5031 booting problems

[Moorish]

After flashing to 5031 I can't get to EvoX nor can I use any slayer disc (or any executable disc - including original Xbox games).

With the chip on, the X2 boot sequence happens with the loading screen then the Xbox logo with the Xecuter logo, then it goes straight to the MS dash.

Slayer will not load - the Xbox w/MS logo appears and the drive is continually spinning the CD (trying to boot it I assume) and nothing happens. Same happens with any DVDRs and even with official games. I get no errors, it literally keeps spinning/checking the disk with no result.

I cannot FTP into the Xbox or anything so I have no idea what to do. The ini file was placed in the root of F: and is pasted below. My evox dash is also in the root of F:

Anyone have any ideas? I only have a Lite so I can't easily reflash the BIOS .

;NOTE: Bios will work with all default settings if there is no x2config.ini files detected
;	  If you flashed the bios correctly you will get XECUTER2 CONFIG LIVE LOADING....
;	  When starting up your Xbox - this is normal - its simply a small pause to wait for
;	  your hard drive to initialize. This dull looking screen will be smartened up in future.
;
; Also 1 = ON, 0 = OFF (duh!)
; This file goes to the root of your F or E drive

; startup xbox debug monitor (needs sdk installed)
startDebug = 0

; enable igr
igrEnabled = 1

; display flubber animation
doStartupAnimation = 1

; check if dvdrom is connected
doDvdDriveCheck = 0

; do not reset when pressing on eject button
noResetOnEject = 0

; 255 characters max here, format is <drive>:<path_to_xbe>.xbe, e.g. "f:dashes\avalaunch.xbe"
dash1Name = F:evoxdash.xbe
dash2Name = C:evoxdash.xbe
dash3Name = C:unleashx.xbe
dash4Name = C:xbmc.xbe
dash5Name = C:xboxdash.xbe

; the xbe name of the title image loaded from dvd on startup, 16 chars max!
dvdBootXbeName = default.xbe

; flubber (blob) colors
colorBlob = FF26FF3F
colorBlobGlow = 00A0FF40
colorGreenFog = 00A0FF60
colorFlubberScene = FF35FF19
colorFogGlowStart = FF00FF00
colorFogGlowEnd = 009FFF66

; logo colors
colorXlip = FF000000
colorXlipHighlights = FF4B9B4B
colorInnerWalls = FF216A17
colorInnerGlow = FFCBDF01
colorXboxText = FF62CA13

; protect from connecting to xbox live if modchip enabled
patchXboxLive = 1

; if 1 then system runs without error if clock is invalid
clockErrorCheck = 1

; do random flubber
randomFlubber = 0

; flubber animation number, 0 - 14
flubberAnimationNumber = 2

; speed of xbox fan, value 10 equals 20%, value 50 equals 100%
fanSpeed = 10

; display flubber blob in wireframe mode
flubberWireFrame = 1

; display the TM logo
displayTmLogo = 0

; define the xbox logo background color
xLogoBackgroundColor = FF000000

; stop bios from booting DVDs (straight to dash even with a disc inserted)
disableCdromBoot = 1

; xbox LED color, 0 = off, 15 = green, 240 = red, 255 = orange, 83 = cycle
ledColor = 240

 

[bobfather]

Welcome to the club. Mine doesn't read ANYTHING either.

 

[Moorish]

Welcome to the club. Mine doesn't read ANYTHING either.

What I was hoping was maybe there was a bug or something with the CD/DVD xbe name and if I created a slayer CD that had the right xbe name I could boot into EvoX and sort it out. Looks unlikely though

 

[bobfather]

You and I have this problem here, and a couple people in the X2.x Pro forums as well. Remind me never to be a guinea pig for this stuff ever again.

Guess I'm off to find someone with an X2 Programmer.

 

[Moorish]

You and I have this problem here, and a couple people in the X2.x Pro forums as well. Remind me never to be a guinea pig for this stuff ever again.

Guess I'm off to find someone with an X2 Programmer.

I only have an X2 Lite - what options do I have?

