Here’s what I soldered to flash the BIOS on my revision 1.2 or 1.3 original XBOX. We have a Winbond 256KB TSOP flash ROM on this. Bridging the write-enable connections disables the write protection, leaving us the opportunity to install a much better BIOS. The standard EvolutionX flasher does not support Winbond TSOPs, so the flashing tool matters too.

It’s essentially a modchip, without a modchip. That also leaves you without a backup if something goes wrong. A work of genius! This XBOX has a 256KB TSOP flash ROM. Older XBOX models (1.0 and 1.1) used a 1MB TSOP, but the retail BIOS image itself is 256KB and is mirrored four times on the 1MB flash.

I’ll get around to putting a guide up eventually, there’s still a lot to be done on this website…

Sources