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[Creamy Goodness]

so, i basically stayed up all night trying to get this working... and i have to go to work now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
I have an nforce 4 mobo so i gave up on the flash recovery method or whatever it's called, and did the vcc mod instead. depending on what order i boot the stuff in and if the wire's are connected or not I can make it to the part where I can select the device to read with mtkflash, but then it just sits there. if i hit escape it tells me the status code, which is always 00, 51, or 80. Do these codes mean anything?
any help is appreciated (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[k03n]

Im in the same boat as you i get the same error messages

Hopefully someone will help

[Creamy Goodness]

mtkflash usually gives me the 2 choices for the nforce sata primary and master, and either a status of 51 or 80 depending on if the vcc mod is active or not. I probably tried about 50 times, with various combinations of restarting the xbox, computer, and connecting and disconnecting the SATA and the vcc switch wires...
I'm pretty sure at this point there's no combination of the flash-related activities that is going to work for me without changing some of the tools I'm using.
I'm just wondering what would be most likely to be causing this problem? I would think the status codes mean that mtkflash is detecting the drive properly but it's not responding for whatever reason...
So what are the possibilities?

1) bad sata-cable
2) bad ground (i just have a wire electrical taped between the two cases)
3) mobo/bios is incompatible or broken (MSI K8N Neo 4 platinum)
4) the pre-hexed mtkflash i'm using is somehow bad
5) i already broke the dvd drive and i dont know it yet
6) some sort of additional protection we don't know about

So I guess when I get home I'll try using a different SATA port and making a new mtkflash, swapping the sata cable, and testing the continuity of the ground.
If that doesn't work I'll give up for now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
Anyone got any other ideas?

[Textbook]

QUOTE

using the bad flash recovery method to flash an MS28 drive will only work with VIA chipsets.  Even if your chipset works with MS25 and even if you use a hex-edited MTKFlash, it will not work if you do not have a VIA chipset.  Please use the VCC switch method instead.

Quoted directly from the tutorial.

Either buy a VIA VT6421 or use the VCC switch method.

[scrano]

TextBook, Creamy Goodness has already stated in both his posts that he has already done the VCC trick and is still having trouble

[deakphreak]

Ive got an nforce 4 asues mobo and i got mine to work.  I kept trying the wire trick and touching them together with no luck. I went and pulled a switch out of my jeep and hooked that up. I had it dumped and flashed within 10 minutes.  I turned on the 360 with the wires disconnected, ran mtkflash r /m backup.bin and if it gave me choices then id go forward if not then it turn it off and try from scratch again.  So if it worked then id flip the switch on and not even one second after, i hit the 1 for primaray sata.  It started dumping right away.

[Creamy Goodness]

yeah, i think you might be onto something  there with that switch. it really does make sense -- when you connect two wires together the connection does not go from OFF to ON just like that, the wires probably brush together for a fraction of a second first and the connection alternates between being off and on a few times before stabalizing. This could easily put the dvd drive into an unflashable state... unfortunately nobody seems to know enough about what this mod is doing at a hardware level internally so it's hard to confirm this idea, but it certainly sonds plausible. now if only i had a jeep to steal a switch from... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[chrisdot]

guys guys guys......listen to textbook.....i tried for 4 days and nights with what was  supposed to be a compatible chipset.......GET A VT 6421 card and it will all seem like "why didnt i just do that in the 1st place".
after heartache and pain i finally sorted my ms28 in mins!!!!!!!!

[Creamy Goodness]

Yeah, I might have to. I'm about ready to give this method up. I tried using a different SATA cable and port, using xtremebootmaker 0.3.6 to hex the mtkflash for me. Same problem. Adding a real switch for the vcc mod didn't help either... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[glaze]

The vcc trick is a little tricky if you don't really understand whats happening. Basically, you're trying to time the drive giving the status 70 with mtkflash looking for the status 70.

This is how you do it--I"ve done at least 5 this way until my via6421a came in the mail.

1. Apply two wires to the vcc point and attach those to a switch
2. Put the switch in the on position (thats where the switch joins the wires) and boot up your 360
3. Wait until the flashing light sequence has finished on the 360 and boot up dos.
4. Type mtkflash r /m orig.bin but don't hit enter yet!
5. Turn off your 360, and move the switch into the off position.
6. Boot up your 360, and wait until it finishes its flashing lights sequence.
7. This is the hard part, you have to flick the switch into the on position just before you hit enter on the keyboard.
8. Choose your sata chipset and away you go

If you get status 51 you hit enter too early. If you get status 80 you were too late. And status 00 I have no clue lol

But try this method out and post your results.

[Creamy Goodness]

Well, I would, but soon after posting my last message I removed the switch and put the 360 back together. I really don't want to put the switch back on again as my soldering iron has a large tip and my hand isn't very steady - every time i do something like that I feel that there's a good chance I'm going to break it!
I finally got around to purchasing one of those via based sata cards yesterday, so I can finally mod this thing without pulling the drive apart again.
Thanks for taking the time for posting that info though, it's still interesting to read. I seriously tried at least 50 times to get the vcc trick to work , so that must be one small window at which the status is actually 70 on the drive. I realize nobody probably has the answer, but I'm wondering why the mtkflash sits there until you hit escape and THEN it gives the error about the status code. I mean, if the status on the drive goes from 51 to 70 to 80, why the hell doesn't mtkflash see this and catch it automatically when it's in the right state? The fact that it sits there without reporting an error until I hit escape seems to suggest it's checking the drive status at some interval until I hit escape... Maybe this polling only works properly on certain chipsets or motherboards, which would explain why I couldn't get it to work, and others had no trouble.

[majik655]

QUOTE(Creamy Goodness @ Nov 29 2006, 06:26 PM)

Well, I would, but soon after posting my last message I removed the switch and put the 360 back together. I really don't want to put the switch back on again as my soldering iron has a large tip and my hand isn't very steady - every time i do something like that I feel that there's a good chance I'm going to break it!
I finally got around to purchasing one of those via based sata cards yesterday, so I can finally mod this thing without pulling the drive apart again.
Thanks for taking the time for posting that info though, it's still interesting to read. I seriously tried at least 50 times to get the vcc trick to work , so that must be one small window at which the status is actually 70 on the drive. I realize nobody probably has the answer, but I'm wondering why the mtkflash sits there until you hit escape and THEN it gives the error about the status code. I mean, if the status on the drive goes from 51 to 70 to 80, why the hell doesn't mtkflash see this and catch it automatically when it's in the right state? The fact that it sits there without reporting an error until I hit escape seems to suggest it's checking the drive status at some interval until I hit escape... Maybe this polling only works properly on certain chipsets or motherboards, which would explain why I couldn't get it to work, and others had no trouble.

Nforce and ich will work fine with ms28 vcc trick.. YES it is VERY TIME CRITICAL!   like 1.2 to 2.0 second MAX!

if you ever decide to try the vcc again.. here is a post I did that seems to help some people..  (at least I get messages saying thank you it worked finally after reading it...)

LINK TO VCC ICH and NFORCE MS28