Laser replacement on a 360

[Pavey]

Can't be that hard can it?

I have had mine apart loads so i'm thinking from this guide that it looks pretty straightforward.

The bits i'm intrigued about, are the desoldering part, (can this be done by just taking the soldering iron to it?) and at the end he says it doesn't need any pot tweaking. Think this makes sense, or is he just lucky?

TIA

[dannywhac]

Tis easy - would recommend following there tuts rather than the one you've linked to - gives a bit more detail:

If you've got a Sammy drive - here

If you've got a Hit drive - here

You'll need to know what laser unit you've got first - they're normally HD-63's but some have HD-67's - the tuts show you where the HD refs are....

The solder you can 'flick' off with an iron no worries - just make sure you don't flick it onto the laser


Edit - also forgot to say - no tweaking needed! Have fixed a load of 'em and only needed to tweak when replacing a laser from a used drive (as requested as the bloke had a cacked drive kicking around spare....)

[Pavey]

Thanks again danny, that's a few light ales i owe you now

I checked what drive i had before, as i was getting 'This disc is unreadable' messages all the time on Assassins Creed, then they disappeared for a few weeks. Now i'm getting them on CoD4 (and i'm right near the end on Veteran ), so i presume it's the laser?

[dannywhac]

Yep -deffo be the laser - the only other time I've encountered something that wasn't, was my own 360 and a release copy of Halo 3 I was sent by Amazon - seems that the disc was a bad press and wouldn't load levels 4-6 at all.....all my other games loaded perfectly.

Even after my laser finally gave up (its a Sammy - notorious for borking lasers..) and I swapped out for a brand new laser the levels still take an age to load up, infact on every 360 I've played the disc on its either not worked or took over 10 minutes to load those levels up - so beware if I ever sell a copy of Halo 3 on these forums (jk )

[Pavey]

Changed the laser, was fairly straightforward. Still got the message.

Wonder if it could be the disc?

[dannywhac]

How many games has it given the 'unreadable disc' error on?

Sorry to ask - did you make sure you marked up the position of the sled nuts (the black plastic ones at the base of the laser poles) - this can cause dde's as the sled is misaligned....


Can you try other media in the drive - ie DVD's, home burnt movie dvds etc and see if it dde's on you - this could mean the motors going on the drive although this is highly unusual and normally preceded by horrific clunking noises....

It could be that the spindle grip (the white plastic disc that stick s out of the top of the drive case) is slipping on the game discs your using - have a look and see if its dirty or spray with some spray adhesive for extra thickness/grip, also check that the rotor magnet hasn't become detached - this vid here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgU1lC8k8k&feature=related

Might give you an idea where the magnet is (although he does like to cuss, so maybe NSFW)


Failing all that - it could be that you've been unlucky and have to pot tweak (do not attempt this without a multimeter - you can get a cheapy digital one from market stalls for under a fiver)

Anyhow, hope this helps ya

[Pavey]

Tried 4 games now,only CoD4.

It gets loaded ok, then a small cut scene, then the blade comes in. Tried a DVD aswell, and that was fine.

Didn't mark up the position of the sled nuts, no. Think that's it? Didn't say anything about that in the tutorial though.

Funnily enough,i only even noticed the spindle gip when putting the thing back together, didn't even know it was there. Will have to check that too.

I find the 360 really annoying to take apart, for some reason. Niggles me

[dannywhac]

Hmmmm - only COD4..... could just be a press that your dvd unit doesn't like - try maybe renting a copy or borrowing one off a mate and see if you get the same error.....

the sled nuts are these (sorry for the big pic and thanks to RDC):




Maybe don't mess with the nuts if your 360 is reading other games fine...and you're right - the 360 is a pain in the ass to open and fiddle with - too many sharp bits of metal and too easy to put it back together misaligned

[Jei]

Have you tried it without the harddrive attached? Stranger things have happened to cause the "unreadable disc" error.