Gaming Xbox 360 hacked firmware upgrade

[Bloodgod]

Hardware

• VIA 6421L (get the new driver listed below. Make sure you download the right driver.) *aslacker55, thanks for this link.*
  [1] NEW DRIVER Version - 5.60A
• Pioneer 112D (my older 110D model burnt one other 360 ISO and it ran fine.)
• Verbatim 8.5GB 2.4X~6X
• USB Flash drive(I'm sure any Flash drive will work for this. It just so happens I have that one.)

Software (firmware)

• Xbins (you can download latest firmware from this app along with the applications listed below.)
• Xtreme Boot Maker V.3.6.14220
  [1]Download this and replace the one that comes with XBM (Left click and "save as")
• Maximus 360 Firmware Toolbox Ver. 3.0 / 4.0 (either one works. The one I used was 3.0)

Software (ISO check)

• Schtrom360XtractV3.3
• XDVDMulleterBeta10

Software (Burn)

• IMGBurn

Video Tutorial

• Opening
  [1]He lists what hand tools you need to open it
  [2]Torx 10 screw driver can be found at Home Depot and precision screw drivers can be found at Radio Shack. The other tool you can make. International users I'm sorry I don't know where you can buy it at your region's specialty store.

Main Tutorial on how to flash a Samsung MS25 and MS28 DRIVES. I did not write this tutorial nor am I going to take credit for it. Author of this tutorial is myfranco from Xbox Scene Forum. So if you have any questions for an MS25/28 drives post in the original topic or take your chances with us. If you have the other drives BenQ(?) and Hitachi drives, I'm sorry I have no idea how to flash those.

The best way (to me) to flash a samsung ms25 & ms28 dvd drive with compatible sata chipset.

There are numerous topics going on about "how to flash a samsung". First of all, your sata chipset(can be onboard or pci card) must be compatible with samsung MS25 drives.Not all the sata chipsets are compatible with that drive.If you want to be %100 sure ,you can buy a via 6421 pci sata card.There are many ways to read the key and copy&paste but the way i do has never caused me any trouble.

To flash a samsung drive you need the following applications:

--Xtreme Boot Maker V.0.3.6 Click to Download

--Maximus Firmware Toolbox 2.0 Click to Download

--Xtreme Firmware Find it in the usual place.

Here we go :

We need to setup Xtreme Boot Maker.You can find it in the Start Menu>X-Projects.Run the program.

1-- Open your xtreme firmware(here i used 3.3 .The latest one is extreme 5.0 but i find v3.3 is good enough)

2-- Click "Use Custom Mtkflash and choose your sata controller.

3-- Hit "Detect ID -I/O"

4-- Click "Ms28 Bad Flash Compatibility" and "Apply Boke's Patch For Ms28 Drives"

5-- Choose your usb memory stick or floppy ( I recommend USB stick since floppy is not so stable everytime.It may come up with a bad sector and that may cause a bad flash.USB Stick is much less riskier)

6-- Click "Format and Make Bootable"

7-- Hit "Prepare Drive" .In about 10 seconds your usb stick or floppy is ready.

When you check your usb stick or floppy, you will see your hacked firmware in the "samsung" folder as "xtreme.bin".This binary is not ready to be flashed since we don't have our orig.bin to get the key.
Now,it's time to boot your PC from floppy or usb stick(for usb stick you need to set "boot from usb hard drive" in the bios menu.) .Plug your Xbox 360's Sata Cable to Pc's Sata Card or Onboard Sata Controller and leave it TURNED OFF".Reboot your PC and you will be in DOS Command Prompt.You can turn Xbox 360 on now.Type:

mtkflash r /m orig.bin Â

You will see some options.Choose your sata card and this will dump your original firmware as orig.bin. Now,take floppy or usb stick out and boot into Windows.

This time we will use Maximus Firmware Toolbox 2.0

Open Firmware Toolbox 2.0 and put your floppy or usb stick in the floppy drive or usb.

1--Open your orig.bin
2--Copy the key.Be sure you copy the whole key by right clicking and copy.

