amak79

I recently learnt that the MS dashboard will run in 480i even with 480p enabled. You can force it to run in 480p by pressing LT+RT+L3+R3. The screen will flash and it will now be in 480p. I can definitely notice the difference as previously it looked blurry and the colors were washed out. You can press the button combo again to return to 480i.

You can change the default CDDB database by creating the following advancedsettings.xml file in the XBMC UserData folder. <advancedsettings> <cddbaddress>gnudb.gnudb.org</cddbaddress> </advancedsettings>

Thanks for the info. I suspected that was the case but I wasn't sure since I only recently got my Xbox2HDMI adapter, and I thought I may have had an error in my setup.

I was able to fix this by disabling 720p in the UnleashX display settings. This also disabled 720p in the MS dashboard settings so I had to re-enable it there. Now Cerbios boots with a 720p boot screen without dropping to 480. UnleashX displays in 480p but at least it has the correct aspect ratio now.

Thanks for confirming it isn't just my setup. I find it annoying as well.

Is the MS dashboard capable of displaying at higher than 480 resolution? For me it always displays at 480 no matter what resolutions are enabled in the MS dashboard. I have switched my console region from PAL to NTSC and enabled the Widescreen, 480p and 720p options in the MS dashboard. I have an Xbox2HDMI adapter and games supporting 720p display correctly. UnleashX also displays at 720p although with an incorrect aspect ratio but that is a known problem with that dashboard. I also have Cerbios 2.0.3R flashed to an Aladdin Advance and I get a 720p boot screen but after the Xbox logo with Cerbios text is displayed, the screen goes black and then briefly displays Xbox logo with Cerbios text again but at what looks to be 480 resolution. I know the MS dashboard is mostly useless on a modded console except for changing the video settings, but I was curious to know if there is a problem with my setup.

This is the bug that Eaton identified. Although I was able to lock/unlock the drive after removing the existing password, FATXplorer was calculating the wrong password. When I put the drive in my Xbox I got an error 16. Eaton sent the me the test version, and with that the drive was locked with the correct password and the Xbox booted successfully.

If your Xbox is modded you can FTP to it and the memory unit will show up as H partition when plugged into the first controller port. You can then inspect the H folder to see if there is any data left on it.

I tested FATXplorer 3.0 Beta 21 which added lock/unlock support. I tried with a locked 200 GB IDE drive that came with my hard modded 1.4 Xbox. It now has a 1 TB SATA drive. I wasn't able to unlock it with the HDD key supplied from the EEPROM file, kept getting an "IO error. The password is probably wrong" message. I was able to unlock it with the TEAMASSEMBLY master password. I then locked it with the HDD key from the EEPROM file and after that FATXplorer had no problem unlocking the drive. It takes about 2.5 minutes to detect and unlock the drive which is normal according the FATXplorer 3.0 Beta 21 info page. I don't know why it couldn't unlock initially, but I ended up removing the password since my Xbox is hard modded. I suppose the StarTech PATA2SATA3 can be added to the list of known working adapters, although it's not as convenient as a USB adapter.

I only remember that the chipset vendor was Initio. There is one entry for Initio in the smartmontool database but it's for a USB 2.0 chipset. It's not that important since I'm using the StarTech PATA2SATA3 adapter which at least will lock a drive.

When I tried Beta 2 the HDD could not be listed. I think it's because the PATA2SATA3 adapter I'm using is IDE to SATA and not IDE to USB so XboxHDM23USB Beta 2/3 wont list it. With Beta 4 I could toggle safe mode to list all drives. The USB adapter I tried is a Simplecom SA491. I gave up on it after it wasn't recognized by XboxHDM23USB so I don't know the USB IDs and the adapter isn't mine so I can't check now. I think the problem is that I was only unlocking the drive and not disabling the security as suggested by @GoTeamScotch. However the owner of the Xbox was just happy that I was able to lock the drive and get the Xbox working again, and he has had enough of all the issues and will just use the USB stick method. I have a locked IDE drive that came with my 1.4 Xbox so I can test the PATA2SATA3 adapter with it. I'll wait for the new FATXplorer with locking/unlocking support and report back. It would be nice to know if the adapter can properly unlock drives so it can be added to the list of known working adapters.

I did but XboxHDM23USB would still complain about the device being incompatible with SAT type. It did appear to successfully unlock once but FATXplorer couldn't detect the drive.

