I would suggest you try to see if you can load a small evox save off the AR rather than a complete ltools package.. The smaller the save, the less likely corruption is.. Typically corrupt saves result in an error 21 screen, but not 100%..
Regarding a chip install, I'm in an entirely different boat.. If you've never held a soldering iron, an xbox mobo is not the place to start.. Tons of ppl kill their xboxes with bad soldering!! Especially since most ppl can only get their hand on irons designed for all purpose soldering that can scorch the pcb in the blink of an eye.. (Ppl who work on boards like these professionally do it at expensive rework stations that have dozens of different tips and controllable temperature..) Much better to find somebody handy with an iron and buy them a beer for their 5 minutes of time..