HOW to read your XBOX's EEPROM and GET the HDD KEY WITHOUT removing the chip Or Modding the XBOX

Welcome to the club!

 

lol thanks.

 

well i finally figured it out and it only took me 4 hours.lol.i used this diagram to build my reader,which was kinda hard building since i havent built anything like that in about 5 years.i updated the diagram to better show where to solder onto the chip.all the other ones were hard to understand,and didnt give a lot of info on how to set it up.


then once that was done i followed the guide here for setting up the software:


i then connected it to my serial port of my computer,turned it on and got a xbox that would flash an orange light then turn off and on.so i tried a couple things,and finally got it too work.make sure the serial cable is unplugged when u do it.i had the software ready to go,started the xbox,plugged in the cable,then dumped the flash.(as quick as you can)that was the first time i successfully got my first read of the eeprom.after that just follow the rest of that guide to dump the hd key,and retrieve the rest of the info.i hope this helps alot more people out.

 

well i finally figured it out and it only took me 4 hours.lol.i used this diagram to build my reader,which was kinda hard building since i havent built anything like that in about 5 years.i updated the diagram to better show where to solder onto the chip.all the other ones were hard to understand,and didnt give a lot of info on how to set it up.


then once that was done i followed the guide here for setting up the software:


i then connected it to my serial port of my computer,turned it on and got a xbox that would flash an orange light then turn off and on.so i tried a couple things,and finally got it too work.make sure the serial cable is unplugged when u do it.i had the software ready to go,started the xbox,plugged in the cable,then dumped the flash.(as quick as you can)that was the first time i successfully got my first read of the eeprom.after that just follow the rest of that guide to dump the hd key,and retrieve the rest of the info.i hope this helps alot more people out.

 

Hi,

the pictures are great and helpfull. I would like to add the information that the SCL and SDA points are also available on the LPC holes. So, there is no need to start soldering wires to the pins of the chip directly. You can find SCL on pin 13 of the LPC and SDA on pin 14.

I am unsure if you can still get the signals on the LPC with a 1.5 and a 1.6 motherboard. I do know these mobo's react different upon a frag. After a couple of retries, a 1.6 turns off the power. The previous models left the power on to the circuits. (the blower keeps rotating.)

The pictures show all the wires that are needed to rebuild a 1.6 mobo LPC. Some points are no longer connected to the LPC holes. You need to reconnect them if you wan't to install a modchip. There is no need to do this for the eeprom reader. As the author stated, he borrowed the picture....

regards.

 

I have a question about the EEPROM READER. If your xbox motherboard is not dead, do I use this design,

No matter what XBOX you have the EEPROM is the same design Pins 1,2,3,4 will always be GND and 5,6,7,8 will be 5 = SDA, 6 = SCL, 7 = WDC (We don’t Care), 8 = 3.3V or 5V

 

Yes.. regardless of xbox version the i2c eeprom pinouts are the same.

We have found it is more reliable to always externally power the device rather than relying on the xbox psu.


BTW.. Chunks.. I wasn't having a go at you.. Your guide and ready built reader are fairly priced.. it's the craigslist people I don't like.. profiteers IMHO. Ask loco.. because we had a chat about it. I remember it came down to "rules is rules.. allow one and they will all be at it".. He probably still has a copy of the PM I sent him about it.

Anyway..back to the topic.. I still prefer pulling the bug off the board and sticking it on an old stick of ram and using the i2c modules already present in linux to get the data...
http://www.psikic.com/xbox/eepromsdram.php
just my way because the windows software doesn't work on a linux system.

 

Hi,

I don't really follow. You desolder the eeprom chip and solder it to a ram stick because linux can't use the reader software. After that, you use the liveinfo program.. which is a windows program...to calculate the hdd password.

In my opinion, connecting the eeprom reader to the LPC bus is still the easiest method with the easiest soldering practice.

And why would the xbox supply be less reliable than an external supply? You just need to wait until the frag has passed. On a 1.6, you might connect the SCL and SDA after the xbox started. It will otherwise power off after a frag.

regards.

regards.

 

The situation on the psu and frag all depends on what the actual fault is.

Some power down, or the rails never establish properly.

there is a small legal issue as well.. I (as a fully qualified electronics enginer) can't really go advising unqualified people to go poking around in raw mains powered equipment. The first time you get a clout from an exposed live part on a delta psu may be your last.

