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

Hey!! Justa wanted to send out thanks to you guys for this thread!! This was a little trickier than I thought at first, (mainly because I've never used a soldering iron before... =P), but after I peiced it together... there was NOTHING to it!! Thanks again!

Dick

 

Could you post if you used a power supply or mobo power and did you use lcp pads or connect directly to eeprom

 

Thank you very much for this, I bought the components from Maplins, total cost about 6 pounds, then built it using your diagram. I used the PonyProg reader and it pulled off the EEPROM information on the first try.

The only difficulty with the whole project was actually connecting the wires to the motherboard, but I just inserted the tinned wires into the LPC holes and wedged them in place with a couple of sewing needles. Worked perfectly.

Thank you very much for posting this. I can now get my hard drive working again by locking it with the correct key.

 

Does anyone know if this handy tool is able to write to the eeprom? If so, then please tell me how.

 

Hi all,

Thanks to Unicron and Janrocks for the guide. Hopefully I'm a little nearer to making my eBay XBOX buy useful. (more at the end of this message if anyone can help).

I built the interface even despite having no zener diodes available and it still works. My theory is as follows, please excuse me for being a bit of a vandal. ;-)

The EEPROM is operating at 3.3V, it'll probably manage to clamp some excess Voltage off for itself so the Zener is basically there to protect it from the PC serial port. Having no zeners I was about to string together a series of 1N4148 signal diodes to make something similar when I thought "Hey, don't LEDs conduct much harder when you take them over 2.2V?"

Cutting it short, I used two red LEDs connected in series instead of each zener, with their cathodes (negative leads) pointing towards the Ground connection in the circuit. I also used 4.7k Ohm resistors instead of 4K Ohm, as that's the nearest I had in stock.

I soldered directly to the pins of the chip and the interface worked first time. Before anyone asks I didn't think to look to see if the LEDs blinked as the data was downloaded!

If it would help anyone I can take a photograph of the circuit and post it here.

---

My current problem can't be a new one but I can't find any information anywhere that's specific to my problem. I bought an XBOX with a dead hard drive (one of the ICs on the drive gets VERY hot on power up). I have extracted the eeprom data and got that now on my PC. What I don't know for sure is whether I can simply create a new hard disk (I've been reading about XBOX HD Maker) by looking for the dashboard files and plugging a new drive into the PC. My XBOX is not modified (soft or hard) and is a version 1.0

Any help very gratefully received!

Thanks,

Ian.

 

You certainly can build a new drive that way, and then lock it to the eeprom in the way described in the article.

The easiest way to get a full set of dash files is off one of the xbox installer disks that are very common on the internet.

You will need to know the drive sizes. There are various guides, probably the better ones are found from links with xboxhdm, or on xbox-scene. I don't have time to look tonight for details..but if you can't find any reliable info re: partition sizes pm me and remind me. I will be happy to look around when I have time tomorrow.

 

Hey all, First post ever.

I'm sorry if this is a noob question. I love this tutorial this is going to make my life just that much easier. I've noticed in the program there is a button to read the eeprom chip. There is also a button to write. This little contraption we made, does it have the capabilities to write an eeprom.bin file to the chip as well as read it?

 

Thank you. I found the original dash files online and have built a new hard disk and locked it. All works fine, just got to choose my mods now.

To the people asking if the device can write to the EEPROM, there's no reason why not as far as I can see - give it a try, but take a copy of the original EEPROM first.

Ian.

 

I am trying this setup now to get the eeprom off of a system
I got with no hard drive.

I am having a problem. When I attach the leads to the test points on the MB, the system will not boot up properly.

It boot cycles a few times (power on and then off) and then shuts down completely.

Without the leads attached the system boots up to an error 7, since I don't have any drives attached.

If I boot the system without leads attached, it comes up, but as soon as I attach the leads it starts the up down thing again.

Any ideas?

 

To me it sounds as though you might have linked the power supply of the XBOX or interface with that of your PC, or the two are fighting.

