Sunday, February 3, 2008

How to flash a BenQ Xbox 360

How to tell what drive you have:
Remove your 360 faceplate, you should now see something similar to this.


Look at hole#3, you should see one of these three things:
Circuit board and red wire= Samsung

Black plastic divot = Hitachi


White wires and empty space = Benq THIS IS THE DRIVE THIS TUT IS FOR


On with the tut:

What you need:
1.A BenQ drive *duh!!!*
2.DosFlash
3.Your iXtreme Firmware files
4.PCI Sata card with VIA6421 chipset *you can find them off Ebay*
5.USB flash drive
6.HP boot disk maker -
Code:
http://www.zshare.net/download/458271232ede9e/

7.Windows 98 boot files
Code:
 http://www.zshare.net/download/4582738b99e128/

8.The tools to open your 360!!!

Alright, so you wanna flash you BenQ 360, but cant find any tutorials? Well guess what? HERES ONE!!!!

First step:
Make your USB boot disk using the HP boot program and the windows 98 files

You can also make a boot disk with a floppy disc, but it isn’t as reliable, so I wont go into it

Copy the contents from the DosFlash 16 folder into your root directory of the flash drive

Open your 360 using any available guides, or contact me and I will walk you through it if you want personalized help

Before you go any further, write down the port number for the first port of your Sata card, it will be the first port number in your device manager for it.

Power down your computer and connect the 360 drive to the first port on your sata card *On a PCI card this port is labeled 1 and is the one on the opposite end of the outside of the PCI slot*
Touch the metal cases of the 360 and computer to make sure it is grounded


Unplug all IDE and SATA cables from your computer other than the one going into your 360 to ensure you don’t accidentally flash another item

Connect your USB drive and then, Boot up your computer and go into the boot menu, and boot from the USB drive.
Make sure your 360 has the power supply plugged in but no other cables

When you get into dos it should look something like this:

Run the DosFlash command to read the original firmware
Quote:
DosFlash r (port #) 1 a0 1 4 c:\orig.bin 0

Note, you might need to use drive A, mine uses C, but the person who took the pictures needed A, just try C, and if that doesn’t write correctly, use A

Answer Y to the next question

Prop your 360 faceplate like it was on the 360, and turn on the 360 for 5 seconds, if it doesn’t begin reading, turn it off for 5 seconds, then turn it on and repeat until it reads the firmware, might take 5+ tries



Turn off computer and 360 and plug your IDE/Sata cables back in, and boot back into xp

Find the firmware file on your USB drive, it will be called *Orig.bin* Back it up, now back it up in a new folder, then back it up in anther folder, then upload it to rapidshare, then put it onto another computer…You get the idea? MAKE SURE YOU NEVER LOSE THAT FILE
Put one of your many Orig.bin files into you iXtreme folders, I prefer 12x just because on 8x or lower the drive will be quieter, but load times will be longer, and you may experience lag in some games due to the disc not reading fast enough. Now hit “Make firmware.bat” or a similar .bat file, this will make your firmware. You will now have a file called ix14.bin if you use iXtreme1.4 or 1.4.1, put it on your USB drive

Turn off your computer and get it set u for the 360 again *unplug IDE/Sata cables and hook 360 into the sata card, then boot off your USB drive again

Run the erase command for DosFlash,
Quote:
C:\>DosFlash e (port #) 1 a0 1 4 D8 0



Answer Y to the question, and then power the 360 on for 5 seconds, and if it doesn’t begin erasing turn it off, wait, and turn it back on, it should erase after like, 2-3 tried max


Shut down 360 and computer, and reboot computer into Dos again
Use the command to write your firmware
Quote:
C:\>DosFlash w (port #) 1 a0 1 4 a:\ix14.bin 0

Answer Y to the next question and turn on the 360, it should write on the first try, but shuldnt take more than 3 ever, if it does, shut off computer, check connections, and try again.


Shut down computer and 360
Disconnect 360 from computer and reconnect all original computer connections
Re-assemble computer and 360
Plug 360 into your TV and turn it on, insert a backup and enjoy

Where to get files not given links to in the top:
Firmware: Xbins
DosFlash: Xbins
Xbins downloader:
Code:
http://www.360mods.net/Downloads/details/id=29.html"


Need a cheap xbox opening kit? Go to radioshack, I got mine there, it’s a full on toolkil that has skinny screwdrivers for popping open the case clips and the torx screwdrivers to open almost any system lol, it’s the perfect toolkit and was only $12, about ½ the price of a 360 opening kit.

Credit:
·Tutorial: me
·Pictures: I don’t know, if you are the owner of the pictures, contact me and I will edit you in if you can prove to me they are yours
  • Drive pictures: Llamma.com

14 comments:

Bearcom2008 said...

Can i use this equipment with this tut Xecuter Blaster 360 NE For Xbox 360 & Xecuter Xbox 360 USB X360USB for 360 HDD & DVD drives

j0rpi said...

Hi m8, is it really nessesary to have a PCI SATA Controller ? cant i just use the one on the motherboard ?

Sean Pablo Torres said...

emil i have same questrion

Unknown said...

due to the nature of the BENQ and the MS28 Samsung, you will need a VIA chipset to make things easier on yourself. Most chipsets aren't "compatible", but the VIA happens to work very well (get a VIA VT6421A).

Bearcom2008 said...

Warning!!!!!
When you first dump your firmware off of your drive make sure the size is 256k and use Maximus 360 Firmware Toolbox v4.6 to check and make sure you have a good dump. If you do when you open it up in tool box you will see you key.If you need toolbox email at bear37663@gmail.com

Unknown said...

how do find my sata port number in vista? thanks

applejay said...

I used part of this blog, plus the textbook. Thanks for this awesome tut.

Unknown said...

What do you do if you have a laptop?

Ray_Haque said...

Thanks for this post. I have always done my flashing with iPrep and my PC at home (it has a VIA chipset). But you do not need a VIA chipset if you are using this manual method! You just need a chipset that DosFlash supports - http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox360-tools/DosFlash.php

I was able to flash my BenQ drive using a Dell (which used an Intel chipset).

Although - I think the DosFlash options have changed with the latest version. I did mine by just running "dosflash" by itself, and entered what I needed to interactively. If I ran it the way you describe here, I got a strange error about using "Lite-On Options".

Great info. Thanks again.

Arash Andalib said...

hi can i also load homebrew by doing this
or how to backup my games to my xbox 360 hard drive

Unknown said...

hi m8, am a rookie at all this could u inbox me a more detailed way to do this folsynn@gmail.com 10x

Helmet said...

Thank you for the xbox 360 modding tips. Like some of the people on here, I am new to this and appreciated the step by step process.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Hi,

after turning my xbox on and off over 50 times every 5 seconds, it still does not register in the boot menu! Can you help me with this? When I turn the xbox on, the Status flickers from 0xD1 to 0xD2 but then just flickers and nothing changes after that.

Please email me edelaney9@hotmail.com

Thanks