Messed up Softmod, trying to recover

[AndyInNYC]

Hi all. I'm sunk trying to set up the basement xbox. Unfortunately, the softmod failed and I'm 'mostly dead'.




I ran the softmod and it failed, so I used the softmod (SID 5.1x) to uninstall the softmod. I then re-ran the softmod to try again.
That mod again failed - and now when I boot up Splinter Cell I can't load the exploit and start over.


The machine will boot games, but when the drive is open I get the following error message:


XBMC Fatal Error:
special://masterprofile/guisettings.xml, Line 0
Failed to Open

IP Address: 192.168.0.2

Starting FTP Server ...
FTP server running on Port 21, login: xbox/xbox




If I connect the xbox directly to a router and put a Windows machine on the router I can ftp on port 21 - so I think all is not lost.


Unfortunately, I am lost. I don't have the technical skill to recompile xbmc, etc. but I can follow directions and copy files. I did back up the eeprom data, so it should still be available.


Is there a non-clever (i.e. idiot-proof enough for me to fix my errors) way to set the machine back to stock so that I can re-run the exploit or is there a set of files I can download/copy to the machine to have xbmc/completed exploit up and running?


I so appreciate the help.


Andrew

 

[InsaneNutter]

You can probably FTP the savegame to the console again as you have FTP access.

The XBMC 3.5 on Digiex is compiled, so you can FTP to e:\APPS\XBMC, as your booting in to XBMC already you shouldn't need to do anything with the shortcut.

Looking at the error messages you mention you have simply messed up some XBMC settings by the looks of it, or some how deleted them.

 

[AndyInNYC]

So I downloaded the 3.5 executables and copied them to E:\app\xbmc (after deleting the older, presumably messed up install).

After rebooting, I get the same error.

Is there a file I need to drop into the root (or some other) directory to make this all work?

Seems like I'm close, but certainly no cigar.


Andrew

 

[InsaneNutter]

Replace E:\apps\xbmc with everything in the XBMC folder of the download, its likely you have some files missing.

 

[AndyInNYC]

I understand and believe I did that.

One file didn't copy. I skipped it and then moved it by hand after renaming the original file which wouldn't delete. I will try again and see if that works.

My question is: isn't the 'boot file' called something like default.xbe? If this is located in C:\, do I need to change or update this file?

Thanks for your patience and help.


Adnrew

 

[Harcroft]

Your softmod more likely uses E:\Dashboard\ for the dash. Try tossing XBMC in there. If your shadow C isn't enabled yet, you can use the signed default.xbe from Digiex and FTP that onto the C drive to load XBMC from the folder Insane Nutter provided. See if you have an eeprom backup somewhere on the E drive. As long as you have an eeprom.bin you can fix anything wrong with a softmod.

 

[AndyInNYC]

So, the problem appeared to be confused softmod packages in the sense that my machine had both a e:\XBMC and e:\Apps\XBMC directories. I copied the updated, full XBMC executables into both directories (I'm not skilled enough to sleuth out which was being pointed to) and 'poof' the machine is booting.

I chimped over to a 250 GB IDE drive (I'm running out of these on the shelf in the basement) and nothing - until I realized that this particular Maxtor drive doesn't support locking. Once I pulled another drive from the zombie pile the hard disk transplant went beautifully.

Removing the original drive, however, exposed the next potential problem - old, leaking capacitors.



Is there a cheap way to fix this (assuming I have a friend with a soldering iron)? If so, will I need to remove the motherboard and completely disassemble the box?

Choice two, of course, is to ignore it until it dies - it's lasted this long and worked, it's not going to be in use all that often.

1. Thanks for everyone's help in getting this working for me
2. Thanks for your thoughts on the capacitors.


Andrew