Philips Troubleshooting

[Tayjelir]

I disassembled a Philips drive, cleaned it, re-greased it, and put it back together how it should be, but it won't read games. The Xbox it's in runs just fine to the MSdash,(it's not softmodded) but shouldn't it give me a system error and tell me to send my console to Microsoft if there's a hardware fault? It's acting like everything in the system is okay.

I've tried all my like new games and taken it apart again to reseat the ribbon cable and clean the lens again, but still get nothing, but a clean the disc or check your media error on the dashboard. I didn't test it to see if it was working before hand so I may have fixed up something that didn't need it.

Are there any ways to troubleshoot it? I'll check all the solder points after work tomorrow and see if there's an issue there.

Let's hope a Philips drive hasn't passed on.

[fxmech]

yeah you should test them before going too far. ive seen lots of weird drive behaviors. you can read whats going on with their default UnleashX skin. drive status is also reported in the System Info of XBMC

[fxmech]

tray : none when there is a damn disc
tray: busy is constantly displayed if disc is in tray
tray:open when i press eject and nothing happens.

these were all clues that helped me fix the few of them i managed

[Tayjelir]

So I've taken the drive apart and kept the top of the metal casing off and put the metal spinal down on the disc motor to see what it does and it just stays in one place and attempts to read whatever disc I put in three times then gives me the error that there isn't a readable disc in the Xbox. I'm guessing this means the laser assembly is dead.

[fxmech]

it's easier to buy another xbox and swap out the drive as needed for modding, then just get used to FTPing the files. most games will run on the HDD just fine, but you might not be able to run a few if on a stock HDD

ever think of case modding? now you have the parts for a slim, just save the broken drive because the PCB / other bits might still work (for parts)
in fact your PCB is fine how you describe it, so a slim is a matter of a couple solder points to the drive board that force a tray closed / empty status. now you can set aside the rest of the drive and start chopping away at the case and brackets inside

[Tayjelir]

it's easier to buy another xbox and swap out the drive as needed for modding, then just get used to FTPing the files. most games will run on the HDD just fine, but you might not be able to run a few if on a stock HDD

ever think of case modding? now you have the parts for a slim, just save the broken drive because the PCB / other bits might still work (for parts)
in fact your PCB is fine how you describe it, so a slim is a matter of a couple solder points to the drive board that force a tray closed / empty status. now you can set aside the rest of the drive and start chopping away at the case and brackets inside

Are there any custom/modded BIOS out there that allows for no disk drive at all? I currently have Evos X M8 and currently thinking about switching a BIOS that supports 128MBs of RAM.

This disk drive is going back into an Xbox I plan on reselling anyway though. I have a new laser assembly coming in the mail soon.

What is it apart of original Xbox drives that can only read Xbox games?

[asbo]

Are there any custom/modded BIOS out there that allows for no disk drive at all?

I think pretty much all the BIOSes support this, certainly M8, M8+ etc does. Use EVtool to edit it

[Tayjelir]

Just got a new laser in and it still doesn't work... I made the screws that keep the laser supports tight and that makes the laser grind against the motor that spins the disc, but loosening the screws doesn't work either. This is weird, but these things are over like 10 years old.

[professor_jonny]

the screw that hold the rail at the end have levelling and you have to adjust them to the same as they were before you removed the laser.

Did you remove the static solder blob that protects the laser during transit if not expect a dead controller chip or driver if not you may need a new control board now?

Cheers Jono

[Tayjelir]

the screw that hold the rail at the end have levelling and you have to adjust them to the same as they were before you removed the laser.

Did you remove the static solder blob that protects the laser during transit if not expect a dead controller chip or driver if not you may need a new control board now?

Cheers Jono

Oops... I didn't remove these points. So I killed the assembly by not removing those?

[Tayjelir]

the screw that hold the rail at the end have levelling and you have to adjust them to the same as they were before you removed the laser.

Did you remove the static solder blob that protects the laser during transit if not expect a dead controller chip or driver if not you may need a new control board now?

Cheers Jono

Oops... I didn't remove these points. So I killed the assembly by not removing those?

I fixed it! Everything works now!