Bad Xbox chip flash

[Shinebi]

I managed to get this done yesterday... I had some spare chips left, so installed an X-elexis I had into a PAL 1.0 model. I think the BIOS on the chip was a 256k Xecuter2 4981. So I thought about updating the BIOS as I had a recent pack with several versions. Looking at the ones I could use, 5838 was the most recent one. Flashed it, but didn't boot afterwards. Only then I noticed that it was derived from a US 1.6 model with Xcalibur chipset and split to 256 size, so my guess is that I SHOULDN'T have used this one becuse of the different chipset config...

Question 1:
In the past, when I used to have such a problem, I booted with a working chip and then hotswap to flash the bad chip. This has worked every time, but now it doesnt (shows something like "unsupported flash"). I normally flash in Evox and I was told in the past that if there's a new chip or BIOS, some new strings needed to be added into the Evox ini-file. Does anyone know these strings for 5838?

Question2:
Is there another app to flash a BIOS besides doing it in Evox?
I upgraded from Evox to XBMC a long time ago, but never found a way to flash a chip from there...

Question 3:
I wanted to upgrade the BIOS to try if I could fit a 1TB HDD into the XBox as the guy wanted a Mediacenter. I know I'll have to set larger clusters for the format. Do all the most recent BIOS's support this or do I definitely need a patched LBA48 BIOS?

Any help would greatly be apreciated!
You can always PM me too

Shinebi

[Pavey]

PM Smouty.

[smouty]

A1. The strings only contain the MD5 to identify the BIOS with a friendly name. You can find the hash using EVTool.

A2. I have an external programmer. Looks a bit like THIS

A3. The Xbox will only use 380Gb before it starts to overwrite files so 1Tb is not a good idea. Without LBA48 support you are limited to 128Gb but nearly all of the later released BIOSs were patched for this.

[Shinebi]

What I thought...
It's been 5 years now since Iwas juggling with this stuff.
Now I try something and failure is written all over...

Edit:
OOPs replied already

1 ?

2 I know I guy which I learned the trade from. He also had a writer, might contact him if I can find his details...

3 I know what you mean always had this problem.
I thought it was fixed now? Lots of guys around with 700 GB and TB drives...

[Shinebi]

Sorry for the bump (can't perform delete and post anew as edit...)

Small update:
forgot to tell that the first time when trying to reflash the chip after hotswap, Evox flash DID erase thee bios, but halted when writing (had this two or three times). After that it just said 'flash type unwritable'.

Browsed through some old discs I had and found a Bios flash disc I had compiled in 2003, it had the app FlashX v2.0 on it with most recent pack up BIOS types from then. Tried it out, it will try to flash, but gives a flash ID of 'ff' in both checks, and asks if the flash setting is enabled. (?) Similar to the EvoX flash error.

Also found three strings for the 5838 BIOS, added them to EvoX.ini, but that didn't work either. Guess,I'll check that EVTool and Eurasio Generic flash disc too, but I think I'm stuck with a dead chip now. Contacted the guy with the writer, but no reply as of yet.

[smouty]

Tried it out, it will try to flash, but gives a flash ID of 'ff' in both checks, and asks if the flash setting is enabled. (?) Similar to the EvoX flash error.

Also found three strings for the 5838 BIOS, added them to EvoX.ini, but that didn't work either. Guess,I'll check that EVTool and Eurasio Generic flash disc too, but I think I'm stuck with a dead chip now. Contacted the guy with the writer, but no reply as of yet.

Does this chip have a flash enable switch setting. If so is it enabled as it looks as though the chip is write protected.

As I said earlier the entries in Evox.ini are only used to identify the BIOS in use.

#
ROM        = "EvoX 2.0",0x76fd88337b8d8c1f116f85f3984b98b6
ROM        = "EvoX 2.1",0x99487615bb30670cb65993388fcf2a63
ROM        = "EvoX 2.2",0x220ade778785cfc3c98bb5ea8bbd8608
ROM        = "EvoX 2.3",0xd79bc87c2caa1a50dcc7016adf2ccc0a
ROM        = "EvoX 2.4",0xe3ce66b99957a92fdac40af951c3f1fd
ROM        = "EvoX 2.6",0xdd3de3542bff7b36cdb0dbe078c27fbe
ROM        = "EvoX 3.6",0xcb73b4914bb6c70b66e21377989726a0  
ROM        = "EvoX 3.6ef",0xf754767b388ce7a08bf57304e24c9ae9

As I use a customised BIOS the hash would be different from the default so for it to be shown as such I would have had an entry

#
ROM        = "XBMC no logo",0x76fd88337b8d8c1f116f85f391234567

If you can't get any further PM me if you want to send me the chip and I'll reflash it if I can.
Another option is to flash the TSOP (onboard BIOS) if it is a pre v1.6.

