eeprom catastrophe, need guidance...

As some may have read, I made a post yesterday concerning my situation. I'm not quite sure of the legalities involved, but am going to presume that had something to do with the lack of responses. So, in light of that, let me rephrase my situation in order to gain some guidance.

say i own two xboxes, one is stock, the other may or may not be modified. let's continue to say that i took the eeprom off of the stock one (lord knows how that would happen if it were to remain stock) and put it on the one that can readily do that. the end result being that my veresion 1.6a xbox now starts in the following way: bypasses the modchip (red lcd), then after only a few seconds the power seems to cut, and in even less time the xbox reactivates in 'red' then quickly into 'blue,' then off again, then the same thing happens again and stabilizes at 'blue.' From this point I am able to hold power and eject to boot from 256k backup. When FlashBIOS 3.0.1 loads, it states

"HDD: SAMSUNG SP1213n TL100-24 120.60GB Unable to get first sector,"

and that's all i can read. it loads the DVD drive, then below that states

"Unable to read HDD first sector getting partition table"

I've tried reflashing, but it seems to have no effect. I've tried the 'cromwell-patched.bin,' but that seems to have done nothing as far as restoring my old eeprom, which I have saved on my computer. Now, I'm asking, begging, pleading, for some guidance in the right direction here. Ok, so i got greedy and wanted to undo my banning from live....i don't care about that any more, i just want it to function again. if anything i've stated goes against any one, any institution, or religion, then i apologize and please tell me. if it is otherwise not legal to respond, pm me, else just respond away, please.

Respectfully,

T

 

There is a specific way to flash the eeprom on an xbox. People that sell eeproms of unbanned xbox's will give instructions on how to change it. Here is an eeprom seller http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=441344&hl=eeprom . Maybe he can give you some advice on how to fix your problem. I'm thinking that to fix your problem your going to have to either #1 buy a replacement xbox motherboard and hdd or #2 physically replace the eeprom chip on the xbox mb(desolder the current one and solder a new one on from a nonfuxered one).

 

Thank you for the options. I'll let you know what the man says (hopefully something good).

 

Unless the Guy so Fuxxed up His TSOP to the point where all the info was lost (i.e. All the 'Sub-Keys' e.g. You have lost your HDD Unlock Key!!),. The only thing that could save you now is a Modchip! with a Cracked Firmware Image that corrisponds to your XBOX™ Ver. (e.g. v1.0 ~ v1.6a/b),.

If you are lucky enough to still have some access, to your XBOX™ you can edit your Firmware (TSOP), Image with a Program called 'ConfigMagic'. You certanly do not need to, unsolder the Chip in question. If have to go that far. you can, as I said above use a Modchip and a new Unlocked HDD of a +200Gib nature will be all you need. The only thing is unless you can clone your other XBOX™ or know anything about the 'Sub-Keys' I would guess you could make it up on the fly! In 'ConfigMagic' in order to eventualy Lock the HDD, and the HDD MUST BE LOCKED in order to run a Retail Firmware!! But, I wouldn't expect to be playing on Live!�™ with that XBOX™ either...

 

sorry i can't say much in the way of that last post, because sadly i didn't quite understand it. as far as a new development, i talked with the guy selling those eeproms for a while and the main problem, unfortunately, and to my embarassment, was that i had not read any documentation regarding the specifics of the eeprom swap. i did not realize that they had to both be from the same version of box. it seems as though i placed a version 1.0 eeprom into my 1.6, which has all but crushed any hope of revival.

as far as a fix, it may be possible, from what i gather. i'm able to boot the 256k backup from the chip and get to the flashbios. from flashbios there is an option to lock and unlock the drive, though i'm not sure if it works. if it does, then i can conceivably unlock my hard drive, swap that out for the one that the v1.0 eeprom is from, then maybe be able to boot the xbox properly from which i can swap the eeprom with my v1.6 original file, then swap the drives again and have that be it. the only hold up will be getting the box to boot with this hard drive and eeprom from a 1.0, on my 1.6. any ideas? is this going in the right direction? can it work?

