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[wubbla]

Hi there!

I've to admit that I'm another lucky guy who encountered a floppy read error during the flashing process...
And yeah, this left my drive in a somehow "semi-bricked" status. Ejecting for example works, whereas booting the xbox360 dashboard/games doesn't work.
As you might have already read in the topic title I've got a ms28 drive as well as a VIA VT6421A controller.
The 10 seconds trick did actually work for me, so I've got an intact orig.bin, which means that not everything is lost, right?
My problem now is, that I can neither read nor write another (valid) firmware to the drive. The 10 seconds trick simply doesn't work anymore... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
Any ideas what to do now?
I simply do not want to imagine having a 400 euro paperweight at home...
Thanks in advance for your help!

[wubbla]

nobody?

[ILLPLEASA]

I always thought that if you could still eject your drive then it wasn't bricked at all.. I'm guessing you flashed your drive with Xtreme Firmware 4.0 and up?

If thats the case and If I were you I'd try to burn the 0800 disc (onto a dual layer to be safe) to see if I could unlock the drive for reading/writing purposes before I start to panic.. Let us know how that goes first..(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

This post has been edited by ILLPLEASA: Jan 12 2007, 10:53 PM

[vinomarky]

Two suggestions;

First - do a variation of the 10-second trick
Use the command line mtkflash w /m /sata hacked.bin instead of a samhack batch file
At the selection list turn of the xbox for 10-seconds (before you make selection)
Make selection
Turn on immediately after (as opposed to normal, where you wait 10-seconds after you make selection)
Repeat above increasing timing turn turn unit back on in 1 second increments
I have heard some good success with this, with some people saying it needs 1-2 seconds delay, and others 4-5 seconds delay

Second - Last ditch effort - use VCC trick. The most reliable guide seems to be from Majik at;
http://home.comcast.net/~majik0655/360/ms28.html

Good luck - let us know how it goes

This post has been edited by vinomarky: Jan 12 2007, 11:07 PM

[KarlosB]

also a possiblity a hotswap with another ms28 drive might work (using 10 second method after hotswap), fixed a drive that wouldnt even eject by using it, just be sure to make sure everything is grounded.

[wubbla]

QUOTE(KarlosB @ Jan 13 2007, 12:34 AM)

also a possiblity a hotswap with another ms28 drive might work (using 10 second method after hotswap), fixed a drive that wouldnt even eject by using it, just be sure to make sure everything is grounded.

How does that hotswap method work in detail?
Can you please explain...?

[deemx]

I had the same problem with the MS28. The trick that worked was :

1. Make sure you can see your drive in mtkflash.
2. When it comes to the selection screen, power down the xbox and make sure it is totally off.
3. When the xbox shuts down, get ready to choose your selection and have your other finger on the power button.
4. Press the selection in MTKFLASH and Immediately turn on your 360.
5. This forced mode 70 on my 6421a card, and the flash started and succeeded.

[wubbla]

QUOTE(deemx @ Jan 13 2007, 03:56 PM)

I had the same problem with the MS28. The trick that worked was :

1. Make sure you can see your drive in mtkflash.
2. When it comes to the selection screen, power down the xbox and make sure it is totally off.
3. When the xbox shuts down, get ready to choose your selection and have your other finger on the power button.
4. Press the selection in MTKFLASH and Immediately turn on your 360.
5. This forced mode 70 on my 6421a card, and the flash started and succeeded.

Hm.... I've already tried this...
Maybe you can upload your mtkflash.exe to rapidshare.com (or somewhere else...)?

[KarlosB]

method for fixing bad flash ms28 (no working eject or read or write) ..

i did this (thanks to blizzil on #fw)

thankfully the guy who brought his xbox, did get a working orig.bin which i modified (xtreme 5.2) and put put in the main directory of my usb drive.

opened my pc, got 2 xboxs with power supplys, and grounded them to my pc case, one had none working ms28, one had perfect ms28 flashed with 5.2C.

turned on his xbox

wired mine up to sata (working one), then i went to my usb boot disk turned on my xbox (allready made for bad flash method)

type mtkflash w /sata hacked.bin (his binary file) ...ok menu pops up 1 2 or 3 (3 is my vt8237)

when this menu popped up, i switched the sata cable into his xbox (broken one) (which was allready powered on)

pressed 3, counted 10 seconds, and what do you know, it flashed perfectly, i then tested it, it ejected first time, put a backup in it, instant boot! and the job was done ohmy.gif...

BTW i tried the 10 second without hotswapping it, nothing...wouldnt read or write to the drive, just port errors.

hope this helps.

[ramholio]

so what do you think the reason for the above working is?

i've just had the exact same problem with a knackered floppy disk - it flashed the first part without issue but then had a read error.

