Print Page - 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support

OG Xbox Forums => Hardware Forums => General Hardware/Technical Chat => Topic started by: menelik on May 22, 2005, 08:24:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 22, 2005, 08:24:00 AM

Ok guys,

i have no testers yes but modded a few drives with this mod. it seems that this mod makes it possible to read every media you put into. i only have a abslutely minimal performance loss for dvds - drive didnt find one of my games on the first attempt, but on the second. moreover i dont know anythig of long term damages etc, but i dont believe it hurts your xbox or your drive.
i've written the first real tutorial about it - report me any errors etc.

btw, dont start flaming around....if you find a bug just post it.

[email protected]

here you go, its kinda christmas or?:

http://www.paccforce...l_GDR-8163B.pdf

Mod EDIT: New URL since the one above is 404'ing - http://www.xbox100.c...l_GDR-8163B.pdf

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: networkBoy on May 22, 2005, 08:28:00 AM

Overall I'd say 8/10
Good work, one typo:

QUOTE

4 1k Ohm Resistor 1/4 Watt, I advise you 1206 SMD Capacitors. 3 of them are only for security reasons, 1 is essential for the CD Support.

Shouldn't that be resistors?

-nB

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 22, 2005, 08:31:00 AM

huh, how did that typo come in?

thx

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: SICKdimension on May 22, 2005, 08:51:00 AM

Wow! This is a HUUUGE breakthrough in xbox mods! I can't wait to try it!!

Thank you so much for your contribution!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 22, 2005, 08:58:00 AM

at last one who thinks like me....i donnt wanna sound arrogant, also because i only added the cd support,but the major problem which we had since the xbox came out was the bad drive. every drive had its disadvantages, this drive have a minimal disadvantage if it works fine which still has to be tested. maybe this mod will drop the prices of all original drives on ebay

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: wenid on May 22, 2005, 09:23:00 AM

Nice work. Just a few tips/corrections...

As I understand it, the old, "unfixed" flasher does not work AT ALL, with any drives, old or new.

Both of the 5V lines, both of the 12V lines, and all three of the ground lines should be connected up. The cheap, crappy yellow (or brown) wires cannot carry enough current singly so multiple wires are required. Without them the drive may not be able to draw enough current to operate properly (have you noticed any of your wires getting warm? This is why).

Finally, you can cut away the protruding parts at the front of the drive to get the tray to sit flush with the front of the Xbox. That little piece of circuit board that sticks out doesn't have any circuitry that we're using anymore and the metal tabs that form the front part of the case are only there for the PC face plate.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 22, 2005, 09:39:00 AM

@wenid

you are right with the wires, a y-splitter for example has much stronger wires, but as long MS doesnt need a stronger one (ok, maybe they split up 12v on two wires) and my drives work fine with them (over a few months now) i wont make them stronger. but i will add this advise to my mod.
i know that he front pcb can be cut, but i wanted to present the easiest options, you would also win just 1mm, you would had to cut some metal too to get the 3 mm.

i thaught that the firmware you presented was made to fit on your older drive, as your drive worked fine. as the unfixed one is faulty i will add this too. thanks

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: dopeuser on May 22, 2005, 10:55:00 AM

wires running power shouldnt get warm. overkill is the way to go when it comes to selecting the size/gauge for wires intended for power. Its safer and more efficient. Wire too small causes excess heat and voltage loss. This is all a bit trivial, I dont think MS used wiring that is 'dangerously' undersized, but using a Y-splitter is a better idea.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: pablot on May 22, 2005, 11:56:00 AM

This is simply awsome!

My next investment will be in a 8163b, easy!

It would be great with some better pictures for the manual though. Try using the makro function on your camera if you have one

thanks to wenid and TruBB too who have worked very hard on this.

/pablot

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 22, 2005, 12:00:00 PM

my mobile phone and my flatbed scanner dont have a makro feature

better pics will follow

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: pablot on May 22, 2005, 12:16:00 PM

lol =)

well... I'll be waiting =)

/pablot

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: u_no_fr on May 22, 2005, 02:26:00 PM

Indeed for the poor frenchies of gueux.be
we are waiting for better pictures

Hope talk to you soon

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Perplexer on May 22, 2005, 03:03:00 PM

Excellent work!

And the drives are dirt-cheap, better than the Samsung 616Ts were, and easier to find...
$23 at Newegg

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Pikkon on May 22, 2005, 03:42:00 PM

Will this drive work.

http://cgi.ebay.com/...ssPageName=WDVW

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 22, 2005, 03:46:00 PM

@pikkon
it should work yes.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: orakle on May 22, 2005, 05:27:00 PM

Awesome work. Just waiting for pictures to be a bit clearer (maybe the instructions more newbie-friendly) and I'm gonna go pick up one of these drives to replace my DDE Samsung. The drive reads everything else... dvd-r, cd-r, cd, but not xbox originals or dvd movies.

-o

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on May 22, 2005, 06:53:00 PM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: u_no_fr on May 23, 2005, 07:54:00 AM

tchuss

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: oxjeremy334 on May 23, 2005, 09:01:00 AM

$23 at newegg.com??? Damn, I don't really need the drive, but I am ordering one just for fun and before MS tries to shut down production of this drive.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 23, 2005, 09:04:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: u_no_fr on May 23, 2005, 09:14:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: hippo on May 23, 2005, 11:14:00 AM

Great work other than blurry photos and thanks for the link perplexer, those are just to cheap for their own good. Super.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on May 23, 2005, 12:58:00 PM

Where is the LDCD signal on the 8050l, also, could the same trick be used on the samsung SDG-605F?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: SICKdimension on May 23, 2005, 02:31:00 PM

Has anyone else bought a drive yet, or tried this, or plan to soon? I'll probably be buying one to try it out within a week, but would hopefully like to see someone else successfully mod one first.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: monsteria on May 23, 2005, 03:39:00 PM

Thanks for the great guide.

In short....I did the original mod and it worked for DVD+-R/W and XBOX original, but no CD. Then I connected the RDCD to GND and now it reads the CDs too.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 23, 2005, 04:25:00 PM

i only had a problem with one cd-r which was green, 4x max speed and anbout 5-6 years old. i recognized a very minimal disadavante on dvds which probably no one will recognize.

@mrkaylor does the samsung dvd-r which make probs work without the cd mod?

@monsteria you connected RDCD to GND as you say...do you mean connected through a resistor? im just asking to be sure.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: queekus on May 24, 2005, 02:08:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 24, 2005, 03:11:00 AM

@queekus

thx and you can use a strip (?) with the grid deimension of 2.0.

im not sure if my vocabulary is right here, this is what i mean, t can be connected to the yellow cable, only problem is that you must not plug it twisted.

user posted image

btw, people with a original lg drive should be able to upgrade their drive too.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Australian Rat on May 24, 2005, 04:30:00 AM

Time to give the thomson a kick up the ass!

Been watching the development of this drive very closely, nice to see it's been perfected.

Should this get a pin?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 24, 2005, 05:06:00 AM

i mailed a mod for a pin but got no answer yet. moreover a post to the news would be nice; i think that many people are searching for something like this and will never know about it. im afraid that they will recognize the mod when the 8163b isnt available anymore.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: u_no_fr on May 24, 2005, 06:00:00 AM

hi menelik,

what is the link for your pin connector mod ??

tchusss

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: cube on May 24, 2005, 06:37:00 AM

Any idea if this would work on the 8163BB version? This is I guess the newer version (16x/52x) and is available everywhere here :-)

Thanks for any help!!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: u_no_fr on May 24, 2005, 08:08:00 AM

@cube :

8163BB version is th BLACK version of 8163B

Have a good day

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: cube on May 24, 2005, 08:36:00 AM

@:u_no_fr

Thanks! I found some contradicting info on the LG site, I could only find info on the B version and it said it was a 16x48x drive, through a link at one of the local shops I came at another part of the LG site for the BB, RBB versions and it said 16x/52x so that's where my confusion started

Thanks for your quick reply though, will pick one up tomorrow!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: panosvo on May 24, 2005, 11:14:00 AM

Well i have made the mod to(the extra point VRCD, i have already done 3 drives with Trubb guide) and its reads now cds no problem
I have tried
Verbatim white cd 52x

burned game - it reads it OK
burned cd with mp3 songs- reads its OK

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: turho on May 24, 2005, 11:29:00 AM

What different the Trubb mod and this mod?
I don't look the photos. Wires is different, bios are 8050L fixed? And read all cd-r?
THX, sorry my hungarian english.
Tutorial photo's to bad.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 24, 2005, 01:14:00 PM

turho, its not the first time i see you asking stupid questions, sorry, but it seems that you just dont read anything. this tutorial will show you the cd advantage which trubb mod didnt.

@Blast

didnt you see my earlier post on the last page? i made it extra large! maybe it was no clear enough, so here once again, this time in red

:

btw, people with a original lg drive should be able to upgrade their drive too.

p.s. just dont wanna trash this topic with double posts

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on May 24, 2005, 04:43:00 PM

If only this worked on the 605F, I'm sure it would work on an 8050L if we found the VRCD point. Honestly, if the same trick can be used on the new Sammys, I would have many more happy customers and other members.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 24, 2005, 04:58:00 PM

ok guys,
i uploaded a new version with better pics, now even blinds can mod this drive. i will start more resarch on philips drives soon, cant look on a samsung as i dont have one.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on May 24, 2005, 05:24:00 PM

Whats wrong with Philips? There are no firmware lockouts...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 24, 2005, 05:28:00 PM

QUOTE(TKramka @ May 25 2005, 01:35 AM)

Whats wrong with Philips? There are no firmware lockouts...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: fasmanza on May 24, 2005, 05:29:00 PM

QUOTE(TKramka @ May 25 2005, 01:35 AM)

Whats wrong with Philips? There are no firmware lockouts...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on May 24, 2005, 05:31:00 PM

Proof? Do a pot tweak, and it reads everything, if ti had a firmware lockout, it wouldn't read CDRs even with a pot tweak. And just as a side note, could you take some pics of the 8050L and put them in your tut, or post them and I'll make a tutorial for getting the original drives to read CDR. That is, if you can find VRCD on them too.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 24, 2005, 05:32:00 PM

QUOTE(fasmanza @ May 25 2005, 01:40 AM)

If Im not mistaken the lens doesnt detect CD-R media,thats why when you drop the pot it picks it up.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on May 24, 2005, 05:39:00 PM

Oh don't just walk away, sure, we shot down the idea, but, it was still a good one, even if it wasn't fully correct. But thats beside the point, Thomsons are the ones you should look into, those don't have a firmware lockout either, but if you could find an optimal value for them, say 200 ohms off the pot, to get them to read CDRs without burning them, that would be nice. And if you get anyones XBox with a Sammy, take a look at those.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 24, 2005, 05:44:00 PM

pushingthe pots is a dirty way whic can be used on afaik every drive. i always use it to push older ps2 drives.
i dont know a pc version of the philips which means that i dont know if the pc version would have read cds. sure, the philips is only made for the xbox but its not said that MS ddidnt build some disadvantged into. thats the main idea.
as the firmware is encrypted on all drives all drives 'could' have some locks.
think of the samsung which dont read dvd+ in general, do you really think that you'd need an other chipset / laser to do that?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 24, 2005, 05:55:00 PM

yeah, new sammys are a good aim. as i work for a modding shop i wll get my hands on them soon, just a matter of time. the second questions is if it will be as easy as this one here.
do the new sammys read dvd+ ? someone told me that some sammys (maybe oder too) read dvd+ but i never get them to read.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on May 24, 2005, 05:57:00 PM

Nor I, but I do know that 50 ohms off a Philips works every time, and the only Philips drives for PCs are DVD burners, and a select few, only about oh 5 models per say, but no one is going to want to give up dvd writing for XBox game compatibility. I am not sure so don't quote me on this, but new Sammys don't read CDRs but do read DVD+Rs.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on May 24, 2005, 06:03:00 PM

Do you have any of the 8050L mainboard, I want to track down VRCD on that thing. Also, can you get a shot of the underside of the Sammy laser?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on May 24, 2005, 06:14:00 PM

It really is good, especially with the new pics, kudos to you my friend!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: networkBoy on May 24, 2005, 10:27:00 PM

QUOTE(menelik @ May 24 2005, 01:17 PM)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: panosvo on May 25, 2005, 01:04:00 AM

One more think i have done with the drives i have moded , is that i removed the the light lamp from the front of the DVD drive , its not needed anyway and now the drive fits better in my xbox and comes more forword.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 25, 2005, 01:56:00 AM

QUOTE(networkBoy @ May 25 2005, 06:38 AM)

While not as hot as XS, I would love to put this in the front page of my site

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Blast on May 25, 2005, 08:57:00 AM

To be precise the DVD+R I use are Platinum 8x DVD+R burnt on a Plextor PX-716A. From what I hear the various Xbox drives have a problem with media burnt on Pioneer DVD burners, that's why I got this Plextor.

The Platinum are in fact Ricoh's media.

// Stefan

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 25, 2005, 03:15:00 PM

(last one)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 25, 2005, 04:57:00 PM

udapte: phillips 6035/21

the story of the drive: i got this oe from a crystal box, i ushed the potis 8 months ago and it worked fine, even with the most cds. in the last months it had more and more problems and wasnt able to read many of my dvds. so i started working on this. at the end it read really everthing, eqaul which media, even 6 year old cds. main problem is that i dont know of any long term effects...i dont wanna publish more as i cant proof that it wont let the drive die.
just wanted you to know this ability.

i need someone with this drive who takes the risk and tries this, please mail me.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Tiros on May 25, 2005, 06:36:00 PM

I suspect that there may be another way to accomplish this.

I'm not looking to start a fight so let's not get upset. I have not evaluated the electrical reliability of the CDR "fix" at this time. If it does affect laser bias, it will most likely decrease drive life as menelik suggests.

