Saturday I made my second attempt on modding my Xbox this time with all the tools in hand. I gave up last week as the wire install method wasn’t working for me (not my preferred method anyway), this time Matt from work had lent me his solder sucker and it was time to clear the LPC port. The image to the right shows what I have in my v1.0 model and that you can just solder each wire to the board, this may work for some but the port was meant for a header so a header it shall have.

Stuart warned me on Friday that a solder sucker may not be right for the job as you need a tight fit whilst the solder is hot in order to remove it and I would be better with braid. That may have been the case but I had use the sucker before and wasn’t about to change plans at the last minute, these tools weren’t easy to get.

Anyway I removed the old pin install and made my attempts at removing the solder. After much negotiating of positions I managed to get 1 hole clear with the board on its side between my knees the soldering iron in one hand and the sucker in the other…this was to be the only time that move worked.

After many attempts I gave up and cursed around the studio for awhile until I had myself a light bulb moment. I ran out to the communal hallway and spotted my good friend Harry the vacuum cleaner (not in that way).

I pulled off the end and taped up the short metal end (so there was no metal on metal action) and let him rip. The vacuum attached tightly and formed a seal on the bottom of

the board and I simply touched the iron on the top of each point. With incredible easy the holes were clear one by one, I can’t believe I didn’t think of this last weekend.

Once that was done the rest came quickly as I had performed the pin header install many time before. Although you’ll see below my soldering skills are pretty rusty and I made quite a mess of the reverse pin header install but it works so that’s all that matters.

I booted it up and started the Bios flashing stage and encountered another hiccup which would prove to be another project staller. The controller wasn’t moving through the options on the FlashBios screen (to select the location of the new Bios file – HTTP, DVD, HDD), I knew the controller worked fine as I tested it the week before. Some quick interweb searching and I found out that only an original controller will work with the FlashBios screen (something to do with the Xbox being in low level I think).

With that I made a mad dash down the street to the pawnbrokers looking for a controller but come up with nothing, even a bus ride and walk up and down Kilburn High Rd proved fruitless. My weekend Xbox project will be delayed yet another week.

After the break are some photos I took during the process. Until next weekend.

_B

Continue reading →

Not much to report this week, work is pretty full on as usual but I would probabley just complain I was bored otherwise.

During the week my modchip arrived, I bought a torx screwdriver, soldering iron and roll of solder…all ready to do the modding on Sunday. Taking all my previous experience into consideration this should have been a breeze however as usual with my Xbox projects things didn’t start so well. First of all my TV doesn’t have a remote, I have a set top box which auto-swtiches so I just assumed the Xbox would do the same, but as Leyton would say “Assumtion, it makes an ass out of you and me”.

So I had to go out and find a universal remote, having done that and confirmed the thing actually worked, I began the mod.
Once I opened the case I realised I was working with revision v1.0, the very first release. At first this was good news however as 4 attempts and quiet a few hours later it turned out to be difficult, the LPC port didn’t have holes like versions 1.1-1.6b so I had to opt for the wire install rather then the easier pin header install. At the end of the day I was still without a working mod, so tomorrow I am going to buy myself a solder-sucker and make my second attempt.

I’ll keep you updated on the project.

_B

Had an enjoyable weekend just past, Friday night I stayed home and watched new Lost, 30 Rock and The Office (US). Saturday I had to go to the post office and stand in a queue for almost an hour, which sucked but from now on I will get everything sent to work. Later on I attempted to go to the Natural History museum but the Darwin expo wasn’t on for 3hrs and there were screaming kids everywhere, nothing against them but it makes it hard to read. So I changed gear and headed towards Camden but not before coming across the Lamborghini showroom…OMG!

Back in Camden I felt more at home, so I bought a new hat and meet up with some friends for a few drinks at ‘The World’s End’ pub.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day, I slept in then wandered up the street looking for a second hand Xbox game as I bought an original Xbox during the week (for £19). Alas it was not to be and I’ll have to wait until the modchip arrives =)

Also really sad new about the fires in Australia, hope it rains hard for them today.

_B

Well as you all would have heard about by now, London was hit by a massive snowfall yesterday (the biggest in 6yrs actually). It all started on Sunday about 12pm whilst I was already out without a jacket on and froze my ass off. It came down all night and when I got up Monday morning it was like a foot deep and although I didn’t feel that well (always take a jacket out in London) I couldn’t get to work because all public transport was closed.

So rather than hiding inside I rugged up and headed down to my local park to put my new camera to use. The park was amazing, it was like a ski field, and people were treating it like one…fantastic!

Today I am working from home because there are still massive delays on my train line but things should be back to normal tomorrow.

Below are some of the photos from the day.

_B