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View Full Version : There's something wrong with my xbox!



Captain Crunch
11-07-2004, 01:37 PM
I don't know if anything is wrong with it or not, but it hasn't been working exactly how I would like it too lately. I keep getting a bunch of errors saying that the disk isn't the right kind, that it's not clean, etc. It's really weird because I keep my games clean and what is really ******* me off is when I get a new demo disk from OXM i'll put it in and get a message saying it isn't working i'll try again get another message. Try it another time it will actually start up then i'll watch a trailer...it crashes. It doesn't do it as much with my games. Still, though, I run into the same problems that I run into with the demo disk.

Please, help me and give me any suggestion because I want to know what's wrong.

mattgame
11-07-2004, 01:48 PM
Which xbox do you have, which version? I am no expert but there are some guys here who are really good. Welcome to the site!!!

Captain Crunch
11-07-2004, 01:50 PM
Which xbox do you have, which version? I am no expert but there are some guys here who are really good. Welcome to the site!!!

What do you mean what version? There's different versions? I got mine the christmas when it came out.

Xorg
11-07-2004, 01:55 PM
you probably got a thomson drive then

tsrdawg
11-07-2004, 01:56 PM
Echoing THowell, find out whether your dvd player is a samsung, Phillips, or Thomson...
your options are to replace your dvd player or buy a new box...
A cheaper alternative is to clean your xbox with some air and cover your box to minimize the dust buildup...
Oh, and Welcome to XBA...

Captain Crunch
11-07-2004, 02:05 PM
Echoing THowell, find out whether your dvd player is a samsung, Phillips, or Thomson...
your options are to replace your dvd player or buy a new box...
A cheaper alternative is to clean your xbox with some air and cover your box to minimize the dust buildup...
Oh, and Welcome to XBA...

I'll try the clean it with air technique first and if that doesn't work i'll just go out and buy a new xbox.

Variation-XBA
11-07-2004, 02:08 PM
Which Drive do you have? (via this pic)

TheWheelMan
11-07-2004, 02:53 PM
cover the xbox with what a towel or something when your not using it??? it actually seems logical but couldnt that still be risky covering the xbox?

Floodman
11-07-2004, 02:56 PM
Just a side question: Which version is supposedly the best, or longest lasting?

Xorg
11-07-2004, 02:58 PM
I think its the samsung

Captain Crunch
11-07-2004, 04:59 PM
Which Drive do you have? (via this pic)

The Thomson drive is the one I have.

ShaDovV RyDer
11-07-2004, 05:17 PM
Since you got the Thompson you are in a pickle...the air will make it better for a bit but your Xbox won't last too much longer...especially since you have had it so long. If I were you I would go get a new Xbox...and quick because Halo 2 is coming SON!!!

Captain Crunch
11-07-2004, 10:29 PM
Since you got the Thompson you are in a pickle...the air will make it better for a bit but your Xbox won't last too much longer...especially since you have had it so long. If I were you I would go get a new Xbox...and quick because Halo 2 is coming SON!!!

Well...why wouldn't it last? And if Thompson drives suck so much why did Microsoft use them for the xbox? I would at least like my Xbox to last more than 5 years. Hell, I've played Ataris that can read video games better than my Xbox can.

Reclaimer
11-07-2004, 10:49 PM
Can your Xbox play regular games alright?

Here's the deal. Yes, there is a verified problem with the Thomson drives from the first run. Thomson drives that come out now are much better than the first run.

You can A) Call 1-800-4my-xbox and try to get it fixed.
B) find a vendor that sells just the laser head for the Thomson drive and make the swap yourself
C) Get a newer Xbox.

Maintenance such as the air dusting and using DVD cleaners do work but they only delay the inevitable in my opinion. I have a first run Xbox with the Thomson drive and it did throw me a lot of DDE's. Cleaning it seems to help and it did reduce the frequency of the DDE's but the still happen.

As for the OXM demo disc problems, I read awhile back that the demo discs leave a small file on your Xbox's hard drive. Almost like a cookie. It's viewable when you view the contents of your hard drive, such as going through your saved games.
I had read that these things tend to stack up after awhile and cause conflicts with the demo discs as they accrue on your hard drive. Go in and delete them and see if that eases up on your demo disc play.

-----

A word about the laser head swap. You can't just change the entire unit out yourself. There is all kinds of embedded security coding to prevent that. But, I had seen on Ebay someone selling just the laser head piece that just screws and plugs in.
This doesn't circumvent security since you are keeping the actual drive in and you can make the swap without actually getting into the Xbox Modding situation that's foribben to talk about here. From what I understand, it's actually the laser reader from the newest version of the Thomson drive and that single piece doesn't cause a conflict with the rest of the drive.

Keep in mind that opening your Xbox voids whatever warranty you have left including a store warranty should you had purchased that. Not only that but Microsoft won't deal with you if you opened your Xbox, decided that it wasn't going to happen, then called them on it. So choose your fate accordingly.

-----

Food for thought: There was a class action lawsuit involved with that faulty head thing but I don't have any details on that.

dances with broom sticks
11-07-2004, 11:07 PM
If its just the OXM discs, wasn't there something about boiling the discs? I seem to remember people swearing that fixed problems. Do a search for that (on here, or on google) and read up about it. I never tried it (don't play oxm demos) so I can't say if it works or not.

Xer0Mercy
11-07-2004, 11:47 PM
I would suggest just replacing the DVD Drive. Not only is it cheaper than getting a whole new Xbox, but you can keep all your saved files and such.

l Maximus l
11-07-2004, 11:56 PM
This happens quite often to people that have less than 10 posts here at XBoxAddict...

