The Ultimate Original XBOX Thread

[sj33]

I'm pretty sure that just searching IDE 2.5 will bring up numerous harddrives that will fit. Just pick your size and off you go, I don't think they were particularly fussy about what HDD they put in.

Just to point out, you're probably better off going with a 3.5" drive. While a 2.5" will work, it will be loose because the drive will be too small for the caddy.

I believe there should be no restrictions with regards to what type of drive you can use, just use the fastest and largest IDE drive you can find.

[smouty]

A 2.5" will work but not only will it not fit without rails, you'll also need an adaptor cable.
2.5" IDE drives used a 44pin cable
Stick with a regular 3.5" IDE. Samsungs were popular as they were fast and quiet.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Generic-Hard-Disk-Drive-250GB/dp/B000OUI8PU

[Sketcz]

Hells yes! That's what I wanted!

I would like everything from my old HD. I've spent the last 10+ years perfecting my ROM/Emu list. Mainly I want to start installing CD games. I've got DVDs with Sega CD stuff, but they don't always load nicely off the disc.

EDIT:
Bought this one -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-WD1600AAJB-160GB-Drive/dp/B006Z4IRT6/

Felt safer getting a known brand, and it had good reviews. Plus, it's compatible, according to the Xbox list. Now to find myself a Molex splitter cable...

[smouty]

You could FTP what you want over to a PC and then back again when you've swapped the drives.
A boot CD/DVD is useful e.g Slayers/AID etc.
You can clone Xbox HDDs but I've only ever tried it where the sizes were identical.

[Sketcz]

I might do that then. There's only a couple of gig on the current one, since it's an original HDD.

[bash]

Dude, forget the old xbox emus. Get on VISION and Coinops 5. Google is your friend.

[Sketcz]

Spent 10 minutes, and I couldn't find much on VISION. Actually, I couldn't find much on Coinops 5. I watched a video and browsed a few forum topics, and from what I can tell it's basically a beefed up version of MAME?

I've used MAME, but I don't like arcade games much.

Basically, NeoGenesis and MednafenX-PCE both emulate Sega CD and PCE-CD well enough. What are the technical reasons for upgrading?

I actually downgraded my SNES emu because the idiot who took over from Xport changed the original GUI, adding like 6 extra steps to hex-editing your own cheat codes! Why? Then he rewrote the engine, adding slowdown to games.

Still, I like improvements. Sell me on Coinops 5, and what is VISION?

[smouty]

CoinOps is basically everything that can be emulated 100% rolled up in a single GUI

[bash]

And Vision is a slick gui for loading and customising your favourite roms, most of which have the latest cores with no slow down. It also has scanlines emulated into it now as well, if you're into that sort of thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T2CEPIVU9pQ

[Sketcz]

Hmmm.... Tempting. But I dislike changing a GUI after I've got used to it. That's why I actually downgraded to an older SNES emu, purely to have the comfort of cheats being in their old position on the menu.

Another thing I need to do is remove this ****ing awful blue LED that was put in my chipped box. I was asked: do you want a blue LED. I said NO. But they said: it doesn't cost anything, I'll put it in anyway.

Now I can only play the machine by placing an opaque object in front to block the light, because it screws with my mind. Like a moth to a flame I can never look away from it, and it makes me dizzy. I hate blue LEDs, it's like mental kryptonite mixed with itching powder.

I'm assuming the modder chopped out the old green light, so I'm going to have to remove the light entirely and just have it dark? I tried opening the unit today, but the cables stuck in the back of the drives were pretty tight, and I didn't want to remove them until I've backed everything up next week.

Not sure where I can get a spare green one without buying one on ebay.

[bash]

Hmm, I know that Vision allows you to have Red, green or orange or even flashing front LED. If you have blue then it probably is something been chopped out.

[smouty]

Depending on how professional your installer was you should have a bi-colour LED fitted.
The colour can be set in the BIOS, in some dash's or turned off.

[Sketcz]

Depending on how professional your installer was you should have a bi-colour LED fitted. The colour can be set in the BIOS, in some dash's or turned off.

Indeed, but it's a single colour. I've checked in XBMC's setting menu, which allows me to change colours or switch it off. All colour options produce blue light, and while switching it "off" works while in XBMC, as soon as I turn the machine off it forgets this. It seems impossible to permanently disable the light.

I've got an older chipped Xbox, which allows me to cycle the light. Personally I'd like to put the new HDD in that one, but the BIOS on the chip is old and a lot of programs don't work. The AID disc for example won't boot, it just hangs at the EvoX splash screen.

I've found that emulators and games won't work either, unless I patch the XBE file to "retail" rather than "debug" using dexbe.exe

I've never quite worked this out, but at some point Xbox app programmers started changing their methods, and all newer files which dexbe recognises as debug refuse to work until patched. Bloody annoying. For a long time I thought I was dloading broken versions of stuff, until I got the new Xbox (with blue LED), and discovered the discrepancy.

Unfortunately I can't patch AID, because it comes as an auto-booting ISO to be burned.

I suppose I should update the BIOS or whatever on the older Xbox...

Anyone else experienced this?

EDIT:
Got AID to boot from CDRW on the older Xbox. I reckon the drive is knackered though, since it was missing background grfx and took an age to actually work.

[toneeb]

Hey guys, i have a 'stock' Xbox which I have softmodded.

I fully appreciate the restrictions of only having an 8 gig drive but I obtained coinops 5 lite the other day which is designed for stock x boxs.

Anyway, FTP'd it over with no problems apart from the fact that all the videos wont transfer across due to lack of space.

To cut to the chase, i deleted all the videos from the xbox so it fits ok.

Coin ops boots fine, it finds all the roms but as i say, there are no videos.

Basically, the games wont start. It crashes and needs to be switched off. I presume its because the videos are missing?

[bash]

Yes, Coinops has locks on it I believe so if its tampered with (the creator, BritneysPairs is a bit sensitive when it comes to this sort of thing) it wont work.

You definetly need to upgrade your hdd to enjoy the full benefits of Coinops 5 . . . . . or obtain a copy of Coinops 5 Lite which is designed to work on stock hdds.