Xbox 360 Laser Adjustment

[Stayla Casillas]

XboxThompson DVD drive laser adjustment procedureDo not try this mod unless you are having problems reading media? Not all cd-r's areable to be recognized after this is done! So if your xbox can read cd-rw's and dvd-r'sdon't attempt this mod!!1. Take drive out of xbox (if you installed a mod, you know how to do this)2. unclip plastic bracket - the 2 plastic clips are to the rear of the drive.3. pull off metal grounding piece - just slips off4. remove 2 screws in the lid of the drive (there are only 2)5. push in plastic clips to allow the lid to come off6. take out the 2 torx screws at the back of the drive (T10)7. Ease off the bottom of the drive being careful not to damage the connectors at the back.8. Undo the screws in the drive PCB.9. Unclip the 2 ribbon cables, done by sliding part of the connector away from the cct board.(It may be easier for the laser emitter end to be done.10. Move the circuit board out of the way, it will still be connected by 2 small wires but dontworry about that, you just need the room11. The PCB that the pot is on would be facing you if you were staring at the BACK of the drive(where the IDE connecter is). The pot is a little black box with a screw covered in red resin inthe middle.12. Easier said than done. The resin does not come off that easily, so you have to be a littlerougher on it than you would think from reading the above (don't blame me if you fuck it upthough).13. If you have a Radio Shack multimeter like me, switch it to use ohms. The ohm symblelooks like a miniature pair of headphones. Touch and hold one connecter to the screw on thepot. Touch the other connecter to the top-left metal leg that hold the black box on to the PCB.You should get reading of over 1000.14. You need a tiny screwdriver. I mean tiny like the ones used for eyeglasses. You cannotturn it anticlockwise, because that is a made up word. Turn it counterclockwise. You should bealright.15. re-assemble16. test17. If the drive is still not perfect, decrease the ohm value in 25 ohm steps until it is. I wouldsuggest that you do not go much further than 850 ohms as I noticed the drive becoming noisyafter this.Now reads ALL my DVD-r flawlessly and even some CD-rNO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU MESS UP YOUR XBOX DOING THIS!!!!

First off, I can say that this drive has never been flashed, as it had never been opened until I opened it, and the laser is working, as I pulled it from the drive from a dead console, that got RROD, No Drive issues. disc spins for a couple of seconds, and laser lights up, then back to open tray. I know it isnt the xbox, as I pulled mine apart, and put the drive from it in this one, and it allowed me to play a movie. At this point, I am kind of stumped, as I know the laser works, assume the PCB works, and have tried adjusting laser rails. Still open tray error. Has anyone else had a drive like this? Trying to get it to play anything, as it spins for a couple of seconds, then back to open tray error.

open tray error(disk unreadable??) you could always do what is called a "pot tweak".. i am pretty comfortable you know how to accomplish that, gotta pull out that multimeter tho lol, as i advise NOT doing it without..

Yes, I do, but I know the laser is good, as it worked in my xbox, before I replaced the drive with one that actually ejected properly. lol. Didnt realize at the time it was a matter of cleaning the rubber band, and if gave me a chance to use the flashing tools I had at the time. I am actually starting to think there is something wrong with the pcb.

laser could be good, but weakend.. hell i have a spare liteon for phats.. but yeah, that would require RGH mod to pull off.. unless spoofing doesn't require it.. but live can tell i think.. as i've been out of the "flashing" thing for a while lol.. but still have my tools for it..

It is an rgh console, that I plan on selling, and I would buy a new drive, but have no way to flash it, or any money for it. I guess I could put the liteon drive back together, and put that in the console, with a modified KV, so the key/osig matches what is on the drive, with a note saying that if you want to go retail with it, you will need to buy a benq drive, and flash it with the key in the original nands kv. should note I pulled the laser from a liteon phat drive, as they use the same laser assembly, and the original laser had a major blue tint to the lense, which usually means they are burnt.

That wouldnt cause the eject issue but at one time I did have an issue like that that also had a flashing green light issue which I was able to fix using a guide that Blakey wrote on the executer forums that called for a wire patch in on the bottom of the board. Not sure if it will help or not, but those two suggestions might help.

The drive I am attempting to fix is the original BenQ drive that was in the console, drive never opened, console never opened, before I did. I got this console from a friend, as it no longer read discs, which usually leads to a bad laser. I was under the assumption when I got it it would be a liteon drive, as every other falcon/jasper I have ever done usually had a liteon drive, and I just so happened to have an extra one, that I planned on doing a pcb swap with. Low and behold it ended up having a benQ drive, which isnt a big deal, as the laser is the same in both. The lense of the laser in the benq drive had a blue hue to it, which indicates a bad laser, so I swapped it with the one in the liteon drive, which I used to use for game backup purposes, until my flashing equipment got stolen. I just got around to testing the drive, and low and behold I am still getting the open tray error. I know the laser is good, as I pulled this drive from my xbox, and replaced it with one I didnt have to smack the console to eject. so it makes me think that it is a calibration issue with the rails, and/or a bad pcb in the drive also, since i pulled my drive out of my console, and I could watch a movie on the console, which rules out sata issues, and connection issues. I guess the question here is if anyone else has had similar problems with a benQ drive, and if so how they fixed it? I dont have the tools to calibrate the rails, as I could tell by looking at it there is a slight tilt to the laser, and even after I got it strait, it still didnt work. Any advice on the topic would be appreciated.

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