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Softmod in terms of PC hardware

A Softmod is the act of using software to modify hardware such as a video card or sound card in a way that can unlock or enable disabled features, usually pipelines. Cards that can be modified using software to faster versions (without regard to clock speed) usually contain much of the same hardware. Softmodding a card should not include changing the video card's bios, as that's considered a bios flash. There are only 4 current softmods that can be done, a Radeon 9500 NP to a 9500 Pro (128 bit) or 9700 (256 bit), a Radeon 9800SE (with 256-bit L-shaped memory layout on the PCB) to a Radeon 9800 Pro, a GeForce 6200 to a 6600, and a GeForce 6800NU to a 6800GT. The act of a softmod usually enables pixel rendering pipelines, though may also include other enhancements. A softmodded card may not always reach the same performance as the real card it has been changed to, but the difference should be very little; and generally not noticeable. The softmodding is not guaranteed to always work, sometimes the pipelines have been disabled for a reason, e.g., a defect that produces artifacts when enabled.

Softmod in terms of the Xbox

Softmod is also a term used to refer to modifying a Xbox without the use of a mod chip.

Softmods for Xbox used to include a font exploit installed through exploits in savegame code for MechAssault, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, and 007: Agent Under Fire which allows an additional option to be added to the Xbox Dashboard, usually for booting Linux. The Font-hack works by exploiting a buffer overflow in the Xbox font loader which is part of the dashboard. However, since the Xbox requires the clock to be valid and the dashboard itself is where you set the clock there is problem if the RTC backup capacitor discharges. The Xbox will detect that the clock isn't set and therefore force the dashboard to be loaded which then promptly reboots due to the buffer overflow exploit. Upon restarting, the Xbox detects the clock is invalid and the process repeats. Later font exploits, Über Xbe Exploit (UXE) and nDure do not suffer from the clock loop problem.but this time in a index file used in the custom soundtrack system. The exploit is triggered by going into the audio menu which avoids the problem with the font exploit. However, there are rumors that certain audio hacks may cause the custom sound track function in some Xbox games to no longer be usable, and there are rumors to the contrary. Audio Hacks are mostly outdated as Microsoft has made efforts to obsolete such exploits, the version of dashboard that was used for the audio-hack will not even load on newer Xboxes. The Audio hack is also vulnerable to dashboard updates from Xbox Live or original Xbox Games.

With new technology and installers (mostly thanks to 'Krayzie' and his installers Krayzies UXE and nDure), softmodding has become an easy and reliable way to mod an xbox. It is now considered an everyman's solution to a modded xbox.

An alternative to softmodding is to actually reprogram the onboard flash chip in older revisions of the have been shorted, it is possible to overwrite the stock BIOS with a modified one by using one of the gamesave exploits. However, Microsoft is more easily able to detect such softmodding due to the inability to disable the modified BIOS and also will ban the user's Xboxes (not their accounts) from Xbox Live.

All softmodding of Xboxes is considered a violation of warranty and runs the risk of rendering an Xbox almost unusable, if not performed properly. There are still lingering questions of legality.

External links

• Tutorial for font/audio exploit
• Everything you need to softmod your Xbox
• Xbox Linux
• The soft mod depot
• uzzimods

• Graphics cards
• Xbox