Booda

Does anyone know the percentage of Thomson DvD-roms that take a dump after 6 months?

I got my X-box back on 11/01/02. I just came across the thread about MS replacing the bad Thomson drives w/ the Philips.

I have the Thomson drive... Since I still have about 15 days on my 90 day warranty should I see if they will just replace it even if I have no problems?

Thanks

Gideon68

I've had my X-Box since 10/02 and I haven't had a problem with it yet, but it's still under 6 months. It's got a Thomson drive.

I've read other threads, Microsoft Extended Warranty, and it seems as if people got their systems back and they still had a Thomson drive. There might have been a bad batch of Thomson drives like there was a bad batch of Serious Sam games.

Tell me if they'll replace the drive even though you're not experiencing problems. I'm paying for an extra year on my warranty just in case it does happen.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...5&pagenumber=2

menaz

There was an xbox back in 1992? What the heck was I doing playing with an NES then? :P How do you know what DVD rom you have inside, w/o opening it?

Booda

Wow, I actually expected more of a response but I guess people are just as much in the fog as me.

G68- if I do find any info or see if they'll replace mine I'll definitly post it.

menaz- http://www.precisionmods.com/xbox-dvdrom.htm

from what I've read here at DvD talk the Thomson is the old drive and the Philips is the new.

I don't believe in the extended warranty... I think it's total Bullshlt that a major (or minor) Co. can get away with saying their product only needs to last for 90 Fvckin days & then " Thanks for your $$$ and see ya later" @ least MS is being cool enough to not charge people for the replacement w/ out a Extended Warranty.

Good Luck

Sirgey

so if you have the phillips drive already we shouldn't have the dirty disk errors that everyone is talking about?

AgtFox

There is a chance of getting 3 different DVD drives in the X-Box:

1. Thomson
2. Philips
3. Samsung

Reverse that order to get the best result. The Philips drive is very good, although I have heard of getting DDR errors on them, just not as frequently as on the Thomson ones.

Most of the Bundle X-Box systems have either #2 or #3 from the information I have gotten.

I have tried my darndest to find some on-line places that will just sell me a Philips or Samsung and then I would physically switch my drives out. The other option is to wait for taxes, buy a new X-Box (hope for the best) and sell my old one to someone.

I get the DDR errors every once in a while...but after I put in Jet Set Radio Future everything seems to work fine.

Sirgey

what would jet set have to do with anything? a bios update or something?

Noonan

I've had mine since release day, and it still works perfectly. Just try to keep it dust free, and don't bang it around and you should be fine. I'm guessing, if anything, the reason they are using different drives now is for cost cutting, not quality. Most DDR messages you would get are from the system cache which has to do with info on the hard drive, not the DVD drive.

el_jer

I too have had one since the original release. I probably do no use it at much as others but I just recently started getting disc errors. On a new copy of Amped there were considerable load delays. When I reset the machine is was fine. Should I be concerned?

AgtFox

Can't explain it...other games just work after this has been in the drive.

The only problems I have had are with Madden and NCAA 2003. They eventually load though.

finbogg

I've had my XBOX since late December 2001. It has a "born on" date of Oct 18th 2001. I started getting disc errors this summer (maybe 6-8 moonths of usage). It started out infrequently happening with Enclave then happening after every level in Enclave (or anytime I paused). Pretty soon I started getting them in XBOX LIVE, Tiger Woods, Serious Sam and a few others. Ghost Recon wouldn't play more than a few minutes before bombing out.

I started investigating it on the XBOX forums and found out that a lot of people were having these problems and it was mostly with Thomson drives (which I had). Through reading page after page of the "Dirty Disc Error" thread I watched it progress from a problem that MS charged $100 to fix to gradually they were giving $25-$50 off and free shipping to eventually they were fixing it for free (sometimes). Now I never bought the extended warranty so the best I could have hoped for was to get the free repair otherwise I was buying a new XBOX. I figured I'd give it a shot and called up the support line. I told the guy I was getting dirty disc errors that caused my games to quit. I never said anything about repairs or replacements. He asked for my serial number and put me on hold.

He comes back a few minutes later and informs me that I'm still under warranty (after almost a year?) and that they will send out a box for me to pack up my XBOX and ship it off to be repaired, FREE of charge. I thanked him and 3 days later had my box. OF course I had to wait until after the holidays to send it off, too much holiday time to be witout my XBOX. I sent it off last Wed morning (1/8) and got it back this past Monday (1/13). A 5 day turnaround is pretty damn fast.

From looking at it, it seems like I still have a Thomson drive (or possibly the Samsung) with the straight sides on the DVD tray hole. All my games have been working great and it's been flawless after about 10 hours of play (which is better than before I sent it off). I'm not sure what they did, but it works now so I'm happy. I'm guessing just a replacement of the DVD drive. All my saved games and music are intact too.

If you're not having problems now I wouldn't worry about it. Even when you do, they'll still probably be fixing them for free. Those of you haveing problems, give 1800-4myxbox a call and see what they say. Don't tell them anything other than that you've been having dirty disc errors and see what happens from there. If you don't get a free repair, call back again later. From what I've read some guys have called back 3-4 times before they got the answer they wanted.

