So recently I was playing my xbox (backup of MP3) when it made a random noise and froze. I played again and same thing just froze. After some research i decided to adjust the POT. It was set for 4.3 from microsoft i adjusted it down a little at a time and anything under the 4.2 mark would just give me the open tray error. I figured oh maybe the laser is toast so I ordered another one an HD-63 removed the anti static solder got it in and was excited to try it out. (this new laser was set to 3.4 when i got it.) Needless to say i pop in my disc and after about 15 seconds I get unreadable disc. So I try 3 or 4 more backups with the same issue. I pull out a retail copy of MW3 and it plays perfectly fine boots right up. So, now I am completely stumped.

I decided to adjust the pot down to the absolute minimum recommended amount which is 2.8 and still nothing. I went up to 4.5 just to see and the same thing. Anyone else have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Hey

You did just about everything I would have tried.

antistatic blob - check

pot adjustment up & down - check

Try an adjustment up to 5.O kohm ... then maybe 5.5 K

If no change, guess set it back to 3.2 to 4.0

This is a Hitachi or a Samsung right ? Maybe the Firmware has to be reflashed after an optic device change

Is this a new issue, or one you've had since you flashed the drive?

It has been working fine for 2+ years untill it started freezing just 2 weeks ago. The drive is a hitachi 78. I could try like 5.5k and see what happens i guess it cant hurt. I am just running out of ideas and it should not need to be reflashed from what i understand the laser has nothing to do with the firmware. I appreciate the suggestion though. Would switching from the hd63 laser and getting an hd67 make any difference?

I'm thinking its the worm motor that moves the laser. Either that or the spindle, but Id expect an unreadable disc error from the spindle. I think you should try your luck with a whole new drive and flash that. Normally I wouldn't say this, but your issue seems difficult to pinpoint. It could be the laser struggling to read the different type of disc medium (the backups), but a pot adjustment obviously didn't fix that.

This one looks tricky. I would blame firmware over anything else. How did you flash this drive?

Hey Canyonne ... thanks for the vouch in the other article

Does a back up / copy game disc have to spin faster than the Microsoft retail one ? I'm not really certain there.

However - you make some good points. Check on that worm motor. Clean it up. Re-grease it.

And perhaps change out the spindle motor. When you have spare parts its easy to check on things without spending more money.

And with Canyonne - I'd say Firmware could be an issue

See if RDC might pitch in on this discussion

Im not sure what to look for when looking at the worm gear or spindle motor. Not sure what a bad one would look like. The firmware was flashed forever ago and then updated as time went on up to lt2.0 or whatever it is. It was flashed by spoofing the 79 into thinking it was a 78 and then flashing it that way. This had worked for years and even after 3-5 firmware updates I never had a single problem untill this crept up on me one day.

Try flashing back to stock. I've heard of a lot of people having issues when spoofing hitachis with different hitachi firmware.

Try flashing back to stock. I've heard of a lot of people having issues when spoofing hitachis with different hitachi firmware.

Canyonne put the stock firmware back on it like completely unmodified? It wouldnt play my backups and this already plays retail games (with the new laser) it just doesnt play backups. Can you clarify your suggestion.

Thanks man

Try flashing back from 78 firmware to the stock 79. Then maybe throw it in the xbox, make sure it plays retails fine, THEN try flashing from 79 firmware to ixtreme.

Idk man, just something else to try. I don't have a whole lot of suggestions to pinpoint the problem on this one.
Sorry =/