Xbox with Thomson Drive

I finally found out what's wrong with my Xbox, which I had taken to a repair shop last week. The guy at the video game repair shop told me that I would need to replace my thomson drive. Question: does anyone here knows if the original Thomson hard drive could be replaced with another kind of hard drive, like a samsung? Coz, he told me that he has to replace it with a new Thomson hard drive and apparently, can't be replaced by another kind of hard drive. Is this true? Just don't see it fitting to pay $80.00 CDN to get it fixed, what with the fragile reputation of the Thomson hard drive and then to see it broken again down the road. I bought this at Best Buy sometime ago last year and I hardly think the system's a year old. I wish their was a way I could replace it with another kind of hard drive that's a bit more durable. Would appreciate to hear from peeps out there who's been through the same frustration... :confused:

Thomson Hard Drive? Thomson DVD-Drives are the main problem not Harddrives... there's a difference. And I don't entirely know if a DVD-Rom drive can be replaced or a HardDrive for that matter (if that is in fact the problem), but best bet is just buy a new one if you are willing to pay for a fix. Just get one of those Halo special edition ones, get an extra controller, game, and maybe if you find a store deal, you can get another game or controller.

I don't know if it's replacable. Thompson's DVD drives (I assume that's what you meant) can be a big problem. A large share of them seem to wear down quickly and way too many of them are downright defective.

Yeah! DVD-Drive is what I meant to say!...thanks. It wouldn't have been so frustrating if my Thomson DVD-drive was having the all too-common problem associated with the Xbox Thomson DVD drive and that's sending out disc error message on screen. My problem was the Xbox system would shut the system's power off completely in the middle of the game, until it got so bad in the end that I couldn't even turn it on for 1 minute, and the whole system's power shuts-off by itself. Try to see whether I have a short somewhere - nope! I even bought another adaptor for it. Tried to clean it with a DVD lens cleaner - nope! That didn't work. And that's why it is so frustrating...why the heck would MS install that cheezy DVD drive when they're aware that they're not of good quality...I sure as heck like to know from MS why... :mad:

DVD-ROMs are most certainly swappable. Your video game repair supplier should be able to get his hands on a Phillips for a similar price and I'd suggest that over the Thomson. The Samsungs are especially nice, but far harder to come by.

hard drives are most certainly swappable. But it has live issues....

I used to work at a video game retailer, and the owner used to (and still does), modifications to console systems.

Swapping hard drives is very common. i dont know abou the dvd drive, if frink says so, id take his word for it.

anyways, the owner of that store never, ever, puts a real game int his dvd drive. And he gets mad when i pop in my original version of soui calibur two. He simply uploads iso's from his pc unto his xbox, and saves games, or rips them, on occasion, to the hard drive, which could fit well over 40 games.

Of course, this pretty much voids yor live privelges. Dont expect to be able to go onlive. One of his cllients tried to do so, and microsoft cancelled his subscription, and sent him a letter that said

"no."

....so yeah. Thats my little story on swapping hard drives...

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Originally Posted by x-box legend

Yeah! DVD-Drive is what I meant to say!...thanks. It wouldn't have been so frustrating if my Thomson DVD-drive was having the all too-common problem associated with the Xbox Thomson DVD drive and that's sending out disc error message on screen. My problem was the Xbox system would shut the system's power off completely in the middle of the game, until it got so bad in the end that I couldn't even turn it on for 1 minute, and the whole system's power shuts-off by itself. Try to see whether I have a short somewhere - nope! I even bought another adaptor for it. Tried to clean it with a DVD lens cleaner - nope! That didn't work. And that's why it is so frustrating...why the heck would MS install that cheezy DVD drive when they're aware that they're not of good quality...I sure as heck like to know from MS why... :mad:

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Like Frink said, the DVD Drives are swappable, but from your description, I am not entirely convinced that is your only problem. I think my biggest concern for you is that if someone is telling you that you can only swap it with another Thompson drive he probably has no business tearing into your XBox. That is entirely untrue. Any XBox dvd drive will fit and a couple of high speed PC DVD drives will work as well.

