I'm wondering if there is a problem with the philips drive in the xbox that causes it to not properly recognise a backup of my games. Because my friend has a samsung drive in his xbox and it runs my backup game perfectly. Could it be the drive causing the problems? If so, can there be anything done to solve this problem?
Well, there are 4 drives made for the Xbox, Thomson, Philips, Samsung & Hitachi. Older Xbox's use the philips and thomson drives, where as newer Xbox mostly use the Samsung and Hitachi drives. Philips and Thomson drives are by far the worst drives made, so it is not uncommon for those two drives having trouble reading backup games. I also have a philips drive in one of my Xbox's and it could not read media worth a crap, so I pot tweaked it and it's reads backups pretty good now. Here is what you can do: 1) Use QUALITY DVD-R media such as authentic Taiyo Yuden, Ritek G03/G04, Verbatim, etc. 2) Clean off the lens w/ a lens cleaner disc or something of that like. You can even clean it w/ standard rubbing alcohol w/ a cotton ball. 3) If that does not change anything, you can try pot tweaking your Philips laser: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/dvd-tweak-philips.php?action=results&poll_ident=52 (Note: This is not an easy task, and you could break your drive) 4) If that does not work, you could install a new laser: http://minnwild.8.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=610 5) Last but not least, you could just get a new drive. You can get a brand new Thomson drive for $20 from this site: http://www.terascout.com/xbox.html
Thanks PimpDawg for the help. Unfourtunately i tried the pot tweak for the drive, but that didn't seem to change anything at all. About the thompson drives.. would they be reliable to run backup games? or would it be best just to try searching for a Samsung SDG-605 (which is the drive my friend is currently using. I have looked around for a samsung and i've found some around but it seems that they won't ship out the drives to australia or they are too expensive in australia OR they are out of stock. Would you the link to the drive you posted be a reliable drive to replace my Philips?
Well, a brand new tommy should be able to read your backup games fine. But notice I said "should"... I would say the chancers are 95% or higher that the drive will be able to read backup games fine, if you are using quality dvd media. Have you tried searching on eBay for those Samsung drives? You could also mod an LG drive for cheap. For a tutorial on that drive go here: http://webpages.charter.net/modchipzone/pccddvdrom.htm
