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[Unreal7000]

-A noobs guide to flashing your BIOS-

Requirements:
-Xbox with an installed mod-chip - X2, Matrix, etc
-XBTool - http://home.alltel.net/nghtshd/xbtool.html
-Evo-X Dashboard - installed of course
-BIOS that you want - I recommend X2 4981.06 or X2 4981.67 to find which is right for you go here: http://xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/news-archi...e-9-11-2003.php
If you plan on doing color mods then you need to stear clear of the 4983 series as theses are encrypted and there is currently no way of doing the color mods.
-Punching Bag (Optional) - Don't worry this is only if something goes wrong.

WARNING: If you do this wrong you could ruin your mod-chip. Neither I nor Xbox-scene.com or any affiliates are responsible for the damages that could take place.

READ THIS: If you just bought your mod-chip and it is an X2.2 anything (pro, lite, or liteplus) or X2.3 anything then you need to follow this tutorial first.
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?act...ST&f=16&t=89545

If your wondering where to get software for your Xbox (EvoX, X2 Bios, Emulators, etc) check here: http://www.Xbox-scene.com/articles/xbins.php

TERMS:
B.I.O.S. - firmware used to start the Xbox up and tell the Xbox just exactly what it is capable of doing.
Virgin BIOS - BIOS that has had no modifications done to it.
Flash - process of writing the new firmware to the chip.

Now that we got that out of the way we can get to the fun stuff!

Once you have downloaded your BIOS (.BIN format) you will want to open it up in XBTool.
First thing that you will want to do is verify the BIOS MD5. This is located at the top of the program. To do this look go to
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?act...ST&f=38&t=43437
see if the BIOS you are using has the hash markings as the one on that site(I think they're HEX).

So lets say you have a virgin 1MB X2 4976.02 BIOS, make sure the hash marks are identical (usually if the first 5 or 6 numbers match then your golden, but just make sure they all match).
From here you are free to change the colors or remove animation etc in XBtools.
These are completely optional and I recommend NOT doing these options the first time, unless you just really want to.
Once you have made the wanted changes make sure you match the "file size" with the maximum that your mod-chip supports. Example: The X2 comes with a 1MB BIOS. But the Matrix comes with 256K.
You can see what size your BIOS supports here: http://www.Xbox-scene.com/modchips3b.php
Once you have double checked everything hit "Save As" and name it something so that you will remember. Example: "Xecuter 4976.02 Orange NoAni 1MB" (Orange Boot up and No animation) or "Xecuter 4976.02 Virgin 1MB".  NOTE: If you are making NO changes (Means BIOS is the correct SIZE and you are not changing any of the colors) then you dont need to save it.

Now you will want to FTP into your Xbox and go to the C drive, if there is not a folder called "Bios" then make one. Once thats done put the BIOS that you will use into that folder. If your booting evox off a cd, make sure you have your bios in the bios folder on that cd.
Check your evox.ini file to make sure you have somthing in the "Menu" that looks like the following:
Item "Flash BIOS",ID_Flash_Bios.

Section "System"
{
Item "Settings",ID_Settings
Item "Flash BIOS",ID_Flash_Bios
Item "Backup",ID_Backup
Item "Skins",ID_Skins
}
Item "Reboot",ID_Quick_Reboot
Item "Power Off",ID_Power_Off

If the the "Flash BIOS" turns red and won't let you access it, then change it to Item "Flash BIOS",@1

The next part is optional but i highly recommend it.
If you look around in the evox.ini file you will notice some lines that look SIMILAR to this:

[BIOS]
#
ROM = "Bluecop 4627 Debug",0x844ff9e0fc7f7bd01ec5e75b10aece62
ROM = "CPX 1.02 Debug no ani",0xAC65F68F2706235A578FE1C5FB1E41B1
ROM = "CPX 4034",0xcf36ad116e2404aff022533b07b11004
ROM = "CPX v1.0 Debug",0xfd1ac8ba0033df93e2da2a23009272e4
ROM = "CPX v1.0",0x4132e24c64b7a8d4ea34ff448051e923
ROM = "CPX v1.02 Debug no ani",0xAC65F68F2706235A578FE1C5FB1E41B1
ROM = "CPX v1.02 Debug",0x8E5C811CCC3C6875FD90C4D0ED6A8ABF
ROM = "CPX v1.02 kina",0x84efef3ee91ac320dab4778881108938
#