But, eh...welcome aboard anyhow ;)

Captain Crunch
11-08-2004, 03:42 PM
I would suggest just replacing the DVD Drive. Not only is it cheaper than getting a whole new Xbox, but you can keep all your saved files and such.

I'll probably do that. Reclaimer, my Xbox games run fine I guess...I get a few DDEs every now and then, other than that they run good. Except for Morrowind GOTY. I always find my self wanting to beat the hell out of that game becuase of the errors. It's mostly demo disk that cause all the frustration, so I'll try to delete them off my harddrive and hope that it helps.

Thanks.

Pathogen
11-08-2004, 03:47 PM
Does the new Crystal Xbox have a good drive? I've been tempted to buy one, but I won't be buying it if the DVD drive is crap.

batman46st
11-08-2004, 05:31 PM
here u go friend and umm dont spray it with that air in a can thing cause i herd it does nothing but make things worst if u dont open ur box anyways here http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Repairs/xbox_dvd_repair.htm

Captain Crunch
11-08-2004, 06:27 PM
here u go friend and umm dont spray it with that air in a can thing cause i herd it does nothing but make things worst if u dont open ur box anyways here http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Repairs/xbox_dvd_repair.htm

Well...I was going to take the cover off the Xbox then spray some canned air into it. That surely wouldn't hurt it.

Reclaimer
11-08-2004, 07:21 PM
Well...I was going to take the cover off the Xbox then spray some canned air into it. That surely wouldn't hurt it.


That shouldn't be a problem. I do that all the time.

Captain Crunch
11-08-2004, 09:25 PM
That shouldn't be a problem. I do that all the time.

Does the performance enhance after you do it? That could just be the problem...too much dust in my Xbox.

OC Noob
01-07-2005, 09:04 PM
Is that stuff about swapping drive total BS or can you really not swap the DVD drives?

My Thompson has finally fail on 2 games and I'd rather replace the whole drive. Seems kind of pointless to just replace the laser when I can replace the whole drive for $10 more.

Anyway, can you swap this for the old Thompson?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20385&item=8159660355&rd=1


Thanks.


ps I've build and modded many computers, so the taking apart and putting back togather won't be a problem. I just need to know if there are really security measure MS took to prevent people from swapping drives.

armyof_one/ltd
01-07-2005, 10:30 PM
Captain, My Xbox is also a thomson drive and is around the age of yours but mine began falling apart some months ago with the dirty disc error stuff, we sent it to get cleaned because it was pissin us off and because the vent sounded more like a refrigerator. Long story short we have to prey to almost every god and let the frikkin thing heat up to play our games, just to tell ya that I havenĀ“t played Splinter Cell 1 for more than a year just because the f'in box doesn't wotk.

Buy.A.New.One.

Make it a crystal version, it looks cool. :whistle:

Frink
01-09-2005, 02:34 PM
A word about the laser head swap. You can't just change the entire unit out yourself. There is all kinds of embedded security coding to prevent that. But, I had seen on Ebay someone selling just the laser head piece that just screws and plugs in.
This doesn't circumvent security since you are keeping the actual drive in and you can make the swap without actually getting into the Xbox Modding situation that's foribben to talk about here. From what I understand, it's actually the laser reader from the newest version of the Thomson drive and that single piece doesn't cause a conflict with the rest of the drive.

Keep in mind that opening your Xbox voids whatever warranty you have left including a store warranty should you had purchased that. Not only that but Microsoft won't deal with you if you opened your Xbox, decided that it wasn't going to happen, then called them on it. So choose your fate accordingly.Reclaimer, you are thinking of the hard drive. The Xbox hard drive is locked as a security measure so that only that hard drive can be used on that motherboard. The DVD drives are just standard run of the mill DVD drives with modded firmware and a speical power connection. If you pick up a new drive on eBay you should be just fine replacing your current drive with it. Drives such as the Samsung go for a hefty price, however. If you are willing to risk voiding your warranty that would be my suggestion.

However, if you are particularily saavy with electronics, you could possibly fix the drive yourself. Supposedly Microsoft is fixing the drives sent into them, rather than replacing them. A member of a rather popular Xbox community opened one of these drives after coming back from Microsoft and found that the only difference was an added resistor. This fix has worked for a couple of people that have tried it, so if you want to extend the life of your drive (no one knows for exactly how long) you can do it extremely easily if you know your way around a soldering iron. You really can't beat the price (resistors are dirt cheap...we're talking pennies). I attached one of a series of three pictures showing Microsoft's fix, if anyone is intersted I'll upload the rest. I apologize for the quality, I didn't take them.

MasterChief21
01-09-2005, 03:29 PM
I don't know if anything is wrong with it or not, but it hasn't been working exactly how I would like it too lately. I keep getting a bunch of errors saying that the disk isn't the right kind, that it's not clean, etc. It's really weird because I keep my games clean and what is really ******* me off is when I get a new demo disk from OXM i'll put it in and get a message saying it isn't working i'll try again get another message. Try it another time it will actually start up then i'll watch a trailer...it crashes. It doesn't do it as much with my games. Still, though, I run into the same problems that I run into with the demo disk.

Please, help me and give me any suggestion because I want to know what's wrong.

same exact thing happened to me, u need to get it fixed, call 18004myxbox and tell them they will tell u whats wrong and stuff, as a matter of fact i am waiting for my xbox to come back in the mail. :)