Perhaps this thread should have not been split just yet.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: liteon6x on May 25, 2005, 10:11:00 PM

Ok i am ready to attemp this mod

i wanna get some things clear first ,In the tutorial the author said u can use a y splitter if u are ignoring the power wiring. i know this is the 5v and 12v points, but i wanna know if i can ignore the grounds(gnd) point too if i use a y splitter

second: the wires i am planning to use are strip ide cable wires is that ok

last question: i have some 1k risistors that are the spiral colour stripe ones not smd 1206 versions can i still use these and get cdr support

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 26, 2005, 03:35:00 AM

@liteon6x

1. no, you dont need gnd
2. that wires are ok
3. it doesnt matter what kinda resistor your take, the values have to be the same

@tiros

i've never said that this solution is a digital one, im quiet sure that its analog.
anyway, its not definetly said that the m$ firmware doesnt decrease somehting from the laser which this trick equalizes. moreover im not playing directly with the laser bias, this would just be a normal poti push.
my problem is that im really no expert on laser diodes; anyway, i think that this solution affects the laser pulse. normally you got two pots with two functions, laser strength and pulse (different to ps2 which got one for cd and one for dvd). so i tried to set the laser pulse manually within the pot on a philips which ended in reading fine on cds but no dvds anymore. then i used the vrcd trick on the philips and it reads fine everyting. i've measured the laser strength and couldnt see any difference to before.

and no we didnt split up the topics to early because the last one really really got inscrutable.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 26, 2005, 05:09:00 AM

im afraid that this get my new diary, anyway:

i measured around with the philips and cant imagine how a pulldown resistor (from which i think it is) could damage the laser. moreover i measured lower voltages when i used the resistor to ground. once again, im not an expert but i dont think that dropping the voltage will let the laser die. when i'djust push the laser through the normal pot tweak the laser should get a higher voltage.
please share your ideas.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 26, 2005, 11:39:00 AM

here are some values (all in mV), make your own conclusions:

media vrcd vrdvd

original drive, without flashing:

dvd 276 017
cd 017 224

flashed drive without vrcd mod:

dvd 225 016
couldnt measure cd because it never read one

flashed drive with resistor to vrcd:

cd 016 217
dvd 095 017

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: JEB-101 on May 26, 2005, 01:06:00 PM

QUOTE(menelik @ May 25 2005, 06:07 AM)

Hi!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: cube on May 26, 2005, 03:20:00 PM

Works like a charm!! Thanks a lot guys for all the work put into this project!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: u_no_fr on May 27, 2005, 06:11:00 AM

Indeed I hope that is DVD connector vue and not the Mainborad connector view

thanks for your reply

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 27, 2005, 06:50:00 AM

hi!
the mainboard connector got two more pins which arent used, the connector in my tutorial is the part which is plugged into the drive.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 28, 2005, 01:04:00 PM

fasmanza, thx. are you talking about the 8050l ? maybe you should redownload my tut as it has better pics now.
moreover:
i search people with philips drives 35 or 11 version who wants cd improvement (the mod isnt really tested yet):

icq: 56541633

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 28, 2005, 02:45:00 PM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 28, 2005, 03:52:00 PM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on May 29, 2005, 10:08:00 AM

My first attempt, but, are these wires strong enough? They're from an old LTP printer cable: http://members.chell...sland2/lg01.jpg

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 29, 2005, 10:16:00 AM

QUOTE(Slrpgeit @ May 29 2005, 06:19 PM)

My first attempt, but, are these wires strong enough? They're from an old LTP printer cable: http://members.chell...sland2/lg01.jpg

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on May 29, 2005, 10:46:00 AM

Ok, thnx. Waiting for my resistors so i can finish the mod.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: u_no_fr on May 29, 2005, 10:46:00 AM

I have lost the tray out point
Indeed the point is now on my solder
Does anyone know where can I find an other tray out point ???
I am so hangry

Please HELP ME

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 29, 2005, 11:00:00 AM

look atthe pic on page 7 (newer tut with beter pics)
on the upper left of tryout you'll find a new try. dont damage it too!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: u_no_fr on May 29, 2005, 11:07:00 AM

on the pic page 7 there is one tray out point
this point is out of order on my pcb because it is now on my solder
I can't see the other one
could you send me a pic please

thks 4 all

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 29, 2005, 11:13:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: u_no_fr on May 29, 2005, 11:16:00 AM

oki menelik,

thanks a lot
is there any easier point for tay in and ready ??

thks for your precious help

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 29, 2005, 11:19:00 AM

what the.....this s the easiest point i can imagine!?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 29, 2005, 12:00:00 PM

did you try different cd brands or different colors?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: lordvader129 on May 29, 2005, 12:20:00 PM

we try to keep the pinned topics neat and clean by not pinning every single topic of intertest, i did however add a link to this thread to the important/key topics thread

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 29, 2005, 12:23:00 PM

@lordvader129

thx a lot!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 30, 2005, 09:24:00 AM

im sorry, didnt wrote it clear enough:

this wont work on dvds, it only works on cds. it has to read dvds before...im morkjing on a workaround to improve the dvd read but i dont think that i will finish this soon.
so once again: this od only works for cds, your drive should read dvds fine before.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on May 30, 2005, 09:58:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: u_no_fr on May 30, 2005, 12:17:00 PM

Xbox closed

CDR Audio, CDR data, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW
and original game are OK

Thks 4 all Menelik

Now waiting for philips mod

tchusss

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 30, 2005, 01:44:00 PM

Hi!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on May 30, 2005, 02:59:00 PM

Some benchmark results: backed up SC:CT to hd, original DVD. 5.358Gb, took 19:37, wich comes down to about 6.7 mb/s. A 5x dvd drive.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: panosvo on May 30, 2005, 11:12:00 PM

Well menelik , what is the best resistor to use 800 Ohm or 1000 Ohm, if 800 Ohm is the best why not use 800 Ohm .

I have already done the mod with 1000 Ohm , and everything works ok

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 31, 2005, 12:27:00 PM

because noone would notice the difference and 1k re easy to get.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: wenid on May 31, 2005, 03:45:00 PM

QUOTE(menelik @ May 23 2005, 03:50 AM)

i know that he front pcb can be cut, but i wanted to present the easiest options, you would also win just 1mm, you would had to cut some metal too to get the 3 mm.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: wenid on May 31, 2005, 03:48:00 PM

QUOTE(dopeuser @ May 23 2005, 05:06 AM)

I dont think MS used wiring that is 'dangerously' undersized

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on May 31, 2005, 04:14:00 PM

Hi!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on May 31, 2005, 09:20:00 PM

guys, i have a question...

work the modding with 1k ohm resistors but of more/less than 1/4 watt? (1/8 or 1/2 watt is possible?) i have serious problems with find this value (1k ohm 1/4 w) in my little city.

any suggestions? i don't want drive 4 hours to the near city to buy four resistors. :(
thks.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 01, 2005, 01:10:00 AM

1/2 will work too. if you got a damged mobo you can take a resistor from there, its a common resistor. you also dont have to use smd, you can aso any other ressitor, only the value plays a matter.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on June 01, 2005, 10:10:00 AM

QUOTE(menelik @ Jun 1 2005, 09:21 AM)

1/2 will work too. if you got a damged mobo you can take a resistor from there, its a common resistor. you also dont have to use smd, you can aso any other ressitor, only the value plays a matter.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 01, 2005, 01:15:00 PM

its great to see that this mod works for the most

QUOTE

the TrayIn point (the one hidden under the ribbon cable), is fine and works, but it doesn't retract the tray when you press the power down button. If you want it retract the tray when you power down then use the OUT point next to the Eject point on the other side of the PCB.

it works with that point, i made many drives and you can power it on over eject and it drives out nd when you push the power button it will drive back.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on June 03, 2005, 12:09:00 PM

So, let me get this straight, if you leave uit the VRCD wire, the drive will read more dvd's but no cd-r?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 03, 2005, 12:36:00 PM

you got it. you could add a switch, when you wanna use cds switch it to GND through 100 Ohm. if you wanna use dvds just use no wiring. as i dont like switches and tis method works for all dvds i tested i dont advise you to use them. as you see ths mmod works for the most, i'd just use other resistors.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on June 03, 2005, 02:00:00 PM

Hmm, not interested in CD-r's in any way, so when i feel like it, i think i'm going to remove the wire.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: spedmetal on June 03, 2005, 07:00:00 PM

Can someone explain the flashing procedure a little better. The tutorial briefly covers it, and the other thread about the 8163B wasnt to clear for me either. I have used the sf8163.exe in a command prompt within windowsXP. I have made a diskette with the sf8163.exe and the 8050L.DLD file and booted from the diskette and it wont flash either. I have the LD 8163B on the secondary IDE port as master. I even tried starting xp in safe mode with a dos prompt and was still unsuccessful. I can start the app but every time it tells me that there is no drive and I have also done the /r and /i options as well. I know I must be doing something totaly wrong as this seems to be a very easy step that I cant get passed. A little help here would be very much appreciated. Thanks

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: xboxuser5 on June 03, 2005, 09:49:00 PM

I have to try it l.o.l.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: spedmetal on June 04, 2005, 12:00:00 AM

Now on to the rest of the mod!!!!

Thanks to all that have brought this information to light, keep up the good work.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: SICKdimension on June 04, 2005, 12:27:00 AM

Thanks for that spedmetal. I don't normally use a PC, so that will save me some time searching for how to make a boot disk.

I just bought my drive today! Sold a Thomson for $40 and bought this for under $30. Good deal.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 04, 2005, 02:07:00 AM

the flashed drive wont work with a pc. if yu'd put it into your xbox you'd see that it works well.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on June 04, 2005, 09:21:00 AM

Hmm, i removed the VRCD Wire, and now it doesn't auto close when i power off the xbox, what did i do wrong?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on June 04, 2005, 09:38:00 AM

Damn, the vrcd point came off, is there an alternate point?

/edit: problem solved, left vrcd connection out, my eject wire came loose.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on June 04, 2005, 10:00:00 AM

Edit that, it was my tray out wire, not eject.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 04, 2005, 10:04:00 AM

i dont think its off. i guess that you broke your wiring on the backside, watch for trayin and out.

edit: didnt saw that you did it allready

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: URPREY on June 04, 2005, 01:56:00 PM

Just wanted to say thanks to Menilik and everyone involved in this mod. I got mine working last night. Only issue I ran into was that I kept getting error 11 when I booted up. After messing with it for a while I figured out that the drive jumper needs to be removed completely for my Xbox to recognize the drive using cable select.

This is a great, inexpensive and easy mod to do. Thanks again!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 04, 2005, 02:10:00 PM

thx for that URPREY.

slave worked for me every time. dunno why yours dont accept it.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: xboxuser5 on June 04, 2005, 04:35:00 PM

will the 8162B work the same?

anybody tried it already?

if so anything different?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Jetset Willy on June 05, 2005, 03:15:00 AM

Forget about my last post, i had left the flatcable to the potwagon a little loose. All works like it should now! The tray out is ok too, i guess this is a good tip to use the holes if you
got one of those pcb´s and if you got a shaky soldering hand like me! Has anyone taught of making the drivelight visible? I haven´t looked into it yet but was thinking of drilling a hole in the xbox frontpanel at the right spot and put a piece of glass or plastic in the hole to make the light shine out to the front. Don´t know if it´s possible tough. I guess it would be better to remove the light and put it where you want i with some wire between...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: nase on June 05, 2005, 04:17:00 AM

Thanks Menelik,
done 4 Mods now... all with SMD Trimmpotis at a value ~ 1,2K.
1K didn't work for me (wont read any of my Ritek G03/04)

so long

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Digital_sin on June 05, 2005, 04:50:00 PM

hey guys,

i cant find that exact model anywhere here, and i dont have a CC to order it off the net, all i can find is this model.

"GDR-8161B"

will this one work? i know this is kind of a noob question, but please help me out!

here are the specs of the drive.

http://www.vitalityc.../lggd16xdv.html

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: spedmetal on June 05, 2005, 07:20:00 PM

Well I actually finished this mod last night and I have to say WOW

This mod works very well. I took a few pictures of things I did differently so that people will have a few more options to consider. I did everything pretty much like the tutorial stated except I didnt short the vrcd to ground as I would rather have DVD-R's play well (which they do!) as well as originals and CD-RW's. Not too concerned with CD-R as long as everything else is playing as well as it does.

I also did a few things different when it came to mounting the drive in the Xbox. First I removed the face place all together from the front of the drive. I then trimmed the sheet metal that would normally recess into the face place (about 1 mm) off the front of the drive all the way around. I then mounted the drive tray face just like the tutorial states in option one which is a very good way of doing it and doesn't require a ghetto gluing procedure. All of this left the drive still just a little far away from being flush. What was still holding it back was the small circuit board that has the activity LED on the front; it was hitting the metal shield in the Xbox just above the controller port. I simply trimmed this section of the shield off with my tin snips (which is also what I used to trim the metal from around the front of the drive too) which allowed the drive to then go completely flush with the front of the Xbox case. I ran the wires through the audio cable socket and trimmed a little plastic from the back before I did this so the wires wouldn't get pinched when the dive was screwed back together. I then filled the audio socket with hot glue so that it would act as a grommet. When I had the drive lined up flush where I wanted it I market were it sat in the Xboxs plastic drive housing and then cut small holes in the housing to screw the drive to it.

All in all this mod works very well and is very cheap to perform once again thanks to all involved.

user posted image

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: kramus on June 05, 2005, 08:28:00 PM

QUOTE

When you install this chip you can use anything your PC DVD player will read!

I think that pretty much sums it up.

In other words, unless it's been flashed to read originals it won't.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: spedmetal on June 05, 2005, 10:21:00 PM

QUOTE(kramus @ Jun 6 2005, 04:39 AM)

I think that pretty much sums it up.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: panosvo on June 06, 2005, 01:09:00 AM

Well spedmetal i have also removed the activity LED from the front and that way it fits much better.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 06, 2005, 04:33:00 AM

yes, removing the led let it fit better, there are several ways, you gotta understand that i've choosen the easiest method in my tutorial.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: wup on June 06, 2005, 04:10:00 PM

Link to the tutorial is down if anyone has a saved copy could you email it to [email protected] it would be greatly appreciated.

Wup

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on June 06, 2005, 04:32:00 PM

I think it's too big for hotmail to recieve.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on June 06, 2005, 04:47:00 PM

Its 5 megs, it might be able to take it, I think I might mirror a copy if melenik dosn't mind. And make an http version if thats alright.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on June 06, 2005, 05:12:00 PM

@panosvo
Only remove the activity LED from the front and the tray was perfect??

@menelik
Sorry again, i'm little slow... what are the *recommend* tray points to work fine the autoplay? I'm confused. :_(

@wup, @warriorcookie
Tutorial GDR-8163B by menelik (4.69mb, PDF)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on June 06, 2005, 05:34:00 PM

And another mirror on my somewhat slow AOL account. Here ya go!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: wup on June 06, 2005, 05:59:00 PM

Thanks to all that helped and emailed, everything is working perfectly.

