How to mod your Samsung 616F and fit it in your Xbox perfectly

This is my first tutorial and I learn english only in school! But I hope you all will understand this tutorial!

Intro:
There are many tutorials on how to mod a Samsung SD-616 Version T saying you could use the same tutorial to mod a Version F drive. And if someone uses one of those tutorial to a F drive …like me once upon a time… he will notice that the drive won’t work like it should! It took a long time untill someone told me to use ARAKON's tutorial (http://pirate.sparkhost.com/~arakon/samsung/fix.html) and this fix really helped me. Thanks to that guy and ARAKON…
Now you will probably think why am I writing this tut if everything is works?! The reason is that I’ve found a much better and more stable solution! With ARAKON’s mod you have to test each time you cut a piece of the white part in order to leave as much as possible uncut because the drive would never come out anymore untill you do it manually.

There are really many advantages of this solution!
Just in case somebody wants to know them:
- this method is foolproof (no exact cutting necessary)
- the tray will close untill its end
- if tray was closed untill its end, tray wouldn’t come out. This would also happen if you hold your drive upright while closing its tray, because the motor has not to work against the gravity and can turn much faster so the white part moves to much!
- ...



Start:
In this tutorial I’ll only focus on the fix for a Samsung SD-616F, because there are many tutorials explaining the rest!

Steps you should do first:
- Get the tutorial by NIC which is in PDF-Format. It has the headline “Complete Tutorial for Xbox DVD-ROM Replacement using SamSung SD-616T” and the filename is mostly samsung3.pdf. Do everything like explained! Just one thing you should pay attention for: in the tutorial is said that he has done some measuring on the connection of Tray-IN and Tray-OUT signals and he had to change them for his mod. I have done this mod twice and I would say you have to swap these signals always! For the connection to the yellow DVD power cable I’ve taken a small pinheader, connected all the necessary cable on it even 5V, 12V and GND and hot glued it on the backside of my 616F.

Now let’s start the fix:


And that’s all about the greatest fix so far!!

How to fit into an Xbox will follow

nice... but it has been explained many many times B4 (even the pics are the same...lol)

Thank christ someone has updated the tutorial for TWO points to trim, I have had a number of pm's from peeps with F problems due to this 2nd bit of trimming

That second one leaves a little window that stops both switches being activated when tray closes and wasn't covered at first in tutorials. (it confuses the drive and it just locks shut refusing to open)

IMHO the F though a little more work is better than a T coz the F is a tight fit indeed and trimming of the dvd throat/opening on the case needs a little trim on the left side too

BUT - I'd much rather do a F than a T - coz the F is a larger drive, fits so snug in the dvd caddy and really does look like stock drive when bezel is fixed to dvd tray

How to fit a 616F into an Xbox

Intro:
My main target was to keep my Xbox as untouched (=undestroyed) as possible, so I've done all the work on my already modded drive.

First have a look at the reason why the new drive doesn't want to fit:
- First reason are these both "sticks":

- Second reason is at the DVD drive carrier. It's the "stick" at the front left, when you look from the front to your Xbox and also the upper side of this "stick" on the top of the Xbox case (sorry, I've forgotten to take a pic)
- The third thing is the drive himself. The front is just too long.

And these images show you how to fix these problems:

You can clean up everything on the front PCB except the switch and its resistors.



(...pictures say more than words...)

After all you have cut around 3mm on each corner of the tray where formerly the bezel was and make the next level to this place more deeper so the new Xbox bezel can easily put on the tray.
Finally you can screw the new drive at some of its original points (4 on each side and 4 on the under side) to the DVD drive carrier.

How in the world do you get that part out so you can trim it? I'm beating my brains out trying to figure it out. lol....I bet it's something really simple isn't it?

Thanks!