Close the Firmware Toolbox 2.0 and Reopen it.This time open floppy or usb stick\samsung\xtreme.bin and paste the key.You can hit "replace the key". To make sure, close and open firmware toolbox and xtreme.bin and see if your key is there.Simply put your xtreme.bin to the root of usb stick or floppy where mtkflash is located. Reboot PC. Boot into DOS and turn your 360 on. Type:

mtkflash w /m xtreme.bin

QUOTE

and hit enter.Choose your sata card again and finished. Don't forget to put 360's sata cable back to Samsung Drive.Check if everything went fine.

To Flash a ms28 is almost same.The only difference is to turn off 360 before choosing your sata card (right after mtkflash command) and wait for 10 sec(which is known as 10 sec trick ,turn it on. Timing is important and you may try for a couple of times for right timing.You need a via 6421 sata card for ms28.

This is the easiest way i do all the time.I never used sam...exe or kdx .Simply these 2 applications makes me sure i have the

correct key and correct mtkflash chosen. If you find easier way don't hesitate to post.

I do not take any responsibility. Do it on your own risk.

---BREAK---

ORIGINAL MESSAGE

I've read most of the available tutorials out there on the net. But I am still iffy on it cause I'd feel more secure if someone who has done the mod posted what they did (not step by step just equipment used). Basically I am looking for someone with a Samsung DVD drive and the list of computer parts used. I know I need the right PCI SATA card because my comp doesn't have the right chip set and a USB thumbdrive.

Also I am sorry for this post not making sense. I'm slightly buzzed. HAHA Thanks

 

[Bloodgod]

well since no one bothered. I think I am just gonna go on ahead and get a mod chip NME 360 v.12

Does anyone have this chip installed in their system? Seems to be alot safer considering it doesn't change my 360s DVD firmware.

 

[T-hug]

Hi mate, don't get a mod chip use latest ixtreme fw I can't help with the flash part as I sent my drive off to be flashed as my comp didn't have the sata chipset or card.
Also I only needed a small flat head screwy to get the case of properly and a torx 10 I think it was (maybe 12) to get in the casing. Most guides say to remove all screws but you don't have to just to get at the drive.
Theres also a pdf guide thats very good I think on xbox-scene last time I saw it it was like v51 or something and that was a while ago.
Don't buy the modchip crap!

 

[Azimuth]

I just upgraded my firmware last week.

I have a samsung drive(m25), motherboard gigabyte 7400n pr0 2, southbridge(SATA controller) ICH5. I used a hair pin to open the case and an opening key cut out from a pvc cd case to pry open the back snaps. Torx 10 screw bit to open the 6 screws on the metal cover housing the internal components. Since I forgot my flash at home I was forced to use my g6 lite. ohh and a sata cable of course(with a metal lock to secure it in place).

good luck on the flash

 

[ceraphis]

whatcha wanna know? how bout this for starters

ixtreme is the best. hands down. no banning problemos.
steps:
1. get a samsung drive when you buy the console. It's complicated to ask why I say this, I'd just advise you just follow my advice, look elsewhere for the reasoning, because it is surely out there. If you have a hitachi already, prepare yourself that you will have a drive firmware that will never be as secure as a sammy or a benq, and will have a much greater possibility of being banned. Either that, or replace it with a samsung however you can.

2. get a vt6421 sata chipset for your compy. a or l, doesnt matter, just make sure its vt6421. install all the drivers and such. Easiest way to do all this is get a sata hard drive or anything else that plugs in via sata and make sure you can reliably use THAT product within windows.

3. open up the box. Tons of tutorials online. Try to salvage that warranty sticker if you can, because if you do you'll have no problems getting the high-failure-rate 360 replaced under warranty.

4. burn an ntfs-dos CD. textbook's tutorial tells you where to get this and what it does. that reminds me: search for textbook's tutorial, possibly on 360mods.net or xbox-scene.

5. download the ixtreme firmware v1.2, iprep with related ixtreme 1.2 definitions, which should come with something called mtkflash. xbox-scene has some great tutorials on flashing with mtkflash, but I'll do my best to give you a rudimentary understanding of the subject. Place all the files including ix12.bin using the folder structure it came in the ixtreme 1.2 rar, and mtkflash along with the mtkflash.typ that was created by iprep, which you should have run, into a folder on one of your hard drives...iprep is a gui so it shouldnt be too hard. There are some specific options which I'd be able to remember for my ms28, like "apply boke's patch" or something like that, the information should be readily available on xbox-scene or textbook's tutorial.

6. turn off computer.

