Replacement Drives And Soldering The Nme 1.2, In need of help from someone experienced Options

[Diminish]

Hello all, ive just recieved the Nme 1.2 that i ordered and attempted to install it after doing quite abit of reading on the installation process and soldering techniques in general. I have a hitachi drive, and i assume it would be the first model as i got my xbox on release.

I was just wondering how hard you guys found it soldering the wires to the Hitachi DVD Drive chip and how much experience you have with a soldering iron. I was using an 0.2 mm tip with 0.71mm solder and found it nearly impossible to solder any wires onto their respective places (I was trying the ABCDEFGHI wires, which are bunched closely together). Is this just because i need more practice or am i perhaps using the wrong sized tools for the job? I think i managed three wires soldered, but always ended up losing some when cleaning up my solder (it hit the joint and set the wire free).

My main method was to tin the wire with abit of extra solder on the end, then try to hold the wire in place and let the solder on the wire already to heat up and adhere, perhaps adding a spot more solder afterwards to make the joint stronger. This method however didnt work for me very well, which brings me to my second question

Replacing a broken dvd drive...

One of the actual metallic spots where i was to solder the wires to on the hitachi drive board actually broke off of the board after hours of my inexperienced abuse. It stopped registering discs in the drive as a result. I was wondering how easy it would be for me to get a replacement drive for my 360. I was hoping to be able to get one of the samsungs, as it looks alot easier to install the nme 1.2 chip on those. Would any of you more experienced members be able to help me out with the process i would need to take to replace my DVD drive, and if it would be plausible to replace it with a samsung instead of a hitachi?

Thanks in advance

[Diminish]

I have since found out the method for replacing a drive, and that a samsung will work in all xbox360's. The only question i have besides the questions on soldering techniques i had earlier was will the MS25 samsung drive work in all xbox's, or will i need to consider a different model. Apologies for being so noob, but im just hoping to get my xbox back online asap

[gamerjoe]

as long as you spoof your firmware correctly, you should have no problems with the samsung MS25. MAKE SURE YOU COPY YOUR ORIG.BIN file and DONT LOSE IT!! I would use xtreme firmware insert your key and then add your chip, now you can play orig, xtreme, and NME discs I did it.... IT WORKS

[djgota]

as long as you spoof your firmware correctly, you should have no problems with the samsung MS25. MAKE SURE YOU COPY YOUR ORIG.BIN file and DONT LOSE IT!! I would use xtreme firmware insert your key and then add your chip, now you can play orig, xtreme, and NME discs I did it.... IT WORKS

Ok... but if by any means you didn´t spoof your ORIG.BIN or lost it and made the same mistake Diminish made... (broke the MB of your hitachi) is there any way to replace the drive with a new one?

Please if anyone could help me...