Wup

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: truBB on June 06, 2005, 11:32:00 PM

All installed:

user posted image

-I forgot to mention it, but I put a couple screws underneath the drive, to space it up a bit. In other words, I put 2 of the supplied screws into the drive, on the bottom side, before laying into the black tray. It pushed it up just enough so that i to wouldn't rub along the tray.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: spedmetal on June 07, 2005, 12:16:00 AM

Very nice idea useing the audio plug its self! Whish I had thought of that. I also spaced mine up but with blobs of hot glue instead of screws.... also a good idea.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Digital_sin on June 07, 2005, 01:00:00 AM

hey guys,

if i didn't use the 4th resistor, i wont get CD-R support, right?

does this include rewritable cds, or just CD-R?

this is because i read here somewhere that using that 4th resistor takes away from the drive's ability to read DVDs, and its also a burden on the lens, like pot tweaking.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 07, 2005, 05:19:00 AM

i measured a lot and couldnt see a 'pot tweak', the laser bias doesnt get more power. moreover there is a minimal dvd disadvantage, you can adjust this with higher resistance values.
the vrcd resistor is to read any cd-r (5 years old dark green dont work , newer cd-rs work great)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: wup on June 07, 2005, 02:43:00 PM

Anybody know where you can get the male connectro for the yellow dvd cable (i.e. so its plug and play withouth spicing the cable), without ripping it off of another xbox drive?

Thanks

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on June 07, 2005, 06:10:00 PM

@truBB
I cant see your photos. :(

@monsteria
thanks!. I make the question in the past page.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: SICKdimension on June 07, 2005, 09:06:00 PM

The PDF is a dead link! I just received my drive today and want to get to work. Can someone get it live again?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on June 07, 2005, 09:13:00 PM

Check the page 10. You have 2 mirrors+.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: monsteria on June 08, 2005, 01:42:00 AM

I had a few questions on the exact location of the point, I guess my discription wasn't clear...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: hippo on June 08, 2005, 08:20:00 AM

I made a little guide for my users in pdf format you can take a look
HERE

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 08, 2005, 11:36:00 AM

sorry guys, tut will be back soon, have to talk to my host first.

cheers.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 09, 2005, 09:37:00 AM

ok, tutorial is back and online. have fun.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Darts on June 09, 2005, 03:08:00 PM

Hey!
Thanks for the file :-)

Do you know by chance a way to flash back a 8163b previously flashed with the wrong firmware?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Digital_sin on June 09, 2005, 03:41:00 PM

QUOTE(MyName @ Jun 9 2005, 11:14 PM)

My xbox is completely unmodded and stock but i have a bad phillips and the warranty has expired, and on top of that now completely voided....

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 10, 2005, 04:17:00 AM

sf8163 bios x /c /f /p /o /r

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: SICKdimension on June 10, 2005, 10:42:00 PM

Has anyone besides menelik just used 1 wire for the power/ground? Would it be better if I connected the 2 or 3 wires together?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: SICKdimension on June 10, 2005, 11:41:00 PM

OK. I finished the mod, but it's not working. In XBMC, it says the drive is empty when the tray is open, busy while reading, then says Open when the drive is closed. It doesn't launch any media, or even think any media is in the drive. Ideas/suggestions?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Jetset Willy on June 11, 2005, 12:49:00 AM

Just got the mod finished and xbox closed myself. I desoldered the lightdiode that shows drive activity, put some wire between and put it on the front of the xbox. It reads dvd´s better than the samsung but it got the same issue with dvd´s burned with over 4 gigs, they don´t work properly. Altough i think this is more down to the burner... But say if i wanted to enhance the dvd reading, could i just put an on/off switch on the wire between vrcd and ground and would that be safe if it got switched when the xbox is powered on?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 11, 2005, 04:15:00 AM

im sorry to say this, but why do you people use other manuals as in my tutorial and ask why doesnt it work? i got some mails about non working drives from which i think that wrong points were used. the points i show you are the easiest points.

btw, its nonsense to use a power plug with strong wires and use the same small wires to connect it to the mobo.
i used wires same as ide cables, mine never got warm or hot.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 11, 2005, 04:38:00 AM

im curious what problems you mean.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: SICKdimension on June 11, 2005, 10:25:00 AM

QUOTE(menelik @ Jun 11 2005, 04:26 AM)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 11, 2005, 11:03:00 AM

@SICKdimension

hi,

did you accidentally switch tray-in and out?

btw, i never used the audio connector but did you cut the traces from it or pulled it so that it has no contacts to the mobo? doesnt look so to me.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: twinski9909 on June 11, 2005, 06:36:00 PM

I'm really excited to start working on this mod, but before i go and spend my money, i want to be absolutly sure that i am getting this all right. I can use regular 1k resistors from radio shack? The kind used for led mods and such. Sorry to sound dumb, but this is the first time i've done stuff like this and don't want to mess up. When i finish i will post pics and the like for everyone else to use, but just want to make sure. Thanks for your help!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: SICKdimension on June 11, 2005, 07:20:00 PM

It was hard to tell in that pic, but yes, I clipped the pinheader so it does not connect to the pcb.

Here is how my connector is. I don't think I switched the tray in and out, but can you confirm? Thank you.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on June 11, 2005, 07:44:00 PM

*error*

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Axl_Mas on June 12, 2005, 02:56:00 AM

Nice!!!!!!!
My 8163b works without any problem using XBMC with the option "Use PC DVD" marked!
Reads all support and play it without reboot!!

I recommend to set XBMC as defaul dashbord, infact with evox the modded dvd reader don't work! (evox say that the reader is open when it is close and don't play nothing!!!)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 12, 2005, 03:24:00 AM

@sickdimension

the setup of te connector is right. i have no ideas why it doesnt work for you. did you use the right firmware? fixed version?

@Axl_Mas

did you wire your drive right and used the right fixed firmware? evox status is definetly supported.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: spedmetal on June 12, 2005, 12:41:00 PM

QUOTE(menelik @ Jun 12 2005, 11:35 AM)

@sickdimension

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: twinski9909 on June 12, 2005, 01:51:00 PM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: SICKdimension on June 12, 2005, 02:23:00 PM

QUOTE(Axl_Mas @ Jun 12 2005, 03:07 AM)

My 8163b works without any problem using XBMC with the option "Use PC DVD" marked!

Of course! I just changed that, and now my drive works!! It's always the little things...

One prob though. I just played a game on it fine, but when trying to play CD-Rs, it plays each song for about 5 seconds, then skips to the next. Any ideas?

Also, I apologize if I overlooked it, but I couldn't tell where the jumper should go after flashing. Keep it at master, move it back to CS, or just remove it? In your pics it looks like it's at CS, so that's what I did.

Thanks to all involved! This was a very simple, effective mod. Now I need to get it mounted flush in the box.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 12, 2005, 03:05:00 PM

QUOTE(SICKdimension @ Jun 12 2005, 10:34 PM)

Of course! I just changed that, and now my drive works!! It's always the little things...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: SICKdimension on June 12, 2005, 03:19:00 PM

That's all I changed. It might have something to do with the bios/dash setup. I use XBMC as my main dash, and the bios is set to not check for the dvd drive.

Got any ideas why it would skip the song every 5 seconds?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 12, 2005, 03:26:00 PM

i took my 6 ear old 4x princo and it playes my audio cd very fine.
moreover you should make the following test:
push eject, tray has toome out
push power and the tray has to go inside before the box shuts itself off.

and you should check if evox recognizes your media right.

i cant understand your issues, i think that its either the environment as the drive itself.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: freakinacage on June 13, 2005, 02:13:00 AM

also what is this thing with the audio plug/wires what is this for and how would you do it? is it beneficial?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 13, 2005, 08:58:00 AM

arghs!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: twinski9909 on June 13, 2005, 01:45:00 PM

Si! Good luck!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: liteon6x on June 14, 2005, 03:32:00 AM

I flash my Lg 8163b to the xbox firmware and now, i wanna go back to the pc firm ,i use the latest 8163b windows flasher but i dont see where to select the drive

help

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 14, 2005, 04:49:00 AM

this question has been asked twice, se the /r option. this enables the recovery modus which will let you flash your drive back - dont forget to choose the right firmware.

cheers

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: liteon6x on June 14, 2005, 08:21:00 AM

ok i understand the recovery mode thing but where do i get the 8163b .dld firmware to reflash it with

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 14, 2005, 12:45:00 PM

QUOTE(liteon6x @ Jun 14 2005, 04:32 PM)

ok i understand the recovery mode thing but where do i get the 8163b .dld firmware to reflash it with

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: UnSaniTiZ on June 15, 2005, 12:19:00 AM

I know it's been said that the 8050L can be modded like this to read CDRs, but has any one tried it and succeeded? If I try it, could it hurt my drive? Is it the same point for the 8050L? There is a point in the same place, but it's got a different label: TP020 I think, instead of VRCD...

Sorry if these questions have been asked and answered, I did read the thread sparingly, but maybe I missed them.

-UnSaniTiZ

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 15, 2005, 10:28:00 AM

i havent tested it yet but im quiet sure that its the right point and that it wont hurt your drive.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Krill123 on June 15, 2005, 11:40:00 AM

Would the 8162B do the same thing as the 8163B?

(Asking because only 8162B are available in my area)..

Thanks.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Fuzzlet on June 15, 2005, 12:31:00 PM

Ok I'm pretty sure I fixed the yellow cable.. xbox boots with modded drive in, but I get error 11. Not sure why.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 15, 2005, 12:44:00 PM

i guess that you twisted some wires. its dangerous to twist them, you could kill your whole xbox. check this thread, there should be a picture of the mobo connector around page 13.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 15, 2005, 01:20:00 PM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 15, 2005, 01:39:00 PM

what media did you use. i guess that you destroyed - switched something.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 15, 2005, 02:02:00 PM

read this thread? yes it is possible.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: freakinacage on June 15, 2005, 03:16:00 PM

i fucked up the eject point is there any alternates?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: freakinacage on June 15, 2005, 05:36:00 PM

hmmm sorry for the double post i couldnt find how to edit my post..but i found another eject point on the board that controls the eject mechanism would soldering the wire there works as if i would by soldering it the the main board of the drive. ??any feed back would be appreciated.
-Freak

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: hippo on June 16, 2005, 12:45:00 AM

Hire a blind man to solder it with his feet.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 16, 2005, 03:20:00 AM

QUOTE(freakinacage @ Jun 16 2005, 01:47 AM)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on June 16, 2005, 10:12:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: twinski9909 on June 16, 2005, 02:58:00 PM

Hey guys, i was hoping that you could help me out. I get this nasty little Vendor Product id error. I have no idea what it means. I get it when i am trying to flash. It goes and finds the drive but then it gets stuck and gives me that error. All i did was unplug my computer cd rom and plug the new one back in. Any help would be great.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Salblock on June 16, 2005, 03:20:00 PM

I am going to try and attempt this mod. i read most of the post by all of you and i have some questions. Do i use 1k ohm 1/4 wat or 1k ohm 1/2watt resistors? also can you guys tell me if there is any hidden things i should know about or any pointers?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 16, 2005, 04:45:00 PM

QUOTE(Salblock @ Jun 16 2005, 11:31 PM)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: bosstitan187 on June 16, 2005, 06:40:00 PM

im to lazy to try it but nice work

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 17, 2005, 08:38:00 AM

hi!
thx for the reply, but why is the data point vague?
its just metioned in the datasheet, i didnt say that it is actually used at all.

im happy to se that all your dvds work without a disadvantage.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Salblock on June 17, 2005, 09:15:00 AM

QUOTE(tards @ Jun 17 2005, 06:59 AM)

Thanks for the tutorial.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 17, 2005, 10:47:00 AM

i never expereinced probs with ide wires.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: twinski9909 on June 17, 2005, 02:01:00 PM

Well i ran into a small problem. I was wondering if anyone knew of alternative points for the tray in and tray out? Does trin stand for tray in? Thanks.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 17, 2005, 02:24:00 PM

why do you people want easier points? these points are really "perfect" for this purpose. believe me, there are no easiert points.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on June 17, 2005, 02:49:00 PM

I agree.

I'm a complete n00b with a soldering iron in my hands and the 8163B work perfect in my xbox. More easy.. impossible.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: twinski9909 on June 17, 2005, 11:15:00 PM

No don't get me wrong they are easy, but mine got pulled off completly there is no metal for me to solder to. I have no idea how they did, but they are gone. I am sure it was me and my bad soldering, but i still need new points. I will try some out and let you know my findings. Sorry for the confusion and maybe im just not as luckey as you guys.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: pug_ster on June 18, 2005, 12:03:00 AM

I just brought an xbox with the hacked 8163b in it. I noticed that it didn't work very well with cheap sonic dvd-r's compared to my old (original) samsung 605b. It occasonally give me DDE's and give me bad pixels when it plays movies. I am still testing it though but anybody else have these issues? Thanks.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 18, 2005, 01:59:00 AM

@pug_ster

with the cd ability enabled you always will have a disadvantage on dvds. but have i never experienced problems with my cheap media. beside of that its also a matter of your burner as my burner makes more erros on my cheap media.
where did you buy it and do you have problems with other brands too?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 18, 2005, 04:28:00 AM

btw, i got a 1kohm modded drive which couldnt read my cheap dvds. when i used 1,5 kohm they worked. it believe that this is because the pot settings. another drive could read them with 1kohm very well. the weird part is that my old drive with the 1kohm had some probs with my benQ dvd- instead of the drive which played them well on 1kohm and everything else not except i used 1,5 kohm.

well, i will have to do more tests with more drive etc. before i publish this mod.
stay tuned.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on June 18, 2005, 03:06:00 PM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: hippo on June 18, 2005, 04:18:00 PM

You sound like possibly you have some crossed signals going into the yellow cord.

I've heard after modding a Sammy drive it is unadvisable to use the original tray eject button, you should always use the large button on the front panel of the Xbox, can anyone comment on this, since the post above is using that?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: MyName on June 18, 2005, 05:33:00 PM

Hey i finished the mod (the resistor version) and much to my suprise it worked despite my soldering.

Thanks to all for the mod and to the "anonamous source" who created the program to flash the firmware...it worked great and couldn't be any easier.

One question though, for some reason when i boot games it has to be from a shut down xbox, rather than just inserting and closing the tray, don't know why this is but for my purposes i really don't need to change it, its just an inconvenience.

