Opinion on a 360...

[nightwalker]

For those of you guys here that has a 360. Heres my question..

Would you flash your firmware? And if you already flashed it. Is it worth it?

Ok im asking this because a lot of my friends come to my house and see that my 360 has a samsung drive and they always ask why I haven't flashed it. I'm a little scared in doing it because the 360 is so damn delicate and I still got the 3 years warranty and also I play in live. Ive been reading that the new firmware lets you play online but Ive read in a couple of sites (xbox360-hacks, etc, etc.) and I'm still not convinced. So im asking if someone here already done it and is it worth it or is planing also on doing it.

I'm almost on the verge of doing it I even made the tools require to open it but theres the warranty issue thats holding me down. Oh btw Ive seen my friends 360 modded but he doesn't play online and hes on his 3rd 360 but hey he has money to throw to the thrash I'm like most of you guys here I make sacrifices to buy something for games or the other things I got in my house.

[durkada]

For those of you guys here that has a 360. Heres my question..

Would you flash your firmware? And if you already flashed it. Is it worth it?

Ok im asking this because a lot of my friends come to my house and see that my 360 has a samsung drive and they always ask why I haven't flashed it. I'm a little scared in doing it because the 360 is so damn delicate and I still got the 3 years warranty and also I play in live. Ive been reading that the new firmware lets you play online but Ive read in a couple of sites (xbox360-hacks, etc, etc.) and I'm still not convinced. So im asking if someone here already done it and is it worth it or is planing also on doing it.

I'm almost on the verge of doing it I even made the tools require to open it but theres the warranty issue thats holding me down. Oh btw Ive seen my friends 360 modded but he doesn't play online and hes on his 3rd 360 but hey he has money to throw to the thrash I'm like most of you guys here I make sacrifices to buy something for games or the other things I got in my house.

Here's my take:

The only good, so far, for flashing the 360 is to play pirated games. its not quite like the original XBOX, where you could suddenly open the console up to homebrew. Supposedly, that is in the works and there has been some promising developments (or, maybe I'm a tad behind and this goal has been realized). If playing pirated games is your goal, then have at it, I suppose.

The points you raise about the warranty is an important issue. The machine is built cheaply -- I think, hands down, it is the most error prone, defective piece of hardware since the Coleco Adam. I'd be a tad wary of sending in a machine which has been hacked -- but, for all I know, they don't bother checking for mods. They may spit it back saying the warranty has been voided... who knows.

I'm more of the mind that, if a game is worth playing, I'll pay for it -- if I get it without paying for it, more often than not I won't play it. And I'll buy it second/third hand. Most of the great stuff is on XBOX live and sits on your harddrive -- which, again, hacking the firmware doesn't help.

Anyway, thats just one piss worth opinion. You'll probably have better luck going to xbox scene and various other sites for information.

[Kagi]

I agree. I don't think its worth it right now to mod it. Like you said you don't have money to waste so if I was you, I would wait for the warrenty to end then go to town on it. Atleast then the 360 will be cheaper.

[nightwalker]

Well I pay for games. I got a Wii also and haven't made any changes to it and I think I have soldered a Wiikey for everyone of my friends. If I go to xbox scene there are only ppl that the main reason they want to flash the firmware is for playing pirated games. Ok so most of us here do. But I respect people work. Thanks for your opinion I think that is just what I needed to make up my mind. I ain't gonna do it I really want the warranty. And I use live all the time.
Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated

[JJJ]

If you play anything over XBL its not worth it. Microsoft will figure out how to ban you somehow I think.

If you never, ever go online, I'd give it a try.

The firmware doesn't allow you to install a larger HDD and copy all your games onto it does it? Its such an awesome feature on my old XBOX, being able to have access to all my games at once...

[nightwalker]

I just read on a site and the only thing it helps its just to play pirated games and yes theres a firmware that allows you to go online. Still ain't gonna do it not even worth it. It would have been great if you can use it to emulate something the 360 is a tremendous powerhouse of a console.

[pixelbender]

You see, Microsoft figured out the best hardware protection scheme for any console.

They build it like sh*t and then give a three year warranty, so as to blackmail you into not modding it.

[Ivo]

You see, Microsoft figured out the best hardware protection scheme for any console.

They build it like sh*t and then give a three year warranty, so as to blackmail you into not modding it.

That was a good jab at them
Nice joke.

[skate323k137]

who's joking? the only reason my brother modded his original x-box is because the bios literally disappeared. he threw in a mod chip complete with the original microsoft bios, and viola, fixed.

i have a buddy who already scored a 360 with a burnt out dvd drive. only way to replace it is by modding the firmware on a new drive and throwing it in there. go figure on the same day i'm over there getting set up to replace the dvd drive on this 360, the dvd drive on his original x-box (which has been replaced at LEAST once) burnt out.

edit: a couple years ago, I had to re-solder the power connector to the PCB, because when he originally bought his x-box, the power connector had de-soldered itself thanks to one of the recalled power cords.

[skate323k137]

well, replacing the 360 dvd drive wasn't as bad as I thought. I couldn't get a firmware rip or flash to work, regardless of trying on-board sata, and two different highly recommended sata cards for the procedure.

so, to get the security key into the new drive, i said screw it and swapped the motherboards of the DVD drives. works fine

If your 360 DVD drive has a burned out laser, or broken gears, simply get a new one, and swap the motherboards. You can switch ms-25 and ms-28 boards, we put an ms-25 board in a new ms-28 drive. it takes 4 screws, a clip, and 4 ribbon cables inside the drive, not counting getting the 360 apart of course

edit: go figure a week after I figure this out for myself, it shows up on another message board by someone else hours before I posted this originally.