Classic XBox DVD Drive Won't Read Games - HELP!

[Ian J]

We never owned a classic XBox (pre 360 & One) so we were chuffed to pick one up recently very cheap with a load of games (originals).

When we got it home we found out why it was cheap, it won't read discs.

We called into an indie game shop to enquire about a repair, they couldn't offer a repair but did give us another Xbox which they said suffered from overheating.

When we got that XBox home and tried it the tray wouldn't eject and it showed error 11 on the TV.

We tried swapping over the DVD-ROM drives in the hope that we could get one of the machines to work but that didn't solve anything.

Does anyone know of a shop or individual in South Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire that can fix the original XBox, or of anywhere we can get a replacement working DVD-ROM drive?

Are there any other options for using either machine without a working optical drive?

 

[gotwake424]

I'm pretty sure and way to lazy to google this for you right now, but i think the drives are coded to the main board so you can't just swap them over

 

[Klumpen]

Have you asked Microsoft support about a replacement drive?
If you do, please post the replies.

 

[Ian J]

I'm pretty sure and way to lazy to google this for you right now, but i think the drives are coded to the main board so you can't just swap them over

I thought that but Googling round the Hard-Drive is coded to the board but the DVD-ROM just has custom firmware.
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Have you asked Microsoft support about a replacement drive?
If you do, please post the replies.

It would probably be cheaper to get a working machine off eBay.

 

[gotwake424]

I thought that but Googling round the Hard-Drive is coded to the board but the DVD-ROM just has custom firmware.
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It would probably be cheaper to get a working machine off eBay.

Ah, I was just going from memory. I knew something was coded to the main board. Can you hard mod it to play games off the harddrive?

 

[Lao Rebel]

the original xbox is a good console w/many good games. i recently bought an original xbox myself it's still in good working condition. hopefully you can find someone to repair it for you. i live in the states there are many good repair shops around here.

 

[Ian J]

the original xbox is a good console w/many good games. i recently bought an original xbox myself it's still in good working condition. hopefully you can find someone to repair it for you. i live in the states there are many good repair shops around here.

Fingers crossed.

I'm tempted to buy a drive from eBay but if that doesn't fix it I'm just throwing good money after bad.

Plenty of repair places listed near me but they only deal with 360's & newer (PS3, PS4 etc)

 

[Wally]

Pretty sure the drives are firmware locked to play xbox games.

You'll have to soft mod it to get it to work correctly.

 

[liveunderwater]

Pretty sure the drives are firmware locked to play xbox games.

You'll have to soft mod it to get it to work correctly.

How does one go about soft modding the Xbox without using the DVD-ROM for an exploitable game disc?
[doublepost=1463269326,1463267967][/doublepost]Unless we're talking about opening the case anyhow for something like ATA swapping into a PC to write to the XBOX HDD, or flashing TSOP.

 

[Wally]

Yeah that's the only way, XBOXHDM and modifying the software that way, TSOPing really depends on the version of xbox.

It's been years since i've done this, I kinda miss doing it

 

[liveunderwater]

Yeah, a lot has changed since I was modding these machines. I'm tempted to dig mine out.

 

[hitbyambulance]

the Thomson drives for the original Xbox are garbage. i've had several second-hand Xboxes and they've all failed (including the replacements i installed - i live near Redmond, WA so getting replacement drives used to be extremely easy, especially after the 360 was released). if you do get your hands on a replacement, actually swapping it in is very simple.

 

[Ian J]

Both machines I have are Philips drives/

If there is any way I can mod either of them to run software off a hard drive that I can access via ftp that would be excellent.

