Tries to connect to Xbox Live

Kai Beginner Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 13

When I start certain games using the play feature in the KAI UI in XBMC, certain games (Halo 2 and Top Spin) try to connect to Xbox live to update content. With Halo 2, I can just hit B and it will go back and then I can system link into the game, so no big deal. But with Top Spin, it says that everything is updated, connecting to Xbox live. And then the xbox resets. I have an X2 chip, with the Live protection enabled. I'm assuming that the chip is doing an IGR as soon as it detects the connection to live, something that Halo 2 doesnt' actually do, just asks. I have tried to do the simple load with Top Spin, but can't see any games, although I haven't done this using the PC UI. The main thing I'm concerned about is why it keeps trying to update content, and how I can keep it from doing that. Thanks.
-QB

Kai Lover Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 699

Your Xbox, as far as I'm concerned, won't force you to go on Xbox Live as soon as you boot the game. It's a possibility that you may be signing on to Xbox Live, thus causing you to get the IGR and such from your modchip. I'm sure TopSpin, which I have previously owned, has it's own system-link option in the menu, right?

Kai Beginner Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 13

I know for certain that I am personally not trying to sign on to Xbox Live. I have never had a Live account, nor has there ever been a Live account on the Xbox. The auto-sign in was disabled before I even had a modchip. That being said, let me tell you exactly what happens:

1. Start up Xbox, XBMC boots as my default dash. A second later, it auto connects to KAI.
2. Go to KAI, and hit view button till I am at the games menu. The KAI vectors work great and all the games on my HD that KAI supports are listed there.
3. Scroll down till I get to Top Spin (or Halo 2), enter the arena and then hit left to the PLAY button.
4. Hit the play button.

For Top Spin:
5. A green screen appears that says game content update complete (or something of that nature) and it is now connecting to Xbox Live.
6. Xbox reboots, XBMC loads again.

For Halo 2:
5. A blue screen appears saying that no Xbox Live accounts were found. Two options appear, one of them being B (back). I forget what the other option is since I always just hit B.
6. I hit B, Halo 2 loads, I go to system link
7. All the KAI games appear, I select the game I want to connect to, and everything is great.

A couple of notes: Backing out of the KAI menu in XBMC, and then loading Top Spin normally does work with KAI. I can go to system link, and play multiplayer games just fine.

Also, these are both retail versions of the games that I used DVD2XBOX to copy onto my HD. I have not downloaded them from anywhere, nor did I try to patch the xbe's myself.
Finally, Top Spin was from a game that came with the xbox. It was a 2-game DVD containing both NCAA football 2005 and Top Spin. I have since deleted NCAA 2005, since I own NCAA 2006.
My HD is a 160GB Maxtor, but is definitely locked. As far as I know, I can connect to Xbox live so long as my chip is turned off. I have never tried, since I don't have a Live account.
Hope someone can sort this through for me. Thanks!
If any more info would be helpful let me know.
-QB

Kai Regular Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 163

The Halo 2 screen is normal. It will not connect to live unless you tell it to, and seeing as you have no live account you have nothing to worry about. Now with topspin, i can't help. i dont have the game, and have never played it. so sorry there.

Kai Lover Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 699

A very unusual case for TopSpin, but inthepit is correct about the Halo 2 part. I wish I could help you further but I no longer have the game. Let's see, would there happen to be an atuo-login option at the retail dashboard of your Xbox? I would do this myself if I still had it, got it deleted by accident, haha. Laughing

But anyways, either that or try booting TopSpin from the disc if you haven't done so already. Let us know of any changes and thanks for your patience! Smile

Kai Beginner Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 13

Ok, well.
Here's what I did. I deleted every .xbe except the default.xbe file (after backing them up, of course). Now, the green screen doesn't come up. Instead, XBMC just restarts. However, if I start Top Spin normally, it seems to work just fine. any thoughts?

Kai Lover Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 699

Quick_Bunnie wrote:

However, if I start Top Spin normally, it seems to work just fine. any thoughts?

So has this solved the problem? I suggest you don't delete any .xbe's since they are pretty important to your xbox, unless it's an application you know for sure is not needed. (Yes, you deleted them, but good thing you thought ahead and backed it up.) Check on the retail dashboard of your Xbox if there is an auto-login feature and disable it so you won't be forced to go on Live when you start TopSpin.

Kai Beginner Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 13

No, unfortunately, it hasn't solved the problem. Can't start Top Spin through the XBMC KAI UI. Just no green screen telling me its trying to connect to Xbox Live.

I turned the chip off, and went into the original dash, and made sure the auto-sign in was disabled. (this was actually one of the first things I did, i just forgot to mention it).

