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[dopeuser]

well, it worked for me.
Mine was a 8163b (white one) , the date on it says Feb 2005.
Just wanted to add this, because I know in this thread (somewhere amongst the
800+ posts) someone said something about newer 8163b's not working.
Ive tried originals, and dvd+r's, they both work fine.
I havent cut open the xbox yet to properly install it (thats tomorrow) but
just switching over the IDE cable, and y-splitting the power to it, it plays games either by booting up with a game in it, or using boxplorer, and opening the default.xbe.

[dopeuser]

doh! did I break it??
ok, everythings working, fine, and since I dont sleep, I figured I may as well do the soldering now. So I take the 4 screws off the
back, unclip the wires and board, then I thought Id take the faceplate part off. As I was messing around with that,
I noticed a sound.... almost like a small screw was in there, actually more like a small ball bearing rolling around. But only if I turn it slowly in certain directions. Its hard to tell excactly where the sound is coming from, its completely apart and I dont see anything.
I don't think it made this sound before, I sure didnt notice, and now that I do notice, its driving me nuts!
Anyone know what it could be? Does anyone else 8163 sound funny if you move it around?
Im sure this is probably nothing, maybe some little balance sensing device? Or maybe I broke it taking it apart?? I dont think so, Im pretty easy on stuff like this, since I know its easily broken.
Oh well, I have no clue, anyone know what that sound is?

[truBB]

@dopeuser
Does it sound like this? sound

You gotta lay off the dope every once and a while. That noise is just the ball bearings in the slide rails of the dvdrom...

[dopeuser]

ahhh good, then nothing to worry about,
just I swear I didnt hear it before, well I probably heard it, just didn't really notice it though, so when I did hear it, well, you get the idea, thanks for answering, took a load off my mind, Im soldering this thing right now, loads of fun!

[monsteria]

I confirm that this mod works: DVD-R/W and DVD+R/W, but no CD-R.

But I NEED Help!!!!

I bought two LG drives, the first one i made a mistake and sent 5.0v to the eject connection. Now the eject function doesn' work. Help! Anyone has any ideas how I can fix it? Everything else works fine.

I know that my cable and soldering points are correct because I manage to mod the second drive and its all working nicely.

Can someone help me with repairing my first drive, it plays all DVD but the eject button doesn't work.

Current status.
Eject = 0v open, 0v close
Ready = 0v open, 3.3v close
What shoudl the In and Out points be?

Many thanks

[dopeuser]

monsteria....

putting 5volts thru something not meant to carry 5volts could have fried something in its path. Or possibly you soldered to the right point, but something lifted or came loose? I'm not sure, those are the simplest things to check, like as you say, the other one works with the same solder points.

Beside the eject solder point, theres that white plastic connector part that you pulled the cable out of. On that connector the second pin from the left (it says LDOUT on the board on top of it, its directly under the 'L') should test for continuity with the pin on the audio connector you wired for eject. As well test between each of those pins, to your solder point, one at a time.

Sorry if this is obvious to you, or youve already checked that.

[SpEeDaMiGo]

Ok guys, I performed some experiments today with VRCD and VRDVD.

I can confirm that shorting these two will indeed make a modded 8050L read cd-r, but no longer dvd-r.

Putting a diode across these points either way won't have any impact!

Shorting VRDVD to ground will not change anything.

Shorting VRCD to ground will have the same effect as connecting it with VRDVD.

I pulled out my digital multimeter and tried to get some insight in how these two points work, but I didn't get any reasonable results that would maybe allow to implement some logical curcuit.

Anyway, I tried some more stuff ... and screwed up my LG drive: now it won't read any media anymore, don't know why.

Well, I'll have to buy another one and for the time being I think I'm just gonna install an external switch which will short VRCD to ground ... you need to lift your a** anyway to change media... not too big of a deal (for me). And by shorting it to ground there's not gonna be any problem with switching between DVD and CD mode while the xbox is running.

[u_no_fr]

hi all,

does this method work??

http://www.tuning-consoles.com/modules.php...content&tid=114

tchuss  

This post has been edited by u_no_fr: May 21 2005, 04:04 PM

[dopeuser]

SpEeDaMiGo- that sound cool, yeah, a switch sounds easy enough to toggle back and forth between cdr to dvdr reading, Id be doing that right now, except just wondering if that had anything to do with your LG screwing up? Or were you doing something else that probably did that?

monsteria- I was putting my drive back in the xbox, and I noticed if you look at it from the front, right below the eject button on the LG, theres barely any space between the solder points beneath the switch, and the metal casing for the drive, it would be very easy and possible maybe theres a short there? I know its the xbox eject switch that isnt opening the 8163b, but unless you isolated the switches, a short at one would cause the other not to work. Just a possibility....

[menelik]

first of all:
if its true that shortng vrcd and vrdvd let you read all cds and dont damage the drive and that this signal isnt digital there should be no problem to make an autoswitch with a transistor, some kinda gatter or whatever.

i will take a closer look on this shorting method later. im really afraid of shorting points without knowing their purposes.

[menelik]

because i'm not sure if the drive will get damaged i gotta make some stress tests and puplish this mod.
if this mod works this will be the first drive in the history which wont have ANY media problems at all. it will read dvd-r(w) like the most, it will rea dvd+r(w) which no samsung could and it will read every cd like no drive really could before.

if this mod wont work just ignore this message, but it works here for at least one hour

btw, i couldnt fix the slow cd speed, anyway, better than nothing.

[SpEeDaMiGo]

well, sounds good! too bad mine stopped working at all!

but it didn't screw up as a result of shorting vrcd and vrdvd ...

just another thing I was wondering about: reviews tell the 8163b has got some really nice error correction. by flashing it to the 8050l, does it keep the same error correction?? otherwise it wouldn't be worth much for me if it gets some cheep-a** error correction as a result of the 8050l bios.

[menelik]

i dont know athing about the error connection but y drive can read every cd i throw at it except a 5 ear old green 4x cd  (green makes probs)
i had a max speed of 1,2 kb, not fast at all but this could als be solved some day.

btw, maye you accidentaly short vrdvd with the capacitor next to it whic goes to the laser. if yes you laser is fried.

This post has been edited by menelik: May 21 2005, 07:05 PM

[jgranie]

Could you give some infos on your magic solution ?
If the post was done by a newbie, I just say you're joking and don't pay attention to it, but you are a senior member, so...

[Stilly82]

QUOTE(u_no_fr @ May 21 2005, 05:08 PM)

hi all,

does this method work??

http://www.tuning-consoles.com/modules.php...content&tid=114

tchuss 

Hey guys, what type is this mod??
This work good? It seems very good to make and very easy, but only two wires???
What do you think about this trueBB and Menelik (THE EXPERTS)

Thanks fot your answer!!!