Xbox 360 Throws The Disk Off The Spindle! Options

[neo_on]

I tried the POT trick on my xbox 360 and I tried playing a disk.. and the xbox started throwing the disc off the spindle! How do I rectify this?









That is how it happens in a sequence. For those who would like to watch the actual video, here it is.

[itwontfixitself]

You need to have the cover of the drive on or the metal spindle top from the cover of the drive on top of the disc over the spindle or there is nothing to hold the disc in place.

This post has been edited by itwontfixitself: Apr 29 2012, 07:55 PM

[canyonnehastings]

Oops, I suggested POT tweaking in your other thread before I saw this one. I apologize.

Yes there is a magnet in the cover of the DVD drive that keeps the disc on the spindle. You can remove that or just pop the cover on.

[neo_on]

Tried with the spindle top removed from the dvd cover and placed on the disc. Still no luck
Here's what it looks like (the spinner is thrown off as well)











Here's the video:

video

[canyonnehastings]

Tried with the spindle top removed from the dvd cover and placed on the disc. Still no luck
Here's what it looks like (the spinner is thrown off as well)











Here's the video:

video

When you take that cover off, there are two parts. The one you have there is just the plastic I think, you need to reconnect it to the magnet and then retry. You could just put it back on the DVD drive lid and put that whole thing on to test, but I'm guessing you've done that. In that case you may have tweaked the POT too much if it didn't read the games. The best results are found when you use a multimeter to measure resistance, doing it blind can ruin the laser. Only extremely small increments should be used when tweaking. Much smaller than you'd ever expect. Like 1/100th of a turn lol.

[neo_on]

When you take that cover off, there are two parts. The one you have there is just the plastic I think, you need to reconnect it to the magnet and then retry. You could just put it back on the DVD drive lid and put that whole thing on to test, but I'm guessing you've done that. In that case you may have tweaked the POT too much if it didn't read the games. The best results are found when you use a multimeter to measure resistance, doing it blind can ruin the laser. Only extremely small increments should be used when tweaking. Much smaller than you'd ever expect. Like 1/100th of a turn lol.

Yes. I've tried it with the DVD drive lid on - the disk gets thrown off and then it gets stuck inside the drive.
So, there is something very basic going wrong with the way I've assembled things back.

About, turning the POT - I did use a multimeter, fine tuned turns and it is set somewhere between 3.0 > 3.4
So, its not the laser that is screwing up things. Its something else - I cannot figure out what it is

[canyonnehastings]

Yes. I've tried it with the DVD drive lid on - the disk gets thrown off and then it gets stuck inside the drive.
So, there is something very basic going wrong with the way I've assembled things back.

About, turning the POT - I did use a multimeter, fine tuned turns and it is set somewhere between 3.0 > 3.4
So, its not the laser that is screwing up things. Its something else - I cannot figure out what it is

Keep in mind that not all lasers are the same and some perform better with much higher POTs than others. The 3.0 reading is just the lowest recommended resistance.


Well you gotta make sure that the magnet is clinging to the spindle. If it doesn't stick to it like a magnet, you have an issue.

The magnet holds the disc in place while it spins. Is it clinging like a magnet? If it is, then I'm baffled and maybe you somehow tweaked the spindle motor's resistance too haha (joking, but plausible).

Keep in mind you had to twist and remove the magnet from the drive lid. You will have to twist both parts back together before it will cling to the spindle and keep the disc on.

EDIT: yeah after looking at your pics and video again, you don't have the second part of the magnetic piece twisted on. You gotta connect that before it will hold any games in place.

This post has been edited by canyonnehastings: Apr 30 2012, 06:34 AM

[neo_on]

Keep in mind that not all lasers are the same and some perform better with much higher POTs than others. The 3.0 reading is just the lowest recommended resistance.
Well you gotta make sure that the magnet is clinging to the spindle. If it doesn't stick to it like a magnet, you have an issue.

The magnet holds the disc in place while it spins. Is it clinging like a magnet? If it is, then I'm baffled and maybe you somehow tweaked the spindle motor's resistance too haha (joking, but plausible).

Keep in mind you had to twist and remove the magnet from the drive lid. You will have to twist both parts back together before it will cling to the spindle and keep the disc on.

EDIT: yeah after looking at your pics and video again, you don't have the second part of the magnetic piece twisted on. You gotta connect that before it will hold any games in place.

canyonnehastings, thank you for your post.
You are correct - I was working under the impression that Toshiba's drive lid would work with Liteon - obviously, that was why I was failing. The magnet/spinner you see in the picture is from a Toshiba drive, but the drive it sits on is a Liteon. You are also right about it not clinging like a magnet - It doesn't, but when I put it back on the Toshiba drive, it does.

I was using the Toshiba spinner/lid on the Liteon coz I could not twist and remove the Liteon lid (I didn't have to twist and remove it for the Toshiba drive). So, I guess, the problem now is that I have to remove the drive lid on the Liteon and sure, it has 2 parts, and it looks like I'll have to twist to remove it, but the part seems to delicate and I tried twisting it but it won't budge. I tried finding videos on this on youtube, but there aren't any for my case

I would like to try with the drive cover on as the last option. but do you have any links to a guide that explains how I should twist and remove the spinner from the drive cover for a Liteon?

