Xbox

This is one of my projects, wherein I hack on the original/classic Xbox.

Resources

Books

See an open letter from bunnie to find a free version of Hacking the Xbox.

Reference

• Original Xbox Mods Wiki
• Xbox Wiki
• https://www.ogxbox.com/

Articles

• Why The OG Xbox Is The Greatest Game Console Of All Time
• Xbox Repair for teardowns, repair guides, etc.
• How to Determine an Xbox's Version
• How do I fix my disc drive that won't open?

Disassembling

There are some notes at AnandTech about Disassembling the Unit.

Chipping

Based on this search I found and watched:

• How to Install an OpenXenium Modchip for the Original Xbox

Videos

• The Original XBOX is still AWESOME in 2021 | MVG
• How to Slim an Original Xbox Console

Revisions

See how to tell what version original xbox you have or Identifying Your Xbox Revision. A quick and dirty method is to look at the manufacturing date on the back.

It was hard to find good info about Xbox revisions, so take these "facts" with a grain of salt.

Hardware Serial Number

Serial number format:

LNNNNNN YWWFF

Code	Meaning
L	is the number of the production line within the factory
NNNNNN	is the number of the Xbox produced during the work week
Y	is the last digit of the production year
WW	is the number of the week of the production year
FF	is the code of the factory where the Xbox was manufactured

Factory Codes

Factory	Location	Revision
02	Mexico	1.0 or 1.1
03	Hungary	1.0
05	China	1.2 (or later)
06	Taiwan	1.2 (or later)

Revision by Manufacturing Date

Date Range	Revision	Location
01/2001–10/2002	1.0	Hungary, Mexico
11/2002–04/2003	1.1	Mexico, China
05/2003–03/2004	1.2–1.5	China
04/2004–?	1.6	China, Taiwan

Revision Notes

Revision	Factory	Date	GPU Fan?	DVD-ROM	Hard Drive	Video Chip	Notes
1.0	Hungary, Mexico	Early to mid-2001	Fan	Thomson	Seagate	Conexant
1.1	Mexico, China		No fan	Thomson	Seagate	Conexant
1.2	China		No fan	Philips, Thomson	Western Digital, Seagate	Conexant
1.3	China		No fan	Samsung, Philips, Thomson	Seagate 10GB	Conexant
1.4	China		No fan	Samsung, Philips, Thomson	Western Digital 10GB	Focus
1.5	China		No fan	Samsung, Philips, Thomson	Western Digital 10GB	Focus	This is a rare version and may not even exist.
1.6	China, Taiwan		No fan	Samsung, Philips, Thomson	Western Digital 10GB	Xcalibur	Xbox 1.6 BIOS chips are EPROM only, can't be rewriten

Xbox BIOS Version Number

Boot the Xbox in dashboard mode by powering up without a disc in the DVD-ROM drive. Go to Settings and then System Info.

K: kernel version
D: dashboard version

Xbox Revision	Kernel Version
1.0	3944, 4034, 4036, 4627
1.1	4817, 4972
1.2–1.5	5101, 5713
1.6	5838

Hardware

You can read about the Xbox technical specifications.

Intel debug pins

Over here Anand says "The motherboard itself is manufactured by Intel and is a 4 layer design. Intel's trademark debug pins are also present on the motherboard although the pins themselves are missing. For those of you that have never used an Intel motherboard before, shorting the debug pins allows you to enter the BIOS configuration utility. We have yet to try shorting the debug pins on our unit but we'd be surprised if doing so didn't have a similar effect. You shouldn't expect too much to be contained within the Xbox BIOS but it'd be something interesting to toy around with in any case." -- so definitely want to look into that.

Television

The first TV I got for testing was this one: Portable 12" 1080P TFT HD Digital TV Car USB HDMI Video Player Television. Thinking about a KOGAN 24" SMART TV.

Troubleshooting

See Xbox Troubleshooting.

Blinking Light Codes

Light	Meaning
Solid red	overheated
Flashing green	bad bios load
Flashing red-orange	bad video output
Flashing red-green	system failure (can be a lot of things)