Mini Xbox?

Includes PS2, Xbox 1, GameCube (but not the Phantom Game Console)

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Harlequin
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Mini Xbox?

Post by Harlequin » Sun Apr 03, 2011 12:08 pm

was thinking about building a mini-xbox. Over the years, I've only ever owned 1.6 xboxs and softmodded them. They don't lend themselves to being made "mini'd" without a modchip. I realize that a $10 investment is small beans compared to the overall cost of the project, but what can I say? I'm cheap.

Recently however, I was given a 1.0 xbox with a 160 GB hard drive. It was softmodded and was coughing up an error 16. Suffice to say that after a few hours of rebuilding the hard drive, it was (not surprisingly) back in action as that was the only error it suffered from. The other issue the box had was that the CPU clip was broken. a bit of glue and luck saw the clip back in place, but I don't have a lot of confidence in that solution, so I'm thinking about replacing the heatsink on it anyways (not that I ever use this box)

So, months pass and Christmas rolls around. I get a 15/30w soldering iron and some solder for christmas. March rolls around (I'm also lazy I guess) and finally I've had enough and decide to crack the box back open and tsop flash this bad boy. Enough of this softmod nonsense!

For those of you who haven't TSOP flashed an xbox before, it isn't as easy as the guides make it look. They use nicely blown up photos of the points. Think pin heads about 1/32 of an inch apart. I taped off the area for soldering and placed a tiny piece of wire between the two top points and soldered. went pretty easy. Good.

flipped over the board and tried the bottom two points. Wire wasn't taking and things weren't going right so I started to back off. The Trace decided to come with me. !@#!@ ok, I thought. There are a few guides on alternate points. If I tag those, a broken/lifted trace won't be an issue. Tagged a few alt points for the bottom, and plugged everything back in. Taped over the lifted trace as well for good measure.

Plugged it all in, attempted to flash. Fail. I immediately cursed my luck as I cannot flash, must be that lifted trace. I stripped it all down and pulled out the multimeter. strange. The bottom points appear to be ok... test the top.. Cold solder joint? I mean, I've heard of that happening, but it always happens to someone else!

quick searching found alternate points on the bottom of the board for the top points. Tag and tag (had to hold my breath) and it was done. Flash completed. Now I'm loading up X2 5035 with DVD detection disabled.

So now I'm at the point where I just need to order two things, (1) a pico-psu to shrink things down. (2) new heat sinks to shrink it down further.

I already have a 44 pin to 40 pin IDE adapter, but might get another. I was thinking about adding a laptop DVD drive in replacement of the current drive, shrinking it down but not eliminating the drive altogether. Possibly a Mac DVD drive, but I'm a little iffy on how the Eject button would work.

After that I'd need to work out some sort of case for this bad boy. What do you guys think? Should I call it a day with a lifted trace or go for the MiniBox? Should I install a TSOP switch and flash with a VGA Bios as well?

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hidiosoman
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Re: Mini Xbox?

Post by hidiosoman » Sun Apr 03, 2011 7:15 pm

This is all way over my head but seems very interesting.

So, you TSOP mod it so you don't need a modchip? Is that the only reason?

Harlequin
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Re: Mini Xbox?

Post by Harlequin » Tue Apr 05, 2011 3:28 am

Yeah pretty much, it is possible to set a 1.0 - 1.1 xbox up with a BIOS switch and actually have it run up to 4 different BIOSes. The 1.2-1.5 can run 1 BIOS. It's basically the same as a running it with a chip only no chip is required.

It might sound over your head but it literally comes down to either soldering a bridge across to tiny points, or tagging a couple of wires to a few points on the board. Once you are done that, you can use Evox or Eurasia or whatever to flash this chip with a new BIOS, just like you would with a modchip.

It's kind of awesome that for about 6 bucks (if you already have a soldering iron and solder) you can install a few wires and a switch and gain more functionality that you could with a $10 modchip.

of course, the big benefit of the chip is that if you bugger your TSOP, the chip will still work :P

If you want a walk thru on how to do it, I can hook you up. Some of the tutorials are a little out of date and make it sound waaay to complicated.

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hidiosoman
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Re: Mini Xbox?

Post by hidiosoman » Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:04 pm

That'd be awesome if you could help me do some xbox mods so I might take you up on that offer.

To tell you the truth, I still don't see any difference from this and soft mods so I must be missing something :/
Other than that, this looks pretty sweet and switching bios on the fly with a switch seems pretty cool, too!

