# Noob receives uses xbox with evolution X



## elcarajos666 (Jun 27, 2021)

Hi, I just purchased an original Xbox, which has been already hacked. But I have some several questions since I've never own an og xbox before.
It has evolution X +3935, must be old af I bet, is there any way to update it? Is there any guide available for knowing evolution x usage? Is evolution X a softmod? I'm not sure if it has a modchip, I'll discover it later.
It cannot play any original games but only backups, is there any way to play og games as well?
can I format this xbox from zero, and later re-hack it?
I'm planning to buy an SATA to IDE converter to install an SDD (if is possible, any recommendation? should have DRAM or not?)
and I think that's all lol, I hope anyone can help me
edit:
Just realised my xbox is either a 1.0 or 1.1 version.
Just realised Evolution x is softmod.
Also clock capacitor has been already removed
Edit2:
Just realised disc drive is set on cable select, it shouldn't be slave or master?


----------



## DinohScene (Jun 27, 2021)

You could also opt for flashing the BIOS.
That will allow you to boot Slayers CD and basically format and reinstall whatever you want.


----------



## ChiefReginod (Jun 27, 2021)

Before you do anything else, back up your eeprom and copy it to your PC. This is because the HDD is locked with the key from the eeprom and you'll need it if anything goes wrong. You can connect via FTP. I like to use UnleashX for this. The username and password defaults are "xbox".

Never unlock the HDD unless you know for sure your system is chipped or TSOP flashed.

Evolution X is a dashboard, not a softmod. Your system boots to it because whatever mod it has is set to auto-load a file with the name "evox.xbe" (or something similar) from your hard drive. Although it's possible to take, for example, an UnleashX XBE and rename it to the same thing, it's not a good idea to try this until you know more about your system since you could easily softbrick it.

I'm just guessing that not being able to play retail discs is because someone adjusted the potentiometer. Usually there's a happy medium where both retail and DVD-R discs will work, but sometimes there's not.

You won't get full speed from SSD since the system is limited to IDE. Using an 80-wire IDE cable does actually help, though, and is pretty much necessary if you use a SATA adapter. I've never gotten a SATA adapter to work with the stock IDE cable.

If your system is chipped or TSOP flashed, you can use something like Slayer's recovery disc to set up a new drive from scratch. If it's softmodded, you'll need to do a more complicated method, possibly involving hotswapping.

Don't flash the chip or TSOP unless you know their size. Early Xboxes have 1 MB TSOP but later models have 256 KB. No room for error. And if it already works for what you need, don't flash it at all.

Cable Select is fine during normal use. During drive setup or cloning, etc, you'll need to manually set them to Master and Slave.


----------



## elcarajos666 (Jun 27, 2021)

ChiefReginod said:


> Before you do anything else, back up your eeprom and copy it to your PC. This is because the HDD is locked with the key from the eeprom and you'll need it if anything goes wrong. You can connect via FTP. I like to use UnleashX for this. The username and password defaults are "xbox".
> 
> Never unlock the HDD unless you know for sure your system is chipped or TSOP flashed.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the help. Can I backup the EEPROM even if it's already modified? I don't think it's the original that came. I copied yesterday Half Life 2 on my og xbox hdd via FTP to try it and it runs pretty well  loading times are kind of slow tho.
Is there any tutorial where can I re-adjust the lens to play both original and backups? 
It doesn't has any modchip,it's just softmodded. 
then should I just leave the xbox how's it and just evox?  I kinda wanted to play online on there, idk why, but everytime I access to Network settings, it brings me to evoX menu. I was researching yesterday about the usage of evoX and people complaining which dashboard is the best, if UnleashX or evoX.


----------



## SScorpio (Jun 27, 2021)

Yes you can still backup the EEPROM, I believe softmods can modify it. But I only remember setting the HDD key to all zeros being the only thing that normally changed. It's possible the HDD key was untouched though and if it was cleared, you'd need to know about it if you wanted to create a new HDD for it.

Research XLink Kai to play online. That will make the LAN option in the games be able to go out over the Internet. The OG XBox Live is no longer available. Some people were working on a replacement, but I haven't been following it to see where they were at.