Which version did you build? The one with two resistors and two diodes (use XBOX power for the EEPROM)?

If so, maybe you could solder the interface wires directly onto the EEPROM and the 0V line to the solder ring around the screw mounting point as I did.

Ian.

 

Since my motherboard has power, I built the one without power, the resistors and diodes.

I tried using the pins 13 and 14 of the LPC header. By soldering pins through the back so they stick up on top. Then I could just clip onto them with the reader.

I will try to get some better leads and see if I can attach to the eeprom it's self. Hopefully that will work.

Thanks for the rapid reply.

I really want this to work as it will make repairing xboxii easier!

 

I've used this reader on about 4 different xboxes and it's worked every time. I find the easiest way to connect the leads is to tin the ends so they're nice and stiff, then insert them into the LPC holes. I then use a couple of sewing needles to wedge them in.....works like a charm.

Steve

 

I think I got it!!!

The box stayed up long enough to read the BIOS. I loaded the BIOS with liveinfo beta 3 and it read as an valid BIOS. So I am burning a recovery CD now. I hope this works. I got people that want me to fix their xboxii!

More later and thanks for being there guys and girls!!

 

Now I have a different problem. I keep burning coasters for rebuild disks. This sux! Since I really think I got the eepromn. All I need is for a bootable rebuild disk to burn, but I can't get anything bootable from it.

I am using DVD decrypter to burn and I am burning at the lowest speed (1x). I guess my builds of the ISO are not working right.

I am using makeXBOXiso package, with the built in exploit, that I have used about 3 times already. So I don't know why this ain't working.

Just venting!

 

IT Worked!!

I was test burning the CDs with DVD Decrypter. Once I took test check box off the CDs burned and they work!!

YEA!!! All those coaster I thought I made are just blank! D0h!!

Thanks again for the help.

 

is there a way to get the DVD DRIVE KEY out of the XBOX 360?
What is the "online key" that is listed in the little eprom reader program, is it the DVD KEY?
I got a BAD FLASH LG drive, and don't have the key for it..
thanks.

 

Hello all, I hope you can hekp me.

My original problem was this. The mod chip fitted to the xbox became detached and as a result error code 5 came up.

I built the reader but was not able to read the EEPROM using an extrenal power source. I was able to read the EEPROM when I booted up the XBOX with reader.

I do not intend on re-fitting the chip but instead softmod the XBOX, I understand the xbox must first boot properly to be able to softmod.

I have a couple of questions if anyone can help as I have used the EEPROM with XBOXHDM but it will not work. When I locked the HDD using XBOXHDM the xbox would say that it can not unlock it, when I unlock it using XBXOHDM xbox says it can't lock it. Sounds to me like the EEPROM I got from the reader is wrong.

1. When you use the xbox power source to read EEPROM do you connect the XBOX HDD in as well or is this left out?

2. When I first saved the EEPROM file I didn't save it as eeprom.bin, instaed it was dogs_eeprom.bin. I renamed the file to eeprom.bin before I used it it XBOXHDM, could the initial saved name messed up the EEPROM?

3. Any other tips anyone can give me to save this perfectly good xbox?

Thanks for your time.

 

Leave the xbox hard drive OUT of the picture until you are ready to rebuild it.

The name change shouldn't make any difference

The thing to make sure of is that you had the eeprom.bin file in the correct directory. I believe it is supposed to be in the root of the make hd tool. I know the one I use is that way.

Also you might want to use cdrs until you get a working rebuild CD

 

Thansk Dazzpaz, so if I did read the eeprom (and it seemed ok in liveinfo) with the HDD in would that cause the problems of not being able to lock or unlock the bloody HDD?

 

It shouldn't. If the eeprom shows up good in live info then you should be good.

Unless for some reason you are not looking at your real BIOS.

I do know that if the keys don't match then you can't unlock your HD. Which it sounds like you are seeing.

Refresh my memory on what you did and are doing again please.