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Anyone here run a softmod on Xbox?

M

Musashi Wins!

FLAWLESS VICTOLY!
Seems like an elegant/easy modding solution in some ways. I'm really only interested in adding the capability to run emulators and play the occasional import on my 'Dude. I don't want to store "backups" with a larger harddrive, create a mega media center or steal new Xbox games (my personal stance on emulation vs. stealing).

My understanding is that to run LIVE you simply use the included tools to dump the dash and just run the exploits again later to reinstall. You don't lose any saved data (such as emulators, etc.)

Is there any real downside considering I don't really want to up my HD besides the LIVE issue? I just don't really want to bother with a chip and this seems rather simple.
 
Do you say that because it's just a hassle?

Because....I mean it's not a money issue, I could afford to go that small hassle way but...being able to do this is worth the price to softmod it and spend a couple hours setting it up. Having 2 Xboxen in my entertainment center and spending $150 seems excessive for the convenience of not playing emulated games at my PC. Since the other things you can potentially do don't really interest me. And if I don't like it...I didn't really waste much time or resources.
 
I use the Mech Assault exploit, and I just uninstall it whenever I want to go on Live. No problems with that so far, though I suppose they could easily scan the hard drive and ban me when they see 3rd party apps installed. I am surprised that MS is so lenient.

I have heard that if you boot with a game disc in the drive, it will default to the original BIOS and you can play on Live. I haven't tried that -- it only takes a minute or two to install/uninstall the softmod anyway.
 
Softmodding works fine. The main negative is the possibility of getting banned from live due to the stuff floating around on your HDD, but I am not really sure if they are really checking or not.
 
They are actually scanning HD's for more than size checks and such? Ack. Maybe I shouldn't then, LIVE is fairly important to me.
 
Well, like I said, I don't know if they are or not. At some point, people were reportedly getting banned with their modchips turned off, so to be safe, I was clearing out the emulators whenever I wanted to play on live. Then again, border for example seems to be leaving the stuff on his HDD and it seems to be okay.

In any case, since Live is really important to you, I personally would not risk it. But naturally, it's all a matter of how comfortable you feel with it.
 
There are no guarantees that they won't start checking your hard drive for files, but anybody telling you that they currently doing it is bullshitting. I've had XBMC, DVD-X, xToolBox and some emulators installed since November and MS hasn't done a thing.

Soft mod works fine for normal, everyday use. Just remember that after you uninstall you will have to go into Network Settings and change your IP back to "Automatic" instead of manual.
 
MS couldn't care less about Xbox now, so if they haven't started deep scanning they probably wont.

Just get a hard mod with a switch. You can flash you bios so that it reports no ethernet cable when its active. So you can't accidentally boot up a game and get banned. All that happens is the game reports it can't sign in.

Much more convenient than a softmod IMO.
 
Seems like an elegant/easy modding solution in some ways. I'm really only interested in adding the capability to run emulators and play the occasional import on my 'Dude. I don't want to store "backups" with a larger harddrive, create a mega media center or steal new Xbox games (my personal stance on emulation vs. stealing).

My understanding is that to run LIVE you simply use the included tools to dump the dash and just run the exploits again later to reinstall. You don't lose any saved data (such as emulators, etc.)

Is there any real downside considering I don't really want to up my HD besides the LIVE issue? I just don't really want to bother with a chip and this seems rather simple.
Click to expand...

I've been using a softmod since they were usable. It really is the way to go, as it's cheaper than a modchip and you can mod any xbox you get your hands on without spending an additional penny.

That said, I eventually just decided on two HDs; one Live and one softmod. Then again, MS doesn't scan the HD's files, so if I were to just remove the softmod when I go on Live, it'd probably be alright. ...But I'm a paranoid person.
 
The softmod manually sets your IP to 192.168.0.3, so I think that even if you left it hooked up to your cable modem it wouldn't be able to get to the Internet....
 
