Gaming Will this disc work? 50/50

[3DPiper]

My XBox adventure is very hit or miss..

We bought a modded xbox (dvd drive accepts any disc) and about 15 games from gamestop for the kids for Christmas..

The discs from gamestop worked fine for awhile..

I could never get burned games to work..

Now several months later, only two of our gamestop games work, and burned games are hit-or-miss (d/l game, use abg360gui to make .dvd, burn using imgburn to verbatim dvd+R DL)..

burned games load and play for a few minutes, but randomly freeze up with the 'This disc is unreadable. Please clean disc'... Sometimes we get a few minutes, sometimes almost an hour, but then it freezes with the error..

Normal movie DVDs do not play all the way through.. random freezes..

I had hoped to set up a WHS and feed all our movie backups to the XBox and get rid of the TVix, but now I'm not so sure..

Is there something I'm doing wrong? At this rate, by summer it will not be able to read or play anything at all..

I guess I got spoiled with the Wii, it is so easy.. no discs to scratch/fail...

 

[Maz7006]

please post the MFR date you see at the back .

 

[3DPiper]

2006-10-17

 

[dilav]

2006-10-17

Very old system. You want a newer one.
You most likely need a new laser/drive.

 

[3DPiper]

Is that something I can do myself?

 

[steveo1978]

its possible you can do it your self but is probably better if you get some one else to do it. if you really wanna try and replace the drive your self first find out what drive is in it. If you can eject the tray on the drive and post a picture of it here some one can help you identify it and let you know what you will need to do to get the key from the drive and flash it to a new drive.

 

[wyndcrosser]

OP,

you can easily so it urself.

If you purchase the similar drive type, you can pull the motherboard from your broken one and attach it to the new drive, I've done it before with Hitachi's, Benq, and Samsung.

Very easy to do, just need tot take apart the xbox 360 and remove the screws on the drive carriage.

5-30 minutes max, only that long if you can't easily take apart your box.

Wynd

 

[dilav]

Image found on google images.

Taking apart the 360 for the first time would be the hardest part.

You most likely just need to replace the laser. Cheaper that way too.
Samsung/Hitachi lasers are the same.
BenQ/Lite-on lasers are the same.
Do note new laser need the anti-static point unsolder which some sellers can do.

If you replace the whole drive it must be the same model, and the drive board must be swapped (Because you want to keep the hacked firmware, and need the key that matches the motherboard to play xbox games.)
BenQ and Lite-on drives will require some soldering to swap the drive board. (which you probably do not have if it is truly a 2006 model)

 

[3DPiper]

Mine looks like the middle one...

Is this normal for drives/lasers to just kinda go out after time?

 

[dilav]

Mine looks like the middle one...
You need a BenQ/Lite-on laser. There both the same. You could also adjust the pot of the laser and lower the resistance. Too low of a resistance can also cause stress on the laser.

Google search "Xbox 360 Pot tweak" or "Xbox 360 pot adjustment" for some tutorials
QUOTE(3DPiper @ Feb 27 2011, 12:50 PM) Is this normal for drives/lasers to just kinda go out after time?

Yup, on any disc drive.
Laser life goes down faster when disc are scratched/dirty and/or burned (quality of burned media/dyes also matters). Console lasers are constantly being reading, disc now having more than one layer... we are seeing them fail more often

Xbox 360 laser cost around $10 each which isn't too bad. But then again there most likely had a pot adjustment, new diode, and/or new lens.

 

[3DPiper]

I opted to try the pot adjustment and used about 4 or 5 different values (around 3-3.4).. The original value was 3.94..

Some wouldn't read at all ("open door"), some would read but eventually give the error "this disc is unreadable"... This is with a newly burned backup on verbatim (CLEAN, NO SCRATCHES) and a disc we used to be able to play..

Is there any other test to make sure the laser is bad before I invest in another one?

EDIT: Is this what I need?

http://www.amazon.com/LASER-LENS-HOP-141B-...E/dp/B001VBD79S

 

[dilav]

You could try cleaning the lens with alcohol. Cant think of any other suggestions.

Correct laser you may want to double check the label on the drive and make sure its a Lite-on or BenQ, and its cheaper on eBay.

$12.85 + tax if in California, ships from California

$12.98 + tax if in New York, ships from New York

 

[3DPiper]

Thanks for the advice!

I installed the new laser and it seems to be working fine now.. Even reading a very scratched up Halo3 disc..

While I had it all open, I went ahead and installed a better cooling fan and some extra heatsinks..

No problems yet with the new laser..