More mods

Yesterday, I received the modchips for my Xbox and my PS1, and I spent much of my day installing both.

The Xbox modchip was definitely the more complicated to install of the two, though I did have my issues with the PS1 chip (which I will explain later). I was worried throughout installing the chip in the Xbox, because I didn’t think I was doing a good job of soldering everything. When I finally had the chip in and booted up the Xbox, I fully expected it not to work. It was a nice surprise when it booted up without issue.

Following the installation of the chip, I installed a new dashboard on my Xbox as well as a new hard drive. I used a 500 GB SATA drive I had in my desktop (which I recently replaced with a 2 TB drive). I used a $5-$6 SATA-to-PATA adapter, and the drive is working flawlessly. I copied all of my Xbox games to the hard drive, and I still have tons of space left.

The installation of the PS1 chip would have been easy, had the chip come with the wires attached, as it was supposed to. The site from where I ordered the chip showed which color wires were to be soldered to which points on the board, but since my chip had no wires attached, I had no idea how to solder it all together. Luckily, I found an image of my chip online that showed how everything was supposed to be wired.

Strangely, my PS1 is not working perfectly since installing the chip. When I first start the system, I arrive at the screen telling me to put a PS game in the drive, regardless of whether I am using my original game or the backup. However, if I shut the system off and turn it on again, the game will load. I probably should research this a little more to see what I might have done incorrectly.

Next, I plan to do the A/V mod on my Genesis, though I’m not sure when exactly I’ll get to it (I’m also trying to finish an RPG I’ve been playing so that I can review it). I also have plans to add A/V outputs to my Atari 7800, though that requires a bit more work, and I will probably have to buy a kit to complete it.