DVD drive headaches

kowrip

VIP Member
Dec 17, 2004
271
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Ocean, NJ
I have 2 Xboxes. One of them is a 1.5 and was modded by a friend of mine. The other one is a 1.6 and was modded by me last month. I never really played many backup games off of disc on the 1.5 box up until recently. I'm noticing that the DVD drive in the 1.5 unit is WAY more picky about the DVD media being used. It usually recognizes Memorex DVD+R media, but even sometimes has a problem with those. The DVD drive in the 1.6 unit will pretty much recognize any DVD+R I use (Maxell, Verbatim, Memorex). I have had no problems yet with this drive. Is there something I can do to the older DVD drive to try to get it to recognize more types of media ? I read something about adjusting the potentiometer in the DVD drives. Could this help the drive with the other media ? The only other thing I can think of is to get a new DVD drive and/or Xbox and put a different DVD drive in the 1.5 unit. Any suggestions ?
 

mattydread

VIP Member
Sep 16, 2004
228
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Norwich
i have a v1.5 and i use dvd-r (ritek or cmc dye) always work for me
 

kowrip

VIP Member
Dec 17, 2004
271
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Ocean, NJ
mattydread said:
i have a v1.5 and i use dvd-r (ritek or cmc dye) always work for me
Each DVD drive seems to be different. I've even noticed variations from 2 of the same model drives. For instance, a friend and I both bought 1.6 units and they both have the same model DVD drive. His refuses to recognize CDRWs while mine has no problem recognizing them. I tried one brand of DVD-R on my 1.5 unit and it wouldn't recognize them. At this point, I'm really considering buying another unit. Even the Memorex media, which I thought it had no problem with, is causing problems.
 

thegreatcerebral

Full Member
Jun 28, 2004
41
0
Yea i would say just rip em (or FTP em) over to the 1.5... play from the dvd on 1.6... The drives are very choosey. i have a 1.6 and my drive will read orange memorex CD-R disks... and i've heard everyone say that xboxes cannot read CD-R only RW.
 

kowrip

VIP Member
Dec 17, 2004
271
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Ocean, NJ
thegreatcerebral said:
Yea i would say just rip em (or FTP em) over to the 1.5... play from the dvd on 1.6... The drives are very choosey. i have a 1.6 and my drive will read orange memorex CD-R disks... and i've heard everyone say that xboxes cannot read CD-R only RW.
None of the units I've worked on could read CD-R, but just about all of them had no problems with DVD+R. One Thompson drive refused to read anything except DVD-R. Since the drives shipping with the 1.6 units seem to like DVD+R, I may just get another one. If my 1.5 box at LEAST was reliable with even a single brand of DVD+R, I'd be happy. But this does not appear to be the case.
 

threeballspin

VIP Member
Mar 24, 2004
655
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Georgia
What brand dvd drives do your 2 xboxes have? The 1.6 is probly a Samsung which reads most everything. As for the 1.5, it could be any brand.
 

kowrip

VIP Member
Dec 17, 2004
271
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Ocean, NJ
threeballspin said:
What brand dvd drives do your 2 xboxes have? The 1.6 is probly a Samsung which reads most everything. As for the 1.5, it could be any brand.
I'm not sure which brand DVD drive is in the 1.5, but I will check. As long as the drive is decent at reading DVD+R, that's all I ask for.
 

threeballspin

VIP Member
Mar 24, 2004
655
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Georgia
Samsung's and Phillips' are usually good at reading multiple forms of media
 

RealestDeMo

VIP Member
Apr 11, 2004
225
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if you're gonna use dvd+r's booktype em. Booktyping (or bitsetting) the disks really helps, if your writer doesn't support it, you can look around for ones that do. I just bought a Dual layer writer for 99$ that supports it on the +r disks, so they're pretty cheap too.
 

kowrip

VIP Member
Dec 17, 2004
271
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Ocean, NJ
RealestDeMo said:
if you're gonna use dvd+r's booktype em. Booktyping (or bitsetting) the disks really helps, if your writer doesn't support it, you can look around for ones that do. I just bought a Dual layer writer for 99$ that supports it on the +r disks, so they're pretty cheap too.
I'm not familiar with booktyping. Can you explain it ? Also, what modifications did you do to your DVD drive ? I've been reading a bit about adjusting the potentiometer to increase the laser strength. I have no idea is this will benefit me at all though.
 

RealestDeMo

VIP Member
Apr 11, 2004
225
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the samsung 616t is a pc dvd rom drive. I had to flash it with the samsung SDG 605 firmware, then reverse the polarities on the motor, and wire a fewdifferent things over. there's a tutorial on what I did on xbox scene. As for bitsetting or booktyping, google it... What it does, is make a dvd+r disk read as a dvd-rom.
 

RealestDeMo

VIP Member
Apr 11, 2004
225
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Wow thanx, you know how long that's been like that, lol
 

kowrip

VIP Member
Dec 17, 2004
271
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Ocean, NJ
RealestDeMo said:
the samsung 616t is a pc dvd rom drive. I had to flash it with the samsung SDG 605 firmware, then reverse the polarities on the motor, and wire a fewdifferent things over. there's a tutorial on what I did on xbox scene. As for bitsetting or booktyping, google it... What it does, is make a dvd+r disk read as a dvd-rom.
Thanks. I'll definitely look it up.
 

babyblu

Senior Member
Oct 13, 2004
107
0
Canada
I have a V1.0 and I tweeked my pot and it work perfect for my so go ahead and try that. I was just about ready to steal my brothersw dvd rom for his xbox cause he has a 1.6 but this worked so he can keep his lol. I used the tuts at xbox-scene the only thing i did differently was that I didnt take my whole xbox apart. I just removed the top of my xbox then the cover of the dvd rom and I could see the pot. Just dont turn it alot mine took about 1/8 of a turn anymore than that it got noisy.

plus I always book type my dvds to dvd-rom.

ps check for update to your burner firmware that might help.
 
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kowrip

VIP Member
Dec 17, 2004
271
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Ocean, NJ
Well, I opened up my 1.5 Xbox and it is INDEED a Philips DVD drive. I tried doing a few different things and burned some more Memorex DVD+Rs. Neither of them worked. They both started and then I got a dirty disc error. I also had trouble playing a DVD movie burned on Memorex. From reading the xbox-scene formus, it looks like I might have better luck with Fuji DVD+Rs. In any case, I just bought a Samsung DVD drive. That's what is in my 1.6 Xbox and it reads anything. I don't want to deal with the Philips drive anymore. That drive is terrible !