F&G Missing when using 1080i

[citrus3000psi]

Here's a weird problem I can't seem to figure out.

I format a 2tb drive with F&G (64k cluster size verified). No issues at all.

I get into XMBC and everything looks great; I start the ftp and wait. I'm only transfer 1 file at a time so files don't get so fragmented. This takes quite some time. After the F & G drives get to about 50-80% full they no longer show up after a restart? Sometimes only F will show, sometimes only G. Once in a blue moon (maybe 10-15 resets) they both show up. However games fail to boot, it just redumps me back into xbmc and then the drives are gone.

So after doing this procedure 3 times (I tried 2tb WD green, 3tb WD green, now I'm using a 2tb toshiba of some sorts). And the same thing happens.

I start looking at other dashes, I throw on unleashx last night and woah the F&G drives are there and the games work. Unleashx runs slow and looks like crap in 1080i, so I drop the settings down to 720p. Cool I have unleash working consistently. Out of curiosity I boot into xmbc from unleash (honestly because I'd prefer to use xmbc over unleash). Woah both F&G are there; and games work! So I reset xmbc as my startup dash. And it boots consistently with F&G and games working (maybe 90%). I drop the video settings again and take off 720p. This time I couldn't find a game that didn't work. For testing purposes I pushed the vid settings back to 1080i and the F&G are gone.

Cliff notes, F&G (when full) don't appear in xbmc when in 1080i.

I'm ok with running xmbc in 480p. But is there way to force xmbc to 480p and still have 1080i/720p selected in the video modes (for those certain games that support them)?

I also wonder what actually causes this problem. I have a 128meg/1ghz box thats not being used. I wonder if this would fix the 1080i/F&G issue....

I just read something that I can change the xbmc display output but still keep 1080/720 selected.

[xman]

What bios are you using and what HDD are you using?. Hopefully you are using a modchip and then you can have 3 boot paths, the 1st two fake and the last one to XBMC. That will slow the boot process down which is actually causing your F or F and g drive not appearing. One other question, do you have the machine on a net connection?.

[citrus3000psi]

What bios are you using and what HDD are you using?. Hopefully you are using a modchip and then you can have 3 boot paths, the 1st two fake and the last one to XBMC. That will slow the boot process down which is actually causing your F or F and g drive not appearing. One other question, do you have the machine on a net connection?.

Hard drives tested with:
2tb WD Green
3th WD Green
2tb Toshiba (Currently in the system)

Modchips tested with:
x3 chip (newest x3 bios)
x-chip (evox m8 and newest x2 bios installed)
One box also has a tsop flashed with evox m8

The few times I got xbmc to boot with both f&g drives I was using evox m8.

Now the x-chip is old school. It starts up and you must select a bank for the bios to load. I can let it wait on this screen for 5 minutes if I want to. So I know the hard drive is spun up.

To slow the boot process down I've done what you have said but that didn't fix it, I've also created a redirect dvd that goes through about 99 redirects. This really slows down the machine about 30 seconds to boot into dash once the bios is loaded. But still same thing. When xbmc is in 1080i f&g don't show any data.

Whats also strange is that xbmc will show f&g correctly if there isn't much data on them. The problem only occurs when f&g are 60%+ full and the system is in 1080i. 720p works most of the time, when it doesn't work, G is missing. I can simply IGR and reload xbmc to get G back. 480p so far works 100% of the time in showing f&g

The machine is connected on the net currently, but I've also tried booting without the cable plugged in when trying to get it to work.

[xman]

Well you have been very thorough in your testing, good to see. I have a few things that you can try. Seagate HDDs, that is all I use on 1 and 2TB machines myself. The m8 bios version I use before I mod it is the ones on the Slayer 2.7 disc, I found I was having issues using the later m8+ bios for this job.
Surprising the X3 wasn't able to give you consistent booting, they are real slow at booting anything which makes me think the issue isn't spinup time related.
I asked about the net connection because on some builds of XBMC, this also slows down the bootup times but this varies by the build. Have you tried earlier versions of XBMC like 2010- 2012 just to get the build factor out of the equation?. Also unusual you are having issues with G drive, I have never had any issues with G dive not appearing, only ever F drive. You are using E drive or E/apps as your booting app location aren't you?. Well that is all I can think of right at the moment. Good luck.

[Oldxboxusa]

Citrus which xbpartitioner you are using? The best for this is 1.3. And a 3Tb hdd will not work. I try to test a WD 2tb eco green and a WD black 2tb both of them works fine.

[spicemuseum]

... a 3Tb hdd will not work.

Or to be clearer; a 3TB drive will work, but you will only be able to access ~2TB of its space owing to partition/cluster size limitations.

[Oldxboxusa]

Okay I thought it does only 2tb hdd will work because of that limitation.

[professor_jonny]

your hdd is not coming online fully before boot up try to use a short cut tool such as the team uix short cut maker to point to another short cut to boot your dash app and see what happens.

I think the c e etc... partitions are initialised by the bios not the hdd's partition table and this may be why they come on line ant not the others.

I use wd 2tb green drives in my xboxen with evox m8 and the team uix short cut tool on e drive point to my dash on f on most installs.

a make the bios no dvd and remove the splash and flubber and make the boot path c then e and never have any problems.