Original Xbox will not play games

[Nick Neuburg]

A while ago I got a Halo 2 Xbox for a steal of $40 with a bunch of games and controllers, but I have not used it in a while. Tonight I tried to play Halo and it did not load the game with no error message. I tried with 2 others and it was the same thing. I also tried blowing out the CD drive with compressed air but that didn't work either. Does anyone know a fix?

Any help is appreciated.

[svmlegacy]

3 minutes ago, Nick Neuburg said:

A while ago I got a Halo 2 Xbox for a steal of $40 with a bunch of games and controllers, but I have not used it in a while. Tonight I tried to play Halo and it did not load the game with no error message. I tried with 2 others and it was the same thing. I also tried blowing out the CD drive with compressed air but that didn't work either. Does anyone know a fix?

Any help is appreciated.

XBOX's are getting up in age... if you have a model with one of the weaker drives, the laser may be wearing out. A stop gap is to adjust the laser bias, but that is only a bandaid.

[IAmAndre]

I have a similar issue with my Xbox (which is also a Hall 2 pack). The drives were kinda weak indeed. You might still be able to find replacement drives on eBay though. The good news is that it's quite easy to replace.

[IAmAndre]

You should also try running a CD (like a music album, not a DVD) to make sure that the issue is coming for the disk drive..CD's should work fine.

[PlayStation 2]

Xbox disc drives (most notable the Thomson ones or w/e that brand is) are notorious for failing. That being said, they're easy enough to find and they're real easy to replace.

[Nick Neuburg]

2 minutes ago, handymanshandle said:

Xbox disc drives (most notable the Thomson ones or w/e that brand is) are notorious for failing. That being said, they're easy enough to find and they're real easy to replace.

I'm pretty sure I have one with a Samsung drive because I have to give it a little smack to get it to open with no disc which is what I have heard is common with those models.

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, Nick Neuburg said:

I'm pretty sure I have one with a Samsung drive because I have to give it a little smack to get it to open with no disc which is what I have heard is common with those models.

Yeah, I suspect the disc drive is just being finicky. Does the drive attempt to even read the disc or does it just sit there? Could just need replacement belts on the inside.

[Nick Neuburg]

It almost sounds like it is getting caught and scraping on something and not the head if it has one (like you said they operate with lasers).

[svmlegacy]

35 minutes ago, Nick Neuburg said:

It almost sounds like it is getting caught and scraping on something and not the head if it has one (like you said they operate with lasers).

Disk drives do have a head that tracks the CD.