 

[hitbyambulance]

i have a modded Xbox created from a console with a bad HDD i got for free - i had to get the help of a coworker (who used to contribute to XBMC and dealt in mods for the system) to remove the original chip, reflash it(? i think? i don't believe it had a new chip inserted, but i could be wrong), install a removable socket so the chip could be removed at will (and sticking a replacement HDD in there with XBMC). it was a process requiring tools i don't have, so i have little confidence i could do that again. a softmod may allow you to use a PC DVD drive, but i'm not sure on the details: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/dvddrive.php

 

[___]

the trick is pretty much to hotswap the harddrive to a running pc while causing the xbox to hang showing a dvd drive error by disconnecting it's power source. The harddrive will be left unencrypted then and you can use a bootable cd with a special linux to backup the hash of the encrypted harddrive and permanently unlocking the hdd. Then you can proceed to install the softmod and a bunch of tools so you can boot the xbox and run an ftp server. No more dvd drive needed. The only problem will be the tiny standard hdd. I recently got an xbox with an actual modchip from a work colleague (but it was in pretty prestine condition, so I paid him good) and swapped out the hdd for a 1tb SATA drive utilizing a SATA to IDE converter. It's awesome. I can save all my on dvd games to the console and say good bye to load times, also I downloaded a huge emulator collection with lotsa extra bling (CoinOPs 7)

The new hdd you want to swap in will need to be encrypted with the same key that you have backed up from your original drive (SAVE IT IN A GOOD PLACE!!! If it's lost your xbox is pretty much a door stop...) You should be able to prepare the hdd with your pc and put it into the xbox after you're done without any hot swap trickery now.

Be aware though, that hot swapping disks is not a very safe business. Be sure that you won't use an important computer for the task. I managed to blow my powersupply before while doing a hot swap on an xbox!!! Lotsa shit could potentially go wrong, you could fry the xbox hdd if you drop it, the IDE cables are also very prone to break, so be sure to losen them carefully before turning on the xbox when you want to do the hotswap, if you yank the cable, it might ruin the connector.

Here is a good place to start reading:
http://xboxscene.com/xbox-tutorials.php

they have a bunch of step by step tutorials and I'd recommend picking one and sticking closely to it! cheers and good luck. The sense of accomplishment you'll feel when you've completed the softmod will fill you with a warm tingly sense of eliteness. It's real fun

forgot to mention: you won't be able to install huge hdds without a modchip or tsop flash as you require a modded bios for that. But you should be alright with an old 80gb hdd you might have flying about. That should be plenty for a couple good xbox games and shitloads of emulators.

oh and here is a list of xbox error codes for future reference:
http://forums.afterdawn.com/threads/xbox-error-codes-explained-go-here-first.373255/

afterdown has some pretty good tips and tutorials as well.

 

[Ian J]

That is an awesome post thank you xnopasaranx.

I have a USB to IDE/SATA adaptor that I have used in the past for cloning drives I'll give that a go with the xbox drive on the PC.

I do have an 80Gb IDE drive somewhere too.

 

[Fzero]

Also remember that you should check here first
http://xboxdrives.x-pec.com/?p=list
Before you throw your 80GB IDE in ... make sure it will be supported for locking after




I've got around 20 xbox, and a few of them ready softmod with just the stock drives, but I'm over 100 miles from you.
Not sure if you follow the CoinOPS project much, but fairly recently there was a release of an image only version, so no videos. It allowed for a lot more games to fit onto the stock 8GB drive

I use my main one still loads, love it

 

[Ian J]

Before I attempt to softmod the Xbox would it be worth putting in a modchip instead?

Would it allow us to use a PC DVD-ROM drive, larger Hard-Drive etc etc

We just want to play the games we have and maybe run the odd emulator on the Xbox.

 

[___]

to be honest, I think doing a softmod is your easiest bet. I don't think you'll be able to get a hold of a decent modchip anymore and they are a bitch to solder. Not sure if there were any solderless solutions.

you can use a pc dvdrom if you softmod, too. the only problem is it will never ever read your originals but burnt copies only! Well unless you want to spend stupid amounts on trying to aquire one of the two firmware flash compatible drives for exaggerated prices and then flash those drives to be compliant. apart from that you'll need to get some additional cables to split the power connection from the hdd to the dvdrom as the original xbox dvdroms have some weird proprietary connector for that.

 

[gunrock]

I just fitted a mod chip to my Crystal Limited edition 1.4 Xbox last week. Stuck a 160gb drive and a Samsung drive.

Had to do an LPC rebuild and everything. Suprisingly easy (given my crappy soldering skills), the hardest part was the D0 wire soldering and even that only took three or four goes to get it to stick.