Original xbox dvd drive replacement - HELP!!!

[ehabcharek]

so I got an original xbox about a month ago for $8, which I think is a very good deal, considering the fact that it came with dash version 5960. The best one for modding, as I understand. However, it doesn't read disks. I didn't know that at the time I bought it, of course. So, naturally I went online to look for replacements. As you might have guessed, I was surprised by the prices of the few remaining replacement DVD ROM units. At the time of writing this, I couldn't find any on ebay. So, I looked for hacking a PC dvd drive. Apparently there is only one model, made by samsung, that could be modded. Couldn't find that one online either. At that point I thought that there is no solution.

The other day, I remembered that the game I have for the xbox worked on my friend's 360 (the xbox I bought is my very first xbox unit I owned). I also remembered something I read while searching for modding a PC dvd drive, which is that the xbox dvd rom only spins backwards. I believe that this is incorrect. The reason why I say that is because it could read normal DVDs (as I understand. Again, my xbox doesn't read disks) and those disks must be read while spinning normally (clockwise?) so I'll assume that the xbox DVD rom spins in both directions. Next, is the 360. It can, again, read DVDs and recognize some original xbox games. From what I can see from the pictures of 360 drives, and comparing them to what I saw in my friend's original xbox (it was broken, we opened it up, fixed the issue, turns out it has another issue), the only difference between an original xbox's DVD rom and that of a 360's is the interface. One uses IDE and the other uses SATA

MY THEORY! :O *insert magical rainbow dust here*: unless someone has already done this, here is my idea: what if we use a SATA to IDE converter to convert the interface of a 360 DVD drive to work on the original? the other cable slot (the one with the bunch of small yellow cables) seems to be the same as the original's, so that doesn't need to be modded (I think O_o I haven't looked at the pinout of that cable). Do you think that will work? if you have a 360 drive, an original xbox, and a SATA to IDE, AND you're willing to try this if you haven't already, will you do it? pretty pleaaaseeeeee!!! I don't have 2 of those things I mentioned, so I can't test it

 

[ttsgeb]

No, that will not work.
It's not simply a matter of interface, either.

The discs don't spin backward, they *read* backward.

Instead of the laser moving from the inside out like it would on a normal drive, it moves from the outside in.
This, however, isn't the reason it won't work. There's more to it that I'm not really capable of explaining. Basically, making an xbox 360 drive work for reading games to an original xbox would be significantly more work than making a pc drive work for reading games to an xbox... and both of them are Dang near impossible.

I would say that your best option would be to obtain a larger hard drive and a modchip, then build a new drive for the box. From that point, you can FTP games too and from it, assuming you're able to get them onto your computer in the first place.

 

[ehabcharek]

the only reason I want it to be able to read disks again is so that I could softmod it. Is there a way to softmod an xbox without the DVD drive?

EDIT: to FTP I just need to use filezilla, correct?

 

[ttsgeb]

I use Windows Explorer. Like a boss.

It would be cheaper and easier to just get a mod chip in this case. They're like... $20.

 

[T2Steve]

ok there are a few things that you can do to mod your xbox. soft mod is the first step obviously.

you can soft mod by getting King Roach or any of the other hot swap soft mod packages out there. XS has a bunch of articles on how to do this. Simplified it goes like this:

Boot your xbox with the case open. Play a music track on your xbox. pause track. disconnect IDE cable from xbox hard drive. plug in hard drive to PC. boot XBOXHDM disk with Crazie or King Roach or whatever soft mod kit you want. follow instructions. done.

Now that you have a softmodded xbox the next step is to identify what version of xbox you have. if it is 1.0-1.5 you will want to bridge the two solder points on the motherboard for TSOP flashing, and then either flash IND bios or Xecutor. 1.0-1.1 use Xecutor and IND goes on 1.2-1.5.

At that point you can permanently unlock your hard drive and set it up however you want. No soft mod will be required. you can also remove the DVD drive entirely if you want.

In re: the power connector from the 360 and the Xbox Original - they are not the same. the data signals are different on each. I have been meaning (for a long time) to get an IDE/SATA converter and try it out to see if it will in fact spin an original game disk on a XBOX (which would be awesome) but haven't got an adaptor.

If you really want to run DVDs after doing the TSOP mod, you can put in a regular PC DVD drive. You will need to extract the signals and feed them to the XBOX so it knows when the drive is open/closed/ejecting/data ready. ANY DVD DRIVE could potentially work, although getting the Data Ready signal to work is kind of tricky. In addition to the Samsung DVD drive, the LG-8160 thru 8163B series all work as well and can be flashed into a native DVD drive. They are loud as Heck and don't play games any better than the original tho.

 

[ehabcharek]

ok, I finally managed to mod the thing!
however, since I don't have a component cable, I installed the dual boot with the normal unleashx (virtual c eeprom without HD or RGB). I thought I could enable them afterwards when I need to, and that the setup will enable them by default. Now that I installed it, I can't change the settings. is there a way to enable it? or do I have to install it again? if so, how will this work with the whole dual boot thing?

btw, I'm running on NTSC. I looked it up on google, but everyone who had this problem was on PAL and all they had to do was switch to NTSC

 

[T2Steve]

you are more than likely running with an embedded EEPROM. load up an AID disk and there is an option to switch the video mode. Hexen does this as well..

If you are using a 1.0-1.5 xbox, I really really recommend a TSOP flash. future proof your xbox now to prevent longer term frustration in the future.