E66 error on Hitachi drive

[Akira181]

I bought a 360 off ebay that was supposed to have the RRoD but when I plugged it in, it has an E66 error instead.

I've done some searching and found out that E66 errors happened with flashed firmware that is now out of date. But that was for the Samsung drive and mine is a hitachi.

Is it likely my hitachi just needs updating too or is there something else that would cause an E66 error?

[Akira181]

Thought I'd give some more info. The 360 boots up into the XBOX 360 logo screen then goes to E66 after a few minutes.

Is this fixable or is it bricked?

[mp3boy]

Generally it means that the drive has been changed and the firmware needs spoofing to pretend the drive is whatever make/model was originally in that xbox360. If the drive also has the incorrect key then there's no way to get it working without knowing the original key.

[Ogs]

Just thinking....E66 would take priority over the Drive key wouldnt it?

Im quite shocked Ive only just thought of 'what would happen'

[Akira181]

I've taken the console apart and about to connect the drive to my PC. I'm a bit new to flashing drives so I'm following that "Hacking the Xbox 360 for Noobs" textbook found on 360mods.net

I'm hoping the drive key is still on there and it's a simple firmware update fix. Guess I'll find out within the hour.

*Edit.

What would happen if I didn't have the drive key? I'm assuming it would boot up and not read 360 games but will read DVD's?

[Ogs]

Correct.....

If it E66's before checking drive key which I assume it does.....

You may need to spoof a few times before losing E66....

[Akira181]

having problems getting the drive into B mode. Going to try again, just realised I done something wrong.

One thing I've noticed is that the disc drawer will not open under it's own power. I have push that manual eject lever with a paperclip every time. Is this an error caused by the E66 or is the drive faulty?

[Akira181]

Still can't get it to work. Slax just won't load up to the login screen. It'll boot half way and then my computer just shows a black screen.

[Ogs]

Its possible its reporting as something other than the Hitachi so slax wont put it in modeb as its detecting it as a Samsung/BenQ.

I had serious problems getting a Samsung spoofed Hitachi recognised in windows....I cant remember how I done it :(

Hot swapping 'may' work and I suppose is worth a try, Id send it back as it wasnt a red ringer or ask him what drive revision was in there before.

Other options are to persevere and pull your hair out or remove the SST Firmware chip and dump the firmware in an external programmer for reading the all important drve key.

[mp3boy]

If the disc drawer is not ejecting correctly it's a good sign that the drive is badly flashed - if it won't go into modeB then send it back or get someone to read the firmware (which probably won't help).

If you get it working and the key is wrong, you'll get "please insert this game into an xbox360" on every game.

[Akira181]

The person I bought it off of claims he doesn't know what's wrong with it and that he was given the xbox to try and fix but never got round to doing.

The computer recognises it on boot up that there is a DVD drive connected but slax just won't load. If I manually eject the drawer and then turn the 360 on, the drawer automatically closes.

I'm gonna try reburning slax to see if that will help.

[Ogs]

Are you using slax in the 360? because it needs to be in the PC

[Akira181]

yeah, it's in the PC. Just won't fully boot. Nero was giving me problems when burning, so used IMGBurn instead. About to try that now.

*edit

Still no joy. Gonna try using Slax 1 now as I read on xbox-scene that people using the same mobo as mine (Asus m2n-E) had better luck with that. Starting to think this drive is bricked.

[Akira181]

*edit

It didn't work. Slax 1 booted up but the drive still isn't recognised in windows. Didn't realise IMGBurn created a virtual drive... This is starting to get annoying

[Ogs]

Are you using the Slax disc from xbins?

Im sure there is Slax, then an edited one by kev.nu for 360s.

[Akira181]

I'm using the slax from xboxmods. I'll try one from xbinx and if that don't work, I'm gonna hack the drive apart and send the PCB off to get the key read. Just hopefully its the original drive

[Akira181]

hmm, the slax2.1 from xbins gives me some sort of IRQ timing error. This is what it says:

Enabling IO-APIC IRQs
..Timer: Vector=0x31 apic1=0 pin 1=0 apic2=1 pin2=-1
..MP-BIOS bug: 8251 timer not connected to IO-APIC
...Trying to set up timer (IRQ0) through the 8259A... failed
...Trying to set up timer as Virtual Wire IRQ... failed
...Trying to set up timer as ExtINT IRQ... failed :(.

Kernel panic - not syncing: IO-APIC + timer doesn't work! Boot with apic=debug and send a report. Then try booting with the 'noapic' option.


Any suggestions on what to do now?

[Ogs]

That sugests an IRQ conflcit, can you remove any device that is not being used?

Any pci cards you dont need, dvd drives, hard drives and disabling any vitrual drives.

[Akira181]

still no joy with that either. Unplugged all hard drives but still getting the same errror.

[Ogs]

Im guessing its a bricked drive in a different console, sold on.

360 is throwing E66 because its not 'spoofed' to report as the drive type.

Easiest soloution would be to remove the SST chip and read it in a programmer.

Or you can spend the next few days trying things that probably wont work anyway.

[Akira181]

yeah, I'm thinking that too.

I was hoping it was a dodgy flash that's causing the problems since the BIOS detects the drive so I wanted to try reflashing it before I dismantled it. But with the amount of problems I'm having getting windows to recognise the drive, I'm guessing it's bricked.

I think I might have found someone who's willing to read the chip in a programmer for £10. I just have to send off the PCB and he'll email me the key. That doesn't sound too unreasonable, so I'll probably do that when I get some time off work.