360 Won't play games, but plays dvds. Need guidance on diagnosis/repairing

[blackmagic01]

I'm looking for some clarification before i dive into buying a dvd drive and starting the repair. i've seen posts that say different things in different places so i was hoping you're knowledge could help. Some sites with advice are old, some comments say one thing. some say another. I wanted to ask the people in the know.

My main questions:
1. Do i need a whole new dvd drive or just a new laser?
2. Is the laser inside the dvd drive and is it better to just change the whole drive?
3. If i get a drive, is it correct that i just need to buy it and flash the drive to solve my issue.


Description of my xbox 360 issue:
My 360 will not play any games but will play dvds. And it will play downloaded game demos off the hard drive. But no games from a disc. My xbox has not red ringed. And it seems to stream fine through tversity. So seems like it's a drive issue.

When a game disc is in the drive but not launched the drives says "play dvd."

When I attempt to play the game the xbox 360 freezes on a white "xbox 360" logo screen.


i believe this is a Toshiba/samsung drive.

I understand that i will have to flash the drive and i have a tutorial, and hopefully i'm smart enough to follow the directions, lol. If i've made any mistakes i'd appreciate some clarification. Thank you.

[Gazcoigne]

just replace the laser cheap and easy to do

[notherbastard]

has it ever played games, or is this a recent development ??

[blackmagic01]

it has always played games. for like two years without much of an issue. this is a very recent development. it happened all of a sudden.

[B1N4RY]

Then it is most likely to be caused by the laser assembly. By the way, nice TV

[blackmagic01]

Oh it's my baby. 50 in Piano black Samsung. It's damn sexy too. lol. I was pretty much delirious with happiness for like 6 months after i bought it.

but to i'll just say damn! if that's the case great. I'm asking because seriously, the majority of postings i've seen said "get a new drive." Then i saw one comment in a blog comment section that said. Replace the laser. And that confused me, especially since the post was in 2007, so i'm asking. plus the laser route is much cheaper and better. I figured i couldn't be that lucky so i better ask you guys.

i'm curious what is telling you that it is the laser and not the whole drive?

[kaienix]

it's reading it as a dvd, like when you put xbox discs into a dvd player. means the laser is having trouble reading, and considering you said been reading games for two years it's porb about time the laser got old, lasers can only read so much media before it becomes damaged anyway, hence why people use dear media for there back ups like verbs, makes the laser last longer.

[blackmagic01]

it's reading it as a dvd, like when you put xbox discs into a dvd player. means the laser is having trouble reading, and considering you said been reading games for two years it's porb about time the laser got old, lasers can only read so much media before it becomes damaged anyway, hence why people use dear media for there back ups like verbs, makes the laser last longer.

I see. Thank you for the response. All of them are informative and expanding my understanding. Thank you. Well it sounds like good news as it will likely cost me a bit less then a new drive. Guess i best hit ebay and start hunting for a laser

[Arakon]

as a temporary fix you can try to clean the laser lense with alcohol and a q-tip. if that improves things, it's very likely that the laser is going.

[blackmagic01]

as a temporary fix you can try to clean the laser lense with alcohol and a q-tip. if that improves things, it's very likely that the laser is going.

i may crack it open tomorrow just to make sure i have the right drive brand and i may test that.

[blackmagic01]

I wanted to thank you all for the information. it's real informative. i'm gonna go with the laser replacement. i'll post if i was successful when i'm done. I'm gonna grab a laser off of ebay. Hey if anybody has a tip of a reputable online dealer for new lasers in the states or good deals let me know. Thanks again for the intelligent responses.

[blackmagic01]

Update: Success!!!

The laser change has worked. had to do it twice because a small amount of solder stayed on the antistatic blob even after i removed it. Actually couldn't find a decent tutorial so i got bored searching and just took the drive apart without one and winged it. Tested on three games and it works fine. only issue now is the drive is all of a sudden screechingly loud when it spins. Much louder then normal. It almost sounds like it's scratching the disc but it's not. i'm going back and tightening stuff. hopefully that works.

[dtrmad2004]

Yeah you'll probably find that now it has a decent laser in it the drive can acheive full speed and the disc clamp pad is worn making that screech "BRRRRR" noise, its the disc slipping under inertia as the drive spins down

It needs to renewed somehow

[combatC0W]

^Agreed

If you replace the spindle then it would probably fix that little annoyance. If it doesnt affect game play or hurt anything it might not be worth messing with, I had a console that would not read games because of this issue.

[blackmagic01]

yeah i tightened everything and it didn't help. sounds like a reasonable explanation. I'm not sure exactly what you guys are referring to. The "disc clamp" and "spindle?" Is that the sort of rubbery part of the dvddrive that i guess grabs the disc? That is the part that meets a the hole in a dvd? Are you both talking about the same thing? kinda sounds like it. I was going to try to install games on my hd but it's small and i can barely fit one game at the moment. i'll have to start deleting some demos. Yeah i'm not spending much more money on this thing so i may just have to live with it. Considering the new noise from the drive i'm now so glad i didn't decide spend money to change the fan. not perfect but at least it's working and playing games.

[combatC0W]

I am speaking of the rubbery thing that the DVD sits and spins on    So just keep an eye on it and I like your attitude, I mean lets face it even the Mona Lisa is falling apart. Nothing is perfect. 

[blackmagic01]

I am speaking of the rubbery thing that the DVD sits and spins on    So just keep an eye on it and I like your attitude, I mean lets face it even the Mona Lisa is falling apart. Nothing is perfect. 

cool that's the part i thought. Yeah i gotta be realistic. It's about three years old according to, a date i saw that if i remember correctly was a build date. And hey, i can't complain too much. I'll let you in on a little secret.  My xbox was given to me as a trade. For what you say a 5 dollar cable. My friend works in the gaming industry and has like 4 and a two dev kits. So he just gave it to me. Oh by the way three of his 360s have somehow crapped out. lol. But when you get the darn thing basically for free it's hard to complain too much after like two years of good use and a little sceatchy drive. Besides seems like a 360 price cut is in the works and possibly a slimmer drive so it was worth it for me to try the cheaper repair. if it didn't work maybe i'd get a new 360 with less wear and a warranty. Besides. if you turn the volume way up on Modern Warfare i can't hear the any noisy drive anyways. lol.

[combatC0W]

Good point. I wouldnt complain either. Wow nice friend giving you an xbox like that  Maybe he can send a broken one my way since he has so many 

[blackmagic01]

was about to ask him to raid them for some spare parts. Didn't though. Found out he put them in storage somewhere though. May see if he's got a spare big hard drive sometime. But he was a writer and they send him all the machines and games from every system free so he can review $#!t. His house used to look like a damn Gamestop at times.