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[metaluna]

I've fitted the Maximus Passkey to my August 2007 79FL drive. Using the 9 wire connections. I power up and the blue light comes on for a short time and goes off. I check the drive is in Mode B, and it is, it takes two presses to get the drive closed and then it opens by itself after a few seconds. The centre green LED on the 360 flahes quickly.

I leave it powered on and connect to my PC Via VT6421 Raid Controller (Which I have used for MS25 and MS28) but the drive is not seen in Windows. In control panel an exclamation mark appears by Via VT6421 Raid Controller : The device cannot start (Code :10)

I'm definately in Mode B but I can't see the drive in Windows to get the Key out.

PC and 360 are earthed. I did a fresh install of XP with just the driver that came with the SATA card, still not visible in Windows.

Can anyone help?

[m82a1]

try both sata ports on the controller?

as well as - are u hitting eject on the drive while loading windows?
i read from textbooks guide, under the v0078FK part, that while loading windows you SHOULD be hitting eject, i know u have a 79, but the concept should be the same


This post has been edited by m82a1: Nov 9 2007, 04:53 PM

[Carlitosbaby]

QUOTE(metaluna @ Nov 9 2007, 10:17 AM)

I've fitted the Maximus Passkey to my August 2007 79FL drive. Using the 9 wire connections. I power up and the blue light comes on for a short time and goes off. I check the drive is in Mode B, and it is, it takes two presses to get the drive closed and then it opens by itself after a few seconds. The centre green LED on the 360 flahes quickly.

I leave it powered on and connect to my PC Via VT6421 Raid Controller (Which I have used for MS25 and MS28) but the drive is not seen in Windows. In control panel an exclamation mark appears by Via VT6421 Raid Controller : The device cannot start (Code :10)

I'm definately in Mode B but I can't see the drive in Windows to get the Key out.

PC and 360 are earthed. I did a fresh install of XP with just the driver that came with the SATA card, still not visible in Windows.

Can anyone help?

Yeah some are having problems here are solutions I know of :

1. from a friend use onboard sata to flash he did it with onboard and worked great. just boot drive like a dvdrom first 360 to give power and then pc and should be recognized. should work on most sata ports.

2. This is way I got it to work with 6421a card
Turn on xbox360 and put a movie in it and turn it off. Leave it connected to 6421A card. make sure your card has drivers installed for windows. LEAVE 360 off. Turn on Pc like normal and boot to windows. 360 still off. Once in windows turn on 360 and let the movie start to load. It should show up in windows. Without a movie would lockup my pc. Try a few times and should eventaully show up in windows. Once shows up just close movie and flash like always. Ive only had 2 august so far and I did both like this. My friend just did 1 3 days ago and use the onbaord. Hope this helps.

[metaluna]

Carlitosbaby you are the man!

Your method .....

2. This is way I got it to work with 6421a card
Turn on xbox360 and put a movie in it and turn it off. Leave it connected to 6421A card. make sure your card has drivers installed for windows. LEAVE 360 off. Turn on Pc like normal and boot to windows. 360 still off. Once in windows turn on 360 and let the movie start to load. It should show up in windows. Without a movie would lockup my pc. Try a few times and should eventaully show up in windows. Once shows up just close movie and flash like always.

.... worked!

I'm over the moon!

I found that the 79FL would time out quickly with "cannot read from drive" but regular ejecting and closing the DVD drive worked well.

Thanks ever so much.

[Carlitosbaby]

QUOTE(metaluna @ Nov 9 2007, 12:29 PM)

Carlitosbaby you are the man!

Your method .....

2. This is way I got it to work with 6421a card
Turn on xbox360 and put a movie in it and turn it off. Leave it connected to 6421A card. make sure your card has drivers installed for windows. LEAVE 360 off. Turn on Pc like normal and boot to windows. 360 still off. Once in windows turn on 360 and let the movie start to load. It should show up in windows. Without a movie would lockup my pc. Try a few times and should eventaully show up in windows. Once shows up just close movie and flash like always.

.... worked!

I'm over the moon!

I found that the 79FL would time out quickly with "cannot read from drive" but regular ejecting and closing the DVD drive worked well.

Thanks ever so much.

Glad I could help

[Evil Ryu]

Just wondering if anyone can help me out...

I've got the PassKey installed with wires and the LED DOESN'T come on, but using the SLAX disc, the drives appears to go into ModeB without any problems.

I then leave the 360 on, reboot to Windows and the drive is detected. But when I insert either an original game or dvd movie, it doesn't sound like the drive spins up (and there is no 'autorun' in Windows). And if I open FW Toolbox and try the 'Raw Dump As', it just gives me the 'no disc found' (or whatever) error.

Any suggestions?

