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Replacing a faulty DVD drive
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Faulinei
Newbie
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21. November 2009 @ 10:38 |
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I've got a pretty old 360 with an Hitachi drive. The drive is pretty much dead now and won't read anything, so I want to replace the drive.
I don't care about backups or anything, I just want a working console.
I was planning on buying a Samsung or Benq drive and spoofing it, but after reading some threads here, it looks like if I did that I'd have about as much chance of being banned from Live as if I had flashed the drive's firmware for backups.
So, if I bought another Hitachi drive and injected my key onto that, would that still be flagged by MS or could I get away with that?
Also, the only Hitachi drives I can find for sale come with a different firmware version than my old one. I was wondering, does anyone know if I'd be able to swap the PCBs of the drives seeing as they're the same make and model? Or would I have to recover the old drive's key and spoof the new drive with the old firmware?
If anyone with experience can answer these questions, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.
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nyy420
Newbie
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21. November 2009 @ 10:57 |
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Do you have four ribbon cables coming from pcb? If so that would be an easy no solder swap. No flash required when you switch pcb's either. It can definitely be done with the same model drive.
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Faulinei
Newbie
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21. November 2009 @ 11:47 |
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Yes, the PCB is attached with 4 ribbon cables and seems to be fairly easily removable.
So, as long as I get another drive of the same model, I can switch the boards? Even though they have differing firmware versions?
And, if I do this, is there any way MS could detect it and ban me? I'd really rather not get banned, especially since all I want to do is repair my console...
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qwert99
Senior Member
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21. November 2009 @ 12:34 |
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I would recommend replacing just the laser. It will solve your problem, be less work, and be 30% of the cost, with no drive keys, spoofing or flashing necessary.
$38 on new discs -- Check
$15 on burn after burn that showed as a DVD -- Check
$11 on new laser -- Check
$28 on new multimeter -- Check
___________________________________
Knowledge from Leerage? -- Priceless
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nyy420
Newbie
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21. November 2009 @ 12:34 |
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If you can find your same exact drive and you just switch cards then your 360 will be exactly the same as it was before. You could check the Hardware Version and try to get a match on that too to be safe.
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Faulinei
Newbie
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21. November 2009 @ 12:58 |
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Originally posted by qwert99:
I would recommend replacing just the laser. It will solve your problem, be less work, and be 30% of the cost, with no drive keys, spoofing or flashing necessary.
Maybe, but the drive is over 3 years old, and it makes a loud unhealthy sounding noise whenever it tries to read discs, so I'm not sure if it is just the laser that's broken, or if there's more extensive damage. I was hoping to just replace the entire drive for peace of mind.
Originally posted by nyy420:
If you can find your same exact drive and you just switch cards then your 360 will be exactly the same as it was before. You could check the Hardware Version and try to get a match on that too to be safe.
Yeah, that would be ideal, but the closest I can get is the same model, Hitachi-LG 3120l. My drive ROM version is 78FK, and the only ones I can find for sale (on eBay, can't think of anywhere else I might find them) are in the 47DJ range, and Google can't seem to give me straight answer to whether I can switch boards with that or not...
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qwert99
Senior Member
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21. November 2009 @ 13:05 |
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The laser itself is, oddly as it sounds, the device responsible for that noise.
$38 on new discs -- Check
$15 on burn after burn that showed as a DVD -- Check
$11 on new laser -- Check
$28 on new multimeter -- Check
___________________________________
Knowledge from Leerage? -- Priceless
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Faulinei
Newbie
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21. November 2009 @ 13:22 |
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Originally posted by qwert99:
The laser itself is, oddly as it sounds, the device responsible for that noise.
Hmm, vibrations or something?
I might give replacing the laser a go then. It would be significantly cheaper. Well, except on eBay where they want £30 for a laser. Sounds like bit of a rip-off when I can find one elsewhere for about a quarter of that...
Thank you very much for the advice, and if replacing the laser fixes the drive, then you'll have my thanks for saving me quite a bit of money and effort as well.
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qwert99
Senior Member
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21. November 2009 @ 13:26 |
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I really don't know why the laser makes that sound. It is a bit of a mystery to me. I've heard it several times, though. Sometimes when I do a pot calibration it will start making that noise when it hasn't before.
Speaking of which, before you do anything else, you may as well try a pot calibration. What's the worst thing that can happen -- you will kill your laser? :)
Use a multimeter and get a resistance reading from about 2.8 to 4.0 for best results. It doesn't always work for a drive that's really dying, but oftentimes it will.