Thanks again

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: snnorlaxx on June 18, 2005, 07:31:00 PM

QUOTE(snnorlaxx @ Jun 18 2005, 05:57 PM)

Attemped this mod on a LG 8163-B drive and have some mixed results. The machine boots ok, but the eject light keeps blinking. Pushed it and the tray dosn't open. If I use the drives own eject button it opens and stops blinking. Once a game is loaded, original or back-up it seems to play fine. So I opened it uo and re-checked my solder connections they all seem fine. Need some help to comlete this

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 19, 2005, 03:39:00 AM

the prog for flashing the firmeare is an official firmware update prog from lg-hitachi. wenid actually extraced the firmware.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Axl_Mas on June 20, 2005, 11:28:00 AM

QUOTE(snnorlaxx @ Jun 20 2005, 07:13 PM)

Finally got the wiring sorted out and drive is working properly, sort of. I did the full mod, including the cd mod. This is what works now. cd-r+cd-rw is great, original game support seems good, but dvd-r support is a little poor, some back-up games don't load( dirty disk error, or dash reboots). Would the fix be to remove the cd support mod or can we play with the resistor value on the VRCD point to improve dvd-r playback ? Would you increase or lower the resistance? Thanks in advance.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: snnorlaxx on June 20, 2005, 11:34:00 AM

Thanks for the reply, I don't know if its a burning problem, the dvd-r games work in all my other xboxes, using Thompson, Phillips, or unmodified Samsung drives. My thinking is if the games work in all these original drives and not in the modified LG-1863B, well it the LG drive thats not reading properly.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 20, 2005, 11:58:00 AM

use a 1,5 kohm resistor instead of 1kohm for vrcd. if that doesnt work go higher to 2k. this will improve dvd the ability. but i think that your eject probs etc have others reasons.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on June 20, 2005, 02:16:00 PM

Guys, I have a question...

[info: I have a 1.6(a) xbox, with UXE exploit. 8163B mod like menelik tutorial but with 1K ohm 1/2watt resistors.. and all medias work great cds..dvd... originals... all disk. the jumper of the drive in Slave]

UnleashX is my primary dashboard... and this last weekend i install Dash2GAM (a m$dash hack) as primery dash, and when insert a disk the screen of the dashboard is frozen for 2~4 seconds and the background music sound stutters for the same time. But before this problem all work great. I test installing UIX as my primary dash too and i have the problem.

It's normal? or is only my problem?
thanks.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 20, 2005, 03:48:00 PM

well....so why did i write a tutorial then? follow the tutorial and everything will be fine.
resistors are 1/4

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: snnorlaxx on June 20, 2005, 03:52:00 PM

Well I'm using a softmodded box and Unleash. There seems to be a small delay, like 2-3 seconds when the xbox boots and when the dash displays. Havn't noticed this with the original drives, only the LG -8613B.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 20, 2005, 03:56:00 PM

@salblock

1,5 etc are used when 1k doesnt work well. as every drive is differenet i cant tell you whats the best resistor is.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Rezzo on June 20, 2005, 08:13:00 PM

@snnorlaxx

Thanks. I believe that the problem was my modding. I'm more quiet.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 21, 2005, 05:35:00 AM

@queekus

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Salblock on June 21, 2005, 11:27:00 AM

So does this pin eliminate all soldering? From what i can gather from it you plug the pin into the dvd drive and the yellow connector from the Xbox MOBO to the pin? and it works?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Black_Widow000 on June 21, 2005, 11:18:00 PM

QUOTE(Salblock @ Jun 21 2005, 07:38 PM)

So does this pin eliminate all soldering? From what i can gather from it you plug the pin into the dvd drive and the yellow connector from the Xbox MOBO to the pin? and it works?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Krill123 on June 23, 2005, 09:01:00 AM

Hey.. Can I get an answer on this?

Would the 8162B do the same thing as the 8163B?

(Asking because only 8162B are available in my area)..

Thanks for you answer...!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: doublebass2 on June 24, 2005, 09:10:00 AM

QUOTE(menelik @ Jun 21 2005, 03:46 PM)

@queekus

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: snnorlaxx on June 24, 2005, 03:28:00 PM

QUOTE(menelik @ Jun 20 2005, 02:09 PM)

use a 1,5 kohm resistor instead of 1kohm for vrcd. if that doesnt work go higher to 2k. this will improve dvd the ability. but i think that your eject probs etc have others reasons.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 24, 2005, 04:28:00 PM

good to hear that it works with different resistors. anyway, this really sucks....i dont understand why several drives come with different abilitys. i have no experience about laser diodes and i dont think that the pots are set 'randomly' by some lazy chinese workers....why the hell do they use pots instead of normal resistors if the value has to be the same each time? i think that it isnt possible to build excactly two lasers with the same setup. i guess that the pots are set individual for every laser. this should let us calculate the needed resistor if we measure the pots first.
i told you about my new solution: well, it works pretty fine in my drive, but it doesnt always work on other drives until i make new setups.
my guess is that have to find a better way to clean out the vrcd signal from which i think that its trashed withhin the MS firmware. but this is a real challenge to me as i dont have the right (expensive) tools and if i'd find a solution this would probably need more technical parts so that most users will stay on on the resistor trick which lets me stop on this. actually the best way is a simple button at the front. if you push it you got the cd enhancement, if you dont it will read most dvds.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on June 24, 2005, 08:00:00 PM

It works fine, at least in mine. Any resistor of the same value will work.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on June 25, 2005, 05:04:00 PM

Did you flash the xbox firmware?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 26, 2005, 12:57:00 PM

vrcd only enables the read ability on cds.
data isnt used here, its only written to make the datasheet complete.
when you flash the drive it will be able to read originals.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on June 27, 2005, 08:52:00 AM

I wont answer 3 or 4 times to the same question. read the thread. im sorry, but i dont think that im a parrot.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: wayno81 on June 27, 2005, 04:27:00 PM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: rockclimber on June 30, 2005, 05:04:00 AM

Excellent tutorial, I have just fixed mine in and it works a treat.
I had a small problem flashing the firmware because I've never done it before( I missed out the spaces between the switches f /c / etc ) and I had to change the jumper back from master to slave. I used a y splitter for my power and instead of gluing the drive to the tray i drilled two small holes in the black dvd tray and used the mounting screws that came with the drive.
Thanks again for all your hard work!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: hippo on June 30, 2005, 01:47:00 PM

Does anyone have any idea the final DVD read speed this ends up producing? I know it's not the 16x the drive enjoyed in it's PC life.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: maxsom on June 30, 2005, 05:03:00 PM

Hello again,
For the first time ever, I'm having trouble soldering. I need to find another "Ready" poing to solder to as it came off the board. I'm not sure which of the nearby connectors I should use. Can anyone help? Thanks.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: smith5_ftwd on July 01, 2005, 01:17:00 PM

im not sure if i flashed the drive correctly. i read the tut. but i dont know where the find sf8163.exe. so what i did was use a program called HitachiFlasher. and the firmware it wanted had to be .bin so i renamed 8050l.dld to 8050l.bin. then it had an error and now the drive is not being detected. any help

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on July 01, 2005, 01:24:00 PM

Did you get the program from the XBox Linux page? If so, its the same file renamed, read the readme...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on July 01, 2005, 07:33:00 PM

Read the readme in the RAR archive, there is a backup option in the firmware flasher, and a copy on the HL-DT website.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 02, 2005, 07:49:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Staticvoid on July 02, 2005, 09:01:00 AM

followed the guide done 3 now all play anything i throw in them.

thanks for the great guide

i cant believe so many people are having problems with this just read the damn guide!!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 02, 2005, 10:40:00 AM

cant you read?

[/r] recover ucom from critical condition.(recovery mode)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 02, 2005, 12:00:00 PM

just retrace the damage. its not that difficult...but i always use to say that for people who damaged the trace repairing may damage more.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on July 02, 2005, 12:21:00 PM

Sorry, i forgot you have to download the firmware from the Hl-DT website, or you could download the RPC2 firmware from RPC1.org

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 02, 2005, 02:47:00 PM

i guess to 99% that your wiring is wrong or that youve damaged something.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 03, 2005, 05:56:00 AM

go to the xbins server, they got the 8050l.dld firmware. if you wanna reflash your drive back use the latest official 8163b firmware.

i've heard that google may help...........

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 03, 2005, 12:02:00 PM

there is no dos firmware and no windows firmware. the clients are different. if its called 8163b.bin just change it to 8163b. dld and flash it with sf8163.exe
i wont answer on this anymore, answering on reqeusts of lazy people is really wasted time.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 03, 2005, 01:08:00 PM

@salblock
when your eject button doesnt work your wiring is faulty.
and because of the slayers....may it be that the image you burn is damaged?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: ThePornfather on July 04, 2005, 01:00:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: zweef_jr on July 04, 2005, 03:42:00 AM

just buy a samsung ts-h352a like me.
it reads everything except originals.

i used loads of diffirent typs of media and it reads all.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: TKramka on July 04, 2005, 08:23:00 AM

Thats cause its made to read those formats.

@salblock
Did you do the resistor mod for vrcd? if not, theres your problem. Also, check ALL your wires, esp. if eject isn't working.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 04, 2005, 08:49:00 AM

QUOTE(zweef_jr @ Jul 4 2005, 11:53 AM)

just buy a samsung ts-h352a like me.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 04, 2005, 09:27:00 AM

yeah excactly, in german. only didnt used the dvd cover in this tut, dont know if its attachable without glue.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: zweef_jr on July 05, 2005, 02:06:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: hippo on July 05, 2005, 03:58:00 AM

Ya looks dandy.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: katananja on July 06, 2005, 09:35:00 PM

About the CDR, I've noticed that if you record a standard CDR it will not work, BUT if you generate a UDF ISO first and than recorded, the drive will read CDR's

I do not use NERO so i dont know how can you make it, i do use mkisofs to generate the ISO and record with cdrecord, here is the command that've used:

CODE

mkisofs -verbose -d -T -l -J -o data.iso -udf data

Burn the ISO it will work

Another thing is that you ca use the support that you cut off from the DVD-ROM support and use it to align the drive, check the red circle:

Thank you for this great tutorial.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 07, 2005, 03:22:00 AM

iso cds definetly work, use avalaunch to list the files. some progs dont list iso cds, but this hjas nothing to do with the drive.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: freakinacage on July 07, 2005, 06:26:00 PM

. Thanks for everyones knowledge and for posting the tutorial menelik!
-Freak

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: x2pacx on July 12, 2005, 11:08:00 AM

well i done the mod, and it reads about 70% of my 1000s of cdrs

the only color that it won't read is the dark blue ones that Verbatims came in.

I have tried with 500ohm resistor as well but it just won't start to pick up at all.

I'm getting a 0~1k pot tommarow to try different figures.

Any suggestions?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 12, 2005, 02:53:00 PM

i had probs with dark green cds, it may not be asble to read the dark blue equal which resistor u use. i guess that a pot tweak would do this, but i dont like this method and cant advise you to do this.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 13, 2005, 01:24:00 PM

power it down, you will short something and your drive goes woeww...less vrcd menas better cd, yes. you could add as switch then, if you insert a cd swich is on with 33 ohm, else its off without any connection. anyway, pot tweaking reduces life time, thats why i cant advise it and i also ave no experience with pot twekas on this drive.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Megabug on July 15, 2005, 01:28:00 AM

Is it normal that after flashing the firmware in the Drive (8163b) the Drive isnt working in my pc ?! Bios finds it, but Windows doesnt.

thanks

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on July 16, 2005, 12:26:00 PM

cant work with the xbox firmware in a pc.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: vortex86 on July 17, 2005, 03:50:00 PM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Megabug on July 17, 2005, 03:57:00 PM

But not on Windows... on linux it works perfekt... but much better im my xbox! reads EVERYTHING i put in it

.

really nice... and only costs 19euro here.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: doop on July 25, 2005, 05:55:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: vortex86 on July 25, 2005, 05:58:00 PM

hi, i was just testing a little more and i got this result, if i try to start the xbox without the chip, the xbox boot screen coms up but then i get the error with the number 11, which means no dvd drive was found, but its rotating, when i put a disk in, and i can open and close it.

i connected the following points, tray out, tray in, cd ready, eject.
i connected vrcd to ground thru a resistor and i use a y-splitter for powe supply, what am i doing wrong?

thanks

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: vortex86 on July 25, 2005, 06:09:00 PM

)

thank you so much menelik!!!!!!!!!!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: pug_ster on August 01, 2005, 10:26:00 AM

I think I have a problem with this modded drive... This is the situation. It reads the discs, dvd+r, dvd-r (even the crappest ones), and originals with no problems. However the xbox would freeze sometimes when the dvd tries to load something, like when I would let the game run in the intro screen. There's no problems when the game is in the hard drive. I tried the grease the rails the tray assembly with wd-40. Anybody has the same issues? Thanks.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on August 01, 2005, 02:17:00 PM

i dont think that this issue comes from the drive...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: pug_ster on August 02, 2005, 03:57:00 PM

QUOTE(menelik @ Aug 1 2005, 10:28 PM)

i dont think that this issue comes from the drive...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: desi01 on August 07, 2005, 09:53:00 PM

I was just wondering, it would be possible to do a dvd window mod with this drive right?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Megabug on August 08, 2005, 05:04:00 AM

Found mine at emule.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: arnesr on August 09, 2005, 02:43:00 PM

QUOTE(glennpratt @ Aug 8 2005, 02:05 AM)

Where are the usual places to find the FW? Round about anyway...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: chalosf on August 09, 2005, 05:59:00 PM

Ok quick question..It seems then in order to get cheap cd-rs to read you have change resistor values which looses some compatability from it reading DVD media. So if I don't plan on usin CD-R/RW media then is there a connection I don't need so it reads all DVD media not just some.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: vortex86 on August 14, 2005, 02:38:00 AM

hi, i just modded a ton of these.

all of them are working fine but i have problems with 4!

2 dont read anything
1 doesnt read dvd-r
1 doesnt read dvd+r

the disks are fine, since they can be read in all the other drives.

i was thinking about changing the resistor values, but what would be the right amount.

should i try a 1,5kohm?

greetings

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Dwarf2k on August 16, 2005, 07:32:00 AM

Has ne1 tried dl media with the modded 8163 ?????
I have 3 games on hdd wich I want to burn on +r or -r dl discs.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on August 16, 2005, 08:04:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Darchi on August 17, 2005, 04:47:00 PM

Finaly installed LG!!! Great tutorial!!!

With 8050L firmware it reads everything and behave like original dvd drive!!!

Thanx!!!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Riao on August 18, 2005, 10:26:00 PM

I've just flashed the firmware to the lg8163b drive. I've done nothing to the hardware at this point, but decided to connect it to the xbox v1.6 with a power splitter first to see the results. The yellow power cable was disconnected from the original sammy dvd rom. I'm using a xenium ice chip and the X2.5035 bios.

So when I boot, the ini file for the bios seems to be ignored (original colours and image instead of mine) and I get an error 13 with some really strange video anomolies.

I tried connecting the yellow power cable to the sammy dvd and boot again. same results with the bios (original colours for flubber and image) but this time it's error 12 and no video anomolies.

If I disconnect the lg completely, everything is back to normal.

I should also mention perhaps that before flashing, everything worked as expected with it, except that it would not play original dvds... dvd movies that is. my dvd backups, no problem. but none of my original movies. it did play the xbox dvd files on a game disk that shows when you put an xbox game into a normal dvd player.

