Help restoring an Xbox

Well Im trying to restore this xbox back to retail at least.

It has a 120 GB HD inside with a SmartXX chip on it.

Ive tried the following:

Unlocking it with the chips OS
Using XBOXHDM to restore the C drive (Using the files from Slayers)
Locking it with the chips OS

Error 21.


Unlock
Use XBOXHDM to completely rebuild HD
Lock.

Error 21.

It wont boot into either retail dash or the evox bios dash.

Im at my wits end here, nothing thats supposed to fix this problem is working.

Help please

do you still have the original hdd ? and are you able to get into it ?
sounds like your missing a file or one is corrupt try getting a newer version of slayers
can you get into bios menu ? try reflashing with a different bios
my best guess is a missing or corrupt file. scan through xbox-scene tutorials if you havent already something might help

Crazy suggestion, maybe a stupid one.

You could try rebuilding C: with a softmod, disabling the modchip, and seeing if it will boot. Maybe the modchip is damaged, and somehow interfering with the boot process. Error 21 is so damned generic, sadly.

Like Donch says, getting the original HD is a good idea too. From what I saw, error 21 seems to happen most when it's missing some inane little file from the launcher that it's expecting to look for.

Whatever partitions you have on the HDD, I would copy the dash to ALL of them that it will fit on. There may be some screwy redirect that is keeping it from booting from the C: partition.

Here's another thought, with a story: I just had a friend's Windows XP boot drive go corrupt, and I'm checking it out today. I suspect it's a big corrupted chunk of data, but I've dealt with physical HDD damage as well. The XP symptoms are practically the same--it gives you its own flavor of "Error 21". "Something's wrong... I can't boot up right, but I don't know why." So I would also check for plain-old disk corruption, physical or otherwise. Pull the HD, and interface it to your PC in whatever is the easiest flavor. Wipe the partitions, make one big partition, format it, and scan it in the operating system of your choice.

Other than that, you could spit in Bill Gates' eye. Just inhale quickly through your nose, gather snot in the back your throat, and loogie in his eye for having a company that would design such an idiotic lockout.

If I think of any other things to try, I'll let you know. Sorry if I wasn't any help.

I have my own softmodded xbox with a stock HD inside.

Maybe I should just copy it all and put it onto the Chipped one?

Hey Nesagwa I have an original xbox I cant get to power on you wanna gimme something for it, you could take out whatever you need from it.

N80G80 said:

Hey Nesagwa I have an original xbox I cant get to power on you wanna gimme something for it, you could take out whatever you need from it.

Click to expand...

Um, no.

Since I dont need to lock the HD this wouldnt have anything to do with the system missing the EEPROM file in XBOXHDM would it?

If this is the one I sold you, it's remotely (very remote I warn) possible I have the original drive.

Why would you want it restored to retail though?

Lashujin said:

If this is the one I sold you, it's remotely (very remote I warn) possible I have the original drive.

Why would you want it restored to retail though?

Click to expand...

Well, getting it to work as a retail drive first would make it easier to re-install a new dashboard and stuff.

I tried putting my softmodded C and E drive onto the modchipped one.

Original Bios boot: Error code 05
X2 5055 or whatever: Error 21 still (But now it has a green Xbox boot screen (it was blue before) and has an Executer logo, but still errors out).

Error Code 5 = the HD isnt locked.

Locked it and booted into original bios again.

Error 21.

WTF.

I hate xboxes.

yeah, they can be a bitch

can you boot into the smatxx bios?

if so use EDonchip to ftp into the drive, it should work regardless of booting or not.

otherwise update the smartxx bios and you should be able to format the drive from there?

Lashujin said:

yeah, they can be a bitch

can you boot into the smatxx bios?

if so use EDonchip to ftp into the drive, it should work regardless of booting or not.

otherwise update the smartxx bios and you should be able to format the drive from there?

Click to expand...

I have SmartXX LT OPX with Original, Free, and X2 5035 on it.

Ive tried to follow the guides for flashing EDonchip on here, but what they say, and what my box looks like its different.

I dunno.

Nesagwa said:

I have SmartXX LT OPX with Original, Free, and X2 5035 on it.

Ive tried to follow the guides for flashing EDonchip on here, but what they say, and what my box looks like its different.

I dunno.

Click to expand...

did you flash the new smartxx OS on there?

d/l it and flash it to any bank and it will overwrite the old OS and then it should look like the tutorials

did you format it properly and restore both C and E? all while it is unlocked, then if you want once it is set up properly, lock it.