Is there anyway to check wether the orig.bin file I dumped is 100% ok?

EDIT : Also what constitutes a bricked drive - mine won't eject at all now because of this but is it likely to not actually be bricked?

This post has been edited by ramholio: Jan 13 2007, 07:01 PM

[majik655]

QUOTE(ramholio @ Jan 13 2007, 10:06 AM)

so what do you think the reason for the above working is?

i've just had the exact same problem with a knackered floppy disk - it flashed the first part without issue but then had a read error.

Is there anyway to check wether the orig.bin file I dumped is 100% ok?

EDIT : Also what constitutes a bricked drive - mine won't eject at all now because of this but is it likely to not actually be bricked?

For SAMSUNGS any BRICKING would be hardware.  

Meaning.. the firmware can be restored because it is able to be flashed in DOS.... using the bad flash method or hotswap method is a way to recover ANY BAD flashing...

Now.. if the HARDWARE is bad... either because of coincidence or because it became bad while flashing THAT is bricked.

It may be difficult to recover from a bad flash but it is possible.   So unless a hardware item is damaged for what ever reason.. then your drive because it is a samsung is not bricked.


Now if you had a hitachi... THESE drives CAN be bricked by bad flashing.   Since there is no way to FULLY recover from a BAD FLASH (frozen while patching example)  since there is NO WAY to FULLY recover from a BAD incomplete flash these drives are bricked until a full REFLASH is possible.

[KarlosB]

QUOTE(majik655 @ Jan 13 2007, 08:38 PM)

For SAMSUNGS any BRICKING would be hardware.  

Meaning.. the firmware can be restored because it is able to be flashed in DOS.... using the bad flash method or hotswap method is a way to recover ANY BAD flashing...

Now.. if the HARDWARE is bad... either because of coincidence or because it became bad while flashing THAT is bricked.

It may be difficult to recover from a bad flash but it is possible.   So unless a hardware item is damaged for what ever reason.. then your drive because it is a samsung is not bricked.
Now if you had a hitachi... THESE drives CAN be bricked by bad flashing.   Since there is no way to FULLY recover from a BAD FLASH (frozen while patching example)  since there is NO WAY to FULLY recover from a BAD incomplete flash these drives are bricked until a full REFLASH is possible.

this guy speaks the truth!

i think the method i did, with the hotswap, is because something like this...

with bad drive, maybe when i type : mtkflash w /sata hacked.bin, when it reads 1 2 3 ports, maybe port 3 (my via chipset) gives no responce, which leads to mtkflash no wanting to write to it!

with good drive, when i type it with mtkflash, mtkflash gets a responce from my good drive, so will attempt to flash it, so when i hotswap, he will flash my bad drive...

this is just theory of course, i was sceptical it wouldnt work too, but trust me it 100% works.

[bkanzi]

Sorry to hear about your problems. I went through  just about the same thing. no combination of 10 sec. VCC trick or any other method was working. i finallt tried unplugging the power cable from the dvd drive, instead of turning the xbox on/off. and it worked the first time. I don't know what the Gurus on this board have to say bout that, but it worked for me.

Glad to hear you at least have a copy of the orig bios. I inadertantly pulled the wire and pcb pad off my drive while moving the drive around. got lucky and was able to solder bridge the gap and restore the drive.


good Luck

[Hercules Man]

"Sorry to hear about your problems. I went through just about the same thing. no combination of 10 sec. VCC trick or any other method was working. i finallt tried unplugging the power cable from the dvd drive, instead of turning the xbox on/off. and it worked the first time. I don't know what the Gurus on this board have to say bout that, but it worked for me."




Weird, i would have thought that unplugging the power from the 360 drive while it is powered on would for sure be the same as turning off/on the 360 itself. No logic in it for sure.



H MAn

[Dravor]

QUOTE(KarlosB @ Jan 13 2007, 08:57 PM)

this guy speaks the truth!

i think the method i did, with the hotswap, is because something like this...

with bad drive, maybe when i type : mtkflash w /sata hacked.bin, when it reads 1 2 3 ports, maybe port 3 (my via chipset) gives no responce, which leads to mtkflash no wanting to write to it!

with good drive, when i type it with mtkflash, mtkflash gets a responce from my good drive, so will attempt to flash it, so when i hotswap, he will flash my bad drive...

this is just theory of course, i was sceptical it wouldnt work too, but trust me it 100% works.

What we almost need then is a re-engineered version of mtkflash which simply skips the port checks.  Now, one would need to be careful with this because in theory you could just do really f'd up things if you had the wrong devices hooked up.

Essentially all your doing is tricking mtkflash into thinking the drive is responding on all the ports.

Great work!