Is it normal for an original Xbox to be really loud?

[Kwyjibo]

I got an Xbox(the one released in 2001) from a thrift store, and everything seems to work fine with it, but it's so loud. It sounds kind of like a hard drive noise(albeit the loudest hard drive I've ever heard), but the noise also happens when playing game games, so I wonder if it's actually the DVD drive.

I haven't owned one of those consoles since 2005, and I don't remember it being so loud. Are your consoles like this as well?

crap I put this in the wrong forum

[kai123]

I got an Xbox(the one released in 2001) from a thrift store, and everything seems to work fine with it, but it's so loud. It sounds kind of like a hard drive noise(albeit the loudest hard drive I've ever heard), but the noise also happens when playing game games, so I wonder if it's actually the DVD drive.

I haven't owned one of those consoles since 2005, and I don't remember it being so loud. Are your consoles like this as well?

crap I put this in the wrong forum

My original xbox is loud as well. I have modded mine as well and the whole thing is loud and always has been.

[Leo_A]

My original is quiet, but the disc drive on a 2nd hand Xbox that I bought as a spare makes a lot of noise like a Dreamcast does.

The fan seems very quiet.

[Greg2600]

could be the fan speed.

[Kwyjibo]

I don't think it's the fan, that would probably be more of a constant sound, while this sounds like it's loading data. I modded it as well(XBMC), but it was pretty loud before it was modded.

I was thinking that I might buy another one because the sound is really loud. But if this is a common problem I might just go all out and install a big hard drive and not even use the stock hdd or DVD drive. I'm not exaggerating when I say this is the loudest piece of equipment I've ever owned :hmm:

[Greg2600]

Weird. I've put 400/500 gb drives in a few I softmodded. I do run the fan a bit higher speed largely because the hdds heat up far more than the stock.

[kai123]

You could also grease the rails DVD to quiet it down some. I haven't used my drive on mine since I modded it. I just ripped all of my games to it and play off of that.

[Kwyjibo]

Weird. I've put 400/500 gb drives in a few I softmodded. I do run the fan a bit higher speed largely because the hdds heat up far more than the stock.
Is the fan speed adjustable through software, or do I have to mod it?

You could also grease the rails DVD to quiet it down some. I haven't used my drive on mine since I modded it. I just ripped all of my games to it and play off of that.
I'm gonna open it up this weekend and see if I can isolate the noise.

[Greg2600]

Is the fan speed adjustable through software, or do I have to mod it?

Yes, quite easily. I personally use uLeashX but all the modding dashboards can do it. The Xbox OS is a version of Windows, so it's setup like old 98/2000/xp Control Panel.

[BlastProcessing402]

It sounds kind of like a hard drive noise(albeit the loudest hard drive I've ever heard), but the noise also happens when playing game games, so I wonder if it's actually the DVD drive.

The hard drive is used for caching data from the DVD, so you would hear it when playing games if it was what was causing the noise. Not saying that's what's happening, just that it could be.


My Xbox (v1.0) is probably my third loudest system, but it's a far distant third after the 360 (which got even louder when I modded it and started running the fans at 100% as a precaution) and the Dreamcast, which has the loudest optical drive I've ever encountered. 3rd loudest as it may be, it's not very loud except when I crank the fan up in xbmc (which is what I'm using it for mostly these days).

[OatBob]

The fans on these have always been loud. I've owned three Xboxes and they all suffer the same noise issue. It's laughable to think that I relied on one of these as a DVD player in college. The noise is bearable for gaming, but unacceptable for film watching. This is my opinion.

[adolescent]

Early models (1.0 and 1.1 I think) have an extra fan on the GPU that is really noisy. My Halo (green) 1.4 has a larger heat sink instead and is quiet by comparison.

[evildead2099]

As others have said, the original Xbox has always been a loud console. The fact that the system shipped with a sleeve bearing fan doesn't help, as though things get loud really damn fast by way of wear and tear. The speed of the fan may be irrelevant if the bearings are worn out. Ball bearing fans are considerably quieter than sleeve bearing fans.

[The 1 2 P]

My original Xbox has never been that loud, especially when compared to my launch PS3 and gen one 360. The only time I even notice the original Xbox making noise is when I use to watch dvds on it. But other than that the system noise was never louder than what was going on in the game.

[Kwyjibo]

Just an update that I forgot to make months ago, for anyone who is interested. I took it apart and determined the the noise to be the hard drive.

[KEEVS]

Just an update that I forgot to make months ago, for anyone who is interested. I took it apart and determined the the noise to be the hard drive.

I just purchased an OG XBOX as well and it is indeed the hard drive. The fan isn't even the problem at all. I guess the HDD has always been this loud? Mine sounds like a buzzsaw. That HDD is going full speed at all times regardless of what is going on.

I hooked up a modded one and set it to "quiet" mode for the HDD and it was still loud. I think it's time to spend more time on the PS2. Such a shame. TOO LOUD!