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

BOO!

Hi everybody!!! Yes I know it's ME!

So first off, your hard drive is saying it unlockable, cus it's unlockable!! NOT all hard drives support locking, and some that say they do don't fully support the ATA command set to lock the drive.

Best thing to do is look on the list of knowen lockable hard drives and get one off there, shoot I just got a 120 gig from geeks for $37.00!!

Next, your eeprom.bin file is CASE sensitive.. you must make sure it is in all SMALL letters when you put it in the epprom folder. I should look like this ---> eeprom.bin if it looks like Eprom.bin or EEPROM.bin it will not work. Linux is a picky bugger.

the simplest eeprom reader to build and make is the one I show in my tutor.. uses a few radio shack parts , cost about $10 bucks to make, yes it is tricky sometimes, after all the xbox doesn't want you to be poking around in it's memory, so it may take you a few times. Also some componets may not match up good and in that case, try changing one of the zeners with a new one, if you keep at it and just stay cool you will get it to read. Always check your zerers are facing the right way too!!

Well, like a ghost I pop in and out of this world so see ya later!!

Unicron

 

Thanks for the help. I did not know that some drives were not lockable. I will look on geeks.com to find a compatible drive. Is there a listing somewhere of drives that have been known to work in an xbox? Which model drive did you get?
I checked my eeprom.bin and it is lowercase. I'm sure the issue is just with the type of drive I am using.
At the moment I running the xbox with the original drive in it. However it is using unleashed/ndure and xbmc. I am very happy with the way it all works. Im sure that the ISO I created works fine...just need to find the right hard drive.
Your tutorial for building the eeprom reader is great. I built mine and it worked! haha. Thanks again.

 

Hi,

you could verify your pc bios and ide port with the original xbox harddisk. If you are able to unlock that drive, you know your pc is able to unlock - lock?? lockable harddisks. The atapwd program should be able to tell you if your disk is supporting locking or not. There is a list on the net with compatible lockable harddisks, but it is a bit outdated. Most nowaday disks should work.

I am unsure about this, but some people on the net say that you should put the eeprom.bin file in the E:\backup folder. I assume it doesn't hurt if you put it in both locations. (The eeprom folder and E:\backup folder).

Btw Unicron, if you ever pop up again, The only thing I can say is... great work.

regards.

 

I'v been buying Maxtor DIamondMax 16
120 Gig ATA/133 HDD

I got them from Geeks I think for $37.00 Each
They support Locking.
I belive about any Maxtor will work.

NOTICE: on SOFT MOD you are limited to 136 GIG HDD to use.
That is why I buy the 120 GIG HDD.

IF you HARD MOD/ CHIP IT, then you can throw a big old 500 gig in there.
Why?? I think 120 GIG does great myself. OH and for a speed increase on you XBOX HDD, use a NEW 88 conductor ribbon cable, NOT the one that came with the xbox original!!! You can see the diffrence in speed of boot up and game loads.

Good Luck all....

UNICRON

 

Hi,

I hate to comment upon what people write in forums, but I would like to rectify the 137GB limit with softmods. It is no longer there. You can use a bigger harddisk without problem. You just need to make sure that the partions are not bigger than 256MB. If they are bigger, you need to format them with a 32KB cluster size. Xbpartionner is a program that can do that.

regards.

 

So what you are saying that the 200 gig HD in my xbox is not using the extra 80 gigs? Hmm that is weird because my soft-modded xbox had a large f drive that is larger than 120 gigs. I am confused. /Sarcasm off/

Sorry Unicron. I respect you and the reader, because it has helped me a lot of times, but the poster above me is right. I have used 160, 250, and 300 gig drives without a problem.

 

Check with meatshield on llammas forums about the instability and liability to corruption of any partition over 256gb on the xbox file system, regardless of patches or formatting 32kb clusters.. This applies to hard mods as well. It is an old problem related to the kernel which there is a work around for, but that in itself is a little unstable.

There is nothing wrong with adding information to what is now an old guide, but if you actually read the stated aims of this guide it is to repair a faulty STOCK xbox without modding it in any way, so all this blabber about adding bigger drives is actually outside the scope of the thread and irrelevant in this context.

 

I just joined to tell unicron thanks in advance before i build this eeprom reader. Generally on forums the author disappears and everyone has guestions. It's great that you come back to check up on your post, and it shows you care and want to help.