2 big washer type screws at back of the swinging laser bracket dooberry
(getting techy here)

undo them, then unclip the assembly bits - halfway down on either side - thingy pops up a bit - now pull the carrie assembly backwards a tad so them "prongs" come out of the white plastic slidey dooberry thingy ya gotta cut
(more techy words again)

slide the white plastic dooberry all way to right side and it might come out - that is if you removed the white plastic elbow bit - emergency eject arm dooberry bit
(quite a lot of these dooberry's in there)

think that should work unless i forgot to add a dooberry bit

Sorry, for some reason my edit button won't work. At least I know my own stupidity...it was something simple...READ THE TUTORIAL ON HOW TO TAKE IT APART! hehe. Anyways...I'm having trouble following the edited picture where 2 windows are cut. Am I supposed to completely cut off that short part or what? Does somebody have a picture of this piece already cut...and maybe at a few different angles? It gets hard to see with the whole piece being that white color.

in the pic he may of left a fine slither of plastic still on there so you didn't get a "window" showing through when you cut off the smaller lug

if you cut off the smaller lugfrom where it is against the larger lug you trimmed back 5 or 6mm then you will see the little 3mm square window or hole

look at the plastic bit from the other side and I reckon you will figure out what I'm saying

just take ya time and you will be fine

jeeeeez them tutorials still need a bit of an update perhaps

Pizza Pizz you're awesome for being so quick with the replies

Ok I get what you're saying....trim the larger lug back to it's equal with the smaller lug. After that is done, I want to completely cut off the smaller lug. Do I want a "window" or hole there or do i want to keep that covered?

Basically is the point of this trimming to make it so the shorter of the two switches, a.k.a. the one that gets pushed down by the smaller lug, never gets pushed?

Edit: "white part"-picture



Yes, Pizza Pizz is really a god sent
Thanks to him!!


Leave a thin part, so the hole is covered!


It shall never get pushed when tray is closed!
It it has to be pushed when tray is open!

Hey everybody well I followed the tut except for the hole part.

The smaller switch that is activated when the drive is closed. Now since I did the cutting. It isnt activated at all I just cut off the piece that was making it push down and thus I have a hole.

The hole does not get in the way of the drive closing and opening. so was that second trim so that that switch would get activated at a different time?

Because My drive wolnt read anything now. The eject now works as a charm though.

The drive was reading disc before I had done the cutting.

And the drive has a great laser on it too.

Is it not reading because I moved the laser thing on the 2 metal bars that it sits on shouldnt make a difference right?

Is that smaller switch supposed to be activated at some point. I know its supposed to be activated when the drive is open which is working properly.

The smaller switch is the eject stop switch and there should be a lug right at the very end of the white plastic you trimmed

The larger switch is the tray in stop switch and gets activated ok - the disc or drive spindle should spin when tray goes in

the switches and/or the white plastic have nothing to do with the laser or the drives ability to read a disc - the F - and ONLY F models need the cutting and is to ensure

the drive tray rises correctly - the first bit you cut back 5mm

alas this rise/boost also activated the 2nd switch eject stop which confuses the drive and why many peeps have trouble with the F's closing but refusing to open = the drive is confused as hell with both switches activated - cutting the "window" ensures this 2nd switch no longer gets activated on the tray closed - but will be activating the switch on tray opening by a second lug - looks like an elbow or 1/4 pipe at end of the white plastic mechanism

if this is correct the drive is ejecting fine and should be spinning the dis or drive spindle when tray closes and ejecting

However if the drive is not reading anything then something else must have got knocked ????

Perhaps if using in ya xbox a ready signal wire has been pulled off the pcb

before you go grabbing ya soldering iron a few things to check......

see if the ribbon cable from the pcb to the laser is fitted ok still - be very careful the ribbon lock or latch is very very fragile...

then put the drive back in a pc with the ide lead and see if it reads a "normal" data or audio cd or dvd disc - not xbox xiso coz it won't show up much using a xiso disc in the pc

what I mean is trying to see if any of the signal wires have come adrift in the xbox connection

it should/must work as a dvd drive in the pc recognising discs ok

I really can't think why the drive no longer reads discs coz the plastic cutting has nothing to do with the laser - just they tray aligment/eject mechanism

check the laser and troubleshoot in pc first in case a xbox signal wire has come loose

best of luck

Thanks man I guess thats nice to know that I dont have to do anymore trimming on the white piece. What if I screwed up one of the ribbons I was messing with the drive for a while and the ribbon did get moved around quite abit didnt look like I had damaged it though.


