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All of these symptoms point to there being a problem with the DVD drive part of your Xbox.
The DVD drive is a self-contained metal box that holds the tray you put the disc in, the
gears that move the tray, the laser that reads the discs, the circuit board, and the
mechanical parts that run it all. Different things can go wrong with a DVD drive but far and
away the most common problem is that the laser will give out. They get old and wear out,
simply from being used, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop this from happening. It's
the only part of an Xbox that has a naturally occurring limited lifespan, but the good news
is that it's easy to fix when you're armed with the right tools and information. Before you
haul off and do this though there may be other options that will get it to work, at least for a
little while.
The DVD drive is a self-contained metal box that holds the tray you put the disc in, the
gears that move the tray, the laser that reads the discs, the circuit board, and the
mechanical parts that run it all. Different things can go wrong with a DVD drive but far and
away the most common problem is that the laser will give out. They get old and wear out,
simply from being used, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop this from happening. It's
the only part of an Xbox that has a naturally occurring limited lifespan, but the good news
is that it's easy to fix when you're armed with the right tools and information. Before you
haul off and do this though there may be other options that will get it to work, at least for a
little while.
- May solve disc reading problems. If your Xbox has been exposed to an extraordinary amount of dust then it's weak
and will stop working altogether pretty soon. To learn more about this read the lens cleaning page.
Pros - No parts to buy. $8-$20 to try a lens cleaning disc that may or may not help, (in fact, they usually make it
worse). If you happen to have a local repairman around he would probably want $20 or so to do it right.
Cons - Laser will most likely need to be replaced soon anyway, and even a professional cleaning may not make any
difference at all.
- May solve disc reading problems. If the laser is getting too weak to work properly it can sometimes be adjusted to
work extra hard to read the discs. This is also known as "tweaking the pot", with the pot being the potentiometer part
of the laser. Laser calibration and ohm adjustment are other common names for this exercise. Again, even if you get
the laser to work properly for a while, it's days are numbered. It WILL stop working before long, it's just a matter of
when. There's more on this subject, and other things, on the Xbox owners information page.
Pros - No parts to buy. Labor charges around $49 + postage if necessary.
Cons - Laser will need to be replaced soon anyway. No guarantee that it will work at all, same as lens cleaning. Time
and cost to mail the Xbox if needed.
- This will almost always solve disc reading problems. On occasion it's the parts of the DVD drive that move the laser
that are causing the problem rather than the laser itself, but it's not very common.
Pros - It is possible to replace it yourself though it's a little more complicated than just replacing the whole drive.
No labor charges and no mailing the Xbox off to someone else if you do decide to take this on, and lasers by
themselves are a little cheaper then a whole new drive.
Cons - Small possibility that it won't solve the problem and certain Samsung lasers aren't available anymore. If you
don't know what brand of drive you have click here and look at the pictures of the different disc trays shown at the
bottom of the page. Unfortunately if it's a Samsung there's no way to tell for sure from the outside whether it has a
replaceable laser or not. Version B's do and versions A and F don't.
- This will solve ALL the above listed problems 99.9% of the time. A new DVD drive contains a brand new laser and
everything it takes to run it, circuit boards and entire tray mechanism included.
Pros - You can easily replace it yourself. No labor charges and no postage. No mailing the Xbox anywhere. No
unexpected additional charges. In just a short time you can have an entirely new drive installed in your Xbox that will
work perfectly for quite some time. Total cost $54 + $8.10 postage complete with a 100% money back guarantee.
It's even less if you take advantage of the trade in offer so click here to see if your current DVD drive is eligible.
Cons - The new drive won't be a SDG-605 version B that plays counterfeit games.
If I've missed anything please let me know. I truly believe that the options I offer here are the best way to go for
people experiencing the Xbox problems listed at the top of this page. Xboxes are great machines that offer many more
years of high quality gaming and they're really not hard to work on at all . If you're not ready to cough up $400 odd
dollars for a 360 and have a lot of money invested in games it's well worth the effort to keep your Xbox in good shape.
and will stop working altogether pretty soon. To learn more about this read the lens cleaning page.
