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[daov2a]

Well, found out that when my video is cutting out or stopping when watching movies/shows from the local HDD, the G partition is being listed as 'unavailable'. This is in addition to only booting in to XBMC about 75% of the time without having to shut it down and reboot.

The HDD I have is the one from the initial post of this forum (http://www.wdc.com/e...asp?driveid=336). Xbox is v1.2, and I am using an Xecutor 3CE mod chip with v3294 BIOS.

This HDD has jumpers on it and one is for 1.5GB PHY. When I set the HDD to this, suddenly I am able to boot in every time. Still working on the video cut out though. Wondering though if they're related. Gonna rebuild the G partition and see what happens.

[minino666]

witnessmenow. Can you read the main chip code, id, model marked? i mean the main chip on the sata-ide adaptor from http://www.dealextre...ls.dx/sku.12537

Thanks in advance

[daov2a]

Well, just want to confirm for anyone listening that changing that pin setting fixed all of my issues and the HDD boots in to XBMC every time without fail and is no longer dropping movies after a random amount of time.

Don't know if this will work for anyone else, but it did work for me.

[ThisLittlePiggy]

QUOTE(daov2a @ Oct 29 2008, 12:42 PM)

Well, just want to confirm for anyone listening that changing that pin setting fixed all of my issues and the HDD boots in to XBMC every time without fail and is no longer dropping movies after a random amount of time.

Don't know if this will work for anyone else, but it did work for me.

changing the HD to 1.5 was one of the first things I tried, no luck for me. still random boots.

[daov2a]

What HDD and adapter are you using? And what version xbox are you using? Is it a softmod?

Another thing I did a while back that I did not mention that allowed more consistent booting (75% or so) in to the dash was making all of the dash files point to one place in the Xecutor BIOS, which is to say, since I boot XBMC only, I edited every dash to be default.xbe out of the five priority options. If perchance the HDD is powering on too slowly for the BIOS to quickly see the first default.xbe or is having trouble loading the partition table for some reason, it will then jump to the next and so on.  Since you're booting multiple dashes, I don't know if this will work for you or if you even have a mod chip on the box but I guess it's worth a shot?

[ThisLittlePiggy]

QUOTE(daov2a @ Oct 29 2008, 05:50 PM)

What HDD and adapter are you using? And what version xbox are you using? Is it a softmod?

Another thing I did a while back that I did not mention that allowed more consistent booting (75% or so) in to the dash was making all of the dash files point to one place in the Xecutor BIOS, which is to say, since I boot XBMC only, I edited every dash to be default.xbe out of the five priority options. If perchance the HDD is powering on too slowly for the BIOS to quickly see the first default.xbe or is having trouble loading the partition table for some reason, it will then jump to the next and so on.  Since you're booting multiple dashes, I don't know if this will work for you or if you even have a mod chip on the box but I guess it's worth a shot?

I used a WD 250 gig drive, a cheap $7 off ebay, and tried in 2 xboxs one tsop one softmod.  I want to use it on a softmod, so I don't have the option of the multiple dashes. But that's a really good idea, since on my tsop box it usually found it by the second one. adding 2 or 3 more would most likely solve the problem.

[Bomb Bloke]

As a quick recap:

Using the same adapter that works for run088.

Using the same HD753LJ (750gb Samsung drive) that worked for BigPotty (if you choose to forget that they kept dieing on him with the "click of death").

v1.0 console with the X2 5035 BIOS flashed to TSOP. Boots to "Live config loading...." screen and then (very slowly) to an error screen (takes about 15min to get there).

Anyway, tonight I finally rigged up an external PSU and tried the delayed power-on trick.

If I start the console then power up the drive, I get a FRAG within a couple of seconds (unless I power up the drive real quick, as in, less then half a second after starting the X-Box). Still keeps on displaying "Live config loading" either way.

If I start the drive then power up the console, it also still gets stuck on the "Live config loading" screen (though the LED stays green).

Tried various time intervals between starting up either the drive or the console, ranging from about one to twenty seconds.

Drive with adapter seems to work quite well in my PC. Don't have a SATA motherboard, nor a SATA cable. Gonna see if I can get that program to that goes down to SATA/150 speed to work via the adapter, I guess.

[run088]

QUOTE(ozreplicator @ Jun 22 2008, 07:29 AM)

Well, I moved the adapter and 1TB drive from the 1.0 unit to a 1.6 xbox - same result with slow boots and hangs.
I then tried an identical adapter I bought with the other one as a spare - this time both xboxes worked perfectly every time.
I checked the faulty adapter with a magnifying glass and found a solder bridge between 2 of the legs on the main chip on the board. This isn't present on the good one. I haven't been able to remove it yet to test, but the seller on ebay has offered to send a replacement anyway. due to the gap between the legs, the short is barely visible to the naked eye.
The soldering on these boards (even the one that works) is quite dodgy, and wouldn't be surprised if there are many more out there with similar faults. They are probably all made in the same Chinese factory no matter what brand name is on them.

Do to this post and my personal experiance I think you can buy a few of the exact same adapters and get different results with each one.I know I have.Of the 2 adapters that I have that are the same one works 75% and the other is working at 100%.The 3rd adapter I have which is of a different kind seems to work exactly like yours Bloke but it did work for around a week with terrible load times before it stopped booting at all.

