Debug Xbox Stuck in Retail Mode

Ok, I"m back to messing with this now. Stupid question time: If my burner says it supports Ultra Speed CD-RW, I would assume this means that it will use Ultra speed and down? The reason I ask is that I went and picked up some basic RW media this morning. When I put one in the burner, it still tells me it's the incorrect media. I just figured downward compatibility was built in.

I copied one of my dvd's over to -R and I did get the message about needing the dvd playback kit. So that's good! I also browsed the iso file in Qwix and it all appears to be good. I didn't get any errors when I tried an extract.

I guess my next step is either find a drive that will burn regular RW media or pick up some ultra. Either way, I have to be getting close!

Thanks for everybody's patience and advice.
Darren

 

...Do you not have any Ritek DVD-R's?

 

No. TDK, Memorex, Verbatim, and CompUSA (Princo). Are Ritek the preferred?

 

Ritek (summat like a good old G03/G04 dye) is preferred.

...Xbox CD-RW support/compatability was fine initially (2001) but what with dye changes and burn speed changes CD-RW has got difficult to cater for, when trying to work to a 100% success rate with more 'modern' materials than were ever intended, both hardware wise and software wise.

...'Yes' in theory the Thomson drive should read CD-RW's but I have had Dev Kits, Debug Kits and Retail kits that failed to read it 100%, sometimes they take 3 or 4 boots ups before they 'find' the data.

...Where as I've never had an issue with Ritek's

I appreciate we're clutching at straws here but basically your problem is so rare that it must either be incompatible media or you're burning it wrong. (I'm presuming that your original recovery image is okay from what you said earlier)

 

I haven't had any problems with 8x (burned at 4x) DVD-R's from TDK. One thing that you might want to make sure is that you are burning the DVD-R's at the right speed (i.e. that you are not trying to do an 8x write on 4x media).

 

Good advice. I'd suggest you remove all doubt by going so far as to burn the image to CD-RW or DVD-R at 2x or even 1x.

I have an XDK with a Thomson drive, never had problems with reading Imation branded CD-RWs burned at full speed (as advertised on the CD-RW packaging) or Ritek DVD-Rs at no more than 6x.

 

Based on a previous suggestion, I burnt some audio to a CD-RW. My debug didn't read it. A retail read the same disk fine. I've tried a different burner now as well, with the same results.

So, I broke down and cracked the seal (carefully!). I got a hold of a loaner samsung, but in all honesty I think this drive is worse than mine. It's absolutely filthy outside and refuses to open sometimes. It acts like it's trying harder to read the disk, but still fails. I'll try cleaning my thompson while it's out. Can't hurt anything at this point.

I've tried burning at all different speeds now, but I tend to burn slow anyway so I think I'm covered there.

I guess I can try to get a hold of a different dvd drive as well as some ritek media. I'll probably have to order both, but no biggie there.

Any chance anybody here is in Dallas? Having a known working recovery disk might help my debugging a bit. A long shot for sure, but I'm at my wits end!

Thanks,
Darren

 

When it comes to CD-RW, you need to make sure your burning speed matches the rated speed of the disc. You don't want to try and force an Ultra Speed CD-RW to burn at 1X.

You can also try troubleshooting the burn with your retail. No, it's not going to boot it, but it will tell you if you've burned the ISO correctly.

Normally if you put an unrecognizable disc into your Xbox (say a PS2 disc) it will simply tell you that it cannot recognize the disc. However if you put a properly formatted debug disc into a retail Xbox, the retail will initially see it as a valid Xbox disc and try to boot it, switching from the dashboard screen to the Xbox screen (with the Microsoft logo underneath). It will of course fail when the signature check happens and fall back to the dashboard, but if you get that far then you have a pretty good chance that the disc was in fact burned correctly. If however your retail simply pops up the "cannot recognize disc" error, WITHOUT leaving the dashboard then your burn is toast. (pardon the pun)

Just remember, boot the Xbox WITHOUT a disc in the drive and get to the dashboard. From there, try inserting discs (hell try some of the coasters you've already burned) and see if any of them pop up the logo screen.

-hl718

 

I have seen the logo screen. That's one I'm used to from my retail not reading disks. I can always tell if it's going to work or not by the Microsoft showing up at the bottom. So it's getting that far at least. Not on all of them, but some.

Do you think cleaning the drive will do anything for me? I'd be willing to rub a couple chicken bones together if someone thinks it might help!! I'm on a mission now, this thing HAS to work!

 

If you're getting the logo screen and seeing Microsoft show up on the bottom (on the debug) when you insert the recovery disc then chances are you burned the disc correctly. To verify this try booting your retail to the dash and see if the same thing happens. If this *is* the case, then there is the slim possibility that the system has a custom BIOS on it and may not boot the recovery disc.

Out of curiosity, you mentioned that you had four games that do boot on this system. What are they and what are the ID numbers printed across the top of the discs?

