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[XBOX] 128MB RAM upgrade for the Xbox, is it of any benefits for XBMC?
#91
Hi Finas,

thank you very, very much for the helpful tool. I have not thought any more, anybody is responding to my thread!
I just downloaded and executed the tool with the following status report printed:

J
Tested memory: 131072
Memoryblocks OK: 54987
Memory Blocks ERROR: 0
Blocks not able to allocate: 76085
Number of CRC errors: 0

(By the way, what does the "J" mean in the left upper corner of the screen?)
It confirms that our XBoxes don't recognize or I will better say don't activate the additional 64MB of RAM in the native XBox OS mode.

As we have several XBoxes with RAM upgrade (and one of it was upgraded by a professional company) and none of them activates / recognizes the whole RAM, I think that our problem must be a matter of SW. I am quite sure, we and the company haven't made any mistake during upgrade. The Samsung chips soldered onto the empty foot prints on the PCB are the same as the original ones, but a little faster in access time.
We have checked every pin to its neighbours and against ground and found no error / short circuit and Gentoox runs and uses the whole memory amount!

We all have identical machines, board revision 1.4 and the Aladin blue chip with I think 256 kB Flash, capable to store only one BIOS at a time. As BIOS we all use a modified M8 BIOS (modified with the EBVtool). Modified are only some color settings and the paths and names, where to load the default executables.

In another thread somewhere in the web I have read, that XBMC has to be compiled with a special switch to make it use the additional RAM. Are the compilations of T3CH done with this switch beeing active?
As your experience tells me, T3CH has apparently activated this switch.

Another tool I have tried in the mean time was mame128. It also doesn't recognize the upgrade.

My theory is, that the M8 BIOS or the modchip is responsible for not activating the whole RAM:
The Pentium-III processor has an integrated MMU. And the MMU I think is not programmed correctly by the BIOS to map the address space above the standard 64MB to the new available physical space.
For example I had a "weired" PC in the past with a curious BIOS, there you had to validate / select the detected RAM after an upgrade, otherwise it was not visible to any SW.
GentooX I think starts during its Bootloader its own BIOS (a modified cromwell or somewhat) and does a machine initializing of its own.
During this procedure the RAM is auto detected and configured correctly and therefore becomes visible.

As Linux recognizes the whole RAM, I think also its proved, that the aladin modchip is not responsible for our RAM ignoration.

So my questions are:

1) is my theory of the MMU configuration right
2) is there therefore a special BIOS or BIOS patch necessary to activate the RAM above the standard 64 MB
3) what BIOS are the people using, which can access 128 MB through XBMC
3) are there additional solderings (hidden switches / jumpers) to be done besides a one to one soldering of each RAM chip pin to the spare locations prints
4) are there additional wirerings necessary to one of the chipset chips to e.g. connect the new chip select signals (I dont't believe this, since Linux even works ...)
5) is there anybody on this planet using a simple standard aladin modchip with M8 BIOS and having 128 MB within XBMC

Thanks so far and it would give me great pleasure if you or anybody could help me and answer my questions.
#92
Hi folks,

with the help of finas great memory tool I was sure, my theory of the wrong initialized MMU must be correct.
I searched the internet and I found the following page in an I think scandinavian language I didn't understand:

http://www.tdubel.com/artikkelit/x2evoxbios.html

which states the fact, that M8 BIOS doesn't support RAM upgrades.

I flashed an old X2 4981 BIOS and - oh wonder - all the memory now is recognized by finas tool and by XBMC.

But I would prefer to stay with M8, so does anybody know a patch for M8 to support more than the standard 64 MB?
#93
Well, I can tell you that

- I have a chamaleon modchip on a 1.2 xbox, with the latest x2 bios released ( 5035)

- I just soldered the extra 64 mb chips nothing more, nothing less.

- XBMC display a memory value of 128mb ( but I still don't know if it makes use of it or not!!! )

- Mameox displays, and uses the 128mb ( I know this because some roms only work with more than 64mb on early mameox versions). Bender mameox has virtual memory support and works ok with 64mb xboxes)

- gentoox and debian also detect and use the 128mb.

In the end, I belive that you do have a bios problem. If I remember correctly, the development xboxes that were sent to developers had 128mb of ram and a special bios with debug flag on, and also with support for initializing the extra ram.


About the memory test tool:

I don't remember from where I got it!!! I remember talking with the developer, and he also was very surprised that someone was actualy using it. He told me that he wrote the program to test if it was possible to address more than 64mb, but he never had tried it on a 128mb xbox ( if I recall correctly).
I forgot everything else, I'm sorry.
Anyway, as you can see, in your xbox, the program cannot alocate the extra 64mb. It ony goes up to 54mb, the rest till 64 is probably used by the program itself. Mine wold go past 100 if I recall.
I think the J means nothing.


