Ok, i have done a few preliminary tests, both of which lead me to one conclusion. Here is what i currently have:
Drive A: 47DH, Oct. '05 - presumed broken
Drive B: 47DJ, Nov. '05 - replacement
Test 1: Swap main control boards between drives....
This results in both drives giving the open, close, reading error, no drive status, does not read disc in either drive. This leads me to conclude that it is not the main board.
Test 2: Boot with tray open, using both power and eject button.... (both with boards swaped and back in original)
Both drives, whether using the original board or the swaped board, close the tray when booting, no matter if power or eject is used. This leads me to believe that the tray motor works, the eject board is not fried (as suggested) and that the 360 can obviously send the signals fine.
These two simple tests lead me to believe that it is not the drives themselves and it must be something on the motherboard itself. I will work on doing some more tests here shortly. I thought i would do these simple tests before starting to check the boards themselves, try to give myself a definite starting point. If anyone has some insight, please let me know.
Caster.