I'm back for more! Red Rings, New XBoxes

[NeoRio]

Hi guys,

It's been a while! I miss keeping up with all the buzz here! After about 4 years of heavy Xbox usage with the 2 machines that I flashed myself, they have both given up the RROD. (Update, my son just came and told me that one of the machines that had the RROD was an error 74 and after some Google research, he used a que tip to stop the fans for 5 minutes, which reset the machine and it came back to life!) I had installed new turbo fans, DVD pads and the wind tunnel at the time of flashing. These machines saw heavy usage during both summer months and winter months. Although I only played backups that I had made myself from our original games, both machines were banned from Live a little over a year ago during one of the big ban hammers. At that time I bought a new machine and kept it unflashed for live play. Since then I have also picked up a black Slim 360 which is unflashed.

I'm a bit out of the loop on flashing now-a-days. My first 2 machines had BenQ drives and they were relatively easy to Flash with the Connectivity Kit. What are my options now-a-days? I see there is a new FW released that allows for bigger file sizes to fit on DL discs.

* Can all DVD drives be flashed?
* Do I need to solder in order to flash?
* Are there new ripping methods for safer backups for Live play?
* Do we still need to use ABGX360 to check and patch our ISOs before burning?

Thanks for your time!

Best,
Neo

[louisM92]

* Can all DVD drives be flashed? Yes!

* Do I need to solder in order to flash? Hmm it kinda depends what drive you have in your slim?

* Are there new ripping methods for safer backups for Live play? XBC is still used

* Do we still need to use ABGX360 to check and patch our ISOs before burning? Yes but it doesnt recognise XGD3 games, these are the games that are larger than others

[CoFree]

hmmm
as far as i know

1.there is a new hit drive in some slim that is not flashable right now.(there are not many out there.)
2.abgx has not been updated to work with the new xdg3 games
3.you have to have the new LTplus v2.0 hacked fimware to play xdg3 backups
4.there is a update to XBC so it can read xdg3 original games and back them up.

[NeoRio]

Thank you for the answers.
The new XGD3 games, are those safe to backup and play on Live with?
If I'm setting out to buy a new box to flash, should I be looking for a specific model? Are the Slim's better than the old 360's...and should I look for a particular drive type over another?

Thanks

[CoFree]

The new XGD3 games, are those safe to backup and play on Live with?

there are many playing on live
but
i do not think they are safe
we support and recommend 2 two console setup
one flashed for playing backups and the 2nd left stock for live play

as far as what slim to buy
i dont think there is a way to tell what drive comes in what console
not that ive looked into anyway