How can I fix the XBox 360 "open tray" error?

October 22, 2011 10:17 AM

I have the xbox 360 "open tray" error — the DVD drive spins up, reads the disc, and then pretends there's nothing there (going back to "open tray" instead of playing the disc). I ruled out the laser not seeing the disc. How do I fix it?

I've been repairing an xbox 360, to try to (ultimately) see if Dance Central would make for a good experimental method in empathy research. I fixed various bits - added heat pads to the chips, replaced a missing (O.o) DVD drive belt, etc. However, I've gotten stuck on this error.

I took it apart and can verify that in fact the laser is not pointed outside of the disc itself. I even tried just physically moving the laser to the middle of the disc before spinup, and the problem recurs. And it parks near the center anyway, not on the edge. Same problem. Reverting the system software, using a movie DVD, etc does not make a difference. It takes several seconds to read the disc, and then goes back to "open tray".

So, the laser alignment being the only core problem I've seen described anywhere online for this issue, and no workaround evident for replacing the DVD drive itself because it's firmware tagged to associate with the motherboard (though I presume this can in principle be reflashed to match?), I'm stuck and very frustrated. Any suggestions?

posted by saizai to Technology (7 answers total)

I'm not sure this is something you can fix on your own. If the drive seems to be working, then the problem stems from whatever the software is doing to check the validity of the disc. It could be that the read or seek is just taking too long and times out. And that could be on the order of milliseconds - not something you would be able to notice visually.

You could try asking on a 360 modding/homebrew forum. They'd have a better understanding of the hardware than I do. But you might just have to buy a replacement. If you're willing to use an older generation one and skip the hard drive, I bet you could find one for $50 or so. Don't forget that you'll need a Kinect for Dance Central, too.
posted by Sibrax at 11:54 AM on October 22, 2011

I can only tell you how not to do it. The firmware for the cd drive is unique to that box so replacing the drive with one you have sitting around will not work, it also makes homebrew firmware much harder to work with. On a side note I have a really large white paper weight if anyone wants to buy one.
posted by Felex at 1:31 PM on October 22, 2011

Best answer: You can replace the DVD drive quite easily if you are willing to desolder the logic board from the non working drive and place it into a working DVD drive of the same version.

There are some great resources on this site that should help you: http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/xbox-360-repair.htm

Good luck!
posted by grizzly at 5:16 PM on October 22, 2011

Response by poster: grizzly: Thing is, I can't tell whether my extant drive is "working" or not, because I don't know where along the line something's broken. :-/
posted by saizai at 5:22 PM on October 22, 2011

Best answer: You just have to assume it's dead since you can't prove otherwise. The optical drives in the xbox 360s are one of the first parts to fail. I've fixed the problem you are having in three different xboxes by replacing the drives. Like I said, swapping the board with the firmware in to a new drive is the easiest solution. Otherwise you have to muck around with flashing and spoofing firmware and keys.
posted by grizzly at 8:39 PM on October 22, 2011

Response by poster: grizzly was correct. I ordered a replacement drive from Amazon. Rather than move the motherboard, I used JungleFlasher to dump the key of my current drive and flash the new drive with LT+ 2.0 and the old drive's key.

Works perfectly now, with the added bonus of being able to use backups.
posted by saizai at 5:03 PM on October 28, 2011

Response by poster: er… s/motherboard/DVD circuit board/
posted by saizai at 5:04 PM on October 28, 2011