Orignal XBOX Dash no longer boots (red flashing)

[Punky]

Hmmm. Not sure what happened... but I'll try to layout the sequence of events here...

- Xbox modded - started using Evo... 358 build I believe.

- I would keep the xbox original xboshdash.xbe in the root of C, and just rename it (to .orig) and replace it with the EVO xboxdash.xbe when I wanted to back up a game. After backing up, I'd put the original dash back in place. Everything has been running fine for months

- Went onto Live the other day (chip was turned on first time, then I remembered and turned it off and re-connected).

- When I connected, I got a message about a LIVE update, the update ran and all was fine.

- After the update - autologin was turned on, so a few times the xbox tried to connect while the chip was turned off. I Changed the configuration in LIVE to stop logging in.

- Dispite all this - things were still running fine. I thought I did notice though that the original xboxdash.xbe did not seem to match the xboxdash.xbe (in terms of file size) that was not running on the xbox. I thought that perhaps the live update I mentioned above changed the xboxdash.xbe. So I backed it up as well.

- Now I have 2 different copies of xboxdash.xbe which I have marked as Xbox originals, plus an EVO xboxdash.xbe.

- I found the newest evox and created a CD (forgot the version# but it's something like 3972?). Booted from the CD, changed the autoboot game setting to false (otherwise I had no way of backing up the games), and backed up a few more games. I did not do any bios flash at this point - not sure if I have to (perhaps this is a missed required step?)

- I put the original xboxdash.xbe in and reset the machine (turning the modchip switch off). That blasted flashing red light came on. I remembered about the xboxdash.xbe files (2 originals) and thought perhaps I put the wrong one in. I've tried both of the XBOXDASH.XBE files that I thought were xbox originals but I still get the flashing red.

- Now the only way I can use my xbox is if I have the evo dash installed. Now when I am playing an original game and I want to attach to live, I don't think I am allowed (the few times I tried yesterday I got that message saying basically I wasn't allowed).

Can anyone tell me what I am missing? I'd love to be able to run the xbox in native mode with the chip turned off so I can run original games on Live. By using a newer evo - do I have to flash the bios? Is there a danger in flashing the bios? Is there somewhere I can get a copy of xboxdash.xbe (I understand there is a copyprotection issue but what else can I do)? Was my assumption about 2 different xboxdash.xbe originals correct?

HELP

Dave