HOW to read your XBOX's EEPROM and GET the HDD KEY WITHOUT removing the chip Or Modding the XBOX

If you are referring to the "picture" directly above your post, then just ignore it. As the person stated, it is a "borrowed" picture. It was originally someone explaining something else and this person posted it and added the batteries, all the lines and stuff just makes it so confusing it should have been deleted by a moderator.

 

HOW TO BUILD AN EEPROM READER

I have a real nice "easy to understand" drawing of how to build one on a sheet of paper, so just go to llama.com and look at there drawing, it is pretty straight forward as well.

http://llamma.com/xbox/Repairs/Reading_Xbox_Hdd_key.htm


As far as parts list, I use:
1 ethernet wall mount box
1 9pin female D-sub connector and hood ($1 mouser electronics)
2 silicon zener diodes part# 1N4733A 5.1V/1W (eBay 25 diodes for $5)
2 3.9K ohm resistors
5 feet of cat5 cable
1 cat5 connector (plugs into one end of my ethernet box)
1 box of shrink tubing (think 1/8")

As with everything you can buy online in bulk for alot cheaper than you can buy at your local radioshack. I always bought enough components to build 50 eeprom readers at a time.



CONNECT EEPROM READER TO XBOX
"Solderless" Method

• Disconnect power cord from xbox.
• Open case and remove HDD and DVD
• http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/open1.php
• Locate your LPC Pin Header.
• Identify The Two Holes (Blue and Orange) that we are going to use. – Take a look at the sketch at the bottom of this tutorial, notice hole #16 is closest to the ground screw.
• I just stick the Orange and Blue wires into the appropriate holes, don’t go too deep or you might short out against the bottom of the case.
• Tape the white cable to the side of the xbox case, this will help keep things from moving while you are reading the eeprom data.
• BLUE WIRE – Stab the eeprom reader’s Blue wire to SDA Pin/hole 14
• ORANGE WIRE – Stab the eeprom reader’s Orange wire to SCL Pin/hole 13
• GREEN WIRE – Connect the eeprom reader’s Green wire to Xbox ground (I just tuck mine under the Torx screw (Green cirlcle) and tighten the screw)
• Plug DB9 connector into your pc’s serial port.




RUN PONY PROG

• Xbox powered off
• Install and launch PonyProg
• SETUP – Select options, setup and make sure to select serial, SI Prog API, then select your com port. After this is done hit Probe, you should immediately get a window that says Test OK, if not double check the setup parameters (probably picked the wrong com port)
• CALIBRATE - Select Options, calibration, yes
• Power on Xbox (it may reboot itself a couple times, so wait till all that is finished)
• READ EEPROM – Select Device, Read. You should get a bunch of data on your screen , if not check all connections and try again.
• SAVEAS – Select File, Save as, Save in (put it somewhere that you remember) filename (lets call it EEPROM) and Save as type (.bin)
• Turn off xbox (if it doesn’t turn off, then unplug it)
• Save your EEPROM.bin to a floppy or cd for archive purposes.
• Make a folder and put LiveInfo_Beta_3 in it and Move a copy of your EEPROM.BIN file into this directory.
• Launch Live_Info, Select LOAD EEPROM (should be in the Live_Info directory) and hit open.
• There is a line that says Unique HDD Key – this is your HardDrive Key/Password.
• You can now remove the wires from the lpc header.

 

currently having this "construction":

 

ahh... i found it... GND should not be connected to PIN15
after i put GND to the case of the XB, it starts... but if i try to read i only get "Device not responding"

 

alrite bud im a noob to the site and i was wondering if u could help me i have an xbox i want to mod but i dont have the original hdd is it possible to use the eeprom reader to get the key and create a new hdd ive read lots of posts on this site but im not to sure what i need to do your help would be much appreciated m8 thanks

 

To answer your question.. yes ..

and to solve the other "I cant bloody read and understand" people with power up frags and no read .. USE THE EXTERNAL BATTERIES... how many times do I have to tell you?????

 

Hi all,

I have been trying to get a reading on my eeprom chip for two days. The xbox is version 1.0 and does power up. I even was able to use the exploits to get access to the hard drive briefly and copy over to my PC all the files for making a boot disk in xboxhdm. I did hit MS backup in the softmod menu but I cannot find the eeprom.bin file anywhere. The hard drive has been mechanically trashed for quite some time and only occasionally spins up (head makes a ker-chunk, ker-chunk noise otherwise). I have not been able to reaccess the hard drive for a week to try and get the eeprom backup again. I resorted to attempting to get the eeprom dump from the chip. I believe I have the reader all wired correctly. Not sure I should say I am a senior in electrical engineering cause if I missed something really noob Im gonna be embarrassed. I hook the little beast to to the serial port pick the port and hit probe and it fails. I have built it once on a perfboard and once on the breadboard. Hooking it to the LPC pads results in error 14 from Pony (something about hardware not connected I think.) I dont really have the use of equipment that I would trust for soldering to the chip. I may look into some tiny plunger clip test leads if I have to but I don't have access to them right now. I attach photos of my breadboard version below. The wire in the top leading off to the right is the ground wire, the middle wire is SDA, the lower wire is SCL. The wires leading in from the left at top are pin 5 of serial, second from top leading to connect at the resistor/diode node is from pin 8, the next lower is pin 4 and the bottom comes from pin 6 and 7. The resistors are 4.7k and the diodes are 1N47 5.1V Zeners. Any help would be fabulous.

