Faulty Xbox - crashing at dashboard

[wakeup]

Wow thanks for all the suggestions. I tried the boot disc but it doesn't boot it.

So I connected the hard drive to the PC (haven't done that in a long time) and the PC detected it, but I couldn't access the drive. I want to delete the cache, how do I access the drive to do that?

[Niode]

The hard drive is currently locked. There is a tutorial on how to unlock it here: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/pc-hdd.php

[wakeup]

The hard drive is currently locked. There is a tutorial on how to unlock it here: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/pc-hdd.php

I think the tutorial says I have to do something with the xbox (and a lot of really complex stuff), and my xbox can't do anything right now.

I was told to use flashfxp. But I don't even know the xbox's IP... I tried some tutorial's IP and doesn't work.

Didn't think trying to access a hard drive would be this hard...

[Hatta]

That's a shame. It could get tricky here. In order to lock/unlock a drive you need the contents of an EEPROM on the Xbox mobo. Evox will dump the EEPROM, but you can't boot into it.

Did you see a mod chip when you had the Xbox open? If you're lucky and theres an Xecuter3 chip in there, hold the white button(IIRC) when you power up. That would get you into the bios where you could dump the EEPROM, ftp it to your PC and continue as usual.

Otherwise, it's hard to really advise without knowing what's been done to the box. Hardmod/TSOP/softmod, etc. Worst case scenario you can desolder the EEPROM and dump it. There may be other ways to get the EEPROM depending on what sort of mod it is and what bios it has, but it's hard to say with what we know.

BTW, what happened when you tried to boot the rescue disc?

[wakeup]

That's a shame. It could get tricky here. In order to lock/unlock a drive you need the contents of an EEPROM on the Xbox mobo. Evox will dump the EEPROM, but you can't boot into it.

Did you see a mod chip when you had the Xbox open? If you're lucky and theres an Xecuter3 chip in there, hold the white button(IIRC) when you power up. That would get you into the bios where you could dump the EEPROM, ftp it to your PC and continue as usual.

Otherwise, it's hard to really advise without knowing what's been done to the box. Hardmod/TSOP/softmod, etc. Worst case scenario you can desolder the EEPROM and dump it. There may be other ways to get the EEPROM depending on what sort of mod it is and what bios it has, but it's hard to say with what we know.

BTW, what happened when you tried to boot the rescue disc?

Ends up in the "Your box needs servicing, call microsoft" screen.

[Niode]

I think the most important information we need right now is a description of the innards (anything that looks soldered onto the motherboard as an external component is a modchip) we need to know what modchip is installed (if any).

Have you opened the xbox up yet? If not, you need a torx bit (I think it's a T9, might be a T10) and the screws are under the rubber feet in the corners. There is also 2 screws under the silver warranty/safety information stickers, just feel with your thumb until you find an indentation (if the system has been hard-modded the screws will already be uncovered). There are 6 screws in total. Once you have the screws off, the top of the case comes off very easily and the rest is pretty self explanatory.

[wakeup]

I got it working haha....

I think at the start, it wasn't working because some cable connected to the cd rom drive was loose but I didn't see that. So I unplugged the HD and put it to Slave mode to try and access it from my computer. When I put the HD back, I forgot to unslave the drive. Then I notice the cable loose to the cd rom drive but it still didn't work after I put it in. Just now I remember I slaved the HD. Unslaved and it worked!

I still don't know why the seller doesn't pick up if it works. Maybe the cable was loose when he had it already?

Anyhow, thanks guys for the help! You've shown how great racketboy is again!

Now let's try some doa beach volleyball...

[emwearz]

Great to hear you got it working, good on ya mate.