Xbox DVD issue

[evildragon]

My Xbox 1.6 with Samsung drive (original xbox), has started to not read DVD-R's.

Atleast, I thought I was watching DVD-R's before.. But anyway, when I put in a -R, it makes a horrible grinding sound with Dashboard telling me it can't be read.. However, it will read a printed DVD fine.

Game discs work too, though sometimes read errors (though VERRRRRRY rare)

[RyanMurf]

It might need to be cleaned. When xbox lasers are going bad or get dirty they tend to be very picky on which discs they want to read. Try cleaning the laser or if you can replacing the drive.

[ProgrammingAce]

Sounds like the dvd is slipping off the spindle to me. Opening up the drive and washing off the little rubber piece the DVD sits on might help.

[evildragon]

Sounds like the dvd is slipping off the spindle to me. Opening up the drive and washing off the little rubber piece the DVD sits on might help.
Oh no, not THAT grinding sound.. This is something more nasty sounding.. Low pitched..

[omnedon]

Check the gear on the laser that moves that laser from track to track. Samsung laser gears are prone to wearing out and slippage. If the laser can't move, you get DRE.

[evildragon]

I took apart my xbox and checked the samsung assembly, and the gear had a tooth missing.. found a dead drive with same gear, and replaced it... don't know why it affected DVD-R's only though.. also cleaned the laser while at it..

Oh, and before I put it all back together, I did the ultra DMA-100 IDE cable mod.. :p

So not only is it working now for everything with no errors, it's faster..

[ProgrammingAce]

Fun Fact: The Xbox1's IDE controller can only operate at 33 MHz. Unless the cable is damaged, replacing it isn't going to do you any good.

[evildragon]

Fun Fact: The Xbox1's IDE controller can only operate at 33 MHz. Unless the cable is damaged, replacing it isn't going to do you any good.

That's not cool.

How come people have benched it and said it works faster?

http://www.xboxrepairguide.com/newsdesk_info.php?newsdesk_id=1

They got vids and proof that the nForce controller can do it.

[evildragon]

Meh, I tested it myself, and sure enough, it's no different..

Though, I video taped it myself, loading PGR2, and while it's the same mostly, loading a level is only ONE second, read that, ONE whopping second, faster. Woopidoo..

I'll bet at that point, it's only the noise reduction from the 80 conductor kicking in.

Oh, and it turns out, my Xbox is a 1.5, NOT a 1.6...

[omnedon]

DVDr's likely exacerbated your gear problem, because they may not be arranged the same way (the data) causing more seeking, therefore more laser travel, therefore the errors.

Left alone, it would have gotten bad enough to effect all of your disc playback.

[ProgrammingAce]

That's not cool.

How come people have benched it and said it works faster?

http://www.xboxrepairguide.com/newsdesk_info.php?newsdesk_id=1

They got vids and proof that the nForce controller can do it.

Not according to intel's circuit diagram of the MCP chip. The nForce chip is irrevelent, as the MCPX houses the PCI controller.

I'm not saying there aren't ways to speed up the data transfer, i'm saying the chip is only capable of running at 33MHz. Any gain you get isn't worth the trouble of the upgrade...

[evildragon]

Wait, 1MHz does NOT equal 1Mbps..

(X bits * Y Mhz) / 8

[ProgrammingAce]

I agree, but i'm not sure what you're getting at. The MCPX on the Xbox1 only supports a PCI bus at 33 MHz. If you're reffering to the article you posted, those people are mildly retarded. Somehow they think the xbox1 can transfer 33 megabytes per second across the PCI bus. Let's just say they don't know what they're talking about.

As for why people think it runs faster, the placebo effect does wonders. If you hook into the JTAG interface on the xbox, you'll see that there aren't many errors across the PCI bus at 33 MHz.

Boot the same game 100 times with the new cable, then do the same with the old cable. You'll see your 1 second disappear.

[evildragon]

I agree, but i'm not sure what you're getting at. The MCPX on the Xbox1 only supports a PCI bus at 33 MHz. If you're reffering to the article you posted, those people are mildly retarded. Somehow they think the xbox1 can transfer 33 megabytes per second across the PCI bus. Let's just say they don't know what they're talking about.

As for why people think it runs faster, the placebo effect does wonders. If you hook into the JTAG interface on the xbox, you'll see that there aren't many errors across the PCI bus at 33 MHz.

Boot the same game 100 times with the new cable, then do the same with the old cable. You'll see your 1 second disappear.
Major Edit....

Okay. After careful calculation, you can only get max, about 16MB max on an Xbox.. Makes sense... I had to quickly pull out a hardware book, I thought ATA speeds were in Mb, but were MB.

This is assuming the PCI bus is 32-bit 33MHz.. I don't understand why MS chose a 33MHz PCI bus. 66MHz would make more sense, but then again, you don't really do anything IO intensive..

[ProgrammingAce]

You have to remember, the xbox1 was designed 8 and a half years ago. A 33 MHz bus speed is more then capable of handling everything the xbox throws at it. When you're already having an advanced northbridge custom designed there's no point in spending extra money in an upgraded PCI bus you don't need.

There were 13 revisions to the xbox hardware between the end of the alpha project and final release. I've listed some of the different hardware iterations here: http://gamerhistory.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=769

[evildragon]

My Xbox is "1.5".. Though I coulda sworn it was a 1.6, but I got the FOCUS encoder..

I recently made a USB cable for my Xbox, and I wonder what I can plug into it. My flash card works good as a memory unit, and my Creative X-Fi Xmod USB audio device, seems to work as the Xbox Live communicator..

Any other tricks with USB I should know?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/Evilweredragon/xbxmb.jpg
http://macteens.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12094/xboxusb.jpg
http://macteens.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12094/xboxusb2.jpg
(All my pics)

Btw, I think the hard drive with virtual memory/caching, coulda benefitted better IDE speeds..