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XBOX Chipped v1.6 with broken DVD drive

deadlegion

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I was looking through some junk I've got stored, pulled out a couple of consoles. One v1.6 that's chipped and another older version (virgin with Thomson DVD) that's had clock cap leak.
Pulled the clock cap and cleaned up. Will test that older unit later...

So the v1.6 has a faulty Hitachi-LG DVD.
Opened it up and the tray gear is stripped underneath, the tray will open/close but console still thinks the tray is open and the lens assembly won't raise without manual assistance.
I don't have a spare part.
Swapped in the Thomson drive from the other console and that works.
Then I hooked up a PC DVD drive (left broken H-L hooked up to power) with molex splitter and I can boot backups only (I was aware this would be the case as I have done this in the past).

I read something on reddit about flashing and modding PC DVD to read retail discs, but I'm sure I read years ago there being more drives that could be modded and flashed... although maybe I'm just remembering incorrectly.

Does anybody here have any more info (or can point me in the right direction) about modding PC DVD drives to be fully functional?

Any help would be appreciated :)
 

deadlegion

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The only Xbox DVD drives I have are in consoles. So yeah, I would have to sacrifice a retail console.
Honestly I'm surprised the Thomson drive still works, I got both of these consoles for nothing.
People want money for dead Xbox consoles here now, and because they're dead there's no way of knowing if the DVD drives are still functional before purchasing.

So finding a replacement drive is impossible, unless I buy another working console. Which kinda defeats the purpose.
I'm not aware of any domestic source of bare DVD drives. Years ago yes, but not now.
 

bart_simpson

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Got pictures of the broken gear on the Hitachi-LG DVD drive i used to have one of them drives and was a lot better than some others in my experience.
 

deadlegion

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No, unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the stripped teeth and the drive is all back together in the console, so it will still function using the PC DVD drive (sitting on top).
It's the large gear with 3 sets of teeth on it. The smaller set of teeth underneath have been stripped, I can guess some idiot tried to get a disc out of the drive at some point without using the manual tray eject pinhole as there are also obvious signs a knife or some such has been used (top of tray bezel has gouge marks).

If this was a fairly standard gear I would try to rebuild the teeth, but the larger diameter center bit kinda prevents that method of repair.

To get the gear out you need to remove the drive tray and also 1 pulley.

I don't have a decent camera anyway. My phone is just cheap old Chinese crap.

Yeah these are usually good drives, I have another chipped v1.6 here with the same DVD drive that I have had for many years (bought it new) and it still works fine.

Guess it just proves some people can wreck anything if they don't know what they're doing :LOL:
 

deadlegion

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So xbins section on the-eye.eu has philips firmware, which is something I don't recall coming across before.
Did some more reading and saw this on xboxdevwiki:

PHILIPS VAD6035/21​


Also named: VAD6011/21 appears to have no brand or part number on its large main controller, might be Cirrus Logic based on its size and use of a Philips secondary smaller MCU. flash might be a 39SF020A from SST. The laser ribbon cable connector is different for its various revisions, a detail one must take into account when swapping controller boards.

There should be a tutorial on how to convert a PC DVD-ROM drive Pioneer 500M with the Philips firmware to be an Xbox DVD-ROM drive.

Does anybody have any information about flashing a Pioneer DVD-500M?
 

Druid II

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Speaking of xbox modding, anyone has a guide for swapping HDDs? I have an old 1.6 crystal that has the DVD not opening, probably just a worn out belt, but I'd rather just slap in a IDE to SATA converter and a 1tb 2.5" HDD and prefill it with games. But I don't know how to do this in a way that keeps all the modded custom junk inside intact. Is it just a case of copying the partitions or is there some more setup involved? Ideally I'd want to copy the games on the PC side too, since 100mbit ftp is very slow.
 

PrOfUnD Darkness

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Speaking of xbox modding, anyone has a guide for swapping HDDs? I have an old 1.6 crystal that has the DVD not opening, probably just a worn out belt, but I'd rather just slap in a IDE to SATA converter and a 1tb 2.5" HDD and prefill it with games. But I don't know how to do this in a way that keeps all the modded custom junk inside intact. Is it just a case of copying the partitions or is there some more setup involved? Ideally I'd want to copy the games on the PC side too, since 100mbit ftp is very slow.
You have to find a way to boot Chimp, and it will allow you to switch the dvd drive with a new hard drive and copy the partitions. Make sure the new hard drive can be locked.
 

Druid II

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Sounds simple enough. The console can boot backups and has some form of EvoX on it currently. I could upload games via ftp and play them, so hopefully that works with Chimp too.

Make sure the new hard drive can be locked.
I don't know what that means.
 

deadlegion

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Sounds simple enough. The console can boot backups and has some form of EvoX on it currently. I could upload games via ftp and play them, so hopefully that works with Chimp too.


I don't know what that means.
If you have a modchip you don't need to worry about locking hard drives :)
What do you mean about keeping all the modded junk inside? You really need to clone the hard drive?
I usually just throw a new hard drive in and create a fresh setup. You don't need chimp or anything to do that if you have a modchip. You just need a working DVD drive and something like Slayers (or whatever) installer disc.