I belive that there is a X2 bios that is 256kb. Maybe you want to try to flash that one..
#94
oops.. didn't saw your second thread!

Nice to see that you got it working Smile
#95
Hello finas,

thanks very much for your quick reply.
Do you know wether the X2 4983 (I think this was the last 256k BIOS) will work with my aladin, or are there code parts for the Xecuter mod chip in it that won't run on the aladin. Your 5035 BIOS I think I have read wishes to have 512k of flash.
#96
Any 256k bios will work.
#97
As the subject suggests, I'd like to know if upgrading my RAM to 128MB will increase the performance of XBMC when running in 1080i mode.

Please don't flame if this has been asked, I searched a number of different terms and didn't find anything useful.

Advice or a link to a helpful post/artical/tutorial/whatever is greatly appreciated.

I modded my box myself a while ago, maybe 5 years at this point and have done a number of mods for others. I know the 128 upgrade is useful for development, homebrew and running linux but have never attempted it. I don't want to bother until I know it will be worth my while. However, I haven't been able to determine by reading if XBMC will address this extra memory and use it to benefit 1080i operation.

This whole thing was prompted by my recent upgrade to an HDTV. I can't get streaming of trailers or most .mp4 vids to work while in 1080i but it does work in ntsc 16x9 mode. Reviewing my logs show that memory errors pop when trying to stream trailers or watch .mp4 videos over my LAN. Hence the newfound desire to add more memory.
#98
no. to put it in the most basic terms possible, a RAM upgrade won't do anything of consequence for XBMC.
Catchy Signature Here
#99
Thanks for the quick reply. Is there a tweaking guide that I can use to reduce the memory usage in 1080i as much as possible, so as to get those streams and .mp4 vids working without going to a lower resolution?
the default skin Project Mayhem III is a little heavy on the graphics, but right now there's no skin that comes as close to its completeness. Smokehead's new project Clearity will probably end up being a good choice one he finishes building it. It's currently like 3.75 MB in size, while PMIII is around 29 MB. Of course, in both cases not all of that is in memory all the time, but I think others have discussed this before and said similair stuff to what I am saying.

In addition to the skin, you'll wanna turn off all the servers you aren't using, as each has overhead associated with it. Some of the people on here are very heavily into the HD stuff so they will have better advice.
Catchy Signature Here
I disagree, it doesn't do much for direct performance as you say, however it does quite alot for being able to play high rez content with large cache. We are very limited for memory in 1080i.

It's a quite common occurance that we run out of memory in that mode as you can see on this forum.

It's won't make any video play faster, but it will make it less likely you will crash due to lack of memory.
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.


Image
Finally! the answer I wanted to hear!
Just to get this straight.. If I am running in 1080i mode and have 128MB of ram in my XBOX, I won't be running into memory issues anymore?

The reason I am asking is, my TV can only display 480p or 1080i, so I have XBMC running in 1080i with PMIII and am upsampling all my movies to 1080i as well.. needless to say it does crash quite a bit and I am pondering with the idea of putting in the extra 64MB of ram..
Yeah I'm still looking into this mod also... I access to SMT (surface mount technology) soldering kit, just need the extra RAM chips....

Also I have noticed that Dreamtech did a processor upgrade... not the 1.4ghz thingy but the same 733mhz PIII but with the 256k cache... would this help performance for HD playback in XBMC? Thinking about having a tinker! Nerd not an easy job but I have SMT'd 386 processors in the past with a good success rate! Nod
Exclamation 
64MB RAM memory upgrade to 128MB RAM memory will not be of much benefit to XBMC during video playback (nor for music with visualization) as XBMC's MPlayer and DVDPlayer cores are not designed to take advantage of the extra the extra memory. (They are however designed to take advanta of a faster 1.4GHz CPU if available).

@senorphatnutz; .mp4 files usually contain MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video and AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) audio, both of which require much more processing power to be decoded then MPEG-2 / MPEG-4 ASP (H.263) video and MP3 audio. So the CPU is the bottleneck for MP4 video files long before the memory becomes an issue.

Please read these hints and tips from the XBMC online manal for more information

http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/inde...imitations
Quote:* With its 733Mhz Intel Pentium III and 64MB shared memory, the Xbox game-console does not have enough hardware-resources (not fast enough CPU nor large enough RAM-memory) to play 720p/1080i resolution-native HDTV video (at 1280x720 and 1920x1080 pixels), (like 720p/1080i WMV HD or MPEG-2). Workaround: XBMC can however upconvert all 480p/576p standard-resolution movies and output them to 720p or 1080i HDTV resolutions in better quality than most (if not all) HDTV's native function to upconvert video.