a thompson can in fact be replaced with a different brand drive. when my thompson crapped out on me..i sent it to microsoft (under warranty) and when i got it back, it had a samsung drive in it. there is absolutly no reason why they cant replace it with another brands. unless he is unable to purchase other brands of drives.

when looking on the internet for xbox parts...you can get a brand new thompson drive for around $30..but the philips and samsung drives are really expensive...$120+...it would be better just to buy a new xbox than buy one of those.

when my friends thomson drive died..he couldnt send it back, because he installed a mod chip..however, he bought a brand new replacement thomoson drive on ebay for $30. installed it himself and was back up and running in no time

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Originally Posted by TheCovenant

Of course, this pretty much voids yor live privelges. Dont expect to be able to go onlive. One of his cllients tried to do so, and microsoft cancelled his subscription, and sent him a letter that said

"no."

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Haha thats awesome... and good! :P

Thanks for all the inputs, guys - actually, this same guy at the video game repair shop even suggested that if I really don't want to spend $80.00 CDN, the best thing to do would be to go to any EB and ask to trade it in, say for the rare see-through green Xbox, to at least justify the fact that I am trading an Xbox for a new Xbox. He even suggested that I keep mum about my troubled Xbox so that I could get a fair trade price. This guy actually thinks that real idiots works at EB and that i'm just going to walk out of their with a new Xbox hands down? I told him that they're going to test it for sure and the minute my system shuts off by itself, i'd probably end up getting less than half as a trade-in price. Damn, I wouldn't mind that green limited edition, though!

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Originally Posted by x-box legend

I finally found out what's wrong with my Xbox, which I had taken to a repair shop last week. The guy at the video game repair shop told me that I would need to replace my thomson drive. Question: does anyone here knows if the original Thomson hard drive could be replaced with another kind of hard drive, like a samsung? Coz, he told me that he has to replace it with a new Thomson hard drive and apparently, can't be replaced by another kind of hard drive. Is this true? Just don't see it fitting to pay $80.00 CDN to get it fixed, what with the fragile reputation of the Thomson hard drive and then to see it broken again down the road. I bought this at Best Buy sometime ago last year and I hardly think the system's a year old. I wish their was a way I could replace it with another kind of hard drive that's a bit more durable. Would appreciate to hear from peeps out there who's been through the same frustration... :confused:

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the guy is an idiot.

u can replace the DVD drive in an xbox to any dvd drive that fits right. PHILLIPS, SAMSUNG or THOMPSON.

Phillips are the worst, Thompson have had problems but are reliable if you clean them one a year. best is samsung. undoubtably the best drive for the xbox. they are damn expensive though. $160 AUD for a brand new samsung off ebay, or $235 AUD for a brand new xbox with the samsung in it.

email me if you have more questions rochey@iprimus.com.au

My thompson has been defective for over a year now, I bought a Samsung Drive but was stupid enough to sell it on. Making a profit though.

Do what I'm gonna do, get a Phillips put in there. They read everything you need it to, and their alot cheaper than Samsungs. I have a few links for places you can get them if want them. But I'm not sure if I can directly link it on XBA, the site is involved in, er, other stuff.

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Phillips are the worst

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Phillips are not the worst at all, they are alot better than thompson drives and read more media. As I recall there was one series that weren't that good but the phillips drives I can get hold of are new and the latest of their kind.

I'm not positive, but I think that it has to be replaced by one of those three, right? I don't know myself. When My Thomson went out, I just replaced it with the exact same one, that way I totally wouldn't have to worry about it not working.

You're supposed to be able to hook it up to like all the way up to a 56x DVD Drive, but you gotta' mod it = BAD!!!!

Just stick with one you know is supported & if you get one that's from their factory for the Xbox (Same Model Number) It'll fit right in your box & you won't have to change the appearance of your box just to get it to fit!

All three Xbox DVD Drives work on any Xbox. It's a matter of getting it in there, disconecting and connecting a few things and done. Nothing else.

Just do a search on Google for XBox DVD Drives, your bound to find a few sites. Their probably mod related, but the drives they sell will be clean and fine, new normaly.