Print

[ns80]

Here's the laser.

Laser Top

Laser Side

Laser Bottom

[Maverick-DBZ-]

So now that we have pictures of the PCB Hitachi drive can someone now try to find some Hitachi PC drives and see if any of them match our new Hitachi drive?


I'm really hoping for the best on this newly found Hitachi drive and hope someone can find a PC equivalent drive.

[TeeTylerToe]

I was looking on ebay for xbox drives, and I came across a 616T that was from an emachines.  I also came across a similar Hi LG, which got me to thinking that maybe emachines gets drives that work the way xbox drives work, they seem to like drives with a specific feature set, which seems inline with MS's featureset for the xbox drives.  just a thought.

[TKramka]

Has anyone tried tweaking the pots on the laser to see if it can read CD-Rs?

[karsx]

Hey everyone i'm new.
i just got my new xbox 3 days ago, dated Nov 16.2004. Probably that new LG crap
i was just wondering if i should return that one since it doesnt' read cd-r's and look for earlier model?
I'm planing to mod my xbox.
i just wanted to know if it will work fine after i install mod chip? i really wanted to put all my old cds in my xbox.
Thanks in advance.

[Pizza Pizz]

hmmm - got 2 pots on that side pic ya posted

very clear - blimey bit biggish - lol but very clear all the same

it could be possible to tweak it a bit - pots look a bit more sturdy or tweakable than say philips drives and being two it might be possible to get it reading cdr's a bit

that is though if the firmware allows this - the 605F not reading cdr's IS down to firmware IMO

hmmm wish I had one of these coz feel a need to tweak coming on - lol

[TKramka]

Speaking of the 605F, has anyone tried flashing it with the 605B firmware?     I would try all this myself but I don't have the drives or the budget to but them.  Usually the pot to the left is the DVD part of the laser, and the right one is the CD part, but this is just a guess.  Just be carefull turning them, I had to get a new laser for my Philips because I broke one of the pots.     But that drive was crap anyways.

Also, HL makes some good reliable drives for the computer, if the cdr problems are firmware related, it could just be a matter of hacking some parts of the fw.  Someone should figure out how to make a universal patch so any PC drive with flashable firmware could work in an xbox.

Oh by the way, just because the drive looks like a thomson dosn't mean its as crappy.  Thomsons can be good drives when you get the right kind.  I have an old NEC DV-5700A that is a splitting image of a thomson, same case styling, but is much more reliable and faster, and it has a tray that looks like a Samsung.

[LenteSubigo]

You cant use 605b with the 605f because the drives have a different controller.  

MT1329E = OLD SAMMY 605b

MT1358E = NEW SAMMY 605f

If you put 605b on a 605f or vise-versa, you will have an unusable drive.  And you can't even reflash the drive after flashing the wrong firmware without desoldering the firmware chip, reprogramming it in a flash programmer, and then resoldering it back in.

So, leave the firmware alone unless you know what you are doing!!!!!!

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(LenteSubigo @ Jan 3 2005, 02:11 PM)

And you can't even reflash the drive after flashing the wrong firmware without desoldering the firmware chip, reprogramming it in a flash programmer, and then resoldering it back in.

So, leave the firmware alone unless you know what you are doing!!!!!!

ok, so it looks like we need some people who have a bit of experince in this area.
it looks liek it can be done, and im willign to bet that its teh firmware thats stopping it from reading cd-r's.

[TKramka]

Actually, I think you can put it in a pc and use MtkWinFlash in ATAPI mode to reflash it.  Regardless, I think that both the HL-DT and the Samsung 605F can read CDRs unmodded but need a firmware hack.  It might be something that can easily be defeated like region protection.  Or it could be our worst nightmare to find that little chunk of code and fix it.  Whatever the case, someone needs to take a look at it, maybe ask someone who does region code cracking to help.  Maybe we should just stick to using Philips drives, they aren't that bad.

This post has been edited by TKramka: Jan 3 2005, 08:53 PM

[TKramka]

Is there a possibility that we could find clone drives from different manufacturers that can work?

This post has been edited by TKramka: Jan 3 2005, 08:52 PM

[ferrari_rulz_02]

QUOTE(TKramka @ Jan 4 2005, 06:13 AM)

Is there a possibility that we could find clone drives from different manufacturers that can work?

thats what were trying to do. theres a computer model thats virtually teh same. so all we have to do is get the firmware, hack it, then flash the pc version of teh drive. then, with a few otehr mods, you have yourself a good dvd drive for your xbox, w/out paying over 100 bucks for it.
the biggest problem will be with the firmware, and we need everyone who can help out, to do as much as they can

[LenteSubigo]

QUOTE(TKramka @ Jan 3 2005, 02:11 PM)

Actually, I think you can put it in a pc and use MtkWinFlash in ATAPI mode to reflash it.  Regardless, I think that both the HL-DT and the Samsung 605F can read CDRs unmodded but need a firmware hack.  It might be something that can easily be defeated like region protection.  Or it could be our worst nightmare to find that little chunk of code and fix it.  Whatever the case, someone needs to take a look at it, maybe ask someone who does region code cracking to help.  Maybe we should just stick to using Philips drives, they aren't that bad.

Sorry, but the LG drive doesn't us a MediaTek Controller, so mtkwinflash won't be able to pull the firmware off the drive.  The panasonic controller doesn't have a read program available, so all you can do is overwrite the old firmware with new firmware.  This won't be a problem though, we would only have to kill one drive to get the firmware for everyone to use in modding a similar lg drive.  

QUOTE(ferrari_rulz_02)

thats what were trying to do. theres a computer model thats virtually teh same. so all we have to do is get the firmware, hack it, then flash the pc version of teh drive. then, with a few otehr mods, you have yourself a good dvd drive for your xbox, w/out paying over 100 bucks for it.
the biggest problem will be with the firmware, and we need everyone who can help out, to do as much as they can

People tried to hack the firmware from all the other drives, It hasn't been done yet because MS used encryption in the code.  The idea in hacking firmware would be that you can take the section of code out of an xbox drive that allows it to read originals and insert that into any pc drive you want with very little modification.  Then we could all get 16x dvd-roms that read everything without need for modification for $15.

I can't decrypt MSs code, and once I did I don't know what I would do with the firmware code.  I am a computer programmer.  99.999% of computer programmers never touch firmware, so we most likely will never get hacked firmware.

But, what we can do is find a similar drive that can accept the exhisting firmware and do a little modification.




Does any one have a DRD-8160B drive?  I think I can make it work as a full replacement, including reading originals, but before I order one I would like to ge some highres pics of the laser, and the main pcb (both side).  I'm not sure if there are different versions, so a pic of the drive label would be good too.

[ferrari_rulz_02]

^^^^^ This guy is what we need. can someone plz help him out ASAP. i would, but i dont have one of teh drives that ur looking for. otehr wise id just give you one.

[PokPokD]

maybe get some help from Superfro who wrote de 7 page modification tutorial on the DRD-8160B drive. he sure own one of the drive.