substituting original Xbox DVD drive with PC DVD drive?

[Prehistoricman]

I have a original Samsung drive that is useless due to a dead diode. I looked several times for information online about diode replacement but struggled to find anything, especially for PC drives. The typical approach is just to replace the whole laser assembly. I'm sure the laser can be replaced with some knowledge and effort.

[icanswim70]

9 minutes ago, Prehistoricman said:

I have an original Samsung drive that is useless due to a dead diode. I looked several times for information online about diode replacement but struggled to find anything, especially for PC drives. The typical approach is just to replace the whole laser assembly. I'm sure the laser can be replaced with some knowledge and effort.

Youre correct in theory. But there’s a lot of doubt surrounding replacing the laser assembly. I feel like it’s easier to pop open a laser, remove the diode, google the model number, and pop in the new one than to engineer a new drive in its entirety. Very little knowledge and effort is needed to replace a diode. I do dozens of them in pinball machines all the time. 

[Bowlsnapper]

12 hours ago, icanswim70 said:

As prices of the parts I’m using have soared, I’m now trying to think broader. I just posted about it in my Reddit community, and the gears are turning again. A very brief google revealed most lasers die due to a diode. Why not rip apart the laser, fix the problem and get back to gaming?

I like the enthusiasm swim. Don't let the idea die. Keep the topic going! But, for real though, fuck original drives. If they're functional, I'll use them, but I say we need an option for replacement if they're gonzo... An easily aquireable replacement. Not a rare 150 dollar drive on evilbay or 40 bucks on here if we're lucky and they're listed. OG drives are slow and limited in readability, overall. But man, slower than molasses... 4x speed, if I'm not mistaken?

 

On 2/15/2023 at 10:36 AM, icanswim70 said:

Bingo. Someone is already successfully wiring and installing a sata drive into the console. I personally think we’re a couple wires away. There isn’t a need to reinvent the wheel.

Wait... Are you fucking KIDDING ME? How could I miss this? Any source to info about this? 

Edited May 12, 2023 by Bowlsnapper

[Tartarus]

Awesome to see that this conversation is still going on.. it would be very interesting to see if someone actually get something to work and shares what they've done with people.

[dust08]

I had a sata drive in mine for a while with a generic green sata to ide adapter, for some reason the startech one wouldn't work. Would only read burnt xbox games but you could watch DVDs and play cds in xbmc by adding a line in advancedsettings.xml. Had to use the manual eject button on it and it was buggy to say the least but it worked.

[Bowlsnapper]

18 hours ago, dust08 said:

I had a sata drive in mine for a while with a generic green sata to ide adapter, for some reason the startech one wouldn't work. Would only read burnt xbox games but you could watch DVDs and play cds in xbmc by adding a line in advancedsettings.xml. Had to use the manual eject button on it and it was buggy to say the least but it worked.

Wait. Really? That's kind of a fucking colossal achievement to me. What line did you add in the xml file?

Edited May 13, 2023 by Bowlsnapper

[dust08]

I think it's something like <usepcdvdrom>true</usepcdvdrom> that you have to put: UserData/advancedsettings.xml - XBMC4Xbox. It fixes the always showing tray open or busy and adds a play disc button to xbmc that always shows so no disc auto detect. No other xbox apps will work though just xbmc and I had to try 3 different models of drives before one worked right and then it would still freeze xbmc if you paused a dvd/cd for too long or sometimes it would just freeze regardless after a while couldn't figure out why.

If you put autoplay disc back on in your bios it would boot to the xbe on your burnt disc so you could play burnt games or Hexen/utility disc that way.

If you wanted to boot into linux either the old 2.4 kernel ones or the newer kernel than the drives worked exactly as they would in a normal pc. I was even able to burn disc form linux. I actually preferred using Gentoox Media Center to xbmc as it worked better for media playback, however it only supports the old 137GB max partitioning scheme and you lose you F drive.

[Bowlsnapper]

18 hours ago, dust08 said:

I think it's something like <usepcdvdrom>true</usepcdvdrom> that you have to put: UserData/advancedsettings.xml - XBMC4Xbox. It fixes the always showing tray open or busy and adds a play disc button to xbmc that always shows so no disc auto detect. No other xbox apps will work though just xbmc and I had to try 3 different models of drives before one worked right and then it would still freeze xbmc if you paused a dvd/cd for too long or sometimes it would just freeze regardless after a while couldn't figure out why.

If you put autoplay disc back on in your bios it would boot to the xbe on your burnt disc so you could play burnt games or Hexen/utility disc that way.

If you wanted to boot into linux either the old 2.4 kernel ones or the newer kernel than the drives worked exactly as they would in a normal pc. I was even able to burn disc form linux. I actually preferred using Gentoox Media Center to xbmc as it worked better for media playback, however it only supports the old 137GB max partitioning scheme and you lose you F drive.