* Again with its 733Mhz Intel Pentium III and 64MB shared memory, the Xbox does not have enough hardware-resources (not fast enough CPU nor large enough RAM-memory) to play MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) encododed videos with Cabac and Deblocking if the video-resolution is higher than 352x288 pixels. Workaround: If you encode your MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) videos without Cabac and Deblocking then the Xbox hardware can handle up to 480x576 pixels video-resolution. Though best is to encode your videos to MPEG-4 ASP (like DivX or XviD) instead, then the videos native-resolution can be up to 960x540 pixels (a.k.a. HRHD resolution).
http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/inde...an_I_do.3F
Quote:Q: I use XBMC in HDTV resolution (720p or 1080i) and when I try play a video or audio file/stream it fails, what can I do?
A: Most likely you are running out of available RAM (Random Access Memory). The Xbox hardware only comes equipped with 64MB of unified RAM, (which means that system and graphics memory are shared, unlike a standard PC where they are separate dedicated memory for both the system and the graphics, and usally both are much larger than 64MB by themself). 64MB of total RAM is not a lot, and is especially limiting at high-definition HDTV like 720p (1280x720) and 1080i (1920x1080) pixel-resolutions. This means that when you use 720p or 1080i you have to be mindful of things that can take up memory:

Cache sizes (especially video cache, this does normaly not have to be larger than 2MB, maybe 4MB or max 8MB or wireless)
Skin used (some skins use more memory than others, try to use XBMC default Project Mayhem 3 skin)
Enabled servers/services (WebServer, FTP-server, Python)
If you are having problems in 1080i then try if it works better in 720p (if your display supports 720p that is)
Try running video-playback at a lower resolution than the GUI, for example videos in 720p and GUI in 1080i
Due to the shortage of RAM, it may be a wise idea to turn off all of the listed servers/services at first until you know what can be sustained. Also lowering the video/audio/stream cache size to 1MB, (which is more than enough for playback over a wired local network). If you use wireless, then you may need it slightly higher, (though expect other problems with streaming video over wireless, see Wireless Specific Tips for more information).

http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/inde...V_media.3F
Quote:Q: Does XBMC and Xbox support HDTV (High Definition TV) resolutions?, and HDTV media?
A: Yes and no, but the answer is a little more complicated than that, you see: Xbox/XBMC can output a 480p/720p/1080i signal (if you have a Xbox High Definition AV Pack/component cable) and upscale all low-resolution videos (like retail DVD-Video/Movies) to 720p (1280x720 pixels progressive) or 1080i (1920x1080 pixels interlaced) in hardware (linear upscale/upconvert). So XBMC have no problems with upscaling for example DVD-Video (720x480 NTSC/720x756 PAL) movies to HDTV 480p/720p/1080i. XBMC is even capable of playing native HD video (video/movies with native resolutions higher than 720x576) like 720p (1280x720) and 1080i (1920x1080), however there is here a big snag/limitation with that and that is that a standard Xbox only has a 733Mhz Intel Pentium-III CPU (processor) and that does not have the processing power to decode those native HD videos fast enough, (Microsoft® and DivX® recommends a 2.4 Ghz PC + 384MB RAM for 720p MPEG-4 playback!). This means that you might only get maybe 10-20fps (frames per seconds) displayed which would appear so jerky because of all dropped frames that it will be un-viewable. The only real solution if you want to play videos with native HD resolutions on Xbox is to buy or upgrade to a non-standard Xbox with a much faster CPU (processor), (like example the DreamX-1400 from FriendTech] which has a 1480Mhz Pentium-III that is at least capable of decoding all native HD videos encodec with MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 ASP (H.263) that are have up to 720p in native HDTV video resolution. FriendTech do offers trade-in). Note! You must enable/setup your HDTV settings in Microsoft dashboard, (on NTSC Xboxes).

To make this even clearer XBMC capability on a standard Xbox (with Intel 733Mhz PIII CPU):
720x480 pixel video output to 480p HDTV (720x480 progressive) = OK! (eg not upscaled).
720x480 pixel video output to 720p HDTV (1280x720 progressive) = OK! (eg upscaled).
720x480 pixel video output to 1080i HDTV (1920x1080 interlaced) = OK! (eg upscaled).
1280x720 pixel progressive video output to 720p HDTV (native 1280x720 progressive) = FAIL!
1920x1080 interlaced video output to 1080i HDTV (native 1920x1080 interlaced) = FAIL!

Note! All above that state FAIL don't actually fail to play, it's just that the Xbox CPU is to slow to decode/render the high resolution so it will drop so may frames (producing stuttering playback) that is will be un-viewable.
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.
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[XBOX] 128MB RAM upgrade for the Xbox, is it of any benefits for XBMC?0