Xtreme Firmware Install Guide for Toshiba/Samsung Drives

Xbox 360 Leave a comment
xbox 360Xtreme Firmware is a modified FW of the original Xbox Samsung SDG-605B/616T/616F DVD-ROM drive. The original FW prevents booting raw (non-retail) copies of a game from a DVD-R or other recordable media with the assigned XBE file 'mediaflag' assigned by MS for each game.

The mediaflag then tells the Xbox which media (cd-r, dvd-r, dvd+r, dvd-rw, hdd, dvdxbox, dvdxbox360, etc) the XBE is allowed to boot. By changing the mediaflag in the XBE header, Xtreme FW breaks the signature of the file, stops the detection and allows raw copies to boot. 

You're probably raring to proceed to the tutotial, but first the obligatory disclaimer:
  • Anything you do to your Xbox is at your own risk!
  • This is NOT an encouragement for committing software piracy and illegal duplication of copyrighted materials.
Got that? Okay then here are the stuff that you need:
  • A Torx 10 screwdriver
  • Thin Tweezers (or similar)
  • A PC with SATA connectors - but NOT the Silicon Image Sil3112 SATA chipset, these will not work (ATM?)
  • A Hex editor
  • The Firmware package
Read full aritlce for the rest of the tutorial!

xbox 360Xtreme Firmware is a modified FW of the original Xbox Samsung SDG-605B/616T/616F DVD-ROM drive. The original FW prevents booting raw (non-retail) copies of a game from a DVD-R or other recordable media with the assigned XBE file 'mediaflag' assigned by MS for each game.

The mediaflag then tells the Xbox which media (cd-r, dvd-r, dvd+r, dvd-rw, hdd, dvdxbox, dvdxbox360, etc) the XBE is allowed to boot. By changing the mediaflag in the XBE header, Xtreme FW breaks the signature of the file, stops the detection and allows raw copies to boot. 

You're probably raring to proceed to the tutotial, but first the obligatory disclaimer:
  • Anything you do to your Xbox is at your own risk!
  • This is NOT an encouragement for committing software piracy and illegal duplication of copyrighted materials.
Got that? Okay then here are the stuff that you need:
  • A Torx 10 screwdriver
  • Thin Tweezers (or similar)
  • A PC with SATA connectors - but NOT the Silicon Image Sil3112 SATA chipset, these will not work (ATM?)
  • A Hex editor
  • The Firmware package
Taking Your Xbox Apart

We have a video on how to take your beloved Xbox 360 console apart without turning it into a bundle of wire, screws and what-have-you  destined for the garbage can. You did read the warning about doing this at your risk, right? Stop at Stage 10! Do not unscrew the black screws which hold the heatsink and which will be needed in accessing the DVD drive.

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nYIntff14cM"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nYIntff14cM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

Safety Precautions
  • Make a boot disk by formatting a floppy and ticking on "MS-DOS system disk" or something similar.
  • After the disk has been formatted, copy MTKFLASH.EXE and MTKFLASH.TYP from mtkflash183c.zip to the floppy disk.
  • For nforce4 motherboard, use the same files from the archive MTK-NF4.RAR.
  • Keep your Xbox 360 plugged in (but turned OFF) next to the PC with it's DVD ROM drive powered by the Xbox console, but connected to port 1 of the SATA on the PC.
  • Remove/disable all IDE channels except for the floppy disk and all SATA ports except port 1.
  • Make sure the PC is set to boot from the floppy disk.
  • Turn on the PC, but leave the Xbox 360 OFF. Wait until a command prompt appears then turn ON the game console. Type the following on the PC:
                    mtkflash r /m backup.bin
  • Plug the PC drive back in and re-enable all the applicable IDE/SATA channels and boot into Windows.
  • Press 1 to select SATA master.
  • This will back up the original firmware to the disk - DO NOT LOSE OR MODIFY THIS IN ANY WAY, if you screw up you can easily restore the original firmware with this file and put the 360 back to factory.
  • Turn off Xbox360 and unplug the drive from the PC.
Hacking the Firmware

Each 360 DVD firmware has a unique key that marries the on-board drive to the console. Make sure they match or the drive will not work. Insert the key from the firmware into the modified firmware (which has no key).

Copy the backup.bin file from the floppy to the hard disk

Load the Hex editor then load backup.bin into it from the hard disk. The area containing the key is located at $4000-$4200. Press ctrl-G and type 4000 into the box, then click goto

Using your mouse select everything from 4000-4200 (pictured below, it's a thumbnail click on it to see details)

xtreme fw


Press Ctrl-C

Load the file from the Xtreme_Package called xtreme.bin, press Ctrl-G type 4000 into the box and click goto

Press Ctrl-V to copy key from the backup firmware to the Xtreme FW ready for use on the drive

Save the Xtreme.bin file o the floppy disk

The "Scary" Part

Connect the 360 to the PC as before, unplug all the drives again, boot off the floppy disk and at the command prompt type:

            mtkflash w /m xtreme.bin

Press 1 to select master

The Xbox 360 should have been hacked. You can test if you got it right by putting an original game in which should play normally. Put in a raw copy. Although the  emulator will say the game is not playable, it should be able to recognize it as a game smile.gif. If it did, put the 360 and the PC back together. If your Xbox 360 stopped working altogether, we just want to say you should have heeded our disclaimer.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *