It's Critter Time!

Hey folks, not sure who around here has messed with repairing or modding 360s, but I currently have one that doesn't read game discs. A while back, I completely disassembled it, cleaned the optical sensor, and checked that everything looked right, but it still won't read discs. Having done some research, I know this is a known issue with aging consoles, but I'm wondering if anyone has any experience, tips, or remedies for this issue. Failing that, anyone know a good way to buy 360 disc drives? I'd like to get this fixed so I can stream my rare copy of Child of Eden one day.

I know that one of the potential solutions for dying optical drives (other than laser replacement) on consoles like the gamecube and dreamcast is recapping the ODD, but I have no idea if that applies to an off-the-shelf contained unit like the kind the xboxes use

Probably not. From what I'm seeing the error just comes with age, and rather than trying to repair the sensor, it may be best to just replace it. I fear getting a sketchy drive from ebay that might have the same problem though

I mostly deal in the prior generation, and frankly I hadn't even considered that 360s were getting old enough to start having their ODDs die of old age

I don't care for the reminder of the passage of time

Nor do I, I just want to be able to play this rare game I have on disc. Maybe if I can find someone willing to give up a working 360 I can cannibalize a drive...

Actually, maybe I should check the caps. Is the ODD on its own board, or does it slot in via PCI? Not sure if I have the patience to try to recap a 360 but maybe it's worth a shot. Not sure how old this one is though--it's a second gen, so I'm gonna guess 2008/09?

I've only been inside the guts of my 360 S but iirc all models have a self-contained 5.25" disc drive that looks physically identical to a standard computer drive. I believe it even uses SATA data and power

Maybe I'll pull it apart tomorrow. I think I remember the ODD connecting via SATA. Not sure what else they'd be using at the time, pretty sure it's not hardwired.

I long for the days of putting your console in the oven to fix the shoddy microsoft soldering.

Cayman wrote: Sun Jul 13, 2025 10:34 am I long for the days of putting your console in the oven to fix the shoddy microsoft soldering.

I long for the days of consoles not being ephemeral little shits