Brewology

Hey guys, basically where I work I sold a guy a nice fat 120gb Xbox 360 10 days ago and he's brought it back saying that the system didn't read games properly midway through games and what-not. Typically, our store doesn't deal with stuff if it's been past 1 week but my boss has thrown the thing into my hands to figure out if it needs cleaning/ repair.

My question is: Is it "ok" to switch a different DVD drive out in an Xbox 360 without it b**ch at me or giving me errors that can't easily be fixed? Also, are there any certain permanent-damage-type problems that I could run into if I were to take apart the 360 that I need to keep in mind?

As always, thanks in advance guys

-DarkPacMan77-

It depends on what drive you try to switch it with. If it is the same drive and the pcb isn't soldered in then all you gotta do is find the same drive and revision and swap the pcb boards between the two. If your good at soldering then you can swap them as well, but in the end if it is the same exact drive and revision then you can just swap the board out between the two.

If you want to replace the dvd drive with a different brand drive from another xbox then like asddasit said you will have to spoof the firmware. While yes spoofing it with a custom firmware can get you banned (and will eventually) I am not sure if you spoofed the official firmware would it get you banned. It is still unsure if the actual firmware is getting people banned or the actual burnt games. Theoretically spoofing the drive with an official firmware will be fine, there is always that possibility.

And taking it apart won't hurt anything, just ruin any warranty that may be left. But you can always gently lift the three (or two in some boxes) stickers so that it doesn't seem like the seal has been broken.

Freezing games though are not always caused by a bad drive, actually it is possible that the HANA chip that (don't quote me) encodes video signals can overheat, and eventually become unusable. I would suggest if you can, swap out the pcb in the dvd drive with another dvd drive that is the same brand/revision and then play it yourself to see if that fixes it. If not then it is an overheating issue.

@Ace- It seems he has an Elite. I thought that the Elite didnt have the HANA chip..but a different chip (that does the same purpose). The reason for this new chip was the release of the HDMI port (which I am sure your Halo 3 360 has as well since it also came with HDMI)

First gen 360s had the ANA chip, while HDMI consoles have the HANA chip.
http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep ... emjZKk.php

Gracias. I knew one of the two was missing a letter..thought the original had HANNA and the HDMI had HANNAH.