 

Hi all,

Since my previous post I did identify a mistake. I thought I had read correctly in device manager which com port to select in Pony. However, I was incorrect. I now have the correct com port and the error 14 in Pony has stopped. Now Pony either returns a Bus busy error 11 or it returns 'Device not responding'. The error 11 occurs either when power to the xbox is off or when i hit a read right after powering the xbox up. The 'Device not responding' error occurs each time a read is attempted at all other times including when the xbox is sitting at the error screen. I also have the issue that when the SDL & SDA wires are connected to the LPC pad or the chip I get the flashing orange ring and blank video screen. If the reader wires are connected to LPC at startup I get the 3 start up shut downs and then it finally stays on but with a blank screen. I have tried reading the chip with an external DC power generator set to 4V but not with batteries. Any help appreciated.

 

When you use the xbox power supply with the eeprom reader it will make the xbox frag. You will get the 3 power ups and it will stay on the 3rd time. After the 3rd time you can hit the read button and it should pull the info from the eeprom.

I'm sure it was mentioned here before. Just connect the eeprom reader, let it power up and restart 3 times then read.

 

Hi everyone
Right I have a problem with when the xbox starts up ,the flubber screen comes on for a split second then the xbox goes off
I had read a previous xbox that was working fine and then attempted to write the eeprom from that xbox to the new one to save on burning linux disks everywhere.
does anyone know why this happened?

 

Hi all,

Yeah, I have read that before but its not working. When I do that I get a device not responding error from Pony. Any ideas what to try next?

 

BRILLIANT TUT but i seem to have hit a bit of a snag here i ran pony am all i got was it asking me if the board was connected properly then there seems to be an error of a sort (-14) if anyone has any ideas what i may have done wrong i would love some input

 

Your timing is just off.

 

I kind of suspected a possible timing issue. The next question is what to do about it. How do I solve a timing issue with PonyProg2000 trying to read the eeprom. I did the calibration step several times including waiting for the hard drive light to be off.

 

Quoting myself....that's never good, please read and do some research before asking a question. Every question you can think of has already been answered here.

 

i apoligize for a repeat question somehow i missed page 14 which had an answer i was looking for i shall try and report back if i have any other issues thanks

 

ok new problem found out one of my resistors was backwards (a little to quick to jump the gun i guess) so instead of trying to fix that stupid mistake again im going to make another one i came across somewhere in this thread that someone had the wrong beta of ponyprog which one should it be just as well i did turn the resistor around and instead of the box rebooting it just blinks green for about 30 sec. then frags im trying to use the lpc pad since im not the best at soldering i even did the battery option after i rebuild this thing ill get back just have to find some more zeners went to the wrong radioshack this time

 

I have read every single post on this topic. I am familiar with every nuance that has been posted. However, I still have the same issue. I get either error -11 or device not ready in pony. Someone suggested it is a timing error. I have tried multiple different points for a read. I have tried immediately on power up, several diferent points during the fragging process, waiting until after the entire frag process after the xbox stays on completely, etc. I even left the xbox running for a while and came back later to try a read after several minutes. I have tried unplugging the reader from serial port and powering xbox and then plugging in the reader to the serial after the xbox stays on from the frag-reboot cycle. Same result every time. The only thing I have not tried yet is the battery method only because I don't have a battery holder handy yet. I have, however, attempted a no xbox-power read using an external DC power supply that I have for circuit testing with no result. The DC power supply is set to 4V and I can adjust the current between 0 and 1amp with no result. The power supply appears to read a short circuit when I attempt this method. I have also done the calibration step as suggested by both the pony manual and the tutorial. I have attempted using both ponyprog 2000 and its predecessor. Any further suggestions?

 

I have a step-by-step on page 12. If you followed my steps to a T and you are still having a problem, then I would suggest two things.

1 Your eeprom reader is not working
2 I think the 1.6 version xbox is a little different.

I forget what you have to do on a 1.6 to make it read the eeprom, maybe someone else will chime in with that.

If your eeprom reader is not working, double check all connections and what size diodes are you using?

 

Xbox is a 1.0. I purchased it in December of 2001 I believe when it first came out. Diodes are 5.1V zeners I believe. I used whatever the schematic called for I just don't remember now if 5.1V is right at this point. I posted pics of my board earlier in the forum I believe. One page back on page 14 of the posts.