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View Full Version : My Pain might be your gain



beyondtool
02-04-2006, 08:17 AM
I've been searching the internet regarding how to use my new modded cube with a Ninja Mod chip and I've finally managed to piece together some things that could have saved me hours of effort.

Firstly regarding getting a mod to work, your DVD media and the POT settings on the cube are important, make sure you get them right first. I was having a lot of games start to boot then hang and I didn't know why. Media was great, I played with the pot, all wires were solid. I could not believe that DRE's were to blame.
There were several reasons why it still wasn't working:

ONLY use a PAL image in PAL mode and an NTSC image in NTSC mode. There are a few exceptions and every chip and softmod has a way to force PAL or NTSC, but 9 times out of 10 it won't work (God, if only more people said this in the first place). Tales of Symphonia I did get running on my PAL TV even though it was an NTSC image, but it did have some minor graphic anomolies. Even a PAL JAP game did not want to run on my AUS cube, it kept crashing on the load screen. I've heard that ever Euro NTSC games, may not work on a US cube and vice versa. (EDIT: I have had more luck with the Ninjamod BIOS2)

Always remove the memory card before you boot a game if you are trying to establish if it is working. Dunno why this should make any difference but it does. When you do need to save, pop your memory card back in and then save.

Make sure that your backups are all the exact right size. If they aren't redo them.

Creating a multi boot DVD can actually improve the chances of your success. I have tested this out yet, but it apparently makes a difference.

beyondtool
02-04-2006, 09:44 AM
Oh and one last thing that threw me for six with NinjaMod. It's pretty easy to flash the second BIOS just put in a DVD and hit A. The problem is loading that BIOS. You have to actually hit the load BIOS 2 option and then you will see the 2.1 BIOS load (will actually say BIOS 2.1 onscreen), and this will actually load games properly. If you don't do this you will be using the original Ninjamod BIOS which is troublesome at best. Confused? Well you should be this is not documented and very confusing to work out, especially considering the default and obvious loader doesn't have a version number.

beyondtool
02-06-2006, 06:21 AM
One other thing I discovered last night. Because the Ninjamod requires a wire on the underside of the motherboard, it comes up through a heatsink screwhole. the heatsink foot actually sits ontop of this hole and is designed to plug it. With the force of the heatsink screws and the added pressure after adjusting the POT and reseating the mini DVD Drive was enough to cut the fine wire used for the mod chip and short it to the heatsink rendering the Cube unbootable. It actually took overnight for this to occur, so some other's out there with this problem take note.

Thankfully it's not a terminal problem. I added some electrical tape to seal and pad the wire a bit and didn't tighten the screws as tight. The best option would be to machine back the leg a few mm so that it doesn't contact at all. One of those things I guess.