Dvd Repair - Microsoft Xbox Repair Manual

DVD REPAIR

If your Xbox is freezing during games or returning the dreaded Dirty Disc Error you have a
DVD drive problem.
If this all sounds like too much work you can always buy a replacement drive.
First off, DO NOT BLOW CANNED AIR INTO THE DRIVE WITHOUT OPENING IT!
This will almost certainly make things worse, you just assure that the dust will be redistributed
evenly inside the drive and this includes a coating on the optics you are trying to clean.
Steps to take in order to resolve Dirty Disk Errors
1. Use a standard CD/DVD Cleaner; they look like a normal CD but with two miniature brushes
on them. This will only clean the lens. Sometimes this is all you need to be up and running.
2. Use this information to figure out what drive you are working with and what must be done to
clean the lens in the next step.
Determine the manufacturer of your Xbox DVD drive – see page 4
3. Clean the lens and mirror manually.
4. Adjust the Potentiometer (pot) on the laser - see page 54
5. Replace the Laser in the DVD drive.
6. If none of the above options revive your drive you can rest assured you have tried it all get a
new drive, they do go dead
You may notice that some of your games play fine while others do not. This is usually because
some games are on DVD media and some are on CD media. CD's are single layer media while
DVD's are multi layer media. This means it is easier to read a CD than it is to read a DVD. The
concept of a DVD is to have several semi transparent layers of data. It is sort of like taking a few
CD's stacking them together into a single disc. To read the 2-4 layers of data you must ignore the
previous layers and pay attention to ones deeper in the disc. Obviously this is a more complex
task and more subject to read errors.
For instance the double disk of Jet Set Radio Future is a CD while Halo is on a DVD. Most often
you will notice the bottom of the media is one of two colors, gold DVD's and Silver CD's. It is not
100% that gold=DVD and silver=CD so if you find this rule of thumb to not be true in every case.
If you know you have a DVD problem because the drive will not open or close, stay opened
or closed or makes grinding and popping noises
The number one quick fix for the DVD drive is to re-align the tray. This is common with CD
players, CD changers as well. Many times just from normal use a gear will skip or something will
jump track, unless all the pieces are in the right place at the time it powers up it will not work. So
by removing the tray, aligning the internal parts to their starting position and reinserting the tray
you can often bring a drive back from the dead - see Tray Alignment Procedure page 33
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