I bought an xbox off ebay with the plan to softmod it but got scr3wed: The DVD drive only gives read errors and the dashboard needs to be updated (has version 4920 right now). xbox live fails with "xbox live is not available", though. Funny thing is, in "Settings", the "network settings" are missing. They are just not there. Something is seriously wrong. Problem is, all hot-swap instructions for softmodding "strongly recommend" dashboard 5960. Can't install that online, can't install it with a game. Could only install it if it was modded. Classic catch-22. I have a second chipped (xecuter 2.6) xbox, though. It's DVD drive doesn't really work, either, but I never cared because I only use it with xbmc to play off the network. But can I use it to help with fixing the other xbox? I don't really know how. Any ideas?
if you do the hotswap trick (so the harddrive is unlocked), you can either: 1)use the hdm tutorial to rebuild your harddrive to a softmodded harddrive (look for the c-cheater files if you do not have softmodded c drive files). 2)or the xplorer360 program to copy all the softmodded files over to your harddrive. after 1 or 2 put the harddrive back in your xbox, power down (the xbox) and power up (the xbox) again. Then your xbox is softmodded without needing to use the dvd drive or the eeprom key. btw. in the same manner you can also only update your dashboard files by overwriting the dashboard files only (there is a fresh 5960 dashboard donwload in the download section, via this way you can also choose to only update the dashboard files). good luck, there are multiple tutorials and posts about both option 1 and 2
Here is another issues you may face!!! Even if you are getting the console running.. The issue is xbox live for xbox 1 is officially offline you can no longer connect i have tried it fails the server to register is no longer active. Now another issue!! If you have a xbox 1 with a dvd drive that doesn't read dvd-r or cd-r you are in deep trouble and then you will have to purchase a new xbox 1 drive and hack the firmware which is a royal pain not to get the drive but to find the firmware.
why an issue that live is down? just put in any (or most) live enabled games from 2005 onwards and the dashboard will be updated to 5960 via the (original) game. or just as i mentioned, download the 5960 dashboard files from the download page and rebuild /hotswap your drive to include the update dash files if it doesn't read dvd-r/cd-r, just use media that it will read