[neo_on]

canyonnehastings, thank you for your post.
You are correct - I was working under the impression that Toshiba's drive lid would work with Liteon - obviously, that was why I was failing. The magnet/spinner you see in the picture is from a Toshiba drive, but the drive it sits on is a Liteon. You are also right about it not clinging like a magnet - It doesn't, but when I put it back on the Toshiba drive, it does.

I was using the Toshiba spinner/lid on the Liteon coz I could not twist and remove the Liteon lid (I didn't have to twist and remove it for the Toshiba drive). So, I guess, the problem now is that I have to remove the drive lid on the Liteon and sure, it has 2 parts, and it looks like I'll have to twist to remove it, but the part seems to delicate and I tried twisting it but it won't budge. I tried finding videos on this on youtube, but there aren't any for my case

I would like to try with the drive cover on as the last option. but do you have any links to a guide that explains how I should twist and remove the spinner from the drive cover for a Liteon?

Actually, I found out a few instructions on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEqoEs9PCos

I am trying to remove the magnet using the technique above, but it sucks - It cuts my fingers but won't come out. Wonder why they make them so crappy.

[neo_on]

Actually, I found out a few instructions on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEqoEs9PCos

I am trying to remove the magnet using the technique above, but it sucks - It cuts my fingers but won't come out. Wonder why they make them so crappy.

woohoo!! I did it.. I did it..

I removed the magnet, put the drive back on .. and the POT trick actually WORKS!!!!
I cannot believe that I've not played game (not wanting to buy this unreliable piece of hardware again) in 6 months and this was all I had to do!

Thank you so much for everyone who has replied and helped me out on this adventure! Much appreciated.

[neo_on]

woohoo!! I did it.. I did it..

I removed the magnet, put the drive back on .. and the POT trick actually WORKS!!!!
I cannot believe that I've not played game (not wanting to buy this unreliable piece of hardware again) in 6 months and this was all I had to do!

Thank you so much for everyone who has replied and helped me out on this adventure! Much appreciated.

Ok... so my happiness was short lived. I played on it for like 10 mins, and the console is showing a half red ring (indicator to the console getting hot quickly) - Could this be related to the POT trick? or could it be related to the fact that I am playing the game with the XBOX open (without assembling the drive and other components back in)?

[neo_on]

Ok... so my happiness was short lived. I played on it for like 10 mins, and the console is showing a half red ring (indicator to the console getting hot quickly) - Could this be related to the POT trick? or could it be related to the fact that I am playing the game with the XBOX open (without assembling the drive and other components back in)?

I rested the xbox for an hour..booted it up again, this time the drive was in its enclosure and the xbox not totally assembled. It did not last 5 mins - Same half red ring of death! It doesn't make sense - I can't feel a thing heating up in the xbox in 5 mins. Surely looks like POT trick messed up something. My drive had a setting of 5.6 for the POT, so may be 3.1 is a bad setting, may be I should re adjust it to 4.0 or something? Could it be related to POT at all? or Am I better off assembling the console first and then trying it?

[canyonnehastings]

I rested the xbox for an hour..booted it up again, this time the drive was in its enclosure and the xbox not totally assembled. It did not last 5 mins - Same half red ring of death! It doesn't make sense - I can't feel a thing heating up in the xbox in 5 mins. Surely looks like POT trick messed up something. My drive had a setting of 5.6 for the POT, so may be 3.1 is a bad setting, may be I should re adjust it to 4.0 or something? Could it be related to POT at all? or Am I better off assembling the console first and then trying it?

Hey, don't worry. An overheating Xbox is much better than any of the other error codes and much easier to fix.

And yeah, the twist magnet mechanism does feel cheap and the amount of force you need to twist it off feels like you're going to break the thing, but I have yet to snap one in half doing that.

For the overheating, the drive would not have affected that. You may have bumped the heatsinks or put pressure on them and squeezed out some thermal compound. Make sure your fans are both running and that the white fan shroud is in place.

You will likely have to:

Take everything out of the Xbox, remove the motherboard, remove the x-clamps beneath the motherboard, pull the heatsinks off, clean the thermal paste completely off of the heatsinks and the chips, replace the thermal paste with Arctic Silver 5 or Arctic Silver Ceramique thermal paste (found online or at radio shack), then put the heatsinks back on and put the x-clamps back on.

It would've been a good idea for you to do this anyway because that xbox is so old and the thermal paste is probably all dried up and gross and not doing its job well anymore. If you decide to try this I have a few tips. When trying to get the x-clamps off, although they may be easy to get off because the xbox is old, try not to scratch the motherboard at all while removing them. Once you pry two of the 4 ends of the x-clamp off, you can usually slide the other two off without tools. And for reassembly, then snap back on, but make sure theyre all the way snapped. You only need a verrrrrrrrry thin layer of thermal paste. It just need to cover the metal surfaces of the chips (2 on the GPU and 1 on the CPU).

And on a side note, try to refrain from turning the 360 without the DVD drive plugged in, as people have reported being banned from Xbox Live for this.

Let me know if any of this baffles you.