QUOTE(ceaseless @ Sep 13 2011, 08:09 PM)

Luckily for me, I had an old Xbox for scraps in my closet I had remembered. Well, turns out, the real problem was the DVD drive and it apparently messed up my softmod so that I can't uninstall it now. At least the softmod works, but my DVD drive went bad and started programming slow, so the Xbox would hang on a black screen when turned on (with no disc inside). Put the scrap DVD drive in and it came right on and also read discs correctly. sigh.
Trade off is that the scrap DVD drive needs a new case for it because it won't open and close correctly. I tried using the broken DVD drive's case, but it's a different model and doesn't fit.
Sorry for the trouble.
thoght that was the issue.. "i actualy mentioned it a while back lol"
as for the sticking dvd drive replace or recondition the belt on the drive open motorr that should do it,
And you can also attach some non conductive material to the magnet on the top of the case.
to do that you take the case apart hold the top casing in your hand and flip it upside down you will see a circle thingy.. you can attach some cardboard to the inner mettal circle to reduce the magnetic force applied to the drive motor.
I would recondition the drive belt 1st though.. just put iot in some hot water for a few mins and dry it out good, You may notice its no longer circular but more egg shaped. The narrow part would usualy go on the small spndel on the drive motor, but put that side on the big spindle instead.
that should fix your drive open/close issues if only temporeraly. you could just source a new drive belt or use the one from the old drive.
as for the dvd drive messing up your softmod.. I doubt that is the case, and is peobably a shaddow C issue your suffering from. if you want to update/change or remove your softmod i woud advize you use hexen (heimdalls xbox engineering disk) burnt to dvd-r at slowest possible speed.