Robin Hoods Playground

I'm using A PCI verison of the VIA VT6421A to flash my BenQ drive, but not having much luck.

After using iPrep 8.8, I get as far in the firmware reading process as "Reading Bank 2..." - and then nothing more. The Googles haven't found anyone else with this problem, so I'm looking for some help.

I'm powering my drive trough my xbox, and I don't have any of the connectivity kits. What I've been doing:

1. Power on PC with Xbox off but SATA cable connected.
2. Type in dBen + Serial Number
3. Turn On Xbox Power
4. Hit "Y" to try the Magic28 unlock method
5. Select the SATA port with the VAD6038 detected (0xE880 in my case)
6. Hit "R" to read that drive.
7. Type in BenOFW.bin for the filename
8. Watch it successfully read Bank 0, and sometimes 1, then hang on either 1 or 2.
9. Yell in Anger and Frustration.

Any suggestions?

atourgates wrote:1. Power on PC with Xbox off but SATA cable connected.

keep the sata cable unplugged while the pc boots up in dos.
after the pc is booted up in dos.
plug the sata cable in and power on the console(and dvd drive)
now start the possess of dump/flash

you may want to try a different usb flash also.

or use an older iprep http://team-xecuter.com/files/click.php?id=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; this i have found to still be the best when all else fails

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll try out the SATA cable business. When I try to use iPrep 101 v6 and load the iXtreme 1.5 firmware, I get a "No Valid Firmware" error message. Is there a way around this, or do I need to flash with an older firmware?

Also, I've noticed something else - I believe the time it fails to stop reading the "bank" is correlated to when the power light on my xbox starts blinking. If the power light is already blinking when it starts to read the banks, it stalls at 0, otherwise it'll make it through to 1 or 2 and then stop when the green power light starts to blink. Does this mean anything, or am I high?

Thanks again for the help.

you need to update the 'ixdef' file for iprep to include 1.5 firmware

First - thanks for the help and sorry to be such a failure.

I tried running iPrep with the SATA cable unplugged while Dos was loading up - no change. Then I tried an entirely new flash drive. No change. Then I tried using the old 6.2 version of iPrep, but even after I copied the ixDef file from v8 to the 6.2's resources folder (overwriting in the process), I still get the "No Valid Firmware" message.

Any suggestions to fix my failing'ness?

Right click on your ixdef file and open it with wordpad (or notepad whichever you use its ok)

Go to the line which says:

<firmware checksum="A6D4C666C0014CADD0CA51C98CD3C80B" shortname="Ben">

And add a "Q" after Ben (without the quotation marks)

The line should now read:

<firmware checksum="A6D4C666C0014CADD0CA51C98CD3C80B" shortname="BenQ">

Click on File and then Save and your good to go.

Ahh! Brilliant!

Another piece of the puzzle - I gave Jungle Flasher a try and had more or less the same problem. I can open Jungle Flasher, send the unlock key, get the Device ID, and then begin to read the firmware. Half way through reading Bank 2, the Xbox's power lite starts to blink, and Jungle Flasher freezes.

Anyway, I'll give the older version of iPrep a try and see if that solves anything.

Phew! Finally got it to flash.

Using dale's formula, I finally got the older version of iPrep to recognize the current 1.5 firmware, but after booting up, it couldn't even unlock the drive. So, I ended up switching to the other SATA port on my VIA PCI card. I gave Jungle Flash another try after making that switch, and it worked without a hitch.

I haven't tried playing a backup yet, but the flash was verified as successful, and the xbox still reads standard discs. Now to enter the world of backup making.

Thanks again for all the help. This is a great board.

good job man

Yeah good job mate. Glad you got it sorted.