Ok so a friend got a 360 for free. I heat gunned/x-clamped/fan mod and got it working again. So he also wanted to get it modded too since it's his 2nd console. I load up JF, do a samsung unlock, read, auto load, write. Flash verifies ok. System starts up just fine but when I try to play any burned game I get "open tray" and any retail game says "to play this put it in an xbox 360 console".
So it sounds to me like the drive wasnt the original that came with it. Do you guys agree? I tried spoofing it as other drives that were out in 2006 but those all give me an E66. So I figured it was an ms28 in there before but it must have had a different key. The key that I got looks normal though (not 7s or 0s). I dont have a programmer so I cant read it. Dash is 7357...is that JTAG'able? Are there any other alternatives?
Hmm well I'd really prefer not to JTAG if at all possible. It seems like an easy enough process and I'm pretty good with a soldering iron, but I haven't done one yet. Plus I think he may want to play on live and once it's JTAG'd, it's unusable on live correct? And just to clarify, my only 3 options are:
1) jtag
2) read with programmer
3) have him see if he can find the kid that gave it to him and get the original key
Other than those 3 there's nothing else I can do right?
EDIT: Hrmm, update: I guess it WAS the right key. I spoofed a benq drive in there and sure enough it started the game right away. Very strange, I've never seen a retail disc in a stock drive say "to play this disc you must put it in an xbox 360"! So I guess the laser must be going bad in the stock samsung drive right?
Most of the xboxes I've had to look at for people with DVD read errors have been Sammy's so yeah it is possible that the drive is on it's way out... >.< The console I got to jtag had a knackered Sammy and it was stock. Must just be crappy drives, so I swapped it out for a.... Hitachi... ^o^ Can see me getting attacked for that... >.<
lol ya from what I've seen the hitachis are just as bad for read errors as the sams. It's just so weird that it gave me "to play this you must put in an xbox 360". All the other read errors I've seen have either been "disc unplayable" or "open tray". I think i'm gonna try cleaning the laser and a pot calibration before I give him my spare drive though :)
Actually, I've never had a problem with a hitachi drive. :-P Especially the earlier models before 78. lol Gotta admit though, they can sometimes be a pain, especially when they've been spoofed and want to flash em back... -_-'
I tried lens cleaning and pot calibration with no luck what so ever. At first the drive was at the point where it would only read DVD's, but not games... -_-' After I messed around with it for a little, it wouldn't do anything... lmao So I decided I wasn't gonna do that again and instead I'll just buy a new drive! :-D
If the console hasn't been updated already, I'd advise you JTAG it. Was the best thing I did after finally finding an exploitable console. ^o^ Besides exploitable consoles are becoming rarer and rarer, so they'll fetch a bomb. Just a heads up. lol
You're right, they're not usable on live, but there are other little perks that make up for that. Things such as:
- Playing games straight from a HDD. External or MS Drive (I got a 500gb in a MS caddy)
- Not having to buy blank media to burn disks anymore
- Free Live arcade titles and DLC (If you know where to look)
- Region Free
- A growing Homebrew - Can run unsigned code (Good for playing around with modded XEX's (COD Lobbies and such))
Those are just a few little perks that I take advantage of. Having a JTAG console, is more for the convenience tbh. I've always had one console for copied games one console for retail. If I want to play a game on live, I'll just buy the retail disk. So I'll prob only buy 3-4 games a year now. lol I might occasionally buy games from developers i really like and series that I like too, but that's usually it. lol
I'd suggest if it's a exploitable console but you don't want to jtag it, sell it and make some cash off of it. You would get more than enough to go buy another used console and still have cash left over.