HOW TO: Softmod Correctly

It would seem that Krayzie's installer does the same....the shadowC that's created on install appears to do exactly what you're talking about as does the Recovery Disc function. Unless i've misunderstood something...i've read a great deal of readme's and essentially both apps appear to do the same thing.

(..and i was looking at Krayzie 1.1.1 and SID 5.01)

 

i like to use a 128 sandick mem card i think it works better then a usb drive

 

Hi
I just did a soft mod and all went reasonably well following the tutorial. Just wondering if the RED RING on the eject button is normal when going into evox dash?? Everything seems to work ok though.

 

@ pufff
Red ring is fine if in your settings the LED is set for red or if the default color is red. I change mine all the time, and even sometimes disable the light or turn it off so that there is no light showing. As long as your Evox dash is showing and working you are fine.

 

Thanks Swango. I followed your intructions and it all worked fine.

 

Hey your welcome, we're here to help eachother right? Have fun...

 

Thanks for the tutorial buy after I installed Unleashx on my Pal xbox it had black bars at the bottom of the screen and the colour wasnt right.
Any ideas whats wrong ?

 

Are you sure you clicked softmod for PAL boxes when you installed your softmod? After you back up your dash and your eeprom and you pick "install softmod" it will ask which softmod you want. You must pick PAL then. I think (Im not by my xbox) you can go into settings> Video and change the format to PAL or at least make sure they are already set for PAL. Check that first and let us know if it is already set for PAL.

 

hey guys,

first off great tut...

now i have the SID5.1 installer loaded to my mem card (actually a modded usb) and i can see it in mechassault as run linux but then when i load it the green ring blinks red and then it shows on the screen that something is wrong with my xbox and i should call consumer services, tried with both SID4 and 5 and help would be great

 

did you transfer the save off the card onto the xbox hard drive or are you trying to load the exploit off the memory card?

 

yea i transfered the saved data from the memory card to the xbox hd

 

error 21 or different error?

Using sid 5.1 try the older sid located here

 

error 21... but ok i'll try using the older sid... any reason y this would be happening out of my own curiosity?

 

Error 21-

This occurs frequently when the xbox is unable to boot due to dashboard changes being made (ie Gcue true blue hasnt been resigned, parts of the stock dash are missing - incomplete FTP backups copied to a new HDD for example).


So it probably was a faulty download or file error in the dash files that causes your dash to not boot properly. Try downloading again, however if you have error 21 you are gonna have to reinstall your M$ dash to original first. This is a only a slight problem if you dont have your EEPROM saved, which since it never was softmodded you dont. So you will need to hot swap the hard drive, use Xboxhdm to reinstall the main dash and then try your mod again.

The reason you hotswap is because with no EEPROM you can not unlock the hdd to write to it from a pc.

Or you can do this....
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/541012
To hotswap and install the already modded version. I have not done this method but have read lots on it. I have had various errors that I have recovered using Xboxhdm, Including 21 and a frozen splash screen (M$ logo.)

 

Swango, first of all when you quote a previous post throw some quotes around it, i knew it wasn't some random newb (please don't take offense) talking about gcue true blue/red because i'm sure less than 5% of all xbox modders know what it is (this was back in 2003).

Secondly don't post links to horrible tutorials, if chunkhead writes a post like this, then it shouldn't even be in afterdawns archives, let alone linked to for help. The poor kid in the tutorial you linked to fried a 80 gig because he was too blind to figure out his drive was relocking (no doubt this is before we discovered pulling the ide cable to the dvd drive forced the hdd to stay unlocked).

Error 21 is like a 404 error, the xbox/computer is looking for something in a certain place and if it isn't there it will throw an error 21. You can cause error 21 by moving any important file the xbox needs in the system partition. Really it's an error that says the file is missing or invalid and instead of just hanging it throws a code.

