Hello all, I have read posts and guides and have been a "guest" so to speak on this board since 2002. I have never needed help like this before though. I didn't bother going anywhere else as all other Xbox related support boards are a joke in comparison to X-Scene. Anyways here goes guys, hope you can help. I am coming in here after hours and hours of trying to fix this using all the guides and posts I could for information and I have not had any success. I was flashing my drive like normal, I used the MS28 method for flashing my 4.2a with 5.0a and it flashed bank0,1,2,and 3 instantly said *Sector read error*. Get this, I was using a USB flash reader. I dunno how in the heck that happened, but just so everyone knows USB keys and card readers arent 100% reliable either, I will in the future use a HDD for this but my drive if knackered and I would really like to get it back without paying money. I tried Andy Hewitt's guide and I get no where. Always *Status 00 should be 70*, If the drive is off or nothing is connected I get *Status 80 should be 70*. Now my question is how reliable is the Samsung swap-method?. Will it work for me?. Or does anyone have ANY insight on my problem, cause I sure dont at this point. I am going to go to bed now an see if any of you guys have posted some advice for me as its been like 8 hrs on this. Thanks alot in advance for even reading my big post and like I said any insight would be greatful.

try samremod? experiment with diff methods and timings. I got an E65 but managed to fix it by using samremod, I didn't do the 10 sec trick, just ran it straight off and it fixed.

Me too

Floppy drive had bad sectors on it, and crapped out mid way through a flash. Now I get error 65 and can't re-flash it. I've tried the bad flash recovery method for about 3 hours but I can't get the timing right.

Can someone who has done it before explain the timing to me?

I will try samremod but I belive it uses mtkflash as well so I dont see how that will fix my problem, I will try it tho. I just dont know why people get like 18% flash and can do this and I flashed all the way to 75% and cannot do this, its really frustrating considering I didnt do a thing wrong my friggin *USB Stick* had reading problems, never seen that before. With usb stick they work or dont. Weird, anyways still E65 still cant re-flash, like before any help would be appreciated.

Anyone?. I am really gettin scared here, $500 down the drain doesn't sit well with me.

cmon guys, 95 reads and 2 replies?. I need help bad here, I have tried everything, another 4 hrs wasted on bad flash recovery, samremod didnt work. Will anything work?

If all else fail you might consider the dual mod. The one where you piggy back another flash chip onto of the original and can switch between the flash chips with a switch. You could get a new chip and flash it on a programmer then follow the dual firmware mod tutorial available on xbox scene and just leave it always switched to the new firmware chip. I have access to a programmer at work and could easily flash a new chip for you. I would try all the other known recovery methods and do the dual mod as a last resort. Email me if you can't fix it the other ways and I will help you out. (email joshua733@hotmail.com message title XBOX)

nexusbeats: no worries man, it's not $500 down the drain. Send it back to microsoft they'll replace it for $150, shipping included.


I would appreciate any advice too. I have the feeling the recovery method could work if only I knew more about the timing. My mktflash doesn't give me options 1. 2. 3., ... it just automatically tries the primary SATA channel.

Anyone?

I'm having the EXACT same problem.. but all i ever get is the error 00 i can't ever get any other code.. it's expecting 70..

i've tried everything.. including flashing with a flash drive, everything..

nothing works

Finally got it to work!

I thought for a long time I must have had a special case that couldn't be saved. I was actually ready to give up and buy a Wii.

Please don't give up, Please stay persistent.


Here's how to do it:

1) Get Xtreme Boot Maker. Load Xtreme Boot Maker. Under "Xtreme Firmware" choose your orig.bin file. Check the box that says "Use Custom MTKFlash". Choose your VIA SATA Chipset in the drop-down box. Click on "Detect ID- I/O". Leave the MS28 boxes UNCHECKED. Choose your USB key drive letter in the drop-down box for Target Drive. Check the box that says Format and make bootable. Click on Prepare drive (This will ERASE everything on your usb key, so be very careful)

2) Open up windows explorer. Copy orig.bin onto your usb key. Now we are ready to flash.

3) Power off your PC and xbox. Connect your PC-DVDrom drive to an IDE Channel and your xbox 360 to your primary sata. All other hard drives and dvd drives should be disconnected.

4) Keep the xbox 360 powered off. Power on the PC. It will boot to Windows 98SE dos and an A:> prompt.

5) type the following: mtkflash w /m orig.bin
<press enter>

It will try to flash your PC-DVDrom drive, but don't worry, it won't because it looks for Code 70. You know you are doing this right if it auto-matically tries and says soething like "Port: B170, ..."

Hit Escape.

6) Boot up your xbox360 and let it boot completely.

7) Type in mtkflash w /m orig.bin and press enter. This time it will give you TWO options. One is for your IDE drive and the new option is for your sata drive (should be option 2).

8) Turn off your xbox360 at this point.

9) Press 2 on your keyboard. At the EXACT moment your press 2, start looking at your wrist watch. After EXACTLY (EXACTLY EXACTLY EXACTLY!) 10 seconds, power on your xbox 360 with the power button.

It should start to flash It did for me.

Thank you all very much, best of luck.

Fantastic, I printed this out just incase this ever happens to me! Thanks for comming back with the info to help everyone else who might run in to this.

I tried the method that tong got to work to no avail, thx for taking the time to reply tho man. I am at the point of just grabbing a new one and then selling this old one for parts. Could anyone tell me if Samsungs still come in Xbox 360's anymore?. My local Zellers got a shipment in stock and they are the Ghost Recon ones, any chance that they are Samsungs?. LMK if ya can guys.

Well if you have your drive-key and the rest of the xbox is OK you can always buy a replacement drive from ebay.
I recently bought a replacement Hitachi 0047 from an Ebayer called gameconcolehk, but he also has Samsung MS25's and MS28's. Price incl. international shipping with tracking lands around or just above $100.

If you can't find a way of repairing your current drive you might wanna look into getting a replacement, don't the same mistake I did though ( I bought the replacement drive and managed to repair the original just as the new drive arrived, so now I have 2 working drives but only one box =)

On a sidenote, I've also found my own flashing to be ALOT more stable and reliable when securing a common ground between the xbox360 and the pc you use to flash. ( Just connect the chassis of the 360 with the chassis of your pc with a piece of electrical wire). I was able to do a couple of succesful flashes before I found this, but the flashing performance greatly improved when doing this.

Good luck with your driveproblems