Fixing the original Xbox DVD drive

[headlesshobbs]

I understand the early models had a drive that would start to go bad as the system ages and I've noticed quite a few games don't read on mine as working anyone unless I do quite a bit to fiddle with it. One solution was to clean the lens, the other is to take the drive out and put in a later model drive, but that would involve buying a newer system and then I'd end up playing on that one instead.

However I'm not doing that, factoring in the scaling chip that screws with sega games being in progressive scan (never patched!!) I did find one youtube video on putting another laser in the drive that reads without issue, but I've yet to look for options that are hopefully cheaper to do. Also I have my older system from before that doesn't do component anymore, but the lens has only given me problems with two games and I think it would be a good solution to replace with (for now) until I come up with a better one.

[Lawfer]

The early models are just no good, it's not just a dvd drive issue, there are many many issues with them, the worse one would be the issue with the power supply that can kill the console.

Even later models (all but the latest model) have a timeclock capacitor that will leak and the liquid will eat the motherboard, which will also kill the console.

The best thing you can do is get a v1.3 (which does not have many of the issues from the original models and does not have the compatibility issues of the later models) and remove the timeclock capacitor ASAP, though it might have already been too late and the capacitor has already leaked fluids.

[Dochartaigh]

I'm at maybe 3 out of 4 OG Xbox's where all I needed to do was switch out the DVD drive belt and they worked again - but one loner will actually open and does not read discs so I'll stay tuned to this topic as I've never really looked into how to replace the drive that much. The first thing I usually do on my other consoles (haven't researched if this works on Xbox as well) is to turn up the laser pot the smallest amount - I know that's a temporary quasi-hack, but hey, if it works for a while and the drive is going to eventually die regardless (and isn't working now), why not?

...if it can read discs on occasion though, I would highly suggest softmodding the Xbox. Costs around $40-45 ($25 IDE 250GB hard drive, $7 power splitter for HDD, $7 USB cable, and a compatible cheap $6 game like Splinter Cell for the exploit), and is a pretty straight-forward mod. It was the first I ever did and I just had to follow along with a YouTube video (which if you want the link let me know - think I have it saved).

[Lawfer]

Thomson drives are know to be bad and noisy, Philips and Samsung are better drives but only started to be used on v1.3 models+.

You can recognize the bad Xbox models as most of them are either made in Mexico, Hungary and sometimes China, basically if you buy a Made in Taiwan you won't get an early revision and buying Made in China would most likely be a 1.3+ (though it could also be a 1.1 or 1.2, check the serial number).

[nmalinoski]

I second the notion for softmodding. The Xbox I have now I got (second-hand) specifically for softmodding, and the only times I've used the DVD drive (A Thompson unit that I believe still works fine) were to perform the softmod and test out the DVD2Xbox software. Once your console is softmodded, you can manage game data over your home network via FTP, and, unless I'm conflating this with the PS2, I believe there is a way to install a preformatted, newer, larger hard disk that you can just drop in and start using (BIOS flash from the softmod?).

[Dochartaigh]

I second the notion for softmodding. The Xbox I have now I got (second-hand) specifically for softmodding, and the only times I've used the DVD drive (A Thompson unit that I believe still works fine) were to perform the softmod and test out the DVD2Xbox software. Once your console is softmodded, you can manage game data over your home network via FTP, and, unless I'm conflating this with the PS2, I believe there is a way to install a preformatted, newer, larger hard disk that you can just drop in and start using (BIOS flash from the softmod?).

I think that's the PS2 - I've used a pre-formatted disc image on a HDD for a PS2, and simply wrote that image to that HDD and popped it into the PS2 and it was all softmodded/jailbroken right off the bat (nothing else I had to do).

On the Xbox (and for me it's been maybe 2 years since I did this mod so my memory is a bit hazy), you can't just drop in another pre-formatted HDD and have it run right off the bat - there's some steps needed to be done before that so it's softmodded, and will even see another hard drive besides the included/stock ~5GB one it comes with. That's why you need the power splitter for the second HDD I mentioned above - you softmod/jailbreak the original 5GB HDD, then while both are powered and plugged in you clone that over to the larger drive so you can fit more games on it. Think you had to lock the new drive to the console too or something like that - who knows though, probably 10 different ways to hack these things by now.

[nmalinoski]

On the Xbox (and for me it's been maybe 2 years since I did this mod so my memory is a bit hazy), you can't just drop in another pre-formatted HDD and have it run right off the bat - there's some steps needed to be done before that so it's softmodded, and will even see another hard drive besides the included/stock ~5GB one it comes with. That's why you need the power splitter for the second HDD I mentioned above - you softmod/jailbreak the original 5GB HDD, then while both are powered and plugged in you clone that over to the larger drive so you can fit more games on it. Think you had to lock the new drive to the console too or something like that - who knows though, probably 10 different ways to hack these things by now.

It looks like XboxHDM can preformat HDDs, but it needs the HDD key in order to lock it for use on your console, which can be obtained from loading an exploit (I don't think the softmod actually needs to be installed first). Alternatively, you could probably choose to either zero or disable HDD locking altogether with a TSOP flash using Hexen; or, if your hard disk is dying or already dead, I think your only recourse would be to build/buy an EEPROM dumper and extract the HDD key from that.

[ChuChu Flamingo]

Some general maintenance to OG Xbox is a must imo.

1.)Remove clock capacitor (1.6 needs the supercapacitor to function iirc and generally doesn't leak)

2.)Reflow the PSU AC Connector + where it connects on the motherboard. Many of them have cold solder joints due to the heat and will either cause a fire or melt/arc. The xbox I recently fixed had cold solder joints on the ac connectors, and 3 out of the 8ish molex pins.Below is what mine looked like on the AC pins. They may look fine but upon closer inspection they were not shiny.



3.)Probably going to have to run trace wires/repair on the front panel connectors that control power/dvd drive eject/turn off. A lot of earlier model xboxes and even late models are affected by this. General consensus is that there was contamination from the factory that was cleaned off before sealing the traces with conformal coating.

There are five traces in all that can be affected. The first symptom is usually the console staying powered on, even if you don't push the power button. You won't be able to shut it off unless you pull the ac plug. It will then progress to random resets, dvd drive not ejecting, and eventually not powering on.