ken_cinder Posted June 11, 2005 Share Posted June 11, 2005 *Scratches head* Ok where to start, I don't do this often. Product packaging and appearance - 9 (Wheres my pretty box?) Everything was as it was said to be, only it came in a plain white box. I had expected the pretty box I see on the Qoobchip.com website, but whatever.......it's just a package.The chip itself is packaged inside a SEALED 3M anti static bag I had to cut open, doesn't that just scream quality and professional? Cables and stuff just came in a plain plastic bag, nothing special needed there anyway. Installation - 8 (Pics could be better as well as written instructions) Only 6 wires, yep only 6 and it couldn't be easier, at least for someone with some soldering skills. I'd have to rank the difficulty of installation as "Intermediate", although not difficult in the least for me, it's no Sega Saturn modchip, it does require you to be quite capeable with an iron. Took me about 20 minutes in total to get it installed, with 10-15 minutes of those 20 being me opening the Gamecube (Really! Thats the aggravating/hard part about it).If you've had experience with anything more complicated than a Saturn mod, this will be a breeze for you. It's nowhere near as aggravating as a 1.6 Xbox LPC rebuild install modchip, but as I said, more than a 2 wire Saturn mod. Operation - 7 (Bios needs a bit of work still and where the hell is the MP3 player? Vaporware?) Worked flawlessly right from the get-go. The bios it ships with is pretty bare and functionally flawed, in that it wouldn't auto-detect my retail copy of Metroid Prime and boot it.........instead I got a DRE if I didn't hold the button for "Boot Original", so you'll want to get it upgraded to the latest one right away. As of right now that is 1.3a.With either version bios, I don't see this MP3 player that is supposedly built in. So much for that I guess. No big deal though, I honestly don't care for it, but it's touted as a feature.Onto the issue of backups! For me, right now........no way jose! I think my media kinda sucks, I had the occasional issue with it on my Xbox. Burnt a copy of Metroid Prime 2 and it gets to the title screen music, but no title screen. Also burnt a copy of R Racing Evolution, and it doesn't get past having the Game ID detected by the bios.Gotta pick me up some better media, and I think it'll work just fine.I did however try out some homebrew stuff by uploading via USB to the flashrom on the modchip. Worked great, but it seems to not load properly unless there is a disc in the drive. Odd...... Conclusion Overall I'd have to say this was a great buy. I just need some better media for backups, and they need to work out a few little quirks in the Bios.By all means get yourself one, but it may take some time before all the issues in the bios are ironed out......keep in mind they ARE minor really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Posted June 11, 2005 Share Posted June 11, 2005 I guess I'll wait till the next bio update because I want to run some of the homebrew stuff my self without the whole need a disc thing. A very minor but possibly annoying bug I forsee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_cinder Posted June 11, 2005 Author Share Posted June 11, 2005 Update I was finally able to get some backups working. I managed to get a copy of Metroid Prime 2 and R Racing Evolution working on Sony media. I still got a DRE once starting a game in R Racing Evolution, and Metroid Prime 2 locked up on me right in the middle of playing. I think the bios still needs some work, as it can't be the media I'm using now. Oh and another thing, if you burn, use Nero 6.6.0.13 or better! I was using 6.6.0.1 without success, got 6.6.0.13 and now I can at least START playing games, it appears theres just some issues still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_cinder Posted June 12, 2005 Author Share Posted June 12, 2005 Further update I decided, that like getting my Dreamcast to read CD-RWs, I may need to give the laser in my Cube a little tweaking to make things work better and get rid of the DRE problem as much as possible.Well, I did.....after reading this thread.I tweaked it to around 215, as I couldn't get it to remain steady inside of 185-215 and 185 just didn't work even on retail games.No more DREs on any game thus far, I can't however get the copy of Wind Waker I have to work at all, I'm thinking it's a bad rip.It was a Starcube rip, and so is the copy of Wave Race Blue Storm I have, which has had that stupid friggin audio fix done to it, luckily the audio fix in the Qoob bios works, and corrects it PERFECTLY.Methinks Starcube sucks, at least back when these were ripped, because they appear to have messed around too much with both rips, and 1 works incorrectly, the other not at all. Edit: Wow! After posting this, I decided I'd try the DVD+RW copy of Metroid Prime 2 I originally made (just to see if it would read RW) and it works! Adjusting the pot to this point has made it so DVD+RWs work in my Cube. Awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prican25 Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 nice to hear IJTF_Cinder, i should have mine done tomorrow and i will test using mini dvd-rs from office depot which should be Ritek G04's media which is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulclous Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 apparently some cubes need a laser tweak, must have been lucky here.i've had no problems using nero 6.0.0.19 & ritek G05.i would like +RW working for homebrew though.i hear people are reading up to 2.1g with full size media.the mp3 player was packed with 1.2 bios Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 Interesting thread there Cinder. Adjusting the laser power can be tricky that's for sure. I notice some people said that leaving the cover off improved things?? If you're handy with a soldering iron you could mount a pot on the front panel where you can get to it easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iq_132 Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 I did the laser tweak and have the lid off. I plan on buying a case that can handle full sized media as soon as a decent one comes out.As for the laser tweak, it was easy. Much easier than installing the chip even, and it made the dre's i was getting go away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prican25 Posted June 17, 2005 Share Posted June 17, 2005 ok, i finally got around installing my qoob pro mod (bad week for me) so heres my results: well the first ting that bothered me was that when i got the chip, like cinder no pretty box (came in a oem white type of box) and the other thing that bother me was from the looks of the flexible cable that came with it was badly twisted in some parts but it still worked in the end lucky enough. one thing that kinda pissed me off was the lack of a sticker backing on the mod and the little eject cable piece, i was lucky enough to have plenty of the sticker backs from x3/x2.6 xbox mods since i mainly do pin header installs. after taking apart the gc, it was an easy solder job that reminded me of doing a ps1 install and i then grab the 1.3 bios and then connected the usb cable to my pc and it had no problem erasing/writing what i tossed in. then i tested it and got the qoob bios screen so everything was good to go to try a backup so i decided to try the discs that came with my qoob pro package from foundmy.com and as i expected, they gave me cheap dvd-rs from SKC co. and the first burn which was resident evil 2 for gc gave me a disc read error but i then tried using my office depot mini dvd-rs i bought which use Ritek G04 on paper mario 2 and it booted the disc no problem so thats it for now, i'll proly try the n64 emu thing after i make some other discs heh so i give qoob pro a Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_cinder Posted June 17, 2005 Author Share Posted June 17, 2005 lol yeah, I forgot to mention the fact that they don't provide double sided tape or stickers for the chip(s)...and I used the one from my Xecuter 3 as well (Why do THEY provide one? Who does a 100% wires install when the pinheader method is so much better?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulclous Posted June 18, 2005 Share Posted June 18, 2005 same here plain box & no stickies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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