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

Hello everyone.

I came to this tutorial after a failed attempt to fix a softmodded xbox hdd. My preferred method is using a modified xboxhdm, and hotswapping the drive over. I took a look at friend's xbox that was bought 'Used' at a GameStop store because he said it was having problems. It wouldn't boot to the MS Dashboard but it would play a game if it was in the drive when the xbox started up and some games wouldn't play on it at all. I knew all to well what that meant. Someone who owned the xbox previously attempted to softmod the xbox and failed. Upon further investigation I found that I was correct. The drive in the xbox wasn't a stock xbox hdd. I attempted to hotswap the hdd and precede to re-softmodding it. Well that was cut short by the hdd shorting out due to a 'stupid' piece of metal that happened to be sticking out if something it was set down on. So I went looking to see if there happened to be another way to retrieve the eeprom.bin information from the xbox. I have to say I am excited to see that something like this was put together so well. I have purchased most, if not all, of the parts needed for it.

This is what I bought.

RadioShack (Prices are Jacked up on items around here too)
The RadioShacks around here do not use, or offer, a catalog.
(It is a bit lame)

Grid-Style PC Board - Same one from this Tutorial
D-Sub Connector (9-pin) - Same one from this Tutorial
20ft 24awg Rainbow Wire (White, Black, Red, Green)
D-Sub Hood (to make it look nice once it is working)
Heat-Shrink (to make it look nice once it is working)

E.D. Supply Co. (They are an Eastern Shore Electrical Supply Store)

NTE135A NTE Electronics - 2x Zener Diode 5.1v ±5% 1W

(Since they don't readily make 4.0K Ohm Resistors)
Philips ECG Flameproof Resistor - 2x 4.3K Ohm ±2% 1/2W
Color Bands (Yellow, Orange, Red, Red, Blue)

It probably was more expensive then it needed to be.
Either way, I have a couple of questions about this before I build my EEPROM reader.

I wanted to find a way to attach to the IC Chip easily and on a non-permanent basis. I ruled out using the LPC connector because, (1.) the 1.6 xbox LPC is broke, unlinked, out of the box, and (2.) because I prefer to have one setup work for all. The only logical way is to connect directly to the IC Chip. So I went digging around. A retired engineer explained wire-wrapping to me, but it seemed too tedious. I came across IC Test Clips, first the individual ones, these seemed close to what I wanted but I figured they have a moderate chance of shorting to the leg beside the one they are attached to. I finally came across a SOIC-8 Test Clip. 3M and Pomona make them. One is the Pomona 5250 and the other is referred to as the 3M SOIC 8 Test Clip.

1. Is using this Test Clip a good way to connect to the EEPROM Chip?

I read through this thread numerous times and a question keeps coming up in my head.

2. If your motherboard is not bad, can you still use an external 5v power source while having no power attached to the xbox through the power supply or will this screw something up on the motherboard?

If you can apply a 5v power source to the EEPROM Chip of a working xbox.

3. Would the 5v from an USB 2.0 controller be sufficient or practical?

USB 2.0 is 5v with 500mA MAX
(Some controllers may nag and limit output to 100mA)

If USB power is out of the question.

4. What would be a recommended power source rating? (In volts and amps.)

 

Cool Idea!! I am using small clip on test leads and I either clip onto the LPC holes or the legs of the eeprom. Unless the MB is 1.0 then I have to solder small leads into the solder filled holes and then I clip onto them.

I may have to get me one of those clip on leads, how much were they?
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Edit>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
OUCH!! The Pomona is outrageous @ 60.00
The 3M is much more reasonable!! @ 12.00

You should be able to always use external power. But you have to disconnect your xbox from AC power if you do use external power. Otherwise you risk damaging components due to having two power sources.

I think it should be enough, but you can also use a drive power cable connector and just break out the 5 volts and not the 12.

 

Well, I got most of the parts, but I'm still short 1 5.1v diode, I've been to every repair shop in town and could only find 1. Have to wait a week for their next order to come in. Ugh. I do have a bunch of various dead electronics laying around.. tvs, monitors, xbox, ps2, etc.. any chance I'd be able to find one in one of those?

I'm still very much a newbie when it comes to this stuff and would love to take some electronics repair courses, but the closest schools teaching it are a 4 hour drive away. Considering doing through correspondence, but don't know if it's worth the money. Err, sorry for the partial derail here =)

 

Could this same concept be used to read the HD DVD?

 

5v from a usb will be fine.. the diodes are to protect the eeprom from the 12v rails thrown out of the pc. The eeprom will only draw µA 's from the rail.. I suggest a 1k limiting resistor in series with a 5v usb rail. The device seems to be more reliable when the eeprom is powered from an external power source rather that a fragging or incorrectly booted xbox psu.

As for the clips.. can't say one way or another. I would just tack some kynar wire http://www.netpcdirect.co.uk/kynar_wire.php (should be able to scrounge some off somebody) onto the legs. (I'm a demon with a soldering iron)

To read the codes on surplus zener diodes this guide should help.
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Read-Zener-Diode-Code&id=40081

Don't know what the reference to hd-dvd is about... random post?