7. turn off open xbox if it is on. unplug sata cable from xbox. leave power plugged in to the dvd drive, leave the huge power brick plugged into the naked box. touch some metal part of the xbox to the chassis of your computer, open computer to expose the sata chipset. plug a sata cable running from the xbox dvd drive to the sata chipset.

8. turn on xbox, which should be flashing red and green because you DIDNT plug in the video cable. The next few steps dont lollygag on for more than 5 minutes because the 360 will turn off during that time. This risk is taken in order to not get a specific error that may get you banned you baaaaaaad xbox hacker.

9. turn on computer, boot into ntfs-dos cd, type YES when prompted

10. Now, if you don't know how to use DOS, this might be a little tricky. Let's say you put the mtkflash.typ, mtkflash.exe, and ix12.bin into a folder called IXT on the root of your 20 gig hard drive labeled C: in windows. confirm that C: displayed at the top of the screen (whilst in ntfsdos) says something like 21000 MB or 20 GB, and then type this in:
cd c:
cd IXT
Then, type this (remove /sata if ms25 FW, /sata is for ms28 which I have):
mtkflash r /m /sata orig.bin
It should output a list of drives, one of which should be labeled XTREME.

11. turn off xbox.

12.choose the "XTREME" option by pressing 1 or 2 or 3 or whatnot.

13.wait about ten seconds.

14. turn on xbox

15. it should start flashing...wait for it to end.

16. turn off compy and xbox, boot into windows again (xbox OFF)

17. go into the place where you got orig.bin, there should be a bat file called "make iXtreme firmware.bat" or something. confirm that the ix12.bin is in that folder it always was. run this bat file.

18. it should create another .bin, cant remember what its called, but something like hacked.bin or something. remember what its called, or rename it to hacked.bin. remember, we're talking about a NEW bin file.

19. copy the orig.bin about a billion times onto every data-storing medium you are aware of. CD, usb drive, every hard drive possible...you name it. You might thank me later when ALL BUT ONE of these copies are destroyed in a freak flood accident and you wanna reflash your console after a bad flash.

20. reboot, go into ntfsdos with the xbox on and flashing red and green, get to the same place you were before you ran the mtkflash command.

21. type mtkflash w /m /sata hacked.bin (hacked.bin is the name you remembered earlier, only /sata if you're ms28)

22.turn off the xbox at the selection screen that should say XTREME for one of the choices.

23.select XTREME

24.turn on box.

25.cross fingers while it flashes 4 data banks total.

26.rejoice when its done.

27.put box back together.

28.find some games somewhere or backup some copies of 360 games using a kreon drive. note, you need to make sure whatever ISO files you end up with have dmi, pfi, ss, and video files injected into them. lots of "scene releases" lately have these already installed, your new ixtreme firmware wont boot anything even remotely wrongly burned unlike it used to where it would boot anything that resembled a 360 or xbox1 game.

29. let out a huge sigh after reading this long long post.

30.thank me :-D

 

[Gaisuto]

There was recently a huge topic helping two people on how to flash their drives (I was one of them). Check it out here.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=53767

 

[sekhu]

rather than doing the 101 things to flash a drive, wouldn't it be easier to install a 360 modchip instead? would hte modchip be detectable?

 

[Gaisuto]

Chances are pretty high the modchip would be detected. You can only flash the 360 drive one particular way to make sure you won't get caught.

 

[Azimuth]

rather than doing the 101 things to flash a drive, wouldn't it be easier to install a 360 modchip instead? would hte modchip be detectable?

the mod chip requires soldering which is much harder than flashing and more dangerous. Flashing looks hard when described but when you actually get down to it the whole process takes no longer than 30 mins.

 

[Gaisuto]

The flashing part was easy, the pain was opening the freaking 360 case...

 

[Bloodgod]

@ ceraphis thanks for that long step by step. You really didn't have to do it but thanks. I'm sure I'll be PMing you when ever I do start this thing.

BTT
Will this PCI card work? Also I was reading something on how to back up the original firmware and "Key" how hard is that to do? Because I just want that so I can restore it when ever. This is probably the main reason why I want to install a mod chip.

 

[aslacker55]

@ ceraphis thanks for that long step by step. You really didn't have to do it but thanks. I'm sure I'll be PMing you when ever I do start this thing.

