Step 1: Manufacturing Date and Serial Number
On the bottom of the Xbox, you can see the manufacturing date and the serial number. The manufacturing date is in the following format:
2004-11-20
i.e. YYYY-MM-DD
(Year-Month-Day) which is the date according to ISO 8601.
The serial number looks like this:
3137905 44705
i.e. LNNNNNN YWWFF
L the number of the production line within the factory,
NNNNNN the number of the Xbox within this week,
Y the last digit of the production year,
WW the number of the week of the production year,
FF is the code of the factory (02: Mexico, 03: Hungary, 05: China. 06: Taiwan).
Step 2: The Factory
Look at the factory code, i.e. the last two digits of the serial number.
If the factory code is "03" (Hungary), you are done: You can be sure that it is a 1.0 Xbox. You can even be sure that it contains a Thomson DVD drive
If the factory code is "02" (Mexico), it is either a 1.0 or a 1.1 Xbox. Look at the manufacturing date: If it is November 2002 or later, you have a 1.1 Xbox, else it's a 1.0.
If the factory code is "05" (China), you have at least a 1.1 Xbox.
If the factory code is "06" (Taiwan), you have at least a 1.3 Xbox.
Step 3: Version Table
If you have a "Halo Special Edition" Xbox (translucent green), you have version 1.2, which has been made in weeks 8 and 9 of 2003 on lines 2, 5 and 6.
If you have a "Crystal Special Edition" Xbox (translucent white), you either have a version 1.5 or 1.6 which were made in weeks 32 to 34 of 2004.(Which is not on the list below)
Find out the production line of the Xbox, which is the first digit of the serial number. Then find out the year and week of your Xbox. The first digit of the second block is the last digit of the year (i.e. 2 or 3 for 2002 or 2003), and the following two digits are the number of the week. For example, the serial "1111111 31205" is from week 12/2003.
Now look up the box corresponding to the week and the production line in the following table. The legend below the table will tell you the meaning of the colors. Note:Anything After 18\04 Is mainly Unknown and is most likly to be a version 1.6 or 1.6b.
| Week | Line 1 | Line 2 | Line 3 | Line 4 | Line 5 | Line 6 |
| 23/02 | ? | ? | 12 Jun | ? | ? | ? |
| 34/02 | ? | ? | 24 Aug | ? | ? | ? |
| 39/02 | ? | ? | ? | ? | 29 sept | ? |
| 42/02 | 18 Oct | |||||
| 43/02 | ? | |||||
| 44/02 | ? | |||||
| 45/02 | 13 Nov | |||||
| 46/02 | ? | |||||
| 47/02 | 20 Nov | ? | ||||
| 48/02 | ? | ? | ||||
| 49/02 | 03 Dec | 03 Dec | ||||
| 50/02 | 13 Dec | |||||
| 51/02 | 19 Dec | ? | ||||
| 52/02 | ? | ? | ||||
| 01/03 | ? | ? | ||||
| 02/03 | 10 Jan | ? | ||||
| 03/03 | ? | ? | ||||
| 04/03 | 24 Jan | ? | 22 Jan | 20 Jan | ||
| 05/03 | ? | ? | ? | |||
| 06/03 | ? | ? | ? | |||
| 07/03 | ? | ? | ? | |||
| 08/03 | ? | 21 Feb | ? | 19 Feb | ||
| 09/03 | ? | ? | 27 Feb | ? | – | |
| 10/03 | ? | 03 Mar | ? | ? | – | |
| 11/03 | ? | 10 Mar | ? | 11 Mar | – | |
| 12/03 | ? | ? | ? | – | ||
| 13/03 | ? | ? | ? | – | ||
| 14/03 | ? | 02 Apr | 03 Apr | – | ||
| 15/03 | 09 Apr | – | ||||
| 16/03 | – | |||||
| 17/03 | – | |||||
| 18/03 | – | |||||
| 19/03 | 04 May | |||||
| 20/03 | 05 May | |||||
| 21/03 | ||||||
| 22/03 | ||||||
| 23/03 | 02 Jun | |||||
| 24/03 | ||||||
| 25/03 | ||||||
| 26/03 | ||||||
| 27/03 | ||||||
| 28/03 | ||||||
| 29/03 | ?-?-? | 17 Jul | ||||
| 30/03 | 23 Jul | ?-?-? | 23 Jul | 24 Jul | 23 Jul | 23 Jul |
| 31/03 | 28 Jul | |||||
| 32/03 | ||||||
| 11/04 | 2 Mar | |||||
| 11/04 | 11 Mar | ? | ||||
| 12/04 | ? | ? | 18 Mar | 22 Mar | ||
| 13/04 | 28 Mar | ? | ? | |||
| 14/04 | ? | 1 Apr | ||||
| 15/04 | ? | 5 Apr | 10 Apr | |||
| 16/04 | ? | ? | ? | |||
| 17/04 | ? | ? | ? | |||
| 18/04 | ? | ? | ? | |||
| 31/04 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| 33/04 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
| 46/04 | ? | ? | ? | 11 Nov | ? | ? |
| 47/04 | ? | 16 Nov | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 21/05 | 16 May |
Legend:
| 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.6 | unknown |