Xecuter 3 CE, Control Panel & LCD -Review-

By Brakken, July 2005
The Xecuter brand of modchips are known worldwide for their excellent quality, ease of installation and usage along with a good user base and support forums so I happily set out to purchase this product for review.

Searching the Internet for a while I found a really good deal on a modchip bundle for the XBOX from chipdealer which included a Xecuter 3 CE and the full replacement Control Panel with the LCD already attached for a very reasonable price.

Contents of the Bundle

Xecuter 3 Modchip
External Switch
Reset / Eject Adapter
Reset / Eject Power Cable
Alternative 5v Wire for v1.6
External Switch Cable
D0/LAN/HDD Cable
Pin Header
Wire Install Adapter
LPC Rebuild for v1.6
Protective Sticky Pad
Control Panel with mounted LCD
USB Cable for Control Panel

Major Chip and BIOS Features

Works on all XBOX versions (v1.0-1.6)
Select which bios bank to boot from on-the-fly.
Switch to either retail bios mode or FULL debug bios mode.
Display / Edit bios names from each bank.
Full DHCP & Static IP Support.
Built-in FTP Server with Boost Mode (11,000kb p/s)
Built-in Web server. Flash the BIOS via HTTP or FTP.
New FTP Based Bios Storage System.
Control all BIOS / Mod functions and settings from HTTP & PC App.
Enhanced BIOS flash speed.
Built-in Onscreen Keyboard.
Status Indicating LED's
4mb Re-Flashable EEprom
External Switches
Customize all features of the bios on-the-fly.
Includes LPC Rebuild PCB for v1.6 consoles!

The Installation Process

Taking the good old Torx 10 and 20 bits I disassembled the v1.6d console and located the LPC bus. After removing the old pinheader from another chip (which you won't have to do unless you previously had another chip installed) I set off the mount the pinheader which by default is rigged for the v1.0-1.5 consoles. After removing the necessary pins from the header to work with the v1.6 I put it in place, taped it down to make sure it stayed, turned the board over and soldered it in place and then removed the tape.

Next I decided to use the LPC PCB to rebuild the bus instead of doing it manually with wires. Once this was done I soldered the D0/LAN/HDD Cable in place making sure to use the D0 from the LPC rebuild.

Turning back over the motherboard I plugged in the chip and plugged in all of the wires except the ones to the DVD and Hard Drive then powered on the console. Following this I plugged in the Reset / Eject Adapter and Reset / Eject Power Cable. I then turned on the console to check to make sure the chip was receiving power which would be known by both of the LED's on the chip lighting up, but nothing happened.

After a little bit of research I realized the installation guide on Xecuter's webpage was a little misleading as their v1.6 guide tells you to use the Power cable and gives you the 5v Alt point which I interpreted as being an alternative source of power not a required source of power. So I soldered on the 5v cable to the alt point and turned on the console to make sure both LED's light up and they did! (note - the image below is where to solder the 5v to)

Not being able to find a control panel installation guide on Xecuter's main page I clicked on their forums and found it. I carefully removed the old front panel, took off the power button assembly and placed it on the new panel, fed all the necessary wires through then hooked them up to the chip.

I reassembled the console, but left the top off for now to make sure everything was working good. When I went to turn on the console I found that all the lights were good, but there was video output. I then spent the next fifteen minutes of so trying different BIOS bank combinations via the front switch and finally figured out what to do to access the FlashBIOS.

To access the FlashBIOS using on a v1.6d console in my experience I found you had to turn the flash protect off, turn bank 2 on and power the system on while holding both the Power and Eject buttons.

After this I tried to flash the BIOS via HTTP, but it would not connect so I burnt a disc and it flashed perfectly. I then turned on the front LCD in the options, but it didn't show anything so I adjusted the contrast button on the X3 chip until I could get clear reading.

Operating the BIOS

As mentioned above I turned the LCD screen additionally I then set up the network to work from DHCP, FTP'd into the console, backed up the hard drive then proceeded to install XBMC, various applications and some emulators. After this I configured the BIOS and XBMC to be my default dashboard and set off to test the various software I installed.

Once I tweaked most of the software using their respective INI files everything booted and worked fine. I watched some DVD movies, listened to some MP3's and got a local weather report.

Next I installed the Knoppix distro for the XBOX, plugged in a mouse and keyboard and tested out various functions of Linux including surfing the internet, playing a few games, chatting on IRC and editing a document I later printed.

Final Words

Installing the X3 CE was a little more complicated then other solutions, but having the replacement front panel and LCD really made the XBOX shine. Flashing the chip and using the onboard BIOS was cake especially with the FTP server. The X3 CE delivers everything you have come to expect from fourth generation mods so I'm very content with the product.

Links

www.xbins.org
- Everything you'll ever need to know about XBOX modding!

www.teamx-ecuter.com
- Official Homepage for the Xecuter3 CE line of modchips!

-=[Xecuter 3 CE Bundle Review Discussion Thread]=-