How to softmod your Xbox and install XBMC for free

Black_Knight

Sparing no expense ongarite! $25 and $22 postage

Although not a genuine Xbox component cable, im sure this one does the same job.
Item number: 370078972017 is about €14 posted. Much more affordable.

ongarite

Black_Knight wrote: »

Sparing no expense ongarite! $25 and $22 postage

Genuine ones are as rare as hen's teeth these days alright so you pay through the nose. I payed about €20 for mine a while ago after dollar conversion.

Black_Knight

ongarite wrote: »

Genuine ones are as rare as hen's teeth these days alright so you pay through the nose. I payed about €20 for mine a while ago after dollar conversion.

Rare as hens teeth! Now their not that rare. Ive searched Ebay and I cant find any hens teeth, I can find genuine xbox component cables though.

pastor

Oracle wrote: »

Do you mind me asking the price you paid? Thanks.

There's an AV component cable at MX2 for £5 delivered: http://www.mx2.co.uk/default.asp?part=XBUK067 I'm not sure if that's what you want.

Hi Oracle

I paid 19.98 for the Crystal and 20.00 for the unopened xbox. They had two left.

Was about to try and do the install but my bloddy pc is dead, changed power supply no joy. Wife mentioned that we had a power cut today and the pc has not worked since. I dont suppose anybody would be willing to softmod two xboxes for me? I live in Clonee, Dublin 15. Happy to pay for the service.

Thanks

Paul

ongarite

I'm in Ongar. Drop them down to me and I'll do them for you.

pastor

ongarite wrote: »

I'm in Ongar. Drop them down to me and I'll do them for you.

Hi ongarite

Thats brilliant thanks. I will pm you.

I really appreciate it.

Paul

Black_Knight

ongarite wrote: »

I'm in Ongar. Drop them down to me and I'll do them for you.

Ahhh, i finally get your username!
The man from ongar is an ongarite.

vibe666

Black_Knight wrote: »

I find just turning down the fan speed in the settings does a nice job! I can hear it if theres dead silence, but thats kinda rare in movies.

depends very much on which model you get as to how loud it is.

i can't say for sure as (thanks to softmodding) i never even bother to check what version it is I'm doing, but afaik, the earlier ones tended to be quieter as the case fan had more fins and turned more slowly. at some point MS changed to a much cheaper fan that made more noise but I'm not sure when that was.

I do know that if i have my sky+ box on and my ps3 I can clearly hear the case fan on my v1.4 xbox fan above them.

i fitted a 500gb samsung spinpoint hdd into a mates xbox and put one of those amber fans in at the same time and even with it sitting next to me on the sofa with the lid off you couldn't hear a peep out of it but you could still hear my v1.4 under the telly 5 feet away.

must get round to doing my own at some point.

JethroC

vibe666 wrote: »

and put one of those amber fans in at the same time and even with it sitting next to me on the sofa with the lid off you couldn't hear a peep out of it

Is this hard to do Vibe666? I'd have no problem giving it a go as the fan in my 1.6 is unbelieveably loud when playing games and it's really starting to annoy me!

vibe666

piece of p1ss tbh once you have the right tools (or something that will do the job).

okay, just going from memory for now till i can do another one and take some pics:

I just used a cheap aldi dremel knock off that i picked up a few months back, only about the 3rd time i've used it tbh, but i rekcon i'll get some more use out of it now.

remove the power cable from the xbox if it's plugged in, then just take off the lid and disconnect the power and ide to the hdd and remove the plastic hdd tray altogether.

the existing 70mm fan is held in place by two platic clips, use a small flat screwdriver to pry them apart and snap them off flush with the bottom of the case (which seems to be their natural weak spot anyway) and pull out the fan, disconnecting the power connector for it as you go.

it's a standard 3 pin variable speed pc fan connector so the fan is most likely to have the same conneciton on it anyway, i know the one in my link did.drop the fan into the gap to see where it snags and mark them with a permanent marker.

oh and make sure you have the fan facing the right way before you start lopping bits off!

there's some sort of obstruction un the bottom of the case near the PSU side so i rounded off the square edge of the fan where the screw would normally go in the corner rather than mess with the xbox too much and there were one or two other obstacles on another corner, so I ended up just lopping off all four corners of the fan so it was almost round, but you might not need to go that far.

once it sits flush with the bottom and top of the case (it only just fits exactly, top to bottom), bring the hdd tray back and put it in on top (removing the hdd first) and mark the area you'll need to cut out with a marker. maybe do it roughly first and then take out the fan and use it as a template to draw around to get a snug fit.

cut it out, then connect the fan power cable to the mobo and insert the fan into position, using either some globs of superglue or a glue gun to hold the fan in place, depending on what you have handy.

put everything back together making sure of a snug fit and maybe trim the hdd caddy a bit more if you need to.

i'd recommend the old PC trick of booting once before screwing the case shut, just to make sure the fan is working (and blowing the right way) and that it's all going to do as it should.

then you're done.

pastor

Hi Ongarite

PM sent and thanks again.

