Xbox Dies, 2.3b Lite+, New Box, Help! Options

[ExitRooster]

Hey all.. After many an enjoyable years of playing on my modbox, xbox failure finally occured, and I need help

Died when I was playing a movie, err technically after the movie.. Was idle a bit, and xbmc went to the screensaver. Next thing I know, it froze up making a loud noise, and some garbled / pixely blocks on the screen. Shut it off, restarted and it does the on/off cycle 3x and then I get flashing red and orange.

Tried disabling the mod, does same thing.

Tried removing the mod, does same thing. (thus my thought that it was the xbox).

Put modchip in another extra xbox along with hdd (a 250GB, unfortunately locked hdd).

xbox flashes red and green colors (with stock hdd in it) when modchip is enabled.

removed 250GB drive and reinserted stock HDD thinking, "oh yea - this drive is locked".. (side note - Does the chip override the locked status? I know the chip lets me boot unlocked drives, but will it boot a locked drive not locked to the mobo in use?)

Despite the good connection (IE green led comes on when chip is disabled), the "new" modbox refuses to boot unless the chip is disabled. Tried both memory banks (unsure that the 2nd bank has anything on it, seem to remember years ago "trying" something that wiped/killed it).

Used the Mech load and was able with the stock drive, to get the "new modbox"'s keys (and copied them to my pc of course via ftp), but then I realized that's not going to work because the 250GB drive will still be locked and unable to be unlocked in windows.

So this brings me back to... ACK!!!!! What to do..

Only possible courses of action I can think of at this time:

1. Try and locate (IE buy or make???) the programmnig plug-in to PC adapter and try to flash the modchip, hopefully fixing it (if it will not let me use my locked 250GB drive, there is no point).

2. Fix my original modbox (flashing red and orange).

Highly welcome to ANY other ideas, comments, suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

eR

[Heimdall]

Sounds like your first Xbox is history, and your best bet is to get the 250GB disk working in your new Xbox.

Does the chip override the locked status? I know the chip lets me boot unlocked drives, but will it boot a locked drive not locked to the mobo in use?

No. You need the eeprom from the first Xbox to unlock the disk. If you don't have a backup (!!!!!) and the Xbox won't even boot stock you have a couple of possible options. If you're lucky you'll be able to unlock the disk with one of the default master passwords - TEAMASSEMBLY or XBOXSCENE. If they don't work you'll have to build an eeprom reader.

the "new" modbox refuses to boot unless the chip is disabled

What does it do when you try to boot?

If you can't get the chip to work then you can simply relock the hard drive to the new Xbox using the eeprom from the new Xbox, and softmod it.

[ExitRooster]

The new modbox, with the stock HDD in it and the modchip 'enabled' flashes red and green.

Yea.. I used to have the backup for it (on my PC of course), but somewhere over a year ago I decided to wipe that folder off my rig because I figured at that point, the 250GB, if it ever came out would've come out to put a bigger drive in. I saved it in case I ever wanted to go back to stock. Never thought of the possibility of xbox failure, rofl Stupid me..

Gonna whip up a rig to try those passwords on (think it would be too hard to do on my current rig, full of SATA ports, would have no idea which of roughly 10 hdd slot options would be the correct one. (unless the unlockX detects it?)

Got me thinking though about the eeprom.. Could I just yank it and put it on the "new" box? That would work, wouldn't it? Because that I could do.. Got a fancy solder station, sadly no smt specific attachments, but with a bit of work I could swap those if that would work.. I seem to remember years ago it being mentioned that you 'could' put a socket on the xbox mobo to pop dead box eeproms into for the purpose of unlocked "dead" HDD's and give them new lives in PC's or other xboxes.. That would work, wouldn't it?

As far as the softmodding.. Are there any benefits either way regarding my 2.3l+ vs. a softmod? Have softmods changed, or worded better.. I have the MechAssault one (never used it till last night, had it for years) - Would I use that, or is there better out, if softmod is just as good as chip..?

Fwiw, no fear of live or anything.. Box has no profiles on it.

Again, thanks for your time!

eR

P.S: Out of curiousity, really nothing to do for a orange&red failure? No one has troubleshot them, etc?

This post has been edited by ExitRooster: Feb 22 2009, 08:30 PM

[Heimdall]

Swapping the eeprom out would work if the Xboxes are the same version. 1.0, 1.1-1.5, and 1.6 all have different formats. It's probably easier to build an eeprom reader, if the default master passwords don't work.

