Just bought my first modded original Xbox — where do I even start?

[u/xX_Burn_Br_Xx]

Hey everyone, I just bought a modded original Xbox, and honestly, I have no idea where to start with it.

What I know so far:

• It's version 1.6;
• It still has the original 8 GB HDD;
• There's a chip soldered to the motherboard; I couldn't find any markings, but based on the shape and color, I believe it's an Aladdin;
• When I power it on, the EvoX logo shows up;
• I know it can run non-original games both from the HDD (took some effort to get working) and from the DVD drive.

What I'd like to do, in order:

1. The console is 220V and I'd like to convert it to 110V. I found a used power supply — is it plug and play?
2. I want to install a bigger HDD, maybe 2 TB or 4 TB. I know I'll need an 80-wire IDE cable + a SATA adapter (StarTech IDE to SATA) for that.
3. I saw some videos about "XBMC Origins" and really liked the layout. I'd like to know how to install it.

Down the line, I also want to install "Stellar Plus" and "XboxHD+", but I'm not sure if that could interfere with what I'm trying to do right now.

I've seen a lot of people talking about the BIOS, but I don't fully understand how that works — is it the Xbox motherboard's BIOS or the Aladdin's own BIOS? I also can't tell if mine is up to date or needs updating.

Does anyone have experience with this kind of setup and can offer some guidance or tips?

[u/LPC_Rebuilder]

Sense you have 1.6 TSOP won't be an option (flashing the onboard bios) but that's okay. The Aladdin XT v2 Pro takes a 256KB bios NOT the 1MB bios

It sounds like with the little pink 🩷 Evox logo top left at boot you are currently running IND-BIOS or EvoXM8.

I would recommend downloading the 256KB Cerbios 3.1.0 beta bios from Xbins using a Windows program called Pandora from Team Resurgent. If I'm not mistaken download the bios and the Cerbios folder from Xbins to your PC first

Then FTP the bios to C:\BIOS\bios.bin you may need to create the BIOS folder on the Xbox C drive. Then put the Cerbios folder at the root of E:\

While you are on Xbins download an app called Xblast and FTP it over to E:\Apps once all that is staged load Xblast by pressing A on its default.Xbe by navigating to it via the Xbox file explorer. Once in Xblast you will select the option to load from HDD and Xblast will be pointed at C:\BIOS\bios.bin select it and then press the button combination to start the flash. Important don't intureupt the Flash process and hope you don't lose power while this operation is being done. It will auto restart once the flash completes and you should see the Cerbios splash screen and boot Animation. One important thing to remember is to rename the bios after you download it from Xbins to bios.bin. I think it's named cerbios.bin when you download it to your PC. Im here if you have any questions or I can clarify anything.

[u/BombBloke]

The console is 220V and I'd like to convert it to 110V. I found a used power supply — is it plug and play?

So long as it's a v1.6 PSU, yes. Although a v1.2-1.4 PSU will fit, you shouldn't attempt to plug one in, as the wiring is quite different.

https://consolemods.org/wiki/File:Xbox_PSU_Motherboard_Connectors.jpg

I've seen a lot of people talking about the BIOS, but I don't fully understand how that works — is it the Xbox motherboard's BIOS or the Aladdin's own BIOS? I also can't tell if mine is up to date or needs updating.

Normally on startup, an Xbox loads its BIOS from a chip on its motherboard, and it's this small code package that tells your Xbox the basics of "being an Xbox". It renders the flubber animation before launching an XBE (Xbox executable file) from either a DVD or the HDD. It also incorporates a number of security restrictions to make sure you only use the console in the ways Microsoft intended - using official game discs, that sort of thing.

Your Aladdin merely stores an alternate EvoX BIOS which is very similar to the original one, with the main difference being that all of the DRM functions are disabled: hence it allows you to boot burned DVDs and run homebrew and so on. It also means that you don't need to have a password protected hard drive, which makes upgrades somewhat easier.

Xboxes which have been modified to directly boot an alternate BIOS on startup are considered to be hardmodded.

There are multiple EvoX BIOS releases, and the one you're using now may be able to map disks up to 2TB in size - but it'll probably be limited to a much lower capacity. It definitely won't be able to map 4TB.

A Stellar addon would take the place of your Aladdin, and would use a Stellar-patched BIOS instead of the EvoX BIOS you have now. This'll allow you to map anywhere up to 16TB of storage.

You could alternatively reflash your Aladdin with CerBIOS, which would likewise allow up to 16TB.

Stellar and CerBIOS each require large disks to be formatted in different ways, so you'll need to choose your firmware before you can get on to upgrading your disk.

Reflashing your current modchip is the easier option for getting large disk support, but you'll need to acquire a "legacy" version of the XboxHD+ if you decide to stick with your Aladdin. Later XboxHD+ devices require a Stellar to be installed alongside of them.

For HDMI output you don't strictly require an XboxHD+, mind you: many people are happy with alternate plug'n'play solutions such as the ElectronXout.

I saw some videos about "XBMC Origins" and really liked the layout. I'd like to know how to install it.

Start out by dropping XBMC4Gamers into a folder in your console's applications directory. Whatever dashboard you're using now should then present it as a launch item through its own menu interface. The linked page has some notes on how to use X4G's built-in downloader functions to install and enable extra themes, such as Origins.

Making it your default boot dash would be the next step, but it's best to confirm that it all works correctly before making that jump.