DVD drive counting its last days/hours

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.video.xbox,microsoft.public.xbox (More info?)

Yes, I have the original thompson and it is about to say goodbye to the
cruel world. I am surprised that it lasted this long. I think that can
be attributed to only weekends use for the first few months.

Anyway, I remember someone here had mentioned a similar problem
recently here and I am not able to find the thread to find out what
worked for him. I guess my options are:

1. Try adjusting the pot
2. Buy a new drive and replace
3. Buy a new xbox.
3.1 From Ebay/Store New
3.2 Refurbished
3.3 Pay $80 to MS and get it replaced


I am going to try #1 tonight and I might break it altogether.

What are the things that I should remember while exercising #2? What
did you learn the hard way? What is the preferred drive? How good are
Samsung SD-616T listed at http://stores.ebay.com/BestDealComputer? Will
I be able to play on Live after replacing my drive with any other
drive? Any restrictions on that?


I called 1-800-4MYXBOX yesterday to find out Microsoft's solution to my
problem. It was a funny experience. The guy on the other side insisted
on starting every sentence with " I apologize for that..". I explained
him the problem and told him that I need to try 2-3 times before the
xbox accepts my game or movie. After listening to the whole problem his
first solution was to "switch the xbox off and on and try again." I
told him that I keep doing that and it works eventually and I have
already told him this earlier. Then his next solution was even more
amazing.

" I apologize for that, but have you tried deleting the saved games on
your xbox?"

"No. I cannot do that. I will lose all my games."

"I apologize for that but it is possible that this is caused by a
corrupt game save file"

"Are you telling me that my movie is not starting as there is a corrupt
game file saved somewhere"

"yes"

"wow"

"In the worst case due to a faulty hardware"

"We both know that is the case. I have a thompson DVD drive and it is a
well known fact that they die in a year or two, right?"

"<pause> yes"

" What are my options?"

" You can pay $79.99 by credit or debit card and you can ship it to a
MS service center"

" Where do I have to ship it?"

" In <somewhere>, KY"

" So they are going to replace the drive for me?"

" They will replace the xbox for you."
<No mention of the type of new drive or if they will transfer my game
saves>

" What is the address where I have to ship this?"

" I cannot tell you the exact address unless we receive the payment of
$79.99 by credit or debit card"

" Ok. Thanks for your help"

" I apologize for your problems. Please write down the reference no for
your call ######"

<while driving>" Ok #######. I wrote it down. Thanks"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.video.xbox,microsoft.public.xbox (More info?)

Wurm wrote:

> I have no problems on Xbox live so you dont have to worry about that ( I
> looked into that as well before making the switch).
>
> When replacing the drive, there are a couple mods I had to do to the case to
> get it to fit since it doesnt have the guide holes that the stock drive came
> with. If you've opened up your box before, there is a cylinder on the front
> right of the drive which fits into the casing, this had to be cut off, and
> the corresponding cylinder on the top half of the case needed to be cut off
> as well. After those were removed it fit like a charm.
>
> overall price for the fix was about 90 canadian, I didn't want to buy
> something like this over eBay even though I could have saved a few bucks as


Thanks to Wurm and Papa for the replies.
I am also hesitating about buying the drive on ebay. I might have to do
that eventually but are there other places that sell these drives? I
will be going for the premodded Samsung too. I think I can handle the
small mods that need to be done.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.video.xbox,microsoft.public.xbox (More info?)

"DNA" <susenets2@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1122907168.956622.219640@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Yes, I have the original thompson and it is about to say goodbye to the
> cruel world. I am surprised that it lasted this long. I think that can
> be attributed to only weekends use for the first few months.
>
> Anyway, I remember someone here had mentioned a similar problem
> recently here and I am not able to find the thread to find out what
> worked for him. I guess my options are:
>
> 1. Try adjusting the pot
> 2. Buy a new drive and replace
> 3. Buy a new xbox.
> 3.1 From Ebay/Store New
> 3.2 Refurbished
> 3.3 Pay $80 to MS and get it replaced
>
>
> I am going to try #1 tonight and I might break it altogether.
>
> What are the things that I should remember while exercising #2? What
> did you learn the hard way? What is the preferred drive? How good are
> Samsung SD-616T listed at http://stores.ebay.com/BestDealComputer? Will
> I be able to play on Live after replacing my drive with any other
> drive? Any restrictions on that?
<snip>

I recently replaced my dead philipps drive with a SD616 premodded drive,
works like a charm and the load times on GTA:SA have drastically improved,
takes less than half the time it previously did to boot up. I tried first
boosting my old drive by adjusting the pot, and yeah, it gave me a few extra
hours of gaming but the next day when I tried to boot up GTA it wouldnt work
anymore. My drive did spin, but I could heard that the motor was slipping so
I didnt have much hope for the pot boost anyways.