What I was trying to check was if the UI was excecuting the default.xbe or some other file, since a simple default.xbe execute through the dashboard worked just fine. It seems that in deleting the rest of the .xbe's I have eliminated the .xbe that is executed through the KAI UI, while keeping the game functional (so far as I can tell). I was hoping that the KAI UI would revert back to the default.xbe once it did not find the other .xbe, but that was not the case.

Maybe I have the wrong idea of how games are launched throught the UI.
I will try and isolate the .xbe that is being used by the KAI UI. Perhaps there is a patch or something. Thanks for the help. Any information will always be helpful.
-QB

Kai Lover Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 699

Ahh, I see. Then if deleting the other .xbe's have resolved the problem then, you're right, you'll need to isolate it. Either that or update your Kai Vectors .xml file. I'm not too big on XBMC, but look on some threads around here relating to that, if you're interested. Always nice to get a little background info on XBMC's Kai UI. Very Happy

And we appreicate your patience man, thanks!

Kai Beginner Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 13

Ok, now I have tried to edit the KAI vectors .xml file. The first thing I did was to look up the titleid's for the .xbe files in question (I did this using avalaunch, which lists titleid's as a part of the file properties). Interestingly, the correct titleid's were in the xml file, except with a 0X in front of it.

For example:
TopSpin\default.xbe has a titleid=4D530035

xml file:

TitleID=0X4D530035

I tried deleting the "0X", but the same thing happened (Surprisingly enough, it worked, as in the game executed, but to the same green screen).

Does anyone know how the UI loads games in XBMC? Because I can't figure it out. I will try and check if all .xbe's have the same titleid for the same game.
thanks!
-QB

Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 0

My guess is that the kaivectors map is wrong - and its telling XBMC to load the dash update XBE instead of default.xbe ..

If so, someone might need to have a look at this..

TD

Kai Beginner Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 13

Is there any way to edit the kaivectors map without getting into the actual build?

Kai Beginner Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 13

Well, I have been looking around in XBMC, and I can't find any type of config file (.xml or .txt) that refers to how the KAI vectors are mapped. I spent quite a while running searches, but no useful files came up.

I am forced to conclude that this is something that is built into XBMC and is not simply user edited, which is about as far as my technical experience takes me.

Thanks for all the help! Please post to let me know if anyone who does know the XBMC code knows why this is happening, and if it can be fixed. I am guessing it can also be used to take out the Halo 2 option screen as well.
Thanks again.
-QB

Kai Beginner Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 13

Note: There is another green screen for Forza Motorsports, but it does have a "B" back button similar to Halo 2.
-QB

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:31 am

its a setting in the MS Dash.

Go to settings. in there disable auto connect to xbox live.

Kai Beginner Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 5

Curious.. Do you have a PAL or NTSC Xbox?

Just thinking that maybe your XBMC is setup as PAL, and your system is a NTSC, and your Top Spin might be having issues with what region your game is set to..

I dunno.... I remember back in the old C64/Amiga days, there were problems like these, when concerning Pal to NTSC...

/ater,
Razor

Kai Beginner Joined: 26 Dec 2004 Posts: 6

Same problem here... I only have halo 2 and it overwrites my default dash (evox)! I don't get the option to back out of it, and it takes me to the M$ dash. The only thing I can do is IGR (which takes me to the M$ dash) try to connect to Live (which would be dumb on my switchless, modded box, esp. since I don't have a Live account), or turn the box off. I may just break down and use xlink on my 2nd computer and hard wire it to my router, or teether my laptop...

Kai Beginner Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 10

Hi QB,

I am having the same issue - did you ever solve it?

Regards,

Nika.

Team XLink Administrator Joined: 04 Jun 2004 Posts: 4371

one way to stop it from ever updating your dash is to rip the game to your harddrive and delete the dashupdate.xbe in the game root ..

another way would be to name your dash evoxdash.xbe , check your bios for what filenames will work, evoxdash.xbe is pretty standard .. this will make evoxdash.xbe boot before xboxdash.xbe so it can update all it wants and nothing will happen .. don't do this with a softmod ..

Kai Beginner Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 10

Btw. in my case, it shows me the "Update Complete. Starting XBox Live" screen with all programs I try to start (TopSpin / Halo 2 / PGR 2) from the XLink screen in XBMC.

I have tried the following:

1. Locking/unlocking harddisk -> nothing.
2. AutoSignin set to disabled from XBoxDash -> nothing
3. Starting from Avalaunch with XLink -> games start, but no system link games available

Anyone any other suggestions?

Regards,

Nika.