0079fl Hitachi drive problem

[onecoolee]

I am relatively new to the world of the 79 drives... but not new to soldering, electronic projects etc.  So, I thought hacking this new elite box here with a 0079FL would be pretty easy.  I was wrong, at least so far.

I have a Willem PCB5.0 programmer and 14mm adpater, and it will read/program all of the Hitachi chips.

So, I started out, by removing the existing flash chip from the 79 board.  I cleaned up the leads (after removing the epoxy covering the chip)... which was done with a hot air tool, and nothing was damaged in the process.

After the chip was removed, and leads cleaned up, I read it in my programmer... and got a good dump.  I even checked it against the other files in the FW Toolbox 4.6 to make sure the dump looked legit.

At this point, I made a txt file with the drive keys, and saved it (I always do this)... then, I used the FW toolbox V4.6, opened my dump, copied my keys, used the smart hack patcher and made a new hacked file, saved the file, then encrypted it and made a new -e encrypted file.  I checked the file before flashing it to the chip (using the Willem) and it looked good, and very similar to the original dump.  So, I flashed the chip and reinstalled it onto the Hitachi board.  The onl;y difference I detected was that my keys had changed location after patching.

After reinstalling the drive into my system, all I get is a E64 error.  The drive will not eject, and does not appear to be doing anything at all, as I hear no spinup or any activity.

So, I removed the drive again, pulled the chip, and tried doing the same again, but downgrading to 59 firmware, but spoofed it to 79, and added my keys... no go.  Same thing, E64 error !

Next, I used a brand new 47 firmware drive, and spoofed it to 79, and E64.

I even took the 47 drive, and wrote my original 79 dump to it, and tried that, and still E64.

The only thing I haven't tried yet was using a Samsung drive and spoofing it to 79.

I have several questions, and after extensive searching here, I was not able to find answers:
I cannot get past this E64 problem using Hitachi drives.  What am I doing wrong ??  Is this elite toast now ?  Does the system flag itself when it encounters an improperly flashed drive ?

Does all firmware on 0079fl drives have to be encrypted before writing the flash ?  THats one thing I am confused about... as I did it with the 79 flash that did not work.  The firmware on the 47 drive was not encrypted before rewriting it.

ANy ideas on what I can do to fix this system and get past this e64 error ?

Any help is appreciated.  THanks!

[gigabite]

First only 78/79 firmware will work on a 79 - second...since your manually de-soldering the TSOP and re-programming it etc - i'd say you might have cut a track, killed the TSOP or not soldered it properly or left a bridge etc (why you wouldn't use a passkey I don't know)....second, when you get e64 what is the secondary error code (1002 ?)

gigabite

[onecoolee]

Why use a passkey and install the extra hardware, when I already have the equipment and tools to do the work and do it clean without additional hardware being necessary and getting my name on a list of people who bought something suspicious ??

There are no bridges in my work, and the chip has not been damaged... I have done htis work many times, and I can solder, and have expensive soldering equipment... so there are no cut lands or traces or bridges.  In fact, most people couldn't even tell the chip was ever removed...

I think it may be related to my Willem... I was able to install a Samsung drive flashed the old fashioned way (DOS) with the 79 spoof, and my keys and the system is up and runnign fine, however, whenever I try to do the Hitachi, its not working... so I think something (either the toolbox or my flash programmer is corrupting portions of the flash image).  I haven't narrowed it down yet.

Anyone who has a WIllem, knows that its a crude device, with all sorts of jumpers and can easily be set wrong... so maybe I don't have mine tweaked properly yet to do these chips correctly.  I did compare my original bin with the one in the toolbox, and found a few differences here and there... and maybe those few differences are all because the chip is not being programmed correctly... I have to do more research... and the next step would be to attempt to enter mode b and flash it in windows... but a drive that doesn't boot, may not enter mode b at all...

So, maybe its something simple with my programmer, and I need to do a little more research to verify.

[didineedthis]

Why use a passkey and install the extra hardware, when I already have the equipment and tools to do the work and do it clean without additional hardware being necessary and getting my name on a list of people who bought something suspicious ??

There are no bridges in my work, and the chip has not been damaged... I have done htis work many times, and I can solder, and have expensive soldering equipment... so there are no cut lands or traces or bridges.  In fact, most people couldn't even tell the chip was ever removed...

I think it may be related to my Willem... I was able to install a Samsung drive flashed the old fashioned way (DOS) with the 79 spoof, and my keys and the system is up and runnign fine, however, whenever I try to do the Hitachi, its not working... so I think something (either the toolbox or my flash programmer is corrupting portions of the flash image).  I haven't narrowed it down yet.

Anyone who has a WIllem, knows that its a crude device, with all sorts of jumpers and can easily be set wrong... so maybe I don't have mine tweaked properly yet to do these chips correctly.  I did compare my original bin with the one in the toolbox, and found a few differences here and there... and maybe those few differences are all because the chip is not being programmed correctly... I have to do more research... and the next step would be to attempt to enter mode b and flash it in windows... but a drive that doesn't boot, may not enter mode b at all...

So, maybe its something simple with my programmer, and I need to do a little more research to verify.

my  DIP switches  are set to this below, if this helps the chip is an SST39VF020.

1. off
2. off
3. on
4. off
5. on
6. on
7. off
8. off
9. off
10. on
11. on
12. off

didineedthis