Everything was fine, now all of a sudden...

[woof34]

Hello...

I'm a first time modder and first time poster; I've tried to do my homework, but I would like to ask a few questions and hopefully get some help with a problem I've run into. Please bear with me, and thanks in advance for any help.

First, my specs are: Xbox vers. 1.3 with an Xecuter 3CE (with the bank switch) and a WD 250 Gig drive. (Bank switch set to on, on, off, off, off).

I flashed the bios with an X3 3294 bios. No problem there (originally). Then I used Slayer's Auto Installer 2.7 (any thoughts, opinions, criticisms on that?). So, when I enable the mod chip (quick power), the x3 config screen would come up first and then I would have to choose "reboot to dash" and Slayer's dash would come up. And everything was working fine for about a month - I use it mainly to play games off HD, never online. Suddenly today, I turned it on and got error message 09. So I opened her up to check the IDE cable. Everything seemed fine. Started it up, then got error 13 once. On the next and subsequent startups, it boots to the x3 config screen but it slows to a crawl. I can access the commands (albeit slowly) but it will not "reboot to dash" now. I tried the backup bios and then reflashed with x3 bios(good or bad?) all to no avail.

If anyone can shed some light on this problem, I would greatly apreciate it. I would also like your thoughts on how I have this set up. It doesn't seem right to me, but up 'til now it has worked. How about auto installers - good/bad? Should I be using a different bios? I admit I'm a noob when it comes to modding and such; I have moderate computer skills, but there is so much information out there it's hard to put 2 and 2 together sometimes. I hope I don't infuriate anyone if I've missed an answer to my problem in another post, but with a wife and two kids and a job it's sometimes hard to search all over the 'net to find answers (sorry, I'm not whining about work or family) . Anyways, thanks again for your time and effort in reading and hopefully responding to this absurdly long post (I just wanted to make sure I covered everything)!

 

[Flesh]

Sound like a dying hard drive to me that may have corrupted files. If ya have a spare drive i would throw it in and try that 1st. While in the x3 bios check the drive and see if it is actually reading it correct also that may point ya in the direction of the HD have trouble also.

 

[xboxman22]

Error message 9 is a HDD parameters which has something to do with the debug. Error message 13 is a dashboard launch failure. Here is where I found these: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/210562
I just read into the link that I put here and it has to do with the incompatability of older slayers cd installs to newer xboxs.

 

[woof34]

Thanks to all for the quick responses/help. I plugged in the retail HD and the X3 config screen came up fine and was back up to speed, so...I'm off to try and salvage files off my corrupted drive. Before I close, I would like to ask any member who reads this a few questions. First of all, if you read my original post, am I going about things the right way (i.e.-X3 bios 3294 and Slayer's Auto Installer 2.7). As I stated, it worked for what I needed (games off HD, XBMC for divx playback and such, emulators) but are there easier/better ways (bios/auto installers etc.) than what I'm using? Any thoughts on auto installers in general? Best HD's? Sorry if these questions shouldn't be asked in this thread, but I did want to thank those that helped me out above. (Thanks again!)

 

[xboxman22]

Some of the best hard drives are seagates and maxtors, I have a seagate myself. One of the best auto installers are Auto Installer Deluxe 3.10 because it comes with plenty of features that you might want.

 

[Flesh]

http://www.upgrade-solution.com/detail.cfm?show=yes&PID=889&add=yes

thats a link to a cheap drive that i know for sure locks and unlock and worked in 5 box's i did.

As for flash and installing i always ftp'd into the box once chip was installed and flashed the chip then throw format the drive from x3 live and throw all the files threw the network to the box. If your use to the way ya did it before that way is also fine looks good to me.