Re: My journey into the world of XBOX 360 repair -( I DID IT )-

[crashwg]

I just picked up my first 360 from a guy on craigslist that supposedly has a bad optical drive.  I figured I'd document my experience for anyone who might come across a similar deal and isn't sure if they should go for it or not.  

A little about my experience...  I have modchipped and softmodded multiple XBOXes, softmodded a Wii and modchipped a Gamecube in the past so I some experience with some of the stuff I might be facing.  This is however the first 360 that I will be trying to fix/mod.

The 360...  Is an Elite with a 120gb HDD, connected via composite because I'm too cheap to buy an HDTV and 1 wireless controller.  I've started it up and can confirm that everything seems to work excluding the optical drive since it came with Rainbow Six Vegas 2.  The kernel is 2.0.9199.0 as far as my limited knowledge takes me, this is not JTAGable, bummer.  For only $50, I couldn't pass it up even though I have no experience with 360s!

I've ordered a console opening tool on ebay for $3 shipped and expect that within a week from the NY based seller.  Yes I know you can open the console without it but I've seen how much damage can be done trying to do it that way so I've decided to be patient and wait.

My plan as of right now is to get that sucker open, fiddle with the pots and see what happens.  If I can fix the drive I'll flash it at some point in time so I can play backups.  If the drive really is toast and what I understand about 360s is correct, I'll have to buy a working drive somewhere and spoof the new drive into the 360.  Again, eventually I'll flash the drive to play backups.

If for whatever reason I can't get everything back to working, expect to see this for sale on these boards in a couple months.  

[crashwg]

Update.

Console was on for a couple hours, mostly sitting at the dash also I created my avatar, then I ejected the disc and reinserted it and it started up.  I played for <5 min then the 360 shut off blinking lights 1&3 indicating that it's overheating.  Adding "replace thermal compound" to the list of repairs...

P.S.
The 360 takes the cake for "loudest console" I've ever owned now.  Previously it was my Dreamcast.

[lilshawn]

i helped my boss fix his kids 360... the drive pooped out.

we decided the easiest way to fix the drive is to buy a working drive that matches the original (ebay etc...), and flash it with some kind of softmod to get it to work... during this we also found that the drives are "married" to the xbox board. which is why simply putting a new drive in won't work.

easiest solution....swap the logic board over from the old drive  to the guts of the new one.

bada boom, back in business.

some post mortem diagnostics showed the laser went so we probably could have just ordered the laser and been done with it... meh.

[crashwg]

I received my 360 opening tool today so I cracked that baby open!  Found out that I have a Zephyr...  At least it's not a Xenon right?  Benq is the drive manufacturer.  If I recall from reading things in the past benq drives are more difficult to flash than others so not exactly looking forward to that.  I found a tutorial that includes adjusting the pot on the benq and adjusted the pot from the 3.4KΩ it was at to 3.25KΩ.  That seemed to do the trick because the 360 has be power cycled five or more times now and it keeps booting the game and I played for about a half hour too with no issues.  Oh and there was a significant amount of dust on the heat sink on the side opposite the fans which I would assume is to blame for the overheating.  It literally looked like a thin piece of felt!  Needless to say, I blew all that out so I'll put the 360 to the test for a little while in hopes that I won't have to change the thermal compound.

Anyway... That was easy. (fingers crossed)

I'll post here whenever I get around to flashing the drive so this thread isn't just me bragging about my $50 XBOX 360. 

[crashwg]

For anyone who might have not read the rest of this thread:  360 is not JTAGable so my plan is the flash the drive FW to play my backups.

My question today is should I update?  Right now the Kernel is 2.0.9199.0 which is three public releases behind.  Will updating hurt me in any way when it comes to flashing the drive and/or the games I will be able to play?

[versapak]

For anyone who might have not read the rest of this thread:  360 is not JTAGable so my plan is the flash the drive FW to play my backups.

My question today is should I update?  Right now the Kernel is 2.0.9199.0 which is three public releases behind.  Will updating hurt me in any way when it comes to flashing the drive and/or the games I will be able to play?

The latest update does a rewrite to the DVD firmware (removes the mod), so I'd say you are probably best not updating the console.


I haven't followed the 360 modding scene for a while though, so it could be they were on top of a fix already.

[SNAAKE]

you could extract the original firmware/drive key first, update with usb drive, then mod it to play backups. wouldnt matter if you update it first because newest jungleflasher can still get the key either way. 