BTT
Will this PCI card work? Also I was reading something on how to back up the original firmware and "Key" how hard is that to do? Because I just want that so I can restore it when ever. This is probably the main reason why I want to install a mod chip.

I suggest getting this sata card:VT6421L. When you flash your 360 it makes a copy of your original key, make sure you use a USB flash drive ( it's better).

 

[Bloodgod]

I suggest getting this sata card:VT6421L. When you flash your 360 it makes a copy of your original key, make sure you use a USB flash drive ( it's better).

damn that looks like the one I am gonna get. I am guessing I don't have to do and hex changing with this card? Just a simple "plug and play" ? Does this have a GUI that tells me how to back up the firmware?

 

[ceraphis]

dont know about the newegg link, but i was pretty sure they have the vt6421, thats the best to get.

BTW although the vt6421l is supposed to be the best, i have a vt6421a and it works fine. The difference is whether or not it has RAID functionality, the a version does whilst the l version does not.

in reality, all I did was happen upon a random store called computech and they happened to have the exact chipset i was looking for, albeit for 50 bucks.

in regards to the backing up of original firmware and the "key" stuff, heres how it works. If you follow my step by step, when I say mtkflash r /m /sata orig.bin, that is the step wherein you obtain the original firmware, here called orig.bin after extraction. It is this firmware that you may use to extract its "key". It is the key that you are saving if you copy the whole orig.bin 20 billion times like I suggested, youd be doing the same thing if you opened up maximus firmware toolbox and open the orig.bin, It would display a key, which if you wanted to you could just copy into a text file or write on a piece of paper, and that would be all you need to keep forever and likely never have to worry about bricking your box.

I say that because it is my impression, as seemingly many others, that if you flash your box wrong, as long as you have that key or orig.bin, youd be able to recover from a "bad flash", the method to do so I outlined in my step-by-step. Thats why I chose to say the method above, because it is a "bad flash" method, that along with working on both ms25 and ms28 firmwares to do any initial flashes, will recover them from the signature "bad flash".

There is a completely different way to do it on hitachi firmwares that I know nothing of because my box is ms28. However, I would highly suggest you try to avoid getting a hitachi at all costs because it is common knowledge that the biggest difference between the hitachi firmwares and the samsung firmwares is that hitachis allow for code to be uploaded and run on the dvd drive's memory, an unfixable "feature" of those dvd drives which would mean M$ could implement such a way in the future. Sammy's have no such "feature" and are thus much more secure. Besides that, unless I'm mistaken there are no secure firmwares like ixtreme available for hitachis regardless.

 

[Bloodgod]

ok I think I got all the initial information I need in order to flash my drive. I'll post here again if I need help backing up/flashing my firmware sometime next month or so.

Also if anyone has that mod chip I mentioned earlier post your experience with it. I am still looking into that as another option.

Thanks.

 

[squirt1000]

One of my mates has the NME mod in his 360 and has been banned from live. I advised him to do a flash but he was convinced that a chip would be better. Im using xtreme 1.2 and have yet to have a problem.

 

[lenselijer]

hitachi drive works fine here, problem is that its not secure to play backup games on xbox live with. i can download demos from xbox live, no problem. But i dont care because all i got is xbox live silver

i flashed a samsung drive yesterday with ixtreme 1.2 using vt6421l it worked perfect, it was a refurbished 360 and it had the new cooling system in place, but the dvd drive was an old ms25 drive, so very easy to flash

The newest 360 have the hitachi 79 or benq drives, these are not flashable yet by normal people

 

[Bloodgod]

Well seems like I won't be doing this mod till late AUG. since I am in no hurry. Anyways just seeking for some more info. If I mess up on the flash do I get another chance? This is what I'm thinking in my head.

Flash Hacked-->bad flash -->boned
Flash Hacked-->restore original-->Flash Hacked-->WIN
Flash Hacked-->Flash Hack-->WIN

So in short can I keep trying to flash the drive till I get it right or is it a one shot deal?

 

[squirt1000]

As long as you do the read command and make sure you get a genuine backup of your dvd fw you are fine, Samread or idump will both give you the same results, Youll be left with a file called orig.bin. Keep this file safe as its your final chance if all does go wrong!!

 

[crazimofo]

Once you have the proper equipment flashing is very easy. Too bad I already got hit with the ban hammer!