Gaming 360 Flashing... Need help... Again...

[gokuguy]

Sorry to come up again, but i'm not wanting to waste money I don't have to.

I won't be able to get my friend to reflash my 360 for quite a while, & I can't wait. I will need something to do this myself later on anyway.

I have an old pc with Windows 7 on it (I'm using the compact version of the Dell Optiplex GX260), & I need to know if I will be able to do anything with a PCI card that works for 360. I heard a good one is the VIA 6421A is very good for this, but I don't know if it will run in my pc, much less fit in my pc.

Can anyone help me out? If this card won't work in my pc, is there any card that will? I only want it strictly for flashing a 360 Samsung drive.

Thanks in advance.

 

[FAST6191]

It apparently has PCI slots, PCI cards are usually good sized (a lot of the sata cards are even smaller) so you should be able to get it in there (you could always leave the case open if not)- these days it is mainly graphics (which are PCIe these days anyway) and custom stuff that take up lots of room.

PCI is pretty much PCI for this example so it should have no trouble running either.

P.S. get your friend to send you the keys/original firmware dumps via email or something if you are on LT as dumping keys with LT can be tricky (not sure about samsung key dumping which might well be easier) where it was easier on earlier firmwares.

 

[gokuguy]

It apparently has PCI slots, PCI cards are usually good sized (a lot of the sata cards are even smaller) so you should be able to get it in there (you could always leave the case open if not)- these days it is mainly graphics (which are PCIe these days anyway) and custom stuff that take up lots of room.

PCI is pretty much PCI for this example so it should have no trouble running either.

P.S. get your friend to send you the keys/original firmware dumps via email or something if you are on LT as dumping keys with LT can be tricky (not sure about samsung key dumping which might well be easier) where it was easier on earlier firmwares.

So if it fits, I shouldn't have any problems with it running in my pc? FYI, it doesn't use SATA, it uses IDE.

Also, my drive is on 1.6 I believe, so its all good right now. I'll be dumping the keys up before updating to LT.

 

[FAST6191]

That is the normal reason for getting a sata card- to add sata to a machine that does not have it (or maybe better support, more ports or (better) RAID support). It just so happens that these are one of the sata chipsets that work well when it comes to the peculiarities of 360 dvd drives (at least getting them into debug modes and the like for flashing purposes).

I probably should have said this first time around but
Do remember LT requires games to have splitvid (been around for a while but not all will have used it- all since LT was released should have used it and many others will have as well) which means you will be reburning the games that lack it.
Samsung drives* are immune to AP2.5 so consider instead going to 1.6NS (a hacked version of 1.6 that runs everything- no wave issues, no stealth issues unless you have a really broken disc)- if you have been on 1.6 this long I assume you do not care about Live which is about the only other reason to move to LT.

*I assume this console originally came with a samsung drive, spoofing is not possible with LT.

 

[kaputnik]

So if it fits, I shouldn't have any problems with it running in my pc? FYI, it doesn't use SATA, it uses IDE.

Also, my drive is on 1.6 I believe, so its all good right now. I'll be dumping the keys up before updating to LT.

It'll work if it fits physically.

You can always remove the card's bracket temporary if you don't have a LP bracket for it and really want to keep the computer closed when doing the flashing. There's plenty of space in those cases (it's one of those Dells that almost exactly got the shape of an Xbox 360, right?), so I dont think the height of the PCB will be a problem.

 

[gokuguy]

1) Ok, just making sure it would work. I'm new to 360 flashing.

2) I'm only still on 1.6 because the one I'm using now is a recently repaired console. You see, I had a 360 with RROD. My friend had a 360 he didn't want anymore. It was flashed, but had a shot DVD drive. Both had the same type of drive, so I swapped the old drive's circuit board with the working drive (both being the same type of drive, from the same time period), so I could use the working 360.
***I do have Xbox Live Gold, so I'll go with LT, unless I really find a big reason to go to 1.6NS.***

3) Is this the card I need?
http://www.amazon.com/eSata-Sata-RAID-Cont...7262&sr=8-1
If not, could you point me in the right direction?

4) According to him, most of the games he gave me have been splitvid patched. There are a very few that don't, so that shouldn't be a problem.

5) @kaputnik Yes, it is the kind the same shape as a 360. Thank you for telling me about taking the bracket off. Now I know I'll be getting one soon. Thanks!


Thanks guys.

 

[FAST6191]

2) Nice, we do not see controller board swaps that much any more.

3) yeah that should work. You might be able to shave off a few dollars if you went elsewhere but will probably lose it on shipping and for all their faults amazon tend not to take your money and run.

 

[gokuguy]

2) Nice, we do not see controller board swaps that much any more.

3) yeah that should work. You might be able to shave off a few dollars if you went elsewhere but will probably lose it on shipping and for all their faults amazon tend not to take your money and run.

Thanks, this really helped. I'll look on Ebay, but I'd prefer Amazon. I'm getting discs from there as well, so they'll give me free shipping. Get a few SATA cables as well, & I should be all set.

 

[kaputnik]

1) Ok, just making sure it would work. I'm new to 360 flashing.

2) I'm only still on 1.6 because the one I'm using now is a recently repaired console. You see, I had a 360 with RROD. My friend had a 360 he didn't want anymore. It was flashed, but had a shot DVD drive. Both had the same type of drive, so I swapped the old drive's circuit board with the working drive (both being the same type of drive, from the same time period), so I could use the working 360.
***I do have Xbox Live Gold, so I'll go with LT, unless I really find a big reason to go to 1.6NS.***

3) Is this the card I need?
http://www.amazon.com/eSata-Sata-RAID-Cont...7262&sr=8-1
If not, could you point me in the right direction?

4) According to him, most of the games he gave me have been splitvid patched. There are a very few that don't, so that shouldn't be a problem.

5) @kaputnik Yes, it is the kind the same shape as a 360. Thank you for telling me about taking the bracket off. Now I know I'll be getting one soon. Thanks!


Thanks guys.

2) Then you want LT+. There's no reason at all to use a no stealth patched iX 1.6, it was just a dirty solution for when there were no "official" iX FW that would boot new games. LT doesn't check the update partition, and will boot everything it can boot, no matter how the update partition looks. So, in this respect current versions of LT+ are future proof, unless of course the soon to come xgd3 disc format changes something radically.

Btw, the different "waves" of games refers to this, a new dashboard update means a new update partition layout - a new "wave". Might be good to know if you didn't already

3) As mentioned that card is fine. Dealextreme.com sells a bunch of compatible cards at better prices though, if you dont mind waiting a couple of weeks for delivery.

4) To be sure, check those discs with ABGX360 . If they check out, you're good to go, at least for the time being. Though, you should keep in mind that there's no guarantees that MS won't find a way to detect a LT+ flashed Xbox in the future. There's always a risk involved when going online with a flashed box.

5) One thing I forgot about this: check if the screw holes for the bracket seems to be electrically connected to the ground lanes of the PCB, in that case it might be a good idea to connect the screw hole to the computer's case. Not that it should matter, the ground lanes should be grounded via the PCI connector, but better safe than sorry.