[crashwg]

OK, so if I update the kernel/dash before I flash the drive it will reflash the drive to stock?  If I update first then flash the drive all should work fine?  I'm not going to be using the console on Live or anything but I imagine there are games that require the console to be updated right?

[SNAAKE]

works either way but it is recommended that you get the key/firmware out first, upgrade the dashboard then flash the dvd drive. and yeah newer games will make you update the dashboard.

[crashwg]

I've been reading all sorts of stuff from all sorts of places and all seems easy enough with Jungle Flasher with the exception of I'm not sure what firmware I should be looking for.  I've read iXtreme in a bunch of places but there's mention of "LT" and "LT+" and version numbers and whatnot...  What should I be looking for with my "Phat" 360 with a Benq drive?

[crashwg]

It looks like flashing the drive is being put on hold.  The problem is that I don't have the VIA chipset on my only computer with SATA.  My brother in law does and he's flashed a 360 drive before but being a bit of a pain right now because even though the tutorial that I'm following instructs to remove the driver for the VIA chipset he doesn't seem to want to do it for whatever reason.  My options now:

a. send the drive to someone to be flashed (anyone on these forums do that?  how much?)
2. buy a VIA SATA controller card
III. wait for my buddy to return from his 2 week annual training with the Army Reserve and see if I can use his computer (he's flashed a drive before also)

For anyone who might want to troubleshoot why I can't flash the drive, what is happening is Jungle Flasher becomes non-responsive while trying to read the drive.  The FAQ of the tut I'm reading says "Try reading the tutorial………….! Remove your drivers for the card!"

Add one check to the column of "why not to mod a 360."  It's frustrating as hell!

[lilshawn]

hit up a computer store... a SATA card can be had for about $20... just ask, or open them up and see if it's VIA or not.

i'm sure if you let the store know you specifically need a VIA one, they can figure something out.

[SNAAKE]

I will do it lol..didnt you see my thread here? (should bump it)

pm sent

[crashwg]

I was pretty frustrated yesterday and as much as it seemed like I was leaning towards giving up on doing this myself I still plan on giving it another go.  I texted my friend who has succeeded at flashing a drive in the past last night and he's coming home next weekend.  So until then I guess I'll have to play Rainbow Six or maybe buy a used game from Gamestop.

[crashwg]

I decided it was best if I just bought a VIA SATA controller card so I went ahead and did that.  I got it here for $10 and it also gave me an excuse to buy some Arctic Silver 5 and some Arctic Clean for all my heatsink needs.  In addition to being able to flash my 360 finally I'm excited about having the card for future flashes too so I think at $10 it was money well spent.

So I used Jftut 1.4.0 Final as my guide to flashing.  It's very noob friendly and I would highly recommend it to anyone who might want to flash a 360 drive whether it be the first time or you're just not doing it all the time and want to make sure you don't miss a step or anything.  For anyone who has no idea what goes into flashing a 360's optical drive to read backups, it pretty much goes like this.

Code: [Select]

Open 360
Disconnect SATA cable to DVD drive
Connect SATA cable from computer to DVD drive (also ground the drive to your computer)
Boot Computer and 360
Run Jungle Flasher
Extract firmware from drive
Copy info from stock firmware to cracked firmware
Write new cracked firmware with the proper info extracted from the original firmware back to drive
Reassemble your computer, 360, desk, living room.

Of course there's some additional information that you'll need if you want to do this but that's what the tutorial is for.  I'm not entirely sure what the chances are that you can screw this up so bad that it can't be repaired but in my opinion flashing a 360 drive is pretty darn easy (provided you have the right SATA controller.)

Oh, and I had to adjust the laser pot a tiny bit more to read backups but I'm pretty sure that isn't normally required as long as your 360 reads discs on a regular basis...  Mine came not reading discs so a little pot adjustment was to be expected.

YAY, I finally get to play Gears of War (the first game that came out for the 360 that made me want one) and Portal 1 & 2.

[lilshawn]

 

[Malenko]

you get the latest LT FW?
it just came out within the last day or 2


congrats on getting it fixed

[Malenko]

From what I could tell, the latest firmware was only good if you were going to steal games and play them online??

Why support the new disc format, right? Its not like any retail games are going to come out and use it  

[SNAAKE]

in my opinion flashing a 360 drive is pretty darn easy (provided you have the right SATA controller.)

you have the easiest drive. liteons in general are far from "easy". you have to solder on small pcb inside the dvd drive, cut traces and repair those traces too.

most other older drives(pre 2k8) are easy too.

good to see it all worked out for you