Paul

JethroC

Thanks for that Vibe666...managed to get one of those exact fans in Maplins for about €13 so am gonna try this over the weekend. Can't wait to see how quiet it will be compared to the stock fan

vibe666

no bother mate, any time.

if you're not using it for storing much stuff (i.e. if it's just going to be a media streamer) you can pick up a 10-20gb laptop hdd and 2.5" to 3.5" caddy and ide adapter off ebay for peanuts.

failing that, if you want to spend a few quid a 500gb 3.5" ide samsung spinpoint is almost totally silent anyway. between the fan and one of those two options you won't hear a peep out of it at all.

i'd say the easiest way if you've already done the softmod is to backup your existing hdd key and use that and xboxhdm to xboxify the new drive and then us the key to lock it to your xbox.

witnessmenow

Finally got the homemade action replay job going! Installing the softmod with Splinter Cell is stupidly easy once you have your self set up for it!

Have done 3 in less than 15 mins there, grand and handy!

vibe666

witnessmenow wrote: »

Finally got the homemade action replay job going! Installing the softmod with Splinter Cell is stupidly easy once you have your self set up for it!

Have done 3 in less than 15 mins there, grand and handy!

i just bought an xbox to usb adapter and used a usb stick for it (of less than 4gb) and used that as a memory card.

but yeah, it's a pretty good testament to how much work has gone into the whole softmod scene.

it actually used to be a bit of a nightmare compared to how easy it is now.

JethroC

Excuse my ignorance...but what's a homemade action replay? Is it a usb stick with game saves?

pastor

Hi guys

Ongarite kindly modded two of my xboxes and they are both working great, thanks. What is the easiest way to sort out file sharing from a Vista PC? I would prefer not to have to enter the user name and password each time.

One of the scripts is an xbmc updater is it just a matter of running and it will autoupdate xbmc? Any chance of this script causing problems? How do I add more scripts?

Thanks for any info and thanks again Ongarite.

Paul

vibe666

pastor wrote: »

Ongarite kindly modded two of my xboxes and they are both working great, thanks. What is the easiest way to sort out file sharing from a Vista PC? I would prefer not to have to enter the user name and password each time.

go into settings and there's an option in there for a default user/pass for remote share access that XBMC will use every time you try and use a shared drive.

pastor wrote: »

One of the scripts is an xbmc updater is it just a matter of running and it will autoupdate xbmc? Any chance of this script causing problems? How do I add more scripts?

do you mean the t3ch upgrader? I've tried using that updater several times and it's caused problems every time so you might be better off leaving it well alone, although others may disagree.

when I'm updating my build I do a google for the latest t3ch build and unzip it and add an extra letter to the extracted XBMC folder, so it's XBMCx or something like that.

Then I FTP it from my PC to the same folder on my Xbox where my current XBMC build is and once that's done I go to my xbox and open an old slim build of XBMC (any Xbox compatible file manager will do) that I've had on there ages as an application and use the file manager in there to rename my old XBMC folder to XBMCz and then rename the new one back to XBMC, rename the new userdata folder to userdata_old and copy across your existing userdata folder to preserve all your settings and movie/music/tv db files etc. and then reboot and you're all done. a fresh new buildwith all your existing settings perfectly intact.

it's a little bit more long winded than just hoofing a new build on top of the old one, but it's simple a simple case of renaming the two XBMC folders back again to revert to the old build.

once you've been using the new one for a bit and are happy with it, just delete the old one and you're done, but personally, I like to keep it just in case the old one goes titsup at some point. then i just delete it when the time comes for another new build.

as for scripts, you might have a script already called xbmc scripts updater (that's not the one you were talking about was it?) if you have that run it and it gives you a lost of lots of available scripts at xbmcscripts.com but it's not the only place to get them.

just do a google for xbmc scripts and once you've downloaded ones you like, just ftp them into the scripts directory in your XBMC build on the xbox.

looks out for plugins too. very similar to scripts, just copy to the plugins folder on your xbox and they should be usable from wthin your programs menu. they do different things than scripts tho and are not interchangable (i.e. a plugin won't run from the scripts folder and visa versa).

ongarite

The way I update my XBMC program is:

Download the latest version from T3CH website and extract XBMC folder

FTP into XBOX and copy E:/APPS/XBMC/USERDATA to my PC.

Copy USERDATA folder into extracted XBMC folder overwriting all files.

Boot into any alternate dashboard like UnleashX.

Delete E:\APPS\XBMC folder.