I have no problems on Xbox live so you dont have to worry about that ( I
looked into that as well before making the switch).

When replacing the drive, there are a couple mods I had to do to the case to
get it to fit since it doesnt have the guide holes that the stock drive came
with. If you've opened up your box before, there is a cylinder on the front
right of the drive which fits into the casing, this had to be cut off, and
the corresponding cylinder on the top half of the case needed to be cut off
as well. After those were removed it fit like a charm.

overall price for the fix was about 90 canadian, I didn't want to buy
something like this over eBay even though I could have saved a few bucks as
I dont trust some dude to ship me sensitive electronics and I would have
prolly been nailed for border charges on top of it all. I wouldn't go with
letting MS fix it, you never know what type of drive they'll put in there,
they may wipe your harddrive (heard horror stories about that), and you know
its gonna take 3 or 4 weeks until you get it back. The entire job took about
45 minutes to do until I was back and playing GTA

HTH!
Wurm

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.video.xbox,microsoft.public.xbox (More info?)

"DNA" <susenets2@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1122917656.537700.12750@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
> Wurm wrote:
>
> > I have no problems on Xbox live so you dont have to worry about that ( I
> > looked into that as well before making the switch).
> >
> > When replacing the drive, there are a couple mods I had to do to the
case to
> > get it to fit since it doesnt have the guide holes that the stock drive
came
> > with. If you've opened up your box before, there is a cylinder on the
front
> > right of the drive which fits into the casing, this had to be cut off,
and
> > the corresponding cylinder on the top half of the case needed to be cut
off
> > as well. After those were removed it fit like a charm.
> >
> > overall price for the fix was about 90 canadian, I didn't want to buy
> > something like this over eBay even though I could have saved a few bucks
as
>
>
> Thanks to Wurm and Papa for the replies.
> I am also hesitating about buying the drive on ebay. I might have to do
> that eventually but are there other places that sell these drives? I
> will be going for the premodded Samsung too. I think I can handle the
> small mods that need to be done.
>

Im sure they are, im up in Montreal and I posted on our local *.general
newsgroups and got a reply almost right away about a store downtown that
sold this type of stuff. Of course depending whereabouts you live this may
be different, but they are out there ).

Make sure that if you buy the Samsung 616 that the store has already
modified the drive to be used in an Xbox, same goes for eBay, I've seen a
couple auctions / store ads that advertise the 616 with a little fine print
disclaimer saying "drive is unmodified, you can do it yourself easily!". I
read through the 616 modding FAQ on xbox scene and it doesnt look too easy
if you ask me.

The case mods that I described are easy as pie, I used a steak knife to cut
through the plastic that needed to be removed ), the hacksaw was a little
big

Wurm

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.video.xbox,microsoft.public.xbox (More info?)

DNA wrote:
> Wurm wrote:
>
>
>>I have no problems on Xbox live so you dont have to worry about that ( I
>>looked into that as well before making the switch).
>>
>>When replacing the drive, there are a couple mods I had to do to the case to
>>get it to fit since it doesnt have the guide holes that the stock drive came
>>with. If you've opened up your box before, there is a cylinder on the front
>>right of the drive which fits into the casing, this had to be cut off, and
>>the corresponding cylinder on the top half of the case needed to be cut off
>>as well. After those were removed it fit like a charm.
>>
>>overall price for the fix was about 90 canadian, I didn't want to buy
>>something like this over eBay even though I could have saved a few bucks as
>
>
>
> Thanks to Wurm and Papa for the replies.
> I am also hesitating about buying the drive on ebay. I might have to do
> that eventually but are there other places that sell these drives? I
> will be going for the premodded Samsung too. I think I can handle the
> small mods that need to be done.

The Llama sells replacement drives:
http://secure.llamma.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=22&osCsid=ecdaf44a9e8af978f070c622c11974fc

You can get a whole case (16) of Thomson drives for $559.00!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.video.xbox,microsoft.public.xbox (More info?)

Wurm wrote:

> <snip>
>
> I recently replaced my dead philipps drive with a SD616 premodded drive,

when you say premodded what exactly does that encompass? adapter for the
power molex for compatibility? Front Bezel changes?I'm curious because I
have a spare LiteOne DVD drive laying around I may need to use (some day).

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.video.xbox (More info?)

solution:

eat a LOT of food
the next day, unscrew the case
desecrate the inside of the xbox with the biggest turd you can manage
reassemble xbox
ship to microsoft headquarters


but seriously, i don't think adjusting the pot will help, though it's
worth a try i guess ... have a look on ebay for a samsung or philips
drive (although those dutch cheapskates are on my blacklist for other
reasons).. there's no difficulty replacing the drive, if you can do it
in a PC it's the same process for the xbox

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.video.xbox (More info?)

oh you were asking about xbox live compatiblity, sorry, i'm almost
certain xbl will have no problem with the new drive, the only thing it
has a sad about is modchips