[jameswalter]

QUOTE(Evil Ryu @ Nov 21 2007, 12:38 PM)

Just wondering if anyone can help me out...

I've got the PassKey installed with wires and the LED DOESN'T come on, but using the SLAX disc, the drives appears to go into ModeB without any problems.

I then leave the 360 on, reboot to Windows and the drive is detected. But when I insert either an original game or dvd movie, it doesn't sound like the drive spins up (and there is no 'autorun' in Windows). And if I open FW Toolbox and try the 'Raw Dump As', it just gives me the 'no disc found' (or whatever) error.

Any suggestions?

You need to have the LED light up, otherwise the passkey is doing nothing.  Make sure the soldering connections are all good.

[Carlitosbaby]

QUOTE(Evil Ryu @ Nov 21 2007, 05:25 PM)

Are you sure? According to their website:

Q2) I have double checked installation but led does not turn on
R.- Double check installation, also try if drive ejects fine with passkey installed, if not eject then is an installation issue. If drive ejects fine but still not blue led, try using slax to put the drive in Modeb and try to finish flashing that way.

ok here is deal 99% bad install. I have modded so many 79 drives isnt even funny. Im down to 25 minutes for full mod. That includes opening and closing the 360. recheck yor solder points. I have only had 1 sysytem that led didnt turn on. Also try turning on and off the 360 a few times. I have had september 2007 drives that wont give me blue led until Ive turned it on and off about 8 times. slax will alsways put drive in mode B even if chip isnt installed properly. What I do now once wires are soldered I put a small piece of black electric tape over the wires and then peel it back off to make sure my solder points are secure. then leave tape on it afterwarsd to make sure wires dont move while flashing.

[Evil Ryu]

It is a September 2007 drive. I'll try power on & off the 360 a few times and see if I can get the LED to come on (I tried powering it up a couple of times yesterday). I had whipped out the multi-meter and double-checked my install after I did it, but I'll check it again - just in case.

Thanks for the info... I'll post back my results.

[Carlitosbaby]

QUOTE(Evil Ryu @ Nov 21 2007, 05:40 PM)

It is a September 2007 drive. I'll try power on & off the 360 a few times and see if I can get the LED to come on (I tried powering it up a couple of times yesterday). I had whipped out the multi-meter and double-checked my install after I did it, but I'll check it again - just in case.

Thanks for the info... I'll post back my results.

if after about 10 times doesnt turn on the led then bad install remove and reinstall. Also I dont even bother rebooting machine anymore. I leave my pc on. and just have the drive plugged in. machine already in windows. and turn drive on like that. only time I  have issues now is if its a bad install (im not perfect) I just remove the 7 wires and reinstall and all is well again. also once flashed backups will not work until you take passkey out.

[Evil Ryu]

Okay,... thanks again. Your guys' help is greatly appreciated. I'm hoping to get a chance to mess around with it tonight and see if I can get it flashed. I'll let you guys know how I make out with it.

[Evil Ryu]

Okay,... some progress...

First, a little bit of history...

This 360 was brought to me by a customer who had taken it to another fella to mod. The other guy didn't feel comfortable soldering the PassKey in, so the customer called me. He had removed the epoxy (which, I must say, he did a pretty good job - I'm surprised), but the soldering iron never even touched the PCB.

So after your suggestions yesterday, I got a quick chance to mess around with the 360 this morning before heading to work. Your suggestion about powering the 360 on/off until the LED comes on worked. It took about 8 or 9 times. Now it seems the LED comes on everytime.

But it still had the same problem... when inserting an original game or dvd movie, it appeared that the disc wouldn't even spin. I then realized that it must be a problem with the laser. And then I saw it.... the other guy that had the 360 before me must have unplugged the PCB from the dvdrom and forgot to plug the ribbon cable back into the laser! When I installed the PassKey, I had checked to make sure the ribbon cables were plugged back into the PCB - but I didn't check to see if the ribbon cable had been plugged into the laser (I assumed it wouldn't have been - because there wouldn't have been a need to remove the cable from the laser).

So after plugging the ribbon cable into the laser, I got some disc 'spinnage' and laser activity, but Windows wouldn't pick anything up as far as the 'autorun' goes - and I still got the error in FW Toolbox. It looks like the 360 is struggling to read the disc.

My next step is to tear the drive apart and check the laser a little better. Not to get off-topic, but what should the pot settings be for these 0079FL lasers?

What I actually think happened is that the other guy that had the 360 swapped the laser out of the system, and he's probably put a bad laser in and kept the good one for himself. That's the only reason I can see why he would have had to remove the ribbon cable from the laser. I've dealt with this particular guy before, and he's a pretty sketchy dude. He even tried to rip ME off.... knowing who I was and what I did!

I'll keep you guys posted as to how I make out with this 360...