Edit:
As for the DVD drive not opening, yeah maybe just a bad belt (hopefully anyway, mine has a good belt but the gear has stripped teeth). Have a look online and grab a 10 pack of Xbox 360 drive belts, they will work (although I haven't done that with every single DVD drive available I'm just assuming it will be the right fit for all original Xbox DVD drives). 10 pack doesn't cost much, you might be able to find 1 or 2 as a purchase but buying 10 is better value for money without spending anything worth worrying about.
 

Druid II

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The machine originally belonged to my sister, I want to keep all the data they had in there. I just want to expand it to be able to hold more games on the HDD, I don't want to bother burning discs either when there's a HDD option. I already played PD Orta from the HDD before (with the 480p fix for the 1.6 encoder), so I know it can do that. Also, I have zero knowledge on how to set it up, and it already does everything it needs to.

I just need it to have more leg room, without rocking the boat.

the DVD drive was already stuck about ten years ago, but a good whack on the top opened it up, after which it worked fine. Last time I checked it refused to open up entirely, which is when I opted to upload some games on it, but the HDD was I think only 6GB (and pretty loud too). I'm thinking it's just the belt, but I honestly don't care about repairing it, loading games from HDD is so much easier.
 

deadlegion

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If you're changing to SATA you'll need a PATA/SATA adapter that works (not all do). There are cheap ones that do work but some don't, also some of the cheap adapters can be shoddy quality. Startech adapters are usually more expensive but I've never tried one myself (some people say they work and others don't so idk about them). You'll need to pull out the old Xbox 40 wire PATA cable and use an 80 wire cable, you need to find a cable that's the right length as a lot of the cheaper ones are too short for the job. A way around that is to use the shorter 80 wire PATA cable and not have the adapter attached to the SATA drive, you use SATA extension cables instead. SATA adapter mounted on drive; you need to insulate the adapter so it won't short pins on body of hard drive.

For modchip, as I said; locking hard drive isn't needed. You might be able to clone via PC but obviously that would need a method of hooking a PATA drive to your PC.
 

Druid II

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I have a fair share of old hardware, if 80-pin PATA is the standard 3-prong cable then I have a bunch of those. Since I want to put in a 2.5" drive, there should be enough extra space for a longer cable/insulation.

So can you clone with a PC and just enlarge the E partition and copy over stuff into it? I don't know what partitions do Xbox drives use. Having a PC with IDE connection is not a problem, other than that it runs on Windows XP.

Optimally I'd just take the old drive out, clone it with macrium reflect, enlarge the E drive, copy on some games, then put it back in the Xbox.
 

deadlegion

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The Xbox PATA/IDE cable is 40 wire.
If you compare that with other PATA cables you have (assuming you already have an 80 wire there somewhere) you should easily notice the difference.

As you said you don't care about the DVD drive, it's possible to replace that with another hard drive. 2 hard drives :)
Easiest method is to strip the PCB out of the DVD drive so it can still be hooked up with the smaller cable (power and drive sense) running to the motherboard.
Mount that PCB above the extra hard drive. PCB should be insulated adequately of course to prevent any shorts.
Molex Y splitter will be needed to split power to both hard drives.

Above method should be fine as long as you take care protecting the bare PCB. I've hooked up PC DVD drives to a few chipped consoles just to read backup discs and installers, but I just sit the PC drive on top of the Xbox DVD with case open. There's no problem leaving the Xbox DVD hooked up to power/sense cable and using PATA cable with another drive unit.

A more complicated method involves removing the entire DVD and using a No DVD hack bios, plus some mods. I wouldn't suggest this method as I have never tried it myself. I have read that if you don't do this mod correctly you can blow the ethernet port o_O
Quoting Rocky5 below (info taken from another site):

Yes a flashed TSOP, with a No DVD Hack (I use Ind-Bios 5004) & bridging Pin 5/6 to ground & Pin 7 to 3.3v will give you what you want.

You could also use a 10kΩ resistor to drop the 5v to 3.3v on Pin 10 & a 20kΩ resistors on Pin 3 that way it's an all in 1 solution.

+5v (Pin 10) -- 10kΩ -- + (Pin 7) + -- 20kΩ -- GND (Pin 3)

The above is what Google says to do, to drop 5v to 3.3v.
 

PrOfUnD Darkness

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If you have a modchip you don't need to worry about locking hard drives :)
What do you mean about keeping all the modded junk inside? You really need to clone the hard drive?
I usually just throw a new hard drive in and create a fresh setup. You don't need chimp or anything to do that if you have a modchip. You just need a working DVD drive and something like Slayers (or whatever) installer disc.

Edit:
As for the DVD drive not opening, yeah maybe just a bad belt (hopefully anyway, mine has a good belt but the gear has stripped teeth). Have a look online and grab a 10 pack of Xbox 360 drive belts, they will work (although I haven't done that with every single DVD drive available I'm just assuming it will be the right fit for all original Xbox DVD drives). 10 pack doesn't cost much, you might be able to find 1 or 2 as a purchase but buying 10 is better value for money without spending anything worth worrying about.
Check the dvd drive model and buy the right belt from console5, different models have different belt sizes, I found that in the hard way.
 

deadlegion

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Check the dvd drive model and buy the right belt from console5, different models have different belt sizes, I found that in the hard way.
I'm not ordering some belts from the US. Shipping prices are crazy and stuff gets lost.
I can get the 360 belts locally for pocket change. Not that I need one anyway.
 

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