Hi all,

Prepare for a long post. :-)

I have a problem with my Xbox 360, I’ve tried everything I can think of to fix it but now I’ve ran out of ideas. I’m hoping somebody might have some suggestions.

I’ve bought a new 360 since I couldn’t fix it, but I would like to revive it if I can.

The 360 is a launch model with a Hitachi 47DJ, manufacture date 2006-03-23.

My 360 has worked faultlessly since I bought it but suddenly developed a problem reading discs. I would insert a game and it would spin up, displays the game title and seems like it’s about to start loading (you tell by the sounds the drive makes). Then it returns to the dashboard and says that the disc is unreadable, clean the disc or restart the console. All original games are used.

At first the games would load after retrying a number of times. At first it needed 2-3 ejects/inserts before the game would load, but this got worse until it would take me about 15 minutes of rebooting and ejecting the disc. Once the game actually loaded it was fine until I switched off. It would also play movies and CD’s on the first attempt.

Finally it just stopped working and would say unreadable disk every time, movies and CD’s still work fine. It will read the disc and display the game title in the dashboard fine.

I first thought that the DVD drive was broken, probably laser or something. So I bought a new Samsung MS28 off a well known auction site. I flashed it with my key and crossed my fingers. I got the same error! I couldn’t believe it!

I tried restarting the xbox for about 20 minutes to try and get the game to load and once I got the RROD upon rebooting (3 red lights). I restarted the xbox and it went to the dashboard with no problems. After much retrying I could not get it to RROD again. I would occasionally get an E71 error when I restarted, maybe once every 30 restarts

Since I got the RROD I thought I would try Xclamp removal and fix. I did that today, it was easy.

I rebooted the xbox and it went to the dashboard no problems. I inserted a disk and again got the same error! Very frustrating! It just displays the game title and will not boot.

Tonight I thought I would try the new NXE dashboard and install the game to the hard drive in the hope it would read the disc ok and play from the hard drive. NXE installed fine. I ripped the game to hard drive with no issues, but it still would not play, I got the NXE version of the usual error. I tried the hard drive in my new xbox and it played the ripped game fine with no issues, so the broken xbox read the game data ok.

I’ve tried replacing the SATA cable, but also got the same error.

In summery I have tried,
Hitachi 47DJ gets unreadable disc error
Brand new MS28 gets unreadable disc error
Xclamp removal still results in unreadable disc error
Replaced the SATA cable but still get unreadable disc error
NXE install to hard drive still results in unreadable disc error

Any ideas on what to try next are appreciated.

Steve

are you playing a original game or a backup copy?

All original. I do backup my games but play my originals until I have an issue. The problem happens on both backups and originals in both drives.

Try clearing the hard drive cache??

I tried that, but it's the same.

Even if I remove the hard drive I get the same error.

Since you have a backup drive... I would try doing a pot tweak on one of them..

You may have just gotten unlucky with the replacement drive you bought.

Thanks for the advice. I might give the pot tweek a go. I read a link today on how to do that.

I tested the Samsung Ms28 in my new benq after flashing it with my new key and it worked fine.

It sounds like the pot tweek my be worth a shot. I will try that next....I'm on a mission now to fix this thing!