OG Xbox systems from salvage to service... What now from here?

codezer0

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Okay, for those that might not have remembered, I previously had two OG Xbox systems, both 1.6... one of them had error 05, and the other had error 16. One of them got that error because I accidentally unlocked the hard drive for the console before turning it off, and thus it now doesn't want to boot. The other just started having that error before I could do anything with it.

More recently, I tried running the soft-mod process on the unlocked-drive again to see if that would do anything... much to my dismay, no it did not. But anyway, managed to pick up a lot of four more to salvage... a couple of 1.0's, a 1.6, and a 1.6b system.

To get it out of the way, all four newly acquired systems were able to successfully soft-mod, with some... caveats. One of the four systems ended up on EvoX dashboard, while everything else received UnleashX... with the same disc using the generic installer. (Q1) How did that happen? And is there a way to give it UnleashX dashboard instead, since I at least am familiar enough with that one to tune it accordingly?

(Q2) All four systems started with disc drives that did not want to open - an equal amount of Samsung and Thomson drives. Post fix-up and soft-mod, and basically a matter of taking the drive belts out of each, putting them in a cup of soapy water and microwaving them to a boil for 30 seconds, two of the freshly salvaged systems are indeed operating normally again (mostly); the other two, still will not open and close normally when the system is assembled. What else can I do to revive those drives?

(Q3) What other things can I do to revive the original, e5/e16 systems to get those working again?
 

Armadillo

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To get it out of the way, all four newly acquired systems were able to successfully soft-mod, with some... caveats. One of the four systems ended up on EvoX dashboard, while everything else received UnleashX... with the same disc using the generic installer. (Q1) How did that happen? And is there a way to give it UnleashX dashboard instead, since I at least am familiar enough with that one to tune it accordingly?

Most of those discs have multiple options, so it's possible you accidentaly selected it, other than that, I'm not sure. Without knowing the exact method you used, the lazy way to change it is to just ftp in, look for evoxdash.xbe, then copy the unleashx files to the same directory. Delete evoxdash.xbe & rename unleashx.xbe (or whatever it's called) to evoxdash.xbe, then powercycle. Don't turn off/powercycle until you have swapped it.

Other ways to do it would be to reinstall the softmod and make sure unleashX is selected as the dash or you can use the hexen disc to swap it (never used myself, but it has an option to change the default dash/reinstall softmod etc).

(Q2) All four systems started with disc drives that did not want to open - an equal amount of Samsung and Thomson drives. Post fix-up and soft-mod, and basically a matter of taking the drive belts out of each, putting them in a cup of soapy water and microwaving them to a boil for 30 seconds, two of the freshly salvaged systems are indeed operating normally again (mostly); the other two, still will not open and close normally when the system is assembled. What else can I do to revive those drives?

Not really. All you can do is change the belts & clean, there are no fixes other than that :(.
(Q3) What other things can I do to revive the original, e5/e16 systems to get those working again?


Same as it was before.

e5. Either chip so it can take an unlocked drive or build an eeprom reader, dump the eeprom, build & lock fresh drive on pc.

e16. Chip, use a bios that bypasses the clock issue, set the clock or if the hdd files are no good, build a clean drive or same as above with eeprom reader.
 
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codezer0

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Tried cleaning the insides of the two DVD drives that have been acting up again. Keeping it short...

Samsung drive still won't open its tray.
Thomson drive opens and closes normally; however, it seems to have a lot of trouble recognizing any retail disc.

Since the drive belts have indeed shrunk to give a snug fit on their respective drives, what else can I do for either?
 

ikral

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Got Xbox for free because it didn't want to read discs, disassembled DVD drive and cleaned lens with cloth and alcohol, works great ever since. Lucky Me, yay! Playing Halo for the first time after Xbox launched way back, great game. Also got Halo 2 and Chronicles of Riddick for free besides Halo 1. Thank you Santa!
 

codezer0

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Have you tried using a cleaning disk for the thompson drive? Could your thompson drive use this part?

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Replacement-T...er-Lens-Part-for-Microsoft-Xbox-/350576998592
Presently, don't have any spare such cleaning discs of any kind. The brushes on most of them tend to wear out too easily, or the discs get lost. Either way...

I did try using a cotton swab dampened with 91% alcohol to clean it while I had it open and waiting for the belts to boil back to shape. I would have thought that would be enough.
 

codezer0

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Alright... some juggling around of parts, and it looks like I have two systems working correctly.

One of them, running EvoX presently. Not sure why, since the disc that I used to do the hotswap and ndure install didn't give me the option to select a dashboard to install. I'd rather have it running UnleashX, but that's besides the point presently.

The second system is running UnleashX, and of all the OG Xbox systems, is currently the only one that seemingly chose to run the dashboard at 1080i, instead of 480p. I wish I knew how to enable that on all the others - or even at least 720p. Anyways, that one is running a Thomson drive, and other than just the fan running audibly rough, it's running cool and all the games are running correctly thus far.

now, with that said... the last four systems, or rather specifically, the last four DVD drives. Two Thomsons, two Samsungs.
Samsung #1 - tray won't open at all when eject button is pressed, so can't verify if it will load any games.
Samsung #2 - tray won't stay closed. And the dash implies it's in a constant "empty/open" state, so it won't try to read any games.
Thomson #1 - when installed and secured in the console, won't open. Opens and ejects normally when the console is open... quandary.
Thomson #2 - does seem to open and close normally, and load the games. However, at least with Chaos Theory as a test, it will just... reset the console.

IIRC, one of the thomsons kinda kept giving dirty/damaged disc errors with Chaos Theory and Riddick.

Any suggestions on how to repair these drives to get them operational again? While I get that the Samsungs would be better to get reparied, I'm just willing to at least have two of them working correctly, as I have at least a couple of people interested in buying these off of me. :shy:
 

codezer0

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Clean the laser lenses and clean/re-grease the tray work.
Also replacing drive belts would be a neat idea.
I've already boiled the drive belts a couple of times, since the thomson and samsung both use different sizes. and as faqr as the lenses, I swabbed them with a q-tip and 91% alcohol. What else am I supposed to do?
 

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The only good tuts I found are on piracy related websites, so you got to search for it yourself.
You'll need a multimeter with fine tipped probes and a small screwdriver.

Obviously, you'll need to disassemble the DVD drive and find the potentiometer ;p
 

codezer0

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Okay, I don't know what to do here. It seems like ALL of the dvd drives are bad. The one I had previously in there, was one of the Samsungs. and it keeps wanting to give dirty/damaged disc errors on my games.

Meanwhile, when I swap in one of the Thomsons on the same Xbox, it will attempt to load Chaos Theory, for example, and then just reset itself back to the dashboard. If it even gets past the initial boot-up screen, as soon as it's about to load the title screen, bam. back to the dashboard. And then I can't play the game with either. And the only tutorials I can find on the pot thing is on the Thomsons.... and nothing on the Samsung drives.
 

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