 

conundrum can you send me the eeprom reader if you live in the uk
i can send you an sae and p.o for 6 pounds
ive been trying to read my key for 4 weeks now i have an x box no hard drive as it was broke i have striped thge x box ready it has not been moded
thanks allan

 

My friend you are the most smartest man alive and I have the exact same problem, except I'm stupid and messin inside the Xbox just throws me off is they any other way that is just a little bit more convenite of doing this. Sorry don't mean to hate on your other Tut I'm just stupid. LOL

 

Well, I now have all my parts, had to order 1 of the 5.1v Zener diodes in. After looking at them a little closer, the diodes are a little different in size. The first one I picked up was from a repair shop, not in a package or anything so I have no idea if the guy even knows what it's rated for.

How do I test it to see if it's 5v? Does it matter if they're exactly the same? I've got a cheap little radio shack multimeter but don't know what to look for when testing a diode.

 

it does matter because it only allow that much power to go through and if more that that goes through it could fry ur eeprom and u might have more Zeners in a radio most likley and older radio>

 

How to test a zener diode.. get a small 6v or 9v battery.. put a 5k limiting resistor in one of the wires..
Connect a multimeter across the wires after the resistor.. Full battery voltage? Good.. Now connect your zener across the wires. One way round the voltage will drop to almost 0, the other way round it will only drop to the zener voltage, whatever that may be. Don't go using a crumping big battery.. a couple of pc cmos batteries throw out more than enough curent.. a few watch batteries will do, whatever you can lay your hands on..

 

Cool, thanks again. I went ahead and tried it last night on a box that I knew had other issues so I wasn't worried about the toasting anything, the system would turn on and give an error. Once hooked up to the computer though it would attempt to come on, the fan would spin up 3 times and then the system would shut itself off.

I couldn't find a battery laying around to power the eeprom externally so I tried reading with Pony Prog a few times anyway and it did actually work, if you time it right around the middle of one of the 'spin ups', apparently the eeprom has enough juice to be read. I verified the the serial number in the readout as well.

Tonight when I get some more free time I'll move on to the next step and rebuild an HDD for it.

 

Yea my first "broken" xbox did the same thing. Flash real fast 3 times and then powered down. But I was still able to read the eeprom as soon as I got power to it.

Just be ready to click your pony "read" button real fast and you can rip the eeprom.

So far I haven';t found a broken xbox I can't read with internal power. If I have a totally "dead" one then that might require more work or external power.

 

Well done everybody..
I'm leaving this topic in the capable hands of you guys.. carry on the great work.

If you really need any advice about anything not covered in the article or discussion I'm sure you can either find me on the afterdawn irc channel, or pm a moderator and they can put you in touch with me..

Great work all ** Thumbs up!!.. I don't have enough thumbs to really let you guys know how proud of you all I am **

 

okay well i finished but i still need somebodies xbox files like the e-drive and stuff can someone plz hook me up plz

 

try this megaupload link it has the best pre-built xbox image I have found yet.

The image includes xbmc and 3 skins! includes MC360

the file is called makeXBOXiso.rar and is 280 megs in size. It has html instructions inside the archive. Read them and you can't go wrong!

 

Hi everybody,

some things are a bit unclear to me.

1. I read about powering the Eeprom chip on the xbox mobo with a external 5V supply. Isn't that chip originally powered from a 3V3 rail in the xbox? So, if you feed it 5V (which is not really a problem for the eeprom chip), you will feed all other chip's that normally operate on 3V3 5V. That doesn't look very wise to me.

2. When the mobo is fragging, I thought that after a couple of times the power stayed on. (The blower keeps running). So, why do people try to read out the eeprom in between the fragging cycle? Isn't it just much simpler to wait a couple of seconds until the reboot attempts has stopped?

3. If the Eeprom is on a 3V3 supply rail. Wouldn't it be better to use 3V3 zeners instead of 5V zeners?

I am open for any comment.

regards.

 

Don't know about the power stuff, but I can tell you that when my xbox is 'fragging', it tries to power up 3 times and then shuts itself off completely. So in order to get a read I have to do it quick during a power cycle.

 

Hi,

thanks for that information. Any change you could tell me on what version of xbox this was happening? I have a 1.0 and a 1.1. They both keep running after a frag. (If you connect the eeprom reader cable, they frag) I was just wondering if things had changed on the newer versions.

regards.

 

Version 1.6 for me, and yes, without the eeprom reader hooked up it will load up to an error screen. With it connected it'll try 3 times and then shut off. Maybe I did something wrong, but since I managed to get a good read I'm not gonna waste time trying to figure it out.

 

You didn't do anything wrong. I see similar "oddities" while working on broken "fragged" xboxes. What gets me is the one that worked after I hooked up the reader. Then it went south again. But it was up long enough that I could softmod the box and ftp the backup off of it.

It would e nice if someone smarter than us could explain why the reader seems to change the broke xboxes symptoms.