Hardware Best Console Repair method?

Senbonzaku101

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
126
Trophies
0
XP
117
Country
United States
I really don't have the technical prowess to repair what's wrong with my XBox 360 but I believe its just a dead laser as everything besides game discs seem to be read and no other problems are obvious. Is there a good ship to repair service that I am unaware of? (US domestic)
 

FAST6191

Techromancer
Editorial Team
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
36,798
Trophies
3
XP
28,284
Country
United Kingdom
I know you wanted suggestions for a repair service but I feel the need to mention a few things beforehand.

I assume these are legit discs- the latest update (which is still coming out) changed things and unflashed drives which means copies will not work until you reflash and sort things there.

"everything besides game discs"

If this includes dual layer DVDs (most are) I should mention that it sounds like a bad key on the drive (drives are tied to the console by way of some keys in writeable memory but using similar methods to flashing a drive you can use another) which poses a problem if so as you will need the keys. If however it lacks keys you can not fix it unless it has not been updated since 11th August 2009 (in which case you JTAG hack it and dump the keys).

Otherwise yeah it sounds like a dying laser. Most people to do not tend to replace laser assemblies as it is somewhat tricky (calibrating a laser and keeping it aligned properly.... not fun at all). Some try to stave things off with a pot tweak (near enough all optical media lasers have a variable resistor in to allow more current to the laser in the hope of allowing a stronger beam but at the cost of decreased lifetime) but that is a stopgap measure at best.

To this end most simply swap a DVD drive out- anybody that flashes drives will be able to do this (there are loads of people offering such services) and if you do not want to source a new drive you can leave it to them (nowadays you are going to want to replace like with like so it might be best to allow them to pull it apart and see what drive you have although you can get an idea- http://www.360drives.com/howto )
I should also mention if you prefer you could instead have the drive PCB swapped out rather than flashing drives- drive flashing is easy enough though.
 

raulpica

With your drill, thrust to the sky!
Former Staff
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
11,056
Trophies
0
Location
PowerLevel: 9001
XP
5,716
Country
Italy
I'd like to point out the fact that if you're gonna swap drives, you have to get a drive from the SAME manufacturer of the old drive (IIRC), otherwise AP2.5 games won't run (and with the latest update, even most old games will have it)
wink.gif
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    SylverReZ @ SylverReZ: @salazarcosplay, Morning