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Home 360 repair

ZephosZephos Climbin in yo ski lifts, snatchin your people up.MichiganRegistered User regular
edited March 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
so i know its not advised yadda yadda but i'm curious since my otherwise good systems disk drive will almost never read games as games the first go around (Usually prompts me to Play DVD)

so i'm curiuos if i'd be able to just swap out for another drive from a different xbox.

Xbox One/360: Penguin McCool
Zephos on

Posts

  • ZephosZephos Climbin in yo ski lifts, snatchin your people up. MichiganRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    it appears the short answer is it wont, and that most drives need flashing, however i found this
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5hdC2kx4-Y

    which is a flashless tutorial... but without personal experience i'm kinda weary of just willy nilly doing this.
    so anyone have experience with this?

    Zephos on
    Xbox One/360: Penguin McCool
  • WillethWilleth Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    How old is your 360? If it's still within three years I'd advise against breaking warranty because it's still covered for the red ring until those three years are up.

    It's also worth calling 1-800-4-MYXBOX to weigh in on how much a repair would cost as opposed to the price of a new disc drive and whatever tools you might need like security screwdrivers to do it yourself. Also, be aware that if MS push a firmware update to check for this kind of unauthorized mod, you may be boned.

    Willeth on
    @vgreminders - Don't miss out on timed events in gaming!
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  • ZephosZephos Climbin in yo ski lifts, snatchin your people up. MichiganRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    its my 2nd system and while its within the 3 years for my particular system i'm assuming that a disk drive might not be worth shipping out for...

    my buddy has a red ringed system with a very close manufacture date i think that is likley to have the same disk drive, so i was kinda hoping i'd be able to use it... which i cant really see why if i dont put that board on the functional disk drive it wouldnt work, the firmware update wouldnt be able to check if its the original laser and disk tray ya know what i mean.

    Zephos on
    Xbox One/360: Penguin McCool
  • WillethWilleth Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I don't understand the weird block people have about sending their systems away. If your friend has a red-ringed system that's within the three year warranty, get that shit replaced. It's free and it's back in just over a week. Hell, if he's doing nothing with it, see if you can have it to fix and send it to them yourself. If there's still a warranty on a broken system that provides a full and free repair or replacement, it's the biggest silly goose move to go at it with a screwdriver in the hope of bodging together a fix when the manufacturer is ready, willing and able.

    As for the disc drive, don't assume the cost. Call and ask. It's a free number.

    Willeth on
    @vgreminders - Don't miss out on timed events in gaming!
    @gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
  • ZephosZephos Climbin in yo ski lifts, snatchin your people up. MichiganRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I've had poor experiences with Microsoft support on multiple occasions.

    I have not called them on this occasion, but my friend, who apparently is telling me now its not a red ring, its a locking up error says the microsoft rep he talked to quoted him a 100 dollar charge, and i'm not sure but i thought i had heard at this point the customer has to pay to ship it to them now.

    Zephos on
    Xbox One/360: Penguin McCool
  • WileyWiley In the dirt.Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I shipped mine off three months ago for a disk tray that wouldn't open. It cost me 100 dollars, but that covered shipping and a one year warranty extension. I got my box back within two weeks.

    Wiley on
    steam_sig.png
  • JJ Rabbit GangmemberRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    My xbox does this exact thing. Never picks up games and plays them as DVDs all the time. The rep wants like £80 for a replacement drive, so I cracked the fucker open and cleaned up the lens with a microfibre cloth. It works better now. Not perfect, but I'm all the richer for it.

    J on
  • RUNN1NGMANRUNN1NGMAN Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Can't flashed firmware on a DVD drive get your console banned?

    RUNN1NGMAN on
  • CasualCasual Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Flap Flap Flap Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    When you send a console back to microsoft not only do you get the repair you also get another year of warranty I think. So you should factor that into your decision.

    Casual on
  • WillethWilleth Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Casual wrote: »
    When you send a console back to microsoft not only do you get the repair you also get another year of warranty I think. So you should factor that into your decision.

    That's not the case. It's thirty days for the new machine, and then it defaults back to your original warranty.

    Willeth on
    @vgreminders - Don't miss out on timed events in gaming!
    @gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
  • ZephosZephos Climbin in yo ski lifts, snatchin your people up. MichiganRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    RUNN1NGMAN wrote: »
    Can't flashed firmware on a DVD drive get your console banned?

    Which i wouldnt be doing provided my buddies bricked console has the same model DVD drive.

    Zephos on
    Xbox One/360: Penguin McCool
  • GoetterdaemmerungGoetterdaemmerung Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Sorry to break the bad news, but a 360 and the drive it ships with share a unique encryption key. You can't replace it with an identical model because the keys wont match. The (modding) approach to switching drives, even without changing the drive model is

    a) read the firmware from the old drive
    b) use some software tool to extract the encryption key from the firmware
    c) read the firmware from the new drive
    d) use some software tool to change the encryption key to key from (b).
    e) flash the new drive's firmware back (with original drive's key)

    Firmware flashing is "dangerous" because microsoft makes an effort to detect modified firmware and do bad things to you. Modifying a firmware to change its encryption key is different from modifying a firmware to play stolen games, but once your modification is detected, I doubt microsoft cares.

    Goetterdaemmerung on
  • SoullessSoupSoullessSoup Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Every drive has a unique code without which it won't work. So no you can't just change the drive.

    SoullessSoup on
  • WileyWiley In the dirt.Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Willeth wrote: »
    Casual wrote: »
    When you send a console back to microsoft not only do you get the repair you also get another year of warranty I think. So you should factor that into your decision.

    That's not the case. It's thirty days for the new machine, and then it defaults back to your original warranty.

    After your origional warranty has expired, if you pay for any repair out of pocket you recieve a one year warranty.

    Wiley on
    steam_sig.png
  • illigillig Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    SoullessSoup wrote: »
    Every drive has a unique code without which it won't work. So no you can't just change the drive.


    but on many drives you can swap the PCB from bad to good drive and reinstall the good drive

    this will only work on same model/revision drives so it's unlikely that your buddy's drive is the same

    illig on
  • WillethWilleth Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Wiley wrote: »
    Willeth wrote: »
    Casual wrote: »
    When you send a console back to microsoft not only do you get the repair you also get another year of warranty I think. So you should factor that into your decision.

    That's not the case. It's thirty days for the new machine, and then it defaults back to your original warranty.

    After your origional warranty has expired, if you pay for any repair out of pocket you recieve a one year warranty.

    Ah, thanks, I wasn't aware of that. My explanation applies to an in-warranty repair.

    Willeth on
    @vgreminders - Don't miss out on timed events in gaming!
    @gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
  • ZephosZephos Climbin in yo ski lifts, snatchin your people up. MichiganRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    illig wrote: »
    SoullessSoup wrote: »
    Every drive has a unique code without which it won't work. So no you can't just change the drive.


    but on many drives you can swap the PCB from bad to good drive and reinstall the good drive

    this will only work on same model/revision drives so it's unlikely that your buddy's drive is the same

    What he said, and since my buddies was manufactured around the same time i thought it'd be a likley shot.

    Zephos on
    Xbox One/360: Penguin McCool
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