Topic: New Modder Here.... (Read 113 times)

pulawman · « **on:** December 12, 2006, 06:40:00 PM »

Well, I f*cked up my xbox through softmodding..so I just ordered a SmartXX v2 w/ the disk,chip,and usb thing. This is gonna be my first true install. Anything I should know or have a good knowledge of b4 I go and start working on this thing...?

camintmier · « **Reply #1 on:** December 13, 2006, 05:02:00 AM »

Glad to see another SmartXX modder here. I put in a v3 with a generic solderless adapter and it went fairly well. One word of advice... Make sure your chip isn't going to bump into anything, like the DVD drive. The bottom of my Philips dvd drive had a rounded projection on the bottom (to cover where the laser travels), and I ended up having to take a cut-off wheel to it to get everything to fit. Even then it still doesn't fit perfectly. I had to raise the dvd drive about 1/2 an inch so it wouldn't contact the top of the modchip. If anything, I should have went for the pinheader install instead of just using a solderless adapter, but I'm lazy.

BTW, I got the usb adapter and the cd also. Dunno if it makes a difference, but I ordered it all thru divineo.com's US site.

Later,

pulawman · « **Reply #2 on:** December 13, 2006, 06:20:00 AM »

please correct me if im wrong, but doesn't this chip (Smartxx's) have built in bios already? Also, what exactly is on the disk.. instruction manual? I'm also guessing the easiest way to flash these is through FTP... in which I'm sure i'll be back for more questions to double check myself.

Thanks,
Cody

StrictPuppet · « **Reply #3 on:** December 13, 2006, 11:32:00 PM »

The chip has a built in OS not a bios, you will still need to flash a usable bios to the chip appropriate to your xbox version. By far the easiest way to flash is by HTTP. When your box is connected to your network it IP address will be displayed on the OS screen. Just type that IP into your web browser and a nice web page will open up with bios flashing and other options...so easy.

The disc just contains an xbox linux distro, nothing special.

P3ST4 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 14, 2006, 12:48:00 AM »

I just installed a SmartXX on a 1.4 motherboard tonight. Most likely you have a 1.4 box and not a 1.5. Very limited numbers of 1.5 were made. If you have a Seagate HDD and a Focus video encoder, you have a 1.4 box. But anyways, just make sure you don't destroy your D0 point, and you'll be fine. Get very small wire; I use 30AWG for the D0. Just put a tiny bit of solder on the end of the wire, and then solder that to the motherboard. Check your solder point afterward. Other than that, the installation is very simple. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
-pesta-

pulawman · « **Reply #5 on:** December 14, 2006, 06:10:00 AM »

if this is against the rules... please mods, by all means let me know and i'll edit the info!

what is the most acceptable/usable bios for smartxx chips? I was just going to use Evolution X, seing that it seems to be a standard.

Oh and thanks for all the quick replies guys, much appreciated!
P3ST4 : Thanks for the invite on pm's... I know a lot of guys can get annoyed with this. Thanks!

camintmier · « **Reply #6 on:** December 14, 2006, 11:06:00 AM »

Personally, I like the 256k version of the EvoX M8+ bios. I've also tried the X2 bios, and it works pretty well also. Since my SmartXX v3 has 4megs of flash, I've opted to put a couple different setups of the M8+ bios. I used a program called EVTool (I prefer the BFM version) to set up each one to point to a different dashboard. One points to XBMC, one to Avadash, one to the original dash, and one to the EvoX dash. I figure, I've definitely got the room, so I might as well use it.

Hope that helps you some.

Later,

P3ST4 · « **Reply #7 on:** December 14, 2006, 03:03:00 PM »

Yea I agree with camintmier. The EvoX M8+ bios is pretty good. I'd go with that one. Definitely download EVTool also. You can customize so many features of the BIOS, such as boot colors, LED colors, and fan speeds.

StrictPuppet · « **Reply #8 on:** December 14, 2006, 07:30:00 PM »

Evox m8+ is not really recommended as it has numerous issues, including a very buggy IGR. X2 4981 or X2 4983 are the preferred bioses for a non 1.6 box in a 256kb bank, and x2 5035 is preferred for a 512kb bank. Ask 100 people and you will get a bunch of different answers, but you will find evox bioses the least recommended.
To those above that use it.... great I am glad it works well for you. I am not slagging you, just offering my opinion.
Do some reading in the bioses forum, I am sure you will find my statement to be the general consensus, just be careful as most "What is the best" type of topics are usually closed quickly to prevent flamewars.

pulawman · « **Reply #9 on:** December 14, 2006, 07:36:00 PM »

hey man, thanks for the heads up! ill def. check stuff out b4 I install everthing...

XOR · « **Reply #10 on:** December 18, 2006, 05:57:00 AM »

I'd have to agree about the Evox issues, while generally okay, there can be some head scratching issues that only the M8 bios seems to throw up. There is even a dangerous version that kills xbox's out there, hence why people dont outwardly mention this for fear of someone grabbing this bad version.

As the other posters state you'll always get mutiple answers from a quiestion like this, but so far as complete configuability is concerned the X2 5035 with it's x2config.ini (placed on E), is by far and away the easiest method, as you can use exactly the same BIOS and simply change a text file to get your changes, and yes this does Boot colours, LED stuff, fan speed, multi BIOS bootups, debug modes, XBL protection (i.e. it wont connect you) as well as other stuff.

Author Topic: New Modder Here.... (Read 113 times)