[Carlitosbaby]

QUOTE(Evil Ryu @ Nov 22 2007, 11:41 AM)

Okay,... some progress...

First, a little bit of history...

This 360 was brought to me by a customer who had taken it to another fella to mod. The other guy didn't feel comfortable soldering the PassKey in, so the customer called me. He had removed the epoxy (which, I must say, he did a pretty good job - I'm surprised), but the soldering iron never even touched the PCB.

So after your suggestions yesterday, I got a quick chance to mess around with the 360 this morning before heading to work. Your suggestion about powering the 360 on/off until the LED comes on worked. It took about 8 or 9 times. Now it seems the LED comes on everytime.

But it still had the same problem... when inserting an original game or dvd movie, it appeared that the disc wouldn't even spin. I then realized that it must be a problem with the laser. And then I saw it.... the other guy that had the 360 before me must have unplugged the PCB from the dvdrom and forgot to plug the ribbon cable back into the laser! When I installed the PassKey, I had checked to make sure the ribbon cables were plugged back into the PCB - but I didn't check to see if the ribbon cable had been plugged into the laser (I assumed it wouldn't have been - because there wouldn't have been a need to remove the cable from the laser).

So after plugging the ribbon cable into the laser, I got some disc 'spinnage' and laser activity, but Windows wouldn't pick anything up as far as the 'autorun' goes - and I still got the error in FW Toolbox. It looks like the 360 is struggling to read the disc.

My next step is to tear the drive apart and check the laser a little better. Not to get off-topic, but what should the pot settings be for these 0079FL lasers?

What I actually think happened is that the other guy that had the 360 swapped the laser out of the system, and he's probably put a bad laser in and kept the good one for himself. That's the only reason I can see why he would have had to remove the ribbon cable from the laser. I've dealt with this particular guy before, and he's a pretty sketchy dude. He even tried to rip ME off.... knowing who I was and what I did!

I'll keep you guys posted as to how I make out with this 360...

actually a few times I have had to reboot pc to get game/movie to read. What I would so is make sure all connections of drive are good. Leave 360 off after that, but have it connected to pc. Now reboot pc. once pc is in windows. Go to device manager and everything should be ok. Now turn on 360 if you get blue led you should be fine now. If in device manager it shows a question mark wait a few secs for it to clear on its own. If it tells you to restart for drive update choose no. open toolbox but dont do anything yet. now eject the tray on the drive and insert a movie or game hit eject button once which shouldnt go in should just click once since in mode B. Now hit close drive in toolbox and as soon as it closes wait maybe 1 sec and hit read. if it says 20 sec crap just hit ok and hit read again. If still doesnt work might be something loose or how person removed epoxy. I had a may 2007 drive that when I went to start scraping epoxy off I was able to remove it completely. But the tsop connections got loose. Very easy to fix just put soldering flux on the tsop connectors and just slide the iron over connectors fast just to remelt them back on after that worked perfect. I hope this helps you. Good luck.

[Evil Ryu]

*update*

First off, I should apologize for blaming the other fella... it ended up being my own fault.

I didn't have the bottom piece of the dvdrom drive on - so that I could see whether or not the LED on the PassKey was lighting up. I thought the top piece was on tight enough - but apparently it wasn't. Once I screwed the bottom piece on, Windows picked up the disc without any problems and I was able to flash the drive. I actually did a second 79 drive right afterwards (with my own PassKey this time) and everything went perfectly. Without the bottom piece screwed on, the top piece wasn't on tight enough, and the disc was probably slipping - which would give read errors (and that's why it wouldn't show up in Windows).

One thing I'll mention... as per Carlitosbaby's suggestion, I left Windows running, plugged the 360 dvdrom drive into the PC (via SATA) and opened up the Device Manager and checked the dvdrom drives listed. It only had my PC drive listed. I then turned on the 360, and if the PassKey was working properly, the 360 dvdrom drive would be listed within about 5 seconds. If it didn't show up, I'd just turn off the 360 and turn it back on and after a few tries, it would show up in the Device Manager and be good to go. When I had the back cover off of the 360 dvdrom drive and was able to see the LED on the PassKey, whenever the LED lit up when turning on the 360, is when it would show up in the Device Manager within Windows. If it didn't light up, then the 360 dvdrom drive would show up in the Device Manager.

Just thought I would share a little something that helped me out...

Thanks again for your help guys!

[podger]

Are you sure it's the passkey and not your SATA controller..... Have you tried just using slax to put it in mode-b without the passkey on there..... You won't be able to flash but at least it will rule out the passkey....

Don't get me wrong passkeys can be a real pain... I got best results by keeping the wires short and approximately the same length, I taped the passkey to the area in the corner with no components where TP405 is.... this way I kept the wires from crossing etc..

Also make sure you short the 360 to PC......