360 Disc Tray won't stay closed

[Dr. Dib]

Today my cousin and I were trying to play our 360. The game started up fine, but we let it sit for a while (probably just around 5 minutes). As we were watching T.V. we heard the disc drive grinding. We quickly turned it off. We let it sit for a little while, 2 or 3 minutes, and turned it on. We took out the disc and saw it looked fine, so we figured it just was a one time glitch. Well we would have played, but the disc tray would not stay closed. After being closed it would open a few seconds later. Turning it off would sometime close the disc tray, but most of the time it would stay open.

We looked at the disc tray closely and noticed it wiggled a little bit. Nothing is obstructing the disc tray so we're a little confused. We usually have our console horizontal, but we did see what happened when it was vertical. Needless to say, we got the same results. If anyone knows what's wrong or how much it will cost to send it in please tell.

Thanks.

[RyanMurf]

I know exactly whats wrong( If fix this problem all the time). Your magnet has come loose inside your drive and is now stuck to the other magnet on the top of your disc drive. What you need to do is take it apart and crazy glue your magnet(neatly) back on the spindle head.

[icbrkr]

There's some good guides on You Tube that can walk you through this process.

I ended up replacing my DVD drive - it would still recognize the drive attached, but refused to read anything any longer (and it wasn't the magnet). $45 later and an envelope from Hong Kong.. voila! Working drive. Of course you can't just easily drop in and replace it since your drive is 'keyed' to your motherboard. I ordered a like-drive and swapped out the circuit board to the new one. Worked fine.

[RyanMurf]

There's some good guides on You Tube that can walk you through this process.

I ended up replacing my DVD drive - it would still recognize the drive attached, but refused to read anything any longer (and it wasn't the magnet). $45 later and an envelope from Hong Kong.. voila! Working drive. Of course you can't just easily drop in and replace it since your drive is 'keyed' to your motherboard. I ordered a like-drive and swapped out the circuit board to the new one. Worked fine.

Good information but I am almost 95% sure that his magnet has come loose inside his drive. He doesnt have your problem when it wont read a disc. His drive simply wont stay closed and the reason for this is the magnet isnt letting the drive pull in completely. Please post when you find out whats wrong with it id be interested to know if im correct.

[icbrkr]

Good information but I am almost 95% sure that his magnet has come loose inside his drive. He doesnt have your problem when it wont read a disc. His drive simply wont stay closed and the reason for this is the magnet isnt letting the drive pull in completely. Please post when you find out whats wrong with it id be interested to know if im correct.

Yep, I was agreeing with you (and pointing out that there were guides out there for this) but also sharing what I ended up going through.

[Dr. Dib]

I think you got the problem right. We tried a quick fix with the disc drive and did get it to close properly, but it will not read any discs and makes a grinding noise. Searching the problem on youtube revealed a video with the same problem and fix described here, but we'd rather not open our 360 so I'll be calling Microsoft and seeing the cost of sending it in. Our console's warranty expired 7 months ago and I don't want to force a RROD.

Thanks for the help anyway.

[icbrkr]

My cost was $99 for them to fix it which is why I went the other route.

[RyanMurf]

No problem, but it is a very simple procedure. Really anyone can do it. Especially if your warranty has expired there going to charge you at least 80-120 to repair it (my guess). But then again your system your decision. Let me know if you need any help if you do decide to repair it.