Converting a used xbox to a Xbox Media Center machine
The steps I finally got to work..’, ‘Ok.. let\’s start by making sure we have what we need. I purchased my first used Xbox ($50) from GameStop. I also purchased MechAssault ($3), a memory card ($3) and the DVD/Remote kit ($10). Along with that stuff, I bought a USB extension cable from a dollar store ($1).
What you need:
MechAssault game code : MS02301L-LO
This means it is the original version that has the exploit. If you have MS02308L-LO, either take it back, or go buy another copy. The second time, the employee working at GameStop didn\’t have a problem looking through all the games to make sure I received the proper version.
To check your Xbox version, you start the Xbox without a game inserted, select \’settings\’ and then \’system info\’. After it scrolls down a little bit, you will see the needed information
Kernel: Dunno
Dashboard: 5960 (latest)
My first Xbox had the following:
K: 4817
D: 5960
My second one had the following:
K: 4034
D: 4034
First step is to cut the USB cable in half and figure out what wires are what using a multimeter. Or, if your cable is properly color coded, match what is in this tutorial: Memory Unit Mod.
Now, remove the connector from the meory card. I used desolder wick to remove most of the solder and then heated each pin up until it fell away. Next, solder the female end to the connector that was just removed, and solder the male end to the circuit board of the memory card. This allows us to connect the memory card to a PC, and also plug it back into the controller.
Now, I\’m going to skip over the details of loading the save games onto the memory card using the Action Replay (AR) software, as there is plenty of information available. But, I will note that the memory card I had appeared to be good, when in fact it was bad. It didn\’t have any problems transferring very small save files, but when it came to transfering the larg save files you need for this, it kept failing. It would fail writing to the card.. and then, when I did get it to write, it would fail trying to copy it to the Xbox HD. So, I ended up using a SanDisc 128MB Mini Cruizer (which is listed as unsupported but worked fine for me). This process takes some extra work, because you have to edit the AR driver files to use your USB keys IDs.. And again, there are plenty of tutorials on how to do it. Anyway, using the AR software, I copied the “Run Linux” save game that is available. It worked fine on the first Xbox.
Now, I inserted the USB key into the controller and copied the “Run Linux” save game to the HD.
Then, booted MechAssault and started the “Run Linux” save game.
Now, it should be at the Krayzie Tools page.. We just need to do the steps in order. First, we run “1st Backup eeprom”, “Backup eeprom”, “Yes”, and then “OK”.
After that, it will restart and you will get the “Backup eeprom” so just press A again and then “Return to main menu”.
Now, we want to “Install Ndure softmod”>. Because these are standard XBoxes with only an 8GB HD, we choose nkpatcher.06. If we would have upgraded to a 250GB+ HD, we would choose 67… Anyway.. I chose Evolution X dashboard, but it\’ll be replaced with XBMC anyway.
Now, on the first Xbox, that had dashboard 5960, all was well. But, on the second Xbox, with the older dashboard, neither dashboard would install. So, to update it, we should be able to connect to xbox live (even without an account) and it will update the dashboard.
So, I ran MechAssault, chose Multiplayer, picked Xbox Live and hit X to create an account. It asked if I wanted to restart to create the account and I said yes.
It then said it was updating my console with something.. But it failed. Luckily, I had the newer version of MechAssult and I tried using it. It updated, and then said it needed to restart.. I said OK and it updated some more.. and then restarted again. After the second update, it gave me a message saying the xbox might update regularly.. I said OK and then reboot to see the system info again.. This time it said:
K: 4034
D: 5659
Uh oh.. still not the right one.. So I clicked on Xbox Live that is now listed on the main system menu and told it I wanted to create an account.. Phew.. it\’s doing another update..Now, it\’s:
K: 4034
D: 5960
And we are good to go! Let\’s start over.
Pop in the original MechAssault again, and start the “Run Linux” save game again.
Backup the eeprom again.. just to be safe and return to the main menu. Now, we install the Ndure softmod again, picking 06 and Evolution X dashboard.
Yeah.. we say “Yes” to all the questions and away it goes.
Once it\’s done, restart and press A so it can keep going…
we just need to FTP into it, backup our files and upload XBMC. To do this, we get the IP address and ftp into the Xbox. What I noticed is that if you try to have more than one connection at a time it pretty much kills the box.. so set your FTP client to only allow one transfer at a time. Download the backup folder like it told you:
Ebackupseeprombackup
Then, just copy the XBMC files into the Edashboard folder and your all set.