Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:02 pm Post subject: Bad DVD Drive?
Out of the blue my original xbox, which was softmodded, decided to crap out. So here's the deal, during one of the loading screens on Kotor II it gave me a "disc may be dirty or damaged" error message. I restarted the console, only to find it would not boot from the disc. It just hangs at the giant X after the little white microsoft comes up at the bottom. Now I didnt softmod this myself, nor have I ever booted it without a disc. This being said, I am wondering if maybe my DVD drive crapped out, and whoever did the softmod didn't install a 3rd party dashboard. Anyone have any suggestions on how to check to see if I'm right? Without the drive I don't think I have any way to install a dashboard, since as far as I know you can only FTP if you have a 3rd party dashboard installed.
Any advice, or suggestions would be welcome.
cptobv Xbox-HQ User
Xbox Version: 1.6 Modded: Softmod
Joined: Jul 23, 2008 Posts: 10
Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:41 pm Post subject:
Just a little bit of extra information, it stops at the same screen whether there is a game in the drive or not. Both the hard drive and the DVD drive seem to have power, as they can both be heard.
wes213 Administrator
Joined: Feb 04, 2007 Posts: 10520 Location: Harrisonburg V.A.
Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 8:36 pm Post subject:
If you have a copy of your eeprom i would rebuild the HDD and if not hot swap.
cptobv Xbox-HQ User
Xbox Version: 1.6 Modded: Softmod
Joined: Jul 23, 2008 Posts: 10
Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:37 pm Post subject:
No eeprom copy, but i may try a hot swap. Thanks for the advice
wes213 Administrator
Joined: Feb 04, 2007 Posts: 10520 Location: Harrisonburg V.A.
Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:46 am Post subject:
No prob and good luck.
cptobv Xbox-HQ User
Xbox Version: 1.6 Modded: Softmod
Joined: Jul 23, 2008 Posts: 10
Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 8:40 pm Post subject:
So, I attempted to hot swap and rebuild my drive from scratch. Here's where I ran into some trouble. I was following one of the tutorials I found, which was using xboxHDM. I got it to work up until one part, where you would actually do the recreation of the drive. The problem is, the program keeps telling me that the drive is locked, but the tutorial I followed said it should be unlocked since I had pulled out the DVD drive IDE cable and let it go to the Service Required screen.
I had a look at the unlocking/locking utilities on in the xboxHDM program, but it seems that I would need the eeprom in order to be able to use them.
Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong, or what else I can try?
wes213 Administrator
Joined: Feb 04, 2007 Posts: 10520 Location: Harrisonburg V.A.
That is the one I was looking at, but I missed the part about removing the power cable from the DVD drive, and I recieved an error 12 instead. I'll try removing the power cable when I get the chance. Thanks
wes213 Administrator
Joined: Feb 04, 2007 Posts: 10520 Location: Harrisonburg V.A.
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:20 pm Post subject:
All good man, let me know if it works out for you.
cptobv Xbox-HQ User
Xbox Version: 1.6 Modded: Softmod
Joined: Jul 23, 2008 Posts: 10
Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:50 pm Post subject:
Still gives me an error 12. And no matter what I try it says the drive is still locked.
I'm beginning to think that there is something more than just that wrong with this stupid thing. I've hit a dead end and don't know where to go next. Thanks for all the help.
wes213 Administrator
Joined: Feb 04, 2007 Posts: 10520 Location: Harrisonburg V.A.
Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:12 am Post subject:
Put a chip in the thing or build an eeprom reader is all you can do at this point bro.
cptobv Xbox-HQ User
Xbox Version: 1.6 Modded: Softmod
Joined: Jul 23, 2008 Posts: 10
Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:04 am Post subject:
Yeah, I've got 3 chips sitting around, and I may try to put one in, just for practice if nothing else. I'll just see if I can pick up another used one whenever I can. Thanks for all your help, and I'll let you know how it turns out whenever I get around to it.
at what point did you connect the xbox hdd to your pc,
because you should do it after bios loads your hdds,
otherwise most motherboards will have frozen your hdd,
this doesn't matter for accessing the drive,
but you will not be able to lock your hdd if it's frozen,
but why I'm telling this:
when I hotswapped, after I rebooted my pc,
the xbox hdd was locked again!? (and that hdd was powered by an external power connection of an IDE to USB adapter, so it was always powered),
thats because your hdd is unlocked by your Xbox, but its security is not disabled,
so any irregularities seem to trigger the lock again...
so it can take some attempts,
so the timing of connecting your hotswapped hdd is very important
(also I did not disconnect the power to the dvd drive, only the IDE,
but that shouldn't matter...)
found this info in my instructions,
don't know the source... so credits to whoever wrote this!
Quote:
OK, the most successful method to get the xbox to unlock the HD is to unplug the XBOX DVDROM IDE cable. Leave the Yellow/White cable hooked to the DVDROM, and leave the XBOX IDE hooked to the XBOX HD (loosely as it is usually tight, and difficult to remove, you are working against time, so you need to be quick)
**Again, the XBOX IDE Ribbon should be connected to the Xbox MotherBoard & Xbox HD Only.
**You should recieve an Error 11 or 12, if you recieve an Error 7 then your IDE ribbon is too loose, and the hd will never get unlocked with an error 5, 6, or 7.
**If you are doing a hotswap in BLIND mode (No tv hooked), then I found in my experience, that if your using the Error 12 method, that you should disconnect the Xbox HD IDE at the exact moment that the LED goes to RED Flashing. (By EXACT, I mean pull the cable out exactly when the LED changes, watch it a few times before doing it, count!)
I have never had any problems hotswapping at this exact moment.
I did it Blind (though I didn't really check the timing with the LED,
but I remember it didn't work right away, several attempts...)
take care!
cptobv Xbox-HQ User
Xbox Version: 1.6 Modded: Softmod
Joined: Jul 23, 2008 Posts: 10
Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 1:05 am Post subject:
I havent attempted the chip yet, so i may try to hot swap it again. thanks for the advice
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