Xbox 360 Hacks - News, Hacks, Cracks, Mods.

Found an interesting article over at llamma.com. Because the Xbox360 will detect any mass storage device hooked up via USB, this makes it extremely simple to increase storage capacity and access all your media. When attaching a USB device, the Xbox360 provides an easy to use file browsing interface with the existing directory structure.

With the factory Xbox hard drive you cannot load any content to it unless its acquired from Live or ripped form CD’s. That does not do much for us that want our MP3 collection on our Xbox 360′s now.

All you need is the following:

- A hard drive of your choice. The drive of choice is not important as long as you can get a USB 2.0 adaptor for that type of drive.

- A USB 2.0 to ATA adapter for type of drive you will be using.

If your using a laptop 2.5″ drive that has a form factor height of 9.5mm or less then our ultra slim USB 2.0 case is perfect and looks great atop the 360′s stock hard drive. But just about any USB 2.0 adapter will work.

If you are using a 3.5″ IDE drive you will need the appropriate USB 2.0 adapter for that drive.

If you are using a drive larger that 32GB in size you will need Partition Magic or some other drive/partition utility that supports larger FAT32 partitions.

This is a really simple process. First assemble the drive with the USB adapter. Next plug the unit into your PC. If your running Windows XP most USB adapters will be automatically recognized and installed. If you are running an older operating system you may need to install a driver for the adapter

Next create a new FAT32 partition on the newly installed device. Again if the drive is larger than 32GB you will need to use a utility like Partition Magic to create the volume. If the drive is smaller than 32GB you can accomplish this via the “Computer Management” snap in found in the Control Panel -> Administrative tools. Last you need to format the volume. Same rule applies for formatting as well; if it is larger than 32GB you will need some other utility like partition magic to format. Windows does not support creation and formatting of devices larger than 32GB.

Windows 98 can create and format partitions up to 127GB. If you have 98 installed or a 98 boot disk with FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM you would have all you need for up to that 127GB mark.

Once you’ve got it all done you should be able to load content to the drive via windows. Plug it into your 360 and go to media and select portable device and bam.. there’s YOUR media.

Enjoy!

source: joystiq

Here is a tutorial on how to hook your PSP up to your Xbox 360. If you have a Sony PSP you should check out PSP hacks. For all news regarding hacking the PSP.

Below is a PSP next to Xbox 360 (with PGR3 faceplate). In between them, a simple USB to USB mini connector.

Once you have connected the two, all you need to do is put the PSP into USB mode. This can be found in the leftmost “Settings” menu.

Once connected the 360 should recognize the device. Navigate to the Media blade on the 360 and begin by selecting “Music.”

The PSP will be listed as “Portable Device.” Select it and…

You can navigate through the PSP’s (irritating) filesystem. The path is relatively straightforward though, Portable Device : PSP : MUSIC.

For photo playback return to the Media blade and select “Pictures.” Again, select “Portable Device” and again navigate the filesystem until you get to Portable Device : PSP : PHOTO. This should contain all your photos. Mine are organized into playlist folders, and all images had been resized to the PSP’s native 480*272. Considering, they looked almost decent on the giant screen (see pic), so I imagine they would look even better on a more normal-sized screen… say, anything under 8 feet wide.

The menu system allows you to navigate forward, back, stop, pause, and rotate your images. The Pictures playback should be identical for your USB enabled digital camera as well.

Now, if only video playback worked…

Here is a cool homemade adapter and instructions for hooking your Xbox 360 up to a VGA computer monitor. WARNING: This could potentially damage some of the hardware involved if done improperly. As per usual anything you do is at your own risk.

Since getting the xbox 360, I’ve had it hooked up to my old 27″ RCA standard def TV. I believe the TV model is an RCA Crapola.

So I undertook to hook it up to a computer monitor (a 21″ Samtron) where at least I could get some decent resolution.

I took the cable that came with the Xbox360 and spliced it to an old VGA extender cable I had laying around.

here’s the pic of the Xbox360 pinouts:

(Click on the image for the full size image)

armed with the the pinouts, you can easily connect the Xbox360 the your computer monitor.

