How To Fix Xbox 360 DVD Drive Problems

Things break.  Fact of life.  But there is nothing more annoying that settling down to play your favorite game for a while, only to find that your Xbox 360 has stopped working.  Whether it is the dreaded RRoD (Red Ring of Death) or in this case, the DVD drive stops working or reading discs.  If you are having this issue, here are a few things you can try before shipping the console back to Microsoft for a (costly) repair.

To date, Microsoft have used 3 different makes and models of DVD ROM drive in their console. These are as follows:

• Hitachi GDR-3120L
• Toshiba/Samsung TS-H943A
• BENQ VAD6038

There are many reasons why there are different models in the console and why they have changed over time. Better speed, reduced noise and it is also a way to prevent hackers from putting in DVD drives that read copied games.

If you are wondering which model you have got, here is a simple guide to work it out.

1. Take off the front bezel of the Xbox 360.
2. Just under the DVD drive, lined up with the X and the 3 in XBOX360 written on the DVD tray, is a small hole, shaped a little like a keyhole.
3. Look in the hole and what you will see will tell you which drive you have:

• Circuit board and red wire = Samsung
• Black plastic divot = Hitachi
• White wires and empty space = Benq

This information is only relevant if you are looking to replace your DVD drive yourself, so is provided for information only really.

If your Xbox 360 cannot read a game disc, try the following:

Clean the disc. It is recommended to clean it from the inside to the out, moving around the disc and done with a soft cloth. If there are marks on the disc, such as small scratches or fingerprints, this is why the disc may not be able to be read.

If your Xbox 360 has a hard drive installed, try removing this before putting a game into the console.  If this works, then it could be that the hard disk is faulty and needs to be replaced.  When you load a game into the console, it stores cached information, small images and data onto the drive.  If this function is not working, this is why your discs might not work properly.

Test the drive with a non-game disc. Any music CD or DVD disc will do, or even a self-burnt data disk will work. Doing this will help you narrow down which discs are not working properly.

Remove any memory sticks or units from the Xbox before you load the game.  Corrupted, damaged or non-supported devices could cause the DVD drive not to read discs properly as t tries to read the memory units for saves games or cached information.  If this works, you will need to get a new memory module.

If your 360 sounds like it is trying to read the disc but still comes up with "Reading" and then "Open Tray", it could be that the DVD drive is failing due to a hardware fault.  At this point you have 2 options.  Either return the console to Microsoft for repair (possibly under warranty) or replace the DVD drive yourself.  If the console displays a particular error message on the screen when the discs are trying to be read, then I would suggest that the console be returned to Microsoft.

Open the DVD tray and blow through the slot to the inside.  This will dislodge any dust or foreign objects that might be causing the problem.  Do not used compressed air to blow inside as this may cause additional damage and invalidate your warranty.  A steady and firm blow from your mouth will be sufficient to dislodge small problems.

You can try to clear the Xbox cache, which is a store of temporary files such as images and game updates.  To to this, go to the xbox dashboard, press the Xbox button on the controller, select the System blade and choose System Settings.  Select Memory and then highlight your hard drive on the screen and press Y.  Select the Clear Cache option to remove all of the temporary files.  I do not really think this works, but it is a step that MS ask you to do before sending the console back for repair.  It could be that the hard disk is faulty and therefore the cache is corrupted, but it seems unlikely that this will fix the issue.

If you do not feel confident doing any of these steps, then please just make contact with Microsoft.  Their repair service is usually pretty speedy and efficient.  You cannot just swap the DVD drives over yourself as they have codes in the circuit boards that tell the Xbox that it is allowed to be used.  No code, no go.  This code is the entry system for people who want to mod their Xbox to play copied games.  They use a modified DVD drive that will convince the 360 that the disc in the drive is genuine.