Copy over new T3CH XBMC folder to E:\APPS.

vibe666

seems very simple compared to my way, but i still like mine better. non-destructive.

it's just such a pain in the tits when you go through all that and the new build is buggy or kills something that worked perfectly in your old build. (and it does happen).

my way i don't have to worry. if something goes wrong, all it takes is renaming two folders and a reboot and i'm back to where i was before, no mess no fuss.

vibe666

here's a few pics of the last one I modded with a silent fan, in case anyone's interested in the work involved.

the first pic shows the cutting that's required on the fan to shoehorn it into the case as at 80x80mm it's 10mm bigger than the old fan.

the 2 and 3 shows the little nick you need to make in the fan housing so that the internal part of the power socket doesn't prevent you from moving it over far enough to avoid snagging the drive tray too much.

if you choose to do it this way, be sure that when you have it in it's final position that the fan blades do not catch on the side and are able to spin freely.

you could probably do it all on the other side, but this was my preferred choice to leave a bit of strength in the left hand side where the drive tray screw is.



the 4th shows a side on view of the nick made in the fan housing.

there's quite a bit of cutting in pic 6 showing what's needed to make room for the new fan next to the drive tray.

i chose to remove a little more of the plastic on the tray to make it easier for air to flow around the drive. a bit of extra cooling there can't hurt.

the final position of the fan is slightly left of where it is in the last pic, hence the extra cut on the top left of the fan to avoid obstructing the drive tray screw hole (held on by the long bolt that goes into the outside of the case to hold the lid on) in the top left.


as I said before (i think) a mate did his with a pair of pliers and snips, but 20 minutes with a dremel and a couple of screwdrivers is all it really needs for a quick and easy silencing job.

Supercell

Nice one vibe666, think I might give that a go myself, the fan noise can be a bit annoying when watching movies or tv shows even with quiet mode enabled.
Did you get the fan in maplin or Peats or online, where can i get a dremel! ?

witnessmenow

Dremels are surprisingly expensive, you might get lucky and pick one up in Aldi or Lidl but after that expect to pay at least €20-25 for one on the 'bay. Official Dremel tools start from around €60-70 and are available in B&Q anyways.

Here's an ebay search for them

Thanks for the guide vibe.
I've never found the fan noticeably that loud (and i haven't turned it down yet either) but maybe thats because I've the old style fan (in a new style xbox)

vibe666

it's definitely doable without a dremel (or similar small cutting tool from lidl/aldi etc.) but almost certainly a little more difficult.

afaik places like petes, pc world and maplins will have similar or the same silent fans available.

woodies have some dremels too (at least the one in navan does).

PogMoThoin

You can adjust the fanspeed in the settings menu of xbmc, was considering modding an 80mm one but mines barely audible when turned down, settings-->fabn speed override-->set it to 10%

vibe666

it depends very much on what version of xbox you have as to how loud it is, and even then it's probably down to individual production lines etc. as to what fan exactly was used.

some are okay and some sound like jet turbines, it's just down ot luck really.

the fan speed thing will only do so much and I'm not sure you want to force the fan speed to slower as temps will rise. better to set a temp threshold and let the fan take care of what it needs to at whatever speed necessary.

no point having it running slower to quieten it if it's cooking your cpu in the process.

it's easy enough to do and will only cost a tenner and it's well worth it, I've not had anyone dussatisfied yet.

and it adds a third to the value of your xbox.

120_Minutes

So, i've now got a spare xbox which boots up with xbmc, but i'm considering making it a mame machine....how would i go about getting it to boot up straight to mame with a nice selection screen? i've seen guys do something similar but i'm not sure myself....i'll eventually incorporate it into a cabinet.

vibe666

afaik, (I've never tried this, but afaik) if it's runnable as an app in XBMC or any other dash then you can set it to run at boot as a dash easily enough by just sticking it's install directory into the same DIR as your existing dash (i.e. xbmc) and renaming the xbe file to default.xbe.

rename the old default.xbe rather than replace it so that in the even that it doesn't work you can boot of your AID disc and rename it back again.

you might also be able to leave it where it is and just edit the t3ch shortcut files that come with t3ch builds of xbmc to point to your app instead of xbmc.

afaik anyway, but i'm sure someone will shoot me down if I'm wrong.

witnessmenow

It sounds like vibes plan might work, It wouldn't be the end of the world if it didn't work. You can recover the hard drive quite easily if it doesn't work.

Vibe can i ask, what was the dBA rating of the fans you're getting from maplin, its less than €2 for a 15BA one on hardwareversand.de and I'll be placing an order with them anyways, just want to know is that any good?

On other news, I built an eeprom reader this week, I'll let ye know how i get on with it at the weekend. (lets just hope i've a pc with a serial connection!)

vibe666

i actually got mine from komplett, here: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=312828

20dBA listed in the description, but I guess 15dBa would be better, especially at hat price. I might get a few of those €2 ones in for future upgrades anyway, thanks for the tip.

Almost good.

was going to order 6 of those 15dBa fans at just under €1.50 each until they tried to charge me €30 delivery.

might be worth it for you if you're orderin other stuff anyway, but I've found the same 'xilence red wing' fans on ebay for £2.99 each with £5.25 combined delivery for 6, so I'm going to get mine there I think.

still thanks for the tip on the fans, quieter and cheaper than what I was using.