My xbox - is it modded?

August 31, 2008 12:14 AM

I just got an original xbox from a yard sale. Short of finding a game backup and trying to run it, or opening the case and looking for a hardware mod, is there any way to tell if it's modded?
posted by zippy to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

Try turning it on (with no disc in the drive)? I imagine most modded xboxes are going to be running an alternative dashboard.

You might also check to see if the warranty label has been sliced (ie, the case has been opened).
posted by fishfucker at 12:57 AM on August 31, 2008

Indeed. If you turn it upside down and you can clearly see where two of the 6 case screws have been opened through the sticker on the middle of the bottom, that's a pretty big clue that there's been a hardware mod. However, it might be "softmodded" instead, and that's a little more difficult to tell. It might have an alternate dashboard, so powering it up would settle that, but it might not. In which case you would have to acquire a "backup" game from somewhere to test that. Generally speaking though, if it's at a yard sale, it's not really likely it's modded. Most people who mod them realize that even today they have resale value and you can still get over a hundred bucks for them on Craigslist if they work.
posted by barc0001 at 1:13 AM on August 31, 2008

Contact the proprietors of the yard sale and ask them.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 5:38 AM on August 31, 2008

Agree with barc. The fact that it's at a yard sale at all is a pretty good sign that it isn't modded.
Someone who owns a modded xbox is more likely to be using it for XBMC than for game piracy, in my experience (I don't own an xbox at all, but I have friends who use it for this). And that's still good enough that they probably wouldn't be dumping the machine like that...

That being said, if you got it cheaply, you might as well go ahead and mod it yourself.
posted by jozxyqk at 5:54 AM on August 31, 2008