This is a database of how EvoX recognizes what BIOS is currently flashed on your modchip.
I recommend going back to
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?act...ST&f=38&t=43437
and copying all of it and replacing it with what was in [BIOS] or you can add it to what was already there. However, lets say you customized your BIOS (using XBTools) and it doesn't match any of them that are in the list. You can make your own. Heres how:

ROM = "BIOS Name",hash

"BIOS Name" is where you fill in what you want Evo-X to say.
Example: "Xecuter 2 4976.02 blue noani 1MB"
Hash is the hash of the BIOS. To get this fire up XBTool and open your customized BIOS and copy down the BIOS MD5 hash (No need to save since you aren't making changes).
Make sure you put the 0x in first.
Now Evo-X will recognize what BIOS you have and will display it in the settings.

On a side note some people have told me that you may also need something like this in your evox.ini file (check and see if something similar is there, if its not there put it there):

Flash = 0x01d5,"AMD - Am29F080B",0x100000
Flash = 0x04d5,"FUJITSU - MBM29F080A",0x100000
Flash = 0xadd5,"Hynix - HY29F080",0x100000
Flash = 0x20f1,"ST - M29F080A",0x100000
Flash = 0xbf61,"SST - 49LF020",0x40000

Now comes the worst part of all. I do not recommend doing this during a storm, rolling blackouts, or whenever there is a chance of the power going out. If for some reason you turn-off or lock up the Xbox while it is flashing or erasing the BIOS then you will need the dreaded Punching Bag.

-Turn off Xbox.
-Open up your Xbox: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/open1.php
-Disable the flash protection. (For Matrix owners put it in mode 4, both dip switches OFF.)
-Put Xbox back together and turn on.
-Go to "Flash BIOS" under "Settings" and hit X. You should see your customized BIOS.
-Hit X and then it will say something on the screen that says "Press Y to flash". Press Y and ONLY press Y if you have double checked and researched everything.
-Once you hit Y it will go through the process of erasing and installing your new BIOS. The whole process takes about 20-30 seconds.
-Afterwards it will say "Your Xbox will power off" Wait till it powers off and with fingers crossed turn on your Xbox and you should see that it is working. If not pull out Punching Bag and hit repeatedly until you feel somewhat better.
-If for some reason a bad flash did occur and you own a X 2.X lite/lite plus your not all that much out of luck, for around 15$ you can buy a programmer that hooks up to your PC and allows you to flash it from there. http://shop.system-mods.com/product.asp?3=95
-For instructions on how to flash your modchip with a programmer check here: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?act...ST&f=50&t=63396
-If for some reason you get an error when you try to flash or it locks up in the middle of the flash process, there is a 99% chance you forgot to remove the flash protection. I can't tell you how many time people have instant messaged me with this question.
-If it is booting up then go to the settings of Evo-X and scroll down to see if it recognizes what BIOS you have installed. If it says "Unknown" then you can either ignore it or you can read what I wrote above. I like to have it display my BIOS that way if I forget.
-Now you can open back up your Xbox and put the flash protection back on (dont want little kids accidently flashing your BIOS now do you). You can either keep the Bios that you put in your Bios folder in the C drive of your Xbox for future use or you can delete it. It is no longer required for your Xbox to work.

I recommend reading this thoroughly, and doing some research for your mod-chip. Did someone say Google? Please do not instant message me asking for the BIOS because im sick of responding to those messages. Only serious questions pertaining to mod-chip flashing will be answered.

Thanks to Dink for telling me about the Flash part in the evox.ini file.
Thanks to Katana-Sama for filling me in on information about the Matrix mod-chip.

Happy Flashing
Unreal7000

This post has been edited by Unreal7000: May 11 2004, 12:55 PM

[Neanderthal]

Fantastic tutorial, much appreciated

However, I have a slight problem in that with my homebrew (cheapmod) chip, in the "backup" folder on C: the bios.bin is 1,024kb in size so obviously I create a 1024k bin of the 4976.2 bios. I've then uploaded this new bin to my newly created c:bios directory.
Then after a reboot of the xbox, I can see the new bios in the "flash bios" but when I select it I'm told file size error?
Now being foolish I created a 256k version of the bios and tried flashing that but it got stuck on "erasing...."  I reached for a punchbag but to my surprise, when I rebooted the Xbox it worked ok and is still on the old bios (4974.01)
What am I doing wrong?