Now if i were you hockey019 i would first identify the version of the xbox you have. (you don't have to but it helps and you'll be taking the xbox apart anyway)
-You have to take it apart and go though this mini tutorial

Now you want to hotswap using one of these tutorials
Chunkhead's hotswap tutoral
An older hotswap tutorial

Read the tutorials and it will give you a good idea of what you're trying to do. You want to go to the link i posted earlier, it will have fresh msdash files. You then replace the files on your xbox with the files from the link. If you have any other questions let us know before attempting the hotswap.

*edit*You can also try to use my files to mod your xbox, but it's better if you learn the right way first.

 

this is excellent thanks a million i'll try it out when i get some free time and see if it works...

thanks again

 

First of all, no offense taken. I actually am relatively new as I have only been modding for about a year and eveything I have learned has been from you great people hear at AD (no sarcasm intended) I have modded over 50 boxes though and most of all Chunckhead has taught me all I know and he probably doesnt even know it. It seemed really confusing when i got my first box a year ago pre-modded off of Craigslist.org. The first thing I wanted to do was learn how to back games to play. So I searched and found this site and a couple others like xbox-scene. But this is my only one that I use unless I can not find anything I need to know about xbox.

I did mention in my post that ERROR 21 was a file system error relating to dash files and that the files would have to be replaced. I also stated that the only way to write to a locked hdd would be to hotswap it and thereby temporarily unlocking so that you could then write. As hockey019 had not completed his mod I was sure he had never backed up his EEPROM and therefore, short of an EEPROM reader, he would HAVE to hotswap. I am sorry if the tut I linked to was not correct but I did mention that I have not tried this method but have read in several place it does work. I do admit that I knew that pulling the dvd ide before starting the Xbox did unlock the drive, and also that I did not entirely read that tutoriol. It was just meant to point hockey019 in the right direction as he will have to try hotswapping if he wants his system back.

My explaination of ERROR 21 came from this site and I should have given credit. I am a newb but not at all random. I can and will find a fix to any problem I have with an Xbox and I try to help people on AD with even less knowledge of softmodding than me, figure out what went wrong or what they can do to fix, not to criticize or chastise. I am less concerned with who's tutoriorial is better or putting quotes around a post from 2003 than I am about helping and explaining. I am sorry if I am coming off confrontational, that is not my intention. You Senior Members and Addicts really help, and I appreciate, just sometimes please try to respect a person thats not as learned as you on a subject as they might not understand unless you just go simple. Sorry I had so much to say.

 

Ok I again will appollogize for the quotes, but as for the tutorial itself, this is from Chunkhead in the same thread I linked to:

Chunkhead said it does in fact work but has flaws and had links to his way of hotswapping. So, in essence, I merely sent hockey019 to a thread and if he read the whole thread he would have found out the same. I just read the tutorial again myself and as Chunkhead also stated, I do not see how a PC could lock a drive and ruin it. PCs by default dont lock drives. But you fellas are correct in that it wasnt a great tut should not have been linked to. I hope that my appollogies are enough to end the discussion and go on helping those who need it.

 

Hi,

I tried this on a used xbox I just got, every step went through just like the tutorial shows, up to the very last step. I powered down and ejected the disc(splitner cell platinum), and powered back on, but then I got FRAG'd and a general service required display(without any error code in the corner of the screen). The harddrive makes three quick clicks, pauses and repeats, which leads me to believe that the drive failed.

I don't know if it's directly related to the tutorial and something I may have done wrong, or if it's coincidence that the drive failed at that moment. Any ideas?


Some information you may want(or not)
I used the usb drive/xbox controller connector hack to load the software onto the box. First usb drive I used didn't work, so I used a generic one and everything trasnferred onto it and onto the xbox fine. I double checked that the data was correct Before I loaded it and triple checked it After the hdd failed.

Through the serial number and this website, I have a 1.0 box

The HDD is a western digital, if you want the serial I'll post it. Heck, since I'm here: wma9n1450543

I tried the tutorial yesterday, and spent the rest of the day and today reviewing my steps before I posted. I've hacked things most of my life, I work at an entertainment attraction and make props, gadgets, gizmos, and "improvised mechanical apparati", so I'm more than confident that I was thorough. But there's still a chance I did something wrong.