 

I repled to your pervious Post. As I understood (or susspected), it the idea that you could have missfhashed your Chip came to mind. I assumed you had to open your XBOX™ at some point to Solder the 'Wrte Protect' Jumper and both the 'D0' (Dee Zero), Ponts as well. Why didn't you note your Video Encoder Chip. (i.e. v1.0 ~ v1.6a/b)??

Let's get this stright, did you flash your TSOP (i.e. On-Board BIOS), or did you do this to the Xecuter3? There's a big difference here! If you just misflashed the Modchip. Then you should still be good. You can either reflash the Modchip, or disconnect the Modchip to regain the use of your XBOX™.

Assuming the worst that you actaully did the above and Flashed your TSOP! Then to put it in a nutshell your fuxxd! Here's why:

The TSOP (i.e. The Retail Firmware Image), not only contains the Boot Code for your XBOX™, but also no less the Five seperate and unique 'Sub-Keys', that your XBOX™ needs in order for it to just boot up.
These Keys include:

The XBOX™ Serial Number: Perhaps the Simplest Key to recover!
The XBOX™ MAC Address:
The XBOX™ On-Line Key: (32-bit Key), This is what you want to buy from that EEPROM Handler as this is the Key that governs, whether or not you're getting on Live!™
The Unique HDD Key: (16-Bit Key), Do not confuse this with the 20-Bit HDD Lock Key
XBOX™ HDD Serial Number: Again it should be listed on the Hardware.
And finally the The 20-bit HDD Unlock Key!: All the above plus accounting your Region Code and Game Region Code (i.e. DVD 2 & Game Region 4), and the Region of your DVD-ROM Drive. All make up the Hash that gets added up to reveal your personal 20-Bit HDD Unlock Key.

So I hope you managed to Backup your EEPROM.bin File (in Evox!), and you then had the grace to have had FTP'd it to your PC. 'Couse if you had you might still have a small chance!

You'll need to find a Program called 'LiveConfig'. It's the PC Version of 'ConfigMagic'. Whit this you can load up your Originall EEPROM.bin File and recover your Original Keys! Provided that your HDD was not locked with a different Unlock Key.

If it was and there's no way for you to find that Key. Then for all intents and purposes can chuck your Drive into the Bin! As you'll never be able to use it again! Not on your XBOX™, not your Friends XBOX™, and not in your PC either. Not unless you can actualy phyicaly unlock the HDD. Which may be possible but, I'd think you'd find a 400Gib (Gigabite), HDD to be a much cheaper solution then sending your HDD off to some recovery Lab!

Please note I'm not directing this to anyone in perticualr exect to anyone who reads this and is thinking about a TSOP Flash!!

This is why I NEVER RECOMEND PEOPLE TO FUXX TSOPS!! I don't care if your to chaep to get a simple Modchip! If you have to be a freakn Tightarse at least go though the steps to install PBL (The Phoenix BIOS Loader!),. At least if mess that up you could still recover. At worst with a Modchip! But, you only have one TSOP. You Fuxx that up, and it's pretty much Bin time! I can't stess this enough Softmoding is not for n00bs! You have to have more experience then just turning on a Computer and running Windows, People! Softmods are a real B*tch to keep up as there are countless things that will break 'em.

The only safe and effective way to mod a Console (in this case the XBOX™), a Modchip is the only real solution. Once you have enough experience with a Chiped XBOX™ then you can try your Hand at Softmoding. More for the Hands-on approch in an attempt to actualy learn something! But, if all you want to do is Homebrew (i.e. XBMC & Backups), A Modchip will allways serve you best!

And you can keep the Info's in your TSOP nice and safe as M$ intended them to be!

 

I apologize if i was ambiguous in my previous posts. I do have a hard mod, in the sense that i physically soldered in a chip and took the necessary steps to make the system work.