I've modded probably 18 to 20 some odd xbox's and never had a problem (largest hd was 500gig softmodded). I have a xbox that had the hard drive fry and the board and all the rest of the components are still good. I tried to mod it using a mod chip, with perfect soder points and probably 5 hours of trying to get it to work i finally gave up.

By the way your hard drive may be lockable, the new drives i'm using gave me a bit of a problem when it came to locking them. I had to go into the bios and set the hard drive detect at manual and reload the xboxhdm cd.

Hard drives i've used

maxtor 40gig 16mb cache
maxtor 250gig 8mb cache
maxtor 300gig 16mb cache
seagate 160gig 16mb cache
seagate 320gig 16mb cache

Compatability chart http://xboxdrives.x-pec.com/?p=list

Maxtor was bought out by seagate and almost any seagate drive will work. Run a check on your model number vs the one on the compatability chart.

That's all i got for now, i'll check back later and post my progress

 

The only drives I know for sure to be hard to lock are Fujitsu, right across the range.. and some hitachis too.

There is a limit with some of the older drives how many times they can be locked/unlocked, which I have never seen mentioned.

Just about any modern drive will be grand.. the setting to manual in the bios is more than likely a function of the PC bios rather than anything specifically different about the drive..
The PC bios contains a HDD lookup table, with other info than the CHS and park locations. I know some of the award bios versions also read the drive lock/unlock sum to work out if it can be locked.. this may be astray with very new models of drives, and obviously can't contain every make and model of drive back to the dawn of time (sony pc's are real bad for limited drive lookup).

Just musing on findings.. I have found the best machines for lock/unlock are the old cyrix p2/300 series IBM boards.. they read the best for sensible sized drives...

I don't advocate anybody putting a huge and valuable drive in a softmod xbox, better to ftp a little to say a 160 drive rather than risk a brick with a 500. Do you really need 300 games on a HDD? you can only play one at once

 

what did MLOYLLO do? he didnt put anyone down. he took a sentance from the article to show someone the correct one.

 

you said what does eeprom have to do with this article. Basically EVERYTHING! he was explaining what eeprom stood for.

 

Hello. just wanted to give a status update.
I managed to get everything loaded onto a western digital 20gb hard drive that I had laying around. After trying 4 other drives that i had...this was the only one that would lock(figures it was the last one I tried too). I was not able to read the eeprom file that I put into the eeprom folder. I also tried putting it outside of the folder to see if that worked. The only way I was able to lock the drive was to copy the eeprom to a formated floppy and then choose "look on floppy" when lockhd -a couldnt find the eeprom on the cd. I think after this experience I have gotten pretty good at doing the process over and over as trweaks to the install cd were needed. I have copied 4 games to my xbox already, but feel that I need more space. I recently ordered a 120gb HD for $40(shipping included). dThis drive was listed on the capatibility chart and seemed to be good to go in all areas.
Thanks for all your help. I will post an image of my eeprom reader soon.

 

hey can you teach me how to make an eeprom reader? also your eeprom is supposed to be in the eeprom folder named EEPROM.BIN in all caps!

 

Thanks a ton Unicron, i just you used this method for a dead hard drive soft modded box. Worked like a champ! Granted I didn't have a pcb or the 5v doides...I used some 12v (lowest they had) and it still worked perfect. Just wanted to say thanks a ton!

 

Edit: Found my problem, had a messed up install of the reader by a tiny bit.
Can someone help me out? My drive was unlocked, with xbox turned off, the xbox is a v1.4. I made the programmer coping the picture from Dirk van den Brink (Link from Llamma's link to another guy who made it) and also double check it with the schematics. When i turn on the xbox it turns on then turns off then on flashing yellow/green, it has a error reading the chip. With the programmer removed it boots up fine, well until it tries to unlock the unlocked drive. I just read the zener are really sentive to heat, n i might of killed it. My install looked clean. I know its not enough info but can someone give me some suggestions on what i should do? I soldered to the lpc n i have checked this alot of times. I have read this error dozens of times but haven't found a solution.
thanks
Also thanks Unicron for sharing this info, writing this tutorial, and helping all the people out!