If only the xbox took less watts and space then we could make portables...

Harlequin
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Re: Mini Xbox?

Post by Harlequin » Wed Apr 06, 2011 12:16 am

in order to help you out I first need to determine what version of xbox you have. If it's softmodded your dash might tell you this. XBMC and unleashx both list it in the settings.


benefits over softmod

1 - no hard drive lock
2 - can turn off DVD required for boot
3 - can run everything pretty much straight from C
4 - can create an alternate boot sequence (flubber colors etc)
5 - can boot an emergency media if need be from the DVD drive

#1,2,5 are the most important in my books. When the last of the xbox native DVD drives dies, you won't be out of luck or forced to keep the drive in the xbox. Also when your HDD dies, it will be easier to replace (although you should have a backup somewhere of all of your EEPROMs with the softmod)

Materials you will need - solder, iron (I recommend no more than 15w and it shouldn't be one of those hand portable ones, wall plug all the way), and thin wire. Really thin. I used IDE wire from an 80 wire IDE cable. from there it's as simple as tinning the wires, placing them over the points you want to tag and tagging them down. I don't recommend the small points unless you have a decent grip on the soldering skill. I thought I did, and I was proven wrong.

The switch type is SPDT, you can set it for two banks of 512 or 4 of 256. I like 2 of 512 so I can use the X2 5035 bios. If you are using xbox 1.2-1.5 it won't matter and no switch is required. you are stuck with a single bank of 256 which is still fine.

Let me know when you have all that info and supplies, I'll set you up with the link... oh yeah you can also force it to produce a VGA signal as well, which will let you pull some games in at 720p or 1080i

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humakabula1
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Re: Mini Xbox?

Post by humakabula1 » Wed Apr 06, 2011 12:54 am

you mean something like this?
Image
*image shows wwwyzzerdd's work*
Wedgix (custom linux distro): 20% complete

Harlequin
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Re: Mini Xbox?

Post by Harlequin » Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:43 am

while I like the look of your xbox, I'm not entirely sure where you were going with the comment... was this in regards to TSOP? VGA? Mini-box?

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humakabula1
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Re: Mini Xbox?

Post by humakabula1 » Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:47 pm

1. its not mine, its done and owned by a user on llamma.

2. its a media centre type thing. it has been flashed to play games from the hdd
Wedgix (custom linux distro): 20% complete

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hidiosoman
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Re: Mini Xbox?

Post by hidiosoman » Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:53 pm

haha, huma, this is the second picture I've seen you post with no explanation in the post... :)

Is there a way to see my version by looking at the motherboard? My HDD is locked (my dad tried to mod it a LONG time ago when I was but a mere baby... well, maybe 9 or something...)

Also, I have jtagged xbox 360s before and am extremely close to finishing an n64p so I think I have a pretty solid background to help me in this stuff... as long as someone guides me :D

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humakabula1
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Re: Mini Xbox?

Post by humakabula1 » Thu Apr 07, 2011 4:20 am

it is isnt it :lol:

if you can open the console you can check the revision.
here are a couple of links to help:
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=367210" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://llamma.com/xbox/Repairs/determin ... f_xbox.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Wedgix (custom linux distro): 20% complete

Harlequin
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Re: Mini Xbox?

Post by Harlequin » Thu Apr 07, 2011 9:42 am

The llamma guide is best for what you want to do. If you are softmodded already, you can determine the version within the dash that you have (almost always). What dash are you running? Evox? Avalaunch? etc?

if you do choose to open it up you just need to look at the power connector to tell the difference. 1.0-1.1 use a single bar for a power connector. 1.2-1.6 use an ATX style connector. If you see the ATX connector, and additional "empty" slots for surface mount ram, then you are in the 1.2-1.5 area, and are good to flash. If you have an ATX connector and no additional empty ram slots, then you are a 1.6 and not flashable.

QuietStorm1785
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Re: Mini Xbox?

Post by QuietStorm1785 » Thu May 19, 2011 1:56 am

Also you can go to http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox-tutorials.php for tuts too, I learned how to put a modchip on my 1.6b xbox using the tuts there. I was thinking about doing an original xbox laptop myself, but Im terrible at soldering. Used the xapter 1.6 no solder adapter for the lpc bus on my xbox. Also i would love to see how you put together this minixbox, would be pretty freakin sweet.

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