Disc tray stuck closed

[lukands]

No game in the tray, but giving a message Disc not recognized, etc.....Disc tray won`t eject.
Can open the tray with paper clip, and when game placed inside all it does is the eject button light flashes.
Eject button will randomly work (open/close).
Any help please.

 

[DinohScene]

Is it your old xbox or your 360?

Sounds like the DVD drive is dying....
You can try and pull the DVD drive out and clean it.

 

[lukands]

Original xbox not 360. Already got it openned up but like one of those morons at the side of the road with the broken down car I got the hood open but I don`t know what I`m staring at. But whats parts might need a cleaning? (lens, gears,etc...)

 

[FAST6191]

For the original xbox most people try and get away with just cleaning the little rubber band, the teeth along the tracks (on the underside of the tray) and the wheels the band sits in. It works surprisingly often as well (or at least allows you to open the tray within three or four attempts). I warn you (or those around you at least) if you are going to try doing the band without pulling the drive apart (which can quite happily be done) expect profanity to fill the air when trying to get it back on if this is your first time playing in such circles.
This can and often does cure disc read errors as well but they can also be an actual dying laser for which you can do a POT tweak (first half decent result of a search http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/dvdtweak.php ) but I do not suggest it as anything other than a short term fix.

Better yet if you have it open and an IDE port on a computer you can play with you can hack it doing the hotswap method (requires nothing other than the forementioned IDE port and ability to boot into a custom version of linux to do it).

 

[lukands]

Well, I will give it a go if theres a chance of bringing some life back to it again. Just got to dig a little further in getting the drive apart more to get to the small parts. Oh I can see some foul language up ahead, I like to take things apart.....not a fan of trying to get everything back together again.

 

[lukands]

So are the 2 problems related.....1. the disc not recognized blah, blah, blah, message AND 2. the tray not openning properly.

 

[lukands]

Update....
Oh great maybe I cleaned it too good? The eject button seems to work fine now but now the tray won`t stay closed, closes 1 second then opens up again.

 

[FAST6191]

You might have misaligned or otherwise knocked the laser out of whack (certainly laser issues can see these drives spit the tray back out) but sometimes with optical drives like this I find if you hold it closed once or twice after pressing close it can fix itself.

 

[lukands]

Update......So it looks like I got the tray working properly , the problem seems to be that the disc doesn`t spin.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Update......So it looks like I got the tray working properly , the problem seems to be that the disc doesn`t spin.

sounds like the spin-up motor is shot.

 

[lukands]

Update......So it looks like I got the tray working properly , the problem seems to be that the disc doesn`t spin.

sounds like the spin-up motor is shot.

Thats my guess now too, I blew some air to hopefully clean it and it now spins a little (even more with a little help with my finger to spin/turn the disc).
Is there any safe way to clean the motor properly? Perhaps its just real dirty.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Update......So it looks like I got the tray working properly , the problem seems to be that the disc doesn`t spin.

sounds like the spin-up motor is shot.

Thats my guess now too, I blew some air to hopefully clean it and it now spins a little (even more with a little help with my finger to spin/turn the disc).
Is there any safe way to clean the motor properly? Perhaps its just real dirty.

it would probably be alot less of a hassle to buy a new motor.

 

[thaddius]

Or a new xbox...

 

[lukands]

OR maybe cheaper just to buy another used working console? Not sure where I would find to buy this motor......let me Google and try my luck that a replacement motor is dirt cheap?

Edit......Is that the technical name for this piece "spin up motor"

 

[MelodieOctavia]

You may try this. It applies to DVD players, but maybe you can glean something out of it.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6345772_troubleshoot-dvd-not-spinning.html

And I don't think Spin Up motor is the correct term. That's just what I call it.

Just be sure you are lubricating the right motor, because there are three. The drive tray motor, the spin up motor, and the motor that moves the laser lens back and forth.

 

[lukands]

Looks like the other motors are working/engaging properly, just not the "spin up" motor.
It looks like its maybe called a spindle motor or dvd motor?
I can find lots of relpacements for the 360, but not the original xbox (ebay, china sites, etc..)

I don`t know if I want to take my chances on putting any lubrication/cleaning product on because its a motor, would it do more bad then good?

Anybody know where to find parts for the original xbox?

 

[tedmg09130913]

I was able to find this DVD drive for Xbox original for about $99 (first link). I was also able to find lg 8163b DVD drive for about $30 (second link).



www.paddlersite.com/xbpasasd61re.html

www.google.com/products/catalog?q=lg+8163b+DVD+drive&nomo=1&output=html&cid=8029041299650197816

 

[DinohScene]

Better get a "bricked" xbox 1 and pull out that DVD drive (plus any extra spare parts ;p)
One with a harddrive failure or any other HDD related error (softmod failures and such)

WAY cheaper then buying a 99$ DVD drive.

 

[lukands]

I think I have officially given up trying to bring this back from the dump, I`ve got so far now that it will play music CD`s and movie DVD`s, but will not read game discs.
Thanks all for the suggestions...........me 0.......xbox 1............I surrender!

 

[DinohScene]

You can hotswap your HDD and install a softmod.

No need for the DVD drive.