Unusual "Open Tray" Error, 2 Liteon 93450c Drives

[daba210]

Hello all,

After 12-14 hours of troubleshooting and forum crawling I have no option left but to throw in the towel and ask for some help, the situation is as follows;

I've had a 512mb Jasper for quite some time now with a liteon 93450c drive I assumed was dead (Open tray error). I dumped the firmware from that drive using the MRA hack, and then purchased a new 93450c drive from eBay when one became available.

Upon recieving that drive the first thing I noticed was that the original drive information had been covered by a new sticker, along with the part and PLDS numbers, the old drive info said the drive was a liteon 8 series and the new said it was a 9 series. Naturally I was suspicious and so hooked up JF, I got a 9 series reported however when I went to flash the drive with the firmware from the old drive I got a warning about the F/W not matching the drive revision. I try to be cautious about these things so I stopped and performed the MRA hack on the new drive as well, dumping and retrieving it's original firmware and key. Now what's interesting is that the dumped firmware's barcode matches the original barcode and that all serial information is missing. When opening this firmware file JF would give a warning and ask to repair the serial data, which I did and created a new file - fixeddummy.bin

Now on to where the fun begins, as I mentioned before the original drive already exhibited the 'Open Tray' error, and so after a short time I decided it was gubbed and purchased a new one, now having dumped both original firmwares and repaired the traces I flashed the fixeddummy.bin to the new drive after manually spoofing the drive key, the OSIG already matched so I didn't worry about that. When I re-attached the drive to the Xbox it would spin, click a few times, spin again and then display "Open Tray". Now I was really stupid and didn't test this drive when I recieved it, however I thought, "lets try the original firmware, see what happens". JF gave me a warning that the backup didn't match the drive's serial info, I ignored this, erased to get into vendor and then attempted to write the original dump.

At this point JF locked up completely, and not due to the usual causes (drives were not installed, using main internal SATA port on a Via 6421 chipset) but rather JF ONLY locks up when writing this particular firmware. I was able to write the firmware to the drive using DOSFLASH v1.7, again though when I put the drive into the Xbox 360 I got the same issue, except no spinning, no clicking just straight to 'Open Tray'. I thought at this point perhaps the laser had gone, so I removed the drive cover and the laser seemed to be firing fine, and the drive would attempt, for a very short period to spin the disk before giving up.

This seemed indicative of a badly configured potentiometer I thought, so I attempted the infamous pot tweak going from 6.5k to 3.5k in 0.5k and then 0.2k increments to no avail.

I've triple checked my PCB soldering and it seems fine, no shorts and everything that should be connected is giving a glorious 'beeeeeeeeep' on the multimeter continuity test

I'm currently in the process of uploading a high-res video to YouTube which I wll append to this post, showing the soldering, the problem with the drive in the Xbox, the error JF gives along with a general picture of my despair as this Liteon slowing eats hours of my life :/

Anyway guys I know the best of the best are on here, so any suggestions for what I could try I'd be more than happy to oblige, I've just been fortunate enough to come into the possesion of a high-res DSLR so if you require pictures of components/soldering work I'd be happy to oblige.

As usualI did peruse the forums extensively and whilst there are plenty of "Open Tray" threads none seemed related to my problem, hence the new thread creation, my apologies if I somehow missed a similar one elsewhere.

All the best.

D.

[Xb0xGuru]

There are too many variables in here to ascertain at what point you went wrong.

The first one not testing the drive before you started. Right now, you've only two drives and one of them is known to be causing a problem (your original).

The second one is not understanding what you're doing:

"I went to flash the drive with the firmware from the old drive I got a warning about the F/W not matching the drive revision"

It won't as you've got a different drive connected. It's fine. All Lite-on 7/8/9 series drives have EXACTLY the same PCB.

"I try to be cautious about these things so I stopped and performed the MRA hack on the new drive as well, dumping and retrieving it's original firmware and key"

Why on EARTH would you go to all this trouble on a purchased DVD drive? You already have your data from the original, yes? So follow the JF tutorials and erase the drive and write your OFW you got from the MRA. There was absolutely NO need to even open the new drive.

