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[sparkyguy]

Have bad TS-943A.  When hooked to my PC, the SATA (via chipset) controller doesn't even see it. PC BIOS just displays "nnnnnn" and jibberish.  Good news: I also have a good replacement TS-943A which my PC see's just fine.  Swapping controller boards doesn't help.  The problem moves with the DVD controller board.  The poblem is, I don't have the key from the old drive.  Since my PC can't see the controller, do I have a white bricked doorstop, or is there any hope of extracting the code so I can move it to my new drive?  I do have FWtoolset, but if I can't see the drive, I can't see that I can do much.  So close to a repair, but yet so far!

[Ranger72]

What happened to cause the drive to brick? Did you try to flash the drive and failed or was it something else?

[sparkyguy]

Nope, nothing; and I'm positive on this one.  The unit was purchased new (by me and I'm the only one that has ever touched the inside) and is 4+ yrs old.  DVD has never been flashed.  Only mods whatsoever is an x-clamp repair almost 2 years ago for ROD (before I knew about any extended warranties).  Has operated flawlessly for, literally, hundreds-and-hundreds of hours since.  My kid was in the middle of Call of Duty 4 on xbox Live and, bang, it shot the E65 error.  Some digging strongly indicated the DVD or controller.  I had hoped I could get an exact replacement drive with same firmware and just swap the controllers so I didn't need to mess with flashing anything, but I wasn't so lucky.  To make sure it doesn't fry any more other hardware, or get banned from xbox Live, I've temporarilly unplugged the HD and WiFi card.  If there is no DVD plugged in, it will boot without the E-65 error and operate just fine.  (Obviously, not much can be done, but it does boot and flash all green.)  The wireless controllers will work, on-screen display works, everything works, except it won't load games because of the DVD key mis-match.  If I plug in the new drive, it is the same story, but, again, the DVD key mis-match won't load games in the drive.  If I install the old (defective) DVD drive, it will flash one green light then jump to a flashing red with e-65 error on every boots.  If I swap the DVD controller card from the old drive into the new drive, the problem follows the DVD controller card.  It crash anytime it sees the original (defective) DVD controller card plugged in, regardless of what DVD drive it's installed in.  The only cause I can think of was a static jolt.  My carpet in the room where my kid was playing the game frequently generates a lot of static, but he doesn't remember it failing the instant he touched the case.  He's pretty sure it was just in the middle of a game.  With kids, who knows?  I do know that no one has attempted any mods, my kid isn't into that.  Since the replacement DVD drive will boot without error (but not load games), I'm guessing the new drive would work, IF I can get the key out of the old controller board and flash it into the new drive.

[KarlosB]

try the old hotswap technique....

insert working dvd drive with mtkflash bootable on a stick (an old version of iprep will do fine, i will use this in example below)

type samread xxxxxxx xxxxx (replace x with number of your choice)

mtkflash will now detect your drive on that sata port....

now, unplug the working (readable) drive, and plug in your other one, without cutting any power to the PC (known as a hot swap)

now try the 10 second trick....it should work fine...., i have fixed a couple of drives in this way that the 10 second trick wouldnt work on for some reason, and after doing this it worked fine (they was drives i pulled from faulty xbox bought from ebay, presumably broken flashes)

im not 100% sure if hotswap works with dosflash (im also not sure if it would even be required using dosflash)....but maybe it might work.

if i was you i would personally try the MTKFLASH hotswap method, as i know its worked for me in the past.

[sparkyguy]

To clarify, the drive I can't read is the one with the valid key.  Won't this procedure overwrite it?

[KarlosB]

no...thats why i said "samread"....samread will "read" key, not write/overwrite anything...

please follow the instructions (if you never done the 10 second trick before, read textbooks tutorial or something...but its pretty straight forward.

let us know if it works, if it doesnt maybe the board is totally gone.

just to clarify, incase your confused...

inserting the working drive first makes sure the sata port responds to the mtkflash query....

then you swap to the none working drive, and try a 10 second trick read...it will read from the current drive, not the first drive obviously)

This post has been edited by KarlosB: Jan 2 2009, 03:05 AM

[Ranger72]

Yes try what KarlosB says. If that don't work you may need to have the tsop removed and read with an external programmer.

[sparkyguy]

OK, I need to clarify a few of your steps.  I'm an electrical engineer by profession so I'm not brain-dead on the hardware, just not familiar with the utilities you are describing.  However, I'm a bit confused on the steps.

Making a DOS bootable USB stick isn't a problem, but what utilities do I need to download and put on it?
It sounds like I will need both "samread" and "iprep" on the USB stick, correct?  Do versions matter?  Also, do you mean I need to do all of the steps in 10 seconds, or just swap the cables within 10 seconds?

