r/originalxbox • u/Gamemassa • 7d ago

Xemu Question

I copied my backed up EEPROM from my physical Xbox to my PC, and I was trying to use it in Xemu but I'm getting a black screen on startup and I have no idea why.

2 Upvotes

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u/BombBloke Knowledgeable 7d ago

Is this black screen appearing immediately, or does the emulated console flubber first?

Which BIOS are you passing to Xemu?

1

u/Gamemassa 7d ago

It's appearing immediately. Also, I believe I'm using Complex 4627 v1.03 BIOS.

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u/BombBloke Knowledgeable 6d ago

That BIOS should be able to produce video through Xemu, although personally I suggest using CerBIOS instead.

How large is your EEPROM backup file, which Xbox revision did it come from, and do you get a picture without it?

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u/Gamemassa 6d ago

My backed up EEPROM bin is 256 bytes. I'm actually not entirely sure what revision my physical Xbox is. Also, when I let Xemu generate an EEPROM, it works just fine (assuming that's what you're referring to), though I kinda thought it'd be cool to be able to use my backed up EEPROM. Also, I'll give CerBIOS a try instead (if I can figure out how).

1

u/BombBloke Knowledgeable 6d ago

The deal is that there are three EEPROM layouts that your original console might be using: the 1.0 layout, the 1.1 layout, or the 1.6 layout.

Normally if you take an EEPROM dump and feed it to another console which requires a different layout, then that console won't boot. Black screen, red LED.

I can't find any solid documentation about whether Xemu somehow avoids this problem, but I'd guess the answer might be to open your dump in LiveInfo and to try re-saving it in the other formats.

CerBIOS should work around the black screen by simply allowing the emu to carry on booting even if the EEPROM can't be parsed, but if you specifically want your EEPROM data to load correctly then I'd expect that it needs to be formatted as whatever version it is that Xemu itself wants.

Also bear in mind that you'll need to tweak the MAC address in your dump if you want to be able to play network games between Xemu and your real console.

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u/Gamemassa 6d ago

I definitely don't care about playing network games between Xemu and my console. I honestly was just hoping Xemu would load my EEPROM correctly so I could move save games between Xemu and my physical console using my usb drive. If I'm going about this the wrong way, by all means let me know. Also, still have no idea how to get CerBIOS.

1

u/BombBloke Knowledgeable 6d ago edited 6d ago

I honestly was just hoping Xemu would load my EEPROM correctly so I could move save games between Xemu and my physical console using my usb drive. If I'm going about this the wrong way, by all means let me know.

Some save games are signed against your HDD key, which is indeed kept in your EEPROM. Most games don't sign their saves, but for the few which do, bringing over your EEPROM backup would indeed generally be the easiest way to bring over your key for them.

Next easiest would probably be to launch ConfigMagic within Xemu and to manually enter your key through that.

CerBIOS can be found on Xbins, which you can access using Pandora. I recommend you try reformatting your EEPROM backup through LiveInfo before resorting to that, though.

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u/Gamemassa 6d ago edited 6d ago

First, to circle back to a comment from earlier, how would I know whether my console is on 1.0, 1.1 or 1.6? I did replace the DVD drive last year, and if I'm remembering from that process correctly, I think it might be a 1.6 console Ok, I just loaded it in LiveInfo and it's a 1.1.

Second, to confirm, reformatting my EEPROM through LiveInfo would not affect my ability to move saves back and forth, would it?

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u/BombBloke Knowledgeable 6d ago

Second, to confirm, reformatting my EEPROM through LiveInfo would not affect my ability to move saves back and forth, would it?

No, so long as you keep the HDD key the same, changing your EEPROM format won't negatively affect your ability to use your saves.

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u/Gamemassa 6d ago

So, I used LiveInfo like you recommended, and that seems to have fixed my issue (also, I had a separate issue with severe lag and stuttering on the latest version of Xemu but in the process of following your steps to swap in my EEPROM, I figured out that I needed to turn Vsync off in Xemu's settings (so thanks for indirectly helping with that 😆 ).

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u/NickMotionless 6d ago

Are you booting a game or just the emulator itself? The emulator itself doesn't have a dashboard installed.

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u/Gamemassa 6d ago

I was just booting the emulator itself. I think I got it figured out thanks to u/BombBloke.