I have an nforce5 motherboard. I purchased an xecuter connectivity kit v2 thinking I could flash the 78 that way. My BIOS displays the Hitachi drive just fine but when I boot to windows it's not there. I figured out that's because the 78FK doesn't accept the mode-b switch on the xecuter 360 connectivity kit. Of course, I didn't know that beforehand because although there's lots of info about hacking drives, there's very little info on what you can and can't do with the 78FK (besides it being difficult to hack). Anyways, here's my problem.

I've got Slax inserted into my PC's DVD drive, and I've got the 78FK hooked up to my SATA port on my PC. As I mentioned before, the BIOS detects the drive just fine. When I boot up my PC with slax2.0_alpha1, I get the slax login screen, it then starts loading up slax. The login screen goes dark, and then my monitor stays black and my PC locks up. I try ctrl-alt-del - no rebooting. I can only reset my computer.

Any ideas?

I have only done a few 78Fk's but everytime slax has NOT fully loaded, I cant remember the specific error but I would test to make sure the drive is in modeB by pushing the eject button if it takes two clicks to open and two to close it is in modeB hit reset and let windows load. When I get home I will check which version of slax i use just to confirm

Mine runs through ok ends up with a screen asking to enter login name, then I reboot pc and then drive is recognised in windows fine, the only problem I have is that I have to eject tray when I get the drive spinning message, Never seen an error though, I have via6421A and xecuter kit, I have latest slax.

alright, I used the power brick for the 360 to power it on. Once I turned on the 360, I turned on my PC and tried to boot to slax. Once Slax started loading up, I ejected the drive on the 360. Still no dice. It gives me the exact same error as above about the IO timer.

Any other ideas?

Try this: (it works for me)

1) Connect SATA cable from PC to v78
2) Boot PC with Slax in drive
3) As soon as the Slax starts to boot connect the power using your kit, but make sure the eject button is down and the mode b button is up.
4) You should get the "Drive spinning" message, just press the eject again and everything should work.

I just replied to your post over at Xecuter. Going by your original post your saying that you're using Slax 2.0. I'm pretty sure you need Slax 2.1 to get a v78 drive into modeB.

note to anyone having problems with a 78FK using the VIA 6421 in windows, BigSteel's method worked like magic after many many failed attempts.

I can't even get slax to boot!

Yep. I had the same issue. Go into your BIOS menu and simply disable APIC functions. From my understanding, though I haven't investigated much into the reports, there is a bug in the Linux kernel (APIC timers functions) for this version of Slax (2.1).

Anyhow, it was simple to get around once I poked around the BIOS menu a bit. I have a Asus m2n-MX motherboard, in case anyone was wondering... this detail might be helpful

Oh btw, I had to eject the drive a few times while the on screen status said:

spinning disc........

I had NO NEED to turn on the power the Xbox360 at weird times. I simply turned on the power well before booting the PC... and had the Sata cable connected to my Motherboard before turning on my PC, of course. Then simply booted to slax 2.1 and ejected when prompted that it was "spinning disc...".


Hope that helps someone...

make sure the 360 is on its own power the fk does not stay in mode b after power is shut off, so when you restart your pc mode b will be lost, unless it is powered by the 360

Use Jungle Flasher! JF has integrated Podgers Mode B utility. All you have to do is plug in the drive press 'Mode-B' then insert a retail dvd and read/spoof/erase/write.