Xbox boots into black screen

Discussion about Modding the XBOX, including hardware and software hacks.
nugundam0079
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Xbox boots into black screen

Post by nugundam0079 »

As the title says, I was trying to fix my dash when something went wrong and now my xbox just boots into a black screen after displaying the Xbox logo. Is there anyway to get around this? perhaps some kind of factory reset? Mind you this is/was a soft modded xbox. I tried using a "Rescue Disk" but nothing happened after I popped it in.

I welcome any advice you guys may have on this.
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by Geeba »

did you keep a copy of your EEPROM?
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Rocky5
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by Rocky5 »

What exactly did you do. black screen usually means two things.

Corrupt xbe file
Missing xbe file that a shortcut points to.

If the LED goes orange you can still boot burnt media so a rescue disc will work.
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nugundam0079
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by nugundam0079 »

Geeba wrote:did you keep a copy of your EEPROM?
just whatever back up was made on the system itself.
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by nugundam0079 »

Rocky5 wrote:What exactly did you do. black screen usually means two things.

Corrupt xbe file
Missing xbe file that a shortcut points to.

If the LED goes orange you can still boot burnt media so a rescue disc will work.

It doesn't and I tried a Rescue Disc and it still didn't boot.

anything else I can do?
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by Geeba »

Hmmm, I've had this before, sounds like you've killed the softmod, rescue disks wont help, I think you need the EEPROM, which now means a nightmare to get without a copy of it or a mod-chip

http://www.xbmc4xbox.org.uk/forum/viewt ... f=13&t=425
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by Rocky5 »

Again what exactly did you do?

We need details, in detail.

What file did you change, or remove. Did you change anything in the C partition, what colour is the LED does it bypass the X logo screen eg...

You want help start telling us details so we can help you.

If the LED turns orange you are still softmodded. So burnt media will boot, hexen can take up to a couple mins to boot. (If the LED goes red it's booting)
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nugundam0079
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by nugundam0079 »

Rocky5 wrote:Again what exactly did you do?

We need details, in detail.

What file did you change, or remove. Did you change anything in the C partition, what colour is the LED does it bypass the X logo screen eg...

You want help start telling us details so we can help you.

If the LED turns orange you are still softmodded. So burnt media will boot, hexen can take up to a couple mins to boot. (If the LED goes red it's booting)

I had fully softmodded this 2nd Xbox with a combination of the original Evox/splintercell mod. Then went in with the HEXEN Disc. I thought all was well and dandy so I turned off the xbox when everything was said and done. Hours later I came back and noticed none of my backups would run and the Dash had gone back to the original MS one. So in my confusion I tried to work backwards to get the dash back to the EVOX one. What I got was something that looked similar to the Evo dash but had nothing that I was familiar with on it. So I go into a section (from what I remember anyway) that mentions kernel's and Rescue Discs. I selected the first Kernel annnd ended up with this issue.

I turned on the XBox just now and it flashed orange but then went to a steady green and the problem I had from last night still persists. That's as much detail as I have.
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Rocky5
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by Rocky5 »

nugundam0079 wrote:
Rocky5 wrote:Again what exactly did you do?

We need details, in detail.

What file did you change, or remove. Did you change anything in the C partition, what colour is the LED does it bypass the X logo screen eg...

You want help start telling us details so we can help you.

If the LED turns orange you are still softmodded. So burnt media will boot, hexen can take up to a couple mins to boot. (If the LED goes red it's booting)

I had fully softmodded this 2nd Xbox with a combination of the original Evox/splintercell mod. Then went in with the HEXEN Disc. I thought all was well and dandy so I turned off the xbox when everything was said and done. Hours later I came back and noticed none of my backups would run and the Dash had gone back to the original MS one. So in my confusion I tried to work backwards to get the dash back to the EVOX one. What I got was something that looked similar to the Evo dash but had nothing that I was familiar with on it. So I go into a section (from what I remember anyway) that mentions kernel's and Rescue Discs. I selected the first Kernel annnd ended up with this issue.