WOW. That is amazing. You said you were able to burn discs with Linux? Omfg. That is so incredibly fucking baller. Thank you for sharing with me.

Cool!

[MrSmellyPotato]

I got lucky when I got a Hitachi drive from an Xbox I bought as parts on Ebay. Works great so far.

[Bowlsnapper]

3 hours ago, MrSmellyPotato said:

I got lucky when I got a Hitachi drive from an Xbox I bought as parts on Ebay. Works great so far.

I love it when that turns out to be the case with something I buy. Always seems to be an OG Xbox item for some reason. NEVER anything else.

[icanswim70]

On 5/12/2023 at 7:43 AM, Bowlsnapper said:

I like the enthusiasm swim. Don't let the idea die. Keep the topic going! But, for real though, fuck original drives. If they're functional, I'll use them, but I say we need an option for replacement if they're gonzo... An easily aquireable replacement. Not a rare 150 dollar drive on evilbay or 40 bucks on here if we're lucky and they're listed. OG drives are slow and limited in readability, overall. But man, slower than molasses... 4x speed, if I'm not mistaken?

 

Wait... Are you fucking KIDDING ME? How could I miss this? Any source to info about this? 

One step at a time snapper. Walk first, then try to run. 
 

ANYWAY. 
 

here’s where I’m at -> Let me know if you see anything that looks suspect. 

[icanswim70]

Oops, here’s another angle. 

[Tartarus]

the crunchy looking stuff at the bottom of that diode??

[Tartarus]

or the laser optic whatever you want to call it

[Bowlsnapper]

10 hours ago, icanswim70 said:

Oops, here’s another angle. 

Okay, I wish I was cool enough to say I know what I'm looking at, but I don't. Lol. Spoil it for me.

 

I mean, I know it's drive circuitry, but its significance escapes me.

[icanswim70]

8 hours ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Okay, I wish I was cool enough to say I know what I'm looking at, but I don't. Lol. Spoil it for me.

 

I mean, I know it's drive circuitry, but its significance escapes me.

That’s the diode that has likely died, preventing the laser from reading the disc. 
 

Interestingly, I was able to clean the “crisp” off the traces going to the diode, meaning the traces are salvageable. But it appears the diode is glued in place…

With all this being said, the laser actually looks like a fairly simple concept which I hope translates to easy maintenance. 
 

Here’s the picture of the cleaned traces! 

[Tartarus]

what caused that corrosion to occur?

[Bowlsnapper]

On 5/28/2023 at 3:21 PM, Tartarus said:

what caused that corrosion to occur?

Exactly. What the hell? How is that even possible?

[icanswim70]

Alright, a couple notable things:

- those $&@#ing traces DISINTEGRATE

- Specific to mine sacrificial laser, resistance reads 000-100. DOA. 
 

- every time I hit the legs with my desoldering gun, I was nervous about too much heat hitting the traces, causing another problem. 
 

SO. In order to successfully do this repair, it’s gunna need patience. To get the diode out, the part with the traces needs to be removed completely first. IM DETERMINED. 
 

That being said, I’m not 100% sure what resistance the replacement will need to be. Does anyone know? 
 

There was no model number as I had prayed

[Bowlsnapper]

2 hours ago, icanswim70 said:

Alright, a couple notable things:

- those $&@#ing traces DISINTEGRATE

- Specific to mine sacrificial laser, resistance reads 000-100. DOA. 
 

- every time I hit the legs with my desoldering gun, I was nervous about too much heat hitting the traces, causing another problem. 
 

SO. In order to successfully do this repair, it’s gunna need patience. To get the diode out, the part with the traces needs to be removed completely first. IM DETERMINED. 
 

That being said, I’m not 100% sure what resistance the replacement will need to be. Does anyone know? 
 

There was no model number as I had prayed

Are you replacing the diode on a standard drive, basically trying to see how easy it is to repair these things? The only issue I have with the stock drives is that the read speed is so incredibly slow. If we somehow found a way to fix that, I could use the stock drives all day

 

Oh, and that we probably don't have a great supply of diodes...

[icanswim70]

6 hours ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Are you replacing the diode on a standard drive, basically trying to see how easy it is to repair these things? The only issue I have with the stock drives is that the read speed is so incredibly slow. If we somehow found a way to fix that, I could use the stock drives all day

 

Oh, and that we probably don't have a great supply of diodes...

I know you have a bone to pick with the read speeds. I want to solve the no drive can read game problem first. Once we have a solution then we can work on upgrades. I still think a brand new drive should work. But some people don’t want to think outside the box. Replacement 3 pin diodes are available in abundance; I just need the correct nm value so I don’t short anything. Where’s beuller?!

[icanswim70]

On a side note while I’m hunting for a value: if we took a 360 drive, zeroed the eeprom and installed it in an OG that also had a zeroed eeprom, the console should theoretically accept it, correct? It’d need to be flashed with the OG firmware as well…

 

Also external optical drives has been swimming around my brain. 

