Xbox 1.6 with samsung drive and soft mod Error 12

[Gissmo50]

I haven't used my og Xbox for a while I decided I wanted it set up and to play it again did all of that and it goes to boot up gives me a display but shows the contact service center with error code 12. I looked up the code and it points to the dvd drive. I've opened it cleaned it and still no luck. What are my options would a hard mod and no dvd bios be a better fix than replacing the drive? Or would buying a parts machine be better. 

Thanks 

Kyran.

[SoftMachine]

You could try replacing the belt, I haven't been able to find much info at all on repairing Xbox optical drives that are actually faulty, not just old and dirty. There's also no guarantee a drive in an "untested" Xbox would work, a lot of times people Frankenstein a system together with all faulty parts and are just selling that.

You could install a modchip but you'd want one with an OS on it like an OpenXenium or Xblast Aladdin so you can boot to that and then flash the no DVD bios to the chip. If you got a cheapo chip like the super common Aladdin XT clone, you'd need to flash the chip with a USB programmer which is not worth the money or energy if you're just doing this once. I know modzvilleusa has Xblast Aladdins on his site, not sure where he'd ship though.

Edited August 26, 2022 by SoftMachine

[tekflio]

Hi, a friend of mine gave me an xbox (no mod) unused for some time, but it shows the error code 12 with the 'contact service center' screen. I disassembled totally the console and with an electronic tester I checked the connector for the dvd drive. Resulting that in 3 pins electricity current does not flow, so I am worried that the problem may be that and not the dvd drive itself; but I don't know if all those pins must conduct current or not. Any suggestions ? Thanks in advance

[KaosEngineer]

Which 3 pins had no current flow? 

What were you using to test them?

An "electronic tester".

Exactly what is this device?

DVD Power/Control Connector Pinout

Note: The motherboard uses a 14 pin connector; however, the last 2 pins (13 and 14) are not used.  I'm not sure why a 14 pin connector is present on the motherboard. The DVD drive itself only has 12 pins and the connector is keyed so it can't be installed backwards. The two extra pins on the motherboard would be 13 and 14. A continuation of the 12 shown in the diagram below.

The 

 

[tekflio]

Thanks for the reply.

I share an example of what I mean with 'electronic tester'. (Sorry but I really don't know how to call it.)

In the first two images there are the two connectors tested (front and back of the motherboard): the big one has the flat grey cable (connected also to the hard drive) and I marked with blue (front) and red (back) the incriminated pins. There is also the back of the connector using a yellow cable and I think is the one you are talking about

[KaosEngineer]

A multimeter.  Which value do you have the center dial set to meausre: volts AC or DC, resistance, current, or diode tester.?

 

[tekflio]

7 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

A multimeter.  Which value do you have the center dial set to meausre: volts AC or DC, resistance, current, or diode tester.?

 

I used 'diode tester' value

[tekflio]

I just want to know if it the connector on the motherboard still works. Because if it does, I will substitute the cable and (if the main problem still occurs) the dvd drive.
Is this a correct line of thought ?

[Prehistoricman]

3 hours ago, tekflio said:

I just want to know if it the connector on the motherboard still works. Because if it does, I will substitute the cable and (if the main problem still occurs) the dvd drive.
Is this a correct line of thought ?

With either the diode or resistance test you can test the cable from end to end + the connectors by plugging in both ends and measuring between the solder points for the connectors.

[mangoe]

This issue is most often due to failure of the 33 ohm or 82 ohm resistor arrays (NR601-NR606) on the drive board. If these components fail, the drive may give the system error 11/12, or may allow the system to boot but always give a disc read error.

[8769F]

On 9/23/2022 at 10:59 AM, mangoe said:

This issue is most often due to failure of the 33 ohm or 82 ohm resistor arrays (NR601-NR606) on the drive board. If these components fail, the drive may give the system error 11/12, or may allow the system to boot but always give a disc read error.

 

This is exactly the issue that I ran into this week.  One of the 33 ohm resistors in the NR602 went open and was causing a System 12 message.  I was able to solder in another one with a jumper over the open section and everything is working again.

I was lucky enough to have another drive which was identical that I could get some diode tests against which helped greatly in narrowing down the issue.  I proceeded to take diode readings for the rest of the connectors on the drive, as well as the 1.6 motherboard.  It seems like this could be valuable for future troubleshooting and I am going to start to build a library of these for my use.

Below are my readings for the IDE connector on the DVD drive PCB.  Not sure how the formatting will come across but I'm happy to post other readings if anyone thinks that it's helpful.

DVD - Toshiba SDG-605F H/W:001 Ver. A
CN402 - IDE
40	38	36	34	32	30	28	26	24	22	20	18	16	14	12	10	8	6	4	2
0	0.548	0.547	0.518	0.515	0	OL	0	0	0	OL	0.528	0.528	0.527	0.528	0.528	0.528	0.527	0.528	0
0.519	0.546	0.546	0.545	0.522	0.546	0.522	0.546	0.547	0.515	0	0.527	0.527	0.527	0.527	0.528	0.528	0.528	0.528	0.564
39	37	35	33	31	29	27	25	23	21	19	17	15	13	11	9	7	5	3	1

[Alugard]

Hey guys,

there is a bunch of similar topics here so i don't know which one is better to talk about the issue again but this is about these damn samsung drives. I saw probably 20 of them for the last few years and all are dead = not reading discs right from a start or with a slight delay. At the same time, there is a laser beam which to me means laser is more alive than dead. Tweaking pot doesn't help at all. The issue i think always in drive board, same as with Gamecube. I replaced electrolytic capacitors (5 of them) on 2-3 drives - no help. Checked the resistors arrays - most read fine, some were faulty, i replaced these. But drive still not reading! What else can it be? Any ideas/suggestions on what else to check? There are no leaks or corrosion, some boards look like new. 

[Bowlsnapper]

On 9/5/2022 at 3:59 PM, Prehistoricman said:

With either the diode or resistance test you can test the cable from end to end + the connectors by plugging in both ends and measuring between the solder points for the connectors.

Can multimeter needles fit in the IDE connector holes?

6 hours ago, Alugard said:

Hey guys,

there is a bunch of similar topics here so i don't know which one is better to talk about the issue again but this is about these damn samsung drives. I saw probably 20 of them for the last few years and all are dead = not reading discs right from a start or with a slight delay. At the same time, there is a laser beam which to me means laser is more alive than dead. Tweaking pot doesn't help at all. The issue i think always in drive board, same as with Gamecube. I replaced electrolytic capacitors (5 of them) on 2-3 drives - no help. Checked the resistors arrays - most read fine, some were faulty, i replaced these. But drive still not reading! What else can it be? Any ideas/suggestions on what else to check? There are no leaks or corrosion, some boards look like new. 

Thank you for reviving some of these threads. They're interesting reads.

Just because you can see a beam does not mean that its gain is strong enough to enable reliable tracking. Read up on pot adjustment tips with a multimeter. If anybody has tips on that to help eliminate it as a cause, that would be helpful, I'm sure.