DVD Drive Failure

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havoq - 18 Jan 2005 18:48 GMT

Hey out there,
I'm wondering if anyone knows the failure rate of the dvd drives and how
easy it is to replace them. I'm about to buy a XBox but rumblings about the
drive failure got me a bit worried. Also, has anyone "upgraded" their hard
drive?

Chris

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Al - 19 Jan 2005 16:19 GMT

The DVD drive problems were fairly common with the old Thompson drives. The
Samsung drives are much better. If you are buying a new one it would be very
uncommon to find one with the Thompson drive. If you are buying a used one
then you might want to check. The drives aren't that hard to replace but
they are expensive. You can use off-the-shelf drives but they have to be
modified. Probably a moot point if you get the Samsung drive.

In order to add a bigger HDD you will have to mod the xbox. You can do it
with hardware (modchip) or software. If you get a chip then you can still
use Xbox Live.

Hope this helps.

> Hey out there,
> I'm wondering if anyone knows the failure rate of the dvd drives and how
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Chris

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Phyber Quest - 21 Jan 2005 17:24 GMT

http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Repairs/xbox_dvd_version_comparison.htm

This is a great place to find out what DVD drive you have, and it also has
replacement drives for sale if you are interested.

Cheers!

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Al - 24 Jan 2005 15:36 GMT

I received this in an E-mail. Not sure if he wants me to use his name so
I'll just say "Thanks."

"A little addition to the previous post I believe needs to be mentioned that
Halo 2 has a built in deterent for modded Xbox's by checking the HDD key of
the hard drive and if it's different then the stock on it will ban you
from Xbox Live."

I have heard that this is true from other sources. When I modded my box I
used Evox and there is a utility that pulls the HDD key from the original
drive and stores it. Then when you install the new HDD you can make it have
the same key as your original. I would reccomend doing this if you put in a
bigger HDD.

> The DVD drive problems were fairly common with the old Thompson drives. The
> Samsung drives are much better. If you are buying a new one it would be very
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> >
> > Chris

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