original xbox Original Xbox: Has my disk drive had it?

[Skyrbunny]

So, I have had my Xbox basically my entire life. So, It's had a bit of a run. It's currently completely unmodified. Lately, though, I have been having a few problems with it.

1) Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue played perfectly fine, and loaded quite fast, but it had issues with FMVs.

2) Robots did not load at all. I thought the disk had decayed, but now I am not so sure.

3) Spongebob: Battle for Bikini Bottom ran Okay, but dialogue audio would start a second or so later than it should.

4) A known working copy of Halo 2 that I had played a few months ago can no longer be read. THis is what tipped me off to the possibility that it could be the optical drive.

Are these symptoms of a dying disk reader? If so, what should I replace it with? Is it finally time to hard mod my beloved xbox to give it a longer life?

Side note: Is it normal for the picture to be weirdly dark when adapted from the video output to HDMI? I have heard of old consoles like this having capacitor issues with the display out after some time; could that happen to the Xbox?

[Zac_The_Guy]

I would suggest either opening the DVD drive to clean it and the laser which is extremely easy, or just buy a new drive, which is literally a drop in replacement. It's also good to resurface your discs, as even if they look spotless, they can still be bad. For example, my HL2 Disc had no scratches visible, but the console had trouble reading it. A trip to a resurface machine seemed to suffice.

As for the HDMI output, often those adapters are really crummy and do darken the video. I simply suggest getting a better one, or be like me and stick with AV. It looks just fine on a CRT! And speaking of capacitors, please if you haven't already remove the clock capacitor and inspect other capacitors for abnormalities, as it is extremely common for them to leak and fail on the XBOX. 

[Skyrbunny]

I just remembered that sometimes the drive makes a like.... rattling/clicking sound with some disks? It's hard to describe but it was unusual and made me suspicious

[FrostyMaGee]

As Zac said the first thing I’d do is take the dvd apart. Clean out any dust and grime that’s built up in the drive. Also take some 99 percent isopropyl alcohol and a qtip and very gently clean off the lens. Give it all a quick once over and make sure all looks well. Put it back together and test it out. If the problem persists then you may need to repair or possibly replace the drive. I’d start by cleaning it though and see where you stand. 

[Skyrbunny]

righto. I'll see if I can pull that off, then.

[Goomy]

If you have any electronic repair experience, or feel like learning it, you can recap the drive circuit board. Pretty common failure with the OG Xbox. I'm currently in the process of doing it to 2 consoles myself!