RDGAFFORD

How can you tell which DVD drive you have. I just got my Xbox in December. I haven't had any problem with it yet.

finbogg

Here's a link that illustrates the difference:

http://www.precisionmods.com/xbox-dvdrom.htm

I wouldn't worry about it unless you bought it over a year ago. Seems like there are lots of people with newer THomson drives that seem to work fine.

AgtFox

And the Samsung has two half-moon circles on each side of the tray I believe.

I may go finbogg's way and see what MS has to say. Finbogg, did you save your stuff to memory card just in case or no?

finbogg

Yep I backed up everything that I absolutely could not lose, especially the XBOX LIVE account....do this before everything else!

I left a lot of stuff unbacked though (rented games I had played through like Dead to Rights etc.) and just kept my fingers crossed on those and the music files.

My approach to this whole thing was call and see what happens. If they said no free fix then I would have, bought another one.

AgtFox

Yeah, that's what I am leaning towards now. I am able to play my games right now though, just a few DDRs here and there.

Thing with buying a new one is it's a game of chance whether you get Thomson, Philips or Samsung as your DVD drive...heh.

Oh well, as long as my X-Box can hold out until tax money comes I'm A-OK. Then I just need to sell my other one.

Gideon68

I don't believe in extended warranties either, but seeing as I spent $200+, I don't want to get stuck with a useless system, especially with all the talk about the drives and DDE problems. I don't want to take a chance on MS saying they won't repair it for free either.

Seems the warranties Best Buy and Circuit City sells are starting to look good. Circuit City: If anything goes wrong with the system within two years, they'll send you the amount you paid, in the form of a gift card, to use towards another system or something else in the store. I think Best Buy replaces the system with a new one, but I haven't verified their procedure.

Their warranties are cheaper for a longer time, $29.99 for 2 years, and they replace the system instead of repairing them. Yes, you will lose all your saved data from the X-Box though.

Seems like we can expect more problems as systems become more advanced. I hear about PS2s not being able to read DVD format movies or games after a while.

Anyone know why MS is using 3 diff drives for the system?

AgtFox

From my understanding (and I could be wrong), they started out with Thomson, then added Philips and just recently went with Samsung. I have no clue if one has been phased out yet or not.

Microsoft has several plants that make X-Box systems and I believe each one uses a different DVD drive. It's weird and I think the 3 makers are trying to lowball each other to get MS's business on this.

Booda

Could someone post a Pic of the Samsung drive or be more specific on the differences between it and the Philips.

I have a BOD of 10-01-02 and think I might have a Samsung... but it sure does look like the picture of the Philips.

G68- yes their is definitly a price ratio and I think that $30 for 2 years you mentioned is worth it. I have bought EW before for my TV and HT reciever because they were too good to pass up, and the piece of mind that goes with it.

El-jer, the only time I have got "disk reading errors" is when I first got the Box bundle and the first 2 disks I put in were JSRF/GT and Amped, & they both seem to have longer load times than other games. ? .

finbogg

Yep Like I said before if they hadn't been willing to fix it, I would have traded in the other one at EB and bought the bundle deal. At least that way I would have gotten the 2 games for $100 instead of my old XBOX (repaired for $100).

Thankfully I didn't have to go through that.

I'm guessing MS realizes there's a problem with some of the drives and instead of declaring a recall they're fixing it on an individual basis.

Gallant Pig

The same thing happened to me. MS fixed it no questions asked and I never bought any fancy warranty. They should fix it for free Fox... Give them a call.

AgtFox

Cool...now I just need to figure out a time when I won't have a game coming my way to review...heh. Also need to pick up a memory card to save my crap.

finbogg

Check at Target for a memory card. I got one of the Madcatz cards for $9.99 there and it works like a charm. No need to pay over $20 for a MS card.

AgtFox

Yeah...problem is that the Target by me doesn't have those...heh. Called MS today and gave them the skinny: "I'm getting a lot of Dirty and Damaged Discs errors and my drive is loud". Their answer: "It'll have to be fixed, but at a price of $108.37 AND you have to ship it to us".

The moral of the story (from what I can gather) is that you NEVER register your X-Box when you get it and then your warranty is magically not over. I was dumb and did what the card asked and registered it last March when I got my X-Box. I also called MS a while ago to fix my controller...I would have had to register then as well. Ended up fixing the controller myself without having to send the controller in at my expense.

So, I get to go down the fun route and keep looking for someone selling a Samsung or Philips drive and installing it myself or waiting and buying a new X-Box and sell my old one. The first option would be the most advantageous though. Just need to change the drive out (my warranty is obviously out, so I can do with the system as I want...heh), not going to put any mods on or anything.

Oh well, I'm a bit disappointed...but not necessarily surprised. I thought my registering it when I got it would screw me over.

el_jer

I don't get your logic on the fact that registering the 'box puts us at a disadvantage unless you are going to say that you bought it at some other time within the warranty period. Even so don't you have to provide proof. Also, the serial number should clue them in to when you purchased it or the mfg date on the console. Of course it could be believed that your console was sitting on a shelf since last year. Anyway, I don't believe that registering or not has any impact. From what I have read it seems to has been some miscommunication on their part and now they are clamping down on what they will fix for free.

I do like your suggestion about changing out the drive. I think that is the best option if they can be reinstalled without any hassle. However, does the box have to have updated drivers? I am sure the answer is out there somewhere.