You can't just lock a hard drive for a blank EEPROM. A blank EEPROM would have a corrupted video output, and wouldn't play any games because the region would be incorrect.
a chip would be able to fix that. what i would do is boot with a chip then fix the eprom setting it back to ntsc. reflash the eprom you should be good even if the hd is locked the keys should match assuming its still the orignal eprom. if you dont have your orignal even thow the video is set to pal well you would need a chip and a new hd.
this is why you dont mess with your eprom. if you tryed changing eproms couse of being banned from live wel you woulda nedded a new hd anyways and a new live account.
I do have a backup of the EEPROM to use for reflashing, and I have the HDD password to lock and unlock the hard drive.
Ok, now I'm kinda confused here. By blank EEPROM I was assuming completely blank (And thus, the EEPROM chip was completely blank). You can though generate an EEPROM with a 0 video region by using eepmod (It allows hex-editing of the video mode) and a 0 for the game region with another tool (Not sure what tool) (This trick was used before in softmods to prevent the DVD from loading). I was assuming by blank, the entire EEPROM had been zero'ed.
So when your XBox boots tell me this, is the LED on the front green or is it simply blinking red? If its green well, might be able to give this hard drive 0'ed locking deal a shot. If its red, your EEPROM is fucked and your gonna need a chip for sure.
Probably your best bet is to just get a chip, but its your call.
The eeproms that come with Config Magic aren't actually blank, they're basically anonymous with personal fields zeroed.. I'm not sure right now what the video region is set to however..
As for stacking the eeproms, it works great! I helped a guy do that once, He booted a working box/eeprom with a messed up chip attached to a switch.. Config Magic displayed the working eeprom until he flicked the switch and reloaded the eeprom.. Voila, CM displayed/corrected the messed up eeprom (which happened to be a 1.6 in a 1.4 box)..
When it FRAGs, do you get a service screen? error number in the corner?
QUOTE(WolfPac_Ite @ Jun 25 2005, 09:53 PM)
Yes, it gives me error number 05.
Well, I finally got around to try locking me HDD with the same blank EEPROM, and it worked!
Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys. I am still going to build a mod chip, to avoid any problems in the future. And once again, thanks!