It is late and I haven't tried to flash the original firmware back to the drive yet (and perhaps try reflashing), but I was wondering if anyone a little more technically minded had any insight. If you need any more information, I would gladly provide it, if I can.

Thanks.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on August 19, 2005, 10:30:00 AM

sorry, but i have no clue why yours wont work. check your soldering etc, in the most cases with starnge issues the soldering was too bad or the drive was damaged at the mod attempt.

maybe people noticed that i dont answer any question ( i was on holiday), but as i notice the questions repeat and i have better things to do as playing the search engine.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Riao on August 19, 2005, 04:01:00 PM

Never mind.. I am a complete f*ing idiot. Everything is fine and works beautifully. Thank you to all who were in any way resposible for this hack and the tut that followed.

That being said, I have decided to post my mistake. Please keep in mind that I am well aware that this goes into the record books for bafflingly moronic reasons to ask for help in a post and I sincerely apologise for wasting space here. No need to reiterate to me my utter idiocy.

the mistake was...... after taking the drive from my pc and putting it into my xbox, I forgot to set it back to slave. Both the HDD and DVD-ROM were set to master. That's it. Nothing else.

Again thanks to all for generously donating your time and $$ for bringing this information to the scene as a whole.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: razor55 on August 20, 2005, 01:58:00 AM

Hi, i have a small problem, ive bot a HL-DT-ST- DVD ROM GDR8163B but the firmware 8050L from xbins is searching for the HL-"DL"-ST- DVD ROM GDR8163B.
Ive found some other firmware and made an update------successfull
But now my windows (XP) is unable to recognize the Drive. Is that right so or something is wrong?
How can i flash the drive back when windows doesnt see it??

thanks and sorry about my english

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: The Zep Man on August 20, 2005, 02:36:00 AM

QUOTE(razor55 @ Aug 20 2005, 10:09 AM)

How can i flash the drive back when windows doesnt see it??

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on August 20, 2005, 03:39:00 AM

windows doesnt recognize it, mabye linux does. anyway, for reflash bot to dos with the bootdisk and flash it with the recovery option /r

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on August 20, 2005, 07:35:00 AM

check the drive setting withhin the command sf8163 8050l.dld 1 or 2 or 3 or 4.
read the help of the sf8163.exe file.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Dwarf2k on August 20, 2005, 08:14:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on August 20, 2005, 08:27:00 AM

cant help you but i guess that its a command or environment issue.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Looouky on August 25, 2005, 10:41:00 PM

I'd also like to thank Melenik for the tutorial, for anyone having questions follow the tutorial word by word. I did and everything worked perfectly for me, the only different thing I did was not connect the VRCD point. I much rather have my drive read dvds perfectly, then try to get it to read cds and diminishing it"s dvd capabilities. Anyhow for those lifting the points your idiots, I don't see how it's possible. Here are some tips though:

1. Use a 15 watt iron
2. make sure the tip is clean and shinny (if not you will never make effiecent contact)
3. Place a little of no clean flux on the point
4. Prepare all your points, this includes resistors, wires and soldered points on the pcb. I usually place a small bloob of solder on my tip and place over the point were I place the tip.

Good luck!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Looouky on August 27, 2005, 07:33:00 AM

Hey I modded another had a little problem, the issue I have right now is the light doesn't stop blinking when the drive is open. I kinda of messed up the ready point, but I think I managed to fix it, so I was wondering what would happen if I had not fixed the Ready?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on August 27, 2005, 07:55:00 AM

it will read originals. but eject button etc wont work and you need to insert the game at boottime.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: rdperalta on September 02, 2005, 03:31:00 AM

Just a quick question... has anyone played on XBL using this mod?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: alphacorvus on September 09, 2005, 12:31:00 AM

QUOTE(rdperalta @ Sep 2 2005, 11:42 AM)

Nice mod menelik

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: chalosf on September 09, 2005, 01:11:00 PM

QUOTE(menelik @ May 22 2005 @ 08:50 AM)

ok, maybe they split up 12v on two wires) and my drives work fine with them (over a few months now) i wont make them stronger. but i will add this advise to my mod.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: k-do on September 10, 2005, 08:30:00 AM

i was woundering if someone could point me in the direction on info to make the boot disk to flash this drive i have tried to make the iso file and boot the files i got but i think thats not how it is supposed to go thanks to anyone willing to help me

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: k-do on September 10, 2005, 06:54:00 PM

does anyone know were directions are to make a disk to flash the 8163b thanks

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: spedmetal on September 10, 2005, 08:22:00 PM

Yeah look at my post number 122 on page 9. It explains how I did it.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: k-do on September 10, 2005, 10:20:00 PM

thank you

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: BigCnasty31 on September 12, 2005, 07:26:00 PM

Hi, thanks for the tutorial, menelik. I just did the mod but I'm having a problem. When I boot up my xbox and then eject to stick in a game, evo-x stays on ejecting and it does not give me the option play game. If I go to xbmc or go back to the evo-x screen it says the drive is open. It will play games, but only when I start my xbox with the game inside. I managed to lift two of the points on the back of the board, but I used the alternate tray-out point and retraced the wiring to fix the ready point and they all seem to have pretty solid contact. Menelik, do you or anybody else know why my drive is not working properly?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: RicZilla on September 18, 2005, 11:43:00 PM

Well thanks Menelik for this great tutorial.

I've done everything that was askes used 1/8 Watt 1k ohm thru hole resistors (the one with stripes). I flashed the drive with the program and the 8050L.dld file and the flasher reported that flash was succesful please reboot.

I can play burnt games but just tried an orignal and I get Error 21 if I turn on my xbox with an original disc in. If I put the disk in after evox is loaded the disc is being detected as a game. if I launch the DVD in evox I still get and error 21.

This is with the Top Spin and Amped 2 combo disk I've tried a few demo disk and they work. Ok I was able to launch Amped 2 from avalaunch if I go into the Amped 2 game folder and launch the deffault.xbe

Must be something with the firmware I guess.

I thought my mod was not working lol.

Side note this Mod works with DVD-R and CD-R for me and with originals. I'll try and send some pics of my mod I've made a special Yellow cable adapter.

My Setup is a Soft modded UDE2 Version 1.0 Xbox.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: nachomans on September 21, 2005, 06:39:00 PM

Guys....Ill try this mod...and the dvd rom is working ok (tray in-tray out)
But i get empty message with cds or dvds
The data cable is not connected to anywhere??? (pin 09)
thanks!

EDIT:Sorry guys...is working ok, but evox say no disc all the time....Its just evox...If I boot a game directly...loads ok!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: nachomans on September 22, 2005, 02:15:00 AM

Can more peope confirm that evox gives "no disc" with this drive.
Another thing....if all is done right, is necessary to put "use pc dvd" in xbmc?
Thanks!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: orgasmotron on September 22, 2005, 03:16:00 PM

great mod ,i've done 2 of them already.
i only had trouble with one , wasn't able to read some of my dvd.
so i look for my soldering ,everything waz fine to me
(i've been doin modchip installation since the sega saturn)
so it's been a couple of year now ...
but that's not the point

i've hooked up a switch between vrcd and the 1k resistor,
and now all my dvd is working great.
(switch on cd-r mode, switch off dvd mode)

that's my 2 cents

thank's and keep the good work.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Nirvana279 on September 22, 2005, 05:33:00 PM

i cant flashmy 8163b it says no drive when i boot the diskette i dont know what number to put in out of the 0 1 2 3 numbers its getting me mad

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Nirvana279 on September 22, 2005, 07:55:00 PM

nevermind found better flash program that dont have to make a diskette

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: jinn on September 24, 2005, 03:37:00 PM

Are any of you going to have this in the B/S/T forum? I would love to buy 3.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Nirvana279 on September 24, 2005, 04:03:00 PM

i fucked up the point for tray in so i used the other point but now the light on the xbox is blinking again like if i used a y power splitter would fucking up the tray in golden point cause this or what thanks for help in advance

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Nirvana279 on September 24, 2005, 04:24:00 PM

edit: where is the alternate point for tray in

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Nirvana279 on September 24, 2005, 08:52:00 PM

the drive opens and closes only when the splash screen happens and when i try to boot the game with out going to the dash it doesnt anymore

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Slrpgeit on October 06, 2005, 07:57:00 AM

Could someone point me to an alternate tray out? I kinda fubared it.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: 110100100 on October 08, 2005, 02:55:00 PM

does anybody know where to get the 12 pin connectors that are inside of the xbox drives so I don't have to hack up the wires?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on October 12, 2005, 08:32:00 AM

once again for all:

to make the drive work properly you HAVE to flash the xbox firmware and HOLD to my soldering points. i've never had problems with the 30+ drives i made.
i havent written a tutorial to answer the questions in this forum which the tutorial allready worked out.
moreover i've not much time to look at posts as some of you noticed...so..

just use the tutorial, if you got probs with wrong status messages check for the right soldering point on tray in, out and ready.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: elborak on October 12, 2005, 08:58:00 AM

QUOTE(110100100 @ Oct 8 2005, 05:06 PM)

does anybody know where to get the 12 pin connectors that are inside of the xbox drives so I don't have to hack up the wires?

Post #205 in this very thread...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Runt on October 26, 2005, 09:49:00 PM

QUOTE(Black_Widow000 @ Jun 15 2005, 04:43 AM)

www.digikey.com

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on October 28, 2005, 08:06:00 PM

QUOTE(NetDan @ Oct 29 2005, 07:30 AM)

Just did the firmware update using the DOS bootdisk (with cdrom support). Not sure if the cdrom support was needed in the bootdisk. I had no issues and everything worked well on the 2 drives I did. I'll be doing the wire soldering soon.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on October 28, 2005, 09:08:00 PM

Also would someone be kind enough to post me 3 of the the little connectors for the DVD rom?
Im not paying $14.50 shipping from digikey to over here in australia.

if anyone has 3 spare ones could the please PM me. thanks.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on October 30, 2005, 06:08:00 AM

WOW, THIS MOD IS SO GOOD IM TYPING THIS POST ALL IN CAPITALS.

THIS IS A FUCKING GREAT MOD.
IT READ EVERYTHING I CHUCKED AT IT, I MEAN EVERYTHING, EVEN DATA CD'D WITH PROGRAMS AND WORD DOCUMENTS ON THEM, ASWELL AS ORIGINALS, BACKUPS, ALL CD'S.

IS THERE ANYTHING IT DOESNT DO, ITS BLOODY FANTASTIC.

NOW ALL I NEED IS A FEW CONNECTORS.

THANKYOU MENELIK SO MUCH AND ALL THAT HELPED YOU ASWELL.

IM BUYING 3 OF THESE FOR ALL MY XBOX'S.

W000000000000000000000000000000000000T

eminvil_12

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: NetDan on November 02, 2005, 12:22:00 PM

Finished 2 drives last night and everything worked perfectly (included the eject on power off). I followed the tutorial to the letter.

Excellent mod Menelik! Thank you so much for your time in putting all this together and support on these forums!!!

BTW, I used the VRCD mod and used 1/4 watt 1K ohm Radio Shack resistors. I also used a power splitter and 30 awg Radio Shack wire. It took all the CDRs and DVDRs I had (Matrix, Ritek G04/G05, Verbatim, Memorex) in both DVD-R and DVD+R formats!!! Yeeeaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: 110100100 on November 03, 2005, 05:57:00 PM

if anyone wants, i got 2 ove these up in my BST

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on November 03, 2005, 11:29:00 PM

QUOTE(pigsfly @ Nov 1 2005, 02:39 PM)

menelik: Many thanks for the great hack. Also, just wondering what happened to the improved method that you mentioned in post #242? I would to give it a try (will post results here, of course).

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: spedmetal on November 03, 2005, 11:51:00 PM

QUOTE(eminvil_12 @ Nov 4 2005, 07:36 AM)

I also want to try this menelik.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on November 03, 2005, 11:59:00 PM

QUOTE(spedmetal @ Nov 4 2005, 04:58 PM)

The switch idea has been covered earlier in the thread. Give it a shot and see how you like it. I however could care less about CD-R support as long as it reads DVD-R and CD-RW as well as it does.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: keg188 on November 04, 2005, 07:46:00 AM

Im off to get a few tomorrow and the other bits and pieces needed.

Thanks again guys.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: boaby on November 04, 2005, 10:26:00 PM

www.ebuyer.com. around the £15 mark. ordered one myself.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: JohnnyVegas on November 05, 2005, 01:49:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Kasumi on November 05, 2005, 05:09:00 PM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Runt on November 07, 2005, 10:12:00 PM

I seen this thread, downloaded the guide, and seen all the glowing reviews and went nuts at Newegg and ordered 6 of these drives.
When I try to flash the drive, I get a Vendor or Product ID check error.

When I flash it states:

Download file information:

File name: 8050L.dld
Vendor ID: HL-DL-ST
Product ID: DVD-ROM GDR8163B
Firmware Revision: 0L23

Drive Information:

Port: Secondary-Master
Vendor ID: HL-DT-ST
Product ID: DVD-ROM GDR8163B
Firmware Revision: 0L23

Any ideas what my Vendor or Product ID check error is and/or why I'm getting it??

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Runt on November 07, 2005, 10:14:00 PM

*double post*

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Runt on November 07, 2005, 10:57:00 PM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: vake on November 11, 2005, 08:14:00 AM

QUOTE(Solid-Snake @ Sep 18 2005, 01:06 AM)

hi, i have a question.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: g0rak on November 11, 2005, 08:30:00 PM

A WARNING TO OTHER UK BUYERS THUNKING OF PURCHASING FROM ARIA:

Brought mine from Aria on Thursday. Arrived on Friday and they sent me a GDR-8164B instead. Opened it up and the PCB layout is slightly different. I was able to find some of the labelled solder points but not all, and without hi-resolution scans, I can't tell if the chipset is different.

It's highly unlikely these drives will be compatible, and I don't want to risk flashing it. If I don't hear of others having progress with these models i'll send it back and order from someone else (Ebuyer perhaps).

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on November 12, 2005, 04:41:00 PM

I also want to try this menelik.

You say 33ohm is the perfect resisitence for CD support and im assuming the no resisitor is best for DVD support.

What if you just buy a SPDT switch and have it setup like this.

PIN 1 - 33ohm Resistor (CD Support) (coming from VRCD Ground Point)
PIN 2 - Wire leading to the VRCD Point
PIN 3 - Wire straight from VRCD Ground point To this pin.

This would make it so you can switch between CD and DVD support, Though im not sure if this is correct just going from what Menelik said.

