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[Deniii]

I recently bought an used Xbox and it had unleashX installed.
The thing is I can't access the MS Dasboard. It gives the error 21. I tried manually loading a file named original.xbe but I still get the same error.

The thing is, I don't like unleashX and what I want is to get rid of it and replace it with MS Dasboard but I don't want to lose the function to play burnt DVDs. Can someone explain me how to do this?
I know it's possible because about 8 years ago, a friend of mine bought a softmoded Xbox that could run burnt DVDs and the dashboard was the original.
I searched a lot of forums but nobody wants to explain me how to do this. They keep insisting me on keeping unleashX because is better than MS Dasboard.
I don't care what other people consider better, I want MS Dasboard.

Please, if someone can give me a simple guide on how to fix the error 21 and replace unleashX with MS Dasboard, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks.

[Heimdall]

If all you want to do is play burned DVDs, why do you care? You can set up UnleashX to autolaunch games from DVD in the same way that the MS Dash does, and you wouldn't notice the difference.

How is your Xbox modded? If softmodded, which softmod?

[Deniii]

Someone told me to use a disc called zxbinstaller and reinstall unleashX.
I chose UXE and unleashX as installation options and now everything is working fine.  Now I can launch the original dashboard.
Seems the previous owner didn't install unleashX correctly.

Thanks for the reply anyway.

[Heimdall]

That was bad advice. UXE is an old softmod, and FYI the previous owner HAD installed UnleashX correctly (because if they hadn't it wouldn't have worked), they'd just used another old softmod that needed a bit of extra work to make MS Dash boot properly.

If you want to sort out your Xbox with the latest and most stable NDURE softmod, just grab HeXEn (Google Heimdall's Xbox Engineering Disc), burn it to DVD-R, and use it to upgrade your softmod to Krayzie 1.1.1 or Kingroach NDURE 3.1.

[fallenangle]

My first softmod machine, bought pre-softmodded, also had a non-working MS Dashboard which gave error 21. It had been done with an early version SID.

Later I dug back a little into the development history of SID and found, as [b}Heimdall[/b] says, that this was normal then. I was lucky because the installer version on that Xbox included a Patch 5960 menu option which, I believe, was included as a temporary solution to this problem. Not sure why the original owner/softmodder hadn't used it though, perhaps he just wasn't bothered about having the MS dash.    

What's to dislike UnleashX though - if you change the skin you can get it looking very similar to the MS dash if you want. My skin of choice is an edited version of one called TrueMSdash 2 which I use for exactly that reason.

[Deniii]

OK. I've started downloading the Hexen disc but I have a question.
In the torrent description, it says while Hexen installs NDURE, it will also install 3 dashboards.
Is there a way to make it install only 1 of the 3?
Will I have access to the original MS Dashboard?

Also, I've read somewhere NDURE allows online gameplay.
Is this true? I thought Xbox Live wasn't available anymore for the first Xbox.
If it is true, after installing NDURE, what do I have to do to play online?

Another question I have is, what is TSOP?

Thanks everyone for the reply.

[Heimdall]

HeXEn installs UnleashX as its primary dash, with Evox in case you want to try it, and gives you an option to install XBMC. You can then switch between then using inbuilt scripted tools.

You will have access to the MS Dashboard.

NDURE allows you to boot to a stock BIOS and dash which allowed you to play online, but Xbox Live is no longer available. You can now only play online with Xlink Kai.

The TSOP is the chip on the Xbox motherboard (1.0-1.5 only) that holds the stock BIOS. You can reflash it with a hacked BIOS instead of softmodding the Xbox.

[Deniii]

Thanks for the reply Heimdall.

However I have another question.
Maybe it's normal but, the ISO file of Hexen is only 500MB.
You told me to burn it to a DVD so I assumed the ISO size would be larger than 700MB.

Is the ISO I downloaded corrupted or something?
If the correct size is indeed 500M, can I burn it to a CD instead?

Thanks.

[Heimdall]

The iso is 486.3 MB (509,935,616 bytes). You burn it to DVD-R because that's the most universally readable disc format across all of the Xbox DVD drives. It will work from a CD, but only if your Xbox DVD drive will read burned CDs properly - and many don't.

This post has been edited by Heimdall: Jun 8 2011, 11:56 PM

[Deniii]

Heimdall: I burned the Hexen ISO to a DVD (not CD) and updated the exploit.
I chose the "Kingroach NDURE 3.1." option and then "I have an NTSC Xbox" (I have an american Xbox)
After it finished intalling everything, I restarted the system and noticed it messed completely my Xbox.

When I bought that used Xbox I had the following problems:
1) The cooler was working at 3.0X speed even though it was set to work at 1.0X and the noise it made was unberable (but this didn't happen if I booted a game directly instead of going into unleashX dash)
2) MS Dashboard wouldn't boot and gave error 21

So like I said, using a disc named ZXBInstaller v3.3, I reinstalled the exploit as following:
UXE > NKPatcher V10 > UnleashX

When the installation finished, the error 21 was fixed (I was able to access MS Dashboard) and when I set the cooler to 1.0X, it worked at that speed. It made no noise whatsoever, exactly like booting a game without going through unleashX.