Also, since you couldn't resist the urge to crack the system open, what is the MCPX revision and what information is written on the configuration label near the pin header? It'll be near the BIOS chip.

-hl718

 

I thought booting this disk in a retail was a major no-no? Does it give me an out if it does work?

The disks I have are:

Re-Volt (Media PN XL00301A-B1)
Unreal Championship (IG03601W-B1)
Mech Assault (MS02301W-B1)
Whacked (MS03901A-B2)

I also have a copy of the XBox Live Dashboard (Beta). Maybe that's what's causing the problem? I've tried all 5 of the disks and they all boot.

The MCPX chip says:
MCPX X2
F47837.1A 0204B2

The sticker by the bios says:
XDK
Flash XM2 4039
EEPROM XM2 4039
SMC 001

I've got the system completely torn down if you want any more info from it or even pics of the mobo.

 

You shouldn't boot a recovery disk in a retail XBox which is modded/hacked into running the debug BIOS. When you try to use the recovery disk on a retail console running a retail BIOS, it will refuse to run it. If you run the recovery disk on a retail console running a debug BIOS, the system will think that it can run the disk properly, but it will end up screwing up the BIOS leaving the console in an unusable state.

 

The fact that you have both a Xbox Live Dashboard beta disc and a Re-Volt beta disc is leading me to wonder if you might have an Xbox Live XDK Beta box there instead of a standard debug. If so, then no, the recovery disc will not boot. The annoyingly named Beta boxes were designed to test Xbox Live and will only run specific Xbox Live debug discs. You may have just cracked the seal on one of the rarer pieces of Xbox kit out there.

This isn't *quite* true. So long as you have a debug BIOS pre-flashed onto your TSOP or mod chip, you can quite happily run the XDK recovery disc on a retail console. Simply eject the disc once it has finished installing all the software and prompts you to flash the BIOS. Power cycle the Xbox and you're golden.

To answer 98's other question though, no the recovery disc WILL NOT boot on a stock retail console. If properly burned it will cause the console to flash the Xbox logo screen and display the Microsoft logo, but it will then fail back to the dashboard with an "unrecognized disc" error. So no worries.

-hl718

 

From personal experience, I can say that that isn't completely accurate. Thomson drives are theoretically supposed to read CD-RW media just fine but this usually isn't the case. It all depends on what media you use. And even though the recovery disc is meant to be burned on a CD, you can burn it on DVD without any problems at all just like any other Xbox-format (GDF) ISO. The thomson in my DEV kit had problems with the CD-RW media I was using so I burned to DVD-R and haven't any read errors (and i've used the disk quite a few times).

98PaceCar: Try extracting the ISO using any xbox ISO app. If it can be extracted, then this is probably a sign that it hasn't been corrupted and that the problem lies most likely with the media or burn process.

 

Hmm, glad I didn't mess up any of the stickers when I opened it up! Is there a sure fire way to tell if it really is a live beta box? Is there a particular sequence of serial numbers or something? Some internal indication?

Just for fun, I slapped another HD into the box and tried to boot. It gives me a screen with a message to contact MS in about 8 different languages. So I guess the hd isn't causing any problems, not that I thought it was.

So if this is a Live xbox, that pretty much leaves me dead in the water as far as dev work goes then, I assume.

 

I did use Qwix to open up my iso and it all appeared to be fine. I was able to extract all of the files in it with no errors. I've tried 3 different burners, several different kinds of media, and every burner program I have! No luck though.

 

Hopefully I can help a bit here. I wish I would have seen this thread earlier to (possibly) save you some work.

Did you purchase this from ClubNinja on DP? Reason I ask is I traded him this exact lot earlier this year. If this is the case, you have a Beta Kit (and it should have a beta sticker on the front, it did when I had it). I had three more discs that will work on it that I sold to a forum member here.

It was a nice system, but I downsized my collection a bit earlier in the year and decided I'd rather keep other things. She was even a virgin up until now!

If you want a rare piece of kit in your collection, I'd hang on to it.

 

I always silently suspected that you probably had a Beta Live! Debug Kit, now you've listed the games youv'e confirmed it.

....There is no XDK Dash for that console, enjoy

 

Nah, just dev on PC, not noticing the difference requires little effort ;-)


(forgive me, it was a pathetic attempt at humour)

 

Yup, I sure did get this from ClubNinja on DP. It doesn't have a beta sticker on it anymore, so I guess he took it off. Wish it did, I had found pics on OldEngineer's site that show the one with the beta sticker on it and wouldn't have cracked it open had I known. Oh well! At least I did it right and didn't just punch through the stickers. She's back together now and will stay that way from here on out.

So, since I can't run the xdk on it, anybody here have anything that will run on it they want to sell??

Thanks for all the help figuring out what this is. It's been frustrating because I know this should be a simple process and just hated to think I couldn't get it to work!

Darren