Can anyone confirm that the above is correct?

cheers,
eminvil

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: RLLMoFP on November 15, 2005, 12:27:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on November 15, 2005, 01:14:00 AM

QUOTE(RLLMoFP @ Nov 15 2005, 05:34 PM)

This may have been adressed already (this post is huge!) but the pin 09 (Data) is not mentioned other then the listing of the wires in the header. Is it just lopped off and not used?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: RLLMoFP on November 15, 2005, 02:31:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: zaid on November 19, 2005, 05:45:00 PM

i modded my 8163b drive but it wont eject and the green light is always on, i followed the guide and used the FIXED firmware but still wont work.

anyone

please help!!!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on November 19, 2005, 06:17:00 PM

QUOTE(zaid @ Nov 20 2005, 10:52 AM)

i modded my 8163b drive but it wont eject and the green light is always on, i followed the guide and used the FIXED firmware but still wont work.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: kingpickle on November 20, 2005, 12:22:00 AM

Anyone have the original GDR-8163b firmware in DLD format? I flashed it with the fixed firmware from the 'usual place' and when I rebooted the pc the green led on the drive stood on. I proceeded to do the mod anyway, installed it in my box but it wont boot past the logo screen. Eject worked fine in the xbox with the front button and the drive's eject button. Does nothing else. When I pop a disk in the light on the drive turns on.

Can anyone confirm whether or not the drive's led is supposed to stay on after flashing to 8050L? If not i'd like to revert (and no, LG doesnt provide the firmware in DLD format, only EXE). Thanks

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: nachomans on November 20, 2005, 01:22:00 AM

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: kingpickle on November 20, 2005, 08:35:00 AM

After flashing, my LED stays on with the drive open or closed. It only turns off when I insert a disk. Being able to flash back to original firmware would/should let me know if I damaged the mobo but I cant seem to find the original in dld format anywhere. If someone attempting this mod could backup their firmware and post it up somewhere (or send to me and i'll host it), i'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on November 20, 2005, 06:40:00 PM

to flash back to the normal BIOS or what ever you simply need to add /r, read the instructions peoples.

i put this for the coding

SF8163 8050L.dld 2 /f /c /p /o /r

That should revert it back to normal for you guys. use the same bootdisc you used to flash it in the first place if you didnt know lol.

post back your results as to whether it works in the p.c or not.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on November 20, 2005, 07:31:00 PM

QUOTE(kingpickle @ Nov 21 2005, 12:33 PM)

Read the instructions. I think the /r option is just to force it to flash the firmware you select. Doing what you suggested just reflashes it with the same firmware to make it work on the xbox.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: zaid on November 21, 2005, 11:26:00 AM

forgot to mention i am using the method on page 9 to flash my drive

i am using the FIXED firmware

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: nachomans on November 21, 2005, 04:53:00 PM

Remember to put the drive in slave mode...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: zaid on November 22, 2005, 10:39:00 AM

should i reflash the drive

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Big_Ted on November 22, 2005, 04:40:00 PM

Just a Quick note to anyboady struggling with this ejecting powering on etc. . . [SIZE=14] PUT THE DRIVE IN SLAVE MODE WITH THE JUMPER.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: zaid on November 24, 2005, 08:33:00 AM

hi i tried the above idea but still dont eject

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: jameyc on December 13, 2005, 09:28:00 AM

I just used this drive to replace a dead phillips which began to intermittently give error 12 on startup with increasing frequency until the box could no longer be used. Thanks Menelik for the great tutorial!

I havn't flashed the drive or soldered the vrcd simply because at the moment I don't use originals on this drive, it's mostly for media playback, but may in the future flash it.

My problem is this, when soldering it up I accidently knocked off the ready point. Not bad soldering, just my own stupidity, bumped the resistor with my hand and knocked it clean off.

As the drive isn't flashed and I don't need full functionality, the only reason I was soldering these was so that I could use the eject switch. My other idea was to solder up a momentary switch to the eject switch, and hide it somewhere on the back of the unit, but this seemed like an easier option.

My question is simply, is the ready point necessary for ejection, or is the eject point the only one needed on an unflashed drive? Again, full playback of originals isn't a concern, I just want to use it with xbmc as a pc drive for the time being, and have eject working as well.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: jameyc on December 15, 2005, 10:45:00 AM

To answer my own post, I got bored after a couple days and went ahead and wired it up, it worked fine. With only the eject/trin/trout leads connected I have a working eject for the drive which is all I needed at the moment.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Scrufdog on December 17, 2005, 11:36:00 AM

Success.

Thx to all for helping me replace my flaky Thomson. Works like a charm on everything I throw at it.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Mark Morgan on December 19, 2005, 04:57:00 AM

Hey all

i have a 8163b and its great

i wanted to know if 8164's work as i can get them cheap at my local comp store.

i have read through all this thread and its taken me a good hour and a half and all the info on the 8164 is someone got one and sent it back.

can they be used

Cheers

-Mark Morgan

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Mark Morgan on December 19, 2005, 08:34:00 AM

i believe so

it works perfectly for me

and its alot cheaper

-Mark Morgan:beer:

ps. any info on my question

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on December 20, 2005, 09:10:00 AM

Note to all! Important!

The GDR-8163b is selling out. The new drive 8164b will not work within this mod as it has a different pcb layout and as far as i know a different chipset.
the last 4 companies who promised me that they have 8163b drives sent me 8164b instead.
whoever wants a 8163b should hurry.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Scrufdog on December 20, 2005, 11:06:00 AM

http://www.zipzoomfl...ductCode=174219

ordered these last week, worked great

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: 10616V on December 21, 2005, 02:02:00 PM

Great tut!

I have a dead Samsung drive, so was looking for a way of fixing it, hope this is going to work.
Any how, I live in the Netherlands, end the only two I can find are these two:

LG GDR-8163SBB
LG GDR-8163RBB

Will this work with one off those drives?

Thanks
Michel

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: hippo on December 27, 2005, 01:26:00 PM

QUOTE

Without the ready signal evox reports the drive as open and won't launch a dvd from the dash will it? I think you can only cold boot into a disk.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: revengeismyfury on December 28, 2005, 07:58:00 PM

Well, I got it working apparently the tray in and tray out connections were soldered in backwards as well. So yeah I've got it all working after 2 days. Thanks guys these drives are sweet, I'm gonna buy 2 more of these! now onto cd support with the resistors. L8terz and thanks for the tut man it worked great thanks, and thankyou.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: jeroentje29 on December 29, 2005, 02:41:00 PM

tnx al for putting some info here
but i am stuck
this is how far i am
i did the wires
dont know if i did the flash i tried it but i think there is where it goes wrong but i'm a n00b in dos
oke so when i put the 8163 in my xbox it only load from boot
copy's of games only
the eject works fine it opens and close
when disctray is open and i power off it closes
in xbmc when disk is open it says it closed
can someone tell me how i can see if i did the flash right because when i go to config magic it still says i have the 8163 or is that oke
please i need some help tnx if you can help me
sorry for bad english but i think its better then your dutch :-)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: jeroentje29 on December 30, 2005, 08:15:00 AM

i found what i did wrong

so for all the noobs on flashing this is what i did wrong
i thought i had flashed it but i did nit
you can see that you are flashing the dvd player you wil see a sreen saying that you did it oke
the next thing that whent wrong is that you have to place space in te code so 2 /f /c /p /o
do this and then it will work i forgot it everythime and it drived me mad.
but the lg works great now
thanx all for the good work

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: revengeismyfury on December 30, 2005, 01:26:00 PM

hey dude make sure your tray in and tray out connections arent reversed, even though your drive works ok in your modded xbox, it will not in a retail xbox if you ever decide to put it in one, so make sure all connections on it are good. Oh yeah and I'd recommend putting a switch inbetween vrcd ground and the vrcd witht the 1k resistor.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: revengeismyfury on January 11, 2006, 10:46:00 PM

just ordered me another 8163b drive, just wondering though, from the guy about the gdr-8162b from zipzoomfly, you moddded a few of those and they worked? can you show us with pictures thanks.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Gilgamesh20 on January 26, 2006, 01:56:00 PM

I modified my pc drive : LG GDR 8163B with the ''The poor boy's drive'' guide from www.paccforce.de (this guide is in xbox-scene I think.

My drive is a new one : February 2005
I used the 8050L_FW_Flasher_FIXED.

First I Flashed the drive with a 3½ disk. I think the flashing process where ok. No error message apeared.

Then I followed the rest of the guide but, I didnt find the 09 ''data'' points to solder. I soldered 12v, 5v, GND, GND, EJECT, CD READY, TRAY IN and TRAY OUT. 8 wires like in the guide.

When I connected the drive in the xbox. The loading sequence betwen the M$ logo and the Dashboard took like 4 minutes!! Everything load super slow.. And when I get in he Xecuter 3 bios with the 256k backup. no dvd drive is detected. Nothing show up in the drive section excepting this message :

'' BooUdeReadData data not ready...

1: Drive not detected ''

Could this be the 09 Data points to solder on the pcb ? But in the all the guide, there is no mention of the data point.

Or

Could this be a bad firmware flash ?.. Could someone tell me step by step how we do a good boot disk ? should I use a cd w for that ? I cant seams to flash from windows with the ''GDR-8050L0012.exe'' program.

Windows XP detect a LG GDR 8050L drive but not the xbox..

please help!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Gilgamesh20 on January 26, 2006, 09:33:00 PM

Lol, ok I found the problem, I didn't replace the LG drive to slave. The HD and the LG drive where both on master. However, I have now another problem. A serious one.. after I found the reason why my drives was not operating normaly I opened the drive just for litle join fix. I wanted to be sure that every solding points where ok and safe.. Then I accidently forced the Tray out joint on the other side of the pcb. The orange cap got appart with the 1k resistance.. so now I have a tray out point to resolder but I cant resolder it back since the yellow cap made of a shiny metal got appart.. What can I do ? Drive still work, but now, I have to press the open tray button on the dvd drive rather then pressing the xbox open tray button. How can I repear this .. or is there any other point I could use for a fix ?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: AgentIrons on January 30, 2006, 10:16:00 PM

So here's where I am in this project - The power, eject, and vrcd wires are all fine, but I screwed up on the tray in, tray out, and ready wires and lifted the gold contacts (I know, it's ridiculously easy and I'm dumb and also this is my first soldering project. Have pity). I took Monsteria's advice and connected the tray in wire to the LDOUT on the eject side of the board, but I'm stuck on the other two. Jetset Willy said in post 192 that it was possible to just tape the wires into the small holes on the points near the gold pads, but I can't get them to stay reliably. Menelik has stated that "every pad has always a connection to a nearby point what means that you can use this point instead." And in post 292 he said "that when the read point is damaged you cut the whole trace. this means that you gotta rewire that cut." So for the tray out wire, what nearby point am I supposed to use? Each pad seems to be connected to two different points. And for the ready wire, what does it mean to cut the trace, and how do I 'rewire that cut'?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Xb0XmAn on February 01, 2006, 08:19:00 AM

Menelik thx for the great tutorial

I am going to try out these resistors:

IPB Image

they are 1k OHM and 0,25 Watt

they only cost € 1,- per 50 pcs.

EDIT: how do you call the connector that goes into the mainboard? I need to order some of these..

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: tanno on February 11, 2006, 04:32:00 AM

Since no single resistor value works best for the VRCD to GND connection, I was thinking why not put in a variable pot to make adjustments easier. May even glue it outside on the drive's back.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on February 16, 2006, 01:45:00 PM

If anyone is interested into buying this drive, follow the Link below.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on February 16, 2006, 06:48:00 PM

QUOTE(tanno @ Feb 11 2006, 12:39 PM)

Since no single resistor value works best for the VRCD to GND connection, I was thinking why not put in a variable pot to make adjustments easier. May even glue it outside on the drive's back.

a simple switch would do the same job - on = resitor used, off no resistor used.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on February 17, 2006, 01:56:00 PM

yeah, when you flash the new firmware the status led will stay on.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: ziggy13 on February 19, 2006, 10:28:00 PM

the 8164b works with the Xbox but there is no flash for the drive to read originals
and there is only the eject signal to work with. But there is a plus you can use
DVD ram with this drive on the xbox. as with the 4161b burners there is NO
support from LG.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on February 20, 2006, 09:50:00 AM

[delete]

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Xb0XmAn on February 22, 2006, 10:32:00 PM

where did you read about the 8164??

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: tanno on February 25, 2006, 12:34:00 AM

Looks like we may be getting a new replacement drive soon the - 8164
Suggest a new thread to kick things off.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: eminvil_12 on February 25, 2006, 06:56:00 PM

Just a post so now im subscribed to this thread

My drive is still kicking and reading all media

cheers guys

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on February 27, 2006, 05:25:00 PM

I 'guess' that every 8163b should work. i dont think that a 8164b will ever work as the firmware is incompativle. Whoever is interested in a premodded 8163b, take a look here www.konmod.de
for international shipping mail me at [email protected].

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: masuta on March 02, 2006, 06:58:00 AM

Thanks for a great tut Menelik, my old phillips drive finally died on me so I followed your tut and now have a fully functioning drive. The drive was a little hard to find but eventually found a shop that had 8163 rather than 8164 so I got 2 ( one for a spare

)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on March 06, 2006, 10:24:00 AM

i have to admit that i didnt had a closer look on the 8164b. but i dont give it a high chance as the 8164b has to be nearly the same as the 8163b which would be senseless.
as soon as i have a 8164b in my hand i will take a closer look on chipset and pcb but dont hope too much.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: patx on March 07, 2006, 06:23:00 AM

QUOTE

connect VRCD and GND (you can use the GND point on the left bottom) through a 1k resistor. Note: I tested 30, 50, 100, 500, 680, 1000 and 10000 Ohm, I got reliable results on 1k and 680 Ohm, thats why I choose 1k here.

Do I have to use the (sw-) or can I use any GND point to do the trick ???

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on March 07, 2006, 11:31:00 AM

every GND point will work.

@fatx

Did you allready try to flash the drive? if not, what error did you get?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: -Gadget- on March 13, 2006, 02:46:00 PM

please do.. many peeps are looking to find this info out for fact !

Mick ..

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: patx on March 13, 2006, 09:01:00 PM

QUOTE

please do.. many peeps are looking to find this info out for fact !

Mick ..

look at your PM !

QUOTE

has anyone opened up a LG GDR-8164B drive to see what kinda diferences they have made ?
have read that they take the flash and still kinda operate ...
not sure if this has got any further ?
(as this is the only drive i can find easerly now in the UK)
Mick ...

QUOTE(ziggy13 @ Feb 20 2006, 07:35 AM)

QUOTE

the 8164b works with the Xbox but there is no flash for the drive to read originals and there is only the eject signal to work with. But there is a plus you can use DVD ram with this drive on the xbox. as with the 4161b burners there is NO support from LG.

from what ive read else were the norm 8050 flash, that ya use on the 8163b, flashs to the 8164b and still kinda works
its just they never mentioned about how much functionality (CD's and what not) do work, and if the main boards were similair.