I do have a backup of my original eeprom.bin file, and have examined the details of this file through the program LiveInfo.exe. i'm unsure as to whether or not i flashed my TSOP. all i did, in a nutshell, to start this snowball of shi+ effect, was go to the X3 bios and hit "update eeprom." so you tell me.

now what about my idea in my last post for a possible fix, any chances of that happening? i haven't had time to do that as of yet...real life got in the way. thanks for all the input, it's very much appreciated!

 

Ok lets get on the same Page here...

Ok is it safe to assume you have an Xecuter 3 Modchip. In so far as you've use'd there Software?

Other then the Modchip itself did you do anything eles! To your XBOXs'™ Main Logig Board?

If you just installed a duff Firmware ROM on your Chip you should go throu your Documentation on how to get into your ChipOS (all modern XBOX™ Modchips the X3, SmartXX, OZxodius all have some form of a 'ChipOS' that works indipendant to the XBOX™. It's there so you can easly set up a FTP Network without the need of a Dashboard. Or in your case to recover from a bad Flash! Or to set up a FTP / Network in order to flash over a Network Connection.

Unfortunatly I do not have a current Gen. Modchip (see above),. So my Chip does not have this so called 'ChipOS' in it, and I really can't be of much help to you there. =(

If you only duffed up your Modchip you can test this by phisicly removing the Chip! Then your XBOX™ should be ok again! Then all you have to do is to simply reformat your Chip and or reflash a proper Firmware Image to your Xecuter 3 again...

 

i'm sorry, once again, for my apparent ambiguity. i do have an xecuter 3. my hold up is that when i chose to replace my eeprom.bin file with an incompatible version of eeprom file format, the chip didn't know any better and replaced that file for me by writing it ON TO the xbox itself. the modchip does have the ability to connect to a network, but that, as far as i can tell, is merely for reflashing the chip, not an eeprom file. my big problem, as i see it, is that i don't know how to "flash" a new eeprom without being able to access pretty much anything.

 

Well again I don't know anything about the v1.6 XBOX™ either. I heard it 'round that the v1.6 didn't come with a TSOP (i.e. BIOS Chip), and that the Firmware was in fact now stored somewhere on the MCXP (nVidia Chip), . If this is the case then all bets are off. =(

I know that the v1.0 to v1.5 all had a seperate TSOP Flash Chip that stored the Retail Firmware (i.e. the original Firmware your XBOX™ shiped out with!),. In order to be able to flash it you had to solder the 'Write Protect Jumper', that was next to the TSOP, and then short out both the 'D0' points on the Top and Bottom, of the Main Logic Board. in ordrer to do a successfull TSOP Flash.

Now if the v1.6 truly stores the Firmware Image. Then it could be that M$ has also done away with the need of a 'Write Protect' Jumper aswell. =(

If so then your in for some reall trubbles...

 

Dude i know how your feeling. Im having the exact same problem. I tried to unban my xbox by making a backup or two of the eeprom.bin on my computer, then I used liveconfig (on the computer) to change its serial. After FTPing it back to my xbox I used eeprom tool to "reprogram" the xbox with the new serial. When I rebooted it went to error code 16 so I put my old hd back in and reset the clock. When putting back my seagate 120g hd it went to a new error code 13. Now I still have access to the FlashBIOS 3.0.1 but that says "Unable to read HDD first sector getting partition table" and above that it says next to HDD: "ST3120023A 3.31 120.33GB Unable to get first sector, returned 1". I still have use of the flash bios but it doesnt really work because it doesnt boot up afterwords. Im a little lost as to what to do at the moment. Im thinking mabe I could get an evox boot disc and load up my original hdd so i can get FTP ability back and then enter and try and reprogram it back to its original eeprom, but then there is a chance that I could mess that hdd up to. Spec: xbox v1.6a, evox build 3935, m8 bios, executer 3 modchip, philips dvdrom drive, and Seagate 120gb hdd. I hope someone can help me out of this problem without telling me i have to get a new hdd.

