Sammy 1.61 but it won't play burned disks...

[Turom]

I’ve search and search, but I cannot seem to find a definitive answer to my 360 problem.

I recently flashed my Samsung ms28 drive with iXtreme 1.61, but my 360 will only play retail 360 disks. All of the backup’s I’ve burned do not fully spin up and just return the “open” message after about 1 minute of quick small spin up attempts.

I have flashed my DVD twice actually, first using iPrep 11.6 per the video tutorial created by Cofree, and then again using Jungleflasher 1.73 using another video tutorial I found here. Jungleflasher shows me that iXtreme 1.61 is flashed to my DVD drive and reports the proper drive key, so I'm 100% confident that my drive is flashed properly.

I’m using a TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-S182M drive to burn the backups -- it has the latest firmware installed. This drive seems incapable of burning DL disks slower than 4x, so even when I tell ImgBurn 2.5.1.0 to write at 2.4x, I get a speed mismatch and the disk is written at 4x.

The very first backup disk I burned after flashing my drive was made using a Sony DL disk. ImgBurn reports this disk as “MBIPG101-R10-65”. This disk booted on my 360 without a problem the very first time. I didn’t play the game, but just left it running the intro for about 10 minutes. The reason I didn’t play the game was because I wanted to make sure everything was OK before closing my 360 backup. So I then powered my 360 down and put everything back together. Since then, my 360 will only play retail disks. It won't even boot that one disk that originally worked.

Since That Sony DL disk was my last, I bought some Memorex disks that ImgBurn reports as “RITEK-S04-66”. I read somewhere that people have great success with these disks. I’ve burned 4 of these disks so far, none of them boot. I have verified all of the disks using abgx 1.0.2, and some report video partition errors, however I’m not sure if that’s just because it’s not finding the abgx wave 3-6 update I installed. I have one backup disk that clears abgx perfectly, but that doesn’t work on my 360 either; Its a wave 3 disk.

So do I need a new DVD burner, new disks, both or am I doing something wrong? I’m a bit frustrated because of all the work I’ve put into hacking my 360 and now it’s just not working.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Turom

[Turom]

I'm at a complete loss, and feel really let down and frustrated.

Today I went to Best Buy and paid $65 for a Pioneer DVR-A 18M drive, because on one forum someone was boasting it's the best drive for 360 disk burning. The slowest this drive will burn at is also 4x, so even though I also now have Verbatim disks that can record at a lower speed, I'm still burning them at 4x.

I've pulled my 360 drive and flashed it once again using Jungle Flasher, but the results are the same. The disk won't spin up fully, and after about 1 minute it just tells me to open the drive.

Here's how I'm flashing the drive:

I connect it to my Via card via the SATA cable & the power adapter with the power turned off. I then power the drive up and launch Jungle Flasher 1.73 as Administrator. I go into the MTK Flash 32 Tab and hit the "Intro / Device ID" button. It then tells me my drive is in vendor mode. I'm not doing Sammy Unlock since I no longer have the stock firmware installed. I hit the read button to grab the drive key, after which it asks to load iXtreme automatically -- I say yes since I have ix161-samsung.bin in the firmware directory. I then hit the "write" button and watch it erase/write each 4 banks. When it's done, I hit the "Outro / ATA Reset" button, power off the drive and put it back in my 360.

I'm doing this under Windows 7 32, and have Nero installed, but it's not running.

Can someone at least confirm that it appears I'm doing everything correctly?

So far I've spent $30 on the Via card & power adapter, $65 on a new DVD burner and $55 on 2 different types of DL disks. It's frustrating that I've dumped ~$150 into this and my 360 still only plays retail disks, not backups.

[Turom]

Sorry for all the posts... I keep trying to get it to work and think I might have found something, but hope someone can confirm.

My Samsung is a TS-H943A MS28, but I just noticed the iXtreme firmware listed in Jungleflasher says "iXTREME1.61-12x-FINAL-TS-H493A"

Since their is a difference in numbers, does that mean iXtreme doesn't work for my DVD drive? I hope this isn't the case, because I just ordered a replacement drive, and it's the same exact model I have in my 360 now.

[commando_lee]

looking over at a glance, you said that it would platy original games but not backups. Which i would lean to the way that your laser may be on its way out. The fw and key is good as if it wasnt then nothing would play at all.

[HaGGardSmurf]

I agree with commando, the laser is probably tired.

Your media (even verbatim's) are a $5.00 disk burned with a ~$60.00 dvd burner, that is no match for the million dollar machines M$ uses to press the disks when producing them. Therefore the originals are much easier to read than backups, and if your laser is on its way out it will usually read only originals although it has ix on it.

If I were you, i'd go buy a new benq or lite-on off ebay and spoof that in, rather than buying only a new laser.

[Turom]

Thanks for the input guys. I had already ordered a replacement Samsung drive, and today it arrived. I spoofed my drive key over and now my 360 is working beautifully.

I feel a bit better about the money I spent on the new DVD burner too, because about half of the disks burned with my old burner didn't work... all of the disks made with my new burner boot and play perfectly.

HaGGardSmurf, I'm assuming you suggested a Benq or Liteon since they are the only drives that currently support iXtreme LT. But since I'm using 1.61, and am verifying all disks I burn using the modified abgx360 that provides supports through wave 6, I'm pretty safe from future ban waves, right?

I've been checking my X value regularly too, and as of yet, no security events have been logged.

Thanks again, and sorry this ended up in the wrong forum. When things aren't working, it's no always easy figuring out what's causing the problem, so I didn't know if it was a disk issue, a flashing issue or what.

[HaGGardSmurf]

Good to hear its all sorted!

1.61 is quite detectable, its only a matter of time until you are banned if your playing online even with good backups.

What do you mean your checking your x value regularly?

[Turom]

I stumbled upon a program called XVal, by Redline99. If you go into your System Info page, on your 360, it'll list your system serial number and a few different variables. One variable is X. Supposedly, this variable is an encrypted value that can identify whether or not your console has any security logs stored on it. I ran the X value using that app, and it came back that my "SecData" is clean. I've been going back periodically, and each time I still have the same encrypted value, so I don't bother entering it back into that app.

Now back to you with a question. By "playing online", do you mean playing a multi-player version of a game on XBox Live, or does playing a local single player game while connected count?

[HaGGardSmurf]

Well the thing is the xval thing wont stop you from being flagged, and you probably will be and when your drive is investigated you will likely be banned with 1.61. You should put a benq or lite-on in with lt on it.

Xval seems like a cool tool though, first ive heard of it.

[Turom]

It's mainly designed to allow a person buying a used XBox to identify whether it's been banned or not. I've been checking the XVal from time to time prior to connecting.

Sucks about 1.61 being detectable since I just dished out cash for a new Samsung.

[HaGGardSmurf]

Well I'd keep my box offline for now if I were you. I would think samsung LT is close to being released seeing as benq's and sammy's are similar. I expect LT to be released for lite-ons benq's sammy's and maybe hitachi's eventually.