 

[bobfather]

Assuming there isn't some special fix...

1. Buy an X2 Programmer.
2. Find a friend with a modded Xbox and swap in your (hopefully) unlocked HD to fix whatever INI problem that's causing this.
3. Hotswap the EEPROM with a friend who has a modded Xbox, and flash from his box.
4. There is no 4.

 

[Moorish]

Assuming there isn't some special fix...

1. Buy an X2 Programmer.
2. Find a friend with a modded Xbox and swap in your (hopefully) unlocked HD to fix whatever INI problem that's causing this.
3. Hotswap the EEPROM with a friend who has a modded Xbox, and flash from his box.
4. There is no 4.

The X2 Programmer looks like a good option - I've had a read around it but I can't work out if it's possible to flash it while the chip is still connected to the motherboard. I have no soldering skills whatsoever, see .

 

[Klutsh]

Moorish,

The problem you are having with booting to CD's is the you have

disableCdromBoot = 1

in your config file, you turned off the bios's ability to boot a CD during startup.

What you could do instead of getting a programmer is temp' softmod your xbox.
This would allow you access enough to fix your problem.

Swapping HDD's or EEPROMS is not an option.
1, You cant unlock your current HDD, so it's useless anywhere else. (They can only be unlocked with the xbox they were locked with)
2, This is 100% not an eeprom issue and besides, how are you going to get the new eeprom on in the first place? They cannot be hot-swapped. They need to be flashed.

Please before giving other people 'stupid' ideas to try, research what you are suggesting.

 

[Moorish]

Moorish,

The problem you are having with booting to CD's is the you have

disableCdromBoot = 1

in your config file, you turned off the bios's ability to boot a CD during startup.

But that would not explain why original games don't boot either though, would it? The fact that I disabled that should make no difference, things should still boot, just not automatically on startup.

 

[Moorish]

Anyone have any idea if I could use the programmer whilst the chip was still soldered into the motherboard?

 

[Xecuter]

; stop bios from booting DVDs (straight to dash even with a disc inserted)
disableCdromBoot = 1

so of course it wont boot anything from the dvdrom - originals or backups

 

[bobfather]

Please before giving other people 'stupid' ideas to try, research what you are suggesting.

The option to swap the HD isn't stupid. Not everyone locks their HD because not everyone needs MSDash, or Live.

Also, before passing out unhelpful advice, you could read the boards around you and discover this problem isn't with the config. Multiple users on older X2 chips are having the problem of 5031 dumping them straight to MSDash with no option to boot a CD or DVD, regardless of the contents of their INI.

 

[bobfather]

Look, this is what I know.

1.For some people, 31, instead of using the information in the INI, goes straight to MSDash.
2. This wouldn't be a problem, except for some reason people can't boot EvoX CDRWs, Slayers, or anything. Not even games load.
3. Ordinarily that wouldn't even be a problem, but the X2 line most frequently comes without built-in programmers.

If you'll check the other boards, you'll see that people who have the correct INI values are suffering from this as well. If you can't reach your dash, and can't load a CDRW to save yourself, you don't have many options.

 

[Moorish]

Yes but the best way to get things working again given my predicament is to flash the BIOS, as I see it.

Unfortunately I didn't realise the setting I changed completely disabled any sort of booting whatsoever, I thought it simply stopped CDs/DVDs from loading straight from the off rather than altogether. Perhaps for future reference the documentation explaining this option could have a clear warning about the consequences of this, as I'm sure I won't be the only one to make this mistake.

Out of interest, how does the BIOS achieve this feature anyways, because rather than not spinning the drive at all, it is constantly clicking and whirring which implies it is still looking for something. There isn't by any chance a really random .xbe it's looking for, is there?

 

[Moorish]

Look, this is what I know.

1.For some people, 31, instead of using the information in the INI, goes straight to MSDash.
2. This wouldn't be a problem, except for some reason people can't boot EvoX CDRWs, Slayers, or anything. Not even games load.
3. Ordinarily that wouldn't even be a problem, but the X2 line most frequently comes without built-in programmers.

