Okay, so, you had a great chip installed, or you went ahead and installed it yourself - but now you need to flash a hacked BIOS on there - and you might lack "skillz". ohnoes! Don't worry, it's not that hard. follow the instructions and you'll be happy.
Disclaimer: Remember that you are doing this of your own free will...I can't and won't be held responsible if your girlfriend breaks up with you, if your dog dies, if El Nino screws up your weather or if you damage/wreck your Xbox. Don't be stupid, and you'll be fine.
While I don't have pictures yet, i will eventually. In the mean time, i'll be as descriptive as i can.
What you will need:
a PC computer(there are ways to do this with Macs, but however much i'd like to explain that too, it would be a whole new tutorial)
a network or a crossover cable
xbox with SmartXX chip
hack BIOS of your choice
meagre computer skills
Autoinstaller disc burned on CD-RW(Most people use Slayer's, so i'll use that here)
Since this isn't a SmartXX install guide, we're going to assume your chip is installed and boots up like normal to the SmartXX OS. You can use the SmartXX remote flasher method, or the flash via CD method, but i don't use either of those and neither does this tutorial. if you want a tutorial on using those, look someplace else - we're going to use the browser menu flash method.
Begin by obtaining your favourite hacked BIOS, appropriate for your Xbox version. You'll have to go to the "usual places", i.e. Xbins, etc. if you don't know what Xbins is, or how to use it, go
here.
Simply having this BIOS file isn't going to cut it - you have to configure it to your specifications. Different BIOSes are customised through different utilities. all of these utilities can be found by using trusty old Google.
If you are using an Evox BIOS(M8 or above) you should get EVtool.
For those using iND-BiOS there is a tool provided by the iND-BiOS people(be sure to inject the .cfg file into the BIOS file itself)
To customise an Xecuter 49xx series BIOS you need XBtool(you cannot configure X2 4983, use 4981.06 for hard drives smaller than 200 GB, 4981.67 for above).
If you are using a 512kb Xecuter 2 Config Live BIOS, i.e. 5035(this is the most recent as of this writing) you need X2ool.
For Evox and Xecuter 4981 usersEvox and X2 49xx(let's just assume you're using 4981 and forget the rest) are configured with almost identical utilities. begin by setting LBA48, bottom left corner. select "Partition 6 takes rest of drive" if your drive is 200 GB or less. some people say 250 GB, but to be safe from file corruption, i advise 200. if your hard drive is bigger than 200 GB, select "partition 6 takes up to 137 GB/partition 7 takes rest". the first option means you will just have a large F: drive, where as the second means you will have F: and G:. Now, pick some new colours for your X logo. make it pink if you want. you may wish to disable the animation(i personally do), the trademark logos, and the DVD drive check. For Evox users, get rid of the annoying and ugly Evox logo, or replace it with something else. now, decide which dashboard you will be using and from where you'd like it to boot.. i like Avalaunch and AnOd-X. let's pretend you're using Avalaunch and you want to boot from F:...so, for the first box under "boot partitions and executables" you replace the existing "whatever.xbe" with avalaunch.xbe and to the left of that, you select the partition from which it boots, in our case, F. set your second dashboard priority to something else. Since we're using Slayer's, make it Evox.xbe. set the fan speed to 25 or 30...not required, but a good idea to keep the ol xbox cool. Also, ensure IGR(In Game Reset) is set to "more compatible".
If you are using iND-BiOSthis tool works a little differently. iND BIOS is designed for you to simply flash the BIOS, and it will load a small .cfg file from the hard drive. the advantage is you can change the .cfg file as you like later one, rather than having to reflash the BIOS. the disadvantage is it slightly slows down your boot time(hardly any, but still a little bit) because the IDE has to intialise before the BIOS can read the config. However, the tool has a provision to inject this config file right into the BIOS, so that it boots at the speed of a normal BIOS - you will not, however be able to change the settings afterwards without reflashing the BIOS. the choice is yours, as it depends whether or not you plan to tweak it later, or maybe you're a "set it and forget it" type?
On to the creation of the config file. once you open the utility you will be presented with a bunch of tabs, the first of which is "basic". in this tab, the only thing you need to do is set IGR to "more compatible". in the next two tabs you can select colours and other such things for the boot animation and X logo. this is purely cosmetic, it won't affect how your Xbox runs but it can be fun to play with. configure all you like, and when you're done, go the next tab, "Boot Settings". check off the "first" "second" and "third" boxes...leave the "DVD" box alone. set the partition you wish to boot from, (I always use F:, some use C:) and put the name of the dashboard you wish to use. again i will use Avalaunch as an example, so if i want it to boot from, say, E:, i would replace the text in the "first" box with "E:\avalaunch.xbe". you can put whatever you like, but remember that your dashboard's main XBE has to be called the same thing as what you put in the BIOS, because that's what it'll be looking for. easiest would simply be to use the xbe name that comes with your dashboard. put Evox.xbe as your second priority.
Once you are happy with your settings, save the .cfg file. If you choose to inject the .cfg into your BIOS, go up to the "injector" menu at the top and select the BIOS to inject into, and save the BIOS with a different name. Depending on your hard drive size, you must inject it into the appropriate BIOS version. I will assume you are using version 5003 or the February Beta version. for hard drives 200 GB and smaller, use the .06 version, and for those above 200, use .67.
If you want to leave the .cfg file alone and have it load from the hard disk you will have to place it in the root of c:\ and it must be named "ind-bios.cfg" - no quotes, of course. this can be done via FTP later on.
Xecuter Config Live BIOSLike iND-BiOS, the X2 Config Live BIOS uses a config file on the hard drive to determine its settings. unlike iND, though, you can't inject the config into the BIOS file, and unlike few other BIOSes by anybody, at the time of this writing, they all are 512 KB BIOSes, unlike the rest which are 256k. they cannot, cannot, cannot(!!!!) be resized to 256k. this means that before flashing, you will have to go to the bank config feature in your SmartXX OS and make sure there is at least one 512 KB bank available to flash to, otherwise you will have an unsuccessful flash.
There are two ways to edit the config file. one is to open the config file directly with wordpad or notepad whatever and change the values yourself, and the other, simpler, more noob-friendly way is to use X2ool to simply create a new x2config.ini file with your settings on it, which you then place on the hard drive.
Start by opening X2ool. the first tab deals with dashboards. pick the partition you want to boot from, i usually use and recommend F: and then put the dashboard you plan to use in the first box. if you are using avalaunch, it will be avalaunch.xbe - you specify the partition with the drop down menu on the left of the box. fill in the rest of the boxes with other dashboards...most are unimportant, but the second should specify evox.xbe - this dashboard will load if you accidentally delete the default executable for the primary dash. the next tab is all about funny colours. pick colours you like(there are also themes at the bottom) and move on to the next tab, "misc". leave everything under "misc toggles" alone. the next section is just for fun, it changes the animation a bit. optional. set fan speed to 30%. the only thing you need to load the actual BIOS for is LBA48 settings. load your BIOS, and select "Partition 6 takes rest of drive" for any drive 200 GB and below, and "partition 6 takes 137GB / partition 7 takes rest" for anything above. save. go to the next tab, leave everything alone and go to "config file" and click "save".
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Alright! now you've got your BIOS configured! time to get on with it and flash already!
If you are using a networkconnect your PC and your Xbox to the network. boot up your Xbox to SmartXX OS.
i'll finish later, i'm bored of typing. if you notice any errors, please point them out. constructive criticism welcomed.
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Topic: Bikehorn's Guide To Flashing The Smartxx Series (Read 87 times)