Some time in early 2022, I bought an original Xbox from a local shop dirt cheap, untested. Not only did it work, but so did the DVD drive. "Great," I thought, "this will be my new daily console!" As time went on, and I got into the Insignia beta, I grew concerned for the 20-ish year old optical media drive in there.
"Time to mod it, I've done it before and it was painless. What could possibly go wrong?"
First problem: Softmod installer didn't fit on my memory card. Weird, because I'd done this before with this exact memory card, but I worked around it for the most part, got a smaller installer on there, got the console softmodded, forgot to back up my Xbox Live profile before formatting the hard drive, still haven't done anything about this, but it's fine. Once I get the new HDD in there, I'll go whine to Insignia support about it.
Soldered the flash points, went to flash the TSOP chip.. and.. it doesn't read burned discs. Reads retail discs just fine, but won't read a burned disc. "Fine," I scoff, "let's use a PC drive instead!" (thank you to whomever it was that suggested that, I can't recall now)
The next problem: the Xbox only has one Molex power connector. So, instead of the sane thing (buying a molex splitter) I took the side off my old computer, used the power supply to power the DVD drive, turned them on at the same time.. It was truly terrifying, and a genuine health hazard. And ta-da: the flash points weren't soldered properly. Four times. @SunsetFelid and I went over these points four times. But, fourth time's the charm! But I was able to flash it, and.. it booted to a black screen after the XECUTER logo! Turns out the dash I installed initially doesn't support hardmods. Okay then. Easy fix: Install a new dash, and we're up and running! Now let's unlock the drive... HeXen crashes. Okay.. Let's set up the new drive! HeXen crashes, and now I'm moving house.
Arriving at the new house, pop the console open, set up the computer that works as a power supply, and it's dead. The computer is dead. Yeah, the power supply got damaged when I dropped the fucking thing in the move, and now my progress is halted. This fun weekend project has turned into something that, when you take into account my asking for help online, my research, and my burning of various media, has taken several months, and I'm fucking sick of it. If any of you wants to finish this for me, there's money in it. I'm sick of this thing not working and ready to get back to playing Counter Strike 1.6 on Insignia.
"Time to mod it, I've done it before and it was painless. What could possibly go wrong?"
First problem: Softmod installer didn't fit on my memory card. Weird, because I'd done this before with this exact memory card, but I worked around it for the most part, got a smaller installer on there, got the console softmodded, forgot to back up my Xbox Live profile before formatting the hard drive, still haven't done anything about this, but it's fine. Once I get the new HDD in there, I'll go whine to Insignia support about it.
Soldered the flash points, went to flash the TSOP chip.. and.. it doesn't read burned discs. Reads retail discs just fine, but won't read a burned disc. "Fine," I scoff, "let's use a PC drive instead!" (thank you to whomever it was that suggested that, I can't recall now)
The next problem: the Xbox only has one Molex power connector. So, instead of the sane thing (buying a molex splitter) I took the side off my old computer, used the power supply to power the DVD drive, turned them on at the same time.. It was truly terrifying, and a genuine health hazard. And ta-da: the flash points weren't soldered properly. Four times. @SunsetFelid and I went over these points four times. But, fourth time's the charm! But I was able to flash it, and.. it booted to a black screen after the XECUTER logo! Turns out the dash I installed initially doesn't support hardmods. Okay then. Easy fix: Install a new dash, and we're up and running! Now let's unlock the drive... HeXen crashes. Okay.. Let's set up the new drive! HeXen crashes, and now I'm moving house.
Arriving at the new house, pop the console open, set up the computer that works as a power supply, and it's dead. The computer is dead. Yeah, the power supply got damaged when I dropped the fucking thing in the move, and now my progress is halted. This fun weekend project has turned into something that, when you take into account my asking for help online, my research, and my burning of various media, has taken several months, and I'm fucking sick of it. If any of you wants to finish this for me, there's money in it. I'm sick of this thing not working and ready to get back to playing Counter Strike 1.6 on Insignia.
