Original Xbox (Pre-owned) for £19.99

muddyfox470

zolablue25 wrote: »

Can you simply swap your DVD drive for any oem one? I have a couple of old ones that I swapped for writers and would like to replace the Thomson one so it will read more disks?

You cannot swap it with any PC DVD drive, however you can do a straight swap with another XBOX DVD drive.


This is for a number of reasons, the size of the drive, the different connections and the compatibility of what it can read. The XBOX dvd drives have been made especially to only allow to read the FATX XBOX games - this is one of the reasons why you cannot put the games in your PC.

Ian

pepsi_max2k

Tharweb wrote: »

Very interesting, thanks. Any idea how to tell whether my 1.6 has a Hitachi. The tray doesn't look like any of those I've seen in the pictures. Do you have a link to this CD R mod?

it's proabably the hitachi then :j pics of the three main (non-lg) ones are here:
http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Xbox_DVD_Drive_Identification_HOWTO
and if it's none of them it'll be hitachi. the tray looks very similar to the thomson one but with two holes and two indents to either side of the tray. pic here:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=325005&st=900

the cd-r mod (*only* for hitachi drives, and i've not actually seen anyone confirm it for the oficial xbox hitachi) involves opening up the xbox, then opening up the dvd drive and soldering a wire between two points and sticking a ~800 ohm resistor inbetween (guide references 1k as they're more common, best results were with 800, can use anything between 600 and 1.something k but closer to 800 better the results). more info in this thread:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=400274
tutorial pdf at:
http://www.xbox100.com/tutorials/Tutorial_GDR-8163B.pdf


>> Can you simply swap your DVD drive for any oem one?

no, not *any* drive. there's a small number of oem pc dvd drives that are actually the same make as the ones in the xbox, the only difference being firmware. if you have one of these specific drives you can upload the xbox firmware, then connect it. the size may be different but it'll only cause small problems (may need to saw off a screw point or two, may protrude from or stick in the the xbox a little, and you can either mod the power connections or just connect a Y splitter to the hard drive's regular molex power cable).

>> XBOX dvd drives have been made especially to only allow to read the FATX
>> XBOX games

afaik not true, they're all normal dvd drives and read most media fine (dvds, rws, cds...). some just have compatibility issues with some media (as do all drives one way or another...) or have been made to intentionally not read some media types (cd-r, see above...). the xbox games are presumably fatx, but the xbox drives probably have fatx compatible firmware, which is why they'll read the cds and other drives wont. more info at the bottom of this page:
http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Talk:Xbox_Linux_Boot_CD/DVD_Burning_HOWTO


POWER CORD REPLACEMENTS

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox/console/powercordreplacement.htm

only needed if you have one made before oct 23rd 2003. some may have been replaced already, if you phone they should be able to check if the xbox serial number has had a replacement sent or not. wether this is the cable you own, who knows. and presumably, game would change all these cables when they refurbished / tested them, because otherwise they may be liable for any damage caused.... wishful thinking methinks.


aaand... hopefully my search is over. just purchased an rgb scart, 3x xbox to usb converters, and a 1.2 xbox off ebay for £26 (5 trips to 3 game stores and coming up with nowt, £6 is a nice compromise. plus it comes with games). can't pick it up for a couple weeks but should have my 1.6 modded pretty soon to celebrate i then smashed the door window :rolleyes: really... double glazed though, so lucky just the frosted section is gone and after clearing it up it looks pretty normal and my dad's not so mad... anyone know some cheap glaziers in york?

theronkinator

Am I the only one looking for a 1.6 box? I really want a Crystal one, also anyone know where to pick up cheap IDE Drives looking for around 200GB.
Cheers.

eilz

I have been setting up XBOXs with XBMC for years, and know of all issues involved with them, many of which do not appear on these forums, and I don't think you should be confused by most problems discussed.

If you need help setting these up PM me and I will be glad to help.

pepsi_max2k

couldn't find anything *but* crystal ones in game myself, and ebay are always good for cheap drive. 200 GB IDE should be about £25, though I got a 250 GB Western Digital with 3 years warranty left for that much .

>> I don't think you should be confused by most problems discussed.

@ eilz, how do I alter overscan on a 1.6 without affecting overall image resolution? or otherwise modify graphical output witha nice gui tool? That's my only real problem with a 1.6, but then it's also pretty much the only reason I'm buying one (cheap & easy RGBs output to a CRT TV, I've had to do everything from make my own cable and sync converter circuits to get it working on a pc and it's still hating the interlacing).

newsgroup_monkey

So, let me get this straight, everyone is looking for a pre-1.6?

I found that the 1.6 I had was far more reliable too than the 1.5 I originally had!

The solderless chip (I have a Xecuter 2.6 CE) was no problem at all fitting and it cost no more than the 1.5 version.

FYI, I didn't buy mine to play "backup" games on, more for the OS (which I didn't realise until recently you could simply play on any machine with a disk rebuild). I've got lots of genuine games - most came from Ebay (including picking up 20 copies of XIII for £1 each then doing exchanges @ blockbuster)

silps

pepsi_max2k wrote: »

POWER CORD REPLACEMENTS

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox/console/powercordreplacement.htm

only needed if you have one made before oct 23rd 2003. some may have been replaced already, if you phone they should be able to check if the xbox serial number has had a replacement sent or not. wether this is the cable you own, who knows. and presumably, game would change all these cables when they refurbished / tested them, because otherwise they may be liable for any damage caused.... wishful thinking methinks.

Thanks for your useful post. What is a replacement power cord supposed to look like? One of my xbox has a lead with a plastic cylinder dongle inline and the other xbox has a normal power lead.

Cheers.

pepsi_max2k

from http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=641303&page=16&highlight=xbox

>> the cable was a botch fix.it had lugs to cut down movement on the power connector.
>> the real issue was wear on the 2 soldered connectors on the psu board

so i presume it has "lugs", whatever they look like...

scanner_2

This faulty power cord thing has really got me worried now.

My console is also within the timeframe which means it could be faulty.

I have read a couple news where the xbox actually blew up....

I hope I get a replacement powercord when I phone them up.

But I have read even with the replacement cord there were a couple of occasion that the xbox blew up/caught fire!!!!

That's quite a concern.

Can somebody please post a picture of the replacement cord so I will know if my cord has already been replaced.

Thanks

muddyfox470

scanner wrote: »

Can somebody please post a picture of the replacement cord so I will know if my cord has already been replaced.

Thanks

The replacement one looked something pretty much like this:

However the newer consoles where the problem didn't seem to occur just received the normal power cord with the magnet/round thing near the '8' plug that attaches to the back of the xbox

Hope that helps

Ian