Xbox Connector:
Pin
2 – *ground
5 – to VGA pin 15
8 – to your Audio Out (Right channel)
9 – *ground
10 – to VGA pin 13
11 – *ground
14 – to VGA pin 1
15 – *ground
21 – link to 22
22 – link to 21
23 – to your Audio Out (Left channel)
24 – *ground
25 – to VGA pin 14
26 – *ground
27 – to VGA pin 3
28 – *ground
29 – to VGA pin 2
30 – *ground

* – connect all ground together

VGA Connector:
Pin
1 – to xbox360 pin 14
2 – to xbox360 pin 29
3 – to xbox360 pin 27
5 – *ground
6 – *ground
7 – *ground
8 – *ground
10 – *ground
13 – to xbox360 pin 10
14 – to xbox360 pin 25
15 – to xbox360 pin 5

* – connect all ground together

source: Michael Mattsson

the Free60 project aims towards porting the open operating systems, such as Linux and Darwin, to the Xbox360. Currently they’ve gathered a lot of useful and detailed information surrounding the inner workings of the Xbox360. For example, apparently the Xbox360 is secured down by the following:

• The flash is encrypted with a per-box key
• The key is stored inside the CPU
• The boot ROM is stored inside the CPU
• Also inside the CPU is a hypervisor that verifies the running state of the kernel, making sure there is no modification (RAM checksums), else the Xbox360 panics and blows up!
• The CPU contains RAM inside of it to store the checksums
• All interrupt/exception handling is done by the hypervisor
• All code runs in kernel mode
• The emulator for first generation games can be updated via an official Microsoft download burned to CD by the user, though the CDs’ content will be encrypted and signed with public key cryptography.The boot ROM is stored inside the CPU

Be sure to check out their documentation page for further information.

Good luck guys!

Xbox.com has released the first update towards the backwards compatibility on the Xbox360. For those unaware, the Xbox360 is able to emulate the original Xbox, allowing you to play several old Xbox games on your new sexy 360.

You can check out the current compatibility list here. Microsoft has stated they will continue to add support for additional games over time.

How do you get the Xbox360 emulation drivers on your console? You’ve got three methods:

1. Update through Xbox Live!
   This is the recommened option – your console will always be up-to-date with the latest emulation drivers supporting new games. You will however require a membership.
2. Download the file and burn a DVD or CD
3. Order a disc by mail from Xbox.com – not available yet (coming December)

Follow the full instructions here.

Microsoft has responded to the rumours of the xbox 360 being unstable. Of course in the usual microsoft manner they just consider it a non issue.

“It’s a few reports of consoles here and there not working properly,” said Molly O’Donnell, a spokeswoman for Microsoft’s Xbox division. “It’s what you would expect with a consumer electronics instrument of this complexity …. Par for the course.”

I suppose this is true about any complex consumer electronics instrument that runs Microsoft software. Luckily we can usually rely on Microsoft’s sloppyness extending to their security and hopefully this box will be wide open soon.

Rumours have been floating around the net saying that many Xbox 360 titles are region free. Has anyone tried this out yet?

The supposed region-free titles discovered include Call of Duty 2, Condemned: Criminal Origins, Gun and Tony Hawk: American Wasteland, suggesting that the console’s stance on region locking is the same as on the original Xbox, leaving the decision up to the publisher.

Over at xbox-scene.com theres been several reports with regard to the Xbox360 crashing during gameplay – namely while playing Project Gotham Racing 3 in single player mode during the first lap.

Personally I’ve had my Xbox360 freeze a few times during NFS:Most Wanted – when it was left on pause for longer than 5 minutes and during the middle of a split-screen circuit race. I believe it was due to the Xbox over-heating as it laid horizontal on my floor; however, after standing it vertically – it hadn’t froze again.

Has anyone else experienced freezing or crashes with their Xbox360? Please leave your comments below.

Update: I have one let the hacking begin!

Tonight – midnight! Xbox360!

Toronto, Eaton’s Centre, EB Games – see you in line!

AnandTech is running a great article exposing the insides of the Xbox360! They’ve disassembled the entire unit and provide a very indepth look at the hardware – be sure to check out their site for more information.

Below are some pictures of Xbox360 hardware – courtesy of AnandTech:

click to enlarge