$38 on new discs -- Check
$15 on burn after burn that showed as a DVD -- Check
$11 on new laser -- Check
$28 on new multimeter -- Check
___________________________________
Knowledge from Leerage? -- Priceless
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Faulinei
Newbie
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21. November 2009 @ 13:32 |
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Originally posted by qwert99:
I really don't know why the laser makes that sound. It is a bit of a mystery to me. I've heard it several times, though. Sometimes when I do a pot calibration it will start making that noise when it hasn't before.
Speaking of which, before you do anything else, you may as well try a pot calibration. What's the worst thing that can happen -- you will kill your laser? :)
Use a multimeter and get a resistance reading from about 2.8 to 4.0 for best results. It doesn't always work for a drive that's really dying, but oftentimes it will.
I tried tweaking the pot before, but it didn't seem to have any effect whatsoever. It started at 4.2 and I took it down bit by bit to 3.0 before I gave up. I suppose I could always go for it and take it down another few notches. As you said, I can't really break it much more than it already is :)
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nyy420
Newbie
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22. November 2009 @ 01:23 |
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nyy420
Newbie
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22. November 2009 @ 02:22 |
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qwert99: Thanks, you've inspired me to give replacing my laser a try. I found one on ebay in my home state for $10 w/free shipping. It's a BenQ laser but it looks exact same and I heard it would work. I have a lite-on that was mfr in 2008 so maybe it is just the laser... I'll save my new BenQ drive for off-line modding.
http://cgi.ebay.com/XBOX-360-HOP-141x-14...id=p4999.c0.m14
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qwert99
Senior Member
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22. November 2009 @ 02:26 |
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Great. I hope it works out for you. I do believe that the BenQ and LiteOn lasers are the same.
$38 on new discs -- Check
$15 on burn after burn that showed as a DVD -- Check
$11 on new laser -- Check
$28 on new multimeter -- Check
___________________________________
Knowledge from Leerage? -- Priceless
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John_Donn
Member
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22. November 2009 @ 02:41 |
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Originally posted by qwert99:
The laser itself is, oddly as it sounds, the device responsible for that noise.
but qwert r u telling me the laser in my dvd drive is similar to the tires on my car when i get a flat and the car just starts shaking and making noise?!?!?!that's crazy talk,but seriously how hard is it to change a laser in the dvd drive?
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qwert99
Senior Member
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22. November 2009 @ 02:44 |
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I am not saying anything other than lasers can make weird noises when they are failing. I don't know why.
As to difficulty of replacing the laser, it is very simple.
$38 on new discs -- Check
$15 on burn after burn that showed as a DVD -- Check
$11 on new laser -- Check
$28 on new multimeter -- Check
___________________________________
Knowledge from Leerage? -- Priceless
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Faulinei
Newbie
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22. November 2009 @ 05:27 |
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Originally posted by nyy420:
Is this your drive rite here brand new
http://cgi.ebay.com/Xbox-360-DVD-DRIVE-H...iewItem?rvr_id=
You could switch boards
here's another one:
http://www.thumbmonkey.com/p-17591-hitac...g-78fk-360.aspx
and another one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-Xbox-360-H...=item4a9bd604a9
If you do decide to just fix the laser let us know if it worked...
Yes, those are the exact same drive as I have. Thank you very much for the links, I was only looking for sellers in my country before, but it looks like the cost of the drive + importing comes to about the same price as new drive from here. Cheaper, actually...
I'm going to give replacing the laser a go first, but if that fails I'll definitely go with one of your links :)
I'll let you know if replacing the laser works out, but I probably wont be able to do that for another week or two...
Best of luck with your own laser replacement, let us know how you get on :)
Edit: This might sound kind of stupid, but just to make sure, if replacing the laser does fail and I do import a new drive, would an NTSC drive be okay in a PAL console? Or are the drives region locked or something?
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 22. November 2009 @ 05:31
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nyy420
Newbie
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25. November 2009 @ 14:00 |
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Thats a good question NTSC to Pal I dont know.. flashing your firmware may resolve the issue or it could have different circuitry.. I'm not all that familiar with that..
I replaced my laser today and it worked for 10 minutes then stopped working... on the first try, I put MW2 in and it recognized the game rite away. I chose campaign mode and it made it halfway through the opening video then it said disc was unreadable so i turned off the system and cleaned it... when i put it back in i had all these loud noises coming out of the drive like it was stuck trying to read the game so i shut it off while it was doing that and now i have an open tray error again..
I did not remove the static point my new laser looks exact to the old one the 3 points are the same.. and where i bought it didnt mention anything about removing it...
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