Mick ..

PS thing i may just order one, are only £15 !!

PLEASE TELL ME MORE ABOUT THAT AS I AM WAITING FOR MY WILLEM PROGRAMMER TO TRY THE 8050L FIRMWARE INTO THE 8164B...

WHERE HAVE YOU READ ABOUT IT ???

I MAKE THE 8164B WORK LIKE AN ORIGINAL DRIVE (EXECEPT FOR THE FLASH)...I WILL SELL A PCB TO RECUP. THE SIGNALS FROM THE DRIVE TO MAKE IT WORK IN TO THE XBOX.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: patx on March 16, 2006, 06:49:00 AM

Yesterday I've received my willem programmer, dumped the FW from a 8163b flashed with 8050l, dumped the FW from the 8164b ( for recovery), and finally fashed it with the 8050l... AND... NO... NO GO... The tray opens as soon as the xbox is powered, closing it, it re-opens right away...I unpluged all the signals wires and the IDE to have power only to the drive and the same thing happens...

For the PCB I was developping, the manufacturer called me yesterday, the final plans are done, he is ready for production but I asked him to put it on ice for a while... The cost for this is pretty high and since the flash doesn't work for now I don't know anymore...

Since I am french, most of my research have been done on GX-MOD on this topic :

http://gueux-forum.n...pic=75299&st=40

On this topic I ask for people interested in the PCB to send an email to let me know that they will probably purchase the PCB if I proceed... this is only to help me take my decision if I proceed or not with it...The PCB will be sold 20 to 25$ (CAN)

If your interested email me to : [email protected]... if I have at least 100 emails I will proceed

Here is a capture of the PDF file I sent to the manufacturer
IPB Image

On an other hand, I have been examining the bins files... some parts are pretty similar if you feel that you can help modding the 8050l.bin to run on a GDR-8164b see these posts :

http://www.xboxhacke...=33&topic=470.0
http://forum.rpc1.or...pic.php?t=37922

Thankx PATx_

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: -Gadget- on March 16, 2006, 03:22:00 PM

well thats not a good start

ok... although the tray opens, this MAY be a simple as the signal are reversed ? ..
in is out, and out is in ..
so a simple reversing of polarity of motor MAY fix this ???

just an idea as this had to be done on another drive when we flashed it ? .. cannot remeber what drive this happerned to but ?

this could i spose be checked by seeing if the spindle still spins up, when the wires are just removed from motor, so the tray does not get forced out ? and see if it reads a disc at least ?

as long as the drive thinks that its closes and wants it to stay closed (the tray in micro switches are also the correct way round) then it should at least try and spin up a disc !

Mick ...

PS.. i have not got one, or ever done any thing like this, i just like reading ! .. and do seem to remeber anything interesting i do read ! (so if peeps write stuff wrong then i too am wrong ! lol hence why i said that peeps had flashed and they worked... i read it wrong, they /i ment they work in xbox like a normal drive unflashed)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: patx on March 16, 2006, 04:02:00 PM

Nop the MN103 pinout is completely differenf from 8164 & 8163 drives... rerouting is useless.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: patx on March 17, 2006, 06:39:00 PM

QUOTE

Good news, after a long session working with McDennis I can now tell you what is wrong with the Dangerous Brothers RPC1 package and why it doesn't work. Simply, they got the wrong Flash Device ID.

So we fixed that and you can find a working 8164B flasher here http://rapidshare.de...4_LL06.EXE.html

Be aware that this will complete flashing VERY quickly when used against the same version of firmware and it looks like it's too quick to have worked. Whats going is that the flash programming algorithm has been optimised, each sector in the flash is compared with the new binary and only the sectors which dont match are erased and programmed.

So if you flash version LL06 over LL06 nothing happens, lol

Great news now we are gonna be lots of peeps working on that one !!!

here is the 8164flasher with bin 8050l :

http://patxbox360.co...64_8050.dld.EXE

WARNING... USE AT YOUR OWN RISK... NOT TESTED BY ME OR k00m.

iF YOU NEED RECOVERY FILES And FLASHER... here it is :

http://patxbox360.co...R8164B0L06L.dld
http://patxbox360.co...ck/FLASHUP2.rar

QUOTE

Nop the MN103 pinout is completely differenf from 8164 & 8163 drives... rerouting is useless.

May be not after all...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: patx on March 19, 2006, 09:12:00 AM

QUOTE

here is the 8164flasher with bin 8050l :

http://patxbox360.co...64_8050.dld.EXE

WARNING... USE AT YOUR OWN RISK... NOT TESTED BY ME OR k00m.

iF YOU NEED RECOVERY FILES And FLASHER... here it is :

http://patxbox360.co...R8164B0L06L.dld
http://patxbox360.co...ck/FLASHUP2.rar

TESTED AND NOT WORKING... (working on a fix... more news to come)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Jesper64 on March 19, 2006, 09:15:00 AM

Does anyone know where to buy the male pin connecter for the DVD drive cable? The premodded drives on KonMod.de (from menelik's signature) have the connecter on the back and it looks really neat.

Thanks

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Xb0XmAn on March 19, 2006, 11:08:00 AM

Is there a schematic somewhere how I can solder a 8164 to work as a unflashed 8163?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Xb0XmAn on March 22, 2006, 02:50:00 AM

hi patx, i've send u an email

hope you get back at me soon

greetz jay

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Poppeseed on March 22, 2006, 09:40:00 PM

Ordered a drive last week via one of the links in this thread, didnt check the model number (I'm stupid) and recieved a LG 8527B. Any chance that it will work?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on March 23, 2006, 04:34:00 AM

guys just stop those questions. ONLY 8163b drives will work and I dont expect other drives including 8164b will ever work like the 8163b.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: patx on March 24, 2006, 07:05:00 AM

QUOTE

Hi,

Yes, i think it would be very possible to mod the firmware of ANY drive to get it working with the 360. I think all you have to make sure of is that the ATAPI's are implemented in the same way AND you'll need to 'port' the authentication code, so best is to use a drive with very similar code, like the 8163/8164 for example. However it will be quite some work to get everything running I guess

Regards,

TS

So let's get to work everyody !!!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: luotinen on March 24, 2006, 11:44:00 AM

Is GDR-8163RBB the same as GDR-8163B?

If not, does the mod work on a GDR-8163RBB?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: -Gadget- on March 24, 2006, 01:50:00 PM

QUOTE(patx @ Mar 23 2006, 03:00 PM)

Time will tell !!! I am half way trought with the 8164... I am working on a flasher right now so more people get into this... I have the drawer acting normally, xbox will boot with it drawer open, drawer closed = error 07... PC bios & windows detect a 8050l when flashed... If people get into this am sure something will come out !!!

its odd that it gives error 7 ? .. as thats a hdd timeout... hmmm
why would it be interupting the IDE line ?
do ya think its crashing, or halting and waiting for summit ?
what was that trace ya cut go too ?

Mick ...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: menelik on March 24, 2006, 03:20:00 PM

i've never said that it isnt possible to get the 8164b to work, but it will definetly need some firmware hacking where my knowledge ends and i have to time to offer.

cheers

btw, i can think of a automatic switch which uses the 8163b bios flashed on an additional bios. it has been done before with newer versions of the 616t samsung (e and g types). i think it worked well. maybe this is a way it could work too.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: -Gadget- on April 02, 2006, 12:15:00 PM

thats a real shame that its got to have loads of firmware changed

one question prob sounds a bit silly...
but how about the 8164 working in the 8164 and vice versa ? (as they may have 'other' instructions in the bios ?)
or is it the case that all the main chips are now a diferent make etc

Mick ...

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Cybertronic on April 07, 2006, 09:52:00 PM

I keep finding an amzing supply of GDR-8163BI instead of GDR-8163BK which are Sold Out EVERYWHERE (looks accusingly at the modding scene), so I guess if I didnt care about color I could use the 8163BI instead right?

And no one has had any problems with this mod? ie DVD drive having trouble resuming DVD playback after spindown, Skipping video or hanging Xbox boot, difficulty playing Xbox games after 15 min etc?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: AManOfLOP33 on April 20, 2006, 01:31:00 PM

i know this is a very old topic, but does this mod work with GDR-8163BB? here is the link

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Birdtales on April 20, 2006, 01:48:00 PM

QUOTE(AManOfLOP33 @ Apr 20 2006, 03:38 PM)

i know this is a very old topic, but does this mod work with GDR-8163BB? here is the link

Yes it does, I bought one of those and modded it not to long ago.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: babyblu on April 22, 2006, 03:24:00 PM

anyone have an issue with slow response times???????

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: jrl2222 on April 22, 2006, 07:52:00 PM

QUOTE

We apologize for the inconvenience, but the item you are looking for has been deactivated. Here are some similar products that you may wish to consider:

Then a list of other LG drives

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: AManOfLOP33 on April 26, 2006, 07:14:00 PM

I also just completed the beige drive mod and wow this is fabulous. I did the audio header install method and clipped them so they werent connected to the board. I used 4 1k ohm 1/4 watt normal resistors from radio shack and it worked fine. The hardest part of the mod was finding a damn floppy drive that worked. Pretty sweet how this is on the down low more or less. Basically a $75+ xbox drive for $25 and a little bit of labor. Fabulous

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Xb0XmAn on May 03, 2006, 04:30:00 AM

can anyone post a picture that shows the points to get the 8164 working in a xbox

dont need to read originals.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: twistedsymphony on May 03, 2006, 07:20:00 PM

I just wanted to post a thanks... I just did this mod, took me 20minutes and it's all good.

Pulled the resistors off of an old Mobo, and ordered a few H2054-ND connectors from digi-key for a nice clean install:

IPB Image

I took a little chunk of the plastic out to get my wires to the back of the connector. I didn't bother to attach ANY of the power wires to the connector either, I figured the Molex connector is much better suited for that anyway.

This will be going into my HTPC case conversion, so the fact that it's a PC drive works to my benefit, the fact that it's using molex power is fine too considering I'll be using a PC PSU.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: babyblu on May 03, 2006, 08:46:00 PM

I already modded one of these drives and i have one more to do but the first one works with everything but its alittle slow anybody know why???

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: liteon6x on May 06, 2006, 06:41:00 AM

where can i get these to buy now

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Xb0XmAn on May 08, 2006, 12:59:00 PM

QUOTE(Xb0XmAn @ May 3 2006, 12:37 PM)

can anyone post a picture that shows the points to get the 8164 working in a xbox

dont need to read originals.

please?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: mstandlee on May 13, 2006, 03:21:00 PM

Will the drive GDR-8160b work with this mod? Sorry if this has been answered, but I cant seem to find it.

Thanxs,
mstandlee

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: deadparrot on May 14, 2006, 04:46:00 AM

If anyone's interested, there's a few up on eBay.co.uk. Just bought one

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Jesper64 on May 21, 2006, 06:09:00 AM

Awesome, that's great news. Good work :thumbsup:

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: davbere on May 27, 2006, 01:26:00 AM

Firstly,
menelik Thankyou for this wonderfull hack. You da man

Have you tried the 8164b drive yet ? It seems there is a shortage of 8163b

patx this is great news. I accidently purchase3d 5 8164b and was about to return them.
You say you are working on a new firmware for this. Willl the 850l.dld not work for this ? How soon will your firmware be ready ?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: davbere on May 27, 2006, 02:15:00 AM

For anyone looking for the 8163

http://www.techsunny...1...Bare drive)

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: mstandlee on May 30, 2006, 04:14:00 PM

Will this drive work? Clicky ME!! Im pretty sure its what I need, but I thought I would ask before I buy.

Thanxs,
mstandlee

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: davbere on June 01, 2006, 08:16:00 PM

Yes it will. It is the beige drive though. The link I prvided is for the black drive.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: mstandlee on June 01, 2006, 10:28:00 PM

But the drive you linked to also costs 16 dollars shipping to my house..

mstandlee

edit: Thanks for verifying that my link will work..

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: desi01 on June 07, 2006, 12:24:00 PM

Ok well I was kind of rushing when I did this and I seem to have messed up some of the points on the back of the pcb bcuz when i useing it and i put cds into it, it does not automaticaly lauch even though that is what the dashboard is set to do and it also cannot boot cds/dvds.
So i was wondering if anyone could please post a picture of an alternate point for the 3 points on the back (tray in, tray out, and ready). I think for tray in you can use a point right next to the right of eject point? can anyone please post a picture for the other points so i can locate them. TIA

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: davbere on July 06, 2006, 06:00:00 PM

Big thanks to menelik ad all others who contributed to this hack.

I've done 2 drives now ad they are sweet.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: deadparrot on July 08, 2006, 12:54:00 AM

I believe that's correct. But what's the point in not taking the extra few steps?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Jesper64 on July 08, 2006, 06:33:00 AM

In case anyone is interested in painting their beige drive trays I found the release tabs for the tray today.

To take out the tray:
1. Unscrew the 4 screws on the bottom of the drive
2. Remove the bottom metal shielding and then carefully flip the drive over (the circuit board shouldn't fall out if it's clipped into the tabs)
3. Remove the top metal shielding
4. Remove the fronta face plate if you haven't already done so
5. Push the white piece of plastic at the front in and this will release the drive tray and allow you to slide it out
6. Slide out the drive tray to it's limit
7. Push down the two plastic stalks circled in the picture while at the same time pulling out the drive tray
8. Go and paint it with some vinyl dye and get rid of the ugly beige drive in your Xbox

IPB Image

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: lenballs on July 10, 2006, 10:24:00 PM

QUOTE(Jesper64 @ Jul 8 2006, 10:40 PM)

Hi have you made your drive fit into the Xbox case yet? I'm wondering whats the easiest way before I start hacking up the case unnecessarily, any info or pics would be much appreciated.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Jesper64 on July 11, 2006, 01:16:00 AM

QUOTE(lenballs @ Jul 11 2006, 12:31 PM)

Hi have you made your drive fit into the Xbox case yet? I'm wondering whats the easiest way before I start hacking up the case unnecessarily, any info or pics would be much appreciated.

Mine's going into an old DVD case that I'm modding, so unfortunately can't help you. But I think the way that's posted in the tutorial has been used with great sucess.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: deadparrot on July 11, 2006, 02:28:00 PM

QUOTE(lenballs @ Jul 11 2006, 06:31 AM)

Hi have you made your drive fit into the Xbox case yet? I'm wondering whats the easiest way before I start hacking up the case unnecessarily, any info or pics would be much appreciated.

Mine fits pretty well if you follow the tutorial, and clip on the bezel. All I had to do was cut the shielding out in front of the drive, and move it forward. I then hotglued the drive to the tray/cage thing.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: lenballs on July 12, 2006, 12:23:00 AM

QUOTE(deadparrot @ Jul 12 2006, 06:35 AM)

Yes I've now read the tutorial, didn't think it applied to the 8163, but its the same shape drive.