Because of this, everything you do afterwards is now a grey area. You could have damaged ANYTHING on the PCB while trying to MRA it but you won't know for sure.

Take a WORKING DVD drive. Connect it to your Xbox (yep, don't even bother about flashing it etc). Fire it up and put in a DVD Movie. It should play.

If it does, the console is fine.

If you get 'open tray', either the console is the source of the fault or the cables connecting it.

[daba210]

Hi Xb0xGuru thanks for the reply,

Your first assertion I understand, I was simply stating the fact that JF threw that error because both drives are 93450c's so surely it shouldn't throw a F/W mismatch? Part of the reason for the query on here is to investigate this 'white sticker' that's been put ontop of the drive and the fact that the serial data doesn't match, as I've never had this happen before and I'm curious. I wasn't aware that all Liteon 7/8/9's have exactly the same PCB, so are you saying I can load the 93450c F/W onto the spare series 7 liteon I have and it'll work without spoofing? Why is it then that different key extraction techniques are required for different boards? Don't take this as insolence or cheek please, I recognise you know your stuff I'm merely curious.

Second the reason for my opening the drive was to obtain the original F/W, because I'd never seen a drive with two different F/W revisions on it I wanted to be safe, I've done the MRA hack multiple times in the past with no issues so I didn't think there would be a problem here, evidently I was wrong.

I'd also like to know possibly reasons for the original firmware freezing JF as this seems odd (related to mis-matching serial perhaps?) since JF will happily write any other F/W to the drive and DOSFLASH v1.7 has no issues writing the firmware at all.

I've learned quite a bit from this experience but would still like to try to recover the situation before I buy yet another drive, my video is still uploading (2.31 GB) and I'll post its link when complete.

Again thanks for taking the time to reply.

Regards

D.

[Gazcoigne]

Wow what a complete waste of time you have given yourself!!

Why did you think the entire drive was dead just because you got open tray? If the drive ejects it is not dead!! Just means laser is faulty. Ive repaired hundreds of consoles with open tray errors trust me it's just the laser same with ps2 ps3 wii hell anything that uses optical media.

As stated above the liteon 7/8/9 series are all the same the difference is in the firmware loaded onto the chip hence the difference in extraction methods. After dash update 13141 all the fats are flashed to the same fw revision 02510c.

Your problem is most likely down to a worn or faulty laser that could have been replaced at a fraction of the cost and time but hey at least you have learned a good bit about liteon flashing!

Why you ever even considered doing the MRA on a new drive is a mystery you had no need for its fw. Classic case of not enough research before action perhaps you will learn from your experience and spend an hour reading up before you jump in feet first with silly presumptions

Your problem is very easy to solve no need to post videos uet more wasted time and effort no offence but no-one will really care about your flashing problems get over it, it happens especially with via6421 that haven't had drivers disabled.

Grab any working phat liteon and hook it up, fire up JF, load your original drives orig.bin and make the corresponding CFW of your choice (should be lt3.0 for current dash) and flash it to the drive

Job done

[daba210]

Hi Gazcoigne, thanks for the reply,

Very well, I merely posted about the flashing problem because it was only with a particular firmware, the drivers were not installed and it works perfectly for every other drive (hitachi, samsung, benq etc).

As I said the reason for the second MRA was because I was thrown off by the replacement sticker on top of the drive, and the mis-matching serials, which while I now see isn't important I'd still like to find out about, for if it isn't important why does JF allow you to 'repair' bad serials? Those guys are known for completeness though, so perhaps the function is simply added because they could.

I'll do as you say and replace the lasers in both drives, as least now I know 99% what the issue is. As for jumping feet first I feel this is harsh, though after dealing with the proverbial "noob" for years I can appreciate the intolerance of mistakes that has developed, if I were you, I'd be much the same.

