Attempted Firmware Hack = 3 L.O.D

[Leftfield]

I really hate post another 3 lights of death... but it came to me in a different way as most people.

I recently was looking forward to playing burned games since games now are 60 bux and I couldn't afford the potential of scratching the original disks.

I spent hours.... reading the FAQ's, watching videos about this firmware hack. I got the right firmware, software, ect. The problem I came across is that I need a VIA SATA controller since my board is based on silicon chipset and nforce 4.

So I haulted the process untill I got the needed controller card. Mind you, my 360 is completely disassembled. To my luck, I power the 360 up and boom, the 3 red lights of death light up to me. Only my luck right? Well, I'm not looking for a fix (although of course would be nice )

I'm just looking for what could cause this when it was working perfectly fine before hand. I'm so frustrated right now and its past 1am my time..... I'm in dire need of some sort of response to my delema.

My specs are as follows:

Xbox 360 Premium - 1-6-2006

Samsung ST-H943A Ver. A MS25 - August 2005


It's late right now, my eyes are bugged and I apologize if I missed FAQ's about posts like this or stickys. I really appreciate your time.

 

[whtldg]

Well im guessing it was either out of warranty of you voided it. You might want to try this page for a fix. http://rbjtech.bulldoghome.com/pages/rbjtech_bulldoghome_com/XClampIII.htm

 

[Leftfield]

Thanks for the tip and ya the warranty is voided. But I let the 360 cool off over night and right after i turn it on, it goes 3 reds. If it was a heating issue, wouldn't it bounce the code back after about 5 minutes considering it takes a few minutes for the chips to heat up?


Btw, the code is 4 lights - 4 lights - 2 lights - 4 lights. I looked it up and it is unknown right now. Of course I had to get the unknown one. I wish I never messed with it now. :roll:

 

[agentash]

i'd try lawdawgs x clamp replacement as it is totaly reversible unlike rbjtech one

 

[whtldg]

Well if the cpu or gpu isnt firmly seated that might cause it to not even boot at all. I would try that anyways and see if it fixes it (What other choice do you have). Post back your results.

 

[whtldg]

Over at xboxscene i think more people recommend rbj techs method rather than lawdawgs. (Higher success rate)? Do some research on both these methods and figure out which one you want to use.

 

[Leftfield]

Thanks for the responses guys. Although I doubt it's a heat related issue, I'll try rjb's tutorial out.

One thing I thought I would mention. I was going to try the firmware flash for the hell of it even though I didn't have a Via SATA chipset. So I turned the 360 on and this was the 1st time I saw the 3 red lights... mind you I had the SATA cable plugged into the SATA port on the computer but NOT in the DVD drive. Maybe the 360 reconized that the SATA cable was unplugged from the DVD rom drive and flashed the 3 red lights because of that?

If thats the case, is their any sort of way to reset the 360 in order to stop the red lights due to no dvd rom recognized?

 

[Leftfield]

Just thought I'd update...


So I was getting frustrated with the whole situation and bought a new xbox online...

I basically did everything possible on this other than heating up the board to contact the solders on it. So I got a hair dryer since I didn't want to take a chance with a heating gun and about 2 or so minutes of doing that, i put it back together and vola!!! It worked!!! I figured when I was taking it apart, I bent the board somehow to weaken the solder and lose contact.

So now I got two 360's... 1 I for sure won't open up and I guess I'll tinker with the firmware stuff on the revived one.

 

[Leftfield]

Gah ok so I'm back. Since I got the xbox working, I tried to do the firmware flash again. Even though the 360 works, once I unplug the SATA cable from the motherboard to plug in to the computer, it immediately flashes the 3 R.O.D. I've tried restarting and everything but every time I unplug the DVD drive to flash, the 3 lights pop up.

Maybe I just don't have the right to try and save my damn $60 games? I dunno... I already have a crack in my Forza 2 case because I it was on the floor (why? no idea) and I stepped on it...

Anyways, Am I missing something in the steps? Or do I have a console that just refuses to do such things?

 

[lang]

Even though the 360 works, once I unplug the SATA cable from the motherboard to plug in to the computer, it immediately flashes the 3 R.O.D.

You shouldn't be unplugging anything from the 360 motherboard, you should only be unplugging the SATA cable from the DVD drive (while the 360 is off) and then using a different SATA cable to connect the DVD drive to your PC.

 

[Leftfield]

Even though the 360 works, once I unplug the SATA cable from the motherboard to plug in to the computer, it immediately flashes the 3 R.O.D.

You shouldn't be unplugging anything from the 360 motherboard, you should only be unplugging the SATA cable from the DVD drive (while the 360 is off) and then using a different SATA cable to connect the DVD drive to your PC.

Ya thats what I did, sorry about the understanding. But, regardless of the 3 lights, i tried to see if it would flash and it actually did with no problems at all. Although, I popped in a burned disc to see if it works and it says it was unplayable... it's probably because it was burned wrong or something, hopefully. It does still play the original copies though. I guess I'll go and try a few more burns different ways to see if it works correctly. Unfortunatly, i bought Memorex DVD's so their not the quality of Verbatim. I just wished i read up on the difference in the quality of them.