Is it harder to install another HD with the softmod? That is what I had heard, but I'll do some better research as well.
Click to expand...

Modchips can boot to an unlocked HD, where softmod HDs need to be locked. So, yeah, slightly harder. Instead of simply raw copying the original HD to the new, you need to unlock them prior and relock them when you're done. Then again, even with a modchip, you'd need to unlock the original drive, anyway.

Coincidentally, I just swapped someone's HD on their softmodded system about an hour ago, heh.

The softmod manually sets your IP to 192.168.0.3, so I think that even if you left it hooked up to your cable modem it wouldn't be able to get to the Internet....
Click to expand...

The softmod sets your IP to whatever you want it to be. Including dynamic.
 
I may give it a shot...something to do today. Boy will I be pissed at myself if I by chance screw up live :lol

After it's done, I can simply FTP with my router emulators and such, right? I have a HaloBox and it's tempermental about the media it will read (Samsung drive I think).

I have to go search out an Action Replay and original glitch title shortly...
 
I got another person to do a softmod for me, and so far it's working great. And I did have a 120 gig hardrive installed. (just a standard pc drive, 7200 rpm) . What is great about backing up your games is that it really decreases load times. Loading half a city in Vice City takes now a tenth of a second, compared to 3 seconds, so my gameplay is improved. Also, by giving my dvd drive a break, I expect my Xbox to last longer.

My only problem is however the guy softmodded my xbox, I can't access my original dashboard. I'll just get a error screen, and have to reboot my xbox. That's my only minus so far, and hopefully, it can be fixed.
 
You lock the new HD on your PC.

Using EvolutionX running on the Xbox from 007/MA, you get your current Xbox HD's key (which allows you to unlock the source to copy over onto the destination HD) and the EEPROM unique to your Xbox, which allows a program called Liveinfo to give you the key that the destination HD will need to be locked with.

Oh, and also use Liveinfo to make sure the new HD is capable of being locked in the first place.
 
Get the 16MB Max Drive if you want to do the soft mod. The Action Replay is kinda crappy.

http://us.codejunkies.com/shop/product.asp?c=US&cr=USD&cs=$&r=0&l=1&ProdID=283
Tain said:
The softmod sets your IP to whatever you want it to be. Including dynamic.
Click to expand...
Mine changes it to 192.168.0.2 (or .3) the moment it installs. You can change it beyond that point, but if you want to avoid any screwups with Live-enabled games I don't see why you would want to.
 
Yeah, the Action Replay thing was sort of a bitch to work with. It wouldn't work with the PAR card, so we used the PAR dongle to place it on another third party card.
 
Tain said:
You lock the new HD on your PC.

Using EvolutionX running on the Xbox from 007/MA, you get your current Xbox HD's key (which allows you to unlock the source to copy over onto the destination HD) and the EEPROM unique to your Xbox, which allows a program called Liveinfo to give you the key that the destination HD will need to be locked with.

Oh, and also use Liveinfo to make sure the new HD is capable of being locked in the first place.
Click to expand...

Can you recommend a reasonably priced HD for this process? Maybe it does make more sense to add this option.
 
I probably should've mentioned that I'm kinda crazy in the sense that I don't have a switch or anything; I just pop off the Xbox top and switch HDs to go between the two.

Can't really suggest much in the way of an HD. I honestly haven't heard of a lockable 8gb HD outside of the Xbox stock ones. Just find something cheap and check this site:

http://xboxdrives.x-pec.com/
 
Xbox's Hard drive is supposed to be 10 GB, with two gigs hidden from the user. Isn't there a way to get those 2 gigs back? Can it be done without interfering with Live?
 