Did a 1:1 copy of my softmodded HD to the big one for the chipped box, getting error 13 now.

Gonna update the OS now.

EDIT: Updated the OS, the Bank Menu is still the same.

There is no Bank Mode (Low 2mb) or Bank Mode (Mid 2mb). Just Bank Mode. When I go to it its like 3*256 or 256/512. Not really any choices there.

Nesagwa said:

Did a 1:1 copy of my softmodded HD to the big one for the chipped box, getting error 13 now.

Gonna update the OS now.

EDIT: Updated the OS, the Bank Menu is still the same.

There is no Bank Mode (Low 2mb) or Bank Mode (Mid 2mb). Just Bank Mode. When I go to it its like 3*256 or 256/512. Not really any choices there.

Click to expand...

You should be able to flash edonchip into a 512 slot. and then use the remote flasher program to launch it.

Those instructions are for the 2mb version of the chip that came out after I modded that one.

Lashujin said:

You should be able to flash edonchip into a 512 slot. and then use the remote flasher program to launch it.

Those instructions are for the 2mb version of the chip that came out after I modded that one.

Click to expand...

lol, you know I completely forgot I bought it from you.

I downloaded some X2 bios (latest normal and the latest multi) and all of the retail ones just in case, and edonchip 003 and 004.

What exactly am I supposed to do once I get the thing flashed and FTPd though?

Clear the cache on the E drive would be step 1....but I suppose that doesn't matter since you've copied the blank drive over....

The x2 bios doesn't work because it's looking for a file that was located on the E drive and when you copied over the other drive it is likely that it eliminated said file (that bieng the x2 config file) This file is a bit of a bitch to get correct especially with the newest version of the bios.

To get it right you need edit the file manually and ftp it over - thing is you cannot use fxp for this particular file (it corrupts it) so you'll need to use a different program.

Lashujin said:

Clear the cache on the E drive would be step 1....but I suppose that doesn't matter since you've copied the blank drive over....

The x2 bios doesn't work because it's looking for a file that was located on the E drive and when you copied over the other drive it is likely that it eliminated said file (that bieng the x2 config file) This file is a bit of a bitch to get correct especially with the newest version of the bios.

To get it right you need edit the file manually and ftp it over - thing is you cannot use fxp for this particular file (it corrupts it) so you'll need to use a different program.

Click to expand...

Im confused, but Ill probably try and get this fixed over the weekend.

Crazy shit this is.

Hm.

Formatted the E and F drives and the cache.

"13 - kernel - Dashboard launch fail (due to missing/bad key, or anything else that would prevent it from running) and the dashboard didn't specify why it failed.

The error it gives is because of the incompatibility between the (older) dashboard (4920) that older slayer cd installs and the new dashboard/kernel versions found in some new xbox's and found in xbox's that have been connected to xbox live (when you go on xbox-live, it'll upgrade your dashboard file to i believe it is now 5659.03. This dasboard is incompatible with the dash that (old) slayer cd installs (for example 2.5 or lower) for you.

(In detail, in the eeprom chip there is a kernel which is incompatible with the dashboard (4920) that slayer installs.)

So what do you do to fix it? You can use the dashupdate found on most new xbox games! Be sure to 1st unplug your ethernet cable before you do so!!!

Besides that, just use a good installation disc and all is fine. Use a 2.6 slayer or something similar "

Interesting stuff.

!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just threw in Sneak King.

It fucking boots.

IM FINALLY GETTING SOMEWHERE!!!!

Nesagwa said:

!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just threw in Sneak King.

It fucking boots.

IM FINALLY GETTING SOMEWHERE!!!!

Click to expand...

Also boots burned media via the x2 boot with Eject.

Gonna try and run the Slayers Auto Installer 2.7 in a little bit.

Im happy to report that I am officially running EvoX as my primary dash and the xbox is booting fine.

HUZZAH!

EDIT:

Still cant boot to the MS Dash through the normal power button though. Im probably missing a setting somewhere.

Nesagwa said:

Im happy to report that I am officially running EvoX as my primary dash and the xbox is booting fine.

HUZZAH!

EDIT:

Still cant boot to the MS Dash through the normal power button though. Im probably missing a setting somewhere.

Click to expand...

Good to hear you got it running again!

Lashujin said:

Good to hear you got it running again!

Click to expand...

I can boot the MSDash from inside XBMC and EvoX, but not straight from the power button regular old original bios boot.

Kind of strange, but something my brother can definitely live without.