[Shinebi]

Ow, only found the 'Flash' string, not the 'ROM' string, was thinking about that I was missing something there when I looked at it, the Flash string is for the chip type itself, correct? (ST... etc)

Wel there ISN'T a switch or anything, it just doesn't want to write now, and that prolly 'cause of the ROM string lacking, so it doesn't recognise the BIOS I think...

I always could flash/reflash those kinds of chips without trouble, but now it's f***ed.
Well, I'll look around for the ROM string. If I can't find any, I'll give you a PM so you can fix it.

Thanks for the offer

[Link83]

As far as I understand it you can have Hard Drives/Partitions up to 512GB now with no corruption so long as you have a bios with LBA48 support and (very importantly) format the drive in 32k clusters instead of 16k using XBPartitioner.

Smouty, im curious as to where the 380GB limit is from? From what I have read previously, when using a bios with LBA48 support and using only 16k clusters the limit was 256GB, after that anything put on the drive would disappear and it would become corrupted. With 32k clusters your safe up to 512GB.

I looked into this recently as I am planning on upgrading to a 500GB hard drive soon. With a 1TB hard drive though you would have to split it into two partitions evenly (F & G) aswell as using 32k clusters.

I have to say though, I have not come across any 1TB IDE Drives The biggest IDE drive I have seen is a 750GB Seagate drive, which is supposedly quite unreliable - thats why i'm sticking with 500GB as it gives me more manufacturer choices and keeps me under the 512GB limit (meaning I can have one large F partition instead of F & G) May I ask which model drive you were planning on using? Or is it a SATA drive using an IDE>SATA adaptor? (which I have heard can be unreliable)

[smouty]

Ow, only found the 'Flash' string, not the 'ROM' string, was thinking about that I was missing something there when I looked at it, the Flash string is for the chip type itself, correct? (ST... etc)

Wel there ISN'T a switch or anything, it just doesn't want to write now, and that prolly 'cause of the ROM string lacking, so it doesn't recognise the BIOS I think...

I always could flash/reflash those kinds of chips without trouble, but now it's f***ed.
Well, I'll look around for the ROM string. If I can't find any, I'll give you a PM so you can fix it.

Thanks for the offer

The ROM string will not help. It is not used for flashing. You would have had to update your .ini file before updating your BIOS each time

[Shinebi]

Smouty, you've got a PM.

[Shinebi]

Well, my buddy Kama tried to restore the chip on his flasher, said it was dead.
So he got me another chip for the 1.0...

Just found me the newest version of XBpartitioner here, and it should support partitions up to 1TB each n 128K clusters.

[Link83]

Sorry to hear about your chip

XBpartitioner1.1 is the latest version, but I think the 128k clusters option is as yet untested, although it should work (But for a 1TB drive you wouldnt need 128k clusters anyway) Theres a thread about its creation here:-

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=643210

Theres a whole debate in that thread as to how much space you would loose by using 64k clusters, because if you have a lot of little files that are less than 64k in size they will each still take up 64k of space, so eating up alot of your hard drive. Larger clusters sizes = more space lost, thats why some people still choose to use two partitions to keep a smaller cluster size.

The cluster sizes for any individual partition should be:-
equal to or less than 256GB = 16k clusters
more than 256GB, but equal or less than 512GB = 32k clusters
more than 512GB, but equal or less than 1TB = 64k clusters
more than 1TB, but equal or less than 2TB = 128k clusters

Although AFAIK you will also still need a bios with LBA48 support for any drive over 137GB.

Your other option is to use a networked hard drive to store all your files and stream them to the Xbox - so the Xbox doesnt even need to have a large hard drive. I havent tried this myself though, but its supposed to work great

If you dont mind me asking i'm still curious as to what model of IDE hard drive you have that is 1TB

[smouty]

Your other option is to use a networked hard drive to store all your files and stream them to the Xbox - so the Xbox doesnt even need to have a large hard drive. I havent tried this myself though, but its supposed to work great

Agreed. There is no limit then to your storage space. I have a 2Tb linux based RAID5 NAS.

If you dont mind me asking i'm still curious as to what model of IDE hard drive you have that is 1TB

I've never seen one bigger than 750Gb personally but I read the xbox scene thread and some people have had success with SATA to IDE adaptors but this is ridiculous considering the price of a NAS caddy today.

[Shinebi]

Just checked for the drives... 750GB IDE is around, yes, but hard to find and the 1TB SATA is not that expensive (looking at the cheapest ?90 or so), an adaptor is about ? 19. I'll just see what I can get my hands on... I succeeded streaming audio and movies via SMB, but never got it working via FTP (streaming that is, although I can always FTP on the PC back and forth.) Never tried it with anything else.

@Smouthy, did you also succeed in streaming any app or game?

[smouty]

@Smouthy, did you also succeed in streaming any app or game?

No I didn't but I never felt the need. I have still got the original 160Gb samsung I fitted in 2003 which is enough for the 20 or so games I have and all the emulators.