How to turn the original Xbox into a media center.

March 26th, 2008

What this tutorial will give you?
If you follow this tutorial correctly you will take an original un modified Xbox and set it up so that it functions as a media center, allowing you to view video and listen to audio files downloaded to your PC through your Xbox on your TV. You can even add some more stuff to it to access and watch YouTube videos on your TV, play on emulators and roms from all the old consoles, and play backups of your original Xbox games on the system. All this and more without the need of a modchip, soldering or rewiring of the console.

WARNING! - This shouldn’t be attempted unless you understand everything completely and understand PC components and how PCs work, as it could potentially turn your xbox into a big useless paper weight if done incorrectly and we will not be held responsible or fix this for you. So you still want to try it?

What you need:
An Xbox Console.
Torxx screwdrivers sizes 10, 15 and 20.
A Windows PC with a CD Writer.
1 Blank CD.
UXE complete - available here.
The latest build of Xbox Media Center - available here.
A program called Xboxhdm 1.9 - available here.

Step 1 - Setting up UXE and xbmc:
- Extract UXE Complete.

- Open readme.rtf and follow the instructions to set it up for your Xbox.
- Now go in the place-on-e folder, then ROOT folder.
- Delete everything in this folder.
- Extract Xbox Media Center and open the xmbc folder.

- Copy all the files and folders from there to the ROOT folder of UXE complete.

Step 2 - Creating a boot CD:
- Go to the uxe-c-replace folder.
- Copy all these files.
- Extract Xboxhdm 1.9

- Go into the linux folder, in here you should see a folder called C, paste the files here.
- Go to the place-on-e folder of UXE complete.
- Copy all these files.
- Go into the linux folder of Xboxhdm 1.9, in here you should see a folder called E, paste the files inside that.
- Create a folder in E called TDATA
- Create a folder in E called UDATA
- Go to the Xboxhdm folder and click on make-iso-win.bat
- This will start creating the CD image.
- Burn this image to a CD when complete.

Step 3 - Getting the Xbox ready:
HDD = Hard Disk Drive.
IDE = Integrated Drive Electronics.
- Turn Xbox upside down & unscrew the 6 torxx 20 screws.
- Turn over and remove the cover of the Xbox.
- Move the cables to the HDD & remove a torxx 10 screw below them.
- Unplug the 2 cables to the HDD and lift it out with the tray.
- Unplug IDE and power cables to the DVD drive.
- Unscrew the 4 Torx 15 screws in the side of the tray to release the HDD.
- Plug the 2 cables back into the HDD.

Step 4 - Getting your PC ready:
- Boot your pc to bios and set the PC to boot up from CD.
- Save the bios settings and turn the PC off.
- Remove the side panel to access your motherboard.
- Unplug all IDE cables to HDD at the HDD side.
- Make sure your CD Drive for your PC is connected to the secondary IDE.
- The primary IDE should have an IDE cable coming from it.
- Make sure this cable can reach the Xbox HDD.

Step 5 - Bringing it all together:
This is the step where things could go wrong if you don’t follow very carefully. The Xbox locks and unlocks the HDD everytime it switches on and off and we have to get it unlocked to be able to transfer our new softmod files to it. Its pretty simple but just be carefull and make sure you always allow the Xbox to relock the HDD before turning the Xbox off.
- Power up the Xbox to unlock the drive.
- The TV that its connected to should goto a screen saying error 12.
- The instant you see this remove the IDE cable from the Xbox HDD.
- Attach the cable from the primary IDE of your PC.
- DO NOT TURN THE XBOX OFF.
- Power up the PC and XBoxHDM should boot from the CD we made.

Step 6 - Transfering the files to the Xbox:
- On the menu choose option 1.
- Let it detect the HDD.
- When it does type xboxhd
- at the prompts type yes everytime.
- This might take a while so wait.
- When it says its done unplug the IDE cable from the Xbox HDD.
- Plug the Xbox IDE cable back into the Xbox HDD.
- Turn off the Xbox to lock the HDD agian.

That should be it, put your PC back to how it was. Connect the Xbox DVD drive back up and screw it all back together and now when you start your Xbox it should boot to Xbox Media Center not to the default Xbox dashboard.

For more information on what you can do with Xbox Media Center check out www.xbmc.org To take full advantage of the Xbox Media Center you will need to have your Xbox connected to your network and the internet.

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