I can report that I was able to lock the HDD with XboxHDM23USB Beta 4 and the Xbox booted successfully. I had to clear the frozen state by unpluging/plugging the power cable to the HDD after Windows had booted as suggested by @KaosEngineer. Thank you! I then tried to softmod the Xbox but was unable to launch the Splinter Cell exploit using a PAL disc. The game locks up after selecting the Linux profile. I believe it's because the save exploits on the E partition are for NTSC region games or maybe I'm just doing it wrong. The E partition was preloaded during formatting with a factory E partition zip file taken from the OGX Installer disc which contains the save exploits. I tried to unlock the drive and copy over the PAL save exploits but unlocking failed even after multiple attempts. I didn't yet try the locking/unlocking suggestions by @GoTeamScotch. I think I'll just copy the save exploits via a compatible USB stick. Thank you to everyone who posted suggestions and information.

I know that the locking password is unique to each drive, I just wasn't sure which value is used for locking. Thank you for finding this info. This will be very helpful if all other locking methods fail and I need to try with Linux and hdparm.

I can rule out using hdparm then. I have an EEPROMBackupBeforeLock.TXT file from my 1.4 Xbox that I believe is generated by ConfigMagic. This file has an XBOX HDD PASSWORD value. Is this the computed password that is used for locking?

@GoTeamScotch Thank you for the detailed information. It will come in handy if the usual method of locking a drive doesn't work. I have also learnt that with Linux a drive can have its frozen state cleared by suspending/resuming the system. If I'm unable to lock the drive with Windows, I will try with Linux and the hdparm utility. A drive can locked with: hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass PASSWORD /dev/sdX where PASSWORD is an ASCII string. I assume that would be the Unique HDD Key reported by LiveInfo? Anyone attempting to use this command should know that it's considered dangerous so use at your own risk.

The adapter and HDD have separate power connectors so I will be able to power cycle just he HDD. I'll have to wait until the weekend to try this. I'll report back the result. Thank you for the help.

I can unplug/plug the power cable to the PATA2SATA3 adapter while the system is still on? I've previously powered down and the rebooted the system but that didn't clear the frozen state.

Thank you for the info and the desoldering tip. I have read the EEPROM with PiPROM. I just need to lock the drive. I'll keep an eye out for any news on FatXplorer adding locking/unlocking support. Thanks.

The IDE2SAT2 adapter is great but I would still need a modchip to use an unlocked HDD. It's not easy to find a cheap modchip such as an Aladdin that is flashable by the Xbox. Most Aladdin's sold these days are not flashable. Another problem I have is the LPC pads are already filled with solder and I don't think I'm skilled enough to remove it without burning the pads. I'm not sure why they're filled with solder. The Xbox appeared untouched. I broke the patent and serial number labels, although the serial number label has another serial number label stuck underneath it. Perhaps the Xbox was serviced by Microsoft at some point. Replacing the HDD with another IDE drive seemed like the easiest solution. I'm just one step away from it working, but locking the HDD has proved very difficult.

I’m attempting to fix a friends unmodded 1.0 Xbox with a dead HDD (error 7). I’ve successfully extracted the EEPROM using PiPROM and prepared a new IDE HDD with FATXplorer. However I’m having trouble locking the replacement Seagate ST3320620A IDE HDD which according the Xbox Hard Drive Compatibility Chart supports locking. Initially I used an IDE to USB adapter but XboxHDM23USB Beta 3 and 4 complained about an unknown USB chipset. I then tried a StarTech PATA2SATA3 IDE to SATA adapter which progressed a little further but still fails with “ATA SECURITY SETPASS failed: scsi error aborted command”. The output from XboxHDM23USB Beta 4 shows that the HDD is in the frozen state which I believe prevents unlocking/locking. If this is causing the failure, how can I unfreeze the HDD? Can I use some other utility such as hdparm to lock the HDD?

UnleashX reports the Transfer Mode of the SATA HDD as Ultra DMA mode 4. Is that the maximum possible with an Xbox?

I manged to fit the cheap 80-wire IDE cable. It's 52 cm in length. The Chimeric Systems IDE cable would be ideal but this will have to do for now.

I'm aware of that cable but unfortunately shipping to my location is currently unavailable. The price for cable+shipping is also quite expensive. I found a cheap 80-wire IDE cable on eBay that should be long enough with the right folding.

That's interesting. My SATA HDD was previously used as a backup drive and after I had no use for it I erased (zeroed) it with a Linux tool called dd, which is a block-level copy command. I don't know if does the same thing as the low-level format tool you mentioned. I should have tried it without formatting it.