Did a little research...it's getting very, very cheap with certain dealers to get a pre-modded box with a gigantic HD and tons of programs. Actually found a few guys in my area so I could do some face to face transactions. Might be kind of foolish not to just do this for a few bucks. I wish I didn't have soldering fear :(
 
just pay someone to mod it for you. trust me, you won't regret it. i got it just for emulation but i find myself using the media center more than actually playing games, haha
 
border said:
Xbox's Hard drive is supposed to be 10 GB, with two gigs hidden from the user. Isn't there a way to get those 2 gigs back? Can it be done without interfering with Live?
Click to expand...
Formatting F:\ drive will give you two gigs on it. I've no idea what its meant to be used for (hopefully nothing important), so I went ahead and did it. I have had no problems running games since or anything since. :)

Anyway, mines softmodded, and it was quick and simple. Well worth it for media center + emulation purposes.
 
Wario64 said:
just pay someone to mod it for you. trust me, you won't regret it. i got it just for emulation but i find myself using the media center more than actually playing games, haha
Click to expand...

Yeah...me too...
 
I knew a few people that have been playing on xbox live with a modded xbox for over a year. And its not a mod with an on off switch.
 
AFIAA, you don't want to be softmodding your xbox and trying to play on Live with it as Live will occasionally download dashboard updates and if it does this then it will replace your modded dashboard.

You're best off getting a chip that will allow you to boot the console in modded and unmodded mode and flash it with a BIOS that will disallow your xbox from connecting to Live (I have mine set up this way and have not been banned, and have access to XBMC, emu's, etc.).

If you really wanna keep playing on Live and are unsure on how to do install a switched chip, or don't have someone else that can do it for you, then I would recommend just picking up a second pre-modded xbox (like you were mentioning above) just for emulators and XBMC use, and keep the other one for Live play.

If you don't value Live that much, then just softmod this one and don't play on Live with it, simple? :)
 
Is there a way to softmod an imported (Asian) XB?
Click to expand...

You'd probably need to hotswap the HD to get to the files, but I'd imagine the exploits would still work.

I'm sure hotswapping is dangerous, but I've done it a few times and have no trouble with it.

Formatting F:\ drive will give you two gigs on it. I've no idea what its meant to be used for (hopefully nothing important), so I went ahead and did it. I have had no problems running games since or anything since
Click to expand...

Some Xboxen happen to have a 10gig Seagate drive instead of an 8, but it's not very common. The remaining 2 gigs aren't formatted in those cases.

Sadly, I'm not so lucky. ;_;
 
Using the softmod, I just keep copies of my C Drive for Live and my C Drive for my soft mod. Before I get on Live, I ftp in and move my entire C Drive to a backup folder and the restore the Live copy from its backup folder. It just takes a few seconds.

MS only checks the dashboard related files right now, so it all works fine.
 
Dsal said:
Using the softmod, I just keep copies of my C Drive for Live and my C Drive for my soft mod. Before I get on Live, I ftp in and move my entire C Drive to a backup folder and the restore the Live copy from its backup folder. It just takes a few seconds.

MS only checks the dashboard related files right now, so it all works fine.
Click to expand...

I can tell you that my C: xbox partition is a total mess (skin files, ini files, multiple dashboards),and so far I'm not banned 5 moths and counting.

Most of the xboxes that I softmod will never access live but so far it appears that if you can get to load your game before the moded dashboard loads you can log into live without problems (like I said "it appear"s so don't try it unless you can get unlimited and free annual accounts like Wario64 :P)
 
I found a local guy who will put a chip, live switch, 120gb hd and load up my choice of dash and software along with whatever led mods I'd like (:lol) for $300 in a new Xbox. That's a lot more than I originally planned to spend, but I've talked for a bit with some others about having this particular unit and it seems pretty heavenly. Plus I'd have a second box for dedicated servers, etc. I think I may take the plunge and do it. Wish I'd have bought it earlier in the gen, but given the media uses I'll probably use it for quite some time. I don't plan to give up Xbox games or emulation in November either.
 
mine is modded with a chip. I have tons of things on the hard drives, Never banned from Live before.
 
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