Softmod - lockable HDD upgrade not recognized as locked

Discussion about Modding the XBOX, including hardware and software hacks.
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Jedi_sk8tricks
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Joined: Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:58 pm

Softmod - lockable HDD upgrade not recognized as locked

Post by Jedi_sk8tricks »

Hey guys,

I know this topic has been widely discussed, however I’m having a problem that from I’ve concluded is somewhat unique.

I am upgrading the Original Xbox HDD on my softmodded console.
Softmod performed using SID5.
New HDD to be installed: Maxtor 6L250R0 (lockable)

In summary:
I boot the system with Molex plugged into new HDD via splitter while keeping the original connected to the DVD drive with the IdE cable.
I also make sure the original is in master mode and new HDD in slave mode.
After booting, I select chimp and immediately move the IDE from DVD drive to new HDD.
Scan for IDE devices shows both hard drives. /hda and /hdb. I also take this opportunity to review the new drive, /hdb and see that it is recognized as a lockable drive. Perfect!

So I move on to cloning the drive and proceed with the default selections. The cloning process begins and everything looks good.
Here’s where my issues begin:
I walk away from the cloning process and grab a beer, eat some goldfish, etc. come back and the screen is black. Hmm... as soon as I push a button on my controller I’m back to the Chimp main menus. Strange, did it complete successfully, did it just go to a screen saver ?
I select lock slave drive, and it confirms it was successfully locked. I exit to shell, reinstall new drive and set it to master , and reboot.

I get error code 5.

So I wonder if the screen timeout was an issue, even though code 5 is for a drive that isn’t locked. I repeat the whole process over again, and get the same error code! This time I sat in front of the screen during cloning (took much patience but I had my dog by my side and a beer in my hand) I would periodically tilt the analog stick up and this time, screen does not go black! But after the clone, it goes back to chino main menu automatically. Not sure if chimp has a message that says the clone was completed, or if it simply jumps back to the menu. Nevertheless, I locked the drive again, confirmed, and rebooted with same error code 5.

So my question is, why am I getting an error code 5, when chimp confirms I have successfully locked my new drive?

I’m also considering any alternatives, of simply plugging the drives into my desktop and doing the cloning from there. Any thoughts, or the simplest solution would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
Coldly-Indifferent
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Re: Softmod - lockable HDD upgrade not recognized as locked

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

What version Xbox?

What version Chimp?

Are you using and original MS Xbox controller?

Any flash drives, other controllers, DVD dongles or memory cards attached? If so detach everything but the controller (no memory card) in the first port.

Depending what your main dash is and the settings the screen going black is quite normal. Both UnleashX and XBMC have screensavers which kick in if there is no controller input activity and dim the screen after a specified length of time. Check the settings and you can change default screensaver/time. In short this is not an issue.

The question is why is a HDD reported as locked not been locked? Usually such problems are to do with a SATA HDD, the IDE > SATA adapters and/or the IDE cable type. But with the IDE HDD you're using this is unusual behaviour. If the HDD could not be locked it would tell you.

What happens if you power down the Xbox, keep original HDD as master, re-attach the DVD drive then reboot and go through the same process to attach the slave HDD? Does Chimp still report the new HDD clone as locked?

The particular HDD mentioned is reported as lockable by all users on the Xbox HDD compatibility site but I did find one user's comments about the jumper settings for this particular drive being unusual. All the information I've found about that Maxtor HDD show no jumpers = Slave, jumper on pin pair 1 = Master and jumper on pin pair 2 = CS (Cable Select).

What the user reported is that it would only work on the Xbox if there were jumpers on both pin pair 1 and pin pair 2. I can find no reason/explanation why this should work.

There is something called CLJ (Cylinder Rotation Jumper) settings that Maxtor HDDs support but all this does is make the system see the HDD as lower capacity (32GB) when used with a very old OS which only supports HDDs up to that size. But even the jumper settings for that do not include using jumpers on pin pairs 1 and 2. So I'd think that suggestion is hokum or an indication of pin damage on his particular HDD.

I always use Master settings, not CS, whatever HDD I'm using even if the original retail HDD was set to CS.
Jedi_sk8tricks
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Joined: Wed Jul 17, 2019 8:58 pm

Re: Softmod - lockable HDD upgrade not recognized as locked

Post by Jedi_sk8tricks »

Thanks for the reply!

I have no other peripherals attached and am using an original MS Xbox controller.

Interesting, I was told by someone , similar to your comment, that the Maxtor can have unusual behavior.

When I go through the same process and reboot, after clone, and scan the IDE drives, it shows up as locked in chimp!

I am stumped on this. And am possibly thinking of resorting to purchasing an IDE SATA bridge and going SATA. However, I’d like to figure this out since I have seen multiple reports of this drive working just fine!
Coldly-Indifferent
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Re: Softmod - lockable HDD upgrade not recognized as locked

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

What Chimp version?

You should be using Chimp 261812 - Rocky5 honed this updated version of Chimp 2618 a few years back and it is unarguably the only version anyone should use now. It works with any Xbox version and all (?) of the issues there were with some features of the earlier versions addressed. Better GUI too.

Chimp not reporting the correct locked/unlocked status of particular slave HDDs was an issue but one of the things that Rocky5 fixed (mentioned specifically in the Chimp 261812 04/04/2017 changelog). So, if you've used Chimp 261812, it should not be that. As already said if the HDD, due to very unusual firmware differences was not lockable, Chimp 261812 itself would actually tell you that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBC9599ww6I

If you've done all as shown in Rocky5's YT tutorial and the new clone HDD still gives you error 5 I'd try using a new IDE cable. But if it still provokes the error 5 message I can not think of an explanation other than the HDD being faulty.

The only solution to test that is to try it with another HDD, ideally another IDE one.

Should anyone else here have some other ideas about why this error 5 is happening with a reported locked HDD then, like Jedi_sk8tricks, I'd be interested to know too.
Last edited by Coldly-Indifferent on Fri Jul 19, 2019 12:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jedi_sk8tricks
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Re: Softmod - lockable HDD upgrade not recognized as locked

Post by Jedi_sk8tricks »

Wow, very helpful info! I have Rockys5 downloaded and am going to give this another shot with the updated version of chimp.

I must have used an old old download link, because I went back to my downloads and it was Chimp 2.4 . I’m guessing this is outdated.

Rockys5 makes everything simple, and comes with A fresh version of chimp in its directory, from what I understand. Is this correct?
Coldly-Indifferent
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Re: Softmod - lockable HDD upgrade not recognized as locked

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

Fingers crossed but if it was Chimp 2.4 you used it is very likely the cause the problem.

I'm guessing that there was a good reason why Chimp 2.4 was replaced by Chimp 2.6 and that could be because it was incompatible or had issues with later Xbox versions ie. v1.4. Likewise Chimp 2.6 itself was replaced by Chimp 2618 to make it compatible with v1.6 Xboxes.

Although I have, on AID discs, both Chimp 2.4 and 2.6 neither includes a changelog/readme so it now can not be confirmed if incorrect HDD locking or lock reporting status was a problem that the later version fixed.

But if you were using Chimp 2.4 with a v1.4 Xbox that could be an explanation for the behaviour described.
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