Who said anything about using the windows version of live-config.. buggy app anyway.. Unicron used it because it was available.. and often the reason people need to recover corrupted eeproms. it's not needed with i2c read (and easy enough to compile a linux version from the available source code anyway)
All I am after are the raw numbers to hex-edit into a raw empty eeprom image..

 

Ok, you made your point.

In my opinion, the best advice for unqualified people is to stay out of their xbox. I have seen some soldering work that made my hair rise.

I find the liveinfo program for pc a good tool to analyse the eeprom contents. I agree that xboxhdm also does the job fine. You need the LiveInfo Beta 3 version for the 1.6 eeprom model.

I find it a bit scary that people power some circuits with 5V that are running in the original design on 3V3. Maybe some xbox models have the eeprom connected to the 5V rail.

So, in my opinion, the zeners should better be 3V3 types as well. That doesn't take away the fact that Unicron did a great discovery with this easy method to read the xbox eeprom.

regards.

 

Uh guys, is there a way to connect the eeprom reader to the eeprom besides soldering it on there and can someone do a simpler build/guide for the eeprom reader coz in this one I'm seeing connections on both front and back of pc board, I must admit it is a little confusing.

 

Click on my signature, it will explain the unit in slightly better detail!

 

I have built the eeprom reader and sucessfully grabed my eeprom from the xbox. I then saved the file as EEPROM.bin. I verified the data using Liveinfo Beta3 and everything checked out ok. I am using XboxHDMaker along with NDURE to build my ISO image.
The problem that I am having is with the eeprom.bin file. I have placed the bin file in the eeprom directory and created the iso image. When I insert the CD in my PC everything starts up fine and I get to the menu screen. I rebuild the Xbox drive from scratch...everything goes smooth.
Now I want to lock the drive before putting it in the xbox. I reboot the computer with xboxhdmaker and choose option(2) to lock/unlock drive using linux. At the commant prompt I type lockhd -a. I get a message saying that eeprom.bin could not be found on cd. I tried manually typing in the file path to the eeprom...no luck. So I exit out and type xbrowser to see if the eeprom is there...and IT IS.
In my last efforts I created another cd and placed the eeprom in every directory...still no luck.
Any Ideas?

 

OK. I recreated the iso image again only this time I changed the file from EEPROM.bin to eeprom.com(lowercase). Everything seemed to work ok. I rebuild the HD from scratch. I then went to lock the drive and noticed that it said something about the HD ATA security is not compatible. I was not able to lock the hard drive. Is there any way around this? I do I know what hard drives are compatible?

 

Build the xboxhdm cd without a bin file. Put the bin file on floppy. When it asks for eeprom.bin, use the floppy option. Eeprom.com is wrong. Theoretically it should have worked the way you did it the first time by incorporating the eeprom.bin file onto the cd as well.

 

eeprom.com was a typo on the message board. What I didn't mention was that I am using a 30gb harddrive. I pulled the eeprom reading with the original 8gb in the xbox. Does this matter? Should I try grabbing another reading from the xbox and have the 30gb in? I would think that the eeprom would need the 30gb hard drives details to create the eeprom file? So how should i do this?

 

I'm hoping this thread is still somewhat active seeing as the last post was about a month and a half ago. Anyway, call me a noob, an idiot, or whatever, but can someone help me with building the EEPROM reader? I've read over the instructions about 10 times as well as browsed the internet for clearer instructions. I couldn't find any that were dumbed down enough for me. So how far have I gotten?

I've bought everything needed as listed in the tutorial and I've taken the cover off my xbox. Go me! >.<

Basically I'm asking if someone could give me "REALLY BASIC" step by step instructions of how to do this.


EDIT: I ended up using the hotswapping tutorial here: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/548462 and that ended up working for me. Thanks anyway. ^_^

Thanks.
~Lom

 

OK. I have a good eeprom file but still can not lock my hard drive. I have tried this on 2 different hard drives...one 30gb and one 40gb. I generated a HD password and also created a floppy with the locking/unlocking tools. Whne I go back in to see if the drive has been locked it says "drive unlockable". I have even tried manually typing in my password and get the same result. Any ideas?

 

If it is lockable than it might be your pc. Compaq pc has this problem. I have a compaq. You need to put in the hdd after you boot xbox hdm. Lock the eeprom from the disc do not put in the key manually, one mistake and you may never be able to unlock it again.

 

Just tried that and it didn't work. The drive was not recognised. I waited for the xboxhd screen to show and then pluged in the drive. When it went through the linux stuff, I didnt see the hard drive listed.