Flasing stock Liteon DG-16D2S with iXtreme 1.51 Firmware

March 24, 2009 · 13 comments

Before we begin this tutorial, on how to flash a stock Liteon drive with iXtreme 1.51 firmware, you have to have a connectivity kit. A connectivity kit allows you to dump the firmware, which contains the key that will be used in spoofing your drive to iXtreme 1.51 firmware.

There are a couple of connectivity kits out there that you can buy, I recommend purchasing the CK3 Lite with the Probe. If you don’t purchase the probe, then you’ll have to solder a bridge on R707 on the drives pcb. So to make life easier, just fork out the extra 15 bucks, and purchase the probe.

So, first things first. You should download this tutorial, read it, to become familiar with what you’re going to be doing. Some say you need the VIA-6421 card for flashing, while it’s nice to have, it’s not necessary, so don’t waste your money on it unless your SATA chip set will not work. Most new chip sets work fine.

Next step is to gather the tools you’ll need.

Software you’ll need for this.

Now, let’s get started. First you need to remove the drive from the Xbox console, to do so, watch the following video.

Now you have the console open, continue to remove the drive. Unplug the Sata cord, and the power connection, on the back of the drive.

If you’re planning on soldering R707, look at the image below. You have to create a short between the two pads for R707. Thanks to Team-Xecuter.com for the following images. First, you need to unscrew 4 screws on the drive itself, see image below.

Liteon 4 Screws to unscrew

When you open the cover, look for R707, it’s near the bottom of the PCB.

Liteon R707

Now, if you don’t solder that, and have a probe, we can move-on, if not, solder that connection, making sure you use a small tip on your soldering iron, and connect a piece of wire between the two pads. It’s always good to verify your connection with a Ohm Meter if you have one.

The next process is to hook everything up. As you can see in the image below, the CK3 Pro is being used. If you’re using the CK3 lite, just plug that into the RS232 Serial port, typically in the back of your PC. Then, connect the SATA cord, from your Xbox drive, to your VIA 6421 card, or built in SATA port. Last, before you connect the power cable to the CK3, make sure the switch is in the OFF position.

Liteon Cables Connected

Now you have everything hooked up, go ahead, and turn on your pc, with the drive still turned off.

Next, make sure you install the PortIO32 drives, which is included when you download JungleFlasher. If you’re using the CK3 Pro, install the USB drivers.

Go ahead and turn the power switch on the CK3 on, and you should see a blue light. Verify everything is working, and press the eject button, to verify the drive opens. Turn the CK3 power off, then on. With the drive still fully open, push the drive in half way.

Let’s get to work!

Before you open JungleFlasher, go ahead, and copy the iXtreme 1.51 Firmware into the “firmware” folder, located inside the JungleFlasher folder.

firmware_folder

Open up JungleFlasher, you should be presented with a screen like this.

Jungleflasher Main Page

Now, click on the Tab DVDKey 32. You need to select the correct I/O Port and Com Port. The I/O port as you scroll through them, will show the Vendor as PLDS, and Name as DG-16D2S when you select the correct port. With the Com Port, typically, if you only have 1 serial port, it’s going to be COM1.

dvdkey32

Now go ahead, and if you’re using a probe, connect the spear to the R707 contact. Looking at the image below, touch the tip of the spear where the red circle is. If you soldered this connection, then disregard this step.

Liteon R707

Time to get the key, click on Get Key, Create Dummby.bin Open as Source

JungleFlasher will then dump the key 6 times, verifying your key is good. You’ll be prompted to save all 4 files, the key.bin, inquiry.bin, identify.bin, and dummy.bin. You can save them anywhere you want, typically, I create a folder on the desktop, name it Liteon, and save the files there.

After you save all the files, JungleFlasher will prompt you to auto-load the iXtreme firmware. Select yes, as long as you copied the firmware into the firmware folder, earlier in this tutorial. I’m guessing you did, so just hit yes.

You’ll then be taken to the main FirmwareTool 32 tab. Before proceeding, it’s good to verify that the source firmware key matches the target firmware key. Look at the image below, to get an idea on what to look for.

verify_key

Once everything is verified, click Save to File, as shown in the image above.

Time to erase the firmware off the drive. Now, if for some reason your PC freezes while erasing the drive, don’t worry, just take a look at the end of this tutorial.

