Hi all. I'm new, just registered. I'm new also at modifying my xbox. My choice fell on X-BIT chip because they say it's quite simple to flash and install, and it needs no soldering (probably I'd damage my xbox if I tried to solder something on the motherboard - I'm not an expert at all).
I only like to share my experience... maybe someone finds it useful.
So I bought the chip. As I tried to flash some bios on it the problems began
I tried the 1.5 version of the flashing program but nothing good happened... when trying to format the flash memory it said "Format start" but nothing happened for ages. Plus, the 6 configuration appeared all to be selectable.
Then I tried the 1.0 flashing program... no success. I kept getting weird error messages about USB commands not performed correctly. Moreover... no light on the mini usb device (the one with dip switches).
Chip broken? Maybe... I read almost every post about flashing X-BIT 1.5 and I tried everything, but nothing significant happened. The only thing I've obtained is that, if I try to write a piece of the flash memory (for example using configuration 6 and M8 bios 256K) the chip lights but I can see no progress, and if I try to verify the flash the program crashes with an overflow error.
Today I've tried the same process with an older computer with Win 2K installed (before I was using WinXP)... nothing.
Mmmm... so what? While thinking about calling the person who sold me the chip, I took a glance at the hardware manager... no HID interface connected. Strange... but pushing the cable on the chip side strongly the HID interface appeared, releasing it disappeared...
So... first problem. One must be sure the system sees "the chip". Eventually push the cable into the plug of the chip and keep it pressed with one hand while formatting or flashing the chip... and also keep an eye on the hardware manager.
Second problem. I was thinking I had ver 1.5, but it's probably not true. I succeeded in flashing the chip with 1.0 software so I think I have a 1.0 chip, if such a version exists. Anyway, the 1.5 flashing software is not compatible with my chip. Double check you have the chip version you believed you had. Now, after having formatted the chip, when I push the "connect" button of the software (1.0), only the configuration 6 is available and already selected... this means, in my opinion, that the sofware can read the configuration from the flash memory and it lets you use only that one.
At this point I have flashed 6 bioses on the configuration 6: M8, M8 plus, M7, M7 eject fix, Executer2 5028 and Executer2 5035 and verified them several times. I have also read a couple od bioses from the chip and saved them on my HD. Then I have formatted the chip again an repeated the whole process to be "sure" it's ok.
Btw, now I'm using software version 1.0 in Win2K compatibility mode on a WinXP machine.
I hope this post is useful to some newbie (like me) who's desperately trying to flash the chip. In the weekend I'm gonna install it on the xbox and face other troubles for sure
