I bought a broken xbox from ebay described with a disc read error problem. when i recieved the xbox it worked first time no problems.

I then put an x3 & x3cp into the xbox successfully. the box was working for a good week or so. Then while playing a game it froze and gave me a dirty damaged disc error. I tried to eject the disc but the drive was dead.

I immediately stripped the xbox and checked all ribbons etc to the drive but all were ok. I left the xbox and had my tea and when i came back the drive was working again. I thought it might need a new laser (drive dated 2002) so i purchased a new one from ebay.

Installed the new laser and it worked first time again. it lasted for a few days. But playing halo 2 for an hour the same happened again, disc drive dead no opening or function.

Again i stripped the xbox and this time replaced the ide cable with a faster one (66/100/133). again the xbox worked for about 1/2 hour then dead drive.

Ive had the xbox open and connected and seen that the drive is dead sometimes. the xbox is fine coz if i disable the cdrom check on the x3 bios the dash loads normally. the hard drive works correctly also as i can still play my emulators.

I suspect that the dvd drive is damaged but i have stripped it and checked the daughterboard and there is no visible sign of burns/blowouts etc.

Does anyone know why this drive is dying/coming back to life on me? is there a fix for this or do i need to replace the whole drive? If not i'm left with 2 workling lasers and no drive!!

I would either buy a an ebay philips with a DRE and use one of your lasers or a brand new philips. If it helps any, I will buy one of the philips lasers off of you cause I think I have a dead philips somewhere around here. uncletammy@yahoo.com if youre interested. Ill give $15 for the new one after shipping to 79705. Thanks and good luck.

thanx for the advice (although i'd figured that out by myself) anyone else??

i live in uk and id be makin a huge loss sellin for $15 so no.

id prefer to repair the drive b4 replacing it so any1 any ideas?

*bump* anyone??

I had the same issue with a Phillips drive. I conceded that it was a heat issue. It seemed to work fine for the first 15 min then it would stop working. I later purchased a used Phillips drive and the system works great now.

don't think that is the issue as heat would not stop a dvd drive from functioning its only a hard drive or cpu that needs to be cooled.

the drive just dies as if there is no power going to it.

ANYONE!!!

anyone got a spare philips they'd like to sell?

Take the drive from the case (the dvd drive case) boot the xbox and as it boots just touch one of the ground points on the Drive board with an earth wire the drive will probably boot up and work until you switch off again. This is becoming a common failure and is the Drive control IC.
Never bothered changing it as the drives are so cheap.

i ended up ordering a sammy to replace the drive and i'm selling both the lasers on ebay.