I now have a 8164 drive installed, very stealth like, roll on the working firmware.

Cheers

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: perrin26 on July 18, 2006, 03:23:00 PM

Hello again,

well I tried the flash boot disk maker program, no luck, do I have to reflash my 8163B with an older version of it's own bios then try? or should it work the first time?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: perrin26 on July 18, 2006, 04:16:00 PM

OK,

after reading every post in this, (man that took a long time), I have figured out a few hints to my problems from pieces of posts here and there.

A while back a guy named Razor? on here had a problem flashing his drive (the 8163b) Something changed on the drives after june 2005...
they used to be:
HL-DL-ST-DVD
NOW they are
HL-DT-ST-DVD
I have no idea what the difference is, the model number is the same, however the flash program isn't finding the drive. Now Razor? found a flash utility that he was able to flash his drive with, but had problems with windows afterwards, which sounds about right, Menzel mentioned this many times that the drive wouldn't be detected by windows after that, but I wanted to find out, what program he used to flash it with, and what the different between DL and DT is.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: stealthplayer on August 15, 2006, 05:21:00 AM

@perrin26

I've done some searching about what you said and my results are:

HL-DT-ST GDR-8163B

HL-DL-ST GDR-8163B

by the results i think HL-DL-ST GDR-8163B never existed...
i hope this anwser your question

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: The Zep Man on August 15, 2006, 06:21:00 AM

I modded one of these drives a while ago. The good thing about this drive is that it indeed reads everything. The bad thing is that it makes a lot of noise compared to other drives. It's good enough for the average Xbox but not good enough for people who like silence.

Maybe a firmware with a speedlock (like the original Xbox-drives which are locked at... 6x?) should be released for the LG-8163B to make it more quiet.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: barman1176 on September 14, 2006, 02:19:00 PM

Wow, by dumb luck I stumbled across this thread a few days ago...

*does the slow clap*

I just did the VRCD upgrade to my stock 8050L with a switch. It's read 3 diff brands of DVD+R's, " " "DVD-R's, Movie DVD's, and most importantly (most) CD-R's.

It will not read Memorex Black CD-R's or my fancy Taiyo-Yuden Blue CD-R's; but it reads cheap media/silvers like a champ. All about the CD-R's dye apparently.

With the switch in at least you can perhaps switch it off when not playing CD-R's and save some wear and tear IF there indeed is any...I figured it couldn't hurt nothing so...

Sorry If I'm being redundant....this has been gone over before but this stuff bears repeating I think.

The coolest mod next to the softmod for 1.6/b owners(IMHO)!! Great work Menelik this thread was definitely worth the read.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: catman25 on September 19, 2006, 07:03:00 PM

i have aproblem can anyone help me..Did the 8163 mod..Just did the wires and the vrcd pad lifted...Idid not fix..figure im using dvds only anyways..Put heres the problem ..it ejects,tray in and tray out is recognized...seems ok ..But it says no disk to everything>>> what to check ? took bottom cover off and lazer lights up and it spins....Did i need that vrcd fixed?Thanks for a fast reply

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: mstandlee on September 19, 2006, 07:38:00 PM

Hi. I am havin problems flashing my drive. It says the drive is not found. Can anyone help me pleas? I have followed the tuts to a tee..

Thanxs,
mstandlee

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: mstandlee on September 22, 2006, 08:21:00 PM

Bump up cuz I wont get any help if its on the second page... Also this is a 8163(I think) Anyways its the kind I dont need the adapter to use...

Any help would be great..
mstandlee

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Barney_1 on September 23, 2006, 09:25:00 AM

CODE

sf8163.exe 8050L.dld 2 /f /c /p /o

The 2 refers to the setting of the drive (master or slave). Just type:

CODE

sf8163.exe

and you should get the help screen explaining this. I had to move the jumper on my drive to get it to work.

Sorry I can't be more specific, but I did have the same problem you are running into.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: deadparrot on December 01, 2006, 10:52:00 AM

CODE

SF8163 8050L.dld 2 /f /c /p /o

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: deadparrot on December 03, 2006, 09:44:00 AM

The only thing in this tutorial that applies to the 8050L is connecting VRCD to ground through a 1kOhm resistor to enable CD-R compatability. The rest of it is getting the 8163B to act aas an 8050L.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: agentsparrow on January 11, 2007, 05:03:00 PM

Ok. I think I trashed the PCB. Most of the pads I need to use are gone and I tore the tracing in a couple spots. I've done a lot of soldering in my time but honestly not much on tiny circuits like computer boards. I'm thinking my iron is too hot or too big or wrong solder or something. I'm using a 30w iron. Guessing I should use a 15w. Using rosin core solder, not the smallest diameter, probably average. Had the hardest time getting the solder to stick to the pads after holding the iron to it for a few seconds, then when the solder did stick the slightest move would rip the pad off the board. The instructions are easy to follow and great (Thanks Menelik!), I think my problem is the tools. Can anyone tell me what tools they used to get the job done?

P.S. Got my drive on compuvest.com for $21. One of the best deals I could still find.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: deadparrot on January 12, 2007, 12:23:00 AM

I use a 30 Watt iron, that's fine. I think your problem is that you need to scrape some of the laquer off of the very small points (the ones that are flush with the board) so as to get your solder to stick.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Cougar281 on January 14, 2007, 07:31:00 PM

I just did this mod this weekend and it works PERFECTLY! Much cheaper then an "Official" XBox drive and much better!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: bucko on February 02, 2007, 03:55:00 AM

Hey, sorry to bump an old topic, but I have the LG 8163B drive. Basically I tried to do the mod ages ago but my soldering sucks so I took everything of and made it back to how it was before.

However I have been trying for about 3-5 hours getting my firmware back to the original. I'm guessing I'm using the wrong firmware, HitachiLG8050.bin I'm sure that is the original right? I have tried renaming it to .DLD because the Xbox firmware is 8050L.dld and that is what is currently flashed to the drive.

I use the commands of SF8163.exe A:/HitachiLG8050.dld 3 /f /c /p /o /r on a MSDOS bootdisk I made, but each time it gives me this error, "The specified file is not a download file". I'm so confused, I can't find the DLD file on the LG site anywhere only an EXE file.

I've read through most of this thread but can't seem to get anywhere. Ironically I can still flash the Xbox firmware again so I'm sure the drive is working fine (the green light always stays on I know it does with Xbox firmware). I just can't seem to downgrade it to the original.

Cheers.

Edit, NVM found a DLD file for the drive so managed to get it functioning in Windows again. Cept when I put in a CD/DVD drive it don't spin up (led flashes though and it tries). Think I just fucked the drive up

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: -Gadget- on March 12, 2007, 04:32:00 PM

why do u need to ?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Murder Inc. on March 15, 2007, 05:47:00 AM

Ok. So I flashed my drive and all went well. It works great. But, when I shut my xbox down it dosent close the tray on the dvd drive. And when first booting it up, It wont fully boot until I close the drive. Its nothing major, but something I would like to fix. Thanks for any help.

Inc.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: keine on May 25, 2007, 01:27:00 AM

The link for the tutorial is down. Does someone have a mirror or want to upload it to Xbox-Scene.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: keine on May 25, 2007, 01:53:00 AM

Found one:
http://www.xbox100.c...l_GDR-8163B.pdf

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: deadparrot on May 25, 2007, 08:55:00 AM

QUOTE(keine @ May 25 2007, 09:29 AM)

Found one:
http://www.xbox100.c...l_GDR-8163B.pdf

Thanks, I've edited that link into the OP.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: keine on June 01, 2007, 12:37:00 AM

I've got problems.

8163b modded.

I flashed the drive as per instruction. Everything seemed to go just fine. I was informed of success and told to shutdown my comp. I shutdown and removed the drive.

My drive ejects fine. However when I put a disc in it freezes XBMC as it spins up and down, up and down, then just spins forever. The box hangs before shutting down after this as well. The drive refuses to eject on command after the first eject and load. If not loaded I can eject and reeject.

Does it matter than I put 3 of my resistors ON the audio speaker out points?

Basically I took my out/in/ready to the 1k resistors attached to the 3 prongs of the audio connector. I put the eject on the last prong.

The first time through, I took out the pins from the wrong end of the yellow cable. I put them back where they should have been (95% sure) and redid the other side, taking out the pins and putting them into a audio connector in the correct spots. (Anyway I can double check my cabling or do I have to replace the yellow cable to be 100% sure)

I then connected a molex, ide, and the audio cable to the back of the 8163b.

Any suggested areas to check?

Is this tutorial CORRECT?
8163b tut
It's version 1.1. Is that the latest version?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: keine on June 01, 2007, 01:02:00 AM

If I did fry my drive, how would I tell? Do I need to disconnect the audio adapter from the board, or can I leave it?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: keine on June 01, 2007, 01:31:00 AM

Double checked my pinout. Even though the end of the yellow dvd power cable that connects to the mobo has two extra spots on it, they aren't filled. So I used my multimeter to check between the mobo end and the audio connector I made. All points checked out 100% like I would have expected them too. Thus, the cable it fine, and there was never any possibility that I put +5v down my eject/out/in/rdy points. I'm 99% sure. That is assuming that

Mobo end
~~~|| ~~~~~~~ ||
~~ 0~1~2~3~4~5~6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
---~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----
0~7~8~9~10~11~12

(Where 0's aren't used)

matches to

Dvd end

~~~ || ~~~~~ ||
1~2~3~4~5~6
~~~~~~~~~~~
--~~~~~~~~~~~~--
7~8~9~10~11~12
MOBO-DRIVE
1-1GND
2-2+12v
3-3TRYOUT
4-4TRYIN
5-5GND
6-6+12V
7-7GND
8-8+5V
9-9Data
10-10RDY
11-11Eject
12-12 +5v

Is that right?

I tested and 11(Eject) matched my eject plug
10 (RDY) matched my ready plug
3 (Out) matched my out plug
4 (In) matched to my in plug.

I am beginning to think I know where I went wrong. I DIDN"T cut the leads on the audio port. Thus plugs 2 and 3 were bridged, IN/OUT Trays (I found that odd when I checked for bridges and 2,3 were bridged.) I should have paid attention to that. NO IDIOT, you can't have your in and out bridged, you dork. I'll cut my traces and try again. No serious voltage there, so I doubt it hurt my drive.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: keine on June 01, 2007, 10:39:00 PM

Cut the audio port connectors to the port and its working at 100%!

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: keine on September 29, 2007, 02:17:00 PM

Ok, My 8163b is working pretty well. It plays movies and games wonderfully, however I have two problems. Just so you know what is working....Eject is working just fine. Retail games are working just fine. XBMC will see retail games from the dashboard and play them just fine. Close works just fine. Seems to work just fine.

I followed menelik's to do it.

DVD2Xbox doesn't recognize my games, but XMBC does. I read about something about my status lines being incorrect? Any more explanation? Which points are there?

Also, the drive is pretty noisy. I think this is due to the fact that if I look at my xbox straight on, I can see into the dvd drive itself. I can see the white magnetic spindle inside. This translates into the fact that when the drive inside spins up, all that noise comes flying out. How can I close this gap and reduce noise, and possibly dust from getting into the drive.

Picture might help.

See the gap on the top. If I look in there...I can see INSIDE the dvd drive. Plus the drive is noisy when it spins up...most likely due to this gap being wide open......What can I do about this? How can I seal it? The gap on the bottom also might be a problem, but I don't know because the drive sits down in the xbox just fine. Its down as low as the case will allow.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: keine on October 02, 2007, 04:03:00 PM

anybody?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: keine on October 06, 2007, 05:19:00 PM

False Alarm. Everything is fine. See there is an option labeled "Enable Media Detection" in DVD2Xbox, and guess...what... it was off. Turned it on and my 8163b immediately read off the disc just fine.

As for the loudness/gap....im still working on that. Any suggestions would be great there.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Antman1 on October 19, 2007, 12:29:00 AM

Does this mod work with the LG8161 Drive as well?

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Antman1 on October 27, 2007, 05:56:00 AM

QUOTE(Antman1 @ Oct 19 2007, 08:05 AM)

Does this mod work with the LG8161 Drive as well?

Anyone know if it can be done? is it pretty much the same thing? I have a 8164 drive in it now but need to be able to use it with original BIOs and the guy that made the original adapter dropped all support and this is the email I got from Tailsmon now about new firmware:
"Hello,

Unfortunately the developer of the product is no longer supporting it. We only manufactured and distributed the product, and do not have the original code. So it seems unlikely that there will be a firmware update in the future.

Thank you,
CJ
Talismoon Support"

I wish I would have not bought this thing now but as his site said "Still in development" I just thought they would go further with it. I want to use the 8161 drive my friend has in trade for the 8164 and flash it with the 8050 firmware.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: MartinC on February 27, 2008, 08:22:00 PM

Would it be possible to replace the tray with an orignal XBOX one? Like from a Samsaug/Philips/Thompson

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: bshi02 on February 28, 2011, 05:19:00 AM

http://www.paccforce...l_GDR-8163B.pdf

Mod EDIT: New URL since the one above is 404'ing - http://www.xbox100.c...l_GDR-8163B.pdf
[/quote]

Above link is broken..
I want to start This 8163b Mod but There is no guide excepting that pdf files.
Is there any chance of upload them(Tutorial_GDR-8163B.pdf) once again?
and I have question that as far as I know,This mod will change LG GDR-8163B firmware and fiddle with its soldering point in order to be identical to Hitachi-LG GDR-8050L which is Latest offcial Xbox DVD drive.
If I were to succeed in this mod, This hacked(modded) GDR-8163B would be perfectly compatible with old or first version xbox1(manufactured before 2003 or 2002) ?
And Do Hacked(modded) GDR-8163B has any compatibility issues with older xbox models(like choppy dvd playback or slow file transfer speed,failure of recognizing retail disc) ?
I'm sorry for asking too much, and any replies would be appreciated.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Movax on March 01, 2011, 11:51:00 AM

It doesn't fit perfect in the xbox, but yes, it functions perfectly as an xbox drive once flashed/modded.
All xbox1 DVD drives are compatible.

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: Difio on August 23, 2011, 08:35:00 AM

EDIT: sorry, I've made a mistake

Title: 8163b Full Tutorial With Full Media Support
Post by: MrMajst3r on February 05, 2012, 03:07:00 PM

Has anyone circuit for 8164B (TR IN/OUT, READY points)? The image from Patx doesn't work...

xboxscene.org forums

OG Xbox Forums => Hardware Forums => General Hardware/Technical Chat => Topic started by: menelik on May 22, 2005, 08:24:00 AM