Hi Friends, I am returning to this great forum after some time - in the days of PSP Dark_AleX custom firmwares and homebrew. Lots of helpful people here showed me how to get CFW onto my PSP.
I'm going to get a Xbox 360 elite [Jasper/LiteON] in two days and this is going to be my first console I have ever played on. I'm completely new to the 360 scene and would like to have some doubts cleared. I was informed that the console's DVD drive has been already flashed with 'iXtreme firmware'. The problem is the guy selling it to me does not know the DVD key nor does he know which version of ixtreme has been flashed. I read through the forums for a week and I have the following questions:
* Is there a way I can extract the DVD key again from the drive? (do I need to?)
* Can I find out which version iXtreme the drive has?
* Can I update the firmware of the drive, to new iXtreme? (is it necessary?)
* What is Wave 2/3/4 etc? Is it copy protection? Will my DVD drive play any Wave dvd (present & future)? Also, will flashed dvd drive play original games?
* I read up here on what "SS" files are. What is SS V1, SS V2 etc? Are these different versions of the ss files?
* I followed this helpful guide and managed to dump a copy of Project Gotham Racing 4 to my hard disk. Now, I am in doubt how to extract the SS file of this game from its DVD? Is it necessary to patch the SS files into the ISO? ( I am not planning to use LIVE so will there be a problem by not injecting the stealth files? ).
* Also, can I use any SS file I find on the Internet? (for ex. PGR4 is PAL, so can I use PAL SS file of PGR4 found on google?) What happens if I patch a wrong SS file into the iso?
* With my console having patched drive, can I update the dashboard from usb drive? If I update it, will the drive cease to work?
* Lastly, regarding LIVE. I understand that there are two types of accounts on the console. One that is connected to LIVE and one that isn't. Is it correct that only the LIVE account can earn achievements? I'm not interested in multiplayer - so can I create a free LIVE account just to earn achievements? My idea was to remove any dvd from the drive, signup for live, then disconnect from Internet and then play to earn achievements. Will this method work (i.e can I escape LIVE ban?)
Sorry for such a lengthy post. As you can see I'm completely new to the scene and have tons of stuff to learn! Thanks for taking the time to read through
Originally posted by Ggoblin: * Is there a way I can extract the DVD key again from the drive? (do I need to?)
Yes, it can be done with a Via 6421a SATA card & Jungleflasher
Originally posted by Ggoblin: * Can I find out which version iXtreme the drive has?
Once you load it in jungleflasher, it will tell you
Originally posted by Ggoblin: * Can I update the firmware of the drive, to new iXtreme? (is it necessary?)
Yes, you can also do this with jungleflaser.
Originally posted by Ggoblin: * What is Wave 2/3/4 etc? Is it copy protection? Will my DVD drive play any Wave dvd (present & future)? Also, will flashed dvd drive play original games?
The wave is a partition where the update is kept on the disk, if you are using old firmware at the moment, you probably wont be able to play the latest wave games. Update your firmware to solve this.
Originally posted by Ggoblin: * I read up here on what "SS" files are. What is SS V1, SS V2 etc? Are these different versions of the ss files?
SSv1 & SSv2 are the angles of the burn IFIAK, you need to make sure you are using the correct angle to stay safe on like.
Originally posted by Ggoblin: * I followed this helpful guide and managed to dump a copy of Project Gotham Racing 4 to my hard disk. Now, I am in doubt how to extract the SS file of this game from its DVD? Is it necessary to patch the SS files into the ISO? ( I am not planning to use LIVE so will there be a problem by not injecting the stealth files? ).
No sure on this sorry
Originally posted by Ggoblin: * Also, can I use any SS file I find on the Internet? (for ex. PGR4 is PAL, so can I use PAL SS file of PGR4 found on google?) What happens if I patch a wrong SS file into the iso?
Or this
Originally posted by Ggoblin: * With my console having patched drive, can I update the dashboard from usb drive? If I update it, will the drive cease to work?
Yes you can update, no it wont break your drive.
Originally posted by Ggoblin: * Lastly, regarding LIVE. I understand that there are two types of accounts on the console. One that is connected to LIVE and one that isn't. Is it correct that only the LIVE account can earn achievements? I'm not interested in multiplayer - so can I create a free LIVE account just to earn achievements? My idea was to remove any dvd from the drive, signup for live, then disconnect from Internet and then play to earn achievements. Will this method work (i.e can I escape LIVE ban?)
Yes you can earn achievements on a non live profile, and your workaround (disconnecting the drive) will not avoid the ban
