreen being set. NDURE toolkit always brings a blank screen but I guess that's because it patches the BIOS its own way. From the NDURE toolkit NKpatcher menu I've tried RGB patched BIOS and Proggressive with the same results. One thing doesn't make sense to me, though, is NDURE 3.1 is supposed to use NKpatcher11u4 with the new on-the-fly configuration through E:\NK11 directory files but the menu still changes bios.xbe files (NKpatcher10 style). No files but clock.xbe are inside E:\NK11. What I don't know either is if Frozen cable is 1+3 or 2+3, I assume is 2+3.

Your help here is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

This post has been edited by fdelosrios: Mar 13 2009, 10:15 PM

[Red_Breast]

Forgive me if you've already explained that you've tried it but have you tried starting with 480p off? Try with 1080i off as well and 720p on.
The Frozen cable does 2+3. I can't remember if it does 1+3. I have one but I prefer to use a component to VGA adaptor. The colors with a Frozen look really washed out whenever I've tried it. Frosty's VGA boot disc only works in 2+3 mode. From the readme:-
"- Only works with Homemade VGA Cables in Mode 2+3 (HDTV), no other video cables or modes are supported."

This post has been edited by Red_Breast: Mar 14 2009, 11:44 PM

[Zebedee Rocks]

Frosty's cable comes default as 2+3 (those of us who want to use it with linux hack at it and add switches, etc.) I agree with Red, try starting your xbox with just 720p (what I usually use).  I haven't exactly tried the VGA boot disc yet but there is another option.  Look up on the usual places for Frosty's BFM bioses and read the readme.  

Regards,

Zeb

[fdelosrios]

Thanks for your answers, guys. I've tried to set it to 720p only and I get a blank screen always no matter how I boot. However, I was wrong when I said that MS dash was always green. It's green when I boot it first, with the tray open. If I launch it from XBMC colors are fine.

At the moment the only way I can see the image is at 640x480, this doesn't even honor the widescreen setting. I can't understand how people manage to get Frozen cable running with a softmod because my setup is quite standard.

Any help would be appreciated, I'm really stuck here.

Thanks everybody!

[Heimdall]

This may be a red herring (and you may already have done all of this), but it's worth checking if only to eliminate eeprom inconsistencies as a possibility.....

Run E:\ndts\default.xbe (LED should go red), then make sure you don't have a copy of eeprom.bin anywhere on your Xbox. Without rebooting, run Enigmah and set the Xbox to NTSC again!

Reboot, then run E:\ndts\default.xbe again, then run C:\xb0xdash.xbe and enable the HD video modes.

Now cold boot with Frosty's VGA boot disc (but first make sure you edit x2config.ini and place it on your E drive as described in the readme).

Then try running HD modes in XBMC, and post back with your results! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

This post has been edited by Heimdall: Mar 15 2009, 07:01 PM

[fdelosrios]

Bad news, it's still the same. I followed all the steps and nothing.

Any other suggestion? I have no clue what's going on here...

Thanks for your help.

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(fdelosrios @ Mar 17 2009, 09:30 PM)

Bad news, it's still the same. I followed all the steps and nothing.

Any other suggestion? I have no clue what's going on here...

Thanks for your help.

I use Frozen cable with Ndure 3.1 before my cable broke....I used VIDEO.BIN in E:\NKP11 , you can try searching for the thread(s)... a text value of 3 in the VIDEO.BIN.

[fdelosrios]

No joy. I tried the VIDEO.BIN trick and it didn't make any difference. I made sure it actually was detected by setting it to 1 and I got a green screen, thus it's definitely read by kernel patcher.

The only thing left to try is putting my Xbox upside down or praying but I reckon neither will work. Video won't either go beyond 640x480 or honor the wide screen setting.

I couldn't find similar cases in the forums, could you? Most people just get blank screens or green image but never this low res nonsense.

Anyway, thanks for your help and attention. If you can come up with something please post and I'll be happy to try, no matter how obvious it sounds, I'd rather check twice.

[Heimdall]

Have you tried plugging something else (e.g. a computer) into the VGA port? LCD TV VGA ports don't always support the maximum resolution of the screen, and I have seen a couple of 32" TVs that only supported 640x480 on the VGA port.

[Red_Breast]

When you say 640x480 where are you getting that from? Are you reading it from the display?
I ask because the 480p in the Xbox dash is HDTV mode 480p. In other words (or numbers) 720x480.

[Zebedee Rocks]

If you are having so much trouble with the softmod, why not try a new one?  The one that I would recommend to start with (for VGA at least) is Frosty's Dual-boot VGA softmod.  Worked for me pretty good when I used it, but now I use a modified UXE softmod, won't go into the details.  You won't be able to dual-boot the original dash but you can always just boot that from within Unleashx or whatever Dash you use.  I personally have never really gotten Ndure 3.1 to work really well with VGA,  the resolution wouldn't change, it looked like Crap.  Also try switching the PAL-NTSC again after the new softmod (if you decide to go that route).

Good Luck

[fdelosrios]

Sorry not having replied earlier but I just couldn't. Anyway, here's my frustration summarised:

- I know it's 640x480 video as per my TV OSD.
- I tried to install Frosty's VGA softmod as it says in the readme "ensure C and E are empty and upload the files" and I ended up with a 13 or 14 error message, depending on whether I booted with the tray open or not.

No joy for me guys. I really appreciate your effort and I'm willing to keep trying before or after I restore the harddrive to get it work. I'll restore the contents this evening but I'm cool with screwing it again if you can come up with a working alternative to NDURE (I have no exploitable games and no mem cards, but I have a USB adaptor, FYI).

Thanks for your help again, you really deserve it.