If it's easier, it sounds like there are some previous posts on this, although I've been searching & haven't found them yet.  I don't want to waste forum space repeating things.  Is there any url links available with steps?  Most of what I've found was patching drives from one mfr to another or to add functions M$ didn't intend. I'm not trying to do anything cute, just raise a drive from the dead.

I really appreciate the assistance.  At least this is progress, I've been fighting this thing for a couple of weeks now.

[dimmellee]

i have cured two drives with this problem in this exact manner. Download iprep 8.6 beta,you dont need to put this on the stick, wont give you the url but its easy to find on the download tab here, it  prepares the usb stick for you and will be all needed programs on it for you and you can get the key using the instructions above. Its an easy repair, the ten second trick is a stage where u turn off your drive for ten seconds and then power back on just after selecting your port, samread will tell you when to do it, that is where u would swap the drive for the dead one, you have all the time in the world for the rest of the steps

This post has been edited by dimmellee: Jan 2 2009, 03:54 AM

[sparkyguy]

Gents,
I must have been drinking too much eggnog, but I don't follow.
I've got iprep 8.6 beta & extracted.
Karlos noted "samread" and "mktflash" but neither of these is in the extracted iprep folders.
Download separately?

When I run iprep, it appears to be requestiong a bin file before writing anything to the stick.  Some other posts describe hacked bins versions & "updated" bins, which I don't want to mess with, just restore my old.

Sorry to sound like a real bupkus, but I'm missing something obvious about the process.
The problem is that I'm not familiar with what these utilities are doing at each step.

I hate to clutter up the forum, but you've been very informative.

[dimmellee]

if you downladed the latest version of iprep its now dsam or rsam rather than samread. fsam uses dosflash instead of mktflash. The bin files it is requesting are the ixtreme firmware files one for samsung, benq and liteon drives. You have them i expect? Even if you only want to restore your old drive firmware u will still need them to set iprep up

This post has been edited by dimmellee: Jan 2 2009, 06:16 AM

[STICKY_BUD]

go to "the usual places" for hacked files and all the other tools you need. if you do not want to download ixtreme for this process, you will need skip the batch files prepared by iprep. use a boot disk(usb or floppy) with samread(mtkflash) and an old school tutorial(there should still be some here/look for posts from summer 2006).

it might seem to you like you are missing something important, but you actually have enough information here in this thread to make it to the goal line.

just keep reading until it all makes sense... there really is no other way for you to learn how to repair your own drive. if it makes you feel better, i have been flashing drives for a 2.5 years now and felt the exact same way when i was trying to read the key for my first liteon drive.


edit: this is not linked to from the tools tab for some reason, but i found it with a google search
http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox360-tools/X360SAM.php
this has everything you need besides the bootable files. you can probably figure that out for yourself... there will be an error since you do not have xtreme4.2 on the disck, but you could also remove the x360sam command from the samread batch files before executing them. read the readme file before you do anything.

This post has been edited by STICKY_BUD: Jan 2 2009, 07:55 AM

[sparkyguy]

Thanks,

I'll keep plugging at it.  I'm not a noobie, in fact, I'm a 50+ yr old PC network administrator and go back to pre-DOS, remember when 10 MB (with an M) HD was big, and needed to enter bad-track maps to setup a HD.  However, this is making me feel like a 10 year old kid or a moron.

[KarlosB]

if you do an xbox-scene search for my name (KarlosB) you will find a post which i posted in of which i posted instructions how to repair a bad flashed drive which wouldnt be detected or fixed by the bad flash method (10 second trick)....

its basically this....

download an OLD version of iprep OR xtreme boot maker (this is what i used before iprep, and what the command samread was used in)...

if your using iprep you would use dsam xxxxxxx xxxxx, if your using xtreme boot maker its samread xxxxxxx xxxxx.

now we got that cleared up. do this in this order :

boot your floppy/usb drive.

power on your working DVD rom unit.

type samread xxxxxxx xxxxx or dsam xxxxxxx xxxxx (depending on which tool you have used)

a menu is gonna pop up, asking you to select a port, you need to select the ixtreme master or the name of your sata chipset, it will vary.


at this stage, we need to plug in our none working drive ( but leave the drive turned OFF )

now, the final step is to press the number on the screen of the correct port, count to 10, and turn the drive on...sometimes you will need to count to 8, 10, 12 or even 14 seconds, it will vary.

if it all goes well, the drive "should" read.

oh, one thing i didnt mension...i dont think this will work unless you have a VIA sata chipset.

[sparkyguy]

I was almost positive that I had a VIA SATA chipset, but no go.  It is actually Intel ICH5.  SAMREAD returns "no device found".  I guess I'm hosed unless I can find a friend with VIA.  I know there is ~$20 VIA SATA card on NewEgg, but I've already sunk about $50 into repairs. I guess it's got the best of me unless anyone has other suggestions.