Xbox DVD drive Question

[dahoseman]

Since an Xbox is actually a computer and I plan on installing Linux, I thought this was a good place to ask about them. I recently received a free Xbox from a friend who knows nothing about computers because he said that "the tray started coming out slow and it stopped reading games". I broke past the prison-style security to get in and check it out (it's months out of warranty) and found that the DVD drive hits disks put into it and scratches them, besides being unable to read them while pressed against them. I checked out a little about them and found that it has the old school Thomson drive. I would like to switch to a Samsung, if possible.

Does anyone know:
1) What might be wrong with it so that I might be able to just fix it?
2) If I can switch it over to a Samsung without problems?
3) Where I get a Samsung SD-616T or SD-616F drive or if another drive is able that I can pickup off of newegg?
4) Where to get the bios flash (I've been told it needs SDG-605B?
5) A place to find the drive already flashed?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[DermicSavage]

www.xbox-scene.com

I cant help ya much, since I've been outta the modding business for about a year now, but that is definetly a Thompson drive, and they all die... If you hound MS about it, they will send you a new dvd drive, but reaplcing the drive voids the warranty(since you are opening up the box)

there is a tut on the above site about putting the samsung drive in there, but it really isnt worth the effort imo unless you are going to chip it

EDIT: on a side note, MS will not send you another thompson, chances are it will be a phillips, but if you have a chance of gettign a samsugn made drive(which can read cd-rs as well as dvds)

 

[dahoseman]

I might have to check into getting MS to get me a new drive. Exactly how do I go about asking them for a new drive? Aren't individuals not supposed to mess with the inner workings anyway?

 

[DermicSavage]

I might have to check into getting MS to get me a new drive. Exactly how do I go about asking them for a new drive? Aren't individuals not supposed to mess with the inner workings anyway?

Just tell them you have an older xbox with a nonworking dvd drive, and that you know those drives were defective out of factory

you may have to battle a bit but in all cases I have heard of, MS caved

 

[r00k]

To get a replacement, simply do a search on ebay for "xbox drive". you can find the good ones already flashed with the correct firmware etc. Micro$lave would probably charge you more than is necessary for a new drive. you can switch to the new drive without any problems (no bios flashing etc.) just plug and go.

 

[DermicSavage]

To get a replacement, simply do a search on ebay for "xbox drive". you can find the good ones already flashed with the correct firmware etc. Micro$lave would probably charge you more than is necessary for a new drive. you can switch to the new drive without any problems (no bios flashing etc.) just plug and go.

i dunno how prices are now, but i was able to sell samsung made drives for around 80 bucks each off ebay that i got by buying broken xboxes(failed mod attempts)

 

[dahoseman]

Dang, $80 is definitely out of the price range, especially considering I've seen an in-store special selling a whole new system with a controller for $120+tax. For $80 I might as well just sell the components, take the money and buy a new one. I hate to use ebay because you quite often have to bid against people who don't know what they're talking about and pay rediculous prices for just about anything to save them 5 minutes of searching. I think I might try my luck with MS and see how that goes. What are the changes of that actually working?