Edited June 9, 2023 by icanswim70

[sweetdarkdestiny]

Mainly I prefere to say nothing but, you can't use 360 drives - especially not from the slim's or e's which both would need a full unlocked replacement PCB. And the 360 drives are SATA anyway.

That being said, you would need to wirde up the yellow cable to the PCB of the 360 drive as well. And thee is nothing on/in the OGXBox which reads any ID of the drive. Thats an 360 feature. On the OGXBox side just the HDD is looked through the eeprom in the xbox so, "nulling" the 360 DVD drive key will gain nothing. And ofc coding a new/hacked custom firmware - well ....

Your best bet is an old PC ide drive with panasonic controller. And these are also going to die....

Finaly I'm not to sure what you think an external drive will do different. You could not hook these up to a USB port on the xbox if you should think that.

[icanswim70]

5 minutes ago, sweetdarkdestiny said:

Mainly I prefere to say nothing but, you can't use 360 drives - especially not from the slim's or e's which both would need a full unlocked replacement PCB. And the 360 drives are SATA anyway.

That being said, you would need to wirde up the yellow cable to the PCB of the 360 drive as well. And thee is nothing on/in the OGXBox which reads any ID of the drive. Thats an 360 feature. On the OGXBox side just the HDD is looked through the eeprom in the xbox so, "nulling" the 360 DVD drive key will gain nothing. And ofc coding a new/hacked custom firmware - well ....

Your best bet is an old PC ide drive with panasonic controller. And these are also going to die....

Finaly I'm not to sure what you think an external drive will do different. You could not hook these up to a USB port on the xbox if you should think that.

Early gen 360s are easy to source. They have the yellow 12 pin cable already which is why I’m thinking along these lines. Zeroing the eeprom removes the “married to 360 problem” there’s an eeprom reader available now that can read eeprom an and plug into your computers usb port. It’s well documented that ide to Sata adapters work just fine. I can’t keep having this firmware discussion. OG OPTICAL DRIVE FIRMWARE IS AVAILABLE. You don’t need more unless you want the drive to do something funky like read blue rays as snapper wants. Relocating pins makes sense, and I’m wondering if there’s a voltage problem with a drive manufactured today. Otherwise, we have more resources available to fix this problem, not less. 
 

if you were to come at me with a modded project I’d be putting my efforts into modding the 360 OS to allow blanket backwards compatibility. 
 

For example, when I code a website and have it live for x amount of time, then don’t renew the domain, I don’t build a new website to relaunch my site, I simply register with another domain. The optical drive is the domain and the firmware is the website. Very simple. You may agree, you may not, that’s cool. Moving on. 
 

External drives would be of the same concept. Granted they would need to be rigged up with the 12 pin connector, but could be modified to plug into a board fitted with a usb port. Or a USB to controller port adapter… 

 

hope that clears up the thought process for you.

 

 

 

 

[sweetdarkdestiny]

4 minutes ago, icanswim70 said:

My sql frindly quote

Right, the point with he yellow wire applies only to any other pc DVD drive. 

But again, on the XBox site nothing checks for the number and the xbox isn't even able to tell the drive something about the key. So nulling it is yeah - more or less.  So you would need, if passoible or needed at all, to remove the entire check if for it if the DVD drives  waits for commends. I simply think it's just in the firmware of the xbox but who am I. 

And yes, there is a programmer for 360 drives and I have both of the xecuter versions here. (Bad behavior on my side modding 360 as well). 

And yes, the drive DVD firmware is there but, you know, how you like to flash it to soming whcih isn't able to do anthing with it? The HL drive firmware works on LG drives because of the fact that the controllers are more or less the same (Same for the Samsung mods with samsung firmware) and that the panasonic chips which are on those drives are famous for that they are (Naughty Panasonic.).  And a little hint, you don't need your caps, because the firmware is also on my installer so yeah....

And the USB thing, forget it. It will never work until you find a way to rewrite the xbox os. There is no driver attached for it for the controller ports which are just and only for controller and usb sticks, no matter how ard you try. And tbh. who wants an usb 1.1 speed (for real) DVD when he can simply play from hdd? Let me make a guess here. 1 of 1.000.000 ppl. And even that 1 person (Probably you) will do it 1 time and after that never ever again.

DVD becomes more and more useless simply because of the fact of fatxplorer and anyone can mod an xbox without it. Game DVD's are also die so why? If I need a drive that badly, I hook up a PC Drive for a short run and fine or buy an laser for the samsung or hl drive on ali & co or I buy an replacement xbox for 5-10 bucks. You put more into it to find a solution for something no one realy has a problem with. Would it be nice? Maybe. Is it worth it under any circumstances? ( Let me thing super duper hard) - No.