mikeosoft

I am back. I was off for a month on vacation. Ready to get back to work. /Ranting below/ Since last post some things have happened to me: 1. Catastrophic harddrive failure 2. I've been home on the east coast for a month. I'm back in Los Angeles and about ready to start operations again. Mark thanks a million for doing what you do and for stepping in while I was away, you're the man. I need to sort through my existing consoles and I have a customer whose system is acting up, but other than that and getting up to date with coinops and current releases over. The next few days I will start listing completed systems for sale. I think the deman for 2tb systems has slowed to the point it might make sense for me to solely tsop flash/clock cap/trace repair mobo for people. Which might make it easier for all parties with shipping etc... Still up in the air. more to come. Now to answer Pms...

Back in the west, ready to sell a few systems to those in need. Also I am now accepting bitcoin as another payment option

i can ship you a bunch if you need. At cost of course. pm me if you need. also pm'd you the sata to ide adaptor i use. EARX drives are lockable fyi.

i've got a fry's out here in los angeles. kind of a cool store.

no nothing special about 1.6 xbox, just so happens this is all the models i can find at the moment. Since no TSOP, no flash. Softmod only or chip. Softmod is more reliable as i don't like sapping voltage from the LPC on the mobo also 1.6 compat bios' are flakey in my experience.

I just got hold of a few more 1.6 xbox, will offer 2tb systems with these for anyone who needs. $225 shipped CONUS

hey i had purchased this unit almost a year ago. I needed to rewire it to make it work, as the chinese's definition of "jamma" is not jamma. Anyways here's a cut and paste:

2TB xbox loaded systems SALE Xbox systems with 2tb drives. I am going to make these for people from now on. $225 shipped Continental US. Xbox system only, clock cap removed, 2tb drive installed, 80wire ATA cable upgraded, UnleashX installed as default dash, Evox installed, xbmc4xbox latest stable build installed, coinops 5 R3 installed full plus addon packs, vision installed. System formatted for 2 1TB partitons F and G, each formatted 64kb sectors. Only have plans for 4 or 5 of these systems, as I am trying to maximize current prices of 2TB wd drives at frys.

From what I recall the standard modchip will not work on a debug Xbox, but that info might be wrong. I'd ask on xboxscene either scrambles1980 or hemdial, they know a ton of info on the original Xbox and usually stay quiet until someone asks. As for the FTP, I just remembered the easiest method. Get a hold of the Microsoft dev kit install for windows xp which will allow you to communicate with the debug Xbox system and reun programs from commands sent from pc. Again I've never used or seen a debug Xbox or worked with the ms dev environment but if I recall the programs used to be located on xbins.

Hey Mark 1. I recall a few years back on xboxhacker.net when the forums section was still fresh and rampant with "xbox 1 hackers" there was one security company offering a 50 dollar "unlock" service for locked harddisks. There was a serious debate on whether or not they were legit, but no one in the thread was willing or needed to drop that money on their services. If I recall they were also located in the UK so shipping was expensive and slow... Also I remember reading once someone had a 320gb drive that they accidentally locked, and luckily found a spare drive and swapped the board on the bottom to the drive spindle frame, which worked. I forget what brand it was, but I recall after he/she posted the news, others tried the same thing with different manufacture drives with no luck. I will look into it for you and get back to you as it is something I've been meaning to research myself as someone somewhere must have a method. There's tons of "security firms" who used to offer such services for clients and I feel that harddrive manufactures likely have a master code or reset protocol failsafe built into certain pre approved ATA controller cards... The trick is securing such a device or application, which given the fact the hardware is almost obsolete today, shouldn't be impossible by any means, and could help the community at large. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner I've been busy with repairing my motorcycle and selling my car I am planning a few overnight trips into arizona and am overwhelmed and backed up. 2. dude awesome i've never seen in person a debug unit, or worked on one. If i was you here's what I'd do in this order: There are programs that used to allow one to change the default.xbe header from "retail" to "debug" which might allow you to run hexen's disc from default.xbe on the dvd rom disc. Once you bridge the write enable points on the mobo it'd just be case of flashing the TSOP with a desired bios. Be aware as far as I recall, debug xbox's have blank eeproms. If that doesn't work, i would look into "liveinfo beta 3" which should build an eeprom you can then flash with your programmer. This could brick the xbox so be careful. Finally, you can try booting with raincoat, but from what i remember debug xbox's don't like to run anything not signed by MS... Is it a "live debug xbox" or a regular debug xbox, I ask because: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=440595

nothing beats the real hardware, if you have the time and space for it. "Time" meaning the 80/20 split between: 80% working-researching the machine and all the fixes and restores needed for the cab to remain in optimal condition and 20% being the time spent actually playing and enjoying the cab. I'm saying this because as someone who has done just that, i came away with a library of cabs I always wanted but realized somewhere along the line that what i really loved about the arcade coinop hobby was not so much playing the cab anymore, it was fixing it and getting it pristine for others to enjoy. Namely family and friends who come by and grab a beer and get immersed in Star Trek TNG pinball and ask how I got a shaker in my machine... I love that, people take notice of the work I do through these cabs. That is the best joy a hobby can bring. Will it be the same for you? maybe not, but I know I am not the only one who has taken on a hobby in search of playing, only to find the building/repair is where the most fun is had. I think you will be happy with any arcade machine you get, i was happy as a pig in S#!t with my first cab which was a true dog of a machine in both condition and in gameplay. I think your choice of era of machine means that you will have some hurdles ahead as far as repairs goes, but fear not, thanks to internet communities like here, BYOC, arcade-museum forums, you will have help and tons of reading and research at your fingertips. Also remember that whatever problems you face, someone, somewhere, at least once, has had the exact same trouble and has atleast posted about it on one of those forums... So ask as much questions as possible and always seek advice from others who have been there before, it will only help make your machine easier to repair and quicker to be enjoyed.

i've used EMDKAY back in 2008 to fabricate a bartop arcade case for me. Worked out amazing, everything I asked for. He was located in North New Jersey which was where i was living at the time so I picked up the cab from him. Great dude, friendly and helpful throughout.

yea there's an english modder who dips the caps in epoxy resin and lets it solidify over the cap, the idea being the explosion fizzle will be contained by the hardened cap. Personally, I see this as a potential heat issue, and would never even bother. Frankly if aerogel caps don't do the job, nothing will... I just leave them off. Since unlocked dashboards allow clock ftp updating there's no real point anymore in my opinion.

Man my atri lynx system is in a storage box in my room back east ny. I would be all over this, I remember reading about the Atari lynx being a very powerful system designed by an outsourced computer design firm with intensely powerful hardware for even home consoles at the time. If I ever get to my house I'm digging up my lynx and buying this game.

awesome job on the cab bro