I installed an XBIT in my friend's new Xbox the other day - ran into a few unexpected problems while everything that other people run into went super smooth. I've always done solder installs and this was my first foray into pogo pins. I've also only installed Xecuter chips before (not that they've all gone smoothly) and I haven't modded any v 1.3 xboxes before.
The Install:
Flash went easy and software fine - tutorials great - very easy. Then Pogos would not get connection no matter how tightly it was screwed down. If we pressed the bottom (away from screw) down to make contact we could get a perfect boot but it wouldn't stay on it's own - not after 10+ reseats. Ironically D0 was perfect the whole time (just a frag when enabled, stock boot when disabled). We scraped the LPC holes etc.. We located a faulty pin that was pushed in and fabricated an LPC extension for it - no luck. Eventually we went to do headerpin - unfortunately DMS didn't provide the required D0 wire and I chose not to trash the wire harness for some thin wire. We went wire install and eventually got it running. Ran into my first bitch of a time with D0 (booted perfect with chip on and fraged when disabled- go fuckin figure - got it sorted out eventually but definitely not your typical D0 problem). Of course there is no adhesive or good place to mount a wire install to not make metal contact with the unused pins so we ended up fabricating a backing for the chip and pushing it down flat under the DVD drive. Pain in the ass.
Design suggestions:
1) Pogos - it would have been perfect but it wasn't to be. Almost like there was too much flex in the board, the pins were too springy, or the washer was too thick. That's the story of pogos, they work great for some and not at all for others. If it just would have worked this would have been by far the easiest install I've done. Very easy to align and setup. It does look like I'm in the minority though. Ironically it was LPC contact and not D0 where most people have run into contact problems.
2) Headerpin - provide the damn D0 wire. A lot of people don't have tiny guage wire laying around the house and trashing the wireharness is a bad option in case this goes wrong. Also - what's with a headerpin fixed on the chip? Sort of defeats the purpose of it.
3) Wires - include some type of backing or some idea of where to mount the chip in your tutorials. The pins prevent a flush wall mounting as they block the DVD casing. Also - I am very leary about allowing those unused pins to touch metal inside the xbox.
4) External Switches - these are flush dip switches. I can't even get my fingernail in there to flip them. Something easier to operate would be nice. Just have them stick out of the unit a bit.
Final Thoughts:
All in all it's a good chip. Plenty of room for bioses and all the good features. If the Pogos would have worked it would have been the easiest install ever. Chances are one would have to be very unlucky to have this happen to them. All in all if they made a few very small changes (D0 wire for headerpin, better switches, well thought out mounting for wire install) it would be much higher on my list. Right now it seems as if all non-pogo installs are an afterthought.