As mentioned in the video (part of the reason for the upload, it's almost complete) I mention I do not want to load LT 3.0, or this would probably have been easier, I am trying to make the replacement drive the exact same as the old drive. Now after having recieved both sets of kind advice on here  I realise my approach was completely wrong, and as you say I will learn from it.

Thanks to both of you for your responses, I will first test the original F/W with the spare Liteon 7 series that I have and if that works I will order replacement lasers for the drives. As an addendum I quickly took Xb0xguru's advice this morning and fired up the 7 series in the Xbox with a DVD, it played fine, so I know that it's the drives, and now thanks to Gazgoigne I'm 99% it's the laser giving the issue, I will report back when the problem is sorted (which it will be!) for completeness.

Thanks again.

D.

[Gazcoigne]

look for the original fw files on the internet they are easily found, and load your old orig.bin in as source, then load the same original fw from your drive and spoof it over and see id that solves the issue, perhaps your orig.bin has partial corruption of some kind?

also be wary of lasers bought from ebay, in my experience a lot of sellers sell refurbished lasers as new and they dont last very long.

[daba210]

It's curious how life works sometimes, the thread that I just could not find about a drive clicking when I started this whole debacle I came across while searching for the laser type for the Liteon, for anyone reading this thread I'll include it here;

http://www.ixtreme.net/ixtreme-lt-lite-touch-firmware-phat-support/6297-replacing-93450c-74850c-need-help.html

I've flashed the 7485 with the 93450c's information, and it works perfectly, thanks again to both of you for your help, I'm off now to find out what laser the Liteon requires and good places to buy them so I can, with any luck, resurrect these 2 93450c drives for other consoles. My video finally finished uploading, and if anyone is interested in this 'white sticker' I referenced earlier, or is having similar issues feel free to have a look, I think the main points to take from this debacle would be;

1) Always test your drive upon receipt, if your a tube like me and you don't, how do you know if it even worked to begin with?
2) Liteon 7,8,9 all have the same board and can be used interchangably so long as all the appropriate data is copied across to the new drive.
3) Only utilise the MRA hack on drives that you HAVE to dump if you don't have the new PMT Probe (V3).
4) Open tray errors are caused by; Bad firmware (tray won't eject), Bad laser (disk spins, then stops) or bad traction (see above thread).

The link to my video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIWiIEFWMe0

Once again thanks to all, I hope this thread is of some use to any others with similar problems.

Cheers.

D.

[Gazcoigne]

only use this site for all xbox hacking related info - all the rest just leech from this one and normally get it soooo wrong lol

you dont need to disconnect the laser when flashing ive flashed hundreds of drives with no issues whatsoever its a myth.

all liteon 7/8/9 series and BenQ drives use the exact same laser - HOP 141

and from what i seen in your video.... never touch the laser lens with your fingertip!! no wonder it doesnt work!!

and also pot tweaking is the biggest waste of time just replace the laser!!

good luck!!

[Xb0xGuru]

all liteon 7/8/9 series and BenQ drives use the exact same laser - HOP 141

...apart from those using OPU-5430 lasers. Good job your statement is only partly true...

[Gazcoigne]

...apart from those using OPU-5430 lasers. Good job your statement is only partly true...

never even heard of that laser model and ive flashed/fixed hundreds of liteon/benq drives over the years must be a rare laser type or a cheap china knockoff

ive seen Benq drives that have chinese writing all over them with a different drive id perhaps its in them?

edit: only difference is it has a metal body instead of plastic, and both are interchangeable, does it really matter?

[daba210]

Just thought I'd report back as a matter of courtesy, I replaced both lasers and both drives are now working perfectly, as to the discussion about the lasers as far as I can see they're identical, but as we all know, I'm not an expert :p

http://www.amazon.com/LASER-LENS-HOP-141B-OPU-5430-DRIVE/dp/B001VBD79S

Cheers guys.

D.

[Gazcoigne]

glad you got sorted in the end

happy xboxing!!

see you on live my GT is my name!!