Here is a link on 2 different adapters I think might have better results.Look at the specs of each on transfer rate speeds as well as systems it supports.The other listings dont have the flexibilities they only work on newer operating systems or are limited to the speeds produced at 100/133

http://cgi.ebay.com/...I...A:IT&ih=001


http://cgi.ebay.com/...I...A:IT&ih=024

[Bomb Bloke]

"Exactly" like mine in that it works perfectly in a PC?

[run088]

In that it sits at the x2 5035 loading screen forever and after a long period of time if it does do anything else it will error out.I will be able to test in a pc soon because I am redoing my system.I will let you know how that turns out when I try it.


Did you look at the specs of the adapters I linked if so what do you think about those?Do you think that the flexibility of the speeds produced by these down to a 33bus and as high as a 150bus and the fact they are compatible back to windows95 will make a difference?

I am not for certain the exact speed that the xbox runs the hdd.I know that it is commonly known the xbox uses 133bus but I can not find a diagram that list the hdd speed.The processor runs at 133bus to the gpu but the gpu runs at 200 to the ram and the mcpx chip.Bunnys book gives no indicater in its diagrams I can find that clock the hdd speed if it did I missed it.

I am with everybody else as far as I think the problem is related to the speed but I dont know wheather or not for sure it is to slow or to fast.It does different things that lead me to believe it could be either way.

The best suggestion I can give anyone doing the mod right now until we figure out the exact problem in why the results very on the mod is to try several adapters.This worked for me and atleast one other person.

[Bomb Bloke]

In terms of operating system compatibility, I reckon they just throw that in to impress those who don't know better. That is to say, if the adapter isn't compatible with a given operating system then it isn't making the SATA drive appear as a proper PATA drive.

I mean, even DOS works with RAM drives (good luck finding something faster then those).

You might be onto something with the ATA speed, I really don't know enough to say otherwise. But I seem to remember that the console should work quite happily with an ATA133 drive via an 80 pin cable.

Well, I say 80 pin - I just did a bit of research on the things and it turns out they're more correctly known as 80 "conductor" cables. Those 40 extra wires are all grounds to soak up electrical interference - that is to say, they don't add more bandwidth to your IDE bus, they add reliability. They should offer improvements to drive performance regardless of what your system is "capable of".

It's also interesting to discover that originally if you wanted to use an IDE drive you needed to get an ISA (and then later a PCI) card to do it. Eventually it was Intel who got the bright idea of sticking the controller directly onto the motherboard, but best I can make out the things still run through a PCI BUS.

I found this site to be interesting reading, though I'm not sure how much of what it covers can be applied here.

Anyway! Plugged the drive into the oldest computer I could be bothered digging out (about 600mhz on the CPU, Windows 98), FDISK'ed it, formatted it, played games off it... I think my oldest rig runs at about 133mhz, if I get bored enough I might plug into that and see what happens.

Downloaded the app from Samsung to try and force SATA/150 but it didn't work (though it did at least detect the drive through the IDE adapter). Guess I'll try and hunt down an 80 wire cable or hijack a SATA capable computer off a friend, see what difference it makes.

Dunno if you're still about BigPotty, but if you are, I hear a lot of people fixed issues with this particular drive by disabling "command queuing"...

[run088]

I dont know what to think about the individual drive you have it could be the problem as well.

Because I have 3 different adapters and 2 hdds to test with and countless xboxes laying around  I think it really just is an adapter issue of some kind now.This is the part the triggers the different results for errors.It does not matter what other part I have changed my 1tb or my 1.5 tb drive or the xboxes.Only the adapter itself.And 2 are from the exact same model line and bought from the same place 6 months apart.

The same member I quoted a few post ago had the same results having 2 different adapters that were the same model bought at the same time in a package deal and 1 worked 50% and the other worked 100% on the same xbox and hdd.

There could be a compatibility issue with the hdd.Maybe somehow we should start a compatibility thread on sata hdds and adapters.Maybe you could put somekind of poll thing in a thread and hdd models can be added and just a simple yes\no\yes with problems then in the thread people could list the setup and the results.This way we might also see the pattern.Or some other way if you have a better idea.It is something that a few people seem interested enough in to make it worth while to do based on the amount of different people who have posted in the thread about it.

[ThisLittlePiggy]

I wonder if we could just boot off the dvd drive, and have that default.xbe point to the real dash on the hard drive.

[witnessmenow]

I have my circuit basically built, The circuit powers the hard drive correctly anyways I just need to integrate the Xbox power button into it(should have it tested this evening).

I also didn't realise that pushing the power switch grounds the one of the pins on the xbox, thats what initiates the xbox turning on so i need to change one part of the circuit.

Also My circuit after 2 seconds outputs a continuous signal rather than a pulse, which is fine in terms of turning the xbox on and keeping it on but I'll have to see how it fairs with turning it off

When I have it working 100% I'll post up the circuit diagram and some pictures.

Did any one try using just a regular switch to do the same thing? I might still include one as a backup plan

[Grim187]

i used a switch to turn on the power before i turned on the xbox and its been working good, today i booted it up and g was empty, im waiting on that adapter from dx hopefully that will fix the 09 problem.

Edit: i got the sata to ide from Deal Extreme and its the same problem as the one i got off of ebay.