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[-PK-]

Fussy Via Card Guide v2.1

This is a follow up for people having trouble with their via card's when using existing guides such as Textbook's Tutorial (pdf)

This guide is not for anyone who can already get their card to appear in mtkflash.

This guide is only for those that are having problems with:
- DOS drastically slowing down when turning on the 360.
- DOS freezing when running mtkflash or any batch files.
- MS28 Drive not being recognised with via card in mtkflash.


I came up with this method over 3 days of testing, reluctant to do soldering tricks on other people's drives.  What works for me may not work for you!


What you need:

 - USB (recommended) or Floppy disk prepared with iPrep (not covered in this guide).


What to do:

1)  Disconnect any IDE/SATA devices that you can (using my own method with ide devices still connected, mtkflash did read the wrong firmware! This will also help reduce certain drive not detected issues).  Make sure your 360 is grounded to your pc chasis using crockclips, wire, or metal touching metal.

2) Power on the 360.  Power on your PC.  If prompted press <g> to continue.  Boot into DOS using your USB/Floppy (you may need to press F8 for your boot menu while powering on your PC).

3) Type in: idump xxxxxxx xxxxxx (where x is your serial number) and press enter.  It should say no devices connected (if you have other devices connected just press esc).  Ignore any missing file warnings from samtool.  Power off the 360.

Note: By doing this once, dos should no longer freeze or slow down when you turn on the 360 (it will still lock up about 10% of the time when you turn on the 360 for the first time in step 4).


4)  Now press f3, but do not press enter this time.

Turn on the 360, wait 2 seconds, press enter.  If it doesn't show XTREME Pri Master, press ESC.  Continue to press f3 and enter and ESC when needed, until the drive is detected (it should work sometime before the dash loads).

It should now say XTREME Pri Master.  If it didn't work do the entire step 4 again until it does.

Note: The second run of mtkflash/idump on 360 boot is the key to getting the drive to show up with fussy via cards!


5) Once Xtreme Pri Master is listed, turn off the 360.  Press the number next to Xtreme Pri Master and wait 10 seconds.  Turn the 360 back on and it should start to read.  If prompted by samtool about version strings, press Y.

(!) When the operation is finished make sure the samtool screen is showing your drive key before turning off your 360 and pc. If your drive key is not showing you need to run: samtool.exe backups\xxxxxxx\xxxxxx\orig.bin backups\xxxxxxx\xxxxxx\hacked.bin (where x is your serial number). If the commandline is frozen turn off the pc and 360, and run samtool immediately after step 6 (before running iflash in step 7).



Now to flash the drive!

6) Power on the 360.  Power on your PC.  If prompted press <g> to continue.  Boot into DOS using your USB/Floppy (you may need to press F8 for your boot menu while powering on your PC).

7) Type in: iflash xxxxxxx xxxxxx (where x is your serial number) and press enter.  It should say no devices connected (if you have other devices connected just press esc).  Power off the 360.

Note: By doing this once, dos should no longer freeze or slow down when you turn on the 360 (it will still lock up about 10% of the time when you turn on the 360 for the first time in step .


 Now press f3, but do not press enter this time.

Turn on the 360, wait 2 seconds, press enter.  If it doesn't show XTREME Pri Master, press ESC.  Continue to press f3 and enter and ESC when needed, until the drive is detected (it should work sometime before the dash loads).

It should now say XTREME Pri Master.  If it didn't work do the entire step 8 again until it does.

Note: The second run of mtkflash/iflash on 360 boot is the key to getting the drive to show up with fussy via cards!


9) Once Xtreme Pri Master is listed, turn off the 360.  Press the number next to Xtreme Pri Master and wait 10 seconds.  Turn the 360 back on and it should start to flash the drive.



Final Thoughts:

Hope this helps those of you having problems with the VIA card!  If you are still having trouble getting your via card to show up with mtkflash (or mtkflash related errors), try the secondary port.  On my Rosewill VT6421A card, port D showed up as Pri Master and C didn't show up at all !!  Note: the port that usually works is the internal port farthest from the backplate, closest to the front of the pc.

Please let me know if this method works or doesnt work for you (and list which of the three situations you were experiencing).  If Dos is still freezing or slowing down when running idump/iflash (this does not include mtkflash errors), then try the v2.0 of this guide since it doesn't use any batch files like idump/iflash.

 -pk-



Guide History
v2.1 - updated with iPrep.  Was still seeing lots of 'drive not detected' posts so I figured it was time for another update
v2.0 - updated with samtool.

Old Threads :
Fussy Via Card Guide 2.0 (has some additional tips)
Fussy Via Card Guide 1.0 (outdated)

This post has been edited by Chancer: Aug 10 2007, 11:07 AM

[pricemeista33]

Hey thanks for the speedy post and I'll be sure to inform you of all the details when I'm complete.
Thanks PK