solderless mods

[spinjr]

wondering if you guys have had experience with the 'solderless' mods out there. i know there is one out there for like $40, seems like a winner. i have no problem hacking but i want to steer clear of the soldering stuff on the mboard.

if you can even point me to a link on this type of hack, would appreciate.

xbox-scene is what im looking but figured i would try posting here too since tivo is my current 'project'

[pkpss]

wondering if you guys have had experience with the 'solderless' mods out there. i know there is one out there for like $40, seems like a winner. i have no problem hacking but i want to steer clear of the soldering stuff on the mboard.

if you can even point me to a link on this type of hack, would appreciate.

xbox-scene is what im looking but figured i would try posting here too since tivo is my current 'project'
I do soldering for $20. I even have an XBOX with a 2.3b Lite soldered in for $240 shipped FedEx. LMK if interested, I even do HDD upgrades and backups.

[spinjr]

thanks for the offer but 1/2 the fun is doing it myself right? i want to take on the hacking just dont want to solder my board.

wondering what are the pros\cons on the solder mod vs non-solder variety.

[pkpss]

I'm kinda an old timer with XBOXes so I don't know the newer chips too well. I have only stuck with the Xecuter chips so I may be a bit biased. I think the Matrix was the first no-solder attempt and then X came out with one as well. I heard a lot of horror stories with these chips since d0 would get unaligned real easily which would require an opening of the XBOX. It was very seldom when a Matrix owner would swear by the chip.

The newer no-solder attempts I have no clue on. The pins to connect to d0 and the LPC points do seem a lot more smaller which would seem better and more stable, but check the forums.

Basically Pro of the solder is it won't come off AT ALL if soldered correctly, Con of the no-solder is unaligning. I still don't understand the hacking part as well. You could easily buy a chip soldered in with 0 hacks, and do it yourself from that point on. :)

HTH.

[redfiver]

The new non-solder chips work fine. Unless you are moving your xbox all the time (and shaking it and stuff), you shouldn't loose the D0 point. But, all that said, I like the solder chips better. I just feel better about it being soldered in there and not have to worry about it. Not too hard to solder it in.

The new Xenium chip is pretty darn cool. I've always used Xecuter chips, but I'd get Xenium chips now. They are coming out with a non-solder one as well.

[zrdan]

I put in a few Matrix Chips back in 2002, early 2003. They work well, unless you are moving the xb all the time or rough when handling it.

[Zedek]

Or if you felt real daring, you could always to a tsop flash and not even worry about buying a modchip ;)

Course, that would require a lil bit of soldering and XB Live! capabilities would be a lil shot unless you had a v 1.0 or 1.1 box and put a toggle switch on VCC<A19>Gnd.

[SnK]

Have you thought of trying the hot swap hd and audio exploit? Works great for me.

[rc3105]

use a font/audio exploit to get control, attach a write enable jumper to the motherboard for the 5 mins it takes to flash the tsop, load a bfm or whatever bios 'n you're good to go. only cost is the time spent doing it

if you ever need to load any other bios (running linux, game compatability, hdtv support, etc) just use phoenix bios loader

[Sincere0219]

you get can read alot more info over at xbox-scene but depending on what mb version I dont think there is a completely solderless mod might have to solder 1 or 2 things. I have the new Xenium chip bought the solderless adapter with it but still had to sold like 4 points so I soldered it in completely. If I can do it (I have somewhat shaky hands for stuff like this) anyone can. I love my Xenium then again its my 1st xbox and chip.

[pewpster]

use a font/audio exploit to get control, attach a write enable jumper to the motherboard for the 5 mins it takes to flash the tsop, load a bfm or whatever bios 'n you're good to go. only cost is the time spent doing it

if you ever need to load any other bios (running linux, game compatability, hdtv support, etc) just use phoenix bios loader


Almost, you can't use a boot from media bios on the tsop, it wont boot. The latest working bios files are the X2 4981, and Evox M7. You don't need to mess with the font/audio exploit, its way easier with a game save exploit. You just need have or borrow Mechassault, 007:AUF, or Splintercell. Once you have the TSOP flashed you don't need to mess with the Pheonix bios loader anymore either. Go to the forums at www.xbox-scene.com, everything you need to know and is there.

[Radams58]

On a side note, for those of us who are cheap + lazy + don't solder....

The tsop flash is REALLY easy on the 1.2-1.5 Xbox's even if you don't solder.

The easy way to do it is to use Defroster repair fluid or silver paste.

Just use a tooth pick to draw a line between the pads and you're ready to go.

[spacejunk]

The new chips have nice brass pin guides so the moving of the box is not an issue any more. Although you might have to do some de-soldering. I did one over last Xmas for someone. It was a Chamleon chip very nice, very easy, a lot of nice features.

Mine is a Matrix chip pretty old, it was just as easy though, and I can vouch for the "moving with care" posts above. If you are going to load a ton of games, I suggest using swap HDD bays and leaving HDD outside of XBOX, there are plenty of way to make this look really nice.

[AlphaWolf]

My xbox was the first thing I ever soldered on. I even went the extra mile too, I installed a header strip on my 1.0 xbox, and that required me to de-solder some rosin that was covering the holes. Soldering only looks hard, and it isn't really, especially on an xbox.

