Laptop Drive in Original Xbox Problem

Discussion about Modding the XBOX, including hardware and software hacks.
Post Reply
Floydthebarber
Posts: 47
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2012 7:00 am
Has thanked: 8 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Laptop Drive in Original Xbox Problem

Post by Floydthebarber »

Hey guys

So I am working on my own original Xbox laptop, and I have hit a snag. I planned on using an optical drive from a laptop, because I saw that people had done this before. I first saw someone do this in this video (with a Toshiba SD-R2512)



The creator of the video states in the description which particular optical drive he used, so I made sure to get the same one. I was aware that I would need an adapter to go from the 40 pin ide connection to the 50 pin pata optical drive connection, so I made sure to purchase that. Naively, I thought it would be as easy as plugging the power cable and ide connector into the adapter and the optical drive would work. When I try to turn on the Xbox with the optical drive attached I just get a red green, red green light error (the Xbox doesn't shut down just flashes red then green). My guess is that I need to find certain signals on the pcb's inside the drive, specifically the tray open/closed and disc in/out, signals then connect them to the yellow wires from the dvd power connector at the back of the motherboard, but I am not absolutely sure. I found a good tutorial on doing this here

http://www.command-tab.com/2005/04/12/d ... dded-xbox/

But the tutorial is talking about a desktop size optical drive, not a laptop size one. I don't know how I could have the laptop optical drive apart and use a logic probe while ejecting and closing the drive to find the signals. It just doesn't seem like a possible thing to do, since the laptop optical is so small and you don't have access to the pcb's while the tray is closed. If anybody else knows anything more than I do about this please let me know. I have already tried messaging the two people that I know of that have successfully pulled this off, but no reply yet.
User avatar
professor_jonny
Posts: 1296
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2012 5:41 am
Location: New Zealand
Has thanked: 66 times
Been thanked: 196 times

Re: Laptop Drive in Original Xbox Problem

Post by professor_jonny »

only specific models work in the xbox to play games and they require modification any old ide drive will work in the xbox but the tray signals will need t be mimicked to operate correctly this is only use full for movies music and as such.

optical slim laptop drives can be hit and miss even in another laptop as the firmware denotes if they are master slave or cable select.
Floydthebarber
Posts: 47
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2012 7:00 am
Has thanked: 8 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Laptop Drive in Original Xbox Problem

Post by Floydthebarber »

Thanks for the reply professor Johnny. I believe the Toshiba SD-R2512 to be one of the compatible laptop optical drives because I know other people have used it before in the Xbox projects. All I have to do now is find the signals on the pcb in the drive. Can't you force a PATA laptop optical drive to work in cable select by bridging pin 47 with ground? Or if your optical drive was working in the same mode as your hard drive (creating a problem) couldn't you just change the setting of the hard drive by adding a jumper?
Post Reply