 

If you know your (20-bit) HDD-Key, you should be able to unlock it using some DOS Tools you can find Here:http://www.xbox-scene.com/tools/tools.php?page=harddrive

They are all in Real-Mode DOS and as such will not work in Windows so you'll have to use Windows to format a DOS Diskette for you. Yes XP can format DOS Disketts! You can then hook up your HDD to the PC and insert your Diskette, and turn your PC on. Run one of the Programs like HDDUnlock to unlock and disable the Lock on your HDD. then you hopefully can reinstall it back into your XBOX™ again...

 

Thanks, Ill try it.

 

so i looked and the flashbios does have an ulock thing on it so i tried that but it still wont work even after its reflashed with the bios. After I press unlock it goes back to error code 16. Do i have to hook up the hd to my computer and manualy reinstall the dashboard. Or does it even have anything to do with the dashboard. Is there a way to reprogram the eeprom back to its original with out a dashboard. I still have many backups of the eeprom and hd key. Sorry im still new to the whole modding thing i just started in the middle of last spring.

 

i know exactly where you are coming from. i had a length, length chat with a gentleman selling new eeproms who was kind enough to work out a fix to my problem (and yours, as it sounds). you see, when you threw a non-v1.6a eeprom into your v1.6 xbox (assuming you unlocked your hard drive for this swap) you completely screwed up the partitions to your hard drive as well as vital information to the proper functioning of your box. you can get as many hard drives as you want to put in there, but it won't do a damn thing. you can't flash an eeprom without a program, and you can't use the program unless you can use a non-ms dashboard using whatever application you'd like. the work around we came up with, though untested (due to my lack of time, as well as diminishing interest in reviving that bitch), is as follows:

because your xbox is now 'attuned' to a (in my case, and i'll assume yours) v1.0 chip set, as well as that the hard drive it belonged to, you must feed the xbox what it wants. go get the hard drive from the xbox that you stole the new eeprom from, put it in your xbox, then hopefully it will boot nicely. from there go into an eeprom editor and flash it with your old one. upon restart the box should no longer work without your hard drive that was present up until you replaced the eeprom incorrectly. so put that hard drive back in and it should work. our concern, however, is that the difference in the way the data is stored from v1.0 through v1.6 boxes may seriously hinder such a process.

i want to try, but i'm pretty sure it won't work. however, if you do try this, let me know how it went. i'm pretty certain i'll end up installing a new motherboard all together...oh well, that's a $60 ebay lesson, not including soldering time. best of luck.

 

I think you could have a much easier time of it if you just went ahead and got a Modchip. Install that and then flash that with a v1.6a/b Firmware Image. The newest Modchips will easily allow you to gain FTP Access to your XBOX™ even with out a Dashboard!

I don't know if you'll ever be able to get your original HDD's to work agian. =(
Most likely not I'm affraide. But, you'll be able to install a brand new non-locked ATA133 HDD without much trouble.

At least when you use a Modchip you can start to use 3'ed Party Dashboard's and Apps. (i.e. EvoX and ConfigMagic),.

BTW: If you have ever used ConfigMagic to unlock your HDD you can use the Master Password: TEAMASSEMBLY to unlock it. But, only if you have ever unlocked / locked the HDD in question with ConfigMagic...

 

Well I have a v1.6 motherboard and just dumped the eeprom from that onto my computer and changed that eeprom(from the same motherboard) with liveconfig and then sent the newly change one back and reprogramed it. Then it wouldnt boot except to flashbios and error message. So as i said befor i put the original hd back in(8gb one)and it works with that but i dont have evox on that one. Mabe i could just load up evox on that and reprogram it with the original #s. Its just a theory of mine but I believe its possible. Thanks for all of your insights. Please if someone knows exactly how to fix this problem (without replacing hardware) to post it so that anyone else with this problem may fix it.

 

O and I do have an excuter 3 modchip already installed just so you know thats how I had the 120gb hard drive Ichijoe.

 

To anyone whos having problems with there X³'s. You might want to check this out, here: http://home.comcast.net/~x3guide/Old/index.html

 

Its not a problem with my excuter3 chip its the fact that my 120g hd wont boot, instead only the original hd works. This all happened because of the eeprom change.