Do you think there is not enough lubricant on the 2 metal bars that the laser is sitting on. Every time the drive closes correctly the laser jurks 2 times or moves 2 times.

its like a ba ba and then it stops. I put in a cd it does the same thing. I move the laser up to the front and it starts reading the cd but, the computer doesnt recognize a thing.

I know the laser works it peaked out at 5.56x on the pc before I had done the eject job on cutting and swapping the motor.

I have already soldered 4 wires to the pcb for eject and whatever. Soldering is perfect!

The wires arent plugged to anything right now.

I have been testing this thing in my pc the whole time I guess there must be a short on one of those ribbon cables going to the laser right?


I repeat I have a window there so that the second switch doesnt get activated again.

Funny thing is I tried taping down the second switch and the drive eject still works properly but it still doesnt read any disc in the pc.

Is it because I only have the top of the case on? Reason why is because I have 4 wires on the bottom just free soldered on where they are supposed to be. It was perfect on soldering.

If I screwed up the ribbon cables how would I fix that? I dont believe I screwed up the ribbon cables? atleast the one that was connected on the bottom side going to the smaller pcb board.

Since the disc starts to spin a little bit when its closed. Its probaly fine.

I just noticed the other cable was loose so im gonna see if thats my problem.

Some reason the Edit button doesnt seem to work right now. I got the drive to work!

Thanks pizza pizz. Turns out the ribbon cable with the lever on it was loose. I had the lever closed the wrong way or whatever i fixed it. Its snug like its supposed to be thanks!

Read the disc in the pc just perfectly.

There ya go - told ya cutting of plastic was fine

you don't have to hack the drive case up - I don't, just cut off the eyelet on dvd caddy that original drives go through - trim 2 lugs down where the controller ports are and coz this is an F it should just shoehorn into the caddy frame in ya xbox
It might catch a little on the left side of the opening of case so a tiny bit more trimming needed here n there but once it is in the xbox the old dvd bezel fits on there perfectly flush

I glued mine on with 2 tiny drops of superglue and looks like original drive - nice n flush - better fit that the T models

well done & enjoy ya drive

I've carefully read Pizza Pizz's and Toil3t's posts about cutting the white tray switch. Before cutting, my drive was recognized with the 605b firmware in both my pc and xbmc, the drive opened and closed with the xbox button, and the drive would close when I shut down my xbox. The mechanism that spins the cd woudln't rise high enough, so I followed Toil3t's cutting suggestion as best as I could.

Now I'm having an eject problem and the discs don't yet read. What else should I cut or have I cut too much. Attached are pictures of my cut white piece.

UPDATE: i've shaved off the second switch so now the drive has no eject and loading problems. The disc spins fine now and the laser tries a couple of times to read a disc but then gives up. I've put all the ribbons back and can't figure out what's wrong... please help!

Hi,

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm having similar problems.

If someone could post some pictures of their "white piece" dooberry after cutting, it would be a great help.

i've done everything but cut the white piece, and the drive powers up and ejects fine, but wont read any discs (and makes a hell of a racket when it tries to).

Cheers

x

Well, I took the plunge.

I figured that no one would disassemble their dvd drive just to show me, so I dived in, cut the white piece, and it's nearly working right

I've tested originals and dvd-r's, and both boot fine if I push the drawer shut manually, but...........

if I close the tray using either the button on the drive itself, or the xbox button, when it spins up, it, for want of a better word, spazzes out, making very loud scary noises, before giving up and booting to dash, not reading the disk at all.

Can anyone think why? All the connections must be ok, so presumably its that damned white bit again.

Any ideas folks?

Any help greatly appreciated

tag for later

Hi,

It seems as though the motor is pulling the tray too far back - if i hold onto the tray a wee bit as it goes in, slowing it down, it's fine, but if i then push the tray very slightly while there's a disk in it, you can hear it (either the disk or another moving part) grating.

Anyone come across this before?

/nudges Joshatdot

Cheers anyway,
x.

/me shrug

I just moded my case to fit the 616t. I wanted to cut up the 616t to make it fit, but I didnt want to screw it up if i cut it..

I want to modify Samsung SD616T drive. I have firmware from SDG605 B and SDG605 F. Which shoud I use?