The FRAG on the new Xbox could be caused by lots of things - bad or missing BIOS, solder splashes, fried chip!!. Check the soldering on the pinheader, try the other bank. If the 2.3b Lite works then use it - but it isn't sounding good at the moment! Otherwise a recent softmod is just as good. If you want to do the gamesave mod use Krayzie 1.1.1, for hotswap (or ftp) mod use Kingroach NDURE 3.1.

Have a look here for Xbox error codes. The specific one for Orange/Red is:

Orange/Red Flashing -

You've got a better chance of hitting the lottery then having this code but it happens during mod attempts check pin 5 on your lpc port for a broken trace if you find one fix it by bridging the break with a wire. You will notice small circular traces where a 30 AWG wire can be inserted find the nearest one towards the beginning of the trace and the end and put a wire and (bridge) them.

[ExitRooster]

Okay I've some progress to report (and more questions, rofl)..

I thoguht I'd be clever and move the modbox eeprom over to the other 1.0 stockbox. Long story short, I lost several hours to anger and frustration (and possibly killed a v1.0 box, but that's for a later discussion). I then decided to try the unlock HDD methods, thinking, I'll just unlock that puppy and relock it under the stockbox's key (wise and foolish idea).

additional info: The reason I didn't do that 1st is because my PC is full of sata ports, and the "primary hdd's" are in fact the six sata drives, meaning I have no "primary IDE" which is what all the nice DOS tools want to see.. So.. I disabled my sata to get the IDE to be primary, stuck in my freshly made bootdisk, and discovered TEAMASSEMBLY to be my password. Unlocked, and lock removed.

So then I spent hours reading guides (outdated and "newer") about HOW exactly to find/predict the magic locking code. I have to do this since my modchip is either in a coma (with a somehow magically wiped set of banks for the modboxes demise) or dead (from the modboxes demise).

The only tool 'people are using' as they say, is this nifty tool called liveinfo. Liveinfo is great. It takes the backup info that I got from using my MA save on stockbox2 (not even gonna to talk or worry about stockbox1 at this point) and is supposed to generate the key, that I can then back in DOS use to lock my drive, enabling my to pop that puppy in stockbox2 and (pending the death of the x2.3bL+ chip), at least let me boot it in the normal xbox dash, load MA on it, and softmod it (which will hopefully not ruin the software (exo-x) that's already installed on the drive...????)

The problem? As I mentioned above, the ONLY way to get my IDE working is to disable the SATA. I disable the SATA I have no OS to boot into to run liveinfo. See my dilema? Is there a not as popular DOS option to read that eeprom.bin file and work it's password magic on? Otherwise, short of buying some old pc or somthing from a thrifty shop (yea, I'm already considering that), I have no idea what else I can do.

(this is where I ask for help once again, hehe)

eR

[Heimdall]

Perhaps I'm misreading this, but you seem massively confused. You don't need to "find/predict the magic locking code". You have an unlocked 250GB disk, all you now need to do is lock it to the new Xbox using the eeprom.bin you got from softmodding the new Xbox. You do this by simply making another xboxhdm disc using this eeprom, and selecting option 4, then lockhd -a.

This post has been edited by Heimdall: Feb 23 2009, 11:59 AM

[ExitRooster]

Perhaps I'm misreading this, but you seem massively confused. You don't need to "find/predict the magic locking code". You have an unlocked 250GB disk, all you now need to do is lock it to the new Xbox using the eeprom.bin you got from softmodding the new Xbox. You do this by simply making another xboxhdm disc using this eeprom, and selecting option 4, then lockhd -a.

Not to sound like an idiot (I swear I'm not!), but just to be on the cautous side..

I never used that xboxhdm app.. I looked it up (a tutorial on it) and from what I can tell, I want option 6(Generate HD key {requires eeprom}. 4 says Install F drive. Also, in making this xboxhdm cd, I don't need to put the slaysers c: on there in the linux>C correct, because I don't need that.. This 250GB is already set up and ready to run, minus the fact it's unlocked (now)..

Right?

[Heimdall]

No! You want option 4 - Boot to DOS with HD Unlock Tools, then you type lockhd -a.

And, yes, you DON'T need anything in C, because you are only using xboxhdm to lock the drive using eeprom.bin.