Pros - No parts to buy. $8-$20 to try a lens cleaning disc that may or may not help, (in fact, they usually make it
worse). If you happen to have a local repairman around he would probably want $20 or so to do it right.
Cons - Laser will most likely need to be replaced soon anyway, and even a professional cleaning may not make any
difference at all.
- May solve disc reading problems. If the laser is getting too weak to work properly it can sometimes be adjusted to
work extra hard to read the discs. This is also known as "tweaking the pot", with the pot being the potentiometer part
of the laser. Laser calibration and ohm adjustment are other common names for this exercise. Again, even if you get
the laser to work properly for a while, it's days are numbered. It WILL stop working before long, it's just a matter of
when. There's more on this subject, and other things, on the Xbox owners information page.
Pros - No parts to buy. Labor charges around $49 + postage if necessary.
Cons - Laser will need to be replaced soon anyway. No guarantee that it will work at all, same as lens cleaning. Time
and cost to mail the Xbox if needed.
- This will almost always solve disc reading problems. On occasion it's the parts of the DVD drive that move the laser
that are causing the problem rather than the laser itself, but it's not very common.
Pros - It is possible to replace it yourself though it's a little more complicated than just replacing the whole drive.
No labor charges and no mailing the Xbox off to someone else if you do decide to take this on, and lasers by
themselves are a little cheaper then a whole new drive.
Cons - Small possibility that it won't solve the problem and certain Samsung lasers aren't available anymore. If you
don't know what brand of drive you have click here and look at the pictures of the different disc trays shown at the
bottom of the page. Unfortunately if it's a Samsung there's no way to tell for sure from the outside whether it has a
replaceable laser or not. Version B's do and versions A and F don't.
- This will solve ALL the above listed problems 99.9% of the time. A new DVD drive contains a brand new laser and
everything it takes to run it, circuit boards and entire tray mechanism included.
Pros - You can easily replace it yourself. No labor charges and no postage. No mailing the Xbox anywhere. No
unexpected additional charges. In just a short time you can have an entirely new drive installed in your Xbox that will
work perfectly for quite some time. Total cost $54 + $8.10 postage complete with a 100% money back guarantee.
It's even less if you take advantage of the trade in offer so click here to see if your current DVD drive is eligible.
Cons - The new drive won't be a SDG-605 version B that plays counterfeit games.
If I've missed anything please let me know. I truly believe that the options I offer here are the best way to go for
people experiencing the Xbox problems listed at the top of this page. Xboxes are great machines that offer many more
years of high quality gaming and they're really not hard to work on at all . If you're not ready to cough up $400 odd
dollars for a 360 and have a lot of money invested in games it's well worth the effort to keep your Xbox in good shape.
| PLEASE NOTE: THE ORIGINAL XBOX DVD DRIVE REPLACEMENT KITS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE BECAUSE TOP QUALITY NEW DRIVES ARE CURRENTLY IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND AT BULK RATES. GOOD QUALITY ORIGINAL (NOT 360) XBOX DVD DRIVES ARE STILL AVAILABLE AT: www.llamma.com |
| I'M SURE THERE ARE OTHER VENDORS THAT STILL CARRY THEM BUT THESE TWO HAVE TO DEAL WITH OVER THE YEARS. THE DVD DRIVE REPLACEMENT INSTRUCTIONS ARE AVAILABLE here IN PDF FORMAT AND THE XBOX SIZE T-10 AND T-20 TORX SCREWDRIVERS THAT WENT WITH THE KITS ARE $8 AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PSP PARTS PAGE. |
IS FOR AN ORIGINAL BLACK XBOX, NOT A XBOX 360. THE
DVD DRIVE IN A XBOX 360 IS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT AS IS
THE INSTALL PROCEDURE.
DVD DRIVE IN A XBOX 360 IS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT AS IS
THE INSTALL PROCEDURE.