----------



## ChiefReginod (Jun 27, 2021)

elcarajos666 said:


> Thanks for the help. Can I backup the EEPROM even if it's already modified? I don't think it's the original that came. I copied yesterday Half Life 2 on my og xbox hdd via FTP to try it and it runs pretty well  loading times are kind of slow tho.
> Is there any tutorial where can I re-adjust the lens to play both original and backups?
> It doesn't has any modchip,it's just softmodded.
> then should I just leave the xbox how's it and just evox?  I kinda wanted to play online on there, idk why, but everytime I access to Network settings, it brings me to evoX menu. I was researching yesterday about the usage of evoX and people complaining which dashboard is the best, if UnleashX or evoX.


For the eeprom, you can modify it with certain programs, but this is something you have to go out of your way to do. The typical softmod install doesn't usually change it. And since your HDD is locked to it, you definitely don't want to change it to anything else.

UnleashX has a lot more settings to mess around with and the dashboard can be customized via an XML file. In my experience it's the more polished of the two and the network setup seems to work better than EvoX on my home network. You can copy UneashX to its own folder on your HDD and launch it manually to try it out. It will work the same as if you booted from it. There are a lot of themes you can install as well.

For the lens just do some searches for "xbox laser adjust" or "xbox potentiometer tweak" or something along those lines. You'll need a multimeter to test the current values. The basic idea is that a lower value equals lower resistance, which means the laser is getting more power. A higher value equals higher resistance, which means a weaker laser. You'll want to keep the resistance as high as you can get away with since a lower resistance can burn out the lens faster. As I mentioned, you might end up having to choose between retail or DVD-R discs working if you can't find a value where they both work.

Since you have a 1.0/1.1 Xbox you should look into the TSOP mod. You only have to bridge a few points on the motherboard to be able to flash it. It might even already be flashed, so if you look up some pictures of the bridge points you could check if they're already bridged on yours.


----------



## elcarajos666 (Jun 27, 2021)

SScorpio said:


> Yes you can still backup the EEPROM, I believe softmods can modify it. But I only remember setting the HDD key to all zeros being the only thing that normally changed. It's possible the HDD key was untouched though and if it was cleared, you'd need to know about it if you wanted to create a new HDD for it.
> 
> Research XLink Kai to play online. That will make the LAN option in the games be able to go out over the Internet. The OG XBox Live is no longer available. Some people were working on a replacement, but I haven't been following it to see where they were at.


There are already free servers and you don't have to pay to play online lol, there's still active people playing on it, usually halo or racing games


ChiefReginod said:


> For the eeprom, you can modify it with certain programs, but this is something you have to go out of your way to do. The typical softmod install doesn't usually change it. And since your HDD is locked to it, you definitely don't want to change it to anything else.
> 
> UnleashX has a lot more settings to mess around with and the dashboard can be customized via an XML file. In my experience it's the more polished of the two and the network setup seems to work better than EvoX on my home network. You can copy UneashX to its own folder on your HDD and launch it manually to try it out. It will work the same as if you booted from it. There are a lot of themes you can install as well.
> 
> ...


I just copied UnleashX to try it, so reading original xbox discs has nothing to do with softmod then? I'll check the lens later.
What's locked HDD? I want to change it for one bigger (or one sata if I could, I've seen people says it's great, but I just realised i'm limited to speed)
I'll check about the bios later too, there's a chance they didn't desolder the bios flash.


----------



## ChiefReginod (Jun 27, 2021)

elcarajos666 said:


> There are already free servers and you don't have to pay to play online lol, there's still active people playing on it, usually halo or racing games
> 
> I just copied UnleashX to try it, so reading original xbox discs has nothing to do with softmod then? I'll check the lens later.
> What's locked HDD? I want to change it for one bigger (or one sata if I could, I've seen people says it's great, but I just realised i'm limited to speed)
> I'll check about the bios later too, there's a chance they didn't desolder the bios flash.


The softmod lets you run games from DVD-R, but whether the laser actually reads them or not is down to the health of the laser unit itself and the resistance value, which can be changed by twisting the potentiometer. One quick note about this, the potentiometers on Xbox laser usually have a bit of resin over them to keep them locked in that position, so you'll need to scratch it off to turn it. Just be VERY careful when you do this as it's very easy to pull up a leg on the potentiometer.

The HDD is locked on all stock and softmodded Xboxes and must remain locked with the key that's stored in the eeprom. The Xbox will not boot unless it's locked with that key. The only exception is if you're using a chip or TSOP mod with a custom BIOS that disables the need for the drive to be locked.

You can't access locked drives on PC unless you have the eeprom (and even then it's a complex process).

If you unlock the HDD on a softmodded Xbox, it won't boot. You would need to lock it with an old PC or another modded Xbox, which is again a complex process.