 

Long time listener first time poster... Vcbc what error are you getting in ponyprog? If its error 11 the program detects your reader but it is either not connected correctly, broken or not reading at the "right time". I get error 11 several times before getting a read, sometimes its just the timing. I would recommend rebuilding the reader maybe try unicorn's design using the RadioShack pcb board. I have read four boards all different versions successfully with the lpc pads. I don't solder to them either and personally think its easier and a lot safer. I use the 30 AWG wire in unicorn's tut for the lpc pads. A trick i found was to get a small ball of solder around the wire this way it rests almost perfectly in the lpc hole. The ground wire can be any size and i just wrap it around the metal case. I'll attach some photos.
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n63/45yyyf/lpcpads.jpg
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n63/45yyyf/wires.jpg
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n63/45yyyf/groundcopy.jpg

 

Thanks for the reply, DIGiceTea. But i edited my post and said i already found my error. I messed up with the install of the reader because i had a extra solder bridge on it. Everything works fine now, i would post some pictures, because there is almost no pictures within this whole thread besides the guide, but i can't seem to find my camera. Anyway, thanks and sorry for not being clear enough.

 

My tutorials are way better than yours (just kidding, I have never seen your tutorial):> As far as eBay goes, last I heard they prohibit anything remotely reffering to modding an xbox. It has been along time since I sold an eeprom reader on ebay, if I happened to have made my description look too much like yours, then I apologize. Again that would have been a very long time ago. I hated the way eBay and paypal nickel and dimed me with all the fees, I try not to use eBay anymore. Craigslist here in the Dallas area has been a great portal to sell and buy alot of stuff locally. All in all I only have 2 eeprom readers left and once they are gone I have no intensions on building anymore, with that said I would like to share with you my tutorial and pictures and perhaps the inside workings of my eeprom readers. Most of the pictures that are included on my cd are also posted onmy photobucket. http://s96.photobucket.com/albums/l193/purplewindworm/XBOX/?start=all

 

CONNECT EEPROM READER TO XBOX
Solderless Method

• Disconnect power cord from xbox.
• Open case and remove HDD and DVD
• http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/open1.php
• Locate your LPC Pin Header, see the picture below.
• Identify The Two Holes (Blue and Orange) that we are going to use. – Take a look at the sketch at the bottom of this tutorial, notice hole #16 is closest to the ground screw.
• I just stick the Orange and Blue wires into the appropriate holes, don’t go too deep or you might short out against the bottom of the case.
• Tape the white cable to the side of the xbox case, this will help keep things from moving while you are reading the eeprom data.
• BLUE WIRE – Stab the eeprom reader’s Blue wire to SDA Pin/hole 14
• ORANGE WIRE – Stab the eeprom reader’s Orange wire to SCL Pin/hole 13
• GREEN WIRE – Connect the eeprom reader’s Green wire to Xbox ground (I just tuck mine under the Torx screw (Green cirlcle) and tighten the screw)
• Plug DB9 connector into your pc’s serial port.



Note: If your Power supply is dead or not connected, then you will need an external power source. The Red (pin 15) is for a +3.3 to 5 Volt external power source connection and connect your negative to the ground screw (Green circle). I highly recommend just connecting the motherboard to the Xbox PSU and avoiding this.

 

CONNECT EEPROM READER TO XBOX
Solder Method

• Disconnect power cord from xbox.
• Open case and remove HDD and DVD
• http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/open1.php
• Locate your eeprom, see the pictures of my xbox (Ver 1.6 is gonna be different, it is near the LPC pin header)
• PIN 1 -There is a little recessed round spot in one of the corners, the leg in this corner is PIN 1.
• Identify All Pins – Take a look at the sketch at the bottom of this tutorial, note the round spot indicating pin 1 and how the other pins are numbered. There are no pin numbers on your actual eeprom chip.
• I recommend using a very small (30 guage) solid wire to solder to the pins of the eeprom, then solder the eeprom readers wires to them (see MyXbox9 picture).
• Tape the white cable to the side of the case, since the wires will just barely be soldered to the eeprom, any moving around may cause them to break loose.
• BLUE WIRE – Connect the eeprom reader’s Blue wire to SDA Pin 5
• ORANGE WIRE – Connect the eeprom reader’s Orange wire to SCL Pin 6
• GREEN WIRE – Connect the eeprom reader’s Green wire to xbox ground (I just tuck mine under a screw pad and tighten the screw on top of it)
• Plug DB9 connector into your pc’s serial port.


You can view the pinout of the chip here
http://www.pmb.co.nz/downloads/st_st24c02_data.pdf