[Unreal7000]

You got lucky!  Apparently it didnt erase the BIOS at all.  First check to make sure that there is not a jumper on the chip that protects it from flashing.  Second, you need to find out what is the biggest size BIOS that your chip supports (1024K, 512K, 256K).  Once you do that remove the jumper for flash protection (if you have one), then use XBtool to create the BIOS to the maximum size. And try flashing again.  

[CeREaL]

thanks a million unreal your tutorial was exactly what i have been looking for and it worked perfectly i thought at first i phucked my box cuz it would lock up at the splash screen but i took off the bios switch jumper on my x2lite and same thing but i pressed the eject button to reset the box while it froze and my blue bios loaded so that worked and i made a different bios with diff features and fixed up the locking up in 5 minutes thanks soo much now all my games load

[Unreal7000]

Everyone please let me know what you think of this tutorial.  If it is a little unclear in sections please let me know, or if you think i should add/remove somthing let me know.  Im open to everyones opinion.

[blindguy]

Neanderthal,

If you have a CheapMod.com mod chip, you must remove the jumper in order to flash the bios.  Normally the CheapMod's ship with the jumper on to disable flashing the chip.

Also, the backup feature in EvoX writes a 1024k bios.bin file even though the CheapMod bios chip is only 256k.  The bios.bin file in the backup directory is really four copies of the 256k bios.  So you need a 256k bios file to flash your CheapMod.

Chris

[Unreal7000]

I was wanting to know if I could have this pinned.  I have had over 800 views and I think it would be easier for people to get to if it was pinned.

[trevlenOO6]

noob question: when i flash my xecuter 2 lite through evox it flashes both banks with the same bios what am i doing wrong

[Unreal7000]

Thats what its suppose to do if you only want 1 Bios.
If you want to have 2 Bios then do the following:

If you are starting out with a virgin 1MB Bios .bin file then,
use a bios slicer so you can get it down to 4 256k pieces. http://dwl.xbox-scene.net/~xbox/xbox-scene...XBiosSlicer.zip

From there use X2 Bios Manager http://dwl.xbox-scene.net/~xbox/xbox-scene...s/bios/x2bm.zip
Select Image Size 1024k.
Then select the first bank 256k.
Hit Import and then select one of the 256k .bin files you just created.
Now hit copy and then select second bank 512 and hit paste.
The first and second bank should be the same BIOS now.
Now for the last two banks do the same thing except choose a different BIOS that you want.
Then hit save. Now you have a 1MB BIOS that has two different BIOS on it.
After you flash you can remove jumper (1.0/1.1) on the chip to choose which BIOS you want.

[bombzhome]

Can someone spell, "PIN"  

[dink]

Great tutorial!

I have spent many hours searching for something like this.  Instead, I put together my evox.ini from various threads.

As I recall, I had to add in the evox.ini, the type of flash chip, in order to flash it.  I did not see it in your turtorial.

Flash = 0x01d5,"AMD - Am29F080B",0x100000
Flash = 0x04d5,"FUJITSU - MBM29F080A",0x100000
Flash = 0xadd5,"Hynix - HY29F080",0x100000
Flash = 0x20f1,"ST - M29F080A",0x100000
Flash = 0xbf61,"SST - 49LF020",0x40000

 

[trevlenOO6]

thanxs for the help unreal

[SaSh]

QUOTE (Unreal7000 @ Jun 1 2003, 07:18 AM)

Item "Flash BIOS",ID_Flash_Bios

First of all , I have to say this is a "good to understand guide " . I'm not done with it ... i have to go to a shop to get those different screwdrivers   But I've made all the preparations. And i have this question :

I have this line :
Item "Flash BIOS",@1
in my evox.ini  ........
Does that make any difference ?

[Unreal7000]

Don't know, as long as you can access the Flash function from within evox I think your good.

[nix2k]

-- Flash = 0x01d5,"AMD - Am29F080B",0x100000

As far as I know, anyone using X2 chips just need that line in their flash section. As for other chips, no idea, I use an X2.1 lite, and thats the line you need.