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[XmodsUK]

No, a programmer is not needed. Just use a bootdisk to flash.

[Falcon4]

Or just leave the second bank empty (DON'T flash a 1mb image if you want to keep FlashROM on bank 2!) and it'll retain the FlashROM program. If you have a 1.6, you will probably want to build a 1mb image with the ROM of your choice (in bank 1) followed by the 1.6 version of FlashROM in bank 2, then flash the whole mess to the chip using, well, you guessed it, FlashROM in the appropriate bank. It's been over a year and a half since I got my X2.6CE, I forget if 1.6 was on the first or second bank, but I do know that I've always been able to maintain a copy of FlashROM on the second bank and have always flashed it with HTTP, not a CD. I was especially careful about that because FlashROM was the only BIOS my Xbox would boot after installing the modchip... not even the original BIOS anymore! Until I found Cromwell, I had a bricked Xbox. Now it's at least partially useful again. Glad I kept FlashROM around.

You should never need to use anything except the built-in FlashROM bank, and at the very furthest extension you might need to boot a flasher and flash a new BIOS (if you fuck something up major). But you should never need any kind of programmer.