XBOX 360 Modding Trinity 16GB

       The XBOX360 is a console I like, which has attracted a lot of bad press since launch for good reason. Microsoft dropped the ball on cooling this thing which resulted in a lot of overheating and melting of low temperature solder that connects the Graphics Processor to the motherboard. The Red Ring Of Death as it was known did more for sales of PS3 than any amount of advertising. Not every model motherboard suffered this, I myself own a white (Phat) Falcon unit that`s never missed a beat. Older units however did, mainly Zenon, Zephyr, Opus and as mentioned Falcon. I got hold of a later version Slim model from CEX
for roughly £40, reliable, has built in wifi and small form factor, whats not to like.
         Exploitation of the XBOX360 is the reason I love this unit, custom dashboard with an ability to launch games from a hard drive up to 2TB. Obviously backups of games which I own the originals! A modchip is required and some pretty nifty hardware which is getting harder to come by these days, luckily I found a NAND-X unit on ebay. We need to pull the thing apart down to motherboard and using the Nand-X hardware, extract the NAND info,
alter it with a more friendly version to allow exploits and re-inject the new info to the NAND chip. I wont bore you with all the details but this method is known as RGH meaning Reset Glitch Hack, a way to run unsigned code.

MOTHERBOARD: Trinity 16GB

        Inside I found I had a Trinity 16GB, fortunately one of the easier models to work on. This ones got 4GB internal memory fitted (small daughter board on left side). I removed the heat sink and fan to clean them as it did have its share of dust, nothing gross, normal expected amount. I replaced the thermal compound and gave the fan a clean.

HEATSINK and FAN fitted

 Nand-X Wiring

       The Nand-X reader must be connected to some test points on the motherboard, nice header points giving solid connections. I used a fibre glass brush to remove any lacquer protecting them and roughed up the connections for easier soldering. The picture looks wet but its isopropyl alcohol which is evaporating after i cleaned the pads.

      I used some Amtech flux and tinned each pad, the Nand-X has a cable for push fit connection, this is what I soldered to the board.

  Now to use some software called JRunner to read the NAND and capture it onto the PC.

 Modchip

  I decided to use an ACE v3.0  modchip for this install. I`ve used Coolrunner chips in the past but found a few of these at a reasonable price, £4 each or so.

 I tinned all the points and using its sticky pad provided mounted it in a suitable location for soldering.

 I followed the wiring diagram supplied in the JRunner package for my Trinity motherboard.

Most connections were on the surface of the motherboard apart from the connection shown.The X-Clamp is the mechanical sprung bracket holding the heat sink close to the motherboard. Unfortunately my photo was blurred of the top connections so I googled a donor pic below.

 Once installed I used the Nand-X to connect to the Ace chip and program its Glitch timings.Although this photo shows the Nand-X wiring removed mine was attached as I created my new Nand kernel on JRunner  to inject back onto the board. All motherboards have keys, a CPU Key, DVD drive key, which must match those listed in the Nand to work.
JRunner makes all this simple as it injects a custom firmware called XELL which is open source to allow a network connection to retrieve all keys and setup the new Nand kernel .

Loading new Nand

With the Nand-X attached via usb I reprogrammed the Nand and started rebuilding the box
to at least have the motherboard in its chasis . A quick test though before anything else.

I took the liberty of fitting a spare 500GB Seagate Firecuda I had in the wings. The rebuild was definitely more fiddly than the disassembly, lots of plastic clips and annoying misalignments. But finally I got there, back to its normal sleek self and booting to the microsoft dashboard, looking stock but now exploitable!

I like Aurora dashboard which was easy to install. Now I can transfer via USB or FTP and load this thing up with Games and any other content I feel fitting. Plan is to install a 2TB drive soon and make this my XBOX360 keeper to join the collection. My little Youtube channel has a video of an RGH console in action!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCZllnqgLb8