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[otakucode]

Alright, this is my third time posting here and I want to thank everyone who read and responded to my previous posts.  I am still in roughly the same situation, but I'll run it down again:
I've got an MS25 drive, and I had it flashed with xtreme 2.0.
Decided it was time to upgrade.
Got the firmware, but screwed up the hex editing.  What I did was a copy/replace from my original firmware into the xtreme 4.2a firmware.  Unfortunately, I copied 2 bytes less than I replaced in the xtreme firmware.  Result being that the xtreme firmware came up 2 bytes short, everything after the key in the firmware is borked because it's shifted two bytes back.
So, 360 gives me an E65 error.  Drive won't eject or anything.
So, I come on here, read about how the new firmware has FirmGuard and I'll need to boot with the 0800 mode disc or do the MS28 bad flash recovery method.  Obviously I can't use the 0800 disc since the drive won't eject or act as if it has any life in it whatsoever.
I hunkered down and intended to do the bad flash recovery method.  After many failed attempts trying it with my nForce4 chipset equipped mobo (Asus A8N-E), someone on here told me I needed a SATA controller based on a Via chipset.  I ordered a card equipped with the Via 6241L chipset.
Popped that in my PC, tried the bad flash recovery method over and over with just trying to read the firmware to see if I could get it to work.  I eventually did (took 4 or 5 tries).  The firmware was read successfully.
Since then, I have been trying to get the write command to work using the same procedures as before.  I've tried over 60 times, and it simply is not happening.

If I turn the drive on before I hit "1" in MTKFlash, it fails and when I hit ESC it reports status code 80.  If I turn the drive on after I hit "1", I get status code 00 or my PC instantly reboots when I hit ESC.

At this point I am pretty hopeless.  I have tried dozens of suggestions from here, including messing with the power of the DVDROM and not the 360 itself (though that works fine in the video I saw somewhere on here), hooking an MTKFlash compatible CDR drive to the Via SATA card, disconnecting everything and disabling everything in the BIOS, etc.  The behavior is always the same.  Either I'll get a code 00 or my PC will reboot instantly when I hit ESC.

Any recommendations or even just assurances that eventually it'll work and I just have supremely bad luck in getting the timing right?  Is the drive supposed to go through a sequence of codes when starting up like 80, 70, 00?  When I was trying to get the reading to work, I got code 50 a few times, but I haven't seen that while trying to write.

I'm tempted to disassemble MTKFlash and see if I can edit it so that it will loop until it gets a code 70 from the drive or something.  I'm very unclear on what it is doing now.  If it were waiting for a status code of 70, it seems you could just use any timing whatsoever and it would work.  Obviously its doing something very strange if you can tell it to start flashing and it'll sit there and then get a different code based on the timing of when you power up the drive.

[hangler]

Shit happens man, so sorry about your new 400 USD paperweight  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
You can buy a new drive, so everything´s not lost.

[bobasp1]

QUOTE(hangler @ Nov 14 2006, 08:20 PM)

Shit happens man, so sorry about your new 400 USD paperweight  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
You can buy a new drive, so everything´s not lost.

 dumbass 400$ my ass... theres a bunch of sites that sell the drives OEM and the mobo and crap i can get a hitachi drive for 80$ or something from there *sammys also* i doubt the rules permit me to post the link so ill let u find it. idk 80$ instead of a new 360 id do that.

[Textbook]

If you have the drive key or original firmware (which contains the drive key) it is still fixable.  I reflashed a drive that wouldn't even detect in MTKFlash.  I had to hotswap with a good drive, then use the bad-flash recovery as well on my VIA card.  You sound like you're doing everything right, not sure why it isn't working.  If you can't figure it out, PM me.

[Drunkn_Munky]

.... why hex edit when you could use X360SAM?

I believe he can't re-flash it because it won't read the 0800 disk which is needed to allow flash access.

[MicroShack]

Yes you need to use the 0800 dvd to get past the protection or remove the chip and externally program it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Racing.Ray]

So is it not able to read the 0800 Disc or aren't you able to open the drive to insert it? Because for latter you can use a paperclip to emergency open your drive...

[otakucode]

hangler: You buckle to difficult technology too easily and your machine will own you.

Textbook: At what point do you hot-swap?  And do you know if the drives go through a set sequence of codes as they start up?  If I knew that they did, it would help me get the timing right I imagine.

Drunkn_Munky: Because all the automatic methods for doing things surrounding the 360 are mostly crap and much worse to rely on than manual work.

MicroShack: No, you don't, you don't know what you're talking about, so why even try to contribute?  You just want to confuse people?

Racing.Ray: The drive will not eject or spin up a disc, as I clearly stated in the original post.  Using a paperclip to get the tray to eject will not magically make the drive able to spin up and read the disc.  There's one guy on some thread claiming he forced the disc into the tray and that it worked, but he's an idiot.

[majik655]

otakucode  just wondering.. and I do not know if this even matters..

You state you did get that via card... when you used this card.. did you use a edited mtkflash?

I know you have done basically everything and if textbook says you are doing it right then you more than likely are... for your nf4 chipset you already know about modified mtkflashes for it to work... but that card also needs a edited mtkflash  ..

I too do not like the auto flasher stuff.. you are doing it the right way..  supposedly extreme bootmaker can make a edited mtkflash for you..   unless you know where to get or how to make them.

Again I do not know if this is even really needed for the hotswap bad recovery method as I have not had to go through this experience YET (cross fingers) .  Pretty sure it would be needed.

[otakucode]

Yes, I should have mentioned, I did use the Xtreme Boot Maker to produce an edited MTKFlash.  I tried editing one myself, and tried both of the ones posted on here and neither worked.  Never was able to see the sata ports or drive.  The one produced by Xtreme Boot Maker works fine, however, and was the one that did the initial reading of the firmware off of the drive (post borking).

[myfranco]

If you have your original key you can still take the pcb off and send it somebody to reprogramme or you can try another card or pc.
That is what happened to me with a samsung ms25 after bad flash with auto flasher,i used another pc and flashed it.It wasn't ejecting at all.

[Textbook]

This is if you have another Samsung drive that DOES detect in MTKFlash...

1.  Hexedit your MTKFlash with Boke's patch or just use the newest Xtreme Boot Maker and select Boke's patch.
2.  Hook up your good drive to your PC with the SATA cable, but powered off.
3.  Boot your PC into DOS, power on your 360 drive.
4.  Run the mtkflash w /m orig.bin (use the orig.bin from dumped from your bricked drive
5.  It should go to a list asking what drive to select from, leave it here, DON'T select your drive yet
6.  Power off your good Samsung drive, disconnect the SATA cable, and hook it up to the bad drive
7.  Leave the bad drive powered off right now though
8.  With the bad drive hooked up, powered off, select your drive from MTKFlash
9.  MTKFlash should halt with a port error, leave it here, don't hit ESC
10.  Power up your bad drive 10 seconds after you selected it from MTKFlash

[otakucode]

myfranco: I'm not sure if the SST 39SF020A chip is compatible with my motherboards BIOS chip socket... but if it is, I was thinking of doing a hot flash with uniflasher.  Uniflasher is like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly, but it works a hell of a lot better than this flaky MTKFlash that can't even simply loop and wait for the right status code.

Textbook:  If by 'detected in MTKFlash' you mean that the option to select that channel is available, then my drive is recognized by MTKFlash just fine.  The 10 second trick just flat out does not work on this drive.  I have tried for 2 weeks now at least 2 hours every day.  I got it to read once, back when I started this, waiting 7 seconds.  So I tried 20 times in a row waiting 7 seconds for the write and every single time I either got a status of 00 or my PC rebooted when I hit ESC to stop the write attempt.  Unfortunately, I do not have another 360 Samsung drive to try a swap with.

[davet111]

QUOTE(Textbook @ Nov 18 2006, 03:32 PM)

This is if you have another Samsung drive that DOES detect in MTKFlash...

1.  Hexedit your MTKFlash with Boke's patch or just use the newest Xtreme Boot Maker and select Boke's patch.
2.  Hook up your good drive to your PC with the SATA cable, but powered off.
3.  Boot your PC into DOS, power on your 360 drive.
4.  Run the mtkflash w /m orig.bin (use the orig.bin from dumped from your bricked drive
5.  It should go to a list asking what drive to select from, leave it here, DON'T select your drive yet
6.  Power off your good Samsung drive, disconnect the SATA cable, and hook it up to the bad drive
7.  Leave the bad drive powered off right now though
8.  With the bad drive hooked up, powered off, select your drive from MTKFlash
9.  MTKFlash should halt with a port error, leave it here, don't hit ESC
10.  Power up your bad drive 10 seconds after you selected it from MTKFlash

couldnt you just use any sata drive that would detect?  or does it have to be a samsung?

[myfranco]

@Otakucode you might me making a mistake.However , even if you misflashed ,there is always a chance to get it flashed by a reprogrammer.There are plenty of people in USA or UK who are able to do that.I recommend you to send the pcb and let the pros do it for you.If you have a chance to try it on another pc ,you can do it.