When I said here the problem was fixed installing UXE, you told me that advice was a bad advice and that I should install NDURE using Hexen.
So, like I said, I updated using Hexen and now I have the following problems:

1) Again, the cooler works at 3.0X when setting it to 1.0X
2) Now, booting a game without going through unleashX ALSO makes the cooler work at 3.0X speed (with the corresponding noise)
3) The ring of color around the Eject button, no longer turns green but orange and sometimes, red


I was desperate so I tried doing the same thing I did last time: installing UXE using the disc ZXBInstaller but no matter how many times I ran that install option, what always appeared after booting the Xbox was what Hexen  installed.
So, as a last resort, using ZXBInstaller, I chose an option called "Factory Xbox". It wiped the exploit and after that, I tried to install UXE again.
Then, every time I booted the Xbox, it always went straight to the error 21 screen. No unleashX, no MS Dashboard.

Lucky me, I didn't loose the function to run backups so, I used Hexen again and reinstalled everything.
Now the Xbox works but with the 3 problems I mentioned above.

What I need now, PLEASE, is for you to tell how to do one of these things:
A) Help me restore UXE the way it was before because it was working great.
B) Explain me how to fix the 3 problems I mentioned before that happened by using the Hexen disc

I don't know if it's of any use or not but, according to Hexen, my Xbox is 1.6

Please, help me bacuse I don't want to wear ear plugs every time I'm using the Xbox and honestly, I don't care about what exploit is newer or better. I just want the Xbox running quitely and with the green ring (altough it's just a minor detail, the orange color makes me nervous. Like something bad is about to happen to the Xbox)

I hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks.

[Heimdall]

Not only is NDURE better and more stable, but you''ll get support for it. AFAIK there isn't anyone still around here regularly who could give you detailed help if you have problems with a UXE installation.

The 3 things you mention aren't problems. Two of them are minor settings issues, one is a feature designed to protect you.

You change the fan speed in the UnleashX menu, under system settings. Set it to 1.5x (there is a bug in UnleashX around the behaviour the fan setting, where 1.0x doesn't work properly.) If that doesn't work, try installing Krayzie 1.1.1 using HeXEn, and report back.

The LED is yellow so you know that the softmod is working, and it's really useful for troubleshooting if something goes wrong. It turns red when you run HeXEn or any of the other in-depth admin tools so you know that you have access to the softmod files, and could possibly destroy your softmod.

[Deniii]

Installing Krayzie 1.1.1 solved the cooler problem but there's still the LED thing.
Is there a way to make it work the way it works when the Xbox is not modded?
I mean, green LED when playing games or in the dashboard.

I understand what you said about the orange/yellow LED but I prefer to have it working the way it's supposed to be.
I tried changing the LED colors in the System menu but it always stays orange while playing games.
Do you know how can I change that?

Thanks.

This post has been edited by Deniii: Jun 9 2011, 05:46 PM

[Heimdall]

QUOTE(Deniii @ Jun 9 2011, 05:45 PM)

I understand what you said about the orange/yellow LED but I prefer to have it working the way it's supposed to be.

That is the way it's supposed to be with a modern softmod. You mean you want it working the way you want it to, as opposed to the way that a whole range of experts who wrote the softmods decided it should work.

If you really want to change it, use Krayzie Extras - but remember exactly what you did, and if you have problems in the future and post back for help, remember to clearly state that you changed the LED colour so it's always green......

[fallenangle]

With the newer AID (4.4) version I used for my later softmods it scared the hell out of me on power-up for the first time when the LED went into Xmas Tree mode. My older SID ones don't do that and the default LED colour remains green.

So I too found an orange LED offputting; orange, like red, for me feels like it is a warning that something is wrong when here it really means just the opposite. However I discovered with AID (4.4) when you change the default LED colour from orange to green on boot/reboot it flashes orange first, intentionally presumably, confirming that the softmod is in operation. I haven't and wouldn't recommend changing any of the other LED options though.

Maybe you'll find Krayzie's Extras has the same feature when selecting a green LED as default.

[Deniii]

I used Krayzie Extras and was able to change the LED color.

Thank you very much Heimdall. You helped me until the end just to change some details I didn't like.
Most of the people would've said "The system is already working. Stop pestering me" but you kept coming back and helped me.
I really appreciate all you've done.

Now, I've put a note on the Xbox's top with the text "NEVER RE-MOD". That way, I hope I will refrain from messing my Xbox again for some stupid reason (like I did when I changed the LED color).

Thanks again to you and all the other people that wrote a post to help me.
And to Krazyie as well, whoever he is.