[malfunct]

My xbox was the first thing I ever soldered on. I even went the extra mile too, I installed a header strip on my 1.0 xbox, and that required me to de-solder some rosin that was covering the holes. Soldering only looks hard, and it isn't really, especially on an xbox.

That said make sure you have the right tools. If your iron is too hot you will ruin your board and if its too cool you won't get good connections. Also make sure you have the right rosin and solder for doing work of that size on those materials it makes a big difference. Finally get an old circuit board (from a discarded radio or video card or something like that) and practice making perfect solders without scorching the board or the component you are soldering.

[Sincere0219]

also with tsop flashes unless you have a tsop that can be split into 2 with a switch, I believe ver 1.0, one more MS and one for your hacked bios. You will not be able to play live if you do you will be banned

[tytyty]

Almost, you can't use a boot from media bios on the tsop.


Only if you dont use xbox-linux

[AlphaWolf]

That said make sure you have the right tools. If your iron is too hot you will ruin your board and if its too cool you won't get good connections. Also make sure you have the right rosin and solder for doing work of that size on those materials it makes a big difference. Finally get an old circuit board (from a discarded radio or video card or something like that) and practice making perfect solders without scorching the board or the component you are soldering.

Only if you are soldering directly on some ICs. All xbox mod chips are pretty safe because you don't do that (unless you are directly flashing the tsop, but soldering isn't even necessary for that.) The board/traces can take just about anything that a common soldering iron will dish out. And just so long as the metal melts and bonds to whatever you are sticking it to, your connections are plenty good. If your soldering iron doesn't get hot enough to melt whatever ore you are using, try a higher lead content (high silver content is bad.)

[pkpss]

I even went the extra mile too, I installed a header strip on my 1.0 xbox, and that required me to de-solder some rosin that was covering the holes.

Hell yea... did the same thing. Nothing better than plug and play/swapping. :eek:

[malfunct]

Only if you are soldering directly on some ICs. All xbox mod chips are pretty safe because you don't do that (unless you are directly flashing the tsop, but soldering isn't even necessary for that.) The board/traces can take just about anything that a common soldering iron will dish out. And just so long as the metal melts and bonds to whatever you are sticking it to, your connections are plenty good. If your soldering iron doesn't get hot enough to melt whatever ore you are using, try a higher lead content (high silver content is bad.)

I don't know about where you come from, but in Montana where I grew up the most common soldering irons were the gun style and they would blister the coating on a PCB in no time. Also, it takes a bit of work to get a good solid connection on the solder. Practice is always good to do.

I agree though that the header in the xbox is about the safest you can get in a real electronic item since its just blank holes in the pcb. The tiny lead you need to put over to ground that one pin is a bit more tricky though.

[pkpss]

The tiny lead you need to put over to ground that one pin is a bit more tricky though.

I actually thought d0 was a lot easier...

[malfunct]

I actually thought d0 was a lot easier...

I have never soldered inside my xbox so I don't know. I just heard far more people complain about that than the lpc header. Also from my experience with other projects it just seemed like the most tricky because the contact is smaller and you have more worry of burning the trace off or bridging to other traces.

[AlphaWolf]

I don't know about where you come from, but in Montana where I grew up the most common soldering irons were the gun style and they would blister the coating on a PCB in no time.

Well, I figure one would use a bit more common sense and use a rod style, which is intended for stuff like this :D Gun style is only for bigger stuff, e.g. mechanic work, old school plumbing, etc.

Also, it takes a bit of work to get a good solid connection on the solder. Practice is always good to do.

Just so long as it sticks, your good. In my experience, metal sticks to metal quite well, and it adheres to the surface immediately on contact.

I agree though that the header in the xbox is about the safest you can get in a real electronic item since its just blank holes in the pcb. The tiny lead you need to put over to ground that one pin is a bit more tricky though.

Actually that was the easiest part for me. First I tinned the small wire, then I beaded a dropplet of rosin on the rod, inserted the wire into the hole, then dabbed the dropplet onto the wire while it was in the hole. Instant solid bond on the very first time I ever did anything like it (didn't even practice on any old PC components first.) Took me about a minute, the header strip took me over an hour.

[malfunct]

Just so long as it sticks, your good. In my experience, metal sticks to metal quite well, and it adheres to the surface immediately on contact.

Eh, not really true, there are many non conductive solder joints that "stick". The key is to get one smooth and shiny looking, and not all frosty and crystally/grainy looking. Metal does stick to metal ok, but many times there is a coating on the metal that doesn't not stick well at all, you need to get through that before you get a good joint. Maybe none of this applies inside the xbox but I was just trying to give some general knowledge.

[AlphaWolf]

Ah, those particular areas are coated with an anti-conductive material, the name of which escapes me, but it also has a property that prevents metals from bonding to it. There are two easy ways to remove it, just scrape it off with a screwdriver, or the best way, rub some flux paste on it, hold the soldering rod to an almost touching distance, then touch the rosin ore to the rod. The flux will make the ore instantly bond to it better than a normal metal contact, and you'll have excellent conductivity. Had to use this trick on a PS2 several times, works great.