I turned on the XBox just now and it flashed orange but then went to a steady green and the problem I had from last night still persists. That's as much detail as I have.
Thank you, you have semi bricked your console. Only way out of this is the hotswap.

The kernel section is for advanced users only, and each kernel font must match the system kernel, you have selected one that doesn't match your system, so the Xbox will hang at or just after the X logo screen.
(If you press eject it will restart at the black screen)

Original discs won't load either when this happens. But in the off chance they do load Splinter Cell and reload the exploit and you can fix the issues via FTP.
(Well they never when I was doing tests for my 2016 softmod)

One of the many reasons Hexen isn't the best disc for softmods.
(The shadowc partition should never be disabled on a softmod)
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by xbmc4you »

Rocky5 wrote:What exactly did you do. black screen usually means two things.

Corrupt xbe file
Missing xbe file that a shortcut points to.

If the LED goes orange you can still boot burnt media so a rescue disc will work.
Led doesn't have to go orange. Can be any set color. Some builds of xbmc have standard green as default.
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by Rocky5 »

xbmc4you wrote:
Rocky5 wrote:What exactly did you do. black screen usually means two things.

Corrupt xbe file
Missing xbe file that a shortcut points to.

If the LED goes orange you can still boot burnt media so a rescue disc will work.
Led doesn't have to go orange. Can be any set color. Some builds of xbmc have standard green as default.
The LED is always orange with a softmod, this is before the dashboard loads and changes it to a user specific one if they have set one.

But we know what happened, the user has changed the kernel font to a specific one not set for there kernel version. Been there done that got the t-shirt.

It's why I removed this function from my softmod as users will bypass warning screens and still apply thing they know nothing about. (I set the kernel font during the softmod so the user never has to, I read the kernel version of the system and install the correct font)
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deadmoney
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by deadmoney »

Hello,
I'm bumping this thread because I basically have the same problem and I can't find any way to unbrick my Xbox.
I foolishly did the same thing with the kernel and now I get a black screen after the Xbox logo, the LED remains green, I tried both Splinter Cell and Rocky5's extras disc burned onto a DVD-R, but nothing happens. What's even more infuriating is that I managed to load Splinter Cell several times at first, when I tried to solve things via FTP on my own, but that didn't do any good and now Splinter Cell won't even boot anymore.
Is there any way to unbrick the console without resorting to a hotswap? I'd rather not take the risk of bricking my PC too somehow :lol:
Thanks!
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

You've the best advice in this thread you'll probably find anywhere about this subject. If Rocky5 says you need to hotswap to fix this issue then you can be sure that is indeed what you'll have to do.

Only other solution there might be (and I do not know if will even work in this case as kernel issues are not my thing) would be if you had either the original Xbox retail HDD or another, softmodded, HDD locked to the same Xbox as backup. You could then use Chimp 261812 and possibly fix this problem.

IMHO it should be recommended practice to replace the retail HDD with a bigger one immediately after softmodding and always keep the original locked, softmodded HDD afterwards. It can be so useful for fixing a range of Xbox problems you might have later.
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by deadmoney »

Thank you very much for your help.
The console has never been opened so I guess the alternative solution is out of the question, but I'll remember that when (and if) I try softmodding an Xbox again.
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by FlexibleHead »

Hi - few years after you all had this conversation, but it kept being very high in the Google results when I was trying to solve a similar issue. So for anyone in future, just wanted to add this... I've got a softmodded Xbox 1.6 running Unleash X with a 260gb Kingston A400 SSD installed. Works fine with a bog standard no-brand green IDE-to-SATA converter, but when I tried to change the converter for the red Startech one that everyone always recommends, I found my Xbox doing exactly this - booting to a black screen after the initial Xbox splash. Turns out the problem is the Startech converter, which does not support a solely SATA III hard drive - or at least this particular Kingston one (Amazon lists it supporting I, II and III, but this seems to be incorrect).

So for anyone trying what I've just tried, booting to black screen doesn't necessarily mean you've bricked your hard drive. It might be an issue of compatibility between your hard drive and your IDE/SATA converter.

