Hey guys, ever wanted to softmod your XBOX but you always couldn't because an Action Replay for the XBOX was impossible to find? Here's a way to now softmod your XBOX with only a USB Thumbdrive, certain XBOX game and a USB to XBOX cable.
I would like to greatly thank chunkhead from the Afterdawn forums who I've based a lot of my tutorial on (In the end why change what works?). I used his guide a while back and it worked a charm for me, it's now my turn to return the favor and help out you guys who were once in a similar position to myself.
What You'll Need:-
Action Replay Software-
Exploit Save Games (Splinter Cell, Mechassault or 007: Agent Under Fire)-
USBView- A USB Thumbdrive (Not all Thumbdrives are compatible. These days we have more than 1 Thumbdrive lying around, one of yours are bound to work. I have also heard using your PSP as a thumbdrive also works)
- A USB to XBOX cable (I bought one off ebay really cheap. You can also make one yourself following this guide from
xbox-linux)
- A 32-bit Windows OS (Users have found that step 9 can't be done with a 64-bit OS).
- You'll need one of the three (3) games pictured below in the spoiler:
Tutorial:1. First off delete everything from your USB Thumdrive so there's nothing on it.
2. We're going to have to format the USB Thumbdrive. To format, turn on your XBOX and navigate to the "Memory" section. Now connect your USB to XBOX cable to your XBOX and then connect to your USB Thumbdrive to it. If everything worked well, an error should have popped up saying "The memory card wasn't working properly and has now been erased". THIS IS NORMAL! You're USB Thumbdrive has now been correctly formatted.
3. Plug your newly formatted USB Thumbdrive into your PC. Windows will want you to format it,
DO NOT format it.
4. Install Action Replay (Download available at the top of this tutorial). Install "Update to v1.40". Whatever you do,
DO NOT open the program!
5. Open "USBView" (Download available at the top of this tutorial) and then press "F5" on your keyboard to ensure the current list is refreshed. Find the new "USB Mass Storage Device", click on it so its properties can be displayed on the right. We are looking for the "idVendor" and "idProduct" numbers. Write down the last four digits of each and make a note as to which are 'YYYY's and which are 'ZZZZ's.
NOTE: Thanks to chunkhead from the afterdawn forums who created these pefectly done images below.6. Close "USBView" and navigate to "C:\Program Files\Datel\Action Replay XBOX\Drivers". Edit the file "xbreader.inf" with notepad. Scroll down to "[_Devices]" and change the 'VID' and 'PID' numbers to correspond with your YYYY + ZZZZ numbers.
7. Save the file and close down all the folders.
8. Open up "Device Manager" (To access Device Manager Right-Click "Computer" and click "Manage") and expand the 'Universal Serial Bus controllers' tree, right click on the 'USB Mass Storage Device' and click on Update driver'.
9. Install the drivers manually by choosing "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer". Install the "MaxDrive XBox" driver:
NOTE: If you can't see the "MaxDrive XBOX" there, you will have to click "Have Disk..." and find that "MaxDrive XBOX" drive manually.
10. It's time to open up the Action Replay software you installed earlier. The left pane should now say 'Memcard' in white. Drag the 'SID 4 launcher' into the 'Memcard' from your desktop. It will take a moment or so to copy over (an orange bar will show progress). Also drag over the loader of choice, so if you're using a PAL version of Splinter Cell drag over the PAL Splinter Cell loader over to the 'Memcard' section.
11. We're finally done with the boring stuff! It's now time to plug your USB Thumbrive back into the XBOX using your USB to XBOX cable treating it like a normal XBOX memory card.
12. You now will want transfer the SID files across to your XBOX's HDD. To do this go to the "Memory" screen. Once in the Memory menu click on the memory card (by pressing left on the D-Pad) and select it by pressing A.
13. When you get into your memory card and find the file, press the right button on your D-Pad to select the file and then choose copy to HDD.
Do this for both files otherwise the installation will not work/start. It would also be a good idea to ensure that you do not already have a savegame file for the game you are trying to use.
14. Now that the files have been successfully transferred to your XBOX, put in the game you chose to softmod your XBOX with. Each game is different when it comes to loading linux. Look below for the instructions on the game you're using:
15. You should now be at the softmod screen. First of all go to 'CREATE EEPROM BACKUP'. If you do not do this step, the installer will NOT let you move on. After you click that, a new menu will come up. In that menu, click 'BACKUP EEPROM'. When that is done, click 'BACK TO MAIN MENU'.
16. Next, go to 'CREATE MS BACKUP'. This will create a backup of our dash for uninstall purposes and also to allow us to "Dual boot".
17. Once you are back to the main menu, click "Install Softmod". Click Dual Boot for NTSC or PAL (If you don't know if you're NTSC or PAL, post in the thread and tell me what country you live in and I'll let you know).
18. Click "Knaves Ndure, Open tray = Retail" (Which means if you turn on your XBOX with the 'Open' button, your console will boot to the normal MS Dash with no Mod. If you turn it on with the 'Power' button it will boot modded).
19. Choose either the Installation for EvolutionX or UnleashX. I personally use UnleashX. It's up to you what you pick.
20. Three messages will pop up. After reading and understanding each, Press A. On the third message, you will get this message: "All requirements pass. Continue Install?" Click Yes.
After the installation is complete, you will get this message: "Softmod successfully installed, your virtual eeprom must be patched, after eeprom, now you'll boot to installer". What this means is that your eeprom has been made virtual (Tricks your Xbox) and will be patched (Softmod). Just press 'A'.
21. Now a new message pops up: "The installer will now boot to patching system after it is completed, please turn off Xbox and power back on without game disc to finish install." Click YES. It should go back to the main screen.
22. Select 'Shutdown' from the menu. THE FOLLOWING STEPS NEED TO BE PERFORMED QUICKLY > Press the 'Eject' button, remove the disc and press the power button (little one). Your Xbox will now be off again, but with no disc in the drive!
Press and hold the power button. When it boots up, UnleashX will appear with a "Softmod Successful" message. It says that it needs 1 more step to finish the install. PRESS A.
Congratulations! You are now ready to enjoy everything a modded XBOX has to offer. If you encounter any issues within the tutorial, let me know and I'll try my best to help you out.
- Raysie