Long story short, if it's definitely a softmod you should never unlock it. Not even if you upgrade to a bigger one. Leave the old one locked just in case. To upgrade to a bigger drive on a softmodded system you would need to do a hotswap using Xromwell. The only thing you would need for this is a good tutorial and a y-splitter molex power cable to power both hard drives on the Xbox.


----------



## SScorpio (Jun 27, 2021)

elcarajos666 said:


> There are already free servers and you don't have to pay to play online lol, there's still active people playing on it, usually halo or racing games



I'm talking about Insignia which is still in a full public release yet.


There's of course still XLink Kai which is used with the original Halo. It wasn't until Halo 2 that Xbox Live support was in a Halo game.


----------



## elcarajos666 (Jun 28, 2021)

Okay so I think I fucked up the laser. It was kind of working (I don't blame myself, the disc drive could be already that old) yesterday that I bought it, and I tried to adjust the lens but I think I killed it accidentally lol. I'm kind of dissapointed. Anyway, I got an error for no reason on ms dashboard. It's Error 21 and it just shows the classic need xbox repair screen. I didn't deleted or modified any files on the HDD, yesterday I was copying Jet Set Radio Future on my HDD, and it didn't work, it was just stuck on Sega logo, only Half Life 2 worked correctly :L

soooo... I suppose I will get another broken Xbox and hope the disc drive works to swap it, and about the error 21, can I do something? I haven't checked yet if it has bios flash mod

I can STILL access to EvoX menu, launch games and apps, but if I launch og xbox dashboard, rip.


----------



## ChiefReginod (Jun 28, 2021)

Well, there's still a lot you can do with just FTP access. Before you do anything else you should probably check to see if it's TSOP flashed. If it's not, look up a tutorial and see if this is something you would feel comfortable doing yourself. You do need to solder a few small points but it's nowhere near as involved as installing a chip.

Either way, a TSOP flashed system will give you more options from here.

The error 21 isn't a big deal for now if you still have access to EvoX. I would double check that you reconnected all the cables on the DVD drive, though. Those little ribbon cables can be hard to tell if they're in the right way or not.


----------



## elcarajos666 (Jun 28, 2021)

ChiefReginod said:


> Well, there's still a lot you can do with just FTP access. Before you do anything else you should probably check to see if it's TSOP flashed. If it's not, look up a tutorial and see if this is something you would feel comfortable doing yourself. You do need to solder a few small points but it's nowhere near as involved as installing a chip.
> 
> Either way, a TSOP flashed system will give you more options from here.
> 
> The error 21 isn't a big deal for now if you still have access to EvoX. I would double check that you reconnected all the cables on the DVD drive, though. Those little ribbon cables can be hard to tell if they're in the right way or not.


Nope, I checked many times the DVD drive and yeap it's dead, I think I killed it accidentally. Cannot read any discs now, even with the value that came originally.
I'm checking right now if it has TSOP flash.
Edit: Nope, strangely, it doesn't has TSOP mod, I will do it right now. After that, what should I do?
Edit2: I just soldered it, now it's cool to flash the bios I guess, should I just follow any guide?


----------



## elcarajos666 (Jun 28, 2021)

Never mind. I bricked it.


----------



## elcarajos666 (Jun 28, 2021)




----------



## ChiefReginod (Jun 28, 2021)

elcarajos666 said:


> Never mind. I bricked it.


What happened?


----------



## elcarajos666 (Jun 28, 2021)

ChiefReginod said:


> What happened?


Flashed bios, and after that ripppppp

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I did a backup on evoX menu tho. I'm not sure how difficult is to restore Xbox bios


----------



## elcarajos666 (Jul 3, 2021)

I hate Xbox now


----------



## ChiefReginod (Jul 3, 2021)

Ah, that's a damn shame. There are a lot of things that can go wrong when flashing a BIOS in general, but especially on Xbox.

Just to be sure, if it shows an error message there might still be something you can do. But if it just stays black then, yeah... it's fucked. I think there's a TSOP recovery mod, but you have to solder some crazy number of wires to do it.


----------



## rmorris003 (Jul 5, 2021)

You should have understood what you had and what you were wanting before messing with anything. You also should never have touched the flash and just the OS on the drive.

I love my Xbox. Had it modded since the TSOP hack came out and have a 120gb IDE drive with XBMC loaded for my games/media player back in the day. Will convert to SATA eventually to load more games on the drive as I used discs and the drive. I also added the XBIT chip so I could have dual bios and go online with my originals.


----------