I've asked Startech for clarification, so if I get much of a response I'll post it here.
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

I've just looked at the Startech specs on their own web site and they claim SATA I/II/III Ultra ATA 133 support but I would still not rule out HDD/SSD compatibility issues being the problem.

Although not Xbox related recently I had an issue with an external housing which worked fine otherwise except it wouldn't allow me to clone my PC's existing primary SSD. Apparently it is a know problem with a particular make of chip used in the housing misreporting the cluster size which, for many cloning tools, has to match.

Some sort of HDD/SSD issue like that may even be specific to a particular HDD/SSD make/version might be involved but only testing with a range of those would prove that one way or the other.

One obvious thing to ask is if you're using an 80 wire IDE cable too? If you're not then that is most likely the explanation as it is considered practically essential to get most SATA HDDs/SSDs working with the Xbox.
Last edited by Coldly-Indifferent on Fri Dec 10, 2021 2:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by FlexibleHead »

Cheers @Coldly-Indifferent. I actually stumbled on the solution by chance. Startech confirmed that the adapter does support SATA III and asked me some questions, and while I was taking some photos of the setup for them I hit on the answer by accident.

As I said, I’m using the Startech adapter in a 1.6 with a Kingston A400 SSD, and the system boots to a black screen at power-on. However, I’ve found if you then open the disc tray, UnleashX kicks in as it normally would at start-up, and everything is fine from there. The eject button is also a reset button, right? - since it also exits games when they’re running. So something here isn’t quite waking up the OS at power-on, but it can be woken with an extra nudge. Must be a quirk of this particular combination of adapter and hard drive, since I haven’t seen any instruction to do this anywhere else, and it wasn’t necessary with the cheaper generic adapter I was using before. But now that I’ve got the Startech working I can see / confirm that it’s a great improvement on the old one.

So there you go. If you're using a Kingston A400 and a Startech adapter and booting to a black screen, just press eject and you're off to the races!

(Oh and yes, 80-wire IDE present and correct - and a fetching shade of yellow.)
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

Problems like that with the power and/or eject buttons with a softmod are unusual and the typical explanation is the beginnings of trace rot.

But your description of it actually booting to a black screen with one but with the other resetting to your main dash doesn't really fit in with that either. It should not normally be behaving like this if the softmod is installed and working correctly.

What softmod was used? Did you set it up for dual boot or anything like that?
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by FlexibleHead »

Interesting... Softmod was done entirely according to this guy's instructions. UnleashX, Rocky5 etc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5zRXZO37iI

And the hard drive swap and clone business was done according to Mr Mario's instructions using Chimp:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc_1KnqKr94

Both processes went absolutely fine and according to plan, including locking the new SSD. No problems at all until I swapped in the Startech adapter.

I should possibly clarify that the black screen is after the normal startup Xbox splash screen. With the green no-brand adapter I get the Xbox splash and then after maybe 20 seconds "Microsoft" appears at the bottom and it boots into UnleashX. With the Startech it's the Xbox splash and "MIcrosoft" shows up immediately, but then the screen stays black until I press eject. And it isn't the "awooga awooga book an urgent service" warning screen. It's just pure black.
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Re: Xbox boots into black screen

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

The 'no brand' SATA/IDE adapter description is what should be happening ie. normal.

Why it isn't working with the StarTech adapter is a mystery. I don't know the StarTech one, I went with what I suspect are the same 'no brand' green adapters in my two SATA HDD fitted Xboxes and have not had any problems. They were the ones recommended here in a now pretty old thread on SATA adapters for use with the Xbox you can probably find if you search.

Only other thought/question is what jumper setting are you using with the StarTech adapter. It looks as though it has 4 from the pics I've seen Cable (Select), Slave, Master and ACD. The latter is meant for use with optical drives - I always thought it meant Automatic Cable Detect but apparently not. Anyway, have you tried swapping those settings to see if they can get the adapter working with the Xbox.

Long ago there was advice offered on adapter problems/IDE settings in general when fitting replacement HDDs that even if the original retail HDD is set to Cable (Select), as some were, you should use Master for the new HDD in all circumstances.
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