my friends dvd drive burned out and has a weird smell and does not work at all how do i replace the dvd drive with a new one ? please i am a newb when t comes to RETAIL xbox 360 hardware

thanks

This can be a really serious problem. The drive has a unique key on it that you will need to know to replace the drive.

So question 1)

What kind of drive is it? If you do not know how to tell go here > 360 DVD Trays

2) Do you have a copy of the drives firmware?

Answer those questions and I can tell you the next logical steps.

By the way that you say RETAIL, it would seem that you haven't flashed the drive previously or atleast made a copy of the firmware?

As said above, if you haven't got a backup of the dvdkey... then you're pretty much screwed unless you can send it to m$

Or you could try that jtag hack thing, i don't know much about it myself.. only that you can retrieve a lost dvdkey from it.

its a BENQ drive and he did not backup his firmware

Ok, so here is your options.

Option #1

Buy a replacment benq circuit board and swap the 8pin TSOP chip from your dead one.
- this involves removing the epoxy around both chips and requires A+ soldering skill.

Here is a picture showing the TSOP with epoxy removed already. See picture1BENQ PCB

Option #2

Get a infectus2 mod chip and try to dump the TSOP. The same picture of the circuit board above was also the wiring diagram for infectus2 - Those chips are not cheap and it would still require considerable skill.

Option #3 - send the drive circuit board to a professional for recovery (ME!!) You can replace the circuit board or just replace the entire drive if you like. As long as you know how to flash 360 drive firmware that is.

Option #4 motherboard key recovery. Must have kernel older than version 8498 - Requires you to build LPC extractor. Only average soldering skill required.

So if you wish to hire me to attempt to recover the key please PM me. I only charge $30 CAD to get benq key from TSOP.

Helo,
nice post I have a Liteon with 83850c looking like this any help? by the way, its Jasper 2009/8, the guy who want's to sell it told it was power fail no dvd key.

Thnx in advance.

I have actually fixed a lite-on with holes burned right thru the board. Well it wasn't exactly fixed but i got the key from it still. It wouldn't eject or power a laser after i fixed it but the key is really what you want.
If you would like me to try and work my magic on it PM me and i can give you the details. I only charge if i can get your key.