Why did this trick work with optical drives?

[IAmAndre]

Hi,

 

10 years ago I was still rocking my original Xbox although it was dying. The optical drive was slowly failing and I had to try multiple times before it recognized my discs and launch the game. Now after some time I realized that making the Xbox "warm up" helped. So instead of trying over and over for 15 minutes, I'd just let the Xbox run for some time and it would then recognize the games more easily.

- Why did that work, if it did actually work?

- Why is it that once the disc is recognized the games usually runs smoothly despite having taken so long to recognize it in the first place?

- Why was it easier to make it recognize a second game after spending an hour or so playing the first one?

- Why would it crash after I paused the game for too long?

 

Thanks

[nick name]

#showerthoughts

[IAmAndre]

Just now, nick name said:

#showerthoughts

Yeah pretty much. I'm writing this while I'm getting dressed.

[Origami Cactus]

This channel helped me understand optical media pretty well:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv0jwu7G_DFUoByWSHHoSTlUIxY7VkJLi

 

[nick name]

Just now, IAmAndre said:

Yeah pretty much. I'm writing this while I'm getting dressed.

Lol.  And I never had that problem so I can't answer.  Sorry.  

[IAmAndre]

1 minute ago, Origami Cactus said:

This channel helped me understand optical media pretty well:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv0jwu7G_DFUoByWSHHoSTlUIxY7VkJLi

 

Thanks this you should help. No Netflix for me next weekend.

[imreloadin]

The only thing I can think of is some solder joint in the disc drive was getting cracked and after you let the xbox warm up it caused thermal expansion that "reconnected" the solder joint causing everything to work. If it happens with every disc then it's not a disc issue and an issue with the disc drive itself or some other component further down the chain.

[nick name]

1 minute ago, imreloadin said:

The only thing I can think of is some solder joint in the disc drive was getting cracked and after you let the xbox warm up it caused thermal expansion that "reconnected" the solder joint causing everything to work. If it happens with every disc then it's not a disc issue and an issue with the disc drive itself or some other component further down the chain.

This makes sense.  It's why some folks throw electronics into the oven.  

[mariushm]

Yes, besides weak solder joints, some components like capacitors (ceramic, electrolytic, less for polymers) can be heat sensitive... as they warm up, their technical specifications can drift very slightly and that could be enough to affect some other things in the circuit, improving things enough to make everything work. 

 

The "throw in the oven" is something more extreme, where the connections between a chip and motherboard become weak or broken due to repeated heating and cooling cycles or maybe due to some mechanical shocks.

In my explanation above, throwing in oven would not solve the issue... the components are basically "weakened" enough to be at the edge where you'd consider them bad, but the slight warming up brings them back into the "acceptable"  range.

[PlayStation 2]

What I'm betting is that something in the optical drive didn't work properly (as someone mentioned, improperly done solder joints could be a big one) when left cold.

Games crashing when they've been sitting paused for too long is probably the inverse of why they start working again when your console is left on for a little bit: whatever works when warm may not when left unused for a long while.

[IAmAndre]

9 minutes ago, imreloadin said:

The only thing I can think of is some solder joint in the disc drive was getting cracked and after you let the xbox warm up it caused thermal expansion that "reconnected" the solder joint causing everything to work. If it happens with every disc then it's not a disc issue and an issue with the disc drive itself or some other component further down the chain.

 

5 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Yes, besides weak solder joints, some components like capacitors (ceramic, electrolytic, less for polymers) can be heat sensitive... as they warm up, their technical specifications can drift very slightly and that could be enough to affect some other things in the circuit, improving things enough to make everything work. 

 

The "throw in the oven" is something more extreme, where the connections between a chip and motherboard become weak or broken due to repeated heating and cooling cycles or maybe due to some mechanical shocks.

In my explanation above, throwing in oven would not solve the issue... the components are basically "weakened" enough to be at the edge where you'd consider them bad, but the slight warming up brings them back into the "acceptable"  range.

Good theory. I was having a very similar issue with my GameCube a few years earlier. I used this approach when cleaning the lense with alcohol stopped working