If you'll check the other boards, you'll see that people who have the correct INI values are suffering from this as well. If you can't reach your dash, and can't load a CDRW to save yourself, you don't have many options.

I am under the impression that my ini is loading as I set it to have a Red LED which it does, so I assume that means it is working. However what suprises me is that if I have in fact made a massive screw up by setting the disableCdromBoot boolean, then why is the Xbox still trying to constantly read the disk. Surely that can't be good for the lens?

 

[Xecuter]

no - the setting stops from auto botting - of course you can still load unsigned xbe's - whats the point in not being able too

and there is a clear warning about the consequences of using this bios - we always say use all bios's at your own risk. i have thousands upon thouands of ppl using this just fine - and a handful saying its not working - i cant reproduce any of these errors myself.

if you all feel there is a bug - report it to the CORRECT place in the CORRECT format.

these current posts are in the wrong place if they are bug reports of any kind and they are also completely usless in helping to track or to be able to reproduce in an identical fashion.

 

[Xecuter]

Welcome to the club. Mine doesn't read ANYTHING either.

yeah really useful post

whats your " disableCdromBoot " setting
what is your setup / configuration ?
what xbox version

 

[Xecuter]

3. Ordinarily that wouldn't even be a problem, but the X2 line most frequently comes without built-in programmers.

most freuently ?

dont you mean all the time ?

they dont come with programmers - you buy it as an optional add on

OR when flashing the mod - do what we tell you and always have a back up on the other bank like flashbios or something so you can recover easily

but of course it's our fault that ppl dont do that either

 

[Moorish]

no - the setting stops from auto botting - of course you can still load unsigned xbe's - whats the point in not being able too

That's what I thought - it would be pointless and risky to disable all forms of booting from a CD/DVD. Ok, given my explanation of the problem and the ini file I have posted - do you have any thoughts on what might be going on? Everything looks OK as far as I can see.

and there is a clear warning about the consequences of using this bios - we always say use all bios's at your own risk. i have thousands upon thouands of ppl using this just fine - and a handful saying its not working - i cant reproduce any of these errors myself.

I understand that totally - I'm not complaining. If I have made a mistake fair enough, similarly if it is an error on Xecuter's part then fair enough. These things happen. I'm just trying to get an idea of whether there is a possible fix that doesn't involve me doing a lot of serious work. I don't have the necessary stuff to do the gamesave exploits so if there is any sort of workaround - any way I can get Slayer or something to boot then I'd obviously prefer that.

if you all feel there is a bug - report it to the CORRECT place in the CORRECT format.

these current posts are in the wrong place if they are bug reports of any kind and they are also completely usless in helping to track or to be able to reproduce in an identical fashion.x

How am I to know it is a bug though? That's the entire point of this post .


Also, are you able to answer my question about the programmer - am I physically and technically able to use it while the modchip is still soldered to the board?

 

[Xecuter]

I am under the impression that my ini is loading as I set it to have a Red LED which it does, so I assume that means it is working. However what suprises me is that if I have in fact made a massive screw up by setting the disableCdromBoot boolean, then why is the Xbox still trying to constantly read the disk. Surely that can't be good for the lens?

yeah your dvdrom is probably going to blow up

btw - from the bio readme file - just fyi

This piece of software will most likely destroy your XBOX if you
don't now what you are doing! We will not be held responsible for
any damage or screw ups. Do not whine or bitch if you cant get sh*t to work
this bios is free - we are not interested in your complaining.

This bios is not released with any warranties of any kind. Although we
do test our asses off we cannot guarantee it will be bug free. If you have
any problems or issues please post to the forums and we will either tell
you what you are doing wrong or thank you for spotting a bug that needs
fixing

the bios's always have bugs - if you are worried about smoke coming out of your xbox then i can only suggest waiting a few weeks after a release to see what everyone else says about it.

im thinking there is a bug with the disablecdboot hack but i cant duplicate it on my v1.0 or v1.6 - im going to need more feedback and confirmations and in the BUG REPORTS forum !