Now, click on the MTK Flash 32 tab, and click on the Lite-on Erase button.

liteon_erase

It will prompt you asking if you are sure, just click yes. It will then show 1 more prompt, read it carefully. Basically, you need to power the drive off, then on, at a certain step in the erasing process. When you see the following in the image below, this is when you want to power cycle your drive.

power_cycle

If everything was successful, you’ll see under Drive Properties, Drive in Vendor Model, and under Flash Chip Properties, the type listed with a status of ox72.

erased

Now, if your pc froze during the erasing process, no worries, this happens to the best of us. All you have to do after you restart your pc, open JungleFlasher again, and in the the MTK Flash tab, click on the Intro / Device ID. See image below.

intro_device_id

Also, you’ll have to click on the Firmware 32 tab, and load the original firmware, by clicking on Load Source Firmware. Just select the dummy.bin. Then, below that, click on Open Target firmware, and select ix151-liteon.bin. Then, click on the button, Spoof Source to Target, and lastly, Save to file. Click on the MTK Flash 32 tab.

Now you should be all caught up.

All left to do is just write the firmware, so click on Write, which is located under Flashing Task, on the bottom right.

write_firmware

Once you see Write Verified OK!, click on Outro/ATA Reset, and you’ve just flashed a stock Liteon drive.

Trackback URL:

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

josesph March 28, 2009 at 10:01 am

nice tutorial on flashing the stock liteon drive to ixtreme 1.51 firmware. Many thanks

Reply

Jon May 11, 2009 at 12:35 am

awesome tutorial. Worked perfectly when flashing my liteon to ix1.51. Greatly appreciated.

Reply

carnyride79 June 8, 2009 at 4:00 pm

did everything you said…got to erasing part and my PC froze…you stated not to worry that it “happens to the best of us.” You continue to state to just reboot and continue on…well now my PC just freezes constantly and I’m assuming my drive is stuck in vendor mode…I can’t do anything with it now :(

Reply

carnyride79 June 8, 2009 at 5:10 pm

Upon further reading the cause of the freezing was my VIA 6420 Raid Controller…it seems that once it is in vendor mode it will continually freeze your pc. SOLUTION: I hooked the drive to an ONBOARD SATA port and opened Jungleflasher. Jungleflasher did not recognize the drive but I knew it was connected. I clicked Outro/ATA Reset even though the drive wasn’t showing up and it pulled my drive back to default mode (out of vendor mode). From there you can continue on with this tutorial.

Reply

Jv June 12, 2009 at 12:28 pm

Ok.. i love the way you explain it all step by step .. it really is helpful, but I need to know if you can find these Tools that we need at a store near you or do i have to order them online?, and if i do those links that you gave us is that the cheapest they are? or do you have other links you can email me? an one more thing do we need all 3 meaning the (ck3 pro), the (ck3 lite), and the (probe)? or can we just get the (ck3 pro) and the (probe) .. with out having to buy the (ck3 lite)??? …. or if I’m planing to get the (CK3 PRO) that pretty much all i need to do all the work? Sorry to ask so many question but i just need to make myself very inform of what i need b4 i go and do it.

Thanks!!

JV.

PS.. Please Email me ASAP!

Reply

james June 14, 2009 at 11:32 am

JV

Get the CK3 Pro and probe. It will make your life easier.

Reply

Jv June 15, 2009 at 11:25 am

Thanks James!

that’s what i needed to know.

Reply

Nightwarrior July 20, 2009 at 8:53 am

Hey, nice tut but I’m stuck at the part of erasing the firmware. It keeps prompting this:

Sending Lite-On-Erase request to port 0×4000
Drive returned Status 0×51
………………………………….
Device Intro failed!

I turn the CK3 lite off as soon as the Drive status appears and then back on again. Any idea what I am doing wrong? It just won’t erase :(

Reply

james July 20, 2009 at 2:58 pm

Nightwarrior – What is happening when you turn the ck3 off then on? Also, are you using a via card at all?

Reply

Trev April 30, 2010 at 2:52 am

Hi mate i followed you step by step on this but it just wont put my dvdkey back onto the drive, i tried putting it on a samsung drive that works perfectly but its my liteon drive i want working is there any thing i can do to correct this.
Thnx

Reply

James May 1, 2010 at 7:17 am

Hey, head over to http://www.ixtreme.net for help! This tut is old.

Reply

t May 1